“I certainly will. No one takes advantage of a Winters and gets away with it,” she said, shoulders pushed back, chin thrust forward.
“A terrifying threat—what, with your ready blunt, vast network, and prodigious combat abilities.” I twirled the quill again, accomplishing two revolutions in time with the dig.
Color suffused her cheeks. “Revenge is best handled by the creative. Ferris may be insufferable, but he is still growing into maturity. Kennen is a baby. I won’t let them be taken advantage of.”
Even as a woman of society—my least favorite segment of humanity—her loyalty to her brothers was a point in her favor.
“That baby is eighteen.”
“He’s a baby,” she said pointedly.
Having met him, I decided not to argue. Kennen Winters had room to grow, and with a strong mentor there was hope. But Ferris Winters…
“You say your older brother is growing into his maturity? When exactly will that take place?”
“Soon,” she said firmly, her eye twitching only faintly.
“You can’t even say that with a straight face. Your brother is older than I am. I can only hope he reaches enlightenment soon.”
She blinked.
I leaned forward and watched her eyes widen, her breathing quicken. For once, I felt no satisfaction. “I was scraping and scheming at Kennen’s age. Back-breaking work, no sleep, risky ventures.” Fear and determination my constant companions. “Ihad to endure more than not being able to afford a new pair of boots. Poor Kennen. Poor Ferris,” I said scathingly, allowing a rarely given piece of myself into the conversation.
Not everyone needed the same driving ambition that had fueled me. Becoming one of the richest men in Gildon had given me the power to change other lives, but a person needed to have the drive to change theirown.
Ferris Winters was a leech.
Kennen Winters lacked ambition.
Marietta Winters…I was still trying to determine who she really was.
“How can you say that? ‘Poor Kennen’ is locked away and most likely will not be given a fair trial.”
Her features turned angry, color lighting her cheeks like the first tentative bloom of a rose.
“Which is exactly why you will say nothing while I handle your swill-bottled negotiant.” I mixed sugar with steel and watched her hands grip the edge of the table, the color in her cheeks glow hotter.
Rose was good on her, even with her lips pinched and stiff. I absently wondered if I was annoying her just to see the color bloom.
“When do we leave?” she bit out.
“Now. It’s a thirty-minute walk.”
She ran a hand over her hair, smoothing it back and tucking in the lopsided edge as she smoothed the expression on her face. She was good, I’d give her that. Her sharp mouth was backed by a sharp mind. And I had never been against a woman with some vinegar. It was the sugary sweet ones that made the hair on the back of my neck rise.
With this woman, I would always know where I stood, if I looked quickly enough. She showed everything on her face for a split second before masking.
She might prove to be more trouble than she was worth, as grumpily noted by Edgar, but I would continue to watch, see, and test. To try and understandwhymy gaze kept following her.
It followed her out of the room as she ran to get her things. I grabbed my satchel and ordered my thoughts.
Stepping into the bright sunlight, I cast a gaze-shading charm. Marietta did not. Nor did she ask for me to extend the charm. She raised a parasol, letting the cheap charms in the spines and webs bear the brunt. It was an upper-class crutch to have items that did the work for a mage—magic that required little skill to raise. The Midtown working class had taken to copying the wealthy West Enders, bathing in their affectations, so her parasol wouldn’t mark her as out of place unless we journeyed too far east.
Another day of walking, and she hadn’t complained yet. In a test to see how she handled discomfort, whether she would whine or cry, she hadn’t made a peep.
A light breeze lifted pollen from the surrounding gardens, suspending it in midair until it caught the aetheric drift and surged east. All pollution, magical and otherwise, drifted east.
A passerby sneezed.
