The waitress arrived with their drinks. Nadine got her orange juice right away, but as soon as she set down the green bottle of sparkling water, she hovered over Cal, asking if he wanted creamer, sugar, a fresh spoon. A look of annoyance flickered so briefly over his face that Nadine felt a little bit of schadenfreude.Hot people problems, she thought.
She tipped some of the sparkling water into her orange juice. “I’d like to ask my ten questions now, if you don’t mind.”
“Is that your first question?”
“What? No. Are you—”going to be like this the entire time, she nearly asked, but caught herself just in time. “You’re trying to trick me.”
“I’m good at tripping people up,” he said, still fiddling with his sunglasses. “It comes in handy when things go to court. What’s your first question, Nadine?”
“Why do you all live at home?”
That seemed to catch him off-guard. He stopped stirring the coffee. “What?”
“You all have good-paying jobs. Well—you and Ben do,” she corrected herself. “I don’t know what Odessa does. But why live at home instead of having your own place?”
“I do have my own place,” he said, so casually that it gave her another reason not to like him. “I own several properties. And Odessa is a graphic designer, and does reasonably well.” He stopped. “Ravensgate is our family home. There’s history behind it, as I told you in my letter, and it’s a big house. Big enough that it doesn’t really feel like sharing.”
“That didn’t answer my question.”
He gave her a lazy smile. “Want to see if you can get a better one?”
She fought the impulse to fidget, to touch the paper through her shirt and make sure it was still there.
“How did Ben meet Noelle?”
“A chat room.”
“What kind of chat room?”
“I bet you could guess.” He propped his chin on one hand. “Your sister’s not the pious angel you think she is. Of course, my brother’s no saint either, but then, he doesn’t pretend to be. Not like you.”
What does that mean?she nearly asked, but caught herself just in time. Bastard. “So why was Noelle screaming about sparrows in the town square, then?”
Cal sat up straighter. “Who told you about that?”
“It doesn’t matter how I know.” Let him be the one to figure things out, for a change. She didn’t want to be Rael when he found out Cal betrayed him. “Answer the question.”
He frowned. “Noelle didn’t like that Ben hunted. He knew that she was vegan and made accommodations for it, but refused to be a part of that lifestyle himself. Hunting is in his blood. She said she understood that and for a while, it seemed like she did. But on that day in the square, she had gotten pretty unstable already. Seeing him come back from the hunt with a clutch of dead sparrows must have pushed her over. We eat them, you know. Just like quail.”
(They’re killing all the sparrows)
That wasn’t what Rael had told her. He suggested Nadine had simply seen a dead one. Ben hadn’t had anything to do with it. Maybe that didn’t mean anything, but it bothered her that their stories didn’t match and that they had both given her different explanations.
It made her wonder what else Cal might be lying about.
“Did Noelle ever go down to the mines?”
“I’m not sure. It’s possible.” He looked suspicious. “Why?”
“I was just curious. It’s one of the main points of attractions around here, isn’t it? Back home, she had an active social life and the people in town aren’t exactly friendly.”
His gaze shuttered at that. “She wasn’t a prisoner, if that’s what you’re suggesting.”
I wasn’t until you said that. “Were either of your parents against Ben marrying Noelle?”
“No. They liked her just fine at first. That’s why they paid for the wedding.”
It was a stinging reminder of the financial power this family had. Serious fuck you money. Enough to hold the town that hated them in thrall because they could pay for all their problems to go away. To pay for theirownproblems to go away.
