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“Good point,” Hayk laughed. “And between you and me, I’m incredibly excited to be invited to sit at a supper table with Lord Vikhrov and his family. Especially since it looks like Lady Zendaya will tear her father’s heart out and eat that for dessert, now that she knows she’s stuck inside the estate until a murder is caught.” The flash in his eyes told me he was even more excited about the prospect than he was admitting to. “Oh, and by the way, she knows who the murderer is. Lefric is certain of it. He thinks she was in on it. Billie is positively beside herself.”
I laughed, keeping hold of Hayk’s hand as we continued into the dining room. “This I have to see,” I said.
“You do,” Hayk said. “The Hakobyan family drama and murder investigation is already providing more entertainment than any dancers could.”
I paused right before we entered the dining room and turned to Hayk.
“After supper, could we talk?” I asked. “Alone? Just the two of us? I…I have some things I want to talk about and…and some things I’d like to ask you.”
“Of course,” Hayk said, his expression filling with warmth. “I’d like nothing more.”
It was a relief. Maybe things could work out after all. Maybe there was a way through things. With that thought in mind, we headed into the dining room.
ChapterTwelve
Supper was surprisingly enjoyable. And entertaining. Hayk hadn’t been lying when he said Lady Zendaya was in a high temper. She was anxious as well. I could see that even from the far corner of one of the side tables, where Hayk and I were seated with Billie, Sebald, Avenel, and Premila, Jace and Gennadi.
Peter and Neil and Lefric managed to snag seats on the inside of the head table, but because the rest of us insisted on keeping company with Hayk and Billie—who were known whores, which shocked a good number of the people present for the meal—we were relegated to the least important places.
I didn’t care. I just wanted to eat and leave to have my moment alone with Hayk. The food was delicious, though, and the way Hayk’s and Billie’s eyes lit up as dish after dish was brought to the table hinted they weren’t used to such sumptuous fare. I didn’t want to cut their treat short for my own selfish ends.
“And now, my dear,” Lord Vikhrov said with a tight smile for Lady Zendaya, who was seated beside him, as the meal ended. “You and I need to speak candidly.”
Lady Zendaya stood. “No, Father, what you need is to open the estate gates at once so that I may return to my husband.”
Lord Vikhrov stood to face her. “That won’t be happening, Zendaya,” he said with far more gravity in his look than I would have expected for a father speaking to his daughter. “Not until you tell me all about Jasur Jamshid—”
“He is my father-in-law’s steward, nothing more,” Lady Zendaya said, some of the color leaving her face.
“—and why you are wearing the sigil of the Gerzia family, or more specifically, King Julius, on an amulet around your neck,” Lord Vikhrov finished.
I blinked, no idea what he was talking about, but certain we’d reached some sort of endgame for the spy problem. The way Lord Vikhrov glanced past his daughter to Magnus, and the way Magnus wore a sly smile, as if he’d won a bet, was proof enough of that.
Lady Zendaya grasped the front of her bodice over her heart. Or rather, she grasped something underneath the bodice. “You don’t know anything,” she told her father, but her voice was hoarse and desperate. “You cannot prove what you think you know.”
“Would you care do discuss this in private, or would you like me to announce what you are to the rest of the family?” Lord Vikhrov asked in a quiet voice.
Everyone at the tables murmured excitedly. At the head table, Lefric looked as though he might come in his trousers, he was so excited.
“We might want to slip away before things get messy,” I whispered to Hayk as several other family members quietly got up from the table and snuck out of the dining room.
They needn’t have snuck, since a moment later, Lord Vikhrov announced, “Supper is over.”
That was some sort of signal for everyone to clear out of the room. Hayk and I stood, as did the rest of our friends, and as the less important members of the Hakobyan family practically fled the room to go back to their own houses, my friends and I hurried out to the hallway.
“We should wait for Peter and Neil and Lefric,” Jace said, glancing wistfully over his shoulder at the dining room door once we were all at the far end of the corridor, like he wished he could be in the room as the entire spy network of Good Port was cracked open, murders were solved, and a family traitor was discovered.
I could see that Gennadi wanted to stay as well, and so did Sebald and Avenal—though Premila had already taken her baby away to wherever they were staying—and most definitely Billie. Hayk had a different sort of look in his eyes, though.
“You should all stay and learn the full story as soon as that conversation is finished,” I said, inching closer to Hayk. “I have a few other things I need to talk to Hayk about.”
Almost as if I’d ordered it, Jace and Gennadi, Sebald and Avenel, and Billie all pivoted to stare at the two of us. Billie was already flush with excitement over the revelations of the evening, but she grew even more delighted.
“Yes, you two do have things to talk about, don’t you,” she said, giving her brother a particularly wicked look…that was utterly inappropriate for siblings.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Hayk shot back to her, then made a rude gesture. He grabbed my hand and said, “Come on, Anton Fuck Me. Let’s go find a quiet corner so I can teach you the best way to suck a cock while having your own sucked.”
Jace snorted into laughter. Actually, all of my friends did, even Gennadi. Billie made a rude gesture to her brother, but then they all turned toward the dining room as Lord Vikhrov’s voice was suddenly heard, booming with anger.
