Page 54 of All My Broken Dreams

Total bedlam threatened to break out until the owner jostled through the crowd.

“Take it outside, lad, or you’re barred. Mr. Manderville has asked you to release his arm. Do as he says–now–or I’ll call the police!”

He dropped Casey’s arm, flinging him back against the booth. Red-faced, he spun away, pushing through the jeering crowd of students, tailed by catcalls and insults. Deacon crashed into his uncle who was coming in as he was going out.

Alastair caught the look on his nephew’s face and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“Here now, lad, what’s this all about?”

Deacon swiped at his eyes. “Nothing. Nothing,” he said as laughter erupted behind him.

A second later, he was out in the street, in the falling snow, sucking in deep gulping breaths of air. What happened to her now had nothing to do with him.

He walked through the silent streets, back to his lodgings.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

So much had changed since she put Harry’s body in a casket and loaded it on a plane bound for New York in what was the most surreal moment of her life.

She was living at Dugald Croft for one thing.

That wasn’t planned. Robbie had every intention of flying home with Harry’s body until Sarah made it clear she neither expected nor needed her daughter to come home. She was too angry to deal with her right now. Too resentful to listen to her daughter’s anxieties, phobias, drama and grief. Robbie was better off staying where she was until Sarah was in a better place mentally and emotionally to cope with her.

That had stung. Robbie dealt with it by unpacking the suitcase and canceling her flight. Staying in Edinburgh was not what she wanted, especially since she’d lost Deacon as her one and only friend. Casey Manderville made one or two attempts to fill the void but Robbie had the impression he was being bullied into it by his father.

She didn’t know why Alastair Manderville would care until Penelope said he was carrying a torch for her mother. Hestill had feelings for Sarah Listowel who was Sarah Stewart when he knew her.

It was possible. Robbie had read of people who were like that–Jay Gatsby with Daisy, for example. She’d never met one in real life before. Alastair tried to be personable with her, but it didn’t ring true. He stared at her like he was hoping she’d turn into her mother and when she didn’t, he became bored with her and couldn’t wait to be free of her company.

Penelope and Millicent assured her the Black meant well, but he was a hard man to warm up to. It was those two who suggested she start auditing classes at Locksley Hall Academy.

“If you have to be stuck here,” said Millicent, “you might as well get something out of it.”

“You don’t have to be a student to audit a class. It is considered self-exploration and a very noble pursuit,” Penelope added. “We’ll get you signed up. What subjects are you interested in?”

Robbie resisted at first, thinking she wouldn’t be able to handle attending classes, but once she was looking through the Academy’s programs, she began to get excited at the prospect of learning something new.

And it was a great way to kill time before going home for Christmas, she reasoned. Sarah didn’t mean to exile her permanently. When she got home, she would be so much improved, her mother wouldn’t even recognize her.

In the end, Robbie did it for Harry. To honor the wishes he had for her, and she was so glad she did.

The classes were amazing. The lecture hall theater was an academic dream. Chalkboards and seats that were constructed of wood, polished smooth from centuries of backsides warming them.

Students who were studious, serious about learning, arriving early, leaving late, bent over books and academic papers in the library–which was another Locksley Hall revelation.

She didn’t expect to love it so much, that was her problem. She didn’t expect to feel so comfortable and that she never wanted to leave. After a year of confinement and horror, her life was finally falling into place.

Then Mrs. Cameron knocked on her door and told her she had to move out.

“I’m sorry, Miss Listowel, but you’ll have to vacate this room by the end of the week. It has been let to a full-time student who has come to Locksley Hall on a scholarship. I’m sure if you had informed me of your plan to stay behind, alternate arrangements could have been made. As it is, there is nothing I can do.”

It seemed to Robbie that the house manager was frostier with her than she’d been before and she wondered what she had done to offend her.

“Where am I supposed to go?”

“I have no idea where you’re supposed to live now. I was under the impression that you’d be going home with your poor brother. I expect you could ask for Deacon’s help if you are still on speaking terms. I don’t imagine that he would be after the treatment he received.”

So that was the reason for the frostiness. “Deacon treated me very badly, Mrs. Cameron. I bet he didn’t tell you what he did to me when he ran off to complain.”

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