Charlie's parents stayed on in Switzerland while my mother escorted their children back to Netherfield. Mandy and I stayed with them. She had to get on with her university work, and I needed an excuse to avoid confronting my feelings a while longer.

Upon hearing that my mother was due to pass through Europe and into England, Madame Courtenay offered her services. Rather, she insisted they stop off at her home in Paris to fill her in on all the gossip. Stories of our journey to Italy and Mandy's pending case against Gideon were flying through our social circle. It was only a matter of time before the woman knew everything about our business, and it was better that it came from my mother.

As I understood it, her brother and his new wife, Beth's mother, were no longer at her home. Wyatt, too, was absent from her company, but that didn't mean that they weren't talking to one another via alternative means. I wouldn't have been at all surprised if she called him now and then and used him as a spy to hear all about Beth and her escapades.

The woman had missed a lucrative career in MI5.

I didn't find out until after the event that Madame Courtenay had travelled as far as Netherfield with the rest of the group. Not a woman to be refused, she'd somehow convinced my mother that it was necessary for her to inspect the school for some convoluted reason. Madame Courtenay had made many large donations to Netherfield in the past, and that was the sort of thing that could be used as leverage to ensure that they hosted her. The school wasn't about to offend one of their donors just because they were preparing for exams or trying to provide an education to their pupils.

My mother arrived back without Charlie and Chantelle, so I deduced that his reunion with Jenny had gone well. Even without my mother telling me, I knew he wouldn't have had the strength to stay at Netherfield if she'd turned him down.

'What do you mean that she was there with you?' I asked over dinner. Mandy had left campus to welcome her back. Charlie's parents were out for the night at a local restaurant so that we could catch up privately as a family. 'What would she want there?'

'I think it was a who rather than a what.'

I paled. 'Did she talk to Beth?'

'I wouldn't say that they talked. Rather, that they shouted. The acoustics in the classrooms at Netherfield are very impressive,' Mum added, smirking as though there was an inside joke there. 'I'm not sure I've heard anyone yell at Madame Courtenay before. I'm glad I was there to witness it.'

I set down my knife and fork. 'I'll have to apologise to her.'

'Why should you apologise to that old bat?' Mandy asked.

'To Beth,' I corrected. 'I can't imagine that she had anything nice to say.'

'From what I overheard, there was a lot of talk about money-grubbing, seducing you, staying in the gutter –'

I dropped my head into my hands. I was mortified. 'Oh my God, she'll never speak to me again!'

Silence fell across the table. The candles flickered gently, eating away at the wax which oozed down onto the expensive silver sticks below. Mandy reached for her wine glass and sipped at it slowly, meeting my mother's gaze, silently encouraging her to say something to improve the situation.

Mum cleared her throat gently and said, 'Beth wanted to offer her thanks to you, Mandy. She knows that her friend will feel a lot better knowing that we're working hard to keep Gideon locked up.'

'That's as much for me as it is for Lisa,' Mandy said. 'I hope that she knows that.'

'I'm sure she does, darling. She was also grateful to see Charlie back.'

'Is that all she said?' Mandy urged.

'Well, no,' Mum admitted. 'In fact, she wanted me to tell you, Will, that she was grateful for Italy, and that you were a good friend.'

I wanted to die.

I wanted to sink into the ground and die.

A friend?

Is that all that she thought of me?

'That said,' Mum continued, no doubt having noticed the despair on my face when I raised my head, 'there was a lot more to her conversation with Madame Courtenay.'

'If I know Beth, she gave as good as she got,' Mandy said. 'How dare that wrinkly old cow say that Beth is after money. I've a good mind to get into a shouting match of my own with her.'

'Believe me, I had some stern words on our way back,' Mum said. 'But, no, it wasn't that. In fact – well – I thought it was funny, anyway,' she laughed, 'she wanted to warn Beth off.'

Mandy smirked. 'She what? God, that woman is ridiculous.'

'Warn her off what?' I asked. 'What are you talking about?'

'Madame Courtenay still thinks you're going to marry Cosette someday,' Mum explained. 'Delusional, I know. I'd never allow it. Anyway,' she picked up her own glass of wine and took a sip, 'she marched Beth into a classroom and got into it with her. Yelling all sorts of nonsense about how Beth had seduced you and Freddie, that she simply had to go to the school to find out if you two were an item.'

'Please,' Mandy said. 'No one needs to seduce Freddie. If a girl breathes near him, he assumes that they're interested.'

'Yes, I had rather noticed that about him,' Mum agreed. 'Well, your Beth wasn't going to stand there and be insulted. I know I said that she had a reckless nature before in Italy, but thank God the girl had a spine in that classroom. I thought I'd have to charge in there and console some sobbing girl. Instead, I hear her shouting right back at Madame Courtenay about how stupid it was for her to go all the way to the school when she'd said herself there was no way it could be true.'

'I'm not sure you should be calling her my Beth after all this,' I said. 'I mean, I was just thinking about how to go back and speak to her about maybe going out some time, and now I find out Madame Courtenay has been there shouting her head off about how I'm going to marry her bloody daughter!'

'I haven't told you the best part.' Mum smiled in a conspiratorial way. 'Not only did Beth give just as good as she got, she said that if you did decide to be with her, then she wouldn't stop you. And that all she cared about was your happiness, and that's all that Madame Courtenay should care about, too.'

'You're kidding!' Mandy was enraptured by the retelling. She placed a hand over her heart. 'Oh my God, I love her. I mean, I loved her as soon as I found out she slapped Will.'

'Hey!' I snapped.

'Oh, shut up, you deserved it,' Mandy dismissed. 'But, oh my God, what a girl! What a spine!'

'She also told Madame Courtenay that she was her equal and that money didn't make her better. And that she'd never promise to not go out with you because Madame Courtenay tried to demand that of her.'

My mind was spinning.

At Christmas, Beth had told me that I was lower than a rat.

I'd known then that my chances with her were slim to none. Okay, at that moment, they were below none, but since then we'd gotten to know each other better and had been through so much in Italy. I'd hoped that she might be open to something, but this was beyond my wildest expectations. No one had ever stood up to Madame Courtenay aside from my mother, and even she did so rarely.

If she was willing to tell such an intimidating woman that she'd never promise to stay away from me, to never be with me, then surely that meant that she was open to the idea, right?

Maybe Beth had been thinking of me just as much as I'd been thinking of her?

Could it be that all this time while I'd worried about how she could possibly love me, after all the things that we'd said to one another in the past, she'd been tormenting herself with the same questions?

'I need to go back to Netherfield,' I said. 'I need to talk to her.'

'After your exams,' Mum said.

'What?!' I exclaimed, standing from the table. 'You can't tell me all that and then expect me to wait!'

'I can and I will. We have things we need to tie up here before we go back, and I'd like Mandy to go with us. I'll talk to your tutors and the university and see if we can move some things around so that you can finish up early, but that's the best I can do.'

'And what am I meant to do in the meantime?' I asked.

'If I were you, Will, I'd be thinking of how to make a good impression on her when you go back.'