The Secret Prince Read Online Free Page A

not everyone wishes to have students such as yourself at the academy?”
    “I’m aware, sir.”
    Lord Havelock gave Henry a significant look. “Must I remind you that many such people are upstairs, and have just witnessed your behavior?”
    Henry stared at Lord Havelock in surprise. “Well, no. I—I mean—,” Henry stuttered.
    “You mean what, exactly, Mr. Grim?” Lord Havelockasked silkily. “To jeopardize your hard-won place at Knightley? To make Lord Winter and myself look bad in front of our peers? Or to pursue a schoolboy grudge I have tried my hardest to put to an end?”
    Henry sighed. He just couldn’t win. “
Valmont
dumped his cider down my shirt, sir.”
    “It was provoked, I’m sure,” Lord Havelock returned.
    “Is that all, sir?” Henry asked.
    “So eager to return to the company of your improper little lady friend, Mr. Grim?”
    “No, sir,” Henry said, staring at his shoes.
    “Look at me when I’m talking to you,” Lord Havelock commanded.
    Henry caught his breath and stared up at his head of year.
    “I don’t know what you were doing this afternoon, and I don’t care to,” Lord Havelock continued, “but before you return to school, let me make one thing clear: You are not, under any condition, to do anything foolish with regard to the events of last semester. Do you understand me?”
    “Not fully,” Henry admitted.
    “Looking for Sir Frederick would be a severe violation of the Code of Chivalry,” Lord Havelock clarified.
    Henry blanched. “I wasn’t looking for Sir Frederick,” he muttered.
    “You were looking for trouble. It’s the same thing,” Lord Havelock snapped. “You forget that
I
vouched for you and your friends at the hearing last term. That
I
took the blame for your foolishness.”
    “And
you
forget about the Midsummer Curse,” Henry said, trying to keep his voice calm and even. “I know what you tried to do, rigging the exam.”
    Lord Havelock’s eyes narrowed. “You are quick to accuse, Mr. Grim, but slow to produce proof to back up your claims.” Lord Havelock paused, letting the barb dig in before resuming his lecture. “A lesson for you, Mr. Grim: Intending an action and doing it are far from the same thing. Until you are right there, with the choice in front of you, you can only guess what you might do, and what your character might be. Are you hero or coward? Often you will guess wrongly.”
    Henry frowned. Was Lord Havelock talking about Sir Frederick or the fight with Valmont or the Knightley Exam the previous May? Henry puzzled over this for a moment in that cool dark annex, with the merriment of the party clattering above him.
    “They haven’t chosen a new chief examiner for thecoming year,” Henry said, carefully watching Lord Havelock’s face to confirm his suspicion. He’d guessed correctly. Emboldened, Henry asked, “I don’t suppose you’d be wanting your old position back, sir?”
    “It is to everyone’s advantage, not just my own, that troublemakers are watched carefully,” Lord Havelock returned. “And you, Mr. Grim, are trouble.”
    It
was
rather starting to seem that way, Henry thought dejectedly, whether he meant to be or not.

3
KNIGHT AT THE STATION
    H enry straightened his uniform as he stepped off
the clanging omnibus outside of Hammersmith Cross Station. All the way to the station, he’d felt the other passengers staring at his pressed gray trousers with the first-year yellow piping down the sides, his yellow-and-white-striped tie, and his dark blue formal jacket, a bit worse for wear, done in a military cut with brass buttons, white braid, and the school crest over the right breast pocket, bearing the silhouette of an old-fashioned knight with a lance, seated upon a prancing horse.
    It hadn’t mattered that he’d kept his boxy stiff-brimmed ceremonial school cap hidden in his lap, orthat he’d nearly blocked the aisle with the corner of his largest suitcase, which had stubbornly refused to fit anywhere else.