“This isn’t going to work. You have to play the part,” he leaned in and whispered to me.
I wanted to wipe the floor with the petulant ass.
“I believe this man has asked you to entertain him,” George said. “I’d advise you, girl, to fulfill your duty. You must have some talent you can show him?” His eyes darted to the piano.
Once, back during our days at Templeton, George had stalked me in the piano room. He had tainted James and my sacred space. Now, it seemed like he was trying to take it from me again. I pressed my lips together, then looked down at the back of my hand, and I remembered the slash marks I had drawn over and over again while entrapped in the room of darkness.
If George had been telling the truth, then James was near. Which meant that if I wanted to see him, I had to survive, and if I wanted to survive, I had to play that piano. I had to bend to the pest of a boy’s every whim. I had to bide my time and team up with one of the vilest men in all of existence.
James was worth it.
I hesitantly moved to the piano and took a seat. My hands trembled as I brought them to the keys. I took a deep breath and began to play. I played my mother’s song because if I was going to be forced to share this secret side of myself, then I would play what I wanted to play.
There was a part, a small part of me, that came to life as my hands danced across the keys. It had been so long since I had touched one. I thought of my first moments alone with James, and I closed my eyes. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe I could lose myself in these memories when I played the piano for Terrance, fool him into thinking the music belonged to him.
The sound of clapping broke my trance. When I opened my eyes, Terrance look amused. George continued to clap. No doubt, he was happy that I was playing my part.
“Did my father send you for me?” Terrance asked, looking over my head to the entrance.
I turned around and he was there.
James.
Chapter 25
At the sight of him, my face flushed. It was like the lighthouse that beckoned the ships home. I pressed a hand against my burning cheek, hoping that it wouldn’t give me away. James was much better at hiding his recognition of me. In fact, he only but glanced my way.
“Yes, your father would like a word with you and your brother. He believes you took something that was not yours. He would like you to bring it with you,” James said. It read as a request, but his voice carried an edge—a warning.
“I…it wasn’t me. I didn’t take anything. I s-swear it,” Terrance stuttered. His skin looked clammy as he shot up out of his seat.
Terrance seemed scared out of his wits. Either he was deathly afraid of his father or what he took was of some worth. Inwardly, I kicked myself. If Terrance or Richard had taken something important from their father, something that could have been laying around unguarded in one of the rooms I was cleaning, and I had missed it, I would never forgive myself. I was there to spy, and I hadn’t discovered a single thing yet.
“It really is none of my concern. I am merely here to collect you and your brother,” James replied dully.
I bolted out of my seat, nearly knocking over the piano bench in the process. “I’ll go fetch Richard.” George, confidant that neither James nor Terrance could see him, raised an eyebrow at my impertinence. I had not been given permission to leave the room. I cleared my throat. “If that is all right with you, Terrance?” I bowed my head.
Terrance opened his mouth to object, but James cut him off. “I think that is a good plan. If things are as you say, Terrance, your girl here can instruct your brother to bring along the stolen map.” Terrance nodded, a layer of sweat forming on his brow. I didn’t wait to be told twice. I gave a small curtsey before beelining it out of the suddenly cramped and tense study. I knew I didn’t have long before they would expect me back. I would have to look and look fast.
A map. My father had told me that I would be assigned to the family of a creator. Once in their service, I would need to find a map. The map would lead me to every secret room and lab in the council’s headquarters. It would lead me to the fail-safe.
It all seemed too easy, but my father was no idiot; he would make sure I was placed with the creator most likely to have the map in his possession. Could this stolen map be the same one he spoke of?
Beneath the anxiousness of searching for the map lay another emotion. I tried to force down the butterflies that fluttered happily inside my stomach as I almost ran to Terrance’s room. James was here. He had seen me. I knew he would be altered by the terrible things the council did to him, but he was with me, and I knew we could overcome anything that stood between us. He wouldn’t let them destroy us. Not completely. I just needed to find a way to get him alone. For now, it was enough to know he was still alive.