I almost said, "It's okay." An automatic reaction. But then I realized, it wasn't okay. I understood that they had thought I'd betrayed
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Noelle, but no one had even bothered to hear my side of the story--that, as far as I'd known, Noelle and Dash hadn't been together anymore. That even if they had stayed broken up, it never would have happened again. I felt too awful about it.
"Yeah. What happened there?" I asked.
Tiffany bit her lip. "I don't know; Noelle was so determined.... She said it wasn't her idea to vote you out, but I think she talked Shelby into bringing it up."
So it had been Shelby Wordsworth. Interesting, but not that surprising. Portia Ahronian's preppy roommate had barely spoken to me before I was president. Then she became my biggest fan until
Noelle returned, when she promptly went back to spending all her time kissing Lange butt. She had more faces than a world clock. And with her, whatever Noelle said, went. Although, to be fair, that applied to most of the Billings Girls.
"I just think she couldn't handle being around you after that video and, to be honest, I sort of understood. I know now that I didn't have all the facts. None of us did. Well, except Sabine." She frowned, as if the very thought of Sabine made her uncomfortable. I knew the feeling. "Anyway, if I could do it over, I wouldn't have voted you out. I'm sorry."
"Thanks," I replied. "I'm glad you said something. I've been feeling--"
"Ladies? Am I boring you?" Mrs. Ryan interrupted loudly.
Tiffany and I both paused, snagged. Graham and Sawyer stopped behind us.
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"Sorry, Mrs. Ryan," Tiffany replied.
I looked around, surprised at the ground we had covered without my noticing. We had arrived near the tip of a bluff overlooking the ocean. My knees went weak, looking at the edge I'd almost gone over. To my left, the pathway forked off toward a tree that stood all by itself, surrounded by a ring of rocks in the dirt. There was a big X etched into its trunk.
"Why is this tree marked?" I asked, taking a couple of steps toward it.
"I wouldn't get any closer if I were you," Mr. Ryan said grimly.
I froze, my hands coming together nervously. "Why not? "
Mrs. Ryan's smile was all condescension. She stepped past her husband and Amberly to stand in front of me. "Because that is a manchineel tree," she said, looking me in the eye. "It's highly poisonous. Eating its fruit can kill you, and simply touching its sap will blister your skin. So you might want to take a step back."
"Yeah, Reed. We wouldn't want you to get hurt," Paige said sarcastically.
I walked back over to Tiffany, hugging my arms, my heart actually pounding because of a tree. "If it's so dangerous, why keep it around?" I asked.
Mrs. Ryan chuckled, shaking her head. "Because my collection wouldn't be complete without it. This is one of the island's most notorious plants." She looked me up and down derisively. "You know, Miss Brennan, when you're visiting a foreign land, it's customary to learn a little something about the place before you arrive. It's common courtesy, really."
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She brushed by me and rejoined her husband at the front of the tour. I felt a twinge in the back of my throat at being publicly scolded yet again.
"Wow. She really doesn't like you," Graham said.
He was speaking some serious truth. I didn't get it. Was it really all about Billings? If she cared so much, why hadn't she attended our fund-raiser or the hearing where we were almost disbanded?
Luckily, the tour seemed to be almost over. As we turned back toward the mansion, we passed by a small greenhouse with some pots, bags of soil, and trowels set up on a table outside. Next to that was a workbench with a broken birdhouse on it, ready to be mended, and a couple bags of birdseed.
Thinking about my morning songbird, I glanced over my shoulder at Daniel. He was the nearest Ryan to me, and also the only one who had yet to be outright mean to me--no matter his reputation. "Do you know where I can buy some of that? "
He grabbed a small paper bag off the potting table and quickly filled it with seed. "It's all yours," he said, handing it over.
"Really? Thank you," I said, surprised by how generous he was being, considering his mother's obvious dislike of me. "That's so nice of you."
"It's just birdseed," Daniel replied, amused.