Two is Company (House of Anubis)

Chapter 79: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

At breakfast, Fabian and KT sat at one end of the table, futzing with the pictures of the Descended's drawings the former had scanned into one of the fancy softwares he had no business having downloaded on his computer. Eddie wasn't exactly sure what they were looking for, considering the drawings looked like a whole bunch of squiggles— neat, pretty squiggles, but squiggles nonetheless. Even so, he supposed it was a step in the right direction to at least have them.

Patricia sat beside him at the end of the table, nursing her orange juice with an undercurrent of nervous energy, and Alfie sat on her other side, nibbling on a piece of buttered toast. Kira was helping Trudy put dishes away, while the rest of the house had already headed off to school. As usual, it was Sibuna who was lagging behind in the mornings. Who could blame them, though? With the amount of stress they were all under, it was a miracle they ever managed to drag themselves out of bed in the morning. Eddie certainly couldn't imagine operating under that kind of pressure for three consecutive years like Fabian, Patricia, and Alfie had— he was starting to crack and it was only really month three.

"Whatever Frobisher and Denby are up to," Eddie whispered to Alfie and Patricia, "they must know we're onto them."

Kira cleared her throat in warning by the sink just before Victor walked in, his nose already turned up like they'd already somehow ruined his day. Knowing him, they probably had. Really, though, it was only 7AM, he could stand to lighten up a bit.

Fabian closed his computer as subtly as possible and tried to act casual by taking a handful of blueberries and shoving them into his mouth; KT just kept her eyes focused on the table. Their caretaker sniffed at them disdainfully, and meandered over to the living room, maybe to examine whether or not any of them had touched his stuffed crocodile, planted a pipe bomb under the sofa, shat on the carpet, or something equally as heinous.

"I bet Victor has no idea," Alfie murmured. "I mean, he didn't know anything about the book, right?"

Only one way to find out, Eddie mused as an idea came to him. He gestured with his chin for his friends to follow his lead, and said in a loud whisper, "Alfie, whatever Ms. Denby gets up to out of school is her own business!"

Never one to let anyone off the hook, Victor zeroed in on him immediately: "What are you muttering about, boy?"

Eddie tried to play it off like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Wha—? Um, nothing! Alfie was just saying that Ms. Denby has a boyfriend."

Everyone at the table, including Kira in the kitchen, made expressions that ranged from perplexed to disgusted at the notion; Patricia recovered first, though, her eyes lighting up at the chance to partake in a ruse.

"I'm sure that's no one's business but her own," said Victor, equally as mystified.

"Oh, yeah, Alfie!" Patricia chimed in, giving her friend a friendly smack. "I saw him too! At the Gatehouse, right? Distinguished, dark-haired, with a sort of timeless look about him."

Alfie finally seemed to catch on, to Eddie's relief. "That's him, yes... oh, but Victor's right, you know. It's none of our business."

Patricia had the gall to look right at Victor with a chipper smile. "None at all," she agreed brightly. Then, her head snapped around to look at Eddie, catching him off guard with her piercing grey stare. "Coming to school?"

"Y-Yeah," he agreed hastily, gathering his stuff along with the rest of his clubmates.

Victor hummed thoughtfully, eyes darting to Robert's portrait on the wall, and Eddie stifled a smile. He'd taken the bait, and perhaps that meant Victor might actually be of use to them on another front. He might actually run a Denby-bust on the Gatehouse.