Page 113 of Ashen Torment

I drum on the table with my other hand.

“Probably not.”

“Then that would be kidnapping, brother. Where do you get such thoughts?”

“And how should I do it then?” I exclaim, lifting my hands in an exasperated gesture.

“But what on earth could you have to discuss that is so private?” he asks, leaning against the doorframe with interlaced hands.

“It doesn’t matter!”

“It matters if you are talking about kidnapping!”

Exasperated, I slam my fist on the table.

“I never said kidnapping! You said it!”

Lucien’s eyelids flicker, but he doesn’t retreat.

“If you say you want to lead someone into the woods who wouldn’t wish to accompany you...”

Kidnapping? If I took him somewhere…

I take the glass in my hand, turning it over and over between my fingers.

Perhaps…

“But who would it be, anyway?” he insists.

It is absurd.

“If you took a woman into the woods, she would fear the worst, brother. Think carefully, and honestly, you’ve never needed such... expedients.”

But then, this way he couldn’t flee.

I stare at his face to keep myself from doing anything else.

Kidnapping… Of course, I could easily overpower him. That malchik is not of a slight build, but I could take him wherever I please.

Lucien shifts his gaze from my face to the handkerchief clenched in my hand, then back to me.

“Is this person the owner of the handkerchief?”

Instinctively, I crumple it in my hand, hiding it from his sight.

He laughs softly. “Who could it possibly be? Lady Isobel has truly enchanted you, at las—”

I cut his sentence short by hurling the glass against the wall. The glass shatters with a dull sound, the brandy sliding down the wall to the floor.

“I care nothing for that stupid Isobel! She is nothing to me, do you understand!?”

Why the hell does everyone assume I care about her?

I am simply being polite.

Nothing more.

Surprised by the outburst, he steps back a few paces, hands raised in a gesture of surrender.