Page 53 of The Sin

“I would like a word with Georga.” To his credit, he sounded neither annoyed nor impatient. “We won’t be long.”

She looked like she’d argue, then realized how petty and unnecessarily possessive she was being. At least, that’s what I hoped. She’d already won the boy. She didn’t have anything to fear from me.

Once we were alone, Daniel retreated deeper into the library, all the way across to the bay window.

I followed, speaking in a low voice, “Everything okay?”

“You tell me.” His brow furrowed, his blue eyes serious. “Roman assured me you were fine, but he won’t say what’s going on.”

“You don’t know?”

“I know something went down last week, and it involved you,” he said. “Roman and my father got into a tense discussion about it. And then a council meeting was called.”

“You didn’t attend the meeting?” I said, poking around for my own answers. “I thought that was your job, being a council heir and shadowing your father.”

He huffed a dry laugh. “My job is to do as my father says. It’ll be years before any of us are trusted with confidential council business.”

I assumed he was speaking on behalf of all the heirs. In theory, seats on the council weren’t inherited, they were elected by the sitting council. But that was just a loophole in the rare case when a councilman didn’t have a son to succeed him—or didn’t have a son he thought worthy of succeeding him.

“So you don’t know anything about The Smoke or what lies beyond Capra’s walls?” I pressed.

“No more than anyone.” His gaze pierced me now, his voice quiet and rushed. “Is there something I should know? Georga, what have you done? Are you in trouble?”

“No,” I said quickly, pulling back. “I was just asking too many questions about The Smoke. I was worried about a friend from St. Ives. Jenna Simmons. The girl who didn’t graduate.”

“I remember her,” he said.

“You know me,” I said with a tight smile. “She was removed from Society, and I wanted to know if that meant she was in The Smoke, and whether she is okay there?”

“Is she?” he asked. “In The Smoke?”

He didn’t know. He didn’t have a clue. I could hear the genuine curiosity in his voice, see it in his blue eyes.

I shrugged. “I have no idea, Daniel. I didn’t exactly get answers, and I have to stop asking before your father decides to send me to rehab.”

I don’t know why I threw that out. I wasn’t even poking anymore, I was just hanging on by a bitter thread and feeling slightly vicious.

“Don’t joke about things like that,” he said.

I wasn’t joking.

“Daniel, it’s sweet of you to be concerned, but you don’t have to worry. I’m fine and there’s no trouble on the horizon.”

He looked at me a long moment more. “Are you sure?”

I assured him I was absolutely fine, and he finally accepted it, and we walked through to join the others. I was a little surprised when we filed in around the six-seater table in the smaller dining room reserved for cozy family dinners. I guess I shouldn’t have been. Julian was thatkind of snake, the type that invited you into the bosom of his family so he could get up close and personal to strike.

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair as I remembered how he had invited me into the bosom of his family, and I’d been the one to strike. I’d drugged him so I could take his handprint for the Sisterhood.

Were we more alike than I cared to think?

Instead of triggering guilt, anger lashed through me. Capra had made me into whatever I’d become, and Julian Edgar and his council cronieswereCapra.

I set my glass of bourbon down in front of me, but I didn’t dare touch it. My senses were on high alert. I was in a viper’s den tonight and I needed to guard my tongue.

I glanced around the table. They’d put Roman directly across from me. Brenda on my left. Daniel across from her. Julian and Miriam were seated at either head of the table.

The table was set with embroidered linen, fancy porcelain and polished silver. Above, a crystal chandelier was lit with dozens of tiny candle light bulbs.

---