AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He chuckled, and the sound held no small amount of menace. “I think I’ve made it quite clear which acquaintance I have the most interest in, my dear. But I applaud your efforts.”
All right, if courtesy was to be ignored, I decided to try being blunt. “If Derrick wishes to speak to you, I am quite certain he knows where to find you.”
“Yes, well, young Derrick has a habit of being detrimentally stubborn. Sometimes you must be a little insistent to get him to come around. Otherwise, well, I’m sure you know the story of the tree and the reed. Are you familiar, Miss Grayson?”
I gripped Janice’s chair harder. “I think there is a fair bit of difference between bending in compromise with a storm and being forced to bend to the tyranny of another.”
“What a purely American sentiment.”
“I am nothing if not a product of my upbringing,” I said through my teeth.
“Yes, about that upbringing,” Malcolm said, and I realized too late my mistake. “Martin and Bess Birchwood, is it? Your uncle owns Martin’s Pawn on Front Street?”
My stomach clenched and I didn’t answer. On the one hand, he had their first names right. On the other, I had always known them as Martin and Bess Grayson. But he did have Martin’s shop address, so I knew we were talking about the same people.
“No, don’t bother answering, your expression says it all.”
I glared at him. He continued, unbothered by the silent curses I was throwing his way.
“Such a tragic story, your mother dying when you were so young, and your father having a… what was it? An aneurism?”
The question was so casual it chilled me to the bone. Still, I found my voice, “Yes.”
“As I said, tragic. It could not have been easy living with such seedy people.”
My back and shoulders ached with how stiff I was standing. “Seedy?”
“Your uncle has been in the underground trade for years. The CEB has locked him up more than three times now. I hear if he steps out of line again, they will sink him in the Middling and let the wyrms have him.”
“You’re lying.”
Malcolm flashed a grin at me, all his teeth bared. “Now, now, Miss Grayson. You can’t be that unaware of your family history.”
I pressed a palm to my queasy stomach and struggled to breathe. Dark suspicions crowded my mind, memories of whispered conversations, of all the times either Bess or Martin had to be away from home, sometimes for months on end. When I was sixteen, Uncle Martin left town for over a year and Nana Bess made me help at the shop between classes.
“I’m sure a word in the right ear could get your uncle another audit,” Malcolm said. “We can see what else that man has been hiding in that underground shop of his.”
Breath left me and I stared at him, horrified. The word underground brought a fresh chill down my spine. But surely my uncle would never deal in warlock trafficking. His business was more cursed artifacts and ancient tomes of illegal spells, which the CEB frowned on but there’s only so much history you can blot out before the world begins repeating itself.
No, Uncle Martin was not that sort of criminal. He couldn’t be. He was also a warlock. Three-quarters unseelie, a quarter human, as he loved to tout.
“Of course, that word doesn’t have to be sent,” Lord Malcolm continued. “If a certain little bird used her influence to encourage Derrick to speak with me, the entire affair can be forgotten. What do you say?”
I opened my mouth to speak, closed it again, reeling. Malcolm continued to stare at me, a glimmer of delight in his eyes. I wanted to tell him where he could shove all his threats, to shout at him for bringing Janice here and forcing Derrick’s hand. And I desperately wanted to smack that smile off his face.
But could I condemn Uncle Martin to the wyrms? And what would happen to Nana Bess?
Sure, they kept things from me, and we were going to have a serious conversation when I got home, but that didn’t mean they deserved whatever Lord Malcolm brought down on them.
My mind was a horrible blank as I stared at him. His features were blunter than Derrick, his nose a bit wider, but I could see the faint traces of resemblance there. It was in the shape of his jaw, angular and long, and the low brow. He lacked Derrick’s beauty, though. Derrick was all neat, angular lines and graceful curves that drew the eye.
“Shall I take your silence as consent?” Malcolm asked, edging closer. I stiffened as he leaned in, bringing his mouth closer to my ear. “All you have to do is tell him to come home.”
I found my voice, though even I could hear the tremor in it. “You’re the most sinister creature I have ever met, Lord Malcolm. And I hope one day all your schemes come round to bite you.”
I pushed Janice forward, turning us away from the fire.
“That’s not a no.”
