Fallen by P.J. Fox

Author:P.J. Fox [Fox, P.J.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Evil Toad Press
Published: 2017-04-18T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Victimized

Grace adjusted herself in her chair. She clearly felt victimized. Ani hoped that it was just as clear how much she, herself, didn’t care. How, she asked herself for the millionth time, had everything gone so wrong—and so quickly? This couldn’t be the woman she’d grown up with. And yet it was. Somehow, it was.

After what felt like a lifetime, Grace stood up. “I’m going to bed.”

“Yes,” Dane said. “Please do. I can see that you’ve overwhelmed yourself with grief.”

Grace shot him a look, but—mercifully—kept her mouth shut.

Ani waited until her aunt’s retreating footsteps were no longer audible and then let out a breath she hadn’t been aware she was holding.

Dane sipped his sherry. After a minute, Ani tried hers, too. “This isn’t bad.”

“I rather like it.”

Ani smiled. Probably only because she’d drunk too much wine at dinner. She’d thought that Grace’s sudden explosion had sobered her completely but no, the pleasant buzzing was still there. It was all the more pleasant, now, too, that Grace was gone. “So,” she said. “Scott.”

“Yes. And Buchannan’s proper name is Charla. She hates it, though; she claims it doesn’t suit her.”

Ani felt herself relaxing into the cushions of the couch. “You’ve known her a long time.”

“She was my nurse.”

And here, Dane had surprised her again.

“Grace….” Dane considered. His sherry twinkled in the reflected glow of the fire. The already deep amber looked almost ruby. It gave his skin a warm cast, too. Making him seem, Ani thought, far less cold and aloof than usual. Almost human. She had a brief vision of him, kneeling by the side of the tub, his shirtsleeves rolled up and water splashed down his front. She shifted in her seat.

“Grace,” he began again, “is upset that she’s been displaced. Which excuses nothing, of course. But I find, personally, that it often helps to…understand. A person’s motives. Their situation.”

Ani nodded, slowly. She couldn’t imagine how. But she also couldn’t imagine feeling any worse.

“She’s gone from being the mistress of her own domain to being entirely dependent on charity.”

“She was the master, before, as well.” Ani spoke quietly. “My uncle…let her do as she pleased. She thought, because he was too weak to stand up to her. But it was because he loved her.” And now her aunt was living with a man who never rolled over, for anything.

Or anyone.

“A woman both conscious of her social status, and expectant of…favors. This is a dangerous combination, Antoinette.”

Ani couldn’t help herself. “For a man as well?”

Dane arched an eyebrow. “For a man, even more so.”

“I always thought….” Ani stared into the depths of her glass, willing answers to appear there. “I always thought that we were close. Or, at least, close enough. Not like you and your uncle, but….”

“No two people should be as close as me and my uncle.”

“I didn’t think things were terrible.”

“I know.”

“Lisa and her parents get along. More or less. And I thought….” Ani waved her hand in a helpless gesture. “I thought we were more like that.

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