Smoke, Steel, & Ivy by Amy Trent

Author:Amy Trent [Trent, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781956975161
Publisher: Grace Burrowes Publishing

Chapter Twenty-Five

Ivy pulled Mina from her shoulder, where her tears had made the fabric wet and clingy. She had to see Mina’s eyes.

“Who?” she asked.

She saw so much fear in Mina’s eyes.

Ivy held her sister by the shoulders. “Major Collin? The man on the table with the concussion?”

Mina nodded, and her eyes flooded once again with tears.

The library door opened and closed softly. Trina was on Mina’s other side on the stair. “Oh, poor Mina.” Trina rested a gentle hand on Mina’s back. “What’s wrong?” she demanded of Ivy.

The words didn’t come easily. They had to be marshaled, berated into doing their duty, into soldiering on when every inch of her wanted to stop, to crumple and despair. “She says Major Collin is Papa’s would-be assassin.”

“Surely not!” Trina blurted.

Mina wiped her hand across her running nose. “I want to go home!”

Ivy shushed Mina gently. “Just as soon as the trunks are packed, Mina. You’ll be home and asleep in your own bed this night. Everything will be right by then. Papa will be so pleased to see you, and he will be just fine. Not a scratch. Not a scratch on any of us.” Just Ivy’s hemorrhaging heart, which would need to be retrofitted with stronger steel and an artificial pump to keep beating. “I promise. Now…” Ivy took her littlest sister’s hands in both of hers. “Can you be brave for me and wait in the library for a few minutes while I take care of a few things?”

“I want to stay with you!” Mina cried.

“I have to put the major under arrest and lock him in his room.”

“And hold all of his companions for questioning,” Mina said, sniffling.

“Exactly so. Now, why don’t you get your coat, and you and Trina can walk outside and see if the sled is ready? Hmm? And then, in the sunshine, you can think of something nice. Like how happy Mistress Kitty will be when you return. I suspect she will not stop purring when she sees you.”

Mina nodded and ran up the stairs to the west wing.

“What are you going to do?” Trina asked.

“Pack you and Mina up and send you off as quickly as possible. I can’t risk her saying anything to the others. I am afraid I must insist you cease all communications with Phillip. Maybe this is easily explained.” Heavens, she hoped it would be easily explained, but three days before their final coup, she could take no chances.

“Maybe Major Collin has a doppelgänger?”

“I doubt it. Dammit. Why didn’t I see this before? I should have probed harder when he refused to swear allegiance to Papa.”

“But you said he swore allegiance to you,” Trina said. “Ivy?”

“Are the sleds ready?” Ivy asked.

“Nearly,” Trina said.

Ivy pulled her hair tightly away from her face. “Good. Take everyone.”

Pen came bursting in from the kitchen hall. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”

“Pen, the situation has changed.” Ivy rose from her perch on the stair. “You have to go home.”

“The engine block is cracked.” Pen’s eyebrows rose ominously.

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