Read Online A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin - Free Book Online

mount.”
    Having fallen once or twice that very evening, I pointed out, “All of us fall from time to time.”
    â€œI don’t.” Tess pressed her lips tight and stared intently into the dark side of the room. “He swore at me.” When she turned back to us, her cat-shaped eyes had hardened against the sympathy we offered. “His horse reared again. They always do, don’t they, when someone shouts.”
    â€œEspecially where you’re involved,” Jane said softly.
    I didn’t comprehend her meaning, but the others seemed to. They gathered closer to Tess, except for Sera, who hung back staring out the window as if she longed to hear Lord Ravencross’s version of the events.
    â€œHe called me a bothersome little demon.” Tess sank deeper into the chair. “Or something equally hateful. Exactly as my uncle would’ve done.”
    â€œIt was said in the heat of the moment. He could not have meant it,” Maya said in a low, calming voice.
    â€œWhat happened next?” Jane demanded, like a governess expecting a child to spill all the facts of the matter onto the table.
    Tess’s jaw tensed. “He pointed his crop at me and told me to stay clear of his property or he would bloody well take a horsewhip to my backside. Then he galloped off and left me flat on my bottom in the mud.”
    â€œOh, dear.” Maya shook her head mournfully. “That was badly done.”
    â€œAppalling.” Jane rendered her verdict. “You’re right. He’s rude. That explains why he carries on like a hermit.”
    â€œIt certainly wasn’t gentlemanly behavior,” I said.
    â€œHe must be terribly sad.” Sera peered through the spyglass again. “Look there. See how he limps as he paces in front of the fire. He wouldn’t have treated you so poorly if he were not wracked with pain.”
    â€œPain does not excuse him from common decency.” I might’ve said more, if I hadn’t noticed something stirring in the shadows near Tess’s feet. “Don’t move,” I warned. Two tiny rubies glowed in the darkness. I knew immediately what creature lurked beneath her chair. “Rat!”
    I did not shriek. At least, I prefer to think I didn’t shriek. I snatched an old shoe out of a nearby box, lunged, and slapped wildly at the fiend. One knock on the head with the chunky Georgian heel and that horrid rat would cease to exist.
    â€œStop.” Tess grabbed my arm and snatched the shoe out of my hand. “They’re only hungry.”
    â€œYes, for your toes.”
    Jane laughed.
    Then, I registered the plural pronoun in Tess’s plea. “They?”
    To my horror, she pulled two scraps of bread from her pocket, stooped near the bottom of her chair, making ridiculous kissing noises, just as one might use to call a kitten. A pair of rats skulked out, scowling in my direction.
    Tess held out the bread to them. “Don’t be afraid. It’s all right. The big, bad, new girl didn’t know you’re our friends.”
    Jane said, “Don’t lump me into that category. They’re your friends, not mine.” She tossed a cynical smirk in my direction. “Miss Fitzwilliam, allow me to do the honors.” She waved me closer. “May I present Messieurs Punch and Judy.”
    I cringed. Two plump rats, one dark gray and the other a white albino, greedily tore into the morsels of bread Tess doled out.
    Jane shook her head at my distress. “Poor Georgiana, sent away to a school inhabited by thieves, liars, and rats.”
    The gray rat gobbled his crust down and then tried to snatch his cohort’s bread. Tess tapped him lightly on the back and scolded, “Don’t be so greedy.” But she indulged him with another crust.
    Jane leaned close to my ear as if confiding a secret. “The gray one ought to have been named Jack rather than Judy. Tess says they’re both males.