Page 76 of Cruel Shame

He shook his head. “I’ve been lying to them for months.”

“If you’re not ready, then you’ve got to explain things to Lachlan.” Resting my head on his shoulder, I wrapped both arms around his middle. Gideon was only a few inches taller than me, so it was a comfortable fit.

He stopped walking and hung his head. “There’s one more thing.”

I paused, wondering if this was going to be about the spit roast he had with Lachlan and Francesco over Christmas. “Tell me.”

“My cousin told them I was in a relationship.” Gideon raised his head and met my eyes with a grim frown.

A red van approached from further down the drive. We stepped aside to let it pass, taking in the Royal Mail logo and the Queen Elizabeth II crest.

I’d seen Gideon’s cousin around the academy. Mary was a fifth-year prefect with long, black braids woven with red tartan. She was a strict prefect to the younger students but took her job seriously. Mary didn’t spend much time with Gideon except to exchange the occasional greeting.

Gideon was mostly a loner. We weren’t in any classes together, and he seemed to know everything about everyone around the academy. People didn’t dislike him, but they also didn’t gravitate toward him because they found him standoffish. It was mostly because he was intensely private and an introvert.

He wasn’t ready to announce to the world that he liked hot guys and women’s clothes. The only person Gideon really hung around with was—

“Me?”

He nodded. “I’m sorry, but when they received my itemized credit card statements and saw all the purchases from MAC and Victoria’s Secret—”

“They thought you were buying all that stuff for me?” I asked with a tiny smile.

The corners of Gideon’s lip curled upward, and his ebony eyes twinkled. “I bought you one or two items.”

I huffed a laugh. “More a third of everything you bought.”

Warmth filled my chest. Gideon was everything—a best friend who shared my secrets, a consigliere who gave brilliant advice, someone who made me laugh with his dry humor, and he was generous with exquisite taste. Even though he didn’t say the words, it looked like he was building up to asking me to pose as his girlfriend.

I looped my arm back around his. “So, when your mum and dad come up from London, would you like me to join them for afternoon tea?”

His eyes softened. “Thank you.”

“It’s the least I could do.” I smoothed down his already immaculate lapel. “If you hadn’t been there for me, I might have gone back to Richley.”

Gideon shook his head and was about to say something modest when I interrupted. “Seriously. That time everyone called me the whipping girl, and then the days after my arrest. I felt like total shit, and you were there, letting me know that everyone else was the problem, not me. In a place like this, do you know how important it is to have a friend who sees through the bullshit?”

His eyes softened. “I also appreciate your support. You’ve helped turn me from a moth to a butterfly.”

My heart melted at the words, and my mind rolled back to that afternoon when I’d left Gideon alone in my room for a meeting with Mr. Burgh. Back then, I had no idea why the old man was so interested in what I did around the academy. When he questioned me about the hand job rumors, I exploded and stormed back to my room. Gideon was standing in front of the mirror, wearing my new dress.

That moment was just like when Hermione lied about the troll and became friends with Harry and Ron. After seeing Gideon in my dress, we formed an unbreakable bond.

Gideon and I held hands and stared into each other’s souls. I’d had friends before, but no one was as special as him. Back in Richley, most friendships had an undercurrent of rivalry which ranged from petty to boyfriend-stealing. It wasn’t like that Not with Gideon. We were too different, for starters. Everything from our genders to our backgrounds to the subjects we studied at the academy. But we had loads in common and not just clothes and makeup and smoking hot guys.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, taking in the citrus scent of his aftershave. Gideon paused for a heartbeat and wrapped his arms around my middle.

“Oh, how typical,” drawled an irritating voice.

A frosty breeze rustled down from the trees, blowing my hair to one side with its frigid tendrils. Ignoring Elizabeth, I squeezed Gideon tighter around the middle.

“I’m talking to you,” Elizabeth snapped.

Gideon broke the hug first. “What do you want?”

She placed her hands on her hips. “Is your name Delilah Hancock now?”

I cupped a hand behind my ear. “Can you hear something?”