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“Thanks.” Perhaps the chairwoman hadn’t called her back to discuss her blackmailer after all. Perhaps her sister was in trouble. How ironic that her mother might soon request Lila’s services to save the family, the very same services that might get her exiled.
“I didn’t even know you were going away, Lila. I missed you.” Alex hugged her as though they hadn’t seen one another in years.
The soft notes of perfume filled Lila’s nose.
Honeysuckle.
Alex’s scent had changed.
It felt like everything had changed. Lila had hoped things might be less weird between the two of them after some time apart, but it hadn’t changed a thing.
Well, except for maybe one.
“I’ve missed you as well,” Lila said as she finally pulled away. “Alex.”
Her old friend smiled at the return of her first name. “I’d better go help Chef with breakfast.”
Without another word, Alex peeked into the hallway, then slipped out the door.
Lila twirled her sapphire ring and gave one last look at her bedroom, wondering if it would still belong to her when she returned. She could pay a decorator to recreate it in a new house somewhere. She had plenty of money in her accounts. Perhaps she’d take Alex with her and run away to Burgundy.
Perhaps her friend would forgive her.
She’d taken one step closer, at least.
Lila shook her head at the beautiful, impractical dream and jogged downstairs. She found her mother in the morning room, a room surrounded on three sides by glass and the backyard gardens. Usually spectacular in the spring, much of the color now came from the crimson maple trees and evergreens surrounding the great house.
The chairwoman sat at a table laden with pancakes, eggs, bacon, and blackberries. Pewter pitchers of milk and orange juice loomed over the meal. An open bottle of Gregorie perched in the middle.
“Come, Lila,” her mother said tiredly, beckoning her with one twitch of a finger. Her crimson dress and silvercoat flowed about her in a wispy pile of fabric. Matching boots completed the look. She’d arranged her silver hair so that it hung straight around her face, nearly hiding her crow’s feet and the fine lines in her forehead, all made deeper by her pensive expression. Dark circles marred the skin under her eyes, a rare look for the chairwoman. “Do you know why I’ve summoned you here this morning?”
Lila stepped into the room and rested her hands upon a chair back, the seat upholstered in crimson and gold. “I suppose that Jewel needs my assistance with something.”
Her mother stiffened at Jewel’s name and sipped her orange juice. “You always seem to know more than you let on.”
Two weeks ago the statement would have been true. Lila usually knew a great deal about what went on in the compound. Though her mother’s spy network was impossible to best, Lila had learned from a master. She’d made an art of indulging the workborn on every Randolph compound throughout Saxony and bribing several key relations in each location. She also exploited WolfNet to her advantage.
She’d heard no news about Jewel, though, except from Alex.
The chairwoman cleared her throat. “Your sister has decided to marry.”
“Marry the senator?”
“Senator Dubois. He has a name and a title. Do not be impolite.”
“Yes, Senator Louis Oliver Masson-Dubois. I know his name and title,” Lila said, finally falling into a seat beside her mother.
Lila rubbed at her eyes. All this time, she’d obsessed over taking other lovers, just so she wouldn’t get too attached to Tristan, and Jewel had been thinking of marriage? “I can’t believe you’re worried about politeness at a time like this. Marriage, Mother? Are we workborn, or are we highborn?”
“Highborns marry,” the chairwoman replied grumpily.
Lila shot her a look.
“Occasionally we marry. It’s becoming more common.”
Lila reached for a dish of blackberries and popped one in her mouth. “Surely you’ve counseled her against this. She’s prime. She needs an heir. How will she do that if she couples exclusively with a man as unproven as Senator Dubois? I like him immensely, Mother, I really do, but he’s had several seasons to get the job done. He’s failed time and time again.”
The chairwoman pursed her lips and cast her eyes down at the table.
