Page 116 of Kingmakers, Year Four

“And what was your relationship to her?”

“She was a student here,” Hugo replies.

With one ruthless swipe, Hedeon slashes Hugo’s face from temple to jaw. The Chancellor doesn’t even flinch, only letting out a grunt as blood patters down on the silk thigh of his pajamas, disappearing on the black brocade.

“Answer my questions fully and truthfully, or I’ll cut off your nose next,” Hedeon hisses. “Do you know that’s how Kenneth Gray used to threaten me? He’d pick some little piece of me—a finger, a toe, an earlobe, and say, ‘You don’t need all ten toes to be a soldier. You don’t even need both eyes . . .’ ”

“Kenneth is maudlin,” the Chancellor says, dismissively. “He always was.”

“How did you know the Grays?” Hedeon demands.

Hugo’s upper lip curls in disgust at the idea of being interrogated by two students. But he isn’t stupid enough to keep stonewalling Hedeon. After a moment he says:

“Kenneth and I attended Kingmakers together when my father was headmaster. His wife Margaret was younger. I knew her family too. I used to visit her father in Oxfordshire. He’d always bring out the best brandy, offer me his favorite gun when we went shooting. The Vanbrughs are social climbers. He hoped I might take an interest in one of his daughters. Margaret would only have been too willing to offer herself.

“No chance of that—she had the face of overbred horse, as you know. She was no prettier at twenty than at forty. I wanted nothing to do with her, though I kept visiting whenever I needed anything from Connor Vanbrugh, stringing them all along, enjoying the ass-kissing.

“I had no intention of marrying anyone. Eventually Margaret gave up and Connor offered her to Kenneth Gray.

“I barely kept tabs on them. I heard once from Kenneth that Margaret was infertile. After seven or eight years he considered divorcing her, but he didn’t want the headache from her father.”

I’m watching Luther closely, making sure he isn’t trying to twist out of the curtain ties or reach some hidden button with his toe that might call the grounds crew. Hedeon shifts impatiently, caring less about the Grays than about his own, direct history. He’sstill brandishing the knife, more than ready to cut another chunk out of Hugo.

“Then you met Evalina,” Hedeon prods.

Luther hesitates, not wanting to confirm what he’s kept hidden so long, even if Hedeon obviously already knows it.

Hedeon slashes him again, this time across his chest, opening a gash in the pajamas and Luther’s flesh.

Luther turns not to Hedeon but to me, narrowing his eyes and hissing, “We had a deal.”

Hedeon looks at me sharply.

“What does that mean?” he says.

Now the tip of the knife is pointed in my direction, not Luther’s.

“I made a deal with Hugo to come to Kingmakers,” I say, trying not to give too much away. “It has nothing to do with you. But that’s why I can’t sit back and watch you murder him!”

“You’re not going to stop me,” Hedeon informs me.

We’ll see about that.

For now, I only say, “Ask him for the whole story. He won’t be any use to you once he’s dead.”

Meanwhile, out of the corner of my eye, I’m searching for my own weapon. I don’t want to hurt Hedeon, but if it’s a choice between him and my father . . . I know who I have to pick.

A gold letter opener lays atop a neat stack of correspondence.

Hedeon doesn’t notice it. Though he’s vibrating with rage, he can’t keep his eyes off his father’s craggy face, deeply-lined and vulpine in the glow of the firelight.

Hedeon asks, “Did you love her?”

Hugo pauses, this time I think for a different reason—he’s not sure how to answer.

“She captivated me,” he says at last, his rough voice scraping against my skin like sandpaper. “I had seen the girls come and go in their short skirts . . . but Evalina was something else. I wanted her. I wanted to touch her, hold her, possess her.”

Hugo’s eyes glitter like a dragon crouched over a hoard of gold.

---