Among the Barons

CHAPTER 16

Luke gaped at Mr. Hendricks.

“You told them no, didn’t you? You told them I was fine here, right?” he said.

Mr. Hendricks sighed. “Luke, your father is a very powerful man. Some would say he has as much control over our country as the president Nobody tells him no.

“But—”

‘And, legally, you are his son. You’re underage. He can order you to go anywhere he wants.”

Luke was practically shaking now. He fought to keep his fears under control.

“What do they want from me?” he asked.

Mr. Hendricks grimaced.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m sorry. I really wish I did. There’s something going on here that I don’t understand. The best thing I can do is get Smits and Oscar away from my school. I have to protect my students.”

Now Luke wondered whose idea it had been to send Smits and Oscar home.

“I’m one of your students, too,” he said. “Don’t you want to protect me?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “I know. Why don’t you call Mr. Talbot, have him come and give me a different fake I.D. I’m not Lee Grant. I don’t have to be. Let me be somebody else. Somebody who can stay here.”

But Mr. Hendricks was shaking his head. “Don’t you know how hard it was to get this identity for you? Don’t you know how many kids are still in hiding, still waiting for what you already have?”

Luke squirmed, trying to avoid Mr. Hendricks’s gaze. The fake I.D.’s in his shirt pocket poked his chest, giving him an idea.

“What about one of these identities?” he asked, tapping the pocket “I could be Peter or Stanley I’ve got my choice.”

“Do you really think it could be that easy?” Mr. Hendricks asked. “You’ve got no idea what baggage those identities carry. What if the real Stanley Goodard, whoever he is, is wanted for murder? What if—”

“Okay, okay I get the point,” Luke grumbled.

Mr. Hendricks’s expression softened. “I’m sorry. But you can’t swap identities just like that Even if it were easy to fake being someone else, you can’t cast off Lee Grant Not now. Because, for some reason, they want you to be Lee now.”

Luke remembered what Smits had said to him on Smits’s first night at Hendricks: “Can you be Lee?” Why would Smits or his parents care?

And did they care for the same reasons?

Luke couldn’t sort out his feelings. What did he really think would happen to him at the Grants’? He didn’t know. That was the problem.

Luke thought about what Trey had said to him barely an hour ago: “You’re a hero.. “ They thought Luke was so brave. Luke wanted Mr. Hendricks to think that, too. Luke wished he could pull off an unconcerned act, could shrug casually and say something like, “Well, if I’ve got to go, I’ve got to go. If Mr. Grant’s so powerful, how about if I talk him into freeing all the third children while I’m there?” But Luke wasn’t brave. He was terrified. Rushing into a burning building and convincing cowering boys to leave seemed like nothing compared with going to the Grants’ house with Smits and Oscar.

A new thought occurred to him.

“The servants will know I’m not really Lee,” he said. “Mr. and Mrs. Grant’s friends will see me…

“The Grants don’t seem worried about that,” Mr. Hendricks said. “We’ll have to have faith that that won’t be a problem.”

Luke bit his lip, trying to think of another obstacle.

“Luke, I don’t know if this helps, but… I do wish I could protect you, too,” Mr. Hendricks said gently “I just can’t But I will tell you — of all the boys at Hendricks, you’re the one I’d trust the most to come out of this safely. Just use your common sense. You’ll be all right.”

And so those were the words Luke repeated to himself, over and over again, a mere two hours later as he climbed into a limousine behind Smits to go to a home that wasn’t his.

You’ll he all right, you’ll he all right, you’ll he all right….

Luke just wished he could believe it.

CHAPTER 17

Did you notice, Lee? It’s a new chauffeur,” Smits said after he pulled a panel of glass shut between the driver and the space where he, Oscar, and Luke reclined on luxurious leather seats. Luke thought Hendricks School was formal and fancy, but just the interior of this car made Hendricks look like a hovel. Luke had a feeling he’d better get over being awestruck right now — the Grants’ house was likely to be even more ostentatious.

He wasn’t sure how to deal with Smits, so he only shrugged and kept looking out the window. They had driven past Mr. Hendricks’s cottage already; they were turning out onto the main road.

“Our parents never keep servants for very long,” Smits continued.

Was Smits trying to tell Luke something? Like, maybe Luke would be safe at the Grants; since there would be no old servants to remember what the real Lee had looked like?

No, Smits was talking to Oscar now.

“Did you hear me?” he demanded. “I said our parents never keep servants around for very long. They must have fired the last chauffeur. And as soon as they hear what happened at Hendricks, they’ll fire you, too.”

“Smits, the last chauffeur was fired because of you,” Oscar said. “He was fired because you bribed him into tricking me.”

“So?” Smits taunted. ‘And you’ll be dismissed because of me, too. Because you didn’t protect me during the fire.”

“You set it yourselfl” Oscar roared.

Smits gave a so-what shrug. For once Luke could sympathize with Oscar’s rage. Whenever he closed his eyes, Luke could still see the fear in the faces of his friends— friends he hadn’t even had a chance to say good-bye to.

“Smits, lots of other boys could have died because of you,” Luke said. “That fire could have burned down the whole school.”

“Aw, there were sprinklers in every room,” Smits said. “There wasn’t any danger.”

Was that true? Had Luke’s heroism been for little more than a fire drill? Strangely, he felt as though Smits had taken something away from him.

Luke turned his face back to the window, hoping Smits would get the message that he wasn’t in the mood to talk. The limousine was driving down a road Luke had never seen before — which wasn’t terribly surprising. Luke had been in a car only once before, when Mr. Talbot had driven him from his family’s farm to Hendricks School. Luke had felt so overwhelmed then, he’d barely been able to take in anything he saw. Now he forced himself to pay attention. What kind of people lived in those tiny houses by the road? Was anyone tending the derelict fields? It was nearly October now — why wasn’t the countryside full of farmers busy with harvest? Luke was sure that, back home, his father and brothers were working frantically. His mother had probably taken time off from the chicken factory to help out. Did they still miss Luke as much as he missed them?

Luke swallowed a lump in his throat and closed his eyes. Sometimes it was better not to pay attention. It would be better not to think about where he was going, either, or what he might face there….

The next thing Luke knew, the car had stopped and the chauffeur was peering in through the open door.

“Please, sirs,” he said timidly. “Please? You are home now, no? Your parents will be wanting me to help you out. Sirs?”

Groggily Luke forced himself to open his eyes. He had been so soundly asleep that for a long moment he had