Chapter 19: Elsa's Gift

Sergio cut the wax with a thumbnail and read the card standing up.

"What does it say?" I asked.

He handed it to me.

It was written in Elsa's looping hand, and it was warm.

Dearest Élise, it said. The table will sit tonight at nine, at the house of the man who asked for the vote.

The old law lets him call it early when the heir has been seen in a collar before a crowd.

You must be there in person, or the seat is forfeit.

Your men may enter by the front door and sit at the back. I am sorry it came to this.

Under the card, in a nest of black tissue, lay a gold cuff for the wrist, with a ring set in it.

It matched the one on my collar.

"She's gift-wrapped a leash," Marco said.

"She is not wrong about the law," Sergio said.

He turned the envelope over, and his face was grim.

"I know the clause. I never thought I would see it used."

"Is the man who asked for the vote her backer?"

"The only one who could be," Marco said. "He's been at that table forty years, and he has never once voted against his own interest."

I picked the cuff up.

It was heavy and cold, and it fit my wrist exactly.

I dropped it on the bedspread.

"I won't wear her gift."

"You don't have to."

"I'll go as myself."

"Then we leave at six," Sergio said, "and you leave at eight."

"Why apart?"

"You'll go in the second car with the driver. Marco and I will be at the table before you arrive."

"And if he starts the vote without me?"

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