Dahlia Whitlock's interrogation hung like cobwebs in Veridian House's morning stillness. Holly Frost traced the bruise blooming beneath her Balmain collar - a violet accusation against porcelain skin.
"Lost in Sergei's souvenirs?" Dahlia's whisper carried across the oak-paneled classroom. Her fingertip hovered near Holly's throat. "Adrian Stone's heroics deserve ballads! Did he disarm that brute with a differential equation?"
Byron Shaw materialized behind them, his Savile Row shadow swallowing Annabel Yates' desk. "Stone's heroism," he purred, "is merely his brand of boredom relief."
Holly compressed into her Jacobean chair, becoming woodgrain. Dahlia vibrated with voyeuristic glee. Annabel's Cartier pen bled sapphire ink onto vellum.
Dahlia: (To Annabel) "Lord Byron spoke to us!"
Annabel: (Scraping ink blot) "He commented on Stone's groupies. Contain your apoplexy."
Byron: (Leaning over desks) "Envy erodes elegance, Yates."
Annabel: "Direct your epigrams at Vaughn. She collects discarded tributes."
Three rows forward, Vivian Vaughn lay crucified across Hobbes' Leviathan, her Edwardian blouse sleeve drowning in marginalia. Seraphina Beauchamp arrived in an Olfactives Majestueux haze, tapping Vivian's riding boot with her parasol.
"Catastrophic romantic withdrawal?" Seraphina's satin glove nudged Vivian's shoulder. "Where's your customary supernova energy?"
Vivian groaned into political philosophy. "Adrian Stone metabolizes affection into contempt. Sicilian nectar couldn't thaw that permafrost."
Seraphina: (Stealing Byron's chair) "Perhaps he requires... kinetic courtship."
Vivian: (Muffled) "Should I bludgeon him with Locke's Treatises?"
Seraphina: "Think theatrically! Commission brigands to accost you. Let Stone reprise his heroic sonata!"
Vivian: (Bolting upright) "Brilliance! I'll hire dockworkers to mug me!"
Byron: (Reappearing) "Sergei's associates are presently guests of Her Majesty. Allow me to procure substitutes."
Vivian's glare could etch crystal. The Frosts' negotiations with Headmaster Thornwood had permeated Eldenwood's limestone walls: Holly's elevation to the Chancellor's List, the discreet financial settlement, Adrian's suppressed testimony. Only Byron Shaw could transmute trauma into burlesque.
"Your services," Vivian retorted, "include sabotage and sarcasm."
"And theatrical casting." Byron produced a platinum-embossed card. "'Shaw Solutions: Crisis Choreography Since 1892.' Grandfather diversified during the Boer War."
Seraphina snatched it. "Do you offer damsel-in-distress packages?"
"The deluxe tier includes simulated kidnappings." Byron's smile turned lethal. "Stone prefers authentic peril."
Vivian hurled Leviathan at his head. Byron ducked, the folio shattering a stained-glass coat of arms.
Seraphina: (Applauding) "Encore! Add property damage to Stone's hero portfolio!"
Professor Pendleton: (From doorway) "Miss Vaughn! My sanctum. Immediately."
Byron: (Mock-saluting) "Objective achieved. Rescue narrative initiated."
As Vivian followed Pendleton through Gothic arches, Holly watched her pass. Dahlia's chatter dissolved into white noise.
She deflects cannonballs with wit, Holly marveled. I shatter under whispers.
Professor Pendleton's study exuded beeswax and repressed fury. He gestured to a Chippendale chair.
"The Frost accommodation," Pendleton began, polishing spectacles. "Thornwood sanctioned it under duress. You will refrain from interrogating Miss Frost regarding this... administrative concession."
Vivian traced the chair's marquetry. "Concession or payoff?"
"Miss Vaughn!"
"Holly's terror funded Eldenwood's new conservatory. Adrian's integrity became leverage." Vivian met Pendleton's glare. "The academy trades in silence."
Pendleton's composure fractured. "That girl is cracked porcelain. You're a siege engine."
Vivian: "Should I ignore institutional corruption?"
Pendleton: "I should expel you! But your father's endowment restored this wing!"
Vivian: "Then thank him. While I thank Adrian for risking expulsion to save Holly."
When Vivian returned, Holly's desk stood vacant - evacuated mid-lecture like compromised intelligence. Byron lounged in her chair, twirling Vivian's crystal lollipop.
"Frost ascended to the ivory tower," he announced. "Chancellor's List initiates devour their wounded."
Vivian scanned the room. Annabel's smirk was a scalpel. Dahlia wept into Seraphina's cashmere. Adrian Stone entered from the vestibule, his gaze inventorying Holly's absence before arresting on Vivian.
Next move, Sentinel? her lifted chin demanded.
Adrian's expression remained glacial, but his knuckles whitened around his Cambridge satchel. One tectonic shift in the permafrost.