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“Is this how you usually greet visitors, Lady Hallowell?” the man said with a gravely edge to his voice.
“No,” I said. “But visitors usually call first, or at least they don’t demand my attention the second they arrive, after they’ve announced they’re coming sent by someone who specifically swore to leave me alone.”
The guy shrugged. “I’d think your dealings with my boss would make you more inclined to tread carefully.”
“Your opinion has been noted,” I said, folding my own arms in front of me. “Are you here to judge how welcoming I am, or is there some other reason you came by?”
He patted his hand against the bars of the gate. “Can I come in so we can talk?”
I barely held in a snort of derision. “No. My ‘dealings’ with your boss have made me inclined to keep a wall between me and anyone associated with him if at all possible.”
Jin let out a muffled snicker behind me. The guy glowered at him and then at me. “This isn’t really how I’d like to have a conversation.”
“Well, if you don’t really want to talk, you can go, and I’ll get back to what I was doing.”
His jaw worked. He sighed, dropping his arms. “Fine. Mr. and Lady Frankford would like to confirm that you’re following the terms of your agreement with them.”
“I don’t really have a whole lot of choice in the matter, do I?” I said. “I’d be curious to know iftheyhave.”
Their lackey ignored that jab. “You had a visit from Caroline Almeida,” he said.
My back tensed. Theyhadbeen monitoring the estate, then. She’d obviously covered her tracks with her parents, so it wasn’t from them that the Frankfords would have found out. I hoped she hadn’t gotten in trouble for coming to me.
“Are you jealous because I invited her in and not you?” I asked.
“I want to know what business you had with her.”
“Well, first,” I said, “that’s none ofyourbusiness, because I didn’t say a word about your boss to her.” Which was true. She was the one who’d mentioned the Frankfords. “She simply happened to be in the neighborhood and wanted to drop in. We hadn’t seen each other in a few years, you know.”
Caroline and I had never been particularly friendly with each other, but it wasn’t as if we’d been at each other’s throats either. I didn’t think the Frankfords could say I had to be lying.
The man’s eyebrow arched. “That’s all? You caught up over tea and sent her on her way?”
“What do you think I’d tell her about?” I fixed him with a hard smile. If he said anything incriminating, Icouldtell people about that. It wouldn’t have come from the files.
“Never mind that,” he said. “If Mr. Frankford finds out you’ve been looking for loopholes in your oath—”
“He’ll what?” I broke in. “Break his end of the oath and do something to hurt me or my family?”
The guy narrowed his eyes. “For an oath to be broken, it must be agreed on both sides.”
“Which means he knows that hasn’t happened. Is that all you wanted to ask about? I’ve got nothing else to tell you about Caroline Almeida. You can always talk to her directly, you know.” I kind of hoped she was already out of the country by now.
“What about the other two witches who’ve joined you here?” he prodded, shifting subjects with about as much grace as a bull. “What did they want here? Why have you let them stay?”
“They told me they needed somewhere to stay,” I said evenly. “I have plenty of room and nothing against either of them. Why would I turn them away?”
“Because you know you’re not supposed to be spreading around word of what you’ve been doing, about your perverse relationships.” He gestured toward Jin with a disgusted curl of his lip, and my temper flared.
I managed to tamp it down—for the most part. “I haven’t volunteered any information about my consorting with them,” I said tartly. “As I swore not to. If they draw their own conclusions, I can’t help that. I should be allowed to spend time with whoever I want on my own estate.”
“It just doesn’t seem right, you witches gathering together like this,” the guy said. “You don’t want to make Mr. and Lady Frankford uncomfortable, thinking you might be brewing some sort of conspiracy.”
They were worried aboutmeconspiring, when they’d been carrying on a massive conspiracy against all witching society for decades? I would have rolled my eyes if I hadn’t been so on edge.
“There’s no conspiracy,” I said. “My guests just want to live in peace. Which is allIwant to do too. You coming around here harassing me about things that have nothing to do with you or your boss doesn’t help with that.”
The guy shook his head. “No harassing here. Just making sure you remember what’s good for you.”
