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.