Last Car to Annwn Station (23 page)

“Well, maybe
relax
instead of rest.” Mae laughed.

Jill pulled the hem of the dress down with both hands, not that it did any good. “I know I’m not the
exact
same size as my mother, but either I miscalculated how different we are, or there are whole aspects to my mother’s personality that do not bear closer examination.” Jill shook her head at her reflection in the full-length mirror. “I think this might be a little too—”

“Short?” Mae supplied helpfully, a broad grin on her face. “Snug?”

“Slutty.”

Mae looked her up and down. Jill began to blush from the attention Mae was giving her.

“Well, you
are
showing a lot of leg,” Mae said.

“And cleavage.”

Mae’s face lit up. “Slinky. That’s the word you’re looking for. Slinky.”

“This is my mother’s dress, you know.”

“Try not to think too hard about it.”

“Now to accessorize,” Jill said, moving away from the mirror. She picked up the small clutch purse and black pumps they had discovered in the same closet as the dress and walked out of the bedroom, Mae following in her wake. Jill stopped in the living room long enough to transfer various necessary items from her regular purse to the small clutch. She dropped the pumps on the floor and picked up her keys. Jill turned and started down a short hallway, into a part of the house she had yet to show to Mae.

“What about your eye and—well—the scars on your arm?” Mae asked as they walked along. They had managed to cover the bruise on her head by styling her hair over it and then covering the rest with makeup. The bruise on her leg from the magic dart had faded away overnight. Jill had looked at it with her silver eye and reported no magical residue.

“I’m going to wear the eye patch. I want to hide the eye from them, since they’re mages. I’ll lift up the patch and have a look when I can. I’m going to leave my arms bare. I thought about wearing a shawl or something to cover them, but decided against it.”

“And this decision is based on?”

Jill paused in front of a heavy wooden door. She shuffled through her keys until she found the one she wanted. “I decided there’s a certain intimidation factor involved. They have to know that I know it’s a trap. I’m going to walk in with all my ‘battle scars’ in plain sight. Maybe it will make them hesitate when things go sour.” The lock clicked and Jill opened the door.

The room was male to the point of reeking of testosterone. The heads of various dead animals dominated the walls. There was a large mahogany desk with a leather executive chair. Two large additional leather chairs flanked by low tables that matched the desk rounded out the furniture. A full gun rack stood in one corner, and stacks of outdoor magazines lay on the tables. Framed pictures of hunts past hung on the walls. The faint smell of cigar smoke hung in the air.

Mae followed her into the room. “You’re assuming things are going to get ugly?”

“Yes. Aren’t you?”

“A part of me hopes we can do this and no one gets hurt. I realize I’m being a bit of a Pollyanna, but there it is,” Mae said with a shrug.

Jill sat down in the chair behind the big desk. “I hope you’re right, but I’m gearing up for the worst.” Jill opened the top drawer of the desk and pulled out a small revolver.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Mae asked.

Jill opened the revolver’s cylinder and checked the rounds. She snapped the cylinder shut and checked that the safety was on. She dropped the weapon into her clutch and stood. “I hope I don’t need it.”

“I’m worried that we’re already going to be in enough trouble. If you shoot someone on top of everything else…”

Jill shooed Mae out the door. She turned and checked that the room was locked. “Would it make you feel better if I told you I have a carry permit?”

“No.”

Settling on the couch, Jill slipped into the pumps. “Would it make you feel better if I told you I only plan on using this in an emergency?”

“I’d much rather you ran away.”

“In these shoes?” Jill asked, wiggling her feet.

“True,” Mae allowed. “Still, how likely are bullets to stop anything non-human?”

“Not very, but I’d be stupid not to use every advantage I can.” Jill stood. “How do I look?”

“Edible,” Mae said, nodding her approval.

“I’m not sure that’s a good thing, everything considered.”

“Every male in the place is going to act stupid around you, even with the ‘battle scars.’”

Jill slipped the eye patch on. “That’s the plan.”

The doorbell rang, startling both women and making them jump.

“That would be Big Brother.” Jill had called Robert a bare half hour earlier and informed him she was at the lake house and could she get a ride? Jill had purposely kept their location from Robert until the last minute, hoping the tight timeframe would stop the mages from swooping down on them. Jill slipped into her leather jacket and picked up the clutch. She turned to Mae. “Walk me out.”

Mae followed Jill to the front door. Jill grabbed the doorknob and took a deep breath. “Here we go,” she muttered, opening the door. “Robert! It’s good to see you, big brother!”

Mae took the opportunity to give Jill’s older brother a quick once over.

Robert Coleman Hall III was dressed impeccably. A black tailored suit, white shirt, black necktie, leather shoes. The watch on his wrist was probably worth more than everything Mae owned combined. His dark brown hair was short, stylish and styled. It was obvious he spent time in the gym. Robert Hall’s entire countenance and demeanor screamed “wealthy and powerful.” Mae had to admit he was a handsome man.

He had a momentary look of surprise on his face as he took in Jill’s scars, but covered it quickly. He gave Mae a quick once over with his dark blue eyes before flashing her a boyish smile.

He turned back to Jill. “Ready to go?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Jill said. She turned to Mae, who was standing slightly behind her. “I might be late.”

“Don’t stay out too long.” Mae gave her a look full of promises of things to come, trying to add to Jill’s game of tweaking her brother. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Robert’s expression turn sour.

“I’ll be home eventually.” Jill leaned down and kissed Mae, hard and deep. “Maybe I’ll call it an evening early,” she said, pulling away from Mae and walking out the door.

“Have fun!” Mae called out, waving goodbye at the door.

Jill walked out to the black Mercedes parked near the front door. She turned and waited for her brother to unlock the car, then climbed in and sat in the leather seat. The car smelled new. Robert settled behind the steering wheel and started the big German-made vehicle. He gave her a sour look.

“This isn’t a costume party,” he said with a frown, exiting the circular driveway and pulling onto the street.

“This isn’t a costume. I pulled the dress out of mother’s closet.” Jill replied, keeping a calculated coolness in her voice. She was both relieved and distressed at how quickly she could fall back on old mannerisms and survival traits from her youth.

“Then why the getup?”

Jill took a deep breath. The superior tone of voice he always used with her grated on her nerves. “There was an…incident. I lost my vision in one eye.” She gave him a nasty smile and reached for the eye patch. “It looks quite horrific. Would you like to see?”

He shot her a wary glance. “No, that’s all right.” He gave the scars on her arm a quick look before turning to stare out the windshield, suddenly very interested in the dark road before them.

Jill kept her expression neutral. Her brother was nervous in her presence, a situation that was foreign to her. She thought about pressing him, but decided to change directions.

“How are Mother and Father?” she asked.

“If you’d come home occasionally, you’d know.”

Jill relaxed. This was familiar territory. “So Father is still destroying people’s lives while playing captain of industry, and Mother is still a beloved high-society belle and drunkard?”

Robert’s frown deepened. “Why do you hate them so much?”

Jill sighed and looked out the darkness on the other side of the window. “If you don’t already know the answer to that question, I could never possibly explain it to you.”

“Look, Jill, I know you feel like your childhood sucked, though I don’t understand how. We both grew up with everything we could ever want, but if you
feel
that way, okay. Still, don’t you think it’s time to stop playing at being an average working girl?”

“I like what I do.”

“You need to come home. You need to come back to the life you were born to.”

She glared at him. “I’m not interested in being anyone’s little trophy wife.” The words came out as a rough snarl.

Robert twisted the ring on his finger around once before he turned the car up the long driveway toward the cheerfully lit Arneson mansion. “Then don’t be. Look, Jill, there are people here who can give you a boost up. There’s no reason for you to be working for the
county
when you can be one of the people who really makes things happen.”

Jill glanced at him as he parked at the end of a long line of expensive luxury vehicles. “Why are you doing this?”

He gave her his winning smile. “Because you’re my favorite sister.”

She raised an eyebrow. “I’m your only sister.”

Robert sighed and turned off the engine. “Mother asked me to invite you and make introductions if you came.”

Jill stepped out of the car at the same time as Robert. “Are Mother and Father here?” The last thing she wanted was for her parents to be involved in whatever games the Arnesons and William Hodgins were playing. It was bad enough she was going to have to take on her brother. To have to engage her parents as well would be too much to bear.

“No. They had another commitment.”

Jill followed him up to the mansion’s front door, which was held open for them by a man in a tuxedo. Inside, they passed their coats to a bored-looking gray-haired woman. The woman offered to take Jill’s clutch purse, but she held onto it.

Robert leaned toward Jill. “Promise not to embarrass me tonight,” he said into her ear.

She gave him a wicked smile. “Where’s the fun in that?”

“Jill…” he said as a distinguished-looking older man stepped forward to great them. Robert introduced him as James Arneson.

For the next twenty minutes Jill found herself being introduced to everyone in a lavishly decorated parlor and ornate ballroom. She noted that it was a small gathering, less than a dozen people. Jill knew none of them personally, though she knew them all by reputation.

She made polite small talk with the iron-haired lady of the house while sipping red wine. Maureen Arneson kept looking at her as if she expected Jill to grow horns and attack at any moment. At last the woman made her excuses and drifted away.

Jill checked her watch. She needed to unlock a window.

She looked around the room and spotted her brother standing under the crystal chandelier, talking to a short, busty woman with too much eyeliner and hair so black it could only be dyed.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Jill said, bulling her way into the conversation.

Robert pressed his lips together. “Jill.”

Jill smirked. “Brother mine. Who’s your friend?”

Robert took a deep breath. “This is Ilona. Ilona, this is my sister, Jill.”

Jill turned to the short woman, offering her best smile and her hand to shake. The woman gave Jill a curious look and took her hand.

“I am pleased to meet you,” Ilona said.

“I’m sure Robert’s told you all kinds of terrible things about me.” Jill held onto the woman just a moment longer than necessary, lowering her eyelid and changing her smile from friendly to flirtatious. She leaned down to the woman. “I’m the bisexual, black-sheep troublemaker in the family,” she said in a conspiratorial faux-whisper as she released the woman’s hand.