The man was half-concealed by the shadows, but I still saw his posture shift and his jaw flex. Good. My barb had landed.
Madge’s icy-blue eyes travelled across my frame. “He is my second husband, Everard Moran.”
“The first had served his purpose?”
“He was assigned to another woman.” However Madge felt about that, she did not let it show. It was entirely possible, given the icy condition of her heart, that she truly did not care.
“Why?”
“Your sister has proven herself too valuable for the likes of him,” Madge’s husband replied. His voice was surprisingly warm, rumbling in a pleasant, masculine way. His gaze, now firmly upon me, was intent. I felt knowledge in that gaze. It was a familiar thing, the way so many elder, elevated Entwined considered the young.
Knowledge of me. Knowledge of my past. Certainty of my future.
It stoked a fire of resentment in my chest.
“Margaret, may we proceed?” he asked my sister.
Madge nodded and swivelled her midwinter gaze back to me. “We are securing your release. The constabulary is protesting, but they will be overruled.”
“I see. Shall I prepare myself for a Glass Coffin?”
Madge’s chin rose slightly, her gaze becoming even more imperious. “No sister of mine will die beneath the glass.”
“Emeline did.”
“She was not my sister.”
“She might as well have been.”
“Margaret,” the older man, Moran, spoke up again. “I will make the arrangements, unless you require me?”
“I have matters in hand,” Madge said dismissively.
The man turned on his heel and left without another word. With his every step, my dread compounded. Supford had promised to keep the Guild from taking me, but neither Madge nor her new husband seemed even slightly concerned.
Madge waited until the gate at the end of the hall clanged before she turned back on me. “What were you thinking?”
“Pardon? You will have to be more specific.”
“Associating with Pretoria,” she hissed. Only that drop in her voice and the barest hunch of her shoulders hinted at any emotion. “She’s been seen in the city, Ottilie. I know you to be malleable, but I never thought you would be so foolish as to continue associating with her.”
The need to defend myself stirred. As entrenched as Madge was in the Guild, as different as we were, she was still my eldest sister.
“I am neither malleable nor foolish, and I am not associating with Pretoria,” I stated. “Despite her efforts. She came to attempt to persuade me to her cause, as you are right now.”
“Her cause? The cause of theft and villainy?”
I shut my mouth, but my expression was likely answer enough.
Madge raised her chin. “Ottilie. The Grand General is manipulating the Zealots, and is intent on destroying the Entwined, even if he must tear this city apart to do it. He will turn everyone, from grandmothers to schoolchildren, against us.”
Harden had said the same thing. My skin prickled, gooseflesh brushing across my upper arms.
“You know it for a fact?” I asked. “You have evidence?”
Madge nodded grimly. “You are in danger, Ottilie, and too valuable to lose to this wretched city. Come to the Guild willingly, and you will want for nothing. You may have your choice of husbands. I know you care for Lewis and he has waited for your return, but there are better men.”
“A gilded cage is still a cage,” I said quietly.
