The Glass Bird Girl Read Online Free

at the slammed door, and something in him stirred. It was not so much pity that he felt as an agreeable inkling that he might be in luck. This was a child, he calculated silently, in need of a new master.

Beware the Sideways Move
    E die sat in the car dressed in her stiff new clothes, with her trunk stowed on the back seat. The school uniform – brown tunic, yellow shirts, brown overpants ( Overpants! Edie had thought, wrinkling her nose in disgust) and grey tights – had arrived in a series of brown paper parcels, each one to Edie’s mind containing something even more frumpy than the last. Everything had been unpacked and sorted by Cousin Charles’s silent Spanish maid. Her handkerchiefs had been counted and ironed; name tapes had been sewn into her socks; even her tuck box had been neatly engraved with her initials. And yet Edie felt ill-prepared.
    â€˜Remember, Edith, you’re not going to Knight’s Haddon as an ordinary schoolgirl,’ said Cousin Charles, hooting at a cyclist on Hyde Park Corner.
    â€˜I know that. I’m not a schoolgirl, I’m a spy,’ Edie said, rehearsing her brief.
    â€˜That is one way of seeing it,’ Charles replied, smiling.
    â€˜But you said—’
    â€˜You are a spy, but you are also Anastasia’s servant. It is the prince, you would do well to remember, who is paying your fees.’
    Edie scowled. She did not want to be anyone’s servant, least of all to a girl her own age. And she did not like Charles’s warning tone.
    â€˜More secret servant than secret service,’ he continued. ‘The roles are distinct, but not dissimilar. The important thing is not to get too close to anyone. If you start forming sentimental attachments to the other girls it will cloud your judgement. And that applies to Anastasia too. You must act like her friend, but never forget that you are, in fact, her servant – and a servant, as you will shortly learn, can never be a friend.’
    Edie looked out forlornly at the whirl of traffic. It felt like just her strain of luck to be going to school with the specific instruction not to make any real friends at all.
    She had been secretly elated when Cousin Charles had offered to take charge of her education. Such was her excitement at escaping from her cousins she hadn’t thought to ask what sort of school he was going to send her to. It was only when putting her on the train to London that Aunt Sophia had said, ‘He wants to send you to boarding school, God knows why. But you might as well give it a go, darling. It’s not as though you’ve been very happy with us.’
    Of course I haven’t , Edie had thought sullenly. Your sons are savages . But boarding school! The only person she knew who had gone to a boarding school was Lyle, who had lasted less than three weeks before being expelled for reasons even he wouldn’t talk about.
    â€˜The school is famously strict and I don’t want you stepping out of line,’ Charles went on, his eyes fixed on the road. ‘Your job is to blend in.’
    â€˜But I thought you said I might have to break the rules—’
    â€˜I said you can break any rules you like so long as you break them quietly. And that includes your mobile phone. Strictly against regulations, but you’ll need it to keep me informed of your findings. I don’t want to hear it’s been confiscated, Edith. Keep it well hidden. It’s your first test.’
    â€˜I don’t see why we’re not allowed them anyway.’
    â€˜The school prides itself on keeping the world at bay. Parents like to think of their daughters being protected—’
    â€˜From what?’
    â€˜Oh, I don’t know,’ said Charles with sudden impatience. ‘And don’t whine. I’ve only told you to hold on to your phone.’
    Edie snorted. She thought one mobile was pretty poor payment for the job in hand. And the new phone he had