Privilege 4 - Sweet Deceit by Kate Brian Read Free Book Online

on. We can help each other."

    She tugged Kaitlynn away from the steps, but Kaitlynn didn't move. She stood so still, in fact, that Ariana almost tripped herself. "Y want to help

    ou me," Kaitlynn said, her tone disbelieving.

    "Isn't that what friends do?" Ariana asked innocently. "Now come on. We'd better get started before we waste any more time."

    She glanced over her shoulder and sure enough, Conrad and April were glaring down at them.

    "Ticktock, ladies," April said, tapping her watch.

    Kaitlynn sighed and looked at Ariana. "If you sabotage me, I am not going to be happy."

    Ariana looped her arm around Kaitlynn's and started for the fountain at the center of campus. "Believe me, Lily, the last thing I want right now is for you to be unhappy." DISMISSED

    "`A rose by any other name.' What does that mean?" Ariana said through her teeth.

    The frustration and panic mounted inside her chest as she gazed around campus, as if the answer would jump out at her from behind one of the arched doorways or from underneath a dormer window. Ariana had single-handedly solved every other clue on both their lists while Kaitlynn had been next to useless. So why was she coming up blank now, when it mattered most?

    Perhaps it was the shock over the fact that Kaitlynn's list was complete and she was still there trying to help Ariana, instead of hauling ass back to the chapel with her camera full of photos to show Lear and Miss Temple how well she'd done. Why? Why, for the first time in her life, was Kaitlynn not focused completely on herself?

    "Okay . . . okay, is there a rose garden on campus?" Kaitlynn asked, holding her palms up. Her camera lay in one hand, while her black cotton bag dangled from the other. She curled the fingers of her free hand into a fist and blew into it. With each passing moment the air seemed to grow colder and colder.

    "No. There aren't even any rosebushes in the topiary garden," Ariana said, bringing her gloved hand to her forehead. "What else could be called a rose?"

    "Maybe we're thinking too literally," Kaitlynn said. She shoved her hands, camera and all, under her arms and chewed on the inside of her cheek as she looked around. Her eyes fell on Cornwall House, one of the girls' dorms. "Wait a minute! All the buildings have names, right? Are any of them named Rose? Or maybe some other flower? Since it's a rose by any other name . . ."

    Ariana's memory prickled with a vague heat.

    She took a few steps away from Kaitlynn, struggling to piece it together. It was something she'd read in the APH handbook all those weeks ago when she was staying at the Philmore Hotel on Lake Page, getting ready to start her new life as Briana Leigh Covington. She closed her eyes and tried to see the words. "The Winifred R. Sherman Computer Annex . . . Winifred R. Sherman. Her maiden name was Winifred Rose!"

    "That's gotta be it!" Kaitlynn said, her eyes wide with glee. "Once she got married, she had another name!"

    "Let's go!"

    The annex was connected to the library. Ariana turned and ran for the building at a sprint, Kaitlynn right at her side. Ariana's cold feet protested with tingly pain at each step. As she rounded the corner at the north end, she spotted the annex's cornerstone and felt a rush of elation. Just above the date, 1948, there was a small but elegant rose etched into the stone. Ariana crouched in front of the stone, turned on the flash, and snapped the picture.

    "Got it?" Kaitlynn asked as Ariana stood up to check the photo on the display screen.

    "Got it."

    Ariana grabbed Kaitlynn's hand, and together they raced across campus to the chapel. As Ariana neared, she could see a few figures standing around the steps and her heart clenched. What if everyone was already back? What if they were too late? Running had never been her favorite thing, but she upped her speed, sprinting the last few steps. She doubled over as she handed her camera to Conrad, gasping for breath. Kaitlynn gave hers to April. They