Страница 80 из 84
Mark wasn’t sure what he was seeing. Stella knelt by the side of the bed farthest from the window, then stood holding something. Mark’s mind rebelled when he realized it was an arm, a man’s arm.
“He always slept with one arm hanging over the edge of the bed,” Alexis said, “ever since I gave him the Choice.”
“Who?” Mark asked.
“Geoff,” Stella answered. “This is all that’s left of him.”
Reinette swayed, and Ramon moved to catch her as she fainted.
“How did this happen?” Alexis demanded, eyes flashing. Her languor of the night before was gone-Mark hadn’t realized that she was Geoff’s dam.
“I don’t know,” Ramon stammered. “My servants are trained to perfection. They would never do such a thing.”
“They must be questioned.”
“I’ll see to it immediately.” Realizing that he was still holding Reinette, he looked around, as if for a convenient shelf on which to place her.
“Take her to my room,” Vilmos said. Mark hadn’t even seen him-for once, he wasn’t the center of attention.
“Gods above, Vilmos!” Alexis said. “Control your appetites!”
“How dare you imply-”
“Give her to Mark,” Stella said calmly. “He can watch over her.”
Mark wasn’t sure if it was because he was trusted or because he was too low in the pecking order to be a threat, but both Alexis and Vilmos nodded in agreement, and Ramon passed the unconscious woman to him almost tenderly. The other vampires stepped aside, and Mark carried Reinette to his and Stella’s room. Fortunately, they’d left the door open. He hesitated about whether or not to put her on the bed, and deciding to avoid giving the wrong impression, laid her on the sofa.
Reinette stayed out for over an hour, while Mark went back to work on Vilmos’s finances. Though he kept hoping Stella would let him know what was happening, they were left alone. Finally Mark heard Reinette’s breathing and heart rate change, and after a moment, she spoke.
“Is Geoff really dead?” she asked in a tiny voice.
Technically, Geoff had been dead for years, but Mark didn’t think she was in the proper frame of mind for technicalities. “I’m afraid so.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and he was touched by the depth of her emotion until she choked out, “Then what happens to me?” and burst into the most a
Mark found a box of tissues to give her, but felt helpless otherwise. Presumably he could have held her or patted her back, but he didn’t want to touch her.
Suddenly she stopped. “There was something about this in my contract! Think, Reinette, think!”
“Silly girl, nobody expects you to do that.”
Mark and Reinette looked up to see Ramon in the doorway.
“Ramon, do you know what my contract says about Geoff dying before the term is up?” she asked.
“Probably the usual provision for you to get everything you would have if he’d lived: the stipend, the pension, the house.”
“And the jewelry?”
“I suppose,” he said, “but that’s all moot.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that the only provision of your contract that applies is one about punishment for killing your patron. Once you’re found guilty by the tribunal, you’ll be given to Geoff’s sire, which means you’ll be spending the rest of your life as Alexis’s belonging. Did I mention that she’s quite angry at you for killing Geoff?”
“But I didn’t!”
“Every other human in the house has been bespelled and questioned, and none of them went into that room today. It had to have been you who opened the curtain.”
“It wasn’t! Bespell me and ask me.”
“You know that’s not possible.”
“Why not?” Mark asked.
“Reinette was rendered immune from bespelling,” Ramon explained. “It’s part of the bond between a concubine and a vampire. How else could it be a binding contract?”
Reinette said, “You can’t give me to Alexis! I told her she looked old, and she hates me because it’s true.”
“That wasn’t very diplomatic,” Ramon said, clicking his tongue.
She started crying again, even more loudly.
“Ramon, are you serious? Alexis is going to own Reinette?”
“Marcus, don’t tell you me you’re squeamish about the fate of a murderer.”
“What I’m squeamish about is slavery. How do we even know she’s guilty?” Mark had eaten at the same table as Reinette no more than two hours before Geoff’s remains were found. He couldn’t believe she’d just killed her patron or intended to do so within the next few minutes. Nobody was that good an actress.
“Don’t worry. The tribunal will prove that she’s guilty first-it shouldn’t take long.” He checked his watch. “They’ve given Reinette an hour to prepare.”
“An hour?”
“Why waste time? I’m to stay with Reinette so she doesn’t cheat by killing herself-Alexis is hinting that she’ll let us all sample her this evening.”
The concubine broke into fresh wails. As for Mark, he wished he hadn’t eaten real food that evening, because he felt very close to losing it at the thought. “But Reinette will have a chance to defend herself?”
“If she likes, or she can pick a spokesman. Maybe I’ll volunteer. It might be fun.” Ramon snapped his fingers. “Hold on! Didn’t Stella tell me you’re a lawyer?”
“I do financial pla
“Close enough. You can give me some tips. Are there any appropriate Latin phrases? Habeas corpus?”
“Ramon, you can’t make a joke out of Reinette’s life. Get somebody who’ll take it seriously.”
“Oh, nobody else dares face Alexis’s wrath. I’m only willing to risk it for the amusement value.”
Mark looked at Reinette, who’d thrown herself on the couch sobbing, then remembered the stories his mother had told him about their ancestors who’d been part of the Underground Railroad. “Tell me how the tribunal works, Ramon. I’ll defend Reinette.”
Given the choice between Ramon’s mocking and defending herself, Reinette leapt at Mark’s offer, even if he was a baby vampire. Fortunately, Ramon restrained his sense of the absurd long enough to give Mark a brief but thorough description of vampiric legal procedures, which were fairly simple.
The vampires present would choose a judge to oversee the tribunal, usually the most senior vampire present. Both sides would present their cases, and the judge would make a ruling. Any punishment would be carried out immediately. Fairness was ensured by vampires’ long memories-nobody wanted to be accused of favoritism by a vampire who might be in charge of his tribunal in a decade’s time.
There were no formal rules of evidence or testimony, and of course, nobody swore on the Bible.
“Is there anything else I should know?” Mark asked.
“Like the part about your having to suffer the same punishment as the accused, should she be found guilty?”
Mark blinked.
Ramon broke into laughter. “I’m kidding, Marcus. We’re a tad more civilized than that.”
“Other than the part about letting Alexis torture Reinette.”
“I did say ‘a tad.’”
“Fine.” With only a few minutes left, and knowing vampires’ love for style, Mark dressed in his best suit while Reinette made what repairs she could to her face. She ran roughshod over Stella’s makeup in the process, but that was the least of Mark’s worries. At the last moment, he grabbed a pad and pen just because he thought he should have one.
Reinette clung to his arm the whole way to the ballroom, and Mark was afraid he was going to have to carry her the last few steps, but just before she reached the door, she straightened up and stepped inside proudly and defiantly.
“Very Joan of Arc,” Ramon said, but Mark was impressed. Maybe she wasn’t a total waste of space after all.
The ballroom furnishings had been rearranged to mimic a modern-day courtroom, with a judge’s bench, tables for the prosecution and defense, and a witness chair. The gallery was already filled with vampires and, at the very back, frightened-looking humans. Presumably they were there to witness the cost of treachery.