“Girls, witch-child,” he said as he uncapped a pen. “If you want to invite some of the young men from the school, you can have an afternoon gathering here at the town house. If you want an overnight house party at the Hall, the invitation is only for girls.”
She’d expected that, so she nodded. Delora would be disappointed that he’d limited it to twenty girls, but they could accommodate Delora’s and Zoey’s closest friends in that number. “Twenty girls at the Hall.” She nodded, then smiled brightly. “The guest rooms near my room—”
“No, they will not be in the family wing. We’ll use the square of guest rooms nearest the sitting rooms at the front of the Hall. Easier for everyone that way.” His smile was warm, but there was a slight chill in his gold eyes. “The names of your guests and where their families are located?”
She felt a shiver of alarm. “Why do you need to know that? It’s just a party for some girls at the school.”
“I need to inform each girl’s parents or legal guardian that she will be attending a house party and staying here overnight. Therefore, I need the information.”
Or the house party doesn’t happen. That was what he didn’t say but meant.
Guests were housed by degree of trust. The most trusted were given rooms in the family wing, which also meant having access to more of the Hall as people navigated the corridors to public rooms like the dining room or the sitting rooms or one of the libraries. Guests who were an unknown were usually housed nearest the public rooms, and wandering around was discouraged by the number of footmen stationed in the corridors to “help” guests find their way around—and to report guests who were where they had no business being.
She didn’t know where Delora’s family resided, but she was certain the idea of the house party would end the moment she said the other girl’s name. Just like Delora had said it would.
“Zoey and Titian, of course.” She wanted to be snippy and ask if he needed to know where their families resided, but snippy would crush the house party and it would be months, if ever, before she could bring up the request again.
She told him the names of the girls who had been at Titian’s Winsol party and were among Zoey’s group of friends but admitted she didn’t know them well enough to give him the location of their families.
“That’s all right,” he said as he wrote the names in that beautiful script that was ornate and yet perfectly readable. “I believe I have that information for most of the girls, and the school can oblige me by providing the information I don’t have.” He looked up. “Anyone else?”
It would be harder to sneak Delora and Hespera in if no one from her group was on the list. “Leena and Tacita. They usually spend time with another group of girls, but I’m certain they would like to get to know Titian and Zoey better. My apologies, Father, but I don’t know their home villages.”
“Anyone else?” he asked.
She wondered if a mouse felt like this when the cat’s claws were on its back. Just tell him! If he gets upset about the guests, Delora can find another time and place to talk to Zoey. “No, no one else.”
“All right,” he said after a moment. “When would you like to do this?”
“At the end of the week?”
Silence. Then a whispered, “That soon?”
She wasn’t sure he was talking about the house party.
He sighed. “Very well, witch-child. Lady Zhara is coming for dinner tonight. Would you like to join us?”
“Thank you, but I should get back to the school. There’s a lot to do before the party, and I didn’t want to say anything to the other girls until I had your permission.” She sprang out of her chair, came around the desk, and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Thank you, Father.”
“You’re welcome. Don’t worry about the arrangements. I’ll take care of that part.”
She hurried out of the study, then had to wait for Helton to send a footman for a driver and one of the small Craft-powered coaches her father often used in the city.
Delora wasn’t going to be happy about Father knowing Leena and Tacita would be at the party, but they would have to work around that in order for the two groups to come together on neutral ground.
Daemon stared at the list of names. He’d given Jaenelle Saetien every opportunity to ask if she could invite Delora and that coven to the house party. She’d been so pissy when she hadn’t been allowed to invite the bitches to Titian’s party, but when she was making up the guest list, she hadn’t even asked.
Half-truths and lies of omission.
Well, he could play the game of half-truths and lies of omission too. He knew how to contact the families of most of the girls because Titian and Zoey had supplied the information when Titian had hosted her Winsol party. The rest of them? He would ask Lady Fharra to supply the contact information for the other girls Jaenelle Saetien had named since that would be expected. As for the girls he anticipated his daughter would include as last-minute guests? Well, he couldn’t contact their parents, could he?
At the bottom of the list, he wrote the names Delora, Hespera, Amara, Borsala.
Besides, he didn’t need to ask anyone about their contact information. He already knew where to find their families.
“Only twenty?” Delora let her stare convey her sharp disappointment in Jaenelle Saetien, let it say without words that the girl had failed to meet the standards of a true aristo witch. “But the Hall is so big! Surely it can accommodate more than twenty guests?”
“That’s enough invitations for your core of friends and Zoey’s to spend time together,” Jaenelle Saetien said defensively. “My father set the limit. If I had pressed for more girls to stay overnight, he would have said no to all of it.”
Well, they would have to work with that. As long as Insipid Zoey was there, the boys would have some fun.
“I had to tell my father that Leena and Tacita were invited.”
“What? Why did you do that?”
“I had to give him the names of the girls I was inviting so that he could contact their families.”
Hell’s fire! No, that might be better. No one could deny where the “accidents” took place if Prince Sadi informed everyone’s parents that the girls would be at his home.
She would just have to make sure he and his whore wife were summoned away from SaDiablo Hall while the party was going on. Hespera might have ideas about how to achieve that, and hadn’t Krellis mentioned something about a school hidden away on a SaDiablo estate?
Delora pitched her voice to sound uncertain. “Did you tell your father about me or Hespera? Did you tell him we’d like to come to make amends to Zoey and Titian?”
Jaenelle Saetien shook her head. “But if you come in with Leena and Tacita and the rest of the girls, he won’t shame me or you by telling you to leave.”
“And you’ll have room for Amara and Borsala too?”
“Yes.”
“And we can have the house party at the end of the week?”
Jaenelle Saetien nodded.
Delora looked around as if just noticing the empty green. “Oh! We’d better get to the dining hall or we’ll be late for dinner.”
After dinner, Delora, Hespera, and the rest of her coven slipped away to meet up with Krellis and the other boys who would help provide the sharp entertainment at the house party.
Daemon appreciated Zhara’s effort to keep the conversation at dinner light. They talked about the latest plays and which ones they had enjoyed. They talked about books, including Jillian’s story.
Zhara frowned and cut a small piece of beef into smaller pieces. “Let me see if I understand this. Lady Jillian submitted her story to the publishing house you own. She was accompanied by Lady Marian Yaslana, your sister by marriage, when she met with the acquisitions editor. But you haven’t been allowed to read the story or express an opinion about whether or not your editor should publish the book because that might unduly influence her decision?”