Oxford Blood (The Cavaliers: Book One) Read online

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  Harriet found her aunt and uncle back in her room, admiring the view out into the quad. They didn’t ask where she’d been. The entire meeting with Tom had been so intense she almost wondered if she’d imagined it. She twirled the necklace, wondering again at Tom’s odd reaction to it.

  A few minutes later, Sam and Jane bounded back into the room, just making their six o’clock deadline.

  Harriet longed to pull Jane aside and tell her all about Tom - her cousin loved gossiping about boys - but everyone launched into a frenzy of unpacking, leaving no time for a private conversation.

  “Now, your dresses are in that cupboard and your skirts and jeans are in the drawer there,” her aunt said, with military precision. “Shoes go in the bottom of the wardrobe, your books on the long shelf over there and toiletries by the sink. The room looks lovely. Please try to keep it tidy.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “I give it five minutes till the place looks like a bomb site,” Sam said. “The second we leave there’ll be clothes on the floor, spilt tea on the desk and books everywhere.”

  Harriet considered protesting, but she knew her cousin had a point. The family always joked that she was the messiest person in the world. It wasn’t laziness. Clutter simply didn’t bother her, and she could always think of something better to do with her time than hanging clothes up neatly or dusting surfaces.

  “I’ll try not to turn the place into a health hazard,” she said with a grin. “But I can’t promise those dresses are going to stay in perfect colour order. Still, at least my room at home will look neat for once, with me out of there.”

  “That room is becoming my personal dressing room,” Jane insisted.

  “Anyway, we’d better be off, love,” Kate said, after one last restorative cup of tea.

  Harriet walked with them to the car. She hugged them and the euphoria she had been feeling all day fell away. They were leaving without her and she would have to fend for herself. And then they drove out of the giant gates and disappeared from view.

  Whilst her family had been around, exclaiming at the lovely buildings and fussing over her, she’d been able to pretend this was just a day trip to another world. Now they’d left, she realised she’d be calling this surreal medieval complex home for the next three years.

  Chapter Two