Chapter 9: The Price Cards

Laura's POV

Every plate at the Price Dinner came with a bill.

I came down the stairs at seven with a check in my boot and sawdust still in my hair.

The long table was set for six, with candles and good plates.

Arthur stood at the far end holding a cream card, and his mother stood in the doorway holding nothing.

"Arthur, put it down," Winifred said.

He put it down.

He did not look at me, which is how I knew it was bad.

"Please sit where the cards say," Winifred said. "Peter, begin."

I found my place between Arthur and Holly's empty chair.

Peter stood at the sideboard and read from his clipboard in the voice of a man who had been told to.

"Tonight's theme is Accounting," he said.

"Each place card shows the cost to the Fund of the person sitting there. It is traditional, and I don't know why."

Esther sat down with her ledger and her pen, delighted.

Her card said HOBBIES, $2.1 MILLION.

"A sailboat that has never touched water," Esther told the table. "And a pottery wheel. And the donkey."

"What donkey?" Peter said.

"I'll tell you when you're older," Esther said.

Peter's own card said EDUCATION, $4.2 MILLION, and he looked at it for a long time.

"Four degrees," Winifred said. "No jobs."

"I have a job," Peter said. "I do the weekend."

"Yes," Winifred said. "We'll discuss that."

Arthur's card read NOTHING, BECAUSE HE IS THE HEIR, with a line under heir.

Nobody laughed, not even Esther.

Holly slipped in then, in a borrowed velvet gown, her copper hair wet and her face scrubbed pink.

She sat, and read her card, and her smile came off her face in a piece.

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