“That is odd? Her room is in the other wing.”
“As far as I know, she’s never set foot in here before. But then she’s never been alone in Kesmere either. Dammit, I wish I knew if it were her father or mine that sent her here now.”
“Best to bet both. You said they arranged your engagement together. You think an effort to remind you, rather visibly, that you are still tied to them, and Danielle is due to only one?” Byran asked as Derrick hesitated.
“No, you are most likely right. I’d hoped maybe one of them would be tired of this foolishness by now,” Derrick said, finishing the buttons on his shirt.
“That’s easy enough done, toss her out.” Derrick stared at the wall after Byran’s suggestion, finally sighing, but not giving an answer. “Don’t you back down now. I don’t care what you promised Danielle and that you prefer to keep your word. What was last week with Arinna? A lie as much as this charade?” Byran hissed.
“Do you think it is that easy? That I should just tell her to pack her things and go back to her father?” Derrick’s stumble on the word father told Byran a little of why Derrick tried to protect Danielle.
“Yes,” Byran said. “Anything less is going to cause you grief.”
That took the anger out of Derrick. Gaze falling to the floor, Derrick ran a hand over his forehead. “Not tonight. Let me see why she is here, if she’ll tell me the truth. Do me the favor of covering a few minutes. I need to call Arinna, and I want to see how much of my study Danielle has been through.”
Byran didn’t answer, just walked to the door with a shake of his head. He could feel Derrick’s gaze on him, begging for Byran to trust him. Byran couldn’t find a way to explain that he trusted the Derrick he’d seen earlier on the road, not the one who had pretended to be engaged for six years to a woman he didn’t love.
They had a quiet and awkward evening as the rain wrapped around the lakes. Danielle chatted animatedly with Isabella, who reciprocated with brief answers. When Isabella joined Byran to see a comment of interest, he pointed out in the paper he was reading, she whispered quietly to him, “I hate that woman. If Derrick doesn’t get rid of her soon, we are leaving for Prague early. I cannot take another day of her.”
“I don’t want to leave him alone with her,” Byran admitted. Isabella rolled her eyes.
“Fine, you can stay with the happy couple.”
Byran wanted to imagine his wife would see the need to stay. But she didn’t know Derrick the way he did. She’d never really known him as the fearless teen he’d been. Her worries didn’t include Derrick slipping back into a life and person that ill-suited the man he should be. And Byran had to admit, his wife’s summer had been difficult enough. Sticking out a few days, perhaps weeks, with Danielle, was most likely one favor too many to ask of Isabella. Trapped again by Danielle, Byran completely understood when a faint creak elsewhere in the manor bolted Isabella to check on the kids. Byran had no doubt his wife would not come downstairs again that night.
After a few minutes of Isabella’s absence, Danielle narrowed her eyes at Byran before moving to sit next to Derrick where he looked over correspondence that had arrived while he was away.
“A summer ball later this week? Will it still occur if it is raining?” she asked Derrick, picking up the folded invitation.
“Yes. The house holds a ballroom large enough,” he replied.
“We should go. We’ve not been to a ball together in years.”
“Have you ever been to a ball together?” Byran asked.
Danielle shot him another dark look before placing a hand on Derrick’s shoulder. “We have. Do you remember that first summer after the war ended? I spent most of it here. I think there was a party nearly every night. It was so lovely.” Danielle said the last in a low voice full of memories.
Derrick froze, the paper in his hand twitching with a barely suppressed emotion. Byran cursed, annoyed that Danielle knew Derrick well enough to find a weak point. Danielle knew it too. She smiled slyly at Byran.
“You must be tired from the journey, especially the last in the rain. Don’t let us keep you up,” she said to Byran.
“Not at all,” Byran said, flipping open the reports he’d received on preliminary issues for discussion at the fall parliamentary session. “Just continue on as if I weren’t here.”
Derrick coughed, flashing Byran an amused glance. “Why don’t you get a bottle of wine?” he asked Danielle. She rose stiffly, tossing one last look at Byran over her shoulder.
“I appreciate how much you don’t like her,” Derrick said quietly after Danielle left. “But I’ll never find out why she’s come if you hang in here all night.”
“Just tell me you got word to Arinna,” Byran said, folding the paperwork.
“I left a message. She hadn’t returned yet.” Byran watched Derrick a moment. “Do you think I’m enjoying this?” he snapped. “I’d intended to be at Rhiol tonight.” Derrick’s voice was rougher on the last. That was what convinced Byran, the mix of longing and frustration in Derrick’s tone.
“Let me know if there is anything I can do,” Byran offered as he stood. He met Danielle at the door. “I’m going to turn in though I see you anticipated that.” Byran nodded to the two glasses she carried along with a bottle of wine.
“I know why he asked me to leave for a moment,” Danielle retorted with a cold smile. There was victory in her grey eyes.
“Good. Then have a lovely evening,” Byran said with enough warmth that her smile faltered.
Chapter 33
THE LADY GREY
FALTERING
Arinna read the note Kehm said had come from Christophe in Rhiol. “Love note from your boyfriend?” Jared asked with a yawn.
His typical lean contained more of a slouch than normal. Not that Arinna blamed him. Five days of flying, the last two fretting and planning over what they’d found and how they could keep that information quiet, had exhausted her enough that the message from Derrick held a hint of relief. At least she didn’t have to go back to Rhiol tonight. Because there was nothing to go back to, apparently.
“On the contrary, something else entirely,” Arinna said, balling the message in her fist. Jared sent her a sharper look. Arinna tried to control the slip in her anger. Jared read her too well after the years of fighting side by side. Despite exhaustion, he looked ready to take on an assault.
“Go home. Your wi—Maureen,” Arinna corrected with a grin that made Kehm glance between the two of them, “hasn’t seen you in five days. Nor your brood. We’ll talk about this more in the morning.”
“You’ll be here?” Jared asked. His intense gaze indicated he knew she wouldn’t discuss what they needed to over a comm line.
“Yes. There is no need for me to return tonight,” Arinna said.
The tension in Jared’s form relaxed as he looked at her with a gaze of tender concern she was not used to seeing on his face, at least not directed her way. “Do you want to talk?”
“Go home,” she snapped.
“Just one beer? Maureen will understand.”
“Damn you,” Arinna hissed, angry with herself that his offer brought the sting of tears to her eyes. She blinked them away, but not before he noticed. Jared pushed off from the desk, but before he crossed the room, Kehm interrupted.
“There is something else,” Kehm said, hesitantly, which unnerved Arinna.
Jared joined her, leaning against her desk without the casual pose. Jared was tense, even if he tried to appear not. Shoulder to shoulder, they waited for their Chief Communications Officer to brief them on whatever else had happened and couldn’t wait.
“We had an inquiry from a senator today asking if it were true Arinna was under investigation for misdirecting funds,” Kehm said.
“The coup story again?” Arinna asked, weary of it to her bones.
“Not necessarily. I thought so at first, but he never mentioned what the funds were being taken for.” Kehm paused again, and Arinna tensed waiting fo
r something worse. “He said he was aware of the meetings between Captain Vries and Secretary Gerschtein’s office of finance.”
Jared cursed, launching himself across the room in a quick pace to turn on his heel and stare at her. “She used me. Gerschtein wasn’t trying to feed me information to win me to her side. She was just setting up evidence to prove her rumors correct.”
Arinna rubbed a hand across her eyes, beyond feeling frustrated. “Was there anything else?” she asked Kehm.
“He said he was seeking confirmation as he was considering calling an early session of parliament to deal with the matter.”
Jared strung a few words together that managed to lighten the heaviness weighing the air in the room. “And you told him?” Arinna asked, flicking Jared a smile. It calmed him, slightly.
“What you had said at the beginning of the summer. We have been tallying the costs of the war and lost equipment. Captain Vries has been working with Gerschtein on it since the spring. I tried to track down where he’d heard it from, but ...” Kehm shrugged. “We should have seen this coming.”
“Probably,” Arinna agreed.
But she hadn’t. Gerschtein had been successful enough to move a senator to call for action. Time had run out. Both Jared and Kehm stood waiting for her to say more. But her mind was blank.
“He’d like to speak to Captain Vries directly,” Kehm added when she said nothing. “I told him it would be tomorrow.”
“That is better than wanting to get confirmation from Gerschtein,” Arinna said, feeling a hint of relief.
“Barely, Gerschtein will expect me to confirm it,” Jared said, looking ill.
“Fine, we’ll talk about that in the morning too before you make the call,” she said. Dealing with it tonight seemed too much. Jared gave her a look that would have been more fitting if she’d ordered the death of everyone involved. “Go home, Captain,” she growled.
“Nope. You agreed to drinks,” he replied, rejoining her and tossing a casual arm across her shoulders. He pulled her along toward the door. As much as she didn’t want a beer, preferring instead the day to be over, Jared was difficult to swerve once his mind was determined. She let him nudge her along.
“What was in the note?” Jared asked as they walked down the hallway towards his office.
“I thought I was getting a beer first. And when did you start keeping drinks in your office?” she asked, feeling persnickety.
“When did I stop?” he countered with a wink.
Jared riffled in the back of a desk drawer as Arinna settled into the most comfortable of the chairs he kept. The beers he pulled out were dusty enough that she couldn’t berate him.
“Saving these for a special occasion?” she asked, cleaning hers before she attempted to drink from it. The question was only half joking.
“Emergency rations,” he reassured her.
“This is hardly an emergency,” Arinna said, opening hers anyway.
“Yeah, but most problems that make you want a beer in our line of work don’t come with the time to actually have one.”
Arinna sputtered on her first mouthful, choking on suds. Jared tossed a semi-clean shirt at her to help wipe up the overflow on her chin. “You need more practice drinking,” he told her.
“I need you to not try and kill me with your smart mouth!” Despite her griping, it took Arinna three attempts to take another drink as she fought laughter each time she put the bottle to her lips. “You are a pain in the ass.”
“That’s what Maureen says too. So what did the note say?”
“Danielle, Derrick’s fiancée, is at Kesmere,” Arinna said flatly.
“Oh,” Jared answered, drawing the sound out. He took a long drink from his beer. “But you knew about her. He doesn’t mean to keep the engagement?”
“I really don’t know, Jared,” Arinna said, running a hand through her hair and pulling at the tips. “I told you, the relationship is too new. We haven’t really talked about what we are doing.”
“You should go back and find out.”
“Where, at the next ball? I’ve spent the summer amid rumors of an affair with Byran followed by one with Derrick. I’m getting quite the reputation. I can imagine the fun gossipers will be having at this turn: the Lady Grey, her lover, and his fiancée. It sounds almost as good as the Lady Grey, her lover the Baron Vasquez, and his wife. Though neither really compares to what Kehm just told us.” Arinna felt the worry of it finally. The beer turned sour in her stomach.
It took Jared a moment to sort through her sarcasm and predict where her thoughts were headed. He slammed his bottle down onto his desk with enough force suds splashed over the top. “Don’t you even say it. This is not damaging the Guard. You are not stepping down.”
“I could use the offer to barter with MOTHER for soldiers. We need more troops.”
Jared stared at her, green eyes wild until they narrowed with fury she didn’t think Jared had in him. “Bullshit. We’ll tell fucking parliament there is still a war before we barter a deal with MOTHER. Get this idea out of your head!”
“Danielle did not just show up randomly at Kesmere,” Arinna snapped in return. “Eldridge and le Marc sent her. This after I warned Eldridge to keep Danielle away in case Gerschtein managed to link Renault, him, and myself as co-conspirators. She could take all three of us down with her little whispers. But that’s it. Eldridge isn’t worried about that. This proves what le Marc told us. Eldridge and Gerschtein have teamed up. I’ve done nothing but play into MOTHER’s plots all summer, and now you have as well. They want me gone.”
“And you are going to leave over a few rumors? This is crazy. In the morning, I’m telling this senator that there has been no investigation. I’m not confirming Gerschtein’s mad story. I don’t care if you order me to,” Jared growled.
“You haven’t heard those rumors. They’ve grown worse. It isn’t about not receiving invitations to parties. Even Christophe and Tomas have heard former Guard talking. I don’t think I even have a war reputation left to protect.”
“Damn it, I have heard them. I heard them from soldiers who don’t know shit, and I and the lieutenants set them straight.”
“Thanks, Jared. That fucking helps.”
“After all of these years, you are going to give in to MOTHER? This isn’t like you, Arinna,” Jared said, expression caught between anger and concern. “We can deal with one lousy senator.”
Arinna sat back, tired and refusing to think about all the reasons why. “Before they were rumors, but now Gerschtein has planted truth in them ... as have I,” she admitted, thinking of Derrick. “And one hint of truth makes the rest more powerful.” Arinna paused to gauge Jared’s reaction. He still looked angry. “The best way to keep as much of the Guard as possible intact, to save you and the lieutenants, is to step aside now. Before this does go in front of parliament.”
“MOTHER would never let it go that far. They’d be too afraid you’d reveal something. Gerschtein is hedging you’ll back down, especially if I turn against you. We’ll prove her wrong. And so what if you have a relationship with Derrick? Admit to it and kill the rumors,” Jared shot back.
“What about Danielle?” she retorted. “I told you, I don’t know Derrick’s intentions. Danielle arrives, and the first thing Derrick does is to tell me not to come to Kesmere. That isn’t exactly reassuring! Jared, Derrick has told us both how much Eldridge doesn’t want him near the Guard. I never considered what Eldridge would do if he found out about Derrick and me.”
“Dammit. I will accept Derrick’s oath and swear him into the Guard,” Jared growled. “Then Eldridge can be mad at both of us. No,” he said, cutting off Arinna when she went to argue. “This is done. You are not taking a fall for some half thought out idea to barter for soldiers. There are other ways.”
“And how long do we have to come up with them, Captain? You know how few soldiers we have. How much do you want to risk Europe now that you’ve seen what the FLF call home?”
; Jared’s eyes didn’t even flicker with doubt. He crossed his arms. “That’s right, I’m Captain. I’m calling the shots. For once, I’m pulling rank. Go home, my lady. If you want to see what it would be like to be retired and left with no duties other than as a figurehead of what you were, you shall have it. You’re on leave until further notice. No contact with Command until I say.”
“Can I take my plane or are you going to have me escorted out?” Arinna spat. To her surprise, Jared hesitated. That was when she realized he was serious. Despite the beer, it left her mouth dry.
“I’ll send someone to pick it up tomorrow.”
This was a side of him that Arinna had never seen. He acted every ounce the military commander he tried so hard not to emulate. That he’d do it to order her out was an ironic twist she could almost appreciate. If only it didn’t hurt so badly.
She slammed her bottle onto his desk, causing foam to cascade down the neck, and stormed out before she, or Jared, had the sense to apologize. She was tired from the flight, but more from the rumors swirling all summer as well as worries of the choice she’d made that left the Guard with too few soldiers to fight. At least before she could say she protected Europe. Now her actions threatened even that. All she wanted to do was set a series of wrong decisions right. And that meant walking away from the Guard, now before there wasn’t an opportunity to gain anything. Jared would see it. She’d make him. But not tonight.
Arinna walked straight to the hangar, ignoring her room, Command, and even the items she’d brought on the mission with her. With only the clothes she wore, she took a shadowcraft and launched it skyward without clearing the flight. Captain Vries could deal with the mess.
When she arrived at Rhiol in midnight darkness, she found Jared had made good on his order. All communications were down. The computers tucked in Rhiol’s basement were no longer on standby, but sat silent and powered off. Finger over the switch to turn them on, Arinna hesitated. Annoyed again, she turned away. She wouldn’t beg, not to Jared and not after being home a mere half-hour, damn him. She could wait him out.
After the War: Military Dystopian Thriller (Friends of my Enemy Book 2) Page 26