A Lily Among Thorns(98)

“You couldn’t shoot me,” Serena said with confidence.

He smiled a little sadly. “That is why I am not pointing the gun at you.” And it was true, Solomon realized. The pistol was aimed straight and true for his own heart.





Chapter 24


Serena had a sudden vivid memory of pointing her pistol at the face of some drunk young tulip who’d broken into her room on a dare, back in the early days of the Arms. René had heard and come in. As in all battles, he’d said, the heart makes a better target than the head. Even if you are a little off, you are likely to hit some vital organ or other. She’d said she was never a little off, and he had smiled approvingly and shrugged and said, Have it your own way then, but he’d escorted the tulip off the premises himself and the next day the bar had appeared across her door—

Serena snapped herself back into the present.

“You can’t shoot him either,” she said calmly, still hoping against hope that she could somehow brazen this out. “He’s Elijah’s brother, or have you forgotten?”

“Back away from the table,” René repeated.

The look on his face made her ill. “Oh, but you would, wouldn’t you? And you would think you were doing a fine thing, a noble act, sacrificing your chance at happiness for—God, for what, René? Why the devil did you come back?”

“Back away from the table,” René said through gritted teeth, and he cocked the pistol.

Her back was against the wall and she couldn’t remember moving. The sound of that pistol cocking was the loudest thing she had ever heard. There was still a roaring in her ears like a hundred people cheering.

“Let him go,” she said, her voice sounding distant in her own ears. “Let him go, and I’ll give you whatever you want.”

“I don’t think so,” said René.

“I’ll sign over the Arms to you.”

René looked pitying. “I don’t want the Arms, sirène.”

Of course he didn’t want the Arms anymore. She couldn’t think. She had simply offered him the biggest thing she could think of, like poor Jenny Pursleigh trying to bribe her with sex and her carefully hoarded cash. René had ruined Jenny, too.

“It’s all right, Serena,” Solomon said. “Sacreval isn’t going to shoot me if you just do as he says.” He sounded calmer than she was. Her strength was just an act, had always been an act.

But it was an act she could still do. She drew in a deep breath and pulled herself up and away from the wall. “Very well, René. What is it you do want?”

René nodded at her approvingly, just as he had when she’d threatened the tulip, and she felt sick. “You are holding the Hathaway earrings, are you not?”

She unclenched her fist and held out her hand, palm up, so he could see the rubies in their box.

“Very good, sirène. I want you to examine them very carefully for any kind of catch or spring.”

It was hard to see, even in the light from Solomon’s newfangled clockwork lamp, but after an endless half minute or so she saw the tiny catch. She pressed it back, hard, and the central ruby and its gold backing popped out and lay in her hand.

René smiled in relief. “Excellent. Now, is there a piece of the backing that isn’t attached?”

She looked, and sure enough, a thin strip of gold flipped out and extended from the back center of the gem. It looked almost like a key—she gasped.

“Good,” he said, seeing that she understood. “Now do the same for the other and go and put them in their places.”

“They’ll go back together, won’t they?” Solomon asked worriedly. “Susannah needs them.”

“Hush, Solomon.” Serena walked over to the mantelpiece. The left ruby fitted perfectly into the empty socket at the bottom of Diana’s carved hair—she had always wondered why there was a tiny slit at the back. The other ruby fit equally perfectly into the empty socket in the sun’s biggest right-hand ray. She looked at René, waiting for his signal.

He nodded. “Turn them, I think. It will need both of you. I couldn’t reach, and between that and the guard you set on the room, I’ve had a devil of a time.”

“So sorry to have inconvenienced you.” Why had she posted the guard? If she hadn’t, he would be gone now. He’d only come back for this. If he hurt Solomon—