Taken (Arcadia Book 2) by Mary Brock Jones

Author:Mary Brock Jones [Jones, Mary Brock]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mary Brock Jones
Published: 2021-04-09T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Dead quiet reigned when they walked back into the meeting room. Ethan drew in a breath and took his seat again. Sarwenna kept walking and took the seat farthest away, on the other side of the room.

He would have liked her beside him.

“Thank you for waiting for us,” he said, watching the faces in the room. Seeing who made a point of avoiding looking at Sar and who sent her a discreet glance … which faces sharpened as they did it, which softened with mouths creased in concern.

Her father was one of the ones soft with concern. Then he turned to Ethan and gave him a short nod. A commendation or a warning? Rhyn Beren, he was learning, was a master of the calmly composed front. No doubt living with a family including Ari and two lively boys did that, let alone his famously driven wife, but Ethan would have liked to be able to read the man.

To know what he saw today in Sar’s closed face.

Enough. He took a deep breath and stood to face the waiting townsfolk. “Sera Sarwenna and I have agreed to hold a meeting in a few days, once the union members have had time to review their notice packages. Solaris is not about to throw out anyone without support.”

“Your father on board with that?” said the mayor dryly.

“It’s consistent with Solaris policy, and he put me in charge of this project.”

From the looks on their faces, those watching believed that as much as he did. He ploughed on regardless. “Sulwith needs to diversify. To create a sound economic base not reliant only on Solaris. That’s the reason I asked you to come here. I’m told you’re the ones in Sulwith with ideas. If anyone can come up with ways to help your town survive, it’s the people in this room.”

Still the carefully masked faces.

“Let me start,” Ethan said in an attempt to break through their walls. “I walked through Sulwith after the storm. It was a bad one with little warning, but you got by with relatively minimal damage and no deaths. I’ve seen the standard plans for Solaris-built towns and Sulwith still shows elements of it, but someone has seriously modified the original designs of the buildings to better fit your location. Who, and how, is what we need to know. Skills like that are highly sought after, and will be more so when the warnings about what faces Arcadia come true.”

Nothing. Stubborn, blank faces refusing to answer. Did they think he’d steal their designer from them? Maybe he could try with dollops of credit, but he seriously doubted it would work. Not if they were like the rest who chose this tough place to live. He looked around the room, hiding his desperation and shoving on the smile that had lured business partners to his side before. It only hardened the stiff-mouthed barrier. Finally he looked at Sarwenna, losing the false smile. She met his gaze and gave it back with one equally shielded.

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