The Seduction Game novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Vote

The board met on Friday the twelfth, in the long paneled room on the second floor of Founders Hall.

Seniors could watch from the gallery if they signed in at the door.

Nash and I took the front bench.

Hattie sat behind us with her father, who had put on a tie and kept touching it.

Fourteen trustees sat around a table the length of a canoe.

At its head sat an empty chair with a brass nameplate that had been turned to face the wall.

The man in the next seat was the vice chair, a heavy, smiling man with a pocket square.

He called the meeting to order and read item four into the record.

"The chairman's reform package has been withdrawn by its author," he said. "Item four is closed."

Then he folded his hands.

"Item five. The trustee review of the Reuter seat."

Nash's father sat three chairs down, in his charcoal suit, with a single sheet of paper in front of him.

He did not look at the gallery.

"I'll be direct," the vice chair said.

"In April a trustee's son was inside a fenced building at night, against the honor code."

He let the pause stretch.

"The trustee knew, and said nothing for eight months. The morals clause exists for exactly this situation."

A murmur went around the table.

Nash's hand locked around mine.

"He's making it about silence," he whispered. "Not expulsion."

"I know."

"My father is going to let him."

"Wait," I said.

The vice chair nodded at the clerk.

"I move to vacate the Reuter seat. Is there a second?"

"Second," said a woman at the far end.

I stood up.

"Excuse me," I said, in the gallery, in the quiet.

Every head turned.

The vice chair's smile slipped. "Students may observe, young lady. They may not address the board."

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Seduction Game from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.