Queen (The Blackcoat Rebellion #3)(55)
Before things could get uglier, Minister Bradley cleared his throat. “Yes, about Elsewhere, Prime Minister. There are several replacements I would like to speak with you about, if you’ll excuse the grisly talk over dinner...”
The pair of them bent their heads together, and though I could feel the heat of Daxton’s stare every now and then, I purposely ignored them for the rest of dinner. Greyson, Benjy, and I remained quiet for the most part, only commenting on neutral topics when we spoke at all. The weather, the rebuilding of Somerset, how nice it was to be out of the Stronghold at last—we avoided any mention of Elsewhere, and none of us said a word about Benjy’s near-execution. I couldn’t be overly familiar with him anyway, in case I accidentally tipped Daxton off. However long this tightrope walk lasted, I would have to convince not only Daxton that I was Lila, but myself, too. By the endof it,I wasn’t so sure I would recognize this new me at all.
It was strange, looking at Benjy and knowing he wasn’t mine anymore, not the way he had been before. I caught myself thinking of him as my boyfriend more times than I could count, but slowly I began to remove myself from that connection. I would have to, not only to be convincing as Lila, but because we weren’t Benjy and Kitty anymore. We were just Benjy and Kitty. Separate. And I would have to get used to it sooner rather than later.
At long last, after the dessert course had been served, Daxton stood. “I hope you all have an enjoyable evening in our new home. It’s only temporary, I assure you—construction on Somerset is due to begin any day now—but it’s always best to be as comfortable as possible.”
He winked, and a shiver ran down my spine. I didn’t want to know what constituted comfortable for him.
Once he was gone, with Minister Bradley trailing at his heels, the three of us stood. “I need to finish up with the Prime Minister,” said Benjy, but before he left, he hesitated and leaned toward Greyson and me. “Be in Greyson’sroom at ten o’clock.”
Before I could ask what was happening then, he disappeared, leaving Greyson and I to exchange a look. There was no use speculating—a servant could overhear, and we wouldn’t be any closer to the truth anyhow. But together we ascended the stairs, and once I’d changed out of my dinner clothes, I joined Greyson in his suite.
“What is that?” I said, making a face. Greyson stood beside a glowing three-dimensional blueprint of something that looked more like an insect than anything useful. Sometime that afternoon, he had turned his sitting room into a makeshift laboratory, complete with the equipment he’d taken to the Stronghold with him—the only equipment he had left after the bombing of Somerset, I realized.
“It’s a device I intend to start working on tonight, if I can get the mechanisms right,” he said, his brow furrowed as he spun the image around, searching for something.
“It looks like a cockroach,” I said.
“Excellent. That’s what it’s supposed to be. A bug.” He motioned for me to join him, and I crossed over to his workstation. “It isn’t a new concept, of course, spy devices that are hidden in plain sight. But this one’s designed to move around exactly like an insect would. I wanted to attempt a common housefly first, but the wings are too complex for me to create with my limited equipment.”
“But an exact replica of a cockroach is no problem,” I drawled. He blinked, and I shook my head. “You’re a genius. You know that, right?”
“Yes.” He winked at me before peering at the insect again. “Once I get the leg movement right, I should be able to steer it around the manor without detection. I have a few subjects I caught in the cellar to give me an idea ofwhat I’m missing.”
He motioned to a jar nearby, and against my better judgment, I glanced inside. “You’re keeping cockroaches as pets now?”
“There are a surprising number of them in the manor. But don’t worry,” he added quickly. “I only found them on the lower levels.”
“Cockroaches don’t bother me. We’re already living with one,” I muttered, sitting down on the sofa.
“Once I have this little guy up and running, we’ll have a way to track every move Daxton makes without ever being seen.”
“Unless someone spots your bug and tries to smash it,” I said, and he shrugged.
“That’s the beauty of it. Unless they’re looking too closely, if they step on it or otherwise destroy it, it’s designed to resemble a dead cockroach.”
I shuddered. “Still a genius, but definitely twisted.”
“It was a necessity. I’m not completely unaware of how the presence of a cockroach in the upper levels of the manor would be viewed.”
He straightened, and once his eyes were on me instead of his new toy, his entire demeanor seemed to shift. It never ceased to amaze me how different he became in his workshop—how scientific and methodical and distracted he grew.He was wholly focused on his inventions, and though part of me was jealous that he had something to distract him, the fact that he was working on an actual bug made it clear he was still as determined as I was to reignite the rebellion and take Daxton down for good.
“You must be happy to see Benjy again,” he said, and I nodded.
“It’s—complicated. He’s not—we’re not together anymore. Can’t be, not when I have to live as Lila completely.”