Arrival of the Traveler (Waldgrave Book 1) (30 page)

Ava was still smiling. “But I found the portal. That’s the important part. Nothing else matters.”

Lena stood up from the table. Griffin looked up with an uncertain expression on his face.

Still looking down at Griffin, Lena nodded in Ava’s direction. “That’s the kind of woman you want me to be.”

She left the office and went down to Hesper’s tent, where her friends were good enough to let her spend the night. Even though she had a horrible back ache the next day from sleeping on the ground, it was worth it to have people near her who cared and understood.

Howard was very busy over the next few days, and Lena never had the chance to talk to him about Benjamin Collins, though her curiosity was certainly getting intense. People kept on coming until the last family finally arrived and was situated into a tent. Although Hesper had been looking forward to seeing the look on her mother’s face, she never came; only Mr. Corbett and his entourage of personal servants were in attendance, though his usual sour expression had turned downright nasty. The night before the big dinner, while Griffin and Lena studied, she asked him why.

“It’s family business.” He had said quickly. “
Instituo prodigium
—“

“Not good enough.” Lena said. “Hesper wants to know why.”

Griffin sighed and looked uncomfortable. “Hesper doesn’t have a right to know anymore. She’s no longer a member of that family.”

Lena put her pen down and crossed her arms. Even though learning Latito had become the most boring task she’d ever taken on, it had afforded her certain benefits. The chain of command was clear in her mind—Daray wanted her to learn the manuscripts. He’d given Griffin the responsibility of spearheading that effort. Griffin wanted to stay on her good side for reasons she hadn’t figured out yet while at the same time doing Daray’s bidding. She could wait him out as long as she pleased; he couldn’t force her to learn.

Griffin cast a glance at the abandoned pencil, went over the options in his mind, and then looked at Lena and raised his eyebrows. “She’s pregnant.”

She hadn’t seen that one coming; Lena’s jaw dropped. “But she’s…old.”

“She’s only in her late thirties. 
Instituo prodigium—“

“Was it planned?” Lena interjected.

“Okay…” Griffin closed his book and turned to her. “This is not what we’re supposed to be using these sessions for. And I’m going to let that last question slip because you don’t really have parents, so I’m guessing you don’t know that what you just asked is rude, and on some level, a little disturbing to me.”

Lena smirked. She did know it was rude. She was also enjoying the fact that Griffin seemed to be getting so flustered.

“Or maybe you do know.” His expression soured. “I haven’t had much time to speak to him, but I think he sees it as replacing the child they lost.”

“Oh.”

“Instituo prodigium—“

“Why is he so upset about it?”

Griffin sighed and stared into the text in front of him. His expression became very somber. “They’ve lost both of their children. Unless they produce another male child, the Corbett family will die with Master Corbett.”

“Your father.” Lena said.

“My father.” Griffin leaned back in his chair to stretch. “But not my family. Master Daray wasn’t happy with Hesper’s little charade. We’ve decided to petition for my becoming a Daray, and Master Corbett is not pleased with that decision.”

Lena gawked. Master Daray had pulled the carpet out from beneath the Corbetts in one fell swoop. Where they had once stood to inherit Daray’s full fortune, they were now another powerless family. A dying, desperate, powerless family. It was almost disturbing that Griffin seemed completely at ease abandoning them, but then, he had been raised and primed by Master Daray to do just that. Lena gave a crooked smile. “So you’re joining the family? Don’t you find it a little sick that after that happens you’re going to have a crush on someone in your family?”

Griffin sneered; he apparently didn’t find the situation amusing. “I will go down on paper as the official inheritor of the Daray possessions and responsibilities, and my loyalty will officially be to the members of this family, but my name isn’t changing. I’m giving up the rights bestowed on me by my father for those bestowed by my mentor, because I can’t legally inherit both votes. May we return to what we’re here to do now?”

Lena sat back in her chair, distancing herself from the pen and paper on the desk. “One more thing. I want Hesper to get a consecration thingy.”

Griffin sighed deeply and was beginning to look extremely irked. Lena feared she might have pushed too far, but then he spoke. “She can’t have a consecration ceremony. For all she’s not my sister any more, it still looks bad.”

“Fine.” Lena made as if to get up from the table. Griffin caught her wrist.

His eyes were burning. “I’ll see what I can do. I might be able to have it recognized, but there won’t be a consecration ceremony. It wouldn’t be fair to do it back to back with the Colburn-Perry ceremony as if they were equals.”

Lena sat down and they went back to doing lessons for a while. After finally making it through Dobry’s narrative, which ended rather abruptly, Griffin said they were finished for the evening and would begin the first of Edward Daray’s journals at their next mutual availability—provided that Griffin could find them. Despite the fact that they were amongst the more recent accounts, he’d had problems locating them in all of Daray’s many collections. The dinner was to take place the following evening, followed by the dance, and then by council meetings, and eventually, Lena’s exposition; their mutual lack of availability was about to make study sessions a little more challenging.

The next morning, the Waldgrave house underwent the typical transformation that signaled all of the necessary families had arrived, and every public area available was overrun with people chatting about their interests, the upcoming marriage, and other affairs. Many of them were talking about politics.

In light of her decision to make a run for the Council, Lena had been asked by Howard to start dressing more professionally. She asked Mrs. Ralston to help her with her hair, makeup, and clothes, and then started the lengthy process of being introduced to every crusty old Council member that Howard deemed an ally. She shook hands until she felt like her arm was going to fall off, but it did seem to be working. Howard wanted her to sit with him and some other Council members at the big dinner so she could “make a good impression,” so after she was done shaking hands, she sought out Hesper for a quick information exchange.

“Hesper, dude, you aren’t going to believe this.” Lena whispered excitedly, grabbing her arm when she came down the stairs so no one else would get to her first. She tried to look around the room to be sure no one else was paying attention; everyone seemed to be involved in their own circles.

“Did you just call me ‘dude’?” Hesper raised an eyebrow.

“Sit down.”

Lena forced her friend into a chair in the corner of the living room. She could barely contain herself, and Hesper was already laughing a little.

“Okay—no, wait! I want to guess. My mom had an affair? Or my dad?” Hesper’s eyes lit up.

Lena shook her head. “Oh, it’s too good…”

“She caught a freakish disease during their last trip to Europe?”

“Nope.” Lena said.

“The kitchen staff finally rebelled and killed her?”

Lena sat down on the arm of the chair and placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Your mom is knocked up.”

Hesper let loose a squeal that caused the room to go quiet for a moment. When everyone had gone back to their previous engagements, she turned to Lena. “You’re kidding! She is not!”

“She is. According to Griffin, anyway.”

Hesper leaned in close. “Was it planned?”

Lena giggled. “You know, I asked Griffin, and he was really evasive about answering that question…”

Hesper’s jaw dropped. “This is the best wedding present I’ve received so far. Lena, thank you so much.”

“And speaking of, your marriage will be recognized, but there will be no ceremony. Whatever that means.” Lena said.

“Oh! That’s fantastic! Basically, we’ll retain all of our rights, but there won’t be a party. That’s much better than I thought we’d get, actually.” Hesper furrowed her brow. “I wonder why he’s going to allow it…”

“Who cares. What’s done is done, so let’s all be grateful.” Lena looked over and saw Howard walking towards her. Behind him, people were starting to file into the dining room. “And there’s my date. I’ll have to see you later.”

Howard escorted Lena to a spot around the midsection of the main table, where they sat down together. Seated around them were the Brendons, the Abbotts, and the Riveras. They were dressed very much like everyone else, in suits, dresses, and stern expressions. Lena introduced herself to all of the various wives and sons who were already serving or were planning to serve as heirs, and then the inquisition began.

Mrs. Brendon, a mousy woman with a stately and respectable manner, folded her napkin in her lap and looked at Lena without smiling. She wasn’t well-liked among most of the other Silenti women; she owned a ranch in southern Colorado that she ran by herself while Mr. Brendon lived in Albuquerque. Hesper had explained once that they weren’t divorced, exactly, because Silenti laws didn’t permit divorce. Mrs. Brendon spent far too much time entertaining humans, and many people felt that she should no longer retain the right to attend Council meetings as a family member. “Well, I can’t say we weren’t surprised to hear about your ambitions. Do you really think it’s a woman’s place?”

Lena looked at Howard. Howard merely looked back, leaving her to fend for herself. “Well, I feel that every person has a right to hold influences over his or her own life. The times are changing, and I don’t see any reason why a woman shouldn’t be on the Council.”

Mrs. Brendon smiled politely. She picked up the glass of water in front of her. “You don’t think it will have an effect on your raising a family?”

It was a loaded question, and everyone within earshot had stopped talking to listen to Lena’s response. It was well known that for Lena, the very personal decision of whether or not to have children was considered a matter of public concern. She weighed her options carefully; in the end, she decided it was best not to lie. “I love children. But I don’t plan on ever having any.”

Sitting next to her, Howard looked like he was about to be sick. There were several shocked faces sitting across the table from her. Mrs. Brendon, however, was smiling.

“You don’t scare easily. That will serve you well.” She raised her glass to Lena, and then took a polite sip before resigning herself to her pork chop.

Master Rivera cleared his throat. “You don’t believe in the prophecy, then?”      

“Oh, well, I wouldn’t go that far…” Lena thought desperately hard to put her feelings into words. She needed to make a recovery—saying that she didn’t believe in the prophecy would tag her as a radical, greatly reducing her chances of getting onto the Council. Howard reached and scratched his ear next to her. “I just believe that if the prophecy is true, then my not having children shouldn’t affect it.”

“How’s that?” Master Rivera looked puzzled. He was a tan-skinned man with dark hair and sharp, serious eyes.

“Well…” Lena shut her mouth. She didn’t want to babble until she knew what she wanted to say. “I’ve studied some of the ancient texts that concern the matter of the portal and the heir…and knowing how far back the original ancestor dates to…ah…well…”

“You don’t believe your family line represents the only descendants?” Master Rivera guessed, raising a hand to his chin.

“Yes!” Lena breathed a sigh of relief. “Exactly. Why, I suppose it’s true that any one of us could have become entangled in the mess generations ago. Even if the stories are true, I couldn’t possibly be the very last one. It’s a sacred prophecy, and if it’s for real, nothing I can do will stop it.”

There was silence again as her dinner mates took in what she had just managed to spit out. Mrs. Brendon was actually looking impressed, which was more than could be said for everyone else sitting around her. Polite silence filled the space between them, and Lena realized that she had fumbled the question; people didn’t care what her thoughts were. They cared about her actions. She was going to greatly displease half of society, and both sides wanted to know it wasn’t going to be them; she couldn’t please everybody. Eventually, she was going to have to pick, because statements of compromise weren’t going to get her anywhere.

Lena allowed her eyes to wander briefly before the next hard question was put to her. Master Daray, looking to be his usual fresh-pressed self, was once again sitting at the head of the table—Master Corbett was conspicuously absent from his side, and indeed anywhere at the head of the table. To Daray’s right, on the opposite side of the table from Lena, was Griffin. He’d been watching her for some time.

You look lovely tonight.

Lena’s eyes snapped back to the disappointed faces in front of her. Thankfully, Master Daray stood up and started talking at that point, and while he did manage to blather on for a good ten minutes, he didn’t say anything as offensive or shocking as he had at the first dinner of the last gathering. When he went silent, and the food was being brought out, Master Rivera’s son and heir, Jason, finally spoke.