“Shows how much you know,” Juliet said. “Idiot.”
“I’m the idiot?” I giggled. I couldn’t help it. “You’re betting against your own team! How will you make it to be the big leagues if your team keeps losing?”
Juliet smirked. I hoped that meant she wanted to gloat. Dad had told me most people were terrible at keeping secrets because they wanted to impress their peers, which meant sharing the secret or — at the very least — the fact they had a secret. And yet, Juliet had had to keep her mouth shut if she didn’t want to face a weighty helping of justice for her misdeeds. She could gloat to me, before she made damn sure I forgot everything. If I kept pressing…
“I’m the Captain-General, as well as a team captain,” Juliet said, sardonically. “It doesn’t matter, not to the leagues, if my team wins or loses. What matters is how I perform as Captain-General, and my record is unmatched.”
“Only because there wasn’t a Captain-General of Whitehall until Grandmaster Gordian took control,” I jibed. I had no idea how the matter had been handled under the last Grandmaster, but as we hadn’t been playing in the leagues it probably hadn’t mattered. “You’re the best and the worst in living memory.”
Juliet ignored my sally. “My performance as Captain-General will make my reputation,” she said, curtly. “The spotters will spot me — I’ve made sure of it — and recruit me when I graduate and head into the leagues. And I’ll have the chance to recruit new players from Whitehall.”
“Really?” I raised my eyebrows. “And you think you’ll have free reign?”
“Remind me,” Juliet said, dryly. “Who was — who is — Captain-General of Whitehall?”
She went on before I could answer. “Who has the greatest insights into the players here? Me. Who knows their strengths and weaknesses and knows how to place them in context? Me. Who has the inside track on knowing what offers could be made to them, to recruit them to my new team? Me.”
“I suppose you know what you’re doing,” I conceded. It might have made sense. I didn’t know enough about the leagues to guess one way or the other. “But you are still running a terrible risk. What happens when you get caught?”
“I won’t,” Juliet said. “You got very lucky. That won’t happen again.”
“And when someone does what I did and works through the game records, noticing the pattern?” I met her eyes. “Or when your accomplice gets tired of being your cat’s paw and confesses all?”
Juliet shrugged. “A first-year commoner barely old enough to bleed? Who’d listen to her?”
“I would,” I said. It really was astonishing how many aristos had gotten into trouble through ignoring the servants. “And so might the Grandmaster.”
I met her eyes. “If he figures out what you’ve done, you’ll be for the high jump.”
Juliet laughed. “Do you really think the Grandmaster will listen to such accusations against one of his favoured students?”
“He’ll have to make a show of investigating the claims,” I countered. “And when he works out the pattern…”
“He’ll cover it up,” Juliet said. “It will go no further.”
I stared at her. Juliet’s family might be important, but they weren’t that important. I didn’t know any student who had the clout to convince the staff to look the other way, except perhaps Lady Emily, and she’d left school last year. There was no way in hell the staff could afford to overlook the charges, even if they were made up of whole cloth. They’d have to investigate. Juliet — and her accomplice — would be interrogated under truth spells, questioned ruthlessly until they spilled their guts. They’d have no recourse. They wouldn’t even get an apology if it turned out they were innocent all along.
“Impossible,” I said. “He won’t cover anything up for you.”
Juliet gave me a pitying look. “The Grandmaster wants Whitehall to return to the league tables,” she said, snidely. “If there is a major cheating scandal in the very first year, we’ll be kicked back out of the league before we’ve even fully returned. There are so many people with a vested interest in keeping usout of the league that even a hint of scandal will be enough to turn them against us. The Grandmaster will cover up the whole affair to make sure nothing, not even a single word, leaks out to our enemies.”
My heart sank. Juliet might be right. The Grandmaster had a very good reason — more than one, really — to cover up the story as much as possible. If he caught Juliet… he might just settle for quietly expelling her, or even coming up with a cover story to explain her departure from the field rather than confessing the truth. It wouldn’t be that hard to fake an injury or simply tell the world — with the deepest regret, naturally — that she hadn’t kept up with her schoolwork. I’d been told players who failed to keep their grades up were offered a flat choice between shaping up — and quickly — or being banned from playing. The cover story would be believable…
I glared. “Perhaps he’ll turn you into a toad and dump you in the pond for the rest of your life,” I snarled. It was hard to believe the old man would just let Juliet walk away with her earnings and reputation intact. “Or something…”
Juliet gave me a serene smile. “And if I vanished when I was supposed to be at school, don’t you think questions would be asked?”
“Point,” I conceded.
“You won’t remember any of this,” Juliet said, raising her hand. “And now…”
“Wait!” I did my best to act frantic. Truthfully, it wasn’t really an act. “We can make a deal…”
“I wouldn’t trust you, even if you took an oath,” Juliet said. “I caught you spying on me and peeking at my letters, didn’t I?”
“And you’re such a paragon of trustworthiness,” I sneered, bitterly. She’d remember the jibe, even if I didn’t. “Cheating to win is one thing but cheating to lose is quite… despicable.”
Juliet reddened. “You little…”
I pressed forward. “Are you sure you can even hide my memories forever? Aniseed knows where I am. Your fellow captains know where I am. Your accomplice knows where I am… are you sure she isn’t going to say something to me, in perfect innocence, that will jog my memory? Are you…”
“Be quiet,” Juliet snapped. “Who knows you’re here?”
My mouth spoke of its own accord. “You. Aniseed. Blair. Thomas. Your ally…”
I bit down hard. I’d thought I’d bested the truth spell. Clearly, enough of it lingered to make it impossible to lie directly. Juliet glowered at me, then turned and started to pace the room, clearly lost in thought. I hoped she didn’t hurt herself thinking so hard. It wasn’t going to be easy to make sure everyone kept their mouth shut. Blair was just the sort of person to harass me over my time as a maid, which would certainly jog my memory if I didn’t remember it myself. And Juliet couldn’t wipe his memory… I wondered, idly, what she’d have to offer to get him to keep his mouth shut. If she asked him, he’d know something wasn’t quite right.