“Tie as in?”
Silence again. I open the door further.
“If Blair is involved with Goldsmith, it’ll give the English government further leverage over policy. They think she’ll have influence over her brother when he takes the crown.” Isaac’s voice is tired, as if parting with these words is draining his soul.
I walk into the room. Isaac is standing near the window looking out, Ben is cleaning his handgun.
“If you’re having a meeting about me you can at least offer me an invitation to join you.”
Isaac glances over at me and I feel heat fill me up, remembering our kiss, my kiss, last night.
Ben puts his gun down. Stares.
It doesn’t matter if he had another girl in his room last night. It should, but I know I won’t be able to walk away from him. It’s been too long.
“I have no desire to have anything to do with Goldsmith. And if you think he can manipulate me otherwise, you’re grossly underestimating me.” I keep my words quiet and low, even though fury is eating my insides.
Neither of them say anything.
They don’t look at each other.
Or move.
“Does my brother know of your concerns?”
Now Ben looks at Isaac and I remember who he is. He’s over enemy lines. A potential spy.
“Why are you here?” I turn my back to Ben and try to stop my head from spinning.
Isaac carries on looking out of the window. “Don’t think for one minute, Blair, that you’re the centre of everything. Everyone has their agenda. Don’t forget that.” He turns around and I see the darkness of his stubble. He hasn’t shaved yet.
“I don’t. But I don’t like being treated as a fool. Goldsmith’s already made an idiot of himself with me. I don’t trust him and I’m not interested in his politics.”
Ben clips his gun back in his ankle holster. “You don’t have to trust him or be interested. His team see you as a bartering tool. And don’t be fooled; you only get to be prime minister by surrounding yourself with people who know what they’re doing.”
“I know.”
Ben nods. He looks mussed, his hair untidy. I wonder if that’s because the woman he was with ran her hands through it and a sharp pain jabs through my chest.
“Lennox is going to want you to socialise with Goldsmith. He wants you to reel him in.”
I think of my mother’s words, about controlling the situation by having the knowledge. I push away the memories of Ben in my bed like a pillow about to suffocate me.
“Maybe that’s not such a bad idea.”
Isaac shifts from the window. “I need to shower.” He looks at me. “Blair, watch yourself.”
Neither Ben nor I say anything as he heads into the bathroom. Thirty seconds later, when the sound of water spraying starts, we’re still silent.
Isaac is naked in the room next to us. I’m staring at my lover, a man I’m not sure I really know. Both of them know more than they’ll tell me.
“Who were you with last night?” I’m not a masochist. I don’t want to to torture myself with ideas and notions about who she was.
“My sister.”
I sit down on the bed.
“Majken.”
