Hidden Devotion (Trinity Masters #5)
Mari Carr, Lila Dubois
Prologue
She pulled the scarf over her hair out of habit. Her mind was thousands of miles away from the sun-warm streets of Istanbul, her thoughts of home, of Boston.
She held up a small laminated badge, skirting the line and the admission fee for the Aya Sophia. Called the Hagia Sophia by westerners, the museum was one of her favorite places in the world. Though hundreds of thousands of people visited the church-turned-mosque-turned-museum every day, it was far more than it seemed. Aya Sophia’s secrets were right there, waiting to be uncovered—hiding in plain sight.
The same could be said of Juliette, and of the man she’d come here to meet.
Sebastian Stewart was waiting for her on the second floor. The crowd in the gallery was an eclectic mix of people and styles of dress. From the back, with his dark hair, jeans and long-sleeved button-down dress shirt, Sebastian could have passed for a variety of ethnicities. Rather than tap him on the shoulder—though in this heavily trafficked place, in the less-than-strict Istanbul, she doubted anyone would have taken offense—Juliette stood beside him, close enough that he’d notice her.
They stood in silence for a moment, a silence that was anything but tense. Sebastian was one of her oldest friends. The kind of friend who knew all her secrets.
“It always awes me that this wasn’t destroyed.” Sebastian gestured to the Deesis mosaic of Christ, which had been preserved under Islamic decoration and calligraphy when the church was converted to a mosque and uncovered during restoration in the twentieth century.
“It’s nice when history preserves rather than destroys,” she added.
Their conversation paused as a Japanese tour group stopped just behind them, the guide gesturing to the gold-and-blue image of Jesus, quickly explaining his importance to the Christian faith before moving on to the subject of the restoration and the technicalities involved in uncovering this and other mosaics.
“Chai?” Seb asked.
“Actually, I’m hungry.”
Juliette followed her friend out then took the lead. Moving away from the tourist areas surrounding the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, she headed for a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant, ordering two spiced-lamb flatbreads. A boy with thick black lashes brought them lahmacun and cans of Coke.
Juliette ripped hers in half then took a bite of the soft middle section. Her thoughts drifted back to Boston and her stomach clenched.
“Are we going to talk about it?” Sebastian asked.
She looked up to see his meal mostly gone, while she’d had only a few bites.
“My brother called.”
Sebastian froze, can halfway to his lips. “Harrison called? Why?”
Juliette pulled her scarf off, the fabric she’d wound around her neck and over her head suddenly suffocating.
“It seems my oh-so-proper brother made a mistake.”
“The Grand Master doesn’t make mistakes.” He said it the way one states a fact—the sun rises in the east, the sky is blue, the Grand Master of the Trinity Masters doesn’t make mistakes.
“He hadn’t joined a trinity.”
Sebastian sat back. “I hadn’t realized he was that old.”
Juliette nodded. At forty-five, her brother Harrison was twenty years older than Juliette. Not surprising, since her mother had been nearly fifteen years younger than Juliette’s father, the Grand Master before Harrison, while Harrison’s mother had been the same age as their father.
“Well, it seemed that Harrison did make a mistake—and not just failing to join a trinity.”
“Oh?”
“He fell in love with a woman who wasn’t in the Trinity Masters.”
Sebastian whistled.
“Better than that. She was offered membership but refused.”
Sebastian blinked.
“And he was willing to quit to be with her.”
Shock froze Sebastian in place, and Juliette took advantage of the moment to take a few bites. Talking about it—and seeing Sebastian’s reaction—was making her feel better.
Sebastian understood in a way that very few people would. They’d grown up together, children who were taught not to be truthful and honest, but how to keep secrets and avoid questions about their parents and home lives.
Juliette and Sebastian were legacies of the Trinity Masters, America’s oldest and most powerful secret society. The society had been established as the country was born. Members were given unparalleled access to the resources and support of other members. Joining was a guarantee of success, and members excelled in every type of industry, from politics to art and science. The founders had seen the potential to strengthen the foundation of the new republic by taking the best and brightest Americans and having them support each other.
But there was more to it than a vague idea of support. Members had to agree to an arranged marriage—the price of security and success was their choice in who they’d marry.
And marriages between members of the Trinity Masters weren’t arranged between two people, but three.
Sebastian had finally found his voice. “Are we talking about the same Harrison?”
“Apparently he’d been in love with this woman forever and was willing to risk it all to be with her.”
“Is he…I mean, have his councilors…” Sebastian had lowered his voice, and the skin around his eyes was tight with concern.