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“Because no one gets to be as wary as you unless something happened. You don’t trust anybody. That means someone, sometime, betrayed your trust.”
She nodded, then shrugged. “Second job I took. Big guard unit for a well-connected shipping company, good place, had a real sense of camaraderie. I liked it and thought I’d made friends. And there were two other guards, they’d been friends a long time, but they treated me like I was one of them, and I liked that too.” It wasn’t an easy story to tell. She still felt stupid, and she still felt angry. “Then they told me they’d been cheating the company, stealing small items from every cargo shipment and selling them to their own buyers. They invited me to join them. It had never occurred to me that anyone would do that. I was so shocked I didn’t even try to cover my reaction. They knew I was going to turn them in—so they turned me in instead. I was the new person, the company believed them instead of me.” She shrugged again.
Cody was indignant. “An accusation like that could follow you for the rest of your career!”
“Oh, it could. So I went to the guild house in the nearest city and put the case before them. It was a serious accusation, you understand, and if they’d decided I was lying, they could have cut off my bracelet and cast me out. But they interviewed some of the other guards at the shipping company—and some of the buyers—and they got enough evidence to exonerate me. The company offered me my job back, but by then I didn’t want it.”
“Well, I’m glad the terrible story didn’t have a terrible ending.”
“So that’s the reason I don’t trust anybody.”
He eyed her for a moment. “Well, that’s one of the reasons,” he said.
She was immediately defensive. “What do you mean?”
“Something else happened. Something that sent you away to begin with.” When she didn’t answer, he said, “I’m guessing it was your brother.”
Her lips twisted in a wry smile. “He was a bully. And whenever we argued, my parents took his side. I had gotten used to not being believed—but I never learned to like it.”
“The pieces are starting to come together now,” Cody said.
“Any surprises?”
He smiled at her. “There are always surprises,” he said. “That’s the fun part.”
Chapter Twenty-two:
Jayla
Jayla wasn’t sure if her recent confessions to Cody would make her more eager to spend time with him or more reluctant—relieved to have found someone who could know her so well, or unwilling to be stripped so bare. But she didn’t have a chance to find out over the next week, because Madeleine’s life had become a scene of chaos.
Every day, Madeleine had to meet with a dressmaker or a wine supplier or a baker to discuss details of the upcoming wedding; she was entertaining an endless stream of curious friends, gossiping neighbors, and eager vendors hoping to secure her business. Jayla accompanied her on all her buying jaunts and generally lurked nearby whenever there were guests in the house, even ones who didn’t seem particularly dangerous. But Jayla was enough of a cynic to believe anyone could pose a threat.
She tried to stay far enough away from open doors to avoid eavesdropping, but it had been hard to miss Madeleine’s first conversations with Tivol and Reese once Alastair Alayne had announced that the wedding would be imminent. The one with Tivol had been emotional but fairly civilized.
“Darling, why are you so upset?” Tivol had asked. “I’m delighted!”
“No, you’re not! Just a couple of weeks ago you told me you weren’t ready to give up the bachelor life, and now suddenly you’ll be saddled with a very difficult and demanding wife—”
“Don’t make me laugh. There will be adjustments, I’m sure, but we’re such good friends, Madeleine! We’ll figure it out! We’ll just have to be patient with each other—”
“And where will we live? I amnotstaying in your mother’s house, but I would rather live in the street than move into your lodgings.”
“We’ll find a place to rent. Small, just temporary. We’ll live there until we can buy our own house. Really, some of the apartments in the southwestern corridor are elegant. And neither your father nor my mother will be anywhere in sight.”
“It just doesn’t make anysense.Why now? The fact that both of them are in favor of a hasty wedding makes me think there’s some economic reason behind it, which infuriates me—”
“Madeleine. Darling. Just be calm. We’re getting married. Don’t worry about why. Just concentrate on being happy.”
It was the first time Jayla had actually almost liked Tivol.
The conversation with Reese had been far more dramatic. Jayla had been in the atrium, on her way to the kitchen with Aussen, when Reese came bursting through the main door and demanded of the nearest servant, “Where is she?” When Ella just gaped at him, Reese said, “Never mind,” and went bounding up the stairs.
“Go see Norrah,” Jayla said, giving Aussen a push, and then she ran up the stairs after him.
She heard Madeleine’s squeak of surprise when Reese stormed into her room, but it wasn’t followed by a cry for help or even a furious demand for him to leave. Instead, there was only a moment of charged silence. And then Madeleine’s voice, low and wretched. “Oh, Reese.”
“You can’t marry him,” Reese said.
