her mother ran the ovens, and between

to her since before Eliana could walk. That left the shop to Eliana, along with a queue to the door,

her mother going through her room, and put it in her pocket instead. Pockets could be search

between four and six that morning, in the dark,

lder Street, claiming to be a granddaughter looking for a confused grandfather. No Marcus Hale. No John Doe with fou

t "King" was a nickname for a tycoon, and that Thorne meant Alexander Thorne, chairman of Thorne Holdings, a man who apparently had never been

anyone until she kne

here the p

t rolls and a pla

p, Mrs. A

he road a dark saloon sat half on the kerb with a man at the wheel, reading a

ind, which was a skill,

-

ecause the queue

he line had decided on his behalf to stand a little further away. He took his place at the back, behind a woman with a pram, and d

ooked under thirty and as though he had stopped sleeping in spring. Dark coat, no tie, dark hair that need

hought, and her hand went into her ap

in August, and it was ticking: one slow pulse against the

hand out of

," sh

, two builders, and a small boy named Felix who had come in with his grandfather

policeman?"

N

you r

s with what seemed to

Felix. "Can I

ked at Eliana. "

an understanding," she said. "Felix.

e bun go to

hy

was feeling

same joke as

a good

far larger than anything Felixu2019s bun could have required. Felix went off wi

was just the

er you'd recommen

's the only thing in here

en

one by one, because that was what she did with customer

y quietly. "I'd like to t

ill. She stood with the bag in her hand, and every instinct she had said run, and

work," s

impo

ast him at the empty shop, and then, with great dignity, flipped the sign on the door to BACK IN TEN MINUTE

now my

ing told are di

uth moved, not quite a smile, as if something had startl

r Thorne,

f Aldermere Academy, under the school crest, and on the library wall and the science w

e chairman

es

us your

re was a pause. "I wa

ng threatened, and she had her answers ready for all of them. But the warmth t

lked out from behind the counter, and

-

dinner tray. Through the glass, Harrow Lane went

?" she asked,

es

t a driver

the car. He wan

rt m

hands when you've been told not to touch something. "Miss Rose. Marcus Hale gave you something last night, behind the kitchens at Aldermere.

hy

's dangerou

, or fo

both

en I'm on the losing side of a round

quickly he put it away that she knew she

know whe

N

ou hur

N

know w

id it with so little drama that she bel

"Then we want

the sam

ould have this. Not the police. Not the school. Not anyone in a coat like his. He said to give it to the King." She let the

mean

ove

nt up a fractio

his name on it. A man was bleeding to death in front of me and he asked me to

e watched him decide, the way you watch a

In a corridor, in the evenings, when my father wasn't looking. I was very bad at it. He sa

t very

cisely the voice of the man in the yard, dry and fond and slightly s

ng,'" she said quietly

e. I'll explain i

n's

n a ba

e thing or a

almost-smile did arrive, brief and tired and rea

please like a man who rarely did, and he had said her name without the Mis

ll him the l

st she had ever s

e didn't breathe. For a second she thought he might be having a stroke. Then he p

t again,

ine is

e say

nderstand it fas

she could see the man behind the face come apart and be put back together, quickly, expertly, b

bod

e she could not have named, a lowering and a tightening, as if

s not

tant before a sneeze or a door slamming in a distant house, and it brushed past her ears, and it tugged

. She felt it, a single burn, a flash, and then the tug t

n the bakery

t do somethi

ripped it. His lips were slightly parted, and there was something in his eyes that she would think about later, at three in the mo

ed them again, his voice was low and unsteady. "I

was

ista

ot an exp

one I can give

ep sayi

ps bein

the odd part. She should have been. She had a reasonable sense of the odds. But the pressure had gone through her and out the other side, like a

at I'll do

wai

I've got a dead man who isn't dead, a ring that's hot, and a stranger who just did whatever that was to m

ian

it is." She leaned forward. "Monday. After school. I'll come to your office. Write down what you're

send a

take t

not

na Rose. "I've been tak

pression she had astonished him, and that it wa

sure about t

t I've found it hel

lau

and it changed his whole face. She felt it land som

xander said.

een. I've

fift

his hands as though not sure what it was for, and then, with

ng past her,

with tinted windows. A man stood beside it with his hands in the pockets of a black coat. His head was tilted a few degrees t

the camera. The one who'd stood outside her do

tly, without turning his head. "Lo

is

eard something in his voice that was not control

Alexander Thorne. "Bu