Ring. Sister. Piano (Book 4 of The Powder Trail)

Chapter Forty Two: How Story-book Girls Say No

It was hard, keeping his mouth shut. He wasn't just worried about Ellini and his girls. He was worried about what was going to happen next. There were so many combustible elements in this situation, not least the branches crackling merrily above their heads. Matthi was angry, Ellini was angry, Robin was leaning lazily against the nearest gargoyle, ready to fan the flames for his own advantage.

And she had asked him not to fight, not to argue. How was he supposed to watch this unravel without getting involved? By pursing his lips and sticking his fingers in his ears?

But there was something holding him back. Well, he liked to think his devotion to Ellini was holding him back, but there was something else. This situation – the sight of her blood – should have made him more nervous than it did. 

But he had seen her as they'd been running across the lawns to the source of the disturbance. He had seen her with the smoke at her back, her hair uncoiled and draped over one shoulder like a black, shimmery python, and an expression that was – god, how to describe it? Not haughty or confident or threatening, just – composed. Serene. Otherworldly. Whatever you did, that look seemed to say, she would deal with it. And, equally, whatever you did, you would never matter.

This vision – revelation – whatever it had been, didn't make him any less anxious as he knelt beside her. It didn't lessen his desire to snatch her up in his arms and run off somewhere safer. It just... quieted him. It gave him the self-possession to keep silent – which, as it turned out, was a very good thing.

"Well," said Matthi, with prickly cheer. "While we're waiting to see whether any of our number 'as been murdered, can we address the logic behind keeping Anna alive?" She kept glancing at Ellini's bleeding arm, and it seemed to be goading her on.

"We – we should be finding out who let her go," said Ellini. "That's our priority."

"And when we do, we'll be punishing them rather than the knife-wielding maniac?"

"This wasn't supposed to happen..."

"No shit it wasn't supposed to 'appen!" Matthi shouted. "It can't be allowed to 'appen again!"

"Give her a break," said Robin. "She's had all these romantic liaisons and marriage proposals to contend with – is it any wonder her mind's not on the job?"

There was a chilly silence. As usual for Robin, this last remark was an attack on everyone. Elliott didn't want to hear about the liaison, Jack didn't want to hear about the marriage proposal, and Matthi didn't particularly want to hear about either. 

"My mind is on the job," said Ellini at last.

"And if," said Robin, spreading his hands innocently, "in the course of acquiring a husband, she decides to let a strange man into the Academy, well..."

Elliott bristled. "You can't be suggesting that I let her out? Why would I do that? I don't even know who she is!"

"No one thinks it was you, Elliott," growled Matthi. "This poisonous git aint got nothing better to do-"

"But, if it wasn't him, it must have been one of your beloved girls, mustn't it?" said Robin, with an expression of good-natured puzzlement. "Unless you think it was that choir-boy Danvers. Either way, it sounds like somebody's betrayed the sisterhood. Always happens, ladies. Way of the world. Women stick together until they get a whiff of a wedding-ring. "

They should have shouted him down. They should have just moved closer to the building – it wasn't as though he could follow. But Matthi must have been feeling suspicious, because she turned to Ellini instead of Robin, and said, "Are you marrying-?"