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“Miss Delilah wanted someone fresh to speak with,” Derrick said, stepping so that we stood with shoulders touching. “We can all agree that oftentimes we need a new perspective and, for something as serious as marriage, we should leave no stone unturned.”
Mr. Norton made a sound in the back of his throat. “That’s absurd. Arranged marriages are a Fairy tradition. The girl should step in line.”
“Tradition has its place,” Derrick said with a nod. “But we are Earthside. Most of humanity has moved beyond such practices. It’s only natural for new generations to push back against what they see as injustice.”
I glanced at Mrs. Norton, but Lavenya’s expression was distant, and her gaze fixed wistfully on a painting at the far wall.
It was just as well. I could read everything about the Norton’s relationship in their body language. Harold Norton was the Alpha of his family for certain. He puffed his chest out, kept his shoulders back and proud, and tilted his chin in that dignified manner that projected power and confidence. There wasn’t anything I could say to this man that he would hear. Likewise, Lavenya seemed to make herself smaller with every passing sentence, her expression more distant. She was physically present, but her mind seemed ever elsewhere.
I couldn’t say if they were content in their chosen roles, much less happy, but they were affecting those roles to the extreme.
Harold snorted and eyed Derrick. “I suppose it only makes sense that you would support her.”
Derrick stiffened and his jaw flexed in a dangerous way. Panicked, I cleared my throat and directed my question to Harold, not caring if I was being socially ungracious or not. Derrick’s self-control was a marvel, but I did not imagine it was inexhaustible and it had been a long day of travel.
“What are the groom’s thoughts?” I asked. “Surely he has something to say on it.”
Harold waved my words away, looking frustrated. “That hardly matters. We’re in the Leslie manor. Their word is law.”
“As yours would be in your home,” Derrick said, and with a placid smile, begged our pardon.
His hand on the small of my back, he moved us along, making a clockwise rotation of the room. I couldn’t say I was sad to leave the Nortons, but as we made our introductions, the length of the day had names and faces swimming in my mind. I tried to pinpoint the more eccentric persons in the room for future reference, but I had a feeling anything I learned tonight would be forgotten by the morning. There was the woman toting a peacock feather like a fan, trailing its long, colorful length wherever she went: Mariana Telvinni, the maid of honor. And there was the sickly man lurking in the corner, his crooked nose and too-pale eyes darting everywhere except my face when Derrick introduced us: Levi Cordova.
“The Clairmonts and the Bristols aren’t here tonight, but you should meet them tomorrow. They’re expecting their own happy engagement sometime in the next months. They won’t announce the wedding this week, though.” Derrick said as we traveled the room.
“I imagine Ms. Maureen wouldn’t appreciate being upstaged,” I murmured.
“Not at all. Though I suspect she had something to do with Tessa and Mason coming together. Both families own substantial steel factories, which, of course, the Leslies need in order to produce their infamous engines.”
Something about the way he said infamous engines had the little hairs on my neck prickling. I squinted up at him, but he was moving on.
“It’s just like Delilah and Brock, I’m afraid. The Nortons have oil. The Leslies need oil to make their engines work. Combine the two and Ms. Maureen has an attractively packaged monopoly over the market.”
“What engines?” I asked.
Derrick looked surprised. “Their steam engines power ninety percent of Fairy.”
Stunned, I stared at him.
“You didn’t think all their wealth came from humans, did you? The Leslies have holdings in Fairy too.”
I tried to hide my surprise and shook my head. In fact, I had thought all wealth came from humans, but in retrospect that ignorance came from never having been to Fairy. It made sense that Fairy had an economy too, all cultures did. My mind was simply stuck on the Earthside way of doing things and I kicked myself for not paying closer attention.
When I got home, I was insisting on a trip to Fairy.
“What does Delilah think?” I asked, bringing my mind back to the issue at hand. “Doesn’t her happiness come into play at all?”
“Of course not,” Derrick said, eyeing me sidelong with a dimpling smirk. “It’s all business with the Leslies.”
I frowned at him. “That can’t be true. Otherwise, what am I doing here?”
Derrick heaved a sigh. “Because Delilah Leslie is not her mother. I’m not sure what game she’s playing at, demanding an outsider critique her relationship. If you find out, please let me know. I’m beginning to regret answering her telegram.”
The dinner bell chimed, and the foyer surged into movement, everyone veering toward the dining hall. Keeping hold of Derrick’s elbow, I tried to order my mind into some coherency. Thus far I hadn’t learned anything that was particularly helpful, apart from the fact that Delilah was playing some sort of game against her mother. The idea of being a pawn in such a game made me bristle, but I did my utmost to quell the emotion.
The die was cast, as it were. For now, I had to see how it played out.
I was seated two spaces away from the far end of the table, where Montgomery Leslie presided as the head of the household. Ostensibly he was the patriarch of the family, and yet all evidence pointed to Maureen as the Alpha of the Leslie clan. There was little comparison between the two. Maureen’s power was in elegance and courtesy, and she kept her end of the table relaxed with conversation, while Montgomery simply ate his food and ignored the rest of us. He had bristly white hair and the sort of face that lent itself toward scowling.
