Chapter 12
Chapter twelve
The whole room was silent and still, apart from a quiet murmur from Rosalia, tucked away in the kitchen, then Hallie got to her feet. She didn’t want to face her mother at a disadvantage.
“I will not. As you well know, you have no claim on me any longer,” Hallie said, proud that her voice was calm and steady.
“Wilona, what is the meaning of this?” Kaherdin asked, getting to his feet as well and standing shoulder to shoulder with Hallie.
“I don’t need to explain myself to you,” Wilona said, the open contempt in her voice and face making Hallie want to stand in front of her father and protect him. But Kaherdin didn’t flinch. He stayed where he was. The show of support made Hallie want to hug him.
“Magravine, I don’t understand,” Morgana said, in a calm voice. “You have severed Hallie from the family vine completely. She can only go back if she consents, and she has clearly not consented.”
“I’m not interested in your opinion or her wishes,” Wilona said. She was white with anger, dark eyes burning in her pale face, dark hair pulled back in a severe knot which accentuated the lines and bones of her face, and made her look older.
“That’s too bad,” Hallie said. She took a step away from the table, drawing Wilona’s attention to her. “I am not coming back to the vine. You know that. I don’t understand why you keep trying to insist that I do.”
Hallie had a couple of ideas about why Wilona was so adamant that her rejected daughter be forced back into the vine, and neither of them were particularly nice.
Either Wilona thought she could wheedle even more money out of Cotovatre in payment for Hallie’s continued freedom, or Wilona was quite serious about wanting Hallie’s magical abilities within the vine.
In either event, Hallie knew her mother well enough to understand that nothing she said or did - no matter how hard she tried - was going to change Wilona’s mind.
Which was why, when Wilona had first tried to get her back into the vine, Hallie had called for backup in the form of Cotovatre.
The lady had, after all, been the one to secure Hallie’s release from the vine.
But despite weeks of talks between the lady’s and Wilona’s lawyers, the Magravine had not yet given up.
Seeing her mother’s face, Hallie had a sinking feeling that she would never, ever release her supposed claim on her daughter.
It made her want to scream and cry at the same time.
Wilona did not want her as a daughter, and had not wanted her since the aftermath of the night a decade before when Hallie had been attacked and left for dead.
It had taken a few days after the attack for Wilona to realise that her youngest child was no longer completely human.
Not suitable to be part of the Talbot blood family.
Tainted, in Wilona’s eyes. But Wilona did see Hallie as a useful resource, and Wilona liked to keep hold of useful resources.
It was one of the traits that made her a successful head of the family vine, and one of the richest women in low city, even if her wealth was not apparent from her drab and threadbare clothes.
Hallie had long ago accepted that her mother did not have any warm or maternal feelings for her.
The acceptance didn’t stop the hurt, though and Hallie could feel her throat closing as she was once more faced with the harsh truth that her mother didn’t love her, not one bit.
Rage was easier, and Hallie had plenty of that as well.
Over the past two and a half weeks she’d been given a glimpse into what life could be like if she could live it on her own terms. She’d travelled to places she’d never truly thought she would get to visit.
Although she’d been working, it was a job she’d chosen.
A career she was excited about. And with Girard, who she did not want to lose.
“You don’t need to understand,” Wilona said, her voice a cold slap, bringing Hallie back to the here and now. “You just need to do what you’re told.”
“No,” Hallie said, folding her arms. Partly from defiance and partly for protection.
She could feel the stares of everyone else in the room, and realised that Rosalia was no longer talking on the phone.
She glanced over her shoulder at the dining table and saw that everyone was on their feet, with expressions she could not read.
“I’m sorry that you had to be here for this,” Hallie told them.
“Sorry?” Kendra repeated, eyebrows lifting. “How is this your fault, young thing? Seems to me the Magravine ought to spend some of her pennies on getting herself some manners. Barging into a house like this, setting about with demands.”
“And bringing a couple of heavies with her, too,” Nelda noted.
She slid around the table and headed for the two men who were still flanking Wilona.
The men, who were already looking uncomfortable, shifted on their feet as the petite, elderly witch approached them.
Nelda wrapped her arms around the first one, staring up into his face.
“You know better, don’t you, lad? Your mother raised you right.
You don’t like going into other people’s houses and causing harm. ”
The man didn’t reply, his face turning bright red, but Nelda was already moving on to the other man. She repeated the move, wrapping her arms around him, staring into his face. “Not sure about you, though? I think you like a bit of violence, don’t you? Is that why the Magravine brought you here?”
“Ma’am,” the man said, voice low and rough, with only the barest hint of anything that might be respect. He lifted his hands, taking hold of Nelda’s elbows. “Step back.”
Hallie’s whole body tensed, ready to leap forward to the witch’s defence. Never mind that Nelda didn’t seem to be at all worried by the man who was easily three times her size, Hallie had seen the damage his kind could do.
“Lady Cotovatre is on her way,” Rosalia said, startling Hallie into looking back at her. She was standing in the kitchen, Hallie’s phone on the counter-top in front of her. “She will be here shortly.”
“Hiding behind her skirts again, are you?” Wilona asked, sneering, as she looked at Hallie.
“You give me no other choice. You will not listen to me, or to your lawyers. Lady Cotovatre may be the only person who can make you see sense.” Hallie kept her voice calm with effort even as the accusation of hiding stung.
She had only once been able to meet her mother on equal terms, when they had reached the agreement as to how Hallie could buy her freedom from the family vine.
But then Wilona had broken that contract and Hallie’s freedom had only been secured with Cotovatre’s intervention, and the lady’s vast wealth.
Wilona seemed to respect only money and power, and Hallie didn’t have enough of either to meet her mother on even terms.
Tension crackled in the air along with Wilona’s fury.
She was not used to being defied. With some relief, Hallie noticed that Nelda had moved away from the thugs that Wilona had brought and tucked herself next to her sister.
The witch was looking quite pleased with herself, which made Hallie wonder just what she’d stolen from the men as she’d hugged them.
When Nelda had first met Girard, she’d taken his wallet, phone and keys from him without Girard noticing.
It put Hallie in a difficulty. She didn’t like the idea of Nelda stealing from guests in her and Rosalia’s house.
And the men were here at Wilona’s command, no doubt bound by their ties to the Talbot vine to obey the Magravine.
At the same time, Hallie’s anger with her mother meant she didn’t particularly care that Nelda might have picked the men clean of any valuables.
“Wait outside,” Wilona told the two men, even while Hallie debated what she should do. When one of the men would have protested, Wilona snapped at them. “Do what I tell you.”
With a brief exchange of glances, the two men turned and left, and Hallie heard the front door close behind them. Wilona moved further into the room and cast a scowl around the table. “You can leave as well. All of you.”
“I don’t think so,” Kaherdin said, in his normal gentle voice. “We will be here as long as Hallie or Rosalia need us to be.”
“Perhaps you’d like to move through to the living room for a while?
We can have a pause before the cake. How about some coffee?
” Rosalia suggested, her glance around the table making it clear that the offer was for her guests and not Wilona.
Hallie wanted to hug her roommate for trying to defuse the tension, and also make it clear that she was mistress in her own home.
Rosalia’s family was not connected with the Talbot vine, and Rosalia had been disowned by her own family so owed nothing to the Magravine.
“Or there’s more wine? And didn’t Magnus bring some liqueur? ”
“I did,” Magnus confirmed. “If you point me to the glasses, I can open and pour?”
“Good idea,” Kendra said.
Hallie had to bite her lip to hide a smile as everyone around the table picked up on Rosalia’s cue to work around Wilona.
Aneta lifted the platter with the cake off the table and set it onto the kitchen counter, along with the knife Rosalia had been about to use to cut it.
Kendra and Nelda helped Magnus with opening the bottle of liqueur and handing around glasses, then making sure everyone had a comfortable seat in the living area.
Hallie hoped that Magnus would remember to check his pockets before Nelda left the house, but saw by the quick look exchanged between him and Morgana that he was alive to the danger.