The Pawn novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Dinner with the Enemy

Nerina's POV

On the second morning the lock stayed open.

I found out when I tried the handle out of habit and the door swung into the hall.

A man in a dark jacket stood at the end of it with his hands folded.

He didn't stop me, and he didn't look away either.

I walked the house with the letter opener in my sleeve.

It was big and old and very quiet, with lake light in every room and no one in any of them.

There were no cameras that I could see.

There were four doors to the outside, and a guard at each.

By evening I had counted nine men on the grounds and a dock at the bottom of a long lawn.

At seven o'clock the housekeeper came to my room and said, "Mr. Pellegrino would like you to join him for dinner."

I almost said no.

Then I thought about the dock, and about what I could learn at a table, and I went.

The dining room had a long window onto the water.

Pellegrino sat at the head of a table set for two, in his gray cardigan, with his reading glasses folded by his plate.

There was soup, bread and a roast chicken.

He had cooked it himself, he said, because the cook had a cold.

I sat as far from him as the table allowed.

"You can eat it," he said. "I won't be offended if you make me taste it first."

"Taste it."

He did, without any fuss, and passed me the bread.

I ate, because I was hungry and angry and had decided hunger was no reason to stay weak.

The chicken was good.

That annoyed me too.

"How is your face?" he asked.

"Sore."

"I'm glad it isn't worse." He turned his glass a quarter turn on the cloth. "Nerina, I want to ask you something, and I want an honest answer. What did Cosimo Ruvolo tell you about why he chose you?"

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