We were three weeks in when a familiar face reappeared.

The burgeoning relationship between Gideon and the teacher he'd so actively pursued had ended. He returned with a sob story and claimed that he wished the woman well, but I couldn't help but think she'd dodged a bullet, and wondered if her bank balance had been too low for him to consider her a worthy partner. It disgusted me to think my mother had recommended someone like that to come to my school, that she'd thrown him into my life and the lives of the people around me. If she'd had any idea the sort of man he was, she'd have seen to having him kicked out of all polite society using her husband's connections.

It was only now that I realised how awful it must have been for William to spend Christmas with my mother. She'd brought the man back into his life, too, and I knew that William resented her for it. Ignorant though she might have been of Gideon's character, that didn't make it any less difficult for William to face Gideon every day at school.

While Gideon basked in the glory of being a tragic hero, one whose heart had been broken and fortunes had been poor, but was ready to rally his spirits in the pursuit of supporting his students, I did everything in my power to avoid him. I knew better than to trust a single word out of his mouth, and it killed me to know that I couldn't publicly reveal everything that he'd done in the past. I hated the idea of my classmates clamouring to be in his company, knowing that any one of them might be his next target and victim.

I was proud of my efforts to stay out of Gideon's way until he cornered me after a music lesson. I'd applied myself to my studies in his absence and outside of school hours. Even if I would never be a rock star or concert pianist, I could still ensure that I passed my exams. Besides, he might have been a git of the highest order, but he had been right to advise me I should pursue music if it made me happy.

'I was hoping,' he said, his hand outstretched to the wall so I couldn't walk by, 'that you'd want to continue practicing with me after school hours. I miss the time we spent together.'

I bet you did, you creep.

'Sorry. I have exams coming up and everything. It's hard to make time for all the stuff I want to do. If I can work it into my schedule, I'll let you know.'

'It's a shame to let your talents go to waste.'

I forced a smile. 'They're not going to waste. I'm working on them just as much as everything else. Besides, I just want to be able to get a job when this is over. There'll be loads of time for music in the school holidays and in my free time.'

Gideon tilted his head and reached his hand out as if to touch my face. I knocked it away without thinking. The idea of his fingers on my skin was repulsive to me. It was like if he put his hands on me then I was going to be tainted by him.

He stood up straight, offended by what I'd done. 'Have I overstepped a boundary?'

'Uh –'

'I thought we were friends, Beth.'

'I just think we should be a teacher and student. Rumours, you know? I wouldn't want your job to be in danger again.'

'That's true,' he said. 'But I don't think that's actually the reason you're being like this. Has something happened? Do you want to talk to me about it?'

'Nothing's happened. You're being paranoid.'

'I'm not sure I am. Beth, if –'

'I said it was nothing, Mr Wickham. I need to get to my next class. Can I go?'

'If you insist, Miss Bennett.' He held up his hands in surrender and stepped aside.

The man wasn't stupid, and I was a terrible actress. It didn't take a genius to figure out that there was something unspoken going on and that my opinion of him had changed. Rather than stay and risk revealing everything that I knew, I hurried out of the room while trying to make it seem that I was merely worried about being late for my next lesson.

I maintained my pace until I was safely out of sight. Breathless and relieved that I'd avoided a potentially dangerous confrontation, I slowed to a walk and turned a corner. I enjoyed my new, relaxed pace for all of two seconds before something heavy collided with my side and I was flung against the wall. The heavy object was Lisa, who didn't appear at all concerned with the bruises I was sure would appear on my shoulder following the assault. Instead, she waved a flyer in my face while Chrissy bounced excitedly beside her.

'School trip?' I asked as I righted myself and inspected the damage to my uniform.

'It's going to be so much fun,' Chrissy enthused. 'And the best part –'

'Gideon's going!' Lisa interrupted in an excitable shriek. 'I mean, can you imagine taking a gondola ride with him? It's going to be amazing!'

'You'll have to tell me all about it when you get back. I'm not – wait, did you say that Gideon was going?'

'Yeah, duh. He's like a teacher. He's going to be supervising.'

Well, that couldn't possibly go wrong.

A man known for getting into debts, stealing, and sleeping around on an all girl's school trip to a foreign country. If I'd had a single shred of evidence to prove that he was the same man he'd always been, I'd have petitioned the school to ban him from it. But I didn't, and I couldn't find any without exposing William's sister to a lot of nasty gossip.

'Maybe you guys should go on a different trip,' I suggested. 'Or not at all. It's not like you can't go to Italy any time.'

'It's the last time we can all go together,' Chrissy said. She blushed a little and saw fit to add, 'Without you, I mean. But you never go on the trips, so that's nothing new.'

I only didn't go because I couldn't afford them.

'It's fine,' I said. 'Honest.'

'It's fine for you to miss the trip,' Lisa added. She threw her hair over her shoulders and said, 'But it's not fine for you to screw up the end-of-year prom. It's our last chance to all go to a big school party together, and you're not going in that hideous skirt of yours. While we're on our trip, you need to go shopping for something that isn't jeans.'

'Who cares what I wear to one dance. I never dress up.'

'Exactly. And you never go on the trips. I get that you're poor, really, but you don't have to advertise it so much when there are boys around. You know that people talk about it behind your back, right? Well, they talk about us sometimes, too. Like how we're only hanging out with you because you're a charity case, or like, how bad it is we have to get stuck with you.'

'Where the hell is all this attitude coming from?' I asked. 'This hasn't ever bothered you before. And I don't care what other people say, anyway. We're meant to be friends.'

'I don't want you to make us look bad in front of Gideon, okay? It's better that you're not going to Italy so you can't drag us down with you, but I want him to talk to us at prom. You don't have to look better than me, but can you at least try to not be a total disaster for once?'

'Lis', don't be like that,' Chrissy chided. 'Beth's just not that interested. And you're being way too dramatic.'

'I'm never dramatic,' she declared furiously. With a final warning scowl, Lisa turned heel and stormed away in a totally non-dramatic fashion.

Chrissy was ready to follow, but I held her in place. Once Lisa was out of sight, I asked, 'What did I miss?'

She scuffed her shoe on the floor and confessed, 'Lisa likes Gideon. But she thinks he's more into you. She's just being jealous.'

'Well, she can do much better. I'm not interested in him, for the record.'

'I know. I'll talk to her when we're in Italy. You know what she's like. As soon as she's out there, she'll forget all this.'

'She'll probably forget by morning,' I muttered. I gave Chrissy a reassuring pat on the arm so she wouldn't think I blamed her for Lisa's outburst. 'Go after her. She's probably having a tantrum somewhere.'

I always forgot that they were the same age as me. Sometimes when I was in their company, I felt like I was babysitting. Jenny and I were the parents of our friend group, always worrying about the other three and trying to keep them under control. Still, it didn't give them leave to talk to me like I was less than them. As if I needed reminding that I was poor. I'd never had the money for the school excursions, and it killed me to see all their social media posts while I was stuck at home. I knew that some other girls in the school liked to gossip about my gold-digging mother and how she'd bought my way into their society with her husband's money, but in our little friendship bubble it was easier to ignore such snide comments.

It hurt when I had to hear it from Lisa.

Sometimes I wondered if she'd have still been our friend if we'd all been placed in different dorm rooms. I liked to think Jenny and I would always have found one another regardless of where we slept, but Lisa and Chrissy were different. All they seemed to care about were boys, fashion, and spending their parents' money. What they lacked in grace and decorum, they more than made up for in wealth and arrogance. In fact, I could well imagine them being a part of Chantelle's social circle if they'd been her roommates rather than mine.

Lisa's crush on Gideon was, hopefully, going to dwindle and die out just like all her other crushes. He seemed the sort to go for older, more reliable women with their own independent income, and I figured that would keep Lisa out of danger in his company. In the interim, I would just have to put up with Lisa resenting me for Gideon's apparent preference for my company. Her bruised pride would heal, she would find someone else to focus her energy on, and this little spat would be a distant memory before we knew it.

In the meantime, there were dozens of exam prep classes before her trip to Italy. And that would be more than enough to distract her from hating me and chasing him.