Beyond the Parallel: Parallelogram, Book 4

Chapter 9

9

“Other than the yippy dogs … Henry and Wallace …”

As I follow Jake up the carpeted wooden staircase to his room, I play those words over in my head. I don’t know any yippy dogs named Henry and Wallace. Jake thinks I do.

They don’t belong to Halli’s parents—I’m sure of that. They made it very clear that they wished I hadn’t brought Red with me to their island—let alone let him stay with me inside their mansion and come with me to meals and meetings. They’d be the last people to own yippy dogs. Dogs like that need lots of attention and love. That disqualifies Halli’s parents right away.

And I never saw any dogs, yippy or otherwise, in the building where their flat is. Once again, Red was the sole canine ambassador. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t some down the hall or on another floor, and maybe I met them this time around.

Only one way to find out.

“Henry and Wallace … what cute little guys they were, huh?”

Jake snorts. “Red didn’t think so. Of course, he doesn’t think I am, either.”

“Yeah, he’s a funny one sometimes.” Red is his own dog, Halli told me once. She would know better than any of us. “I assume you went with the driver to pick up my duffel this afternoon? Or did you just give him the note to put inside it?”

“No, I went. I had to pick up my things, too.”

“Right.” So we were staying someplace together again. Someplace with yippy dogs.

“Did you … see Henry and Wallace?” I try to sound as casual as possible, even though every question feels so obvious I’m sure he’s going to get suspicious.

“Right there on their favorite lap. Mrs. Scott wanted to know if we’re coming back. I told her I didn’t know.”

Mrs. Scott. Wow.

My mind is whirling. That’s a pretty major change. But a very, very welcome one. Mrs. Scott is definitely an ally.

Last time, I met her at the company board meeting on the island. She’s the one who warned me that Halli’s parents were trying to steal the company away from Halli. Mrs. Scott lives here in London, and she said I could fly back with her after the meeting and stay with her as long as I wanted. We were supposed to leave the next morning. But that evening, Halli’s parents had her escorted off the island and flown back to London right away. She was gone by dinner time.

It wasn’t the last time I saw her, though. She came to visit me in the hospital, too. We were in the middle of discussing Halli’s parents again when Jake showed up and basically kicked Mrs. Scott out. He said Halli’s parents didn’t want me to have any visitors—that I was too weak and it was harmful. Mrs. Scott and I could both guess that they just didn’t want her talking to me, but then I had to go and prove Jake’s point by having a massive coughing fit. I never saw Mrs. Scott again.

But now, this time, I stayed with her before I moved to Sarah and Daniel’s? That’s a really incredible piece of news.

Something I’ll have to process later after I’m done dealing with Halli’s mother.

“Halli,” she says in that tight voice of hers. Her head hovers over Jake’s tablet on top of the quaint little wooden desk in his room. “I’ve been trying to contact you since this afternoon. Why haven’t you answered your comm?”

I didn’t have a tablet of my own last time, and I don’t seem to have one now. Which is fine, since I don’t know how to work them anyway. “How can I help you, Regina?” I ask in a bored voice.

“You can help me by not taking up any more of my employees’ time. I told Mr. Chilton you’d only be there for an hour or so this morning. Instead you wasted his entire day.”

“Really? Because I’m pretty sure I only wasted forty-nine percent of his day,” I shoot back, and I can see that I’ve scored a hit. Halli’s mother’s face looks even more pinched than usual.

I remember when I first witnessed a few of the comms between Halli and her mother. Her mother used to at least pretend to be nice. But that was back when Halli’s parents still thought they could get her to do what they wanted and sign over her shares in the company to them.

Those days are over.

“I don’t know how many more locations of our company you plan to visit,” Halli’s mother says, “but I’m warning you right now, I don’t want to hear about a repeat of today. Our Chief Operating Officers aren’t going to take valuable time away from their work to explain chemistry and hydroengineering to some uneducated girl who’s been living like a wild thing out in the woods for most of her life.”

Now my blood is on full boil.

I’m just about to argue with her about how she and Halli’s father are the ones who abandoned me when I was just an infant and let me be raised by a grandmother who took me all over the world with her because she loved me; and how the expeditions Ginny and I went on from the time I was small were amazing and dangerous and would have scared anyone else out of their wits; and how I might not be formally educated, but I can speak dozens of languages, I know how to survive in impossible conditions, I can fix broken bones and deal with infected wounds, I saved Ginny’s life at least one time that I know of and probably more; and I might be “uneducated,” but at least I know how to treat people decently, which obviously isn’t a skill Halli’s mother picked up at any of her fancy schools—

And suddenly it hits me: Halli’s mother has just handed me the perfect gift.

Thank you, Regina. I might not have thought of it otherwise.

I take a few breaths to calm myself down. Then I try to sound as rational and neutral as possible.

“I don’t want to fight with you,” I say. “I’m sorry if I took up too much of Mr. Chilton’s time today. I didn’t mean to. It’s just that once he started telling me about some of the products you and …” I don’t know how to refer to Halli’s father. She calls both her parents by their first names, but the man is too scary for that. “… you two invented, I couldn’t stop asking questions. I really want to understand more. Ginny never told me all the things you two have done.”

I steal a glance at Jake out of the corner of my eye. I’m laying it on pretty thick here, and I wonder how it sounds. He’s looking at me with a mixture of both amusement and fascination. I keep going.

“So it got me to thinking,” I continue. “You’re right about what you said: I am uneducated. I was always too busy following Ginny around to ever want to go to school. But now that she’s gone, I was thinking … Oxford.”

“Oxford?” Halli’s mother repeats with a laugh. “I don’t think so.”

Calm, stay calm …

I smile. Even though I want to swat my hand through the holographic face in front of me.

“Ginny knew some people there,” I say. “I’m going to go talk to some of them tomorrow.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Halli’s mother tells me. “You’ll never get in. If you think that simply being famous is enough—”

I don’t bother to let her finish. Mr. Chilton isn’t the only one who doesn’t like to waste time. “The only way to find out is to try. It’s late, Regina. I have to get to bed.”

I get up from where I’m sitting and stride from the room. Since I don’t know how to turn off Jake’s tablet, it’s the best exit I can make.

I keep on going down the stairs. Then, knowing he’ll probably follow me, I wait in the lobby. It takes him a few minutes to catch up. Halli’s mother must have had more than a few things to say to him—no doubt including some instructions for what he’s supposed to do about me now.

“Are you really going there tomorrow?” he asks.

“Yes.”

“I’ll let the driver know. What time should we pick you up?” Jake smiles politely, knowing I heard the “we.”

“I have to meet with someone at ten.”

“We’ll pick you up at eight.”

I narrow my eyes at him, but there’s really no point in arguing. I was never going to be able to sneak to Oxford without anyone knowing, and at least this way I’ve already announced my excuse.

“You’re not coming to my meeting,” I say.

“That’s fine.”

“You’ll have to find something else to do all day.”

“Also fine. I told you before, Halli, I knew you wouldn’t like any of this. I appreciate you letting me keep my job for a while longer.”

“Hmm.” I turn and head toward the entryway where Sarah and Red are still waiting. “Oh, and don’t forget I’ll be bringing Red.”

“How could I? Good night, Miss Markham.” He gives me a quick bow, just like the doorman used to whenever I went in and out of Halli’s parents’ mansion. He always acted like he was just there to do as he was told.

I’m not buying it with Jake.

“So, what did you two just talk about?” I ask him. “You were up there for a long time.”

“She doesn’t think you have even the slightest chance of getting into Oxford or any other school. She thinks you’re a barbarian.”

“What?” I answer with a laugh. I don’t think anyone’s ever called me that. I almost like the sound of it. “And what did you say?”

“I told her she was right. You don’t even wear shoes most of the time, and I’m pretty sure you can’t read.”

“You’re not very grateful,” I point out.

“I am,” he says. “And I’m also very loyal.” He bows again. “See you in the morning, Miss Markham.”