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“We’re just going to my mother’s,” he said. “Surely you don’t expect to be under attack there.”
“After last night, I am feeling a little vulnerable,” Madeleine answered. “I don’t even like to step outside my bedroom unless I know Jayla is there. Anyway, if we go somewhere else directly afterward—”
“You’re right. The guard shall accompany us everywhere!”
In just a few minutes, they were parked in the circular drive before the Wellenden mansion. If anything, its lines were even boxier and more severe than those of the Alayne house, and behind the high grillwork fence the lawns were green but unadorned.
Inside, it was not much better. Heloise Wellenden had always had a reputation for austerity, and amongst a set of people who had made opulence a lifestyle, she had chosen to be extravagant in her plainness. So the wide, airy atrium featured white marble floors and white tiled walls and white stone pillars that supported two levels of white balconies. Swaths of diaphanous curtains softened a few of the archways; dozens of ceramic vases held lilies and gardenias in the palest shades. In certain moods, Madeleine found the very spareness of the place to be restful to her senses—but more often she missed the gaiety of the more familiar colors of home.
Theoretically, this was where Tivol lived, and he certainly had a suite of rooms here. But he had confided to Madeleine long ago that this wasn’t the kind of place where a dashing young man felt comfortable inviting his friends over for a night of socializing. So, like many of his peers, he also had rented rooms in a fashionable building on the west side of town, and that was where he spent most of his time.
“She’ll be waiting for us in the sun parlor,” Tivol said as they stepped inside. He gestured at a pair of stiff white ladderback chairs set under one of the overhanging balconies, and said, “Your guard can wait for us here. Unless you think she needs to accompany us into my mother’s presence?”
Madeleine exchanged a nod with Jayla, who made her way silently toward the seats. “No, I think your mother is quite capable of fighting off an assassin with a butter knife and a look of frigid disdain.”
Tivol gave a crack of laughter. “Oh, absolutely. My money’s always on her.”
They headed down a white-tiled hallway and entered a room almost as sunny and airy as the atrium. More of those flimsy curtains fluttered at the high windows, more vases of flowers added warmth and fragrance to a setting that was just as monochromatic as the foyer. White tile on the floor, white paint on the walls, furniture upholstered in white cloth of a heavy weave.
And sitting in the center of the room, Heloise Wellenden.
In the pristine setting, it was almost a shock to see a figure of such color. She had the deep mahogany skin and silky black hair of the pureblood Cordelano; her lips and nails were painted a vivid red. She wore a flowing pantsuit of cobalt blue silk belted around her waist and a loose scarf in aqueous hues. Her arms were laden with bracelets—the ornately filigreed one on her left hand proclaiming her a member of a Council family, the seven on her left hand detailing her personal story. A widow, a mother of one, a daughter who had lost both parents, a sister who had lost three brothers. Madeleine had often wondered if it was grief that made Heloise so difficult, or if she had always been unlikable.
Still, this was her future mother-in-law, and Madeleine could get along with anyone. She crossed the room and kissed the older woman’s cheek. “Heloise. How good it is to see you.”
Heloise didn’t bother to stand up, but she took Madeleine’s hands in hers and gave her a searching look from her deep brown eyes. “Madeleine. You look tired.”
Madeleine knew it was true, but she still found the comment irritating. Nonetheless, she tried to respond lightly. “It’s been a tumultuous couple of days.”
Tivol pushed a couple of chairs over, and they took their seats. “Yes, yesterday was quite a shock,” he said. “But Madeleine was magnificent. No crazed woman with a knife could shake her poise or cause her to run and hide.”
“Tivol makes me sound bolder than I am,” she said with a smile. “Iwasunnerved by the attack, but since I hadn’t actually been harmed, it seemed silly to miss out on an evening I had been looking forward to.”
“But this isn’t the first time someone has tried to hurt you,” Heloise said, still watching Madeleine intently. “You must be very careful. You are quite precious, you know.”
It was the kindest thing Heloise had ever said to her. “Why, thank you,” Madeleine replied. “And I am being very careful indeed.”
“There’s a guard,” Tivol said helpfully. “She follows Madeleine everywhere.”
“I wonder if you would be safer out of the city,” Heloise said. “At Wellen House, perhaps. The estate is remote and well-guarded, and I think intruders would find it difficult to reach you.”
So my father and Heloise have already discussed this,Madeleine thought. Had they been dashing off notes to each other as soon as the sun came up? Perhaps her father had stalked the short distance between their properties so they could confer in person over the best way to handle this inconvenient turn of events. She could almost hear them saying,Each of us has only one heir, and we cannot merge our business interests if one of them is dead.
She hated herself for the thought. But it made her reevaluate what Heloise had meant by calling her precious.
“You can’t send her off to be locked away in Marata!” Tivol objected, reaching for Madeleine’s hand. “I need her! If I don’t see her every day, my life loses meaning.”
“You could join her at Wellen House,” Heloise suggested.
Tivol showed a face of exaggerated shock. “Move out of thecity?”
“Well, eventually you’ll have to.”
“Nonsense. You’re going to live forever.”
“I admit that would be my preference, but I fear it is unlikely.”
“Well, I’m not ready to move to Wellen House yet, and I doubt Madeleine is.”
