Gilded Cage (Dark Gifts #1)(73)

As he set about that morning’s task of chopping down a rotten cherry tree deep in the woods, Luke tested each hypothesis. The first didn’t stand up. If the club’s existence and its role in the riot had been discovered, Luke would have been pulled in for questioning too, whether or not he was at Kyneston. The second possibility was also unlikely. Jackson and Angel could break a man out of Millmoor, so they should have no problem getting a message to him – even here. That left only the third option: that the club now regarded him as out of the picture.

Which was so wrong Luke didn’t know where to start. There was so much he could contribute to the cause from Kyneston. The Jardines were the most powerful family in the land, and he was right in their midst. Several of them paid slaves no more heed than furniture, creating all sorts of opportunities for eavesdropping. His sister worked in the Family Office and had a key. The Third Debate – when the Abolition Proposal would be voted upon – would be happening right here.

Frustrated, Luke whacked his axe against the shattered tree trunk, causing it to rip up out of the ground and keel over. The roots were dry and dead, as if all the life had drained out of them. He turned the stump over and began hacking off the withered tendrils one by one. It was only minimally therapeutic.

Luke had once thought that Jackson intended him to go to Kyneston. ‘The plan is to get you to their estate,’ the Doc had said at that first meeting after they’d liberated Oz.

Well, here he was. Except that was Gavar Jardine’s doing, at Daisy’s request. Nothing to do with any scheme of Jackson’s at all.

Luke sheared the axe head down the side of the stump, swearing as the wood simply crumbled and fell to bits in his hand. He was missing something. What was it?

Here was a curious thing: Gavar Jardine had been instrumental in Oz’s escape, too. He had walked right past the three of them in the prison, when it seemed unthinkable that he wouldn’t have noticed them. And Jackson had doubled back towards the Equal, leaving Luke and Renie to get Oz to Angel. There’d been gunfire and a yell, but the Doc wasn’t hurt. Had the two of them staged everything?

Luke remembered Jackson’s shocking words on the day he told them about the Proposal. When he’d admitted that he had an ally among the Equals.

‘Someone close to power,’ the Doc had said. ‘He sees every shadow in the House of Light.’

Who was closer to power than Gavar Jardine? A parliamentarian. A member of the Justice Council. An heir who seemed destined for the Chancellorship himself one day.

Luke’s brain raced, snatching up more clues. The man had a common-born child. He had used his Skill to strike down everyone at the MADhouse, yes, but only after that maniac Grierson had ordered open fire on the crowd. Gavar Jardine might have caused anguish, but he had saved lives.

And while it was cute to think of Gavar busting Luke out of Millmoor at Daisy’s request, it wasn’t very plausible that a ten-year-old – even one as cool as his sister – would have come up with that idea herself. Had the heir planted the suggestion, knowing it’d be a good cover?

Luke wasn’t certain. But for now, it seemed to be the only scenario that explained everything.

Everything, except one crucial question.

What was he needed for here at Kyneston?





18



Abi



It was all going to work out, it really was. They’d have a quick ten years.

Abi had worried about Luke initially. He’d seemed spaced out during those first weeks here. And he’d not said a lot about his time at Millmoor, beyond the easily inferred facts. One, it hadn’t been much fun, and two, he didn’t want to talk about it.

At least he’d arrived in one piece, despite all the rumours of unrest, and that stray mention of a doctor and an accident. More than that, Luke had done some serious growing up in Millmoor. On the awful day that he’d been torn from them, he’d displayed a strength of character she’d never suspected, and that seemed only to have deepened during their time apart. He’d filled out, too, in a way that made her glad her baby bro was safe from the clutches of her man-eating school friends.

All in all, she was one proud and relieved big sister. And now that Luke was with them, hopefully things would finally settle down and the Hadleys could get on with doing their days.

Except, Jenner was still acting coolly.

And Abi still had no clear recollection of what had happened that evening in the Great Solar.

What’s more, the dog-man still wouldn’t tell her what he had done to supposedly deserve his humiliation at the hands of Lady Hypatia. Wouldn’t, or couldn’t.

The way Kyneston’s other slaves seemed content to pretend the man didn’t exist was frankly disgusting.

‘You’ve got to forget about it, love,’ the housekeeper said, over a cup of tea one afternoon. ‘He’s no good, and no good will come of getting involved.’

When Abi demanded to know why, the answer was always the same: because he’d been punished by Lord Crovan, a fate reserved only for the most wicked. Couldn’t they see they had it all backwards? The severity of the man’s punishment was no proof that he deserved it.

‘Come with me,’ she told Luke one evening when they’d done the washing and wiping up. Daisy was upstairs reading as Libby settled, and Mum and Dad had gone to visit friends along the Row. ‘There’s someone I want you to meet.’