For Darkness Shows the Stars (16 page)

Kai

PS: If you think the Luddites eating the Reduced is bad, you should hear what Benedict did.

“C
OME IN
.” H
ER FATHER
was standing by his desk. There was a fire in the grate, and every lantern was lit. Elliot squinted in the sudden brightness, so different from the cool forest night.

“Ah, Elliot, you’re early. Good.” He lifted his hand as if in presentation. “My younger daughter. You may remember her.”

A man stood up from the chair near the fire. He was dressed in a plum-colored velvet coat that wouldn’t be out of place on any member of the Fleet. “I remember her, but I never would have recognized her. You’ve turned into a beautiful young woman, cousin.”

“Benedict?” Elliot asked in bafflement, too shocked by his presence to even offer a lame note of gratitude in response to his flattery. She hadn’t seen him in more than eight years. He’d been younger than she was now when her father had banished him from the estate. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she was able to make out his features. The sharp, high cheekbones, the incongruous dark eyes in his pale face that still held the unmistakable stamp of North blood. His hair, once a sandy-brown mop of curls, was now cut close to his head, revealing an angular skull and a sculpted neck.
He
was beautiful, she realized. Far more than she, with her face still flushed from her fight with Kai, with her hair all mussed from her wild ride through the forest. Far more than any of the Norths. Perhaps, with his fine clothes and keen expression, more beautiful even than Ro.

But what had she expected? A monster, just because what he’d done was monstrous?

Elliot looked at her father to gauge his mood. Why had the prodigal nephew returned? How did her father feel about it?

“We were surprised that you weren’t here to greet us, daughter,” Baron North said. “Tatiana explained that you’d gone to our tenants’ little picnic.”

“I thought it was proper to have one member of the family there,” Elliot responded carefully. Was it possible he hadn’t called her here to berate her about the concert? “And it saved Tatiana from going—”

Baron North snorted. “What did I tell you, Benedict? She is obsessed with anything having to do with these CORs.”

Benedict smiled. “A rare quality, sir. It’s little wonder you find it so shocking.”

Elliot shot him a look, but if her father understood the alternate take on Benedict’s words, he took no notice of it.

“I’m glad you agree with me, young man. I feared that living so long amongst them might have given you strange ideas—”

“There are many good people among the Posts, Uncle,” said Benedict, “but the best are those who remember what they owe to us. I suspect, from what you’ve told me, that these Innovations are exactly the type I mean.”

“Is that so, Elliot?” her father asked. “Have they been showing us all the proper respect since their arrival?”

“What did Tatiana say?” Elliot asked, still careful.

Her father smiled at her as if to offer indulgence, but she knew better. “I am interested to hear your take.”

Elliot hesitated. If Tatiana had shared the truth, she had nothing to fear. The Innovations themselves had been nothing but proper, even if Andromeda and Kai had taken pleasure in pushing Tatiana’s buttons—and her own. Indeed, the only thing Tatiana could possibly have complained about was Kai’s ongoing flirtation with Olivia Grove, and if anything, her father would probably gloat to hear about a Grove acting in a way he’d consider inappropriate. Though he’d buried his grudge against the family after Horatio’s father died and Horatio took over the farm, Baron North was not above making digs at the Grove’s supposed inferiority.

But the question remained: Had Tatiana shared those stories, or was her father merely looking for a way to trip her up? Could he not find a way to blame her for a concert on his tenants’ lands, and so sought to introduce his punishment for another cause?

“They have been very respectful, Father,” Elliot replied at last, “which is why I thought it would be proper of me to accept their invitation this evening. I’m sure it was an honor for them to have a North attend their party.”

“More than just
a
North attended, though, did they not, Elliot?” her father asked. “I saw our CORs there.”

“They were invited by the Innovations,” Elliot said. “Their behavior, as well, was beyond reproach.”

“No doubt because Elliot was there to oversee them,” Benedict pointed out. “It was good that she attended, to remind your servants of their place, Uncle Zachariah.”

Elliot gave her cousin another look of surprise. Why was he coming to her defense?

“Indeed.” Her father’s expression remained shrewd. Abruptly he straightened. “Well, Elliot, as you can see, Benedict has come home at last. He needs a room made up for him for tonight, and then tomorrow we can see about having his old rooms redecorated for him.”

“His old rooms are currently housing Grandfather,” Elliot said.

“You don’t say!” Her father shook his head in disbelief. “But he’s bedridden. He can’t possibly need an entire suite.”

Her grandfather was used to having an entire home, and was forced to give that up so the Norths could save their estate in the wake of the baron’s mismanagement. Elliot checked her frown before her father noticed.

Where had he expected her to put the Boatwright? In the cellar?

“I’m sure there’s no cause to uproot an old man twice in such quick succession,” said Benedict. “And I’m not used to large quarters anymore, anyway. Please, Elliot, Uncle Zachariah—don’t worry on my behalf. Now, where has Tatiana gone? Shall I go fetch her? I’d love to spend the evening reminiscing.”

Her father’s face softened at once, though Elliot wondered what it was these two men would have to reminisce about. Benedict’s rebellious teen years? The way her father had devalued the estate since Benedict’s father had died? The disgusting infraction that had gotten her cousin banished seven years ago?

“I’ll go look for Tatiana,” Benedict said. “It would be a shame to waste all this lovely light.” He tapped the edge of a lantern. “Uncle, you should truly consider replacing some of these with Post sun-lamps. There is an initial investment cost, but sunlight is always free, and you get so much more of it in the north.” He smiled and departed.

Elliot looked at her father, but he appeared neither red nor sputtering, as one would expect following a recommendation to use a Post product. Then again, he was also in possession of Post horses, and he hadn’t been too proud for those.

What was Benedict doing here? Why had her father chosen now, at long last, to retrieve the missing heir? Or had it been Benedict who’d finally come home to his estate, and was her father’s apparent welcome an effort to heal the breach should her cousin attempt to take the estate from him at once?

She didn’t know what to make of the man, either. The rumors she’d heard all her life made him out to be little better than the master of Andromeda’s old estate. But it seemed obvious he embraced Post fashions and technology. And his subtle jabs at her father hinted at something else: a mind-set more like her own.

Her father turned to the desk. “Do you have the numbers for the harvest?”

“Yes, Father.” She pointed to a piece of paper on the desk.

He glanced at it. “I see the loss of your precious field for my racetrack didn’t affect the bottom line as much as you feared.”

“No, Father.” The loss of a normal field of wheat would not have. However, had it been left standing, its contribution to their stockpile would have been significant. Perhaps so significant that she couldn’t have hidden it from him if the grain had been brought to harvest. In all of her careful planning, she hadn’t thought of that. She’d been too eager to make sure there was enough food, enough money, to keep the estate afloat. Perhaps the next time she tried her experiment, she wouldn’t do a whole field. Half a field would more easily hide the additional grain, and she could steadily increase the percentage each year so that . . .

“Oh, Elliot,” her father said, not looking up from the paperwork. “I noticed that COR foreman of ours at the picnic this evening. You know, the one with the child?”

Elliot’s blood ran cold. “Dee.”

“That’s the one. She’s quite far into her pregnancy to still be walking about, isn’t she? Move her into the birthing house tomorrow.”

“But father,” Elliot said, “she lives in a Post cottage. She has a son to care for. And her condition has not affected her work at all—”

He raised his eyes from the papers to meet hers and Elliot promptly snapped her mouth shut. “Tomorrow,” he repeated.

“Y
OU SHOULD LEAVE
.”

Dee blew some hair out of her eyes and exchanged the full bucket of milk for an empty one before leaning back under the cow. “And leave Jef behind? Your father wouldn’t like it either way, I’d wager. Nor me running off with one of his new Posts hiding in my belly.”

Elliot had come to the new, makeshift dairy first thing that morning hoping to catch Dee before the shifts changed. Around them, the Reduced dairymaids were hard at work, but there were no other Posts within earshot when Elliot delivered her father’s decree. “My father hardly cares if Jef’s a Post, nor you, nor your baby. He wouldn’t be confining you to the birthing house if he did.” Elliot crouched down beside Dee. “You can’t stay there, Dee. You have a home . . . a family.”

“But it’s okay for Reduced women to stay there for a year, confined to their beds like animals in a cage?” Dee didn’t look up from her milking. “The birthing house is torture for everyone, Elliot, not just Posts. You know that, too, or you wouldn’t have so carefully protected Ro all these years.”

Elliot flinched. “You think I’m being cruel to the Reduced?”

“I think the world is cruel to them,” Dee said. “Because the world is a cruel place. This estate is a cruel place, but there are other places far more cruel.”

Like Andromeda’s old estate. Like the dangerous areas of the Post enclaves. Yes, there were places worse than the North estate, but many of the North Posts were willing to risk it, anyway. Why wasn’t Dee?

Dee leaned back and puffed out a misty breath. The frost had come, late last night, blanketing the lawns and roofs of the estate in silver. The day promised to be gorgeous, but it was still too early for the sun to break through the mist. “Speaking of cruelty to the Reduced, what’s this I hear about Benedict North?”

“He’s come back,” Elliot replied. “And father brought him.”

“Will wonders never cease.” Dee’s eyes narrowed. “What do you think it means? Is your father planning on handing over his inheritance?”

Elliot gave her friend a skeptical look. They both knew Baron North too well for that. But Benedict was aware of what he was owed. “Too early to tell what my father has planned.”

Dee considered this for a moment. “Elliot, what if I did as he said? Go there for a bit, wait until his attention is elsewhere, come back? If we’re agreed that your father is only doing this because of the concert or because of our relationship . . . well, he’ll find something else to occupy his thoughts soon enough. It’s happened before. And if he’s concerned about Benedict, I don’t want my defiance to become a scapegoat for his frustration.”

“Or we could tell him you went in, and really you could go . . . elsewhere.”

“Else . . . where?”

“The Grove estate. Or wherever it is Thom has gone.”

“Elliot . . . ,” Dee said in warning.

“Or what about asking the Innovations?” Elliot suggested. “We could talk to Felicia. I know she would help us.”

Dee looked skeptical.

“They aren’t all like . . . him.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about Captain Malakai Wentforth,” said Dee. “He’s been all apologies this morning. Dropped by my cottage at dawn, and he’s been helping Gill with some of his mechanical difficulties for the past few hours.”

“He’s been
what
?” Elliot asked in disbelief.

“Amazingly contrite. I think he knows he was over the line last night. Maybe he’d had too much cider.”

“The Groves’ cider isn’t that strong.”

“Well then, maybe he just realized it’s a good deal harder to defend his behavior in front of people who actually know you than it was to make up lies for that Phoenix girl. Either way, I expect he’ll be coming by to apologize to you any time now.”

Elliot rubbed her wrists where Kai had grabbed her at the concert. “I think not.” He may have insulted the North Posts last night, but he had nothing against Gill or Dee personally. He was angry at Elliot.

And he’d spent years with Andromeda Phoenix, who had a much more concrete reason to hate Luddites. Their friendship had fanned his anger into hatred.

“As for throwing myself at the Innovations,” Dee continued, “that’s a nonstarter. We shouldn’t risk their relationship with your father.”

“He wouldn’t have to know where you were.” But as soon as the words were out of her mouth, Elliot understood. This was just like with Thom. No one could know. Certainly not Elliot. “Dee—”

The older woman wiped her hands off on her skirt and stood. “This conversation is over, Elliot. I’m under your father’s authority, not yours. My choices are to follow his rules or leave.”

“You know that’s not true. We’ve been breaking his rules for years, you and I.”

But Dee ignored that. “If I leave, I endanger Jef.”

“If you stay in the birthing house, how can you protect him?”

“If you disobey your father’s direct orders,
you
can’t protect him if something goes wrong.” Dee sighed, and when she spoke again, her voice had a hitch in it. “And I need you to be able to do that, Elliot. Can’t you understand?”

“I’m not a child anymore,” Elliot cried. “I can protect you both.”

“We’re done talking about this. I’ve made up my mind.” Dee smacked the cow on the rump and it moved back into its stall.

“So you make up your mind and that’s it? It’s done?” Elliot lifted her chin.

“Don’t you give me that look, Elliot North. That haughty, Luddite look of yours. Kai wasn’t wrong about everything, you know. I know I can leave if I want. I knew that three years ago. I chose not to then, and I make the same choice now.”

Elliot swallowed until her eyes stopped burning. “But
why
?”

“I just gave you half a dozen reasons.” Dee sighed again. “Fine. I’m willing to compromise. If this doesn’t blow over by the time I have this baby, you are free to break me out of the birthing house. I’ll leave, and I’ll take my family, and you won’t have to worry about us anymore.”

That wasn’t true. She’d worried about Kai for four years. And with more Posts leaving the estate, she’d worry about the fate of the farm as well. But it was all she would get from Dee.

“Enough of this,” Dee said. “Shift change is coming. Let’s go see if Gill and the young captain have made any progress on that tractor. I want to be there when he apologizes to you.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” Elliot replied. “It’s not good for the baby.”

K
AI AND
G
ILL WERE
finished by the time Dee and Elliot arrived, and judging from their moods, they’d completely forgotten their argument the previous evening. Gill was laughing and slapping Kai on the back as the tractor hummed and sputtered away. Kai wore his sleeves pulled up and a grin Elliot hadn’t seen in four years. It stopped her in her tracks. She feared coming closer, dreaded being the reason for the smile to vanish from his face.

Despite the previous night’s frost, the morning had turned unseasonably warm for winter, helped along somewhat by the bright sun and the deep blue of the cloudless sky. Much of the barnyard had turned to mud as the heat softened the frost, but Kai looked as if he’d escaped the worst of it, even if he had been on the ground beneath the machine.

“Ladies!” Gill called. “The mechanic’s triumphant return!” He affected a flourished bow worthy of any Luddite lord, and Dee laughed and clapped. Kai still grinned, though once again he was not looking at Elliot.

“Thank you,” she said to him nevertheless. “I’m afraid I never had the skill you did with this old hunk of junk.”

He turned to grab his velvet jacket off a hook. “Yes, well. It was the least I could do.”

“After . . . ?” Dee prompted, as Elliot wondered anew why there was no convenient sinkhole in the barnyard she could vanish into.

“After my rudeness last night,” said Kai, doing up the buttons on his jacket. His hair covered his eyes as he spoke. “I never should have interrupted the festivities in that way.”

“Really?” Dee crossed her arms. “That’s all you’re sorry about?”

“Dee—” Elliot murmured.

“Not all.” Kai lifted his head and looked at Elliot at last.