Read Online The Secret Prince by Violet Haberdasher - Free Book Online

wasn’t offering,” Henry returned.
    Valmont took the chair across from Henry, and the other students gradually resumed their conversations. With a dismissive sniff at the chipped paint and buttons for pawns, Valmont began arranging the chess pieces.
    “Perhaps one day I’ll be able to afford a chess set as nice as this one,” Henry joked.
    Valmont snorted and continued lining up pawns.
    As the game progressed, it became clear that Valmont wanted desperately to win. He hunched over the board with a look of intense concentration, agonizing over each move.
    “You’re making it easier for me to win, you know,” Henry said as he scooped up Valmont’s remaining bishop. “Don’t second-guess your moves so obviously. It gives away your strategy.”
    “I don’t need your advice,” Valmont said, choosing to move a useless pawn. “And since when are you friends with those Ministerium brats?”
    Henry glanced toward the nearby table, where his dinner companions had joined Rohan’s card game. “Conrad and Derrick? I’m not.”
    “Looked pretty friendly to me.”
    “Check,” Henry said, “and what does it matter to you, anyway?”
    Valmont put a castle in the way of Henry’s attacking bishop. “I don’t like being made fun of.”
    “I wasn’t making fun of you,” Henry said, capturing the castle. “Check, again.”
    “Yes, you were,” Valmont said. “You were doing impressions.”
    Henry went slightly red. It was true, he
had
been doing impressions.
    “Who’s winning?” Theobold demanded, interrupting.
    “It could go either way,” Henry lied as Valmont’s king retreated.
    “Grim’s winning,” Argus Crowley grunted, peering at the board.
    “Really?” Theobold said, delighted. He leaned in closer, crowding them.
    “Do you
mind
?” Valmont said stiffly.
    “It isn’t as though I’m bothering you,” Theoboldsaid, shifting so that he was leaning into Valmont’s back. “Because you’d let me know if I were, right, four-eyes?”
    Valmont fumed silently.
    Henry waited, expecting Valmont to defend himself, but he merely sat there, his jaw thrust forward, his hands clenched into fists, staring at the chessboard as though he wanted to hurl it across the common room. Henry dragged out his turn unnecessarily, hoping that Theobold would lose interest and wander away. Because what Theobold had nearly said about Valmont was a purpose fully off-target hit, the sort that wasn’t just rude but often caused injury. They were all students at Knightley Academy, and how they’d gotten in, or where they’d come from, was no longer newsworthy.
    “Forgotten how?” Valmont whispered disdainfully.
    “Sorry. I was preoccupied,” Henry said. “I met Theobold’s brother today and was trying to figure out if
everyone
in the Archer family starts to go bald and fat so young.”
    Henry calmly raised an eyebrow at Theobold.
    Theobold’s eyes blazed. “I don’t know, Grim. How about
your
family? How did mummy and daddy die? Hanged in the gallows as common criminals?”
    Henry flushed with anger. After all, he’d been askingfor it, but that didn’t stop him from wanting badly to punch the smirk off Theobold’s face, to hear Theobold’s cry of surprise as he hit the floor from the sheer force of it.
    The truth was, Henry didn’t know anything about his parents. He’d pestered the orphanage matron until she’d gotten cross with him, gone through one of those books that kept track of the aristocracy, dug up moldering copies of the
Midsummer Gazette
, and still, nothing. Anyway, it was better not to know—or so he’d tried to convince himself.
    “I say, Archer, that was quite uncalled for,” Derrick said, throwing down his cards and pushing back his chair. “We’re all rather tired of your attitude.” “Are you now?” Theobold asked, somehow managing to pose the question to the entire common room.
    “Yes, we are,” Derrick returned. “Especially with—Well, this isn’t the time to be fighting among