Arrival of the Traveler (Waldgrave Book 1) (43 page)

Griffin was excused back to his seat, and Daray was called to speak.

Howard started his commentary again. 
He’s saying the relics were just collector’s pieces, nothing special, and that they were so insignificant he didn’t even think the Council would care. He could have had them delivered, but as Griffin was going anyways, he thought it would be easier and safer to have them picked up.
 Howard gazed around behind him. 
Okay, Master Astley is saying that as Griffin is a member of the Daray house, and he’s proved himself not trustworthy, he should have the same restrictions placed on him that you, your mother, and your grandfather have…Master Perry is saying that it’s a stupid idea, as the only reason we have such restrictions is for your own safety and to prevent Daray from actively seeking and opening the portal. He’s making the point that any person here could try to find the portal and bring it here, Griffin is no exception…Master Astley is getting very upset, Master Alarid is asking why we even bother with such a trivial issue, he’s out of prison now and the relics look fairly innocuous.

Displayed at the front of the room, they did look innocuous. There was a small wood chest, maybe only twelve inches long, a large book, and a shard of a mirror. Lena wasn’t sure how they had managed to get them back from customs, but she was willing to bet the government didn’t know they were missing.

Master Mason is siding with Master Astley, as if the habit is allowed to continue it allows Daray a means of searching for the portal without Council knowledge.
 There was a loud sound from the back of the room, and several people spun around in shock. Master Alarid had slammed his fist down on the desk. 
Okay, Master Alarid is now making the point that the portal belongs to Daray anyways, as it had belonged to his ancestors, and he finds it ridiculous that the Council has restricted religious belief and practice so definitely. Master Astley is…using expletives, and is generally unhappy with Master Alarid’s position, because the Council has not restricted religious practice. It has restricted the use of possible unknown biological weaponry…

And the use of the word ‘weaponry’ started a whole new debate. Lena looked around her and saw people rolling their eyes and sighing heavily. Apparently this debate had happened a few times before. It went on until lunch break was announced by the moderator, and everyone filed down to the dining room, where the debate continued.

“I can’t believe this. I can’t believe we’re wasting time on this again.” Greg Mason sat down next to Lena and Howard. “Can’t we just, for once, know the issues, sit down, and take a vote on whether or not we think punishment or restrictions are in order?”

Howard gave him an almost sarcastic look of disapproval. “Now, Greg…This was all new for Lena, wasn’t it?”

Lena nodded. “Parts of it, anyway.”

“Yeah…I bet you never thought Council was so…chaotic.” Greg grumbled.

“Uncivilized? Yeah, it was getting a little hot in there. I’d never have guessed that everyone was toning it down so much when they were outside that room.” Lena looked around the dining room, surprised to see everyone so instantly calm as the food was brought out. A plate landed in front of Lena, and she looked around and saw Devin. He winked. Lena started looking for the note, and found it in the napkin that was wrapped around her silverware.

Don’t eat the soup.

Cards tonight 10:00 p.m.

Lena’s eyes shot to the people sitting across the table from her. They were all sitting at the smaller, round tables because it created a “sense of equality” more so than the large head table that was used for dinners. Other than Howard and Greg, her only other table mates were Masters Abbott, his heir, Perry, and some guy whose name she couldn’t remember, but who she remembered hanging around her grandfather a lot during the last Council. She looked back at the note, careful not to think too loudly about what it said. A lot of things could have happened to that soup.

Greg didn’t seem too interested in his soup, which was good, but Howard already had a spoonful en route to his mouth. Lena caught his arm as inconspicuously as she could and shook her head when he looked over at her. He put the spoon down and pushed his soup away. He didn’t want to know what was wrong with it, but he was certainly glad that Lena had friends in the kitchen.

*****

CHAPTER 3

“Mrs. Corbett?”

After the evening meeting that day, Lena went to collect her belongings from the room on the fourth floor. Griffin had told her there was a small guest room elsewhere on the floor that wasn’t being used, and though she hadn’t found it yet, she was determined not to spend another night in the same room with Mrs. Corbett and her son. It was too…unnerving. Lena had stayed awake at night, afraid that if she fell asleep Mrs. Corbett would forget who she was and she would awake to find the woman standing over her with a knife, or worse, having done something to Darius.

“Mrs. Corbett?” Lena cautiously walked into the room. Mrs. Corbett was sitting on her bed, calmly reading a book. When she didn’t see Darius, she walked over to the crib; it was a little early to be putting him down…

It was empty. “Mrs. Corbett, where’s your son?”

She looked up from her book, confused. “How should I know?”

Lena ran to the bathroom, but he wasn’t in there. She ran to the closet, checked under the bed, and checked everywhere else she could think to look as Mrs. Corbett watched her disdainfully. Finally, she spoke up.

“Don’t you know where he is?” Mrs. Corbett asked calmly.

“No, I don’t!” Lena said anxiously.

She paused. “That’s good. I prefer it that way. Now, what are you looking for?”

Lena stared at her for a moment, then ran back out into the hallway and across to the other side of the house, where she frantically pounded on Griffin’s bedroom door. He didn’t answer, and she tried to decide whether or not she should just go in.

Griffin!

What?!

She pounded on the door again, and a minute later he answered the door in a bath robe. Apparently, he had been in the shower.

“What?!” He snapped again.

“Your…Darius is gone.” Lena said quickly. “I was just in your mom’s room and I can’t find him, and she’s gone crazy Griffin, it’s like she doesn’t even care! She’s gone totally—“

Griffin looked annoyed; she was overreacting. “Okay, calm down. I took him. No one’s supposed to know where he is, because that’s the point.”

Lena stopped. “What?”

Griffin turned and walked back into his room. He left the door open like he expected her to follow him, but she wasn’t sure if it was appropriate. He gestured for her to follow him and she stepped inside and closed the door, knowing full well that she would get a load of paperwork if Howard ever found out. Griffin’s room was larger than hers, and she wasn’t sure why, but it evoked a slight sense of jealousy in her. It was done up with a dull red color palette, except the molding and curtains which were a deep bronze. Griffin walked back into the bathroom and closed the door. Lena sat down in a sitting area next to the windows and tried not to feel unnerved by the fact that she was hanging out in Griffin’s bedroom.

I took him because she clearly wasn’t going to be able to take care of him much longer. He’s been placed with a family until he’s of age to take his place in the Council. Assuming, of course, that they agree to hold the position for him.
 The door opened, and Griffin came out again, dressed in his nightclothes. “Though it is nice to see you concerned for him. I distinctly remember you being entirely against their moving in here to begin with. Grown a little attached?”

Lena sighed, lightly touching the velvet curtains. “Just…concerned. You checked out the family?”

“He’ll be fine.” Griffin walked over and sat in the chair across from Lena. “Unless you want to keep him?”

Lena looked out the window. Griffin’s room had a good view of the mountains, and it was a completely cloudless night. The stars and crescent moon were spectacular. She cast her eyes back at Griffin. “No. I’m glad he found a good family.”

Griffin sat back in his chair and studied the view out the window. “Have you found your room yet?”

“Of course.” Lena lied, standing up and starting toward the door; it was a little intimidating to be on Griffin’s turf. It gave him a psychological advantage that she didn’t want him to have.

Griffin got up and started walking behind her. “I’ll show you where it is.”

Lena turned around when she got to the door. Griffin was smirking; she hadn’t seen him do that in a while. “Good trip?”

“Yeah. It was good…until the end.”

“I bet. You make any new…friends…in jail?” She jabbed.

Griffin put his hand on the door, stopping Lena from opening it. “It seems you made some while I was gone.”

Lena’s eyebrows raised. “Those are old friends.”

“More than friends, if you ask me.”

“No one asked you.” Lena crossed her arms and raised her chin a little. Griffin’s expression soured slightly. “You’re wrong. And you didn’t have to go all spastic last night, because I had it under control.”

“Rollin is trouble. I’ve already spoken to some of the other families about him. And you didn’t have it under control; he was the one who caused all the trouble after my father died. He’s the reason we had to disband the whole household.”

Lena stared at him for a moment. There wasn’t any hint of a lie in his eyes—he had known Rollin far before that night in the kitchen. Lena hated to acknowledge the fact that he might know more about it than she did; she still didn’t agree with what he had done, especially given the fact that Lena felt Rollin had made several valid points. She had found herself unable to stop thinking about how passionate he had been.

“Devin is just a friend. That’s all.” She shook her head.

Griffin tilted his head slightly. His expression was still very serious. “That’s not what he thinks.”

“Oh…whatever. Sure, Griffin.”

Griffin opened the door and gestured her out into the hall. He walked her down a hallway to the left, made a sharp turn, and Lena found herself at a dead end. Griffin opened a door to what was little more than a large closet, but there was a bed.

“It’s not much. I think Master Daray used to keep his personal attendant in here, but it should do, since you’re obsessed with helping the less worthy. It goes without saying that you’re not sleeping here until tomorrow night, after you’ve run the idea by Howard, I take it?”

Lena nodded. “That would be correct. Thanks, Griffin.”

“You’re welcome. I’m sure my mother won’t object to sharing her bathroom, either.”

Lena wasn’t entirely sure he was right, but she had seemed significantly calmer without Darius around. “Okay. Thanks.”

But Griffin continued to stand there.

“What?”

Griffin was suddenly too serious, but he was smiling a little. “We’re going to set some ground rules now that Council is back in session. Are you going to get jealous again if I try to live my life the way I want to?”

Lena studied him. She wasn’t sure if he was teasing her or not. Without saying it, they both knew he was talking about the incident involving Bianca Channing the previous year. “I wasn’t jealous of her.”

Griffin almost laughed. “Sure you weren’t. But if you’re going to date…those types, then I think I should be allowed to explore my own options.”

“We’re not dating.” Lena narrowed her eyes.

Griffin furrowed his brow. “Then you want me to wait…”

“Yes. No! I meant no. I mean, that’s not what I said, I was just asserting the fact we’re not dating. He and I. Or you and I. None of the three of us are dating. Just friends, now and always. Clear?” Lena felt her face go red. She had said something that she knew Griffin would interpret as a Freudian slip, if he had caught it.

Griffin gave her a sidelong glance. “No.”

Lena nodded curtly. “Then date whoever you want to. I don’t care.”

She did care, but not the way she expected to. Probably not the way he expected, either. After a great deal of introspection, she had decided she cared merely because she liked the attention; not because she liked him 
that
 way. It was because there was so little to do around Waldgrave, and Griffin provided entertainment, and if he started being interested in anyone else, her distraction of having him around to entertain her was done for. For this reason she had a vested interest in his remaining single—not for any other reason.

Griffin took a deep breath, let it out, and nodded. “Well. Goodnight then.”

He turned and started back down the hallway. Lena watched him go, then walked into her new room; it dawned on her that she had left her overnight supplies in Mrs. Corbett’s room. She grabbed the pillowcase off the foot of the bed and tied it around the outside door handle to be sure she could find the room again, retrieved her things, and came back. She made up the bed, read for an hour, and then fell asleep.

“And you play 
cards
 with them? Lena, please tell me you win…”