Chapter 4: The Wrong Decanter

Supper began with three dishes disappearing before they reached the table.

Winnie took away the beetroot.

Elspeth intercepted the cranberry sauce.

Lucan caught the tomato soup at the door and asked for something else.

Roderick watched all three departures with growing irritation.

"We appear to be having potatoes," he said.

"There are excellent potatoes," Winnie replied.

She put a bowl in front of him.

My aunt inspected the very pale meal and decided it must be fashionable.

"A restrained table," she said.

I reached for the butter.

Lucan passed it before she could tell me to restrain myself.

His hand brushed mine around the dish.

He noticed me noticing and released it slowly.

I wanted him to do that again without either family watching.

The village guests sat farther down the table.

They had dressed carefully and were speaking very little.

One woman kept glancing toward Lucan whenever a spoon touched her plate.

I wished I'd been given the choice to welcome them without a demonstration attached.

Roderick lifted a decanter.

"To the proposed engagement," he said.

He filled Lucan's glass before the lord could stop him.

The drink was thick and red.

Lucan stared at it.

His fingers flattened against the tablecloth.

I watched the color leave his mouth.

It was a different sort of pallor from the one his family admired.

Winnie started toward him.

I reached the glass first.

"That's mine," I said.

Roderick looked at me sharply.

I tasted the drink.

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