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Alden seemed unperturbed. “Perhaps you are the one to talk
to about the disturbance to my personal property.”
Thomas didn’t so much as flinch. “Perhaps I am. Whatever
you and your friends think you can do to my family, you’re wrong.
I won’t stand for it.”
A note of glee entered Alden’s voice. “You won’t! How wonder-
ful. But what do you know, really? Perhaps you found some words
you don’t understand. Or . . . a list of names.”
“Whatever business you have with my father, you leave Charles
and me out of it. If you so much as look at us the wrong way — and
that includes Cora — I’ll go straight to the police chief with a
story so horrible he’ll lock you up on the spot. And I promise my
father’s lawyers will make certain it’s permanent.”
“What are these threats for? We have no desire to harm you or
your brother. Is that what has you so worked up?”
“I saw the list. My father’s name, with sacrifice and blood debts.”
Alden laughed. “This is why you need to ask questions before
jumping to conclusions! You assumed the debt was your father’s.
What if the debt is, in fact, mine? And my colleagues and I are
working our hardest to come clear by helping your poor, sick
brother?”
Cora frowned, peering around Thomas’s shoulder. Alden’s
face was wide, his expression open.
“Doctors and medicine can do nothing, am I correct? Your
brother is condemned to an early death. But there are things in
this world that go beyond science, beyond the understanding of
rational men. Your father knows about them. He helped us, once,
and now begged us to do the same. That’s why he sent you here,
where we are gathering.”
“Why wouldn’t he have told us?” Thomas sounded unsure.
