Page 262 of The Black Trilogy

“Yes, the housekeeper.”

Apart from her sugar hit in the morning, Mack had barely eaten all day. Dinner was no different. She picked at the lasagne Ruth cooked for them, shoving it around her plate until it turned into an unrecognisable mush. Even the chocolate cake left out to tempt her had no effect.

Luke tried to keep her mind off things, sticking to safe topics of conversation like movies and computer programming, but it didn’t work, and the subject kept coming back to Emmy. Luke decided he might as well try to find out more about her.

“I got a shock when I found out Emmy was…well…Emmy.”

“I’ll bet. She lived with you for what, two months?”

“About that. But I feel like I barely knew her at all.”

“If it’s any consolation, I’ve known her for nine years, and I haven’t totally figured her out,” Mack said. “I don’t think anyone ever has. Except for Black, of course.”

“Her husband.”

“Husband, soul mate, best friend. I’m not sure she’ll be the same now he’s gone, even if she does come back.”

“I suppose if he was here now, he’d be having an awful time worrying about her.”

“That’s the irony. He’d be the calmest out of all of us. I can picture him now, sitting in the control room, cool as ice, saying ‘trust her, the brat is indestructible.’”

“He’d call his own wife a brat?”

“And a lot worse besides. But she gave as good as she got. It wasn’t exactly a conventional marriage, but then again, nothing about Emmy or Black could ever be described as conventional. I mean, within a week of their first meeting, Emmy quit London and moved to the other side of the world to live with him.”

Gazing at Mack, the idea of moving to the other side of the world to be with someone didn’t seem that strange to Luke. Because he wanted to get to know her, and as she lived in America, he foresaw a considerable amount of travelling in his future.

Was that crazy? Probably, but the more time he spent with her, the more time he wanted to spend with her. Mack was sweet like candy. Nothing like the new Emmy, a little like the old Emmy, but mostly just Mack. He wanted to unwrap her, layer by layer, and find out what was hidden within.

“Isn’t that romantic rather than unconventional though?” he asked, getting back to the subject of Emmy’s life. “It wouldn’t be the first time a couple fell in love at first sight.”

“I don’t think there was a whole lot of romance involved. The first thing they did when they met was have a fight, then Black insisted she went home with him so he could patch her up.”

“Patch her up?”

“She needed stitches. Black didn’t come off any better, and Nate said that was the reason Black hired her. Not many people could have taken him on and not ended up unconscious.”

“Hired her? So she moved to America to work for him? Not because she was in love?”

“I don’t think she even liked him at first.”

“But that must have changed, right? I mean, they got married.”

“A couple of years later. But that wasn’t out of love. Emmy wanted US citizenship and Black and Nate wanted her to commit to staying at Blackwood. So one night when they were drunk in Vegas, Nate suggested Black and Emmy get married, and they thought they might as well.”

Luke choked out a laugh. “No big white wedding, then?”

“Not a chance. Emmy hates being the centre of attention.”

“What’s she really like? She was quiet when she lived with me, but I’m not sure how much of it was just an act.”

“She’s got so many different faces. You never know what she’s thinking, and she can change her whole demeanour as if someone flicked a switch. One second she’s devastatingly upset, the next absolutely furious, then she turns around and her face is completely blank, no hint of emotion there at all. It’s freaky to watch. If she were in Hollywood, she’d win an Oscar. Black was very similar.” Mack’s expression turned wistful. “They understood each other.”

“That must have been difficult to deal with.”

“Not really. She’s always ranged from quiet and a little detached to snarky as anything. But you couldn’t ask for a more loyal friend. If anyone she cares for gets into trouble, she’ll go above and beyond to get them out of it. Why do you think she went on this job in the first place? I’d never ever want to get on her bad side, though. Life can get very uncomfortable, or just plain short, if you annoy Emmy.”

“That’s just great.” Luke closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “I think I’ve annoyed her quite a bit lately. The last time I spoke to her, well, shouted at her, it was over the phone to chew her out for taking Tia on the lash.”

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