Page 82 of The Starling and the Hatter

His expression was suspicious and not very receptive, but finally he said, “Just don’t get in the way.”

I thanked him and entered the maze quietly. My movements were slow and methodical as I searched. I stopped to just listen at regular intervals, often hearing the movements of the guards sent to search. Eventually I heard the quiet sound of movement on the other side of the hedge from where I crept. Someone was traversing the path, and they didn’t have armor on. Because of all my time spent searching over the past hours, I thought I knew how to get there, but it required a roundabout path. I waited until he’d moved farther down whatever path he was following before quickening my pace and making my way around two turns and past a dead end. But by the time I reached the path that I believed he had been on, there was nothing there. So I crept, even more slowly than before, following the straight course until it abruptly cut to the left.

As I went to ease around that corner, the jangle of a chain made me spring into action. I launched myself around the corner, hitting against a body and eliciting a cry of surprise from Robert.

His infernal pocket watch chain had given him away. As we grappled, I raised my voice, shouting as loud as I could, “Here! He is here!”

Elise

A commotion brought me out of my miserable haze and I sat up.

“I’m innocent. I swear, there’s been a mistake!”

That was Robert’s voice. I pushed to my feet and went to the door, anxious to see for myself that he’d been detained. Two guards were dragging him toward me while he tried to dig in his heels.

When he saw me, he started shouting at me instead.

“Elise! Tell them I didn’t do it. Tell them it’s a mistake. It was all your idea!” He turned back to the guards. “It was all her idea!”

His accusation stunned me into disgusted silence.

“Quiet, you,” one of the guards snarled, dragging him past me and pushing him into the cell on the other side of Daggon.

He continued to shout his protests, but the guards just locked the door and walked by my cell again, muttering, “It’s always the same thing. Does he really think anyone comes down here claiming to be guilty?”

Robert kept shouting until the guards were out of sight and we heard the door at the top of the stairs bang shut with a rattling finality.

I dropped my forehead against the bars and closed my eyes as Robert’s useless protests quieted and yet another wave of betrayal washed over me.

“Elise,” White said.

“Don’t speak to me,” I snapped.

“But Elise—”

I turned on him. “I trusted you!” I screamed, squeezing the bars violently since I could not reach Robert’s throat. “Having my brothers betray me was bad enough, but at least I expected it,” I said, throwing one hateful look at Daggon before returning my attention to Robert. “But you! What did I do to deserve that? I thought we were friends.”

He let go of the mask of innocence and allowed his face to transform into shrewd knowing. “I’m an opportunist, Elise. That does not change just because I can appreciate a pretty face.”

My mouth dropped open and my nose scrunched in disgust. “That’s all I was to you? You never cared at all?”

“I cared enough to leave you that riddle, didn’t I?”

“You left me in Murrwood and didn’t even have the decency to say goodbye,” I pointed out, but he just kept talking.

“I invited you to come find me.” His eyes raked up and down my figure, then his brow furrowed. “And you did, but you didn’t. It seems quite fickle.” The arrogance in his voice and posture grated on me.

“Perhaps I just realized how selfish and self-centered you are.”

He shrugged. “And thus you were no longer of use to me.”

How glad I was in that moment that I’d never let him get too close. If I’d allowed him to kiss me, what other “uses” would he have found for me?

“Besides,” he said, resting his forearms on the bars as though this was a normal, casual conversation. “I’ve always liked your brothers.”

I flinched. He’d always liked my tormentors. “So you both agreed it would be fun to see me thrown in prison for something you did?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Would have worked too if your hatter hadn’t decided to act like a magistrate.” His words turned bitter at the last.