Page 56 of All My Broken Dreams

“Young lady, take your seat or remove yourself from the theater. You are disturbing the other students.”

She heard the professor speaking but couldn’t understand the words. Robbie took a step toward the aisle and stumbled, falling against another student.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and then froze when she realized that it wasn’t all in her mind.

Everyone was literally staring at her.

“Miss Listowel!” the professor shouted after consulting his seating chart. “Miss Listowel, remove yourself from the hall or take your seat. It is your choice.”

Someone started to laugh.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a couple of students pull out their phones to film the episode. Robbie started to shake.

“What’s wrong with her? Is she having some kind of a fit?”

“Will somebody please haul her out in a straitjacket, if it is not to much to ask.”

Peals of laughter.

Robbie made fists of her hands and pressed them against her cheeks. She squeezed her eyes shut and saw the string of kittens hanging from a metal bar.

She screamed.

Deacon received a summons when he was in the Dining Hall, mopping up the floors after breakfast. The request came from Alastair to go to the Lecture Theatre Hall and drag Rowena Listowel the fuck out of there. She was causing a scene in front of the entire class.

He dropped what he was doing and raced down the freshly polished hall, his boots skidding on the tiles, to the wing containing the lecture hall.

Deacon wrenched the door open, prepared to break someone’s skull when he saw Robbie standing in the upper rows of the middle aisle, sobbing hysterically. He took the steps two at a time to reach her.

“Robbie. Robbie. It’s me. It’s Deacon.”

“She’s off her head, mate. You’re going to have to take her out of here on a stretcher.” The speaker reached out to poke Robbie in the arm.

Deacon snarled at him, a bearded idiot in glasses and a woolen cap. “Make a move to touch her again and I’ll break your arm. Say another word about her and I’ll rip out your tongue and feed it to the crows.”

He turned to Robbie who had calmed down slightly at the sound of his voice. “I’m going to carry you out of here, right? We’re getting out of here.”

He lifted her in his arms and glared at the students blocking his way. Without uttering a word of protest, they shifted and moved to open a path.

With Robbie in his arms, Deacon strode out of the lecture hall, bashing through the front doors. He marched across the snowy campus to the street.

Bringing her to his place was not his intention when he left Locksley Hall. Robbie didn’t want to go to Dugald Croft and Deacon couldn’t think of another place to bring her.

She was very light as though she had lost weight since he saw her last. No bigger than a bird. The snow fell heavily, clumping in her hair. Neither of them were dressed for wandering the streets. No hats, coats or gloves.

“I’m bringing you to mine,” he said.

She nodded against his neck and clung to him closer.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Robbie curled up on his sofa under a blanket while Deacon lit the fire and set the kettle on to boil. There was a Christmas wreath on his door when they came in and she noticed he had a tree set up in the corner on a table. It was lit with tiny multi-colored lights.

“You like Christmas,” she said.

“My mother enjoyed the season. She’d decorate the whole house. I guess the tradition stuck with me. I do what I can.” He handed her a cup of tea. “Here. Get that down you. It’ll help.”

“Milky tea with sugar isn’t going to make those students forget what happened just now. They have it on film.”

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