The Rapunzel Dilemma Read online

  Sunday morning, Lily got up early and went down to the gym. She’d had enough of the Arctic atmosphere in her room and she had hours to kill before she was due to meet Ronan at Pendragon. In the meantime, she wanted to find someone – anyone – to talk to.

  Luckily, Mr Sutton had posted a notice offering an extra fencing class to any student willing to show up on a weekend. Lily was pretty sure none of her roommates would be there and when she got to the gym she was relieved to discover that her instincts had been right. Of the dozen or so students who’d turned up, the only other first years present were Fatima and Liam.

  Which only made it more disappointing when, ten minutes into the class, Gemma arrived in full fencing gear. She looked angry and Lily’s heart sank. The last thing she needed was Gemma hassling her again.

  She told herself to forget about Gemma and focus on the class, so it was another disappointment when their instructor put them together for the first practice bout.

  ‘Okay, people,’ called Waldo Sutton. ‘Let’s begin with a few simple ripostes.’ He waved Gemma over. ‘Lily, you and Gemma run through the basics and then move onto the compound attacks I had you two practising last week.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Lily, taking her position.

  As Mr Sutton moved away, Lily pulled down her mask. She was lifting her sword to salute her partner when Gemma suddenly lunged forward at full speed, her buttoned foil aimed straight at Lily’s chest.

  Lily jumped back hastily and only just managed to deflect the sword with a quarte parry before riposting gently to Gemma’s torso. ‘What are you doing?’ she whispered. ‘We’re meant to be warming up, not running competition drills!’

  ‘You bitch – you did it again!’ hissed Gemma, lunging forward again at speed and aiming for Lily’s upper body.

  ‘Did what? What are you talking about?’ demanded Lily, her quarte and counter-sixte parries instantly answered by two angry direct ripostes.

  ‘First you threw my stuff all over the floor,’ said Gemma, driving at Lily with an attack to her exposed right side.

  ‘That wasn’t me!’ cried Lily, swinging her foil in a semi-circular octave parry and initiating the action with her feet, rather than her hand, in an attempt to drive Gemma back. ‘I told you!’

  ‘Then you ruined Phoebe’s quilt,’ said Gemma, this time aiming high and fast at Lily’s other side.

  Lily tried to get her foil up in time, but there was no time to parry. She only just managed to deflect the blade with her sword arm. ‘I didn’t!’ she panted, closing the distance and locking the other girl’s blade between her arm and her body in an attempt to stop the bout. ‘I never touched it!’ She could almost feel the rage radiating through Gemma’s mask.

  They separated, but as Lily took up the en garde position, Gemma suddenly lunged forward aggressively, disengaged and broke through, striking Lily on the chest. ‘You’re a liar,’ she said, stepping back.

  Shaken, Lily desperately tried to regain her focus. ‘What is your problem?’ she cried, as Gemma came at her again, feinted to Lily’s high line, anticipated her parry and disengaged to the low line.

  ‘Charlotte’s Vidal jacket is missing,’ said Gemma.

  ‘Well, I didn’t take it!’ said Lily, desperately parrying a series of angry thrusts as she felt the panic rise inside her. If Charlotte went to the Drake and told him that Lily had taken her jacket, he’d kick her out of the Academy for sure . . .

  ‘She must have left it somewhere,’ insisted Lily, her panic turning to fury as she saw Gemma charging at her. ‘I never touched it!’ she yelled, quickly changing her riposte to a semicircular octave parry. She caught Gemma’s blade between the guard and forte of her own sword but, instead of riposting with a single disengagement, she bound her blade, lifted it up and struck Gemma in the mask.

  Gemma instantly stepped back and tore off her mask. ‘That’s cheating!’ she cried, her face flushed with anger.

  ‘And fencing without any kind of etiquette isn’t?’ demanded Lily, removing her own mask.

  ‘It’s no more than you deserve,’ said Gemma. ‘I know you took Charlotte’s jacket!’

  ‘You don’t know anything,’ snapped Lily.

  ‘I know you lied to me about Ronan Carver,’ retorted Gemma. ‘Fatima overheard Max telling Darcy Johnson that Ronan told you he wanted to paint me.’ She lifted her sword, aiming it directly at Lily’s heart. ‘You can’t deny it, can you? So if you lied about Ronan, who’s to say you haven’t lied about everything else? You’re a –’

  Mr Sutton’s voice cut her off. ‘Enough!’ He strode across the gym. ‘What do you girls think you’re doing?’ he barked. ‘If you want to quarrel, take it outside. Fencing is about focus. You can both give me ten laps. Now!’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ said Lily, stripping off her glove and holding out her bare hand to Gemma. Because, even if they hated each other, fencing etiquette still required them to shake hands at the end of the bout.

  Gemma glared, ignored her outstretched hand and stalked away.

  They ran their laps, but not together, and by the time Lily got to the change room Gemma was already there telling everyone how Lily had stolen Charlotte’s jacket.

  ‘I didn’t take it!’ yelled Lily. ‘You have no ri–’ The lunch bell drowned out the remaining words and a moment later the change room was empty and Lily was alone again.

  By the time she was dressed, she’d decided that her best course of action was to go straight to Charlotte.

  But Charlotte wasn’t in any of the usual places, and after Lily had checked their bedroom, the common room and the dining hall, she was sure Charlotte had gone to tell the Drake that Lily de Tourney was a thief and should be thrown out of the Academy immediately.

  It was a horrible thought and Lily’s heart thudded as she stood indecisively in the entrance hall wondering what to do next.

  And then she remembered the note she’d found on her locker. Surely that was proof that she was herself a victim of a hate campaign.

  She spun round and raced for the locker room, praying that the crumpled note would still be where she’d tossed it. She wrenched open the locker door and gazed eagerly inside.

  What she saw there made her heart stop beating.

  Stuffed into the corner of Lily’s locker was Charlotte Cardew’s vintage Vidal jacket.

  CHAPTER 20

  Lily’s heart started beating again as, hardly daring to breathe, she pulled the jacket out into the light and held it up.

  It was worse than she’d imagined. The beautiful red-and-black silk lining had been slashed in several places and the silver zips across the front had been ripped apart. She stared at the once-perfect jacket and tried not to think of what would happen if it was found in her possession.

  She’d not only be blamed for taking it, she’d also be blamed for ruining it.

  And if she wasn’t already in his office, the instant Charlotte saw what had happened, she’d go straight to the Drake and Lily would be kicked out of the Academy.

  Lily felt ill at the thought. If she left the Academy she’d never achieve her dream. Instead, she’d be doomed to spending the rest of her life in an office. She couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t!

  She had to get rid of the jacket – hide it somewhere until she could work out what to do. All she needed was time to think things through. She was sure she could figure out who was responsible for the mean tricks that had been played on her and her roommates.

  Lily looked around. Maybe she could hide it on top of the lockers, or –

  She heard footsteps in the hall.

  Someone was coming.

  In desperation she pulled the jacket on over her T-shirt, grabbed her Peaseblossom cloak out of her locker, threw it on over her clothes, pulled it tight around her and slammed her locker door shut.

  A second later Harry and Imran ran into the room. Lily looked straight past them and recited airily,

  ‘I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee,

 
; And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,

  And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep.’

  ‘You’ve got it wrong, Lily,’ said Imran. ‘That’s Titania and we all know the Dane’s got you down to play Peaseblossom!’ He sniggered, but Lily looked straight through him, said, ‘And I will purge thy mortal grossness so,’ and wandered out the door, still reciting as she went:

  ‘That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.

  Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!’

  Forcing herself to remain in character, she drifted down the hall while Harry and Imran shouted mocking comments after her.

  Only when she turned the corner did Lily start running. The stage door was ahead; if she could just get outside, she could figure out what to do with Charlotte’s jacket.

  She was halfway there when Saunders emerged from his office. To Lily’s dismay, Charlotte, Gemma and Phoebe were behind him, deep in conversation.

  She stopped dead in her tracks and looked wildly around. She had to get out of sight before they saw her.

  Across the hall was a door. She darted across, turned the handle and ducked inside, pulling the door behind her just as someone (it sounded like Gemma) shouted, ‘Hey!’

  Lily didn’t wait. She ran straight across the room to the far corner, through an open door and up a flight of stairs. As she emerged into the wings of the Main Theatre stage, she heard a door open and voices behind her.

  ‘I’m sure I saw her come in here.’

  ‘She must be in the theatre.’

  Lily ran to centre stage. Whatever happened, they mustn’t catch her before she’d had time to hide Charlotte’s Vidal jacket.

  In front of her lay the theatre, silent and dimly lit, its Exit signs shining temptingly at the back of the stalls. But there was no time to get down there. Already she could hear footsteps on the stairs. She ducked into the wings on the far side of the stage and made her way to the metal ladder that led up into the flies.

  Maybe if she went up there, they wouldn’t find her – except they’d probably hear her feet on the rungs. She grasped the ladder anyway and was preparing to climb when she saw the door. It was behind the prop shelves and it was ajar. Across it someone had stuck a long strip of black-and-yellow tape with the words Keep Out printed on it over and over again.

  Lily didn’t hesitate. She eased in behind the shelves and pushed on the door. It didn’t budge.

  She could hear people on the other side of the stage; she pushed harder.

  ‘She must be in here somewhere,’ said Gemma, her voice clear and determined.

  ‘Are you sure it was Lily?’ asked Phoebe.

  ‘It looked like her cloak,’ said Gemma. ‘Maybe she went out through the stalls.’

  ‘No time,’ said Charlotte. ‘If she is here, she’s probably hiding in the wings.’

  ‘Well, that says guilty to me,’ said Gemma. ‘Lily stole your jacket, Charlotte.’

  ‘You don’t know that for sure, Gem,’ replied Phoebe.

  ‘I don’t know how you can defend her after what she did to your quilt and my stuff,’ said Gemma.

  ‘You young ladies need to find your friend and go on back to your rooms.’ Lily heard Saunders’ heavy tread across the stage. ‘You know I ain’t supposed to let first years in here without a teacher.’

  Lily ducked under the tape and squeezed herself into the doorway. It was horribly tight.

  ‘She’s here somewhere, I’m sure of it,’ said Gemma. ‘Come on out, Lily. We know you’re in here.’ Her voice sounded a lot nearer.

  Stuck in the narrow opening, Lily wriggled desperately. She sucked in her chest, pushed sideways as hard as she could and almost fell into the room.

  It was large and dimly lit. On the far wall there was another door, but there was no time to reach it. As footsteps sounded outside she sank noiselessly down beside an enormous faded Queen of Hearts head and tried not to breathe.

  ‘I can’t see anyone up in the flies,’ she heard Phoebe say.

  ‘I’m pretty sure we’d have heard her going up the ladder,’ replied Charlotte.

  ‘You’re not allowed up there,’ said Saunders. ‘I reckon you young ladies ’ave made a mistake. There’s no one here.’

  ‘Wait!’ cried Gemma. ‘There’s a door.’

  ‘That door ain’t bin opened fer weeks,’ growled Saunders. ‘It got water damaged in the big storm and now it won’t neither open nor close. Wood’s swollen and we’re still waiting on those tradesmen to come back and finish the repairs they started. Miss Potter had me move all the undamaged props and scenery out through t’other door and down to the art room just to make room for the carpenter. But he ain’t never bin back,’ added the old man grumpily.

  ‘I’ll bet Lily’s in there,’ declared Gemma, and Lily could hear her pushing on the door.

  ‘Now that’s enough of that, Miss,’ said Saunders testily. ‘Can’t you see what it says on that there tape? Keep Out and that’s what it means. Your friend ain’t in there. She ain’t anywhere here, and nor should you be neither.’

  Lily heard the clump of his boots and then, ‘Off you go now, young ladies. I reckon you’ve got better things to do than waste my time searching Main Theatre for ghosts.’

  ‘Oh, all right,’ said Gemma. ‘Come on, girls.’

  Lily heard them moving away. She waited until she was sure they’d gone, then stood up and looked around. The room was large and would have been square but for its odd, rounded corners. To her right, there was a low stone archway. She ran over to see if it was a way out and found herself looking up a stone staircase that curved out of sight to the floor above.

  Lily instantly stepped back, her heart beating a little faster as she realised she was in the props room at the base of the South Tower.

  She turned quickly away and almost tripped over a battered suit of armour leaning drunkenly against the wall. Beside it lay an enormous deck of dusty playing cards while above her head a flock of shabby pink flamingoes hung from a ceiling hook.

  ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ whispered Lily, touching a flamingo and sending a cloud of dust into the air.

  She wiped her hands on her jeans and headed for the other door. She had to get out of there, and fast. She was pretty certain that, if being caught with Charlotte’s jacket didn’t do it, then being found in the forbidden South Tower would definitely see her expelled from the Academy.

  Lily grabbed the door handle and slowly turned it. To her relief, the door opened inwards and she found herself staring at the back of a massive crisscross of black-and-yellow Keep Out tape, which someone had stuck across the opening.

  She peered cautiously over it and saw that this door opened into a long narrow corridor. It was empty, but she knew it must run at right angles to the other hallway because down to her left was the stage door. All she had to do was get to it, go out into the lane and she’d be home free.

  She was about to duck under the tape when she heard voices echoing round the corner.

  ‘There must be another door,’ she heard Gemma say. ‘I just want to check.’

  ‘Well, hurry up. We’re not supposed to be back here and I’ve got lines to learn,’ said Charlotte crossly.

  Quick as a flash, Lily closed the door. She had no idea if the giant crisscross of tape would stop Gemma and the others from coming in but, whatever happened, they mustn’t find her there with Charlotte’s jacket.

  There had to be somewhere to hide.

  She glanced around the room. There was only the Queen of Hearts’ head, and that’d be the first place they’d look.

  Her only chance was to go up. Even if they came in here, she was pretty sure that Charlotte was much too rules conscious to let the others go any further.

  She heard footsteps and, with her heart beating like a drum, Lily bolted for the archway and ran up the stairs into the South Tower.

  CHAPTER 21

  At the first turn, Lily stopped and listened. She heard someone rattle the door handle
and then Gemma say triumphantly, ‘It’s open.’

  ‘We’re not going in there!’ snapped Charlotte.

  ‘But she could be hiding in there,’ said Gemma urgently.

  ‘I don’t think so, Gem,’ Lily heard Phoebe say. ‘The South Tower’s off limits.’

  ‘Phoebe’s right,’ said Charlotte. ‘That Keep Out sign is there for a reason. Not even Lily de Tourney would risk going in there.’

  ‘I guess not.’ Gemma sounded disappointed.

  After a moment, their voices faded away and Lily felt her knees go weak. She sank down onto the step and tried to calm her pounding heart.

  Eventually she stood up and took off her cloak and Charlotte’s jacket. She stared at it uncertainly for several moments.

  It was too risky to leave the jacket in the props room because if Saunders found it he’d be sure to give it to the Duck and tell her how Charlotte and co. had been looking for someone called Lily. She definitely couldn’t afford to be found with it and giving it back to Charlotte wasn’t an option because she’d go straight to the Drake and tell him how Lily had wrecked her jacket, messed up Gemma’s clothes and ruined Phoebe’s heirloom quilt.

  Lily’d be out of the Academy faster than she could say, ‘It wasn’t me.’ What she needed now was time to work out who’d really done it.

  She looked up. There was one place no one would ever look. Okay, so it was off limits, but she was already in the South Tower and nobody knew, so a few more minutes wouldn’t make a scrap of difference.

  She began to climb the winding staircase.

  The stairs were broad and flat and every now and then a narrow window let in the daylight. She looked out one of them, but the view was mostly of Pendragon’s wall and the buildings across the lane.