Page 14

FOURTEEN

Lily woke up early, put the finishing touches on her final project and submitted it, before changing into her work uniform and heading down to the cafeteria. She wasn't surprised to find it practically empty – most of the students had been at the ball last night, and they probably wouldn't emerge until lunchtime.

"Do you want me to fill the soft serve machine before I bring out more plates for the lunch service?" Lily asked Brenda, the head cook.

Brenda shook her head. "Haven't you heard? The school's closing early. All the students have to leave before noon. Even the staff are supposed to be out of here by the end of the business day. If you want a ride in one of the student coaches, you should go and pack your things now. Don't worry about work. We're only packing things into the deep freeze, or dividing up what won't keep to take home with us. Thank the heavens no one had mixed up any of the soft serve mix this morning before the announcement came."

Lily nodded slowly. "Probably for the best. We wouldn't want anyone getting mauled by the lion."

"Lion? What lion? The school's closing because a girl disappeared from the ball last night. I've heard plenty of wild stories, up to and including some hysterical girls saying Rapunzel got kidnapped by a dragon who flew off with her, but if you ask me, some of them probably had a few too many cocktails or inhaled some fairy dust, if you know what I mean."

Dragons. Lions. Now kidnapping? Lily wasn't sure what to make of any of this. "Do you know the name of the girl who went missing?" Eden had been talking about Diana going missing at the last ball, but that wasn't last night. Unless the police had decided that Diana really had gone missing, and they'd just started to investigate now...

"It was one of the scholarship girls. Someone with no family to send her things to. One of the maids was grumbling about it earlier. Some sort of garden name...Eden, I think."

First Diana, now Eden? That was definitely suspicious. Especially as Eden had been asking questions about Diana's disappearance. Maybe she'd been right, and Diana hadn't eloped after all.

Lily wasn't sure what was worse – being mauled by a lion, or kidnapped by heaven knew who. Eden wasn't the type to elope. Her big dream was to run an animal sanctuary, as Lily well knew. She wouldn't give that up for some guy she'd only met last night.

"Go pack. See you when school comes back next term," Brenda said.

Lily nodded obediently and headed out. It wasn't until she was well past the student rooms and on her way up the stairs to her own that she remembered she wouldn't be coming back. Assuming her final project received a high enough grade, she'd be graduating this year. Oh well, if she packed quickly, she could stop by the kitchen and say goodbye to Brenda and the others before she climbed onto the coach.

She wondered if she'd see the lion in daylight, or whether he'd hunted overnight, and was now sleeping off his meal in the woods somewhere. A deer or a rabbit, she hoped, and not someone as nice as Eden. Candace or Anna or Elsa, maybe, but not Eden.

Lily sighed. No, probably not even them. Just because they were mercenary people who cared more about money than anything else didn't mean they deserved to be mauled to death by a wild animal.

Besides, those girls wouldn't be her problem any more. She'd get to go home, and all she had to do was wait for confirmation that she'd graduate, before restarting her parents' business. Her days of mopping up milk were over.

With a smile lifting her lips, Lily made quick work of her packing, and made it to the coach without having to run. Completely the opposite to last night. Things were definitely looking up.