Chapter 14: Tea for Two

The invitation was on my pillow at dawn, on cream card, in handwriting I knew.

Tea for two, it said. The parlor, ten o'clock. Do wear something comfortable.

"Don't go," said Dottie, who had read it over my shoulder.

"The old woman said she can't kill me."

"She can bore you to death."

"I'm bringing a witness."

"I'm bringing a plate," Dottie said, and she did.

The parlor was yellow and smelled of lemon polish.

There was a round table laid for two, with a place card at each setting.

Mine said POPPY in gold ink.

Dottie's said NOBODY, and she sat down at a side table with her plate anyway.

"Poppy, dear," Odette said, and kissed the air next to my cheek. "Sit. I've poured."

There was a cup already waiting at my place, steaming.

I sat and did not touch it.

"I wanted us to talk like family," Odette said, and folded her hands. "You've had such a difficult month."

"I've had a difficult wedding."

"Which is why I thought of the Council of Pearls."

"The what?"

"The women who sit beside the alpha. It has twelve chairs." She smiled. "One of them is empty, and I believe it should be yours."

I took out my pad.

"That's very kind," I said. "What does it pay?"

"It isn't about pay."

"Everything's about pay."

She laughed.

"Then let me be practical. A chair on the council, and the deed to the library, in your name."

I wrote it down: Council chair, one. Library, deed.

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