Corvus (Stars and Sails, Book 1)

Forty (Part 1 of 2)

Holden sank into the wingback chair as the front door opened. He tensed up. There wasn't a moment of silence in this godforsaken town. After that hellish town meeting, Holden wasn't ready for his next visitor. His father slipped in through the front door, sweat dripping down his forehead, shining on the tip of his sharp nose. He slackened his arms and rolled three leather bags off his shoulders. One dropped on its side, clothes spilling out across the uneven wooden floor.

Holden relaxed back in his chair as Zephram noticed him. "What are you so nervous about? You look tense." He returned the clothes to his bag.

"Thought you were someone else," Holden said. "So how was Trinity Gorge? How was Uncle Artem?"

"Huh?" Zephram wheezed, his face red and blotchy from the heat of mid-day.

"Your trip?"

"Oh, yes." He unbuttoned his waistcoat and threw it at the maid as she walked by. With a frown, she shook it out before wrinkles creased the cotton. "Trinity Gorge was pleasant. Artem was in good spirits."

"Really?" Holden couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. Only a week ago, Artem got thrown off his horse while out riding. Holden received a brief letter a day ago, stating that Artem was still suffering greatly.

"You must think a good deal of yourself to be interrogating your own father."

He hadn't thought of it as an interrogation. It was merely curious about Artem's condition. Artem looked just like Zephram, but he was calmer and kinder. During his four years in Trinity Gorge, Holden stayed with Artem at his little farmhouse.

"You've heard from your wife?" Zephram asked. Holden stood up and buried his hands in his pockets.

"Mm, no. I'm sure she's fine."

A harsh noise made Holden flinch—Zephram's caustic laughter that erupted and rolled out of him, easily without coaxing. "She's fine? Your wife is off fucking about the water and you've just given up?"

"What do you—what do you suppose I do? I've no idea where she is."

Zephram walked across the room, his eyebrows edging closer together. "What did I tell you? She's a low-class girl from an even lower-class family. I don't care how much money they have or how sympathetic you are toward that wagtail mother of hers, you're—"

"Sympathetic?" Holden stood his ground. His father wasn't taller than him, but somehow, ever since Holden was a boy, he felt like his father towered over him, and he hated the shadow that his brows cast over his face when he got angry. The way his lips thinned out when he snarled. It was a look Holden had seen one thousand times. He still craved the look of pride that his father had only ever shown him a few times. It was so strange, he thought, for the father of an only child to be so demanding. But Holden often found himself to be part of the unlucky variety. "This has nothing to do with Isabella Soledad's death. I can't—I can't believe you'd bring that up."

"You're afraid to talk about this town's demons? Or you just don't like to remember that Amelia Rose is the daughter of a vile old man?"

Holden shut his eyes tight. "Please stop talking about this. I was there. I know what happened and I don't want to—" Holden rubbed his forehead. "I just don't want to relive it."

"Snap on your suspenders, boy. We're not playing a fun little game," he said, arching his hands in the shape of a rainbow. "Go collect your bitch wife. You've embarrassed me. You've devastated your mother. You've made Aydesreve a laughing stock. I bet they're laughing about us right now in Dead Man's Palm. Out in Trinity Gorge. Oh, that Mayor got jilted by his floozy wife."

"Is that what they're saying?"

Zephram scrunched up his nose—a dirty, condescending look, that always made Holden feel terrible for asking a question that Zephram couldn't understand.

"Out in Trinity Gorge. When you were out there? Is that what they were saying?"

His father's jaw stiffened and his mouth opening just enough to show teeth. He took a great handful of Holden's collar. The neatly done cravat choked him, as his father twisted his collar in his fist. "This isn't about me." He let go and brought his palm across Holden's cheek, so hard that it took a few seconds for the pain to bubble to the surface. "Collect your wife."

"I don't know where she is."

"I swear to Cepheus, Joshua. Take care of her if you don't want to discover what I'm capable of."

Before Holden could respond with an incredulous laugh, there was a knock on the front door. Zephram walked out the back door—he lived in the guest house now that his term was up as Mayor, originally as a way to make room for Holden's family, but now it seemed like he was only doing it to create distance.

Tensing up again, Holden nodded at the maid as she stepped into the living room. "Get Mr. Cardozo settled in the guest room. Tell him that I'll join him shortly. She had the oddest look on her face, but he couldn't imagine why. Holden headed upstairs and disappeared into his bedroom.