Page 5 of Save Me (Maxton Hall #1)

But back then, it really hurt to see those friendships break up like that, especially as nobody at Maxton Hall wanted anything to do with me either—or even noticed me.

I’m not from a rich family. I have a six-year-old backpack, not a designer bag, and a secondhand laptop, not a gleaming MacBook.

I don’t go to the weekend parties that the cool kids spend the whole next week discussing—for most of my classmates, I simply don’t exist. These days, I like it that way, but my first few weeks at Maxton were lonely, and I felt very isolated.

Until I met Lin. Our experiences with our friends aren’t the only thing we have in common.

Lin also shares my two biggest hobbies: She loves organizing stuff, and she loves manga.

I have no idea if we’d have got to know each other without the business with her parents. But although I sometimes get the feeling she misses the days when she was a somebody here and hung around with people like the Ellingtons, I’m glad to have her.

“OK then. You go to Lexington and put up the posters in the library and the study center on the way. I’ll do the rest, OK?”

I hold out my hand for a high five. For a moment, Lin looks like she wants to say something, but in the end, she smiles gratefully and claps my hand. “You’re the best.”

Someone pulls out the chair beside me and drops onto it. Lin turns pale. I frown as she stares, eyes wide, from me to the person sitting next to me, and then back to me again.

I turn very slowly—and find myself looking straight into a pair of turquoise-blue eyes.

Like everyone at this school, I know those eyes, but I’ve never seen them up close before. They belong to a striking face with dark brows, high cheekbones, and an arrogant, handsome mouth.

James Beaufort is sitting next to me.

Looking at me.

From close up, he looks even more dangerous than he does at a distance.

He’s one of the guys who act like this school belongs to them.

And he looks like it does too. He’s perfectly poised and self-assured, his tie is perfectly knotted and straight.

The uniform is pretty ordinary, really, but on him, it looks amazing, like it was made to measure.

Which is probably because his mother designed it.

The only thing about him that isn’t precise is his hair—unlike his sister, he prefers a messy style.

“Hey,” he says.

Have I ever heard him speak before? Yelling across a lacrosse field or drunk at an event, yes.

But not like this. His “hey” sounds friendly, and there’s a spark in his eyes.

He’s acting like it’s perfectly normal for him to sit next to me at lunch for a chat.

But it’s the first time we’ve ever exchanged words. And I’d rather keep it that way.

I look around cautiously and gulp hard. A few heads have turned our way. It feels as though the cloak of invisibility I’ve been wearing the whole of the last two years has slipped a little.

Not good, not good, not good.

“Hey, Lin. Mind if I borrow your friend a minute?” he asks, not breaking eye contact with me even once.

His eyes are so intense I get shivers down my spine.

It takes me a while to process what he said.

The next moment, I turn to stare at Lin, trying to tell her without words that I would mind that, but she isn’t looking at me, only James.

“Sure,” she says, “no worries.”

I just about have time to grab my bag off the floor before James Beaufort’s hand is on my lower back as he steers me out of the dining hall.

I speed up a touch to get away from his hand, but I can still feel the warmth of it, as if it had burned through my blazer onto my skin.

He leads me past the huge staircase in the lobby and doesn’t stop until we’re well out of sight of anyone going in or out of the dining hall.

I can imagine what he’s after. He hasn’t even looked once at me in the last two years, so this must have something to do with his sister and Mr. Sutton.

It’s only once I’m certain that no one can hear us that I turn to him.

“I think I know what you want from me.”

His lips twist into a slight smile. “Do you, now?”

“Listen, Beaufort…”

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to stop you there, Robyn.

” He takes a step toward me. I don’t flinch, just look at him, eyebrows raised.

“You’re going to forget whatever you saw yesterday immediately, got that?

If I find out that you’ve uttered even a single word about it, I’ll get you kicked out of this school. ”

He presses something into my hand. Dazed, I glance down and stiffen once I see what it is.

In my hand, there’s a heavy bundle of banknotes. I gulp.

I’ve never held this much money before.

I look up. James’s superior grin speaks volumes. It’s clear that he knows exactly how much I could use the money. And that this isn’t the first time he’s bought someone’s silence.

Everything in his eyes and his whole stance is so smug that I’m suddenly furious.

“Are you serious?” I ask through gritted teeth, holding up the money. I’m so angry, my hand is shaking.

Now he looks thoughtful. He reaches into the inside pocket of his blazer, pulls out a second wad, and holds it out to me. “I can’t go higher than ten grand.”

Stunned, I stare at the money, then back at his face.

“If you keep your mouth shut until the end of term, we can double it. Till the end of the year, we’ll quadruple it.”

His words echo in my head, over and over again, and the blood boils in my veins.

Standing there like that, tossing ten grand at my feet and trying to keep me quiet.

Like it’s nothing. Like that’s just what you do when you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth.

Suddenly, one thing is very clear to me.

I can’t stand James Beaufort.

More than that. I loathe him. Him and everything he stands for.

The way he lives—with no respect or fear of consequences.

The name Beaufort makes you untouchable.

Whatever you do, Daddy’s money will somehow sort it out.

While I’ve been working my arse off for the last two years just to have a chance at a place at Oxford, school for him is just a walk in the park.

It’s not fair. And the longer I stare at him, the angrier I feel.

My fingers cramp around the notes in my hand. I bite my teeth together and rip off the thin paper band holding the bundle together.

James frowns. “What the…”

I jerk up my hand and throw the money in the air.

James meets my stoical expression with an iron glare; his only reaction is a throbbing muscle in his jaw.

As the notes slowly float to the ground, I turn and walk away.