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“That’s none of my concern.” Her mother shrugged as Lila turned back to her parents’ conversation. “There’s nothing you can offer me at the moment, Henri. Besides, a senator’s role is to smooth the paths of the matrons, not dictate them. Prime minister or not, your role is the same. Don’t be crass.”
“Don’t be petulant just because I asked for a favor. I didn’t know Wolf Industries needed the capital from Oskar’s sale.”
“I don’t, but I’m not going to give the government something for nothing. Tell it to me straight. What’s your best offer?”
Lemaire’s mouth twitched. “One million.”
“One? The boy could one day take the German throne one day and play emperor, and yet you offer one million?”
“I had to try money first.” He shrugged.
“What’s second?”
“The Ashburys have decided to close Unity Memorial and their associated clinics. The hospital’s become too unwieldy to make a profit with the demands I set in their contract. I’ll soon solicit proposals for another family to take over what they leave behind. Imagine Randolph General on a wider scale and in the nation’s capital.”
The chairwoman gauged Lemaire’s face. “I’d need a lot of land to make it work, Henri.”
“Give me Oskar, and I’ll get you the land and the contract.”
Lila stared openly at her parents. Her father could lose his position and his mark for making such an offer. On the other hand, taking over a hospital in Unity could launch the Randolphs onto the national stage, offering a foothold into the other three American states. The Randolphs wouldn’t just be a powerhouse in Saxony, they might become one of the top families in the country. Her mother had always dreamed of sitting on Unity’s High Council of Judges. She’d worked diligently over the last ten years to get there.
“You insult me as a woman, a judge, and a CEO with those words.”
The prime minister caught her wrist before she could turn away. “I’m sorry, Bea. I’m desperate.”
“Desperate enough to display a shocking disregard for the law? And in front of our daughter, no less? I don’t need for you to cheat for me, Henri. I can win that contract and procure the land on my own merits. Or do you think I’m incapable?”
“You’re more than capable.”
The chairwoman looked down at her wrist.
Lemaire dropped his hold.
Lila looked away in embarrassment. She’d never seen her father engage in any sort of impropriety before, save the work he and Shaw brought her. Now this? Would her father offer a similar deal to the winning matron?
Had he tried already?
Most matrons would consider turning him into the senate disciplinary committee for such a transgression. A few might take the deal, though.
Others might blackmail him for it.
Lila scanned the crowd for such matrons as Oskar appeared at a side door flanked by two LeBeau militia. Everyone else watched the boy’s progress toward the stage, but Lila watched the highborn and the foreign proxies, sent to bid on their master’s behalf.
If Lila hadn’t been worried over who else her father might have approached, she might not have noticed the man forty paces away, standing near Olivia LeBeau. She might not have noticed his crooked nose and small pot belly, which clashed with the beautiful, fit senators and highborn men in the room. She might not have noticed his breeches, his poorly tied cravat, and his ill-fitting jacket, all of which were too threadbare to belong to any highborn, and cut two years out of fashion. She might not have noticed his boots, which were well worn and unpolished.
Made for working. Made for running.
Lila’s gaze swept up to the man’s eyes. They were a little too intent on the raw-eyed Oskar and the LeBeau blackcoats who escorted him onstage.
Lila had already started running by the time he shoved his hand in his jacket pocket. She ran even harder when he withdrew an ivory-handled revolver, a model not used in the Allied Lands because it didn’t accept tranqs.
She reached into her clutch and drew her Colt, dropping the purse as she wove around an oblivious heir.
She sprinted even faster as the man raised his trembling gun toward the stage.
Chapter 3
