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“Greta,” he was being reasonable, “you can speak to them or I can call them all here and speak to them myself.”

“Tobia went beyond the pale, even if it was only in the House Cup.” His wife glared at him, her lips compressed, until she added, “There are things we just don’t do.”

“Like shafting one child to benefit another?” He let that question hang there, then asked, “How much did Antonia and Charles tell you about what led up to Tobia’s acts against them?”

“What’s to tell?” She gave him the compressed lip look again.

“Loyalty cuts both ways, Greta. It always has.” The look he gave her could have been subtitled ‘Remember?’

“You were in an entirely different position.   Tobia’s only fourteen, for heaven’s sake.”

“All the more reason she should have been able to rely on her parents, don’t you think? So, why would they ditch her so completely? How much help do Jack and Cherie really need?” He poured tea for both of them.

Greta picked up her cup and saucer, holding them steady but not drinking yet. “I can talk to them, but I can’t guarantee that they’ll listen. At the moment most of the family believe that she should at least apologize while the remainder want to just cut her loose.”

“For protecting her own position among her peers and in her own organisation?” He raised an eyebrow, “What planet are they living on? What planet are any of you living on that it’s come to this?”

“Andrew,” it was her turn to be reasonable, “Wolf Pack isn’t an organisation, it’s not even a proper school House. Tobia had nothing to betray and nothing to protect. At best, she made a mistake and she needs to apologise. If she does that and keeps her marks up, then when she finishes school, we can get her into a degree course and then get her a position as an agent despite the Wolf Pack thing. She can still have a reasonable career in the Agency, but the family isn’t going to get in behind and help her if she doesn’t apologize now.”

“Oh dear.” He put down his cup and saucer while she began to sip her tea. “None of you really understand what Wolf Pack is for, do you?” He sighed. “I can see that I’m going to have to give The Talk. Either you can arrange for everyone who’s available to come in, or I’ll do it. Your ignorance is quite chilling, under the circumstances.”

“What do you mean?” She looked at him in surprise over her teacup.

“Wolf Pack has a point and it does pretty much what the school founders designed it to do. We are going to sort this out now before you bunch of protected idiots manage to break Tobia beyond mending.”