To say that I was in trouble would be an understatement.

It took a while to recover all the students who'd absconded from the hotel. Their phone numbers were distributed to the hotel staff who called and ordered their return, assuring them that Lisa was safe and that they wouldn't face severe punishment if they complied. After the police questioning, a headcount, and a stern lecture from the faculty, the students were marched back to their rooms with threats of cancelled future excursions and penalties against their academic records. To their credit, none of my classmates pointed me out as the ringleader of our rebellion and escape.

I was shocked, to say the least, particularly when Chantelle continued to feign ignorance of the entire thing and didn't out me as a criminal mastermind.

Throughout the ordeal, Dad kept me in his sights. I could see a battle raging behind his eyes. I could also see that he knew that it had all been my doing. The girls hadn't been stirred into action until we'd arrived, and I was too headstrong to sit in a hotel room and wait while a friend was in danger.

Before we could sneak out with the rest of our classmates, Dad closed the door to the conference room into which they had herded us, sealing our group in to face the wrath of our parents.

'Gideon is staying in police custody,' Dad confirmed. 'Which is where he would have ended up even if you hadn't put yourselves in harm's way.'

'You were taking too long,' I argued. 'I'm not going to apologise. We found her way before you did!'

'Have you looked in a mirror, Elisabeth?' Dad shouted at me.

He only used my full name when I'd done something to really screw up. And no, I hadn't. But I'd not really had the time to do that. When I shrugged, he turned me towards the dark windowpane. The shape of Gideon's hand was imprinted around my throat. I dreaded to think about the lump he'd left on the back of my head, the marks I might find across my torso, or the damage he'd caused to my arm. I resisted the urge to prod at the bruises to test their sensitivity. I could feel their tenderness each time I swallowed. I wasn't about to cause myself more agony than was necessary.

'Mr Bennett,' Jenny said, 'it was my fault. I convinced Beth to -'

'Save it,' he said. 'I know my daughter. There's no way she wasn't the one behind this.'

'She wasn't,' Will said gallantly. 'I was. It was my idea to fly out here, and I convinced Beth that we could track Lisa down. I wanted the chance to get back at Gideon without anyone interfering.'

'It's true,' Amanda backed her brother up with batting an eye. 'He did it for my sake. I'm sorry, Mr Bennett. We got separated because Will and I were careless. Beth was only guilty of wanting to help Lisa, and we exploited that.'

As endearing as their efforts were, it was obvious that Dad wasn't buying it. He could believe that Will hated Gideon enough to want to punch him, but he wasn't going to believe that he was reckless enough to put me or Amanda in danger to do it. It was obvious from the way Will had helped me from the back of the car when we'd returned to the hotel that he thought too much of me for that. At least, it was obvious to me. I might have been reading too much into it.

'I'm tired,' Dad said, pinching the bridge of his nose. 'You're all going to bed. Beth, stay with Jenny and Meg. Believe me when I say that this conversation isn't over.'

We weren't all going to bed. Lisa's parents weren't done with her after her dangerous escapades. As we left, I heard the words credit cards and cancelled, followed by a wail. Compared to what might have happened had we not found her; it was a small price to pay. At least, in my opinion. To Lisa, it was like losing a limb.

I was unable to thank Amanda and Will for their attempts to cover for me. Dad was our shadow as we moved through the hotel. The journey up in the lift was stifling. I couldn't even reach out to hold his hand to reassure him that everything would be all right, and that we would still be able to talk to one another once Dad calmed down and stopped thinking of them as bad influences on me.

Or vice versa.

The hotel had seen fit to accommodate us all for the night after everything that had happened. They were determined to endear themselves to their wealthy patrons and not have them sue for their lax security. Ordinarily, they'd have protested my addition to Jenny's room, but I could sleep soundly beside my best friend until morning without fear of being ejected from the building. William, Amanda, and their mother paid for a suite on the top floor for the night, and my father was found a room in the staff quarters which suited his needs.

After breakfast in our room the next morning, I showered, packed away my grimy clothes, and prepared myself for another long day of travel. Jenny tried to convince me to stay and offered to pay for another room for me, but I declined. Not only was I exhausted, but I was never meant to be with them on the trip in the first place. I'd just wanted to keep Lisa safe, and I had. I'd achieved my task, and it was time for me to fly home.

'Do you want to stay?' Dad asked gruffly as we were waiting outside for a cab. It was the first time he'd spoken to me all morning.

'What?'

'I can tell from the look on your face. You've always wanted to come here, haven't you? If you want, we can stay until the end of the trip.'

'We can't afford it.'

'I've been putting some money away,' he said. 'We're not exactly destitute.'

'I don't need a fancy holiday,' I said. 'I can come back another time. Preferably without all the drama and psychotic teaching assistants.'

'Why wait?' Ms Ayers asked. She descended the steps to join us and put her arm around my tired shoulders with all the care and gentility of a doting mother. 'You should stay. I imagine once you get home, Greg will ground you until you're thirty. So have a little freedom before that happens.'

'Forty, actually,' Dad corrected.

I wasn't sure I deserved the break, but I was too tired to argue. If Dad was happy for us to stay on in Italy for a little while, then I'd go along with it. I didn't want to leave my friends yet, anyway, not after what we'd been through. I nodded in silent agreement and he helped to bring our things back into the lobby.

'Wait,' I said. 'What about Will and Amanda?'

'They left early this morning with their mother,' Ms Ayers said. 'It sounded to me like they have a lot of damage control to do at home. Poor girl. To think that she was caught up with that awful young man.'

I supposed it wouldn't take long for Gideon's true nature to come to light. Nothing ever stayed a secret for long in high society, especially not when the daughters of influential families had gone out on a rescue mission to save one of their own from him. It was only a matter of time before the full history of his life with the Darcy family was common knowledge, including the fact that Mrs Darcy had recommended him for a position at Netherfield alongside my mother. Worse, that Gideon had been engaged to Amanda and had, no doubt, treated her just as cruelly as he had Lisa. It hurt to think of her reputation being dragged through the mud all in the name of exposing Gideon, but if the alternative was that he got out of facing the consequences of his actions, then it was a sacrifice that she'd have to make.

Still, I wished that I'd been able to say goodbye. I couldn't help feeling that I'd never see them again.

'Their friend left, too,' Ms Ayers said.

'That Charlie kid?' Dad asked. 'Too bad. He seemed all right. Not like the other one.'

'Don't talk about Will like that,' I chided. 'If he hadn't slowed Gideon down out in that square, the police might not have made it in time.'

It wasn't worth mentioning that Will had been willing to sacrifice just about anything to protect me. That was something that I intended to keep to myself a little longer.

'He put you in danger. I'm not going to forgive that easily,' Dad said.

'But I'm fine!' I protested.

I wasn't fine.

I didn't feel remotely fine.

But I was alive and not floating face down in one of Rome's many picturesque water features, so I was as close to fine as it was possible to be.

'Let's not talk about this, okay?' Ms Ayers suggested. 'Greg, I'm going to talk to the teachers about the rest of the itinerary for the trip. Why don't we let Beth go and unpack her things? She can stay in Jenny's room for the rest of the stay.'

'All right. Go on, do as Maddie says.'

Maddie?

Rather than stick around and ask when exactly he'd shifted from first-name basis to ­pet-name basis, I grabbed my bag and left without looking back over my shoulder. I already had enough on my mind with Gideon, Will, the massive bruise on my neck, the trauma Lisa would suffer now that she needed to live on a budget, and the fact that Charlie had just left Jenny for a second time without pondering the relationship between my father and Jenny's mother.