Scarlet Rose

Chapter 47

Terry shrugged his shoulders under the careful stare  of Christian. He emptied the contents of his glass and called the  waiter, asking him for one more whiskey. He took a cigarette out of the  gold case and tapped its end on its surface, while thinking.

Oh! Terry had the acting down to the last detail. He placed the cigarette between  his lips. Lit it with the lighter. Took a drag in.

"Nope. Ηe doesn't ring a bell." He said back to Stewart.

Stewart  kept looking at Terry. He squeezed and narrowed his eyes down to them being just slits.  "By Jove, I cannot remember his first name. Clarence?" He said as if  talking to himself while examining Terry's profile. "Say you do have  some resemblance, Terry."

"So what was with that Grandchester fella then?" Paul asked and placed his bet.

"Oh  big scandal chaps, it was. College buzzed for weeks!...they found him with a girl on a night at the stables. Of course, him being who he was, they  expelled the girl, but he took her place instead." He shared the old  gossip. "The guy was the son of the Duke of Grandchester, we are talking  about big balls aristocracy here!" He took the pipe from his mouth and tapped  it on the ashtray, before stuffing it with more  tobacco.

"You should have seen him beg the head of the college, Sister Grey..."

"I remember Sister Grey..." Terry all of sudden said.

"Who could forget Sister Grey! I hate to admit it, I was one of her lackeys. How else could I survive St. Paul's? Was out of her office all the time, she used to send me to do errands for her...to spy even..." Stewart laughed out loud. "My God, she was like a guard and executioner all rolled into one."

Terry  laughed. He could see Christian being all ears to the story Stewart was  narrating. "But really you don't remember any of that?" Stewart asked Terry again.

"I  do remember some of it..." Terry said again, feeling hungry for the  adrenaline rush of telling his story under Christian's nose. "Wasn't it  the girl's name Candy?"

"Oh!!! But yes! She was!! Candy...Candy...Candice, Sister Grey was shouting at her a lot!" the guy said and lit his pipe again.

"Pretty girl she was..." Terry said with a wicked smile.

"Another weirdo." Stewart said.

Terry raised his brows. Everyone did!

What was so weird about that girl?

The bets had been all placed. They waited for Stewart to finish the story before they would reveal their cards. "She was! Gossip had it that she lived more on the trees than on the ground. She was an orphan adopted by this rich American family."

Terry's  insides twisted as if a knife had been plunged into his belly. That he  didn't expect to be revealed. He felt hot under the collar. Tried to think of this rationally. So what if he said  Candy was American...Weren't there other American girls? Annie for one,  she was adopted orphan from the States.

"Really, Dickens wouldn't have been able to write her story better." Stewart said and looked at Terry  once again.

"Nah...You're not him..."  He said on his own. "Grandchester was scruffy - shirt always out, boots  always with dry mud up to the ankles. He loved horses, that guy. Detested the  barber and Sister Grey had always complained about his hair."

Terry  turned to him, fixed his eyes on Stewart's face. He remembered the man. Fat kid, waiting, sitting on a chair outside Grey's office. They were classmates. Was sitting second desk from the end, two desks away from his. A real  slob he was. Having the nerve to call him scruffy...