The Deepest Night Read Online Free PDF Page A

Seafood lapped in creamy rich sauces. Vegetables no longer dissolved into soup but sautéed or baked or boiled, so you could tell what they were. Fresh rolls, so fresh the insides were still warm when you tore into them. Butter and jam, white sugar and chilled milk. Whole apples, pears, persimmons. Bread pudding, iced cakes, sweet biscuits for dessert.
    Every day. Every single day.
    It isn’t sloth or even birth that pins the poor in their place. It’s hunger. Hunger kinks you up. Keeps your mind obsessed and your body cramped and shivering, and you dream of how lovely dying is going to be because no one ever goes to bed starving in heaven.
    I added more eggs to my plate. Malinda rolled her eyes and gave a sniff.
    “Look at her,” fake-whispered Lillian to Caroline, loud enough for all the table to hear. “Speaking of wolves! She bolts down her food as if it’s the very end of the world, doesn’t she?”
    “As if she’s doomed never to dine again!” Caroline fake-whispered back, stirring sugar into her tea, clink-clink-clink .
    I didn’t bother to respond. As far as my stomach was concerned, it might well have been my last meal. You never knew.
    I was nearly a third of the way through when I heard the ominous, unmistakable rustling of organdy and the snap of high heels against stone.
    Blast.
    I slowed my chewing, swallowed, and lifted my gaze to find Mrs. Westcliffe standing beside my chair. I hoped like hell there weren’t any egg bits on my face.
    “Miss Jones,” she said, pinch-lipped.
    “Yes, ma’am?”
    “You will join me in my office, if you please.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    I cast a longing look at my unfinished breakfast.
    “ Now , Miss Jones.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    I pushed back from the table. Westcliffe was already pacing away, so I don’t think she noticed the giggles that whipped up anew, my classmates with their hands pressed over their mouths, their eyes sparkling with malice, and Sophia real-whispering “Dooooooom” under her breath as I walked past her.

Chapter 3
    When you find yourself really, truly in the thick of trouble, there’s one very important rule to remember: Never volunteer information. Just keep your mouth shut and let the others do the talking, and maybe they don’t really know anything much and you’ll get to walk away.
    I’d learned that rule, and learned it well. But as I followed the ebony-clad figure of the headmistress out of the great room and down Iverson’s hallways, my thoughts were already babbling.
    Oh, was I eating too quickly, ma’am? I beg your pardon! I’m ever so anxious not to be tardy to class!
    Oh, did I use the fish knife to slice the butter? How careless of me! Of course I know the difference between a fish knife and a butter knife and a tea knife and a fruit knife!
    Oh, did it seem I struck Malinda on purpose? Honestly, that was an accident! I had no idea she’d be thrusting her hand in front of me then, and in her defense, I don’t think she saw me at all, since her head was turned and she was talking with her mouth full to Caroline.… 
    The office of the headmistress was a place no student normally wished to go, nor—if she was mannered enough or at least clever enough—would she have reason to.
    I, however, was already dismally familiar with the chamber, from the lace panel curtains patterned with pansies and pearls to the vases of lilies discreetly scattered about, freshened every three days. Even the porcelain angels framing the clock on the mantelpiece smirked at me with their same familiar smirks.
    You again, eh? What a shock.
    I was most especially familiar with Mrs. Westcliffe’s imposing cherrywood desk (always smelling of beeswax) and the pair of baroque leather wing chairs set at precise angles before it.
    Westcliffe took her seat behind the desk. I waited until she gestured at me before sinking into mine.
    They were huge wing chairs. I fancied I looked like a cornered elf whenever I was perched in one.
    The headmistress