“Hm. Probably wise. And Eric?” he said in a quiet voice while Eric went to hang up his coat.

I shook my head. I knew what he meant. But I have not yet spoken to Eric about Friday night. Perhaps I never will—after all, he means to leave at Christmas. What good would it do to confront him now?

We finished our wine in a silence of flickering lights and resonances. It was a comforting silence, like that of an old married couple. Once more I thought of my parents, sitting side by side on the beach, wrapped in their tartan blankets. After a while, when the wine was gone, the Chaplain blew out the candles (in deference to Health and Safety) leaving only a single red light burning in the sanctuary.

“Time to head off, Straits,” said Eric.

Devine gave a nod. “It’s on my way.”

And so the three of us headed for home, leaving the Chapel in darkness, except for the single dull red light that shone through the mullioned windows. Above us, in the rafters, in a little stone niche too high to reach, or even to see very clearly (at least without one of those ladders), Harry’s gnome watched us go; half hidden in the shadows, but laughing quietly to itself at the absurdity of it all—the tragedy and farce of it; the friendships and betrayals; the secrets and the scandals on which our little world of St. Oswald’s survives—minus a few Honours Boards, perhaps, but with our honour still (mostly) intact, dragging our heels like schoolboys along the rocky road that leads to the stars.

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It takes a department to build a book, but sometimes even the greatest heroes fail to make the Honours Boards.

Heartfelt thanks, therefore, to my tireless agent, Peter Robinson, and his PA, Federica; to my US agent, Michael Carlisle; to my ­editor and the editor in chief of Touchstone, Tara Parsons, and editorial assistant ­Isabella Betita; and to senior production editor Linda Sawicki, copyeditor Marty Karlow, and proofreader Josh Cohen. Thanks also to Cherlynne Li for overseeing the stunning cover design, and to everyone at Touchstone for their faith in Straitley, St. Oswald’s, and me.

Thanks too to Kyte Photography for the author photo; to my lovely PA, Anne Riley; and, as always, to Kevin and Anouchka for acting as my sounding board and for keeping me grounded in the real world. Thanks to all my ex-teachers, ex-colleagues, and ex-pupils, who, consciously or otherwise, helped create St. Oswald’s. Thanks to the unsung heroes: the book reps, booksellers, bloggers, and festival organizers. And, of course, as always, the readers—you—whose appetite for stories keeps the pages turning.

Reading Group Guide

Touchstone Reading Group Guide

DIFFERENT CLASS

From New York Times bestselling author Joanne Harris comes a dark and twisted tale of betrayal set at a prep school.