2024-09-30 05:48:50
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Chapter 852
The next evening, at six o'clock, Alex was in the east room of the Tiffany house when Serena rang from Halcyon."I'm stuck here until midnight," Serena said. Behind her voice, glass clinked and somebody was shouting about labels."The new bottles came in wrong. Every single one. Alex, I need you to do something for me.""Anything.""It's Patricia's birthday tonight. She's taken Nora with her." Serena dropped her voice."Patricia has been hanging on Nora's arm since the day she landed. A Hale from the capital looks very good in a photograph. And Patricia's friends are sharks. Go with Nora. Look after her.""Does Patricia know I'm coming?""She will when you get there." A pause. "Be nice.""I'm always nice.""That's what worries me," said Serena, and hung up.Then the phone buzzed again."Alex? One more thing." Her voice was softer. "Thank you. I've never had anybody I could just ask before.""You have now," said Alex.The coffee house on the harbour front was the expensive one, with li
Chapter 851
"Marissa," Gideon called. “Our safety…”"I'm warning you, Gideon." She marched across the room and pointed one finger at his nose."If you make that boy give this house back, I will divorce you. I mean it. I'll pack my bags tonight. And you can go and live under the stairs with your box of books."Gideon opened his mouth.He looked at his wife's finger. He looked at the little reading room, and then at the holes in the floor, and he could not tell which one frightened him more.He closed his mouth again, and went and sat down on the nearest sheeted chair, very slowly, like a man whose legs had stopped working.Marissa turned to Alex.The sour look melted off her face like butter off hot toast. She came across the room with both hands held out, took Alex's hands, and squeezed."You're a good son-in-law," she said warmly. "Didn't I always say so? A good son-in-law after all.""You said I was good for nothing," said Alex. "About an hour ago.""Did I? I don't remember that." She patted hi
Chapter 850
On the gravel in front of the glass house, every Tiffany leaned in to listen."My young friend!" Mr. Wolfe's voice came out of the phone, and it was a different voice from the one at the Hunt house. Stronger. Warmer. Almost laughing. "Did Nina open it up for you? Do you like it?""I like it very much, sir. Thank you.""No, no. Thank you. I walked to the pond this morning. To the pond! My doctor nearly fell over."Patricia's lips moved without a sound. Mr. Wolfe. The real Mr. Wolfe, the man the whole coast stood up for when he came into a room, was laughing on the phone with the boy from the kennels like an old uncle.She pushed forward and leaned right down over Alex's phone."Mr. Wolfe," she said, loud and sweet. "Mr. Wolfe, it's Patricia Tiffany. You know my grandmother, the Baroness. I'm sorry, but everybody is wondering. Why would you give a house like this to him? For no reason?"There was a short silence on the line."And who are you," said Mr. Wolfe, and his voice had gone as c
Chapter 849
"If it isn't Tyler's," asked Preston, "then who's the owner?"Alex put down his butter knife."Mine."Nobody at the Tiffany breakfast table said a word. Somewhere in the kitchen the kettle began to sing, and nobody got up to take it off.Then Aunt Marissa laughed. It was a short, sour little laugh, and she shook the newspaper flat again."Listen to him. Did you hear that, Gideon? Some young man gets the best house on the whole hill, thirty million dollars, handed to him like a birthday cake." She looked at her stepdaughter over the top of the page."And what did my daughter get? A husband who is good for nothing. He has eaten at this table since the wedding, and he can't even pay for his own toast."Preston was laughing so hard he had to put his coffee down."Yours? The glass house at the top of the hill? Yours?" He pointed his good hand across the table. "Are you laughing at us, you id..."He stopped. Since the night Serena stood up to the Baroness, nobody in this house called Alex a
Chapter 848
"Please." Her voice broke on it. "I can't marry him. I can't. But I can't let Grandpa die either. Please. You're the only one. Save my grandfather.""Your family chose to believe him," said Alex quietly. "You locked my pill in a drawer. Why is it my business now?""Because I was wrong." The tears ran down, and she did not wipe them. "About the pill. About you. About all of it. I was wrong, and he's dying for it."Alex looked at her for a long moment."Look at his neck," he said.She turned.On the old man's chest, the pearl had begun to smoke. A thin grey thread rose from it into the lantern light. The bark blackened. The pearl gave a small sharp crack, like ice on a pond, and the red line on the old man's arm stopped halfway to the elbow.Then, slowly, it began to fade."Isn't that the charm the boy gave him?" someone whispered. "The bead on a string?""It is," whispered Nina. Her hand went over her mouth. "It is."
Chapter 847
"Nina," said Mr. Wolfe weakly. "Give it to me.""Not until it's tested, Grandpa." She would not look at Alex. "What if there is poison in it?""Listen to your granddaughter, old friend," said Master Gregory gently, from the long table in the bright room.Alex stood up. He kept his voice low, for her alone."Nina. Last night you told me you'd kill me if he died. I believed you. Now believe me. Every day that box stays shut, he gets weaker."For one second, her hand shook.Then she turned away. "Everybody on this coast tells me something different. I don't know who to believe any more.""Then at least hang the string in the doorway.""Hang it, Nina," said the old man."Later." She put the lacquer box in a drawer of the long table and turned the key. The red string she dropped in beside it. The key went into her pocket.Alex said nothing at all."Tomorrow night," said Master Gregory, rising, "the masters of the coast meet at the Hunt house. I have asked them there to settle, once and for
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Reader Comments
nice story but too long to finish