Weekday breakfasts at the Fortescues were a casual affair. I’d heard the snarl of the Ferrari earlier and assumed Steven had gone to work, as, presumably, had Charlie. If James had gone too, perhaps we’d have an opportunity to search his study again.
I coincided at the breakfast table with some of the Teagues, although Alex wasn’t among them. They were openly evaluating me as a possible partner, and I had to make it clear that I wasn’t interested. Theremustbe a better, more natural way of getting dragon families to mix rather than this intense and hideously artificial atmosphere.
But I’d never be in a position to suggest doing things differently. Bim knew how he wanted to run the family, and he did so with talons of steel. It occurred to me that I should report to him my findings so far, inconclusive as they were.
I was aware of someone settling into the chair beside me. Somehow, I didn’t have to look to know it was Alex.
“What are you doing today?” he asked, splitting the brioche on his plate.
“Another research trip around Bath,” I told him. “Do you have any plans?”
“Thought I’d come with you,” he said. “I never knew how interesting Jane Austen could be.”
Fiona, sitting across the table from us, laughed, loud and bright. “My God, Alex—just ask him out already. No one buys this Jane Austen crap.”
“Shut up, brat,” Alex told her. He turned to me, amusement in his face. “Nate Mortimer, will you accompany me on a tour of Bath today?”
“I suppose I could.” I wasn’t going to stroke his ego by agreeing too enthusiastically, even though it was only a cover story. The fact Ifeltenthusiastic about having his company was a different matter. I’d enjoyed looking around the museum with him.
Soon after breakfast, we set out for the house where Jane Austen had lived. There was no danger of Ella inviting herself along as she’d gone to a cousin’s house for tutoring. I’d been right about her age—she was studying for A Levels and was still being home-schooled. Dragons, of course, were banned from mixing with humans until they were safely past puberty and the danger of out-of-control hormones causing an incident. It took time to learn full control over giveaways such as smoke, or vertical pupils showing in the eyes when emotions ran high, and even the least observant human would notice those. None of us were permitted to socialise with anyone except fellow dragons until we were old enough to start work or attend uni. Which, in retrospect, might explain how wild Charlie and I had gone at our first taste of freedom in the big, wide world.
Alex told me Charlie had been uninterested in his Arthurian heritage to the point of insult. “Unless he’s an amazing liar, I don’t think he knows anything about his father’s plan.”
I was glad of that. I’d hate Charlie to be plotting to take my family down. “He should be involved in any scheme as he’s next-in-line to be head of the family. But after we got together, he was excised from a lot of private family business in case he accidentally let something slip to me, so perhaps he’s never been quite trusted since.” I frowned. “Who’s that Tom Fortescue the emails were from? The name’s naggingly familiar, though I can’t place him.”
“Add that to our list of things to find out.” Alex sounded excited at the prospect.
I glanced at him as we walked down the hill to the city centre. He was enjoying this, unlike me. I didn’t want to be here, sneaking around, lying to the people who’d once practically been my family. But when I thought about going back to London, to a life that consisted solely of work and clubbing, with no prospect of anything ever changing, that felt no better.
My phone sounded, underlining my bleak thoughts. No one except Rufus had messaged me in the two days I’d been here. I didn’t really have any friends anymore—Charlie had kept the party crowd we used to run with, which was fair. They’d been his friends really. My family tolerated me, and that was the best I could say.
The message was from Charlie. He’d sent me a dick pic with the caption “Thinking of you”.
“What is it?” Alex asked, a note of concern in his voice that made me wonder what was showing on my face.
It was ridiculous that a simple dick pic changed my life, but that was what happened. Something inside me, some tiny flame that I’d tended all these years despite my hurt over what Charlie had said and done, sputtered out. At that moment, I saw Charlie clearly. Hewas full of charm, life and fun, but everything he did was about him. I didn’t know if he’d changed or if I’d changed. What I did know was that I didn’t love him anymore. I’d asked him for one thing—time—and he wouldn’t even give me that.
The loss was like a physical blow. I turned away from Alex, shading my eyes against the low autumn sun to look out at the city, willing the wetness to fade. It was only for a moment, then I was back in control.
“I need to call Bim,” I said. “Give me a minute, and I’ll catch up with you.”
He wasn’t looking at me any longer, though his expression was still concerned. Perhaps he was giving me privacy. If so, it was a thoughtfulness I wasn’t used to.
“See you on Pulteney Bridge in a few,” he said, and strode down the hill. I watched him go before turning my attention to my phone. I needed to have all my wits about me to deal with my grandfather.
ALEX
It looked as if Nate had received some catastrophically bad news, but presumably he’d have told me if it was related to our scheme. I made my way towards our meeting place, dodging the eager tourists already thronging the streets. Much like being at home, except for the lack of sheep.
Nate joined me ten minutes later, showing no trace of the devastation that had briefly chased across his face.
“No developments,” he reported. “Other than the attacks on the banks growing more sophisticated as they learn how Bim’s hackers are defending them.”
“Your grandfather employs hackers?” I didn’t know why I was surprised. I doubted most bankers played by the rules the rest of us poor plebs had to. “Hey, couldn’t we get them to install spyware on your phone, and then you could clone the family’s phones while we mix with them?”
“Bim explored that with his hackers and decided against it for a number of reasons. Not least among them, if someone were to take my phone and find out what I was doing, all hell would break loose.”
Fair enough. Easy answers were rarely the right ones.
