Mark of Four by Tamara Shoemaker

Author:Tamara Shoemaker [Shoemaker, Tamara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1517684366
Amazon: B017FN90PK
Publisher: KinnAisling Press
Published: 2015-11-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Stilted silence followed Alayne as she and her parents descended the stairs to the common room and then crowded onto the chute to the commissary. Bryan had reported the incident and had soothed Wynn; when Alayne met them to go to the feast, her mother had at least not mentioned going home again.

Of course, once the Worths met the Blakelys in the commissary, and Alayne told Marysa what had happened, her friend rushed off with her father and two of her brothers to see the room. She came back, fury flushing her cheeks, her fingers clenched into fists as she plopped down on the bench.

“Of all the nerve!” she raged. “Who would have done such a thing to us?” For several minutes, no one could interject another word as Marysa postulated various theories about who would have done this. One of Marysa’s brothers, Findley, snapped a turkey leg in half with an impish grin. “Want me to find the creep right now and beat the brains out of him?” He winked at Alayne.

“Yes,” Marysa cheerfully chimed in.

“No,” Alayne shook her head. “We need to find proof. I have suspicions, but I want to make sure first.”

“Come on, Layne,” Marysa argued. “We know who it was.”

Bryan nudged Alayne from her left. “Here comes Professor Sprynge now.”

Alayne glanced over her shoulder at the approaching professor. He had been the one to take Bryan’s report and visit the dormitory room. His face looked grave as he crossed the huge room toward them.

He shook his head as he arrived at the table, sliding onto a bench near the end of the group. “First of all, Alayne and Marysa, I’m terribly sorry that this happened. I’ve already spoken with the hall monitors, and none of them has admitted seeing anything out of the ordinary. It did apparently happen during the afternoon when most students and monitors were elsewhere, so it’s not likely that the monitor for your hall would have seen anything. But we’ve asked them to be more careful in the future about who comes onto the floor, and to keep track of any visitors at all times.”

“So that’s it, then?” Wynn’s voice was sharp. “My daughter’s life is threatened, and you say that you’ll ask the monitors to be more careful?”

Professor Sprynge took the glasses off their perch on his nose and wiped them vigorously with a handkerchief. “Ma’am, this is a difficult situation, and we won’t rest until we get to the bottom of it. But you can be sure that we’ll take extra precautions to be sure your daughter stays safe on our campus.” He turned to the girls. “Alayne and Marysa, if either of you notice anything at all unnatural or suspicious from here on out, come to my office immediately. Do you understand? Or if it’s the middle of the night, my quarters are the next floor above my classroom. Anytime. I mean it.” He stood and smiled grimly before leaving the table.

Alayne glanced at Marysa, who still looked outraged, and then busied herself with her food while their families talked around them.

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