Mr. Saunders pushed away from the window, and the sunlight fell away from him, making his halo disappear. He walked around the desk until he was at Gertie’s chair, offering a hand to help her stand.
Her black gaze travelled from his outstretched fingers, up the sleeve of his grey suit to his grey eyes. He seemed wholly disinterested in her, his face bored. She ignored his hand and stood, stepping around the chair to avoid touching him, the man who had no doubt tortured Liam.
She scooped her jacket off the chair and moved toward the door. It opened before she could reach for the handle, and she swept into the hall. Mr. Saunders joined her, leading the way down the hall and up a single flight of stairs.
“This is the wing of suites for guests of the Chancellor,” Mr. Saunders commented. “In time, the Chancellor hopes to move you to the family wing, but for now this will have to do.”
The family wing? Gertie couldn’t imagine why he would want to move her there. She was for all intents and purposes his prisoner. Or at least she would be until she found a way to get Liam, Kay and herself safely away. She would do that, she promised herself, clenching her fist. She would find a way to free all of them.
Mr. Saunders stopped in front of a door with two guards on either side of it, and tapped his bracelet on the keypad. Gertie heard the click of a lock. He pushed the dark wood door open and stepped to the side to let her enter in front of him.
Or rather she entered and he closed the door behind her. She heard the click of the lock and knew she was alone. Her eyes scanned the sumptuous sitting room. All cozy and comfy with white, gold and periwinkle blue furniture and decorations. It reminded her of the entry hall they’d come through, though this room had no frescoes on the ceiling and no dangling chandelier.
There was a fireplace with a grouping of couches and chairs in front of it, a small table with two chairs, and a bookshelf took up one entire wall. Gertie went to one of the windows and looked out, disappointed to be greeted with the view of the other side of the building. She looked down. There was a large courtyard with blooming bushes, stone benches and iron tables and in the very center of it a huge circular stone fountain, spitting water nearly as high as the window Gertie looked out. White stone paths wound through the space.
She glanced to the left and the right and was greeted with more building. She tried the lock and the window and was surprised when it swung open. If she needed to, if things got desperate she might be able to shimmy out the window, though how far she would get from the courtyard, she couldn’t be sure.
Smart of them to put her in a room facing toward the courtyard.
She wandered into the bedroom, and was not surprised to find that it was equally as lavish as the sitting room, though here it was a combination of cream, purple and silver that decorated every inch. There was a huge bed with so many pillows and blankets that Gertie couldn’t help but snort. What was the point of all that, especially as they moved from spring into summer. There were two doors on the far side of the room, one led to a bathroom, and the other to a huge walk in closet.
Clothes with store tags still attached hung on the racks, shoes- all high heels- were displayed on a light up wall, there were drawers of lacy underthings and stockings. And another set of drawers full of belts, earrings, necklaces and other accessories.
Gertie stared at it all and realized that just one of those pieces of jewelry was probably worth more than Gertie’s family could earn in a year, even after Gertie herself had started working at the data entry office.
She stepped from the closet and returned to the sitting room. This certainly wasn’t what she’d expected. She thought that she would be kept in a something more similar to where she’d been kept after her kidnapped, but this… This was almost nice.
The nicest prison I’ve ever seen, Echo murmured, so quiet Gertie almost missed it. But it's still a prison.
About the Author
Mariah Esterly lives in the Pacific Northwest where she grumbles about the rain in the Fall, Winter and Spring and complains that it is too hot in the summer. She is cohost of the Peripheral Show podcast (available on iTunes), where she and her friends get together and talk about spooky and strange stories in our world.
She spends much of her time reading, eating popcorn and watching the Great British Bake Off.
Spark is her second book, though she has many others in the works.
Table Of Contents
SMOKE
1 Gertie
2 Gertie
3 Vail
4 Gertie
5 Vail
6 Gertie
7 Gertie
8 Liam
9 Vail
10 Gertie
11 gertie
12 Vail
13 Gertie
14 Gertie
15 Vail
16 Gertie
17 Gertie
18 Gertie
19 Gertie
20 Liam
21 Gertie
22 vail
23 Gertie
24 Vail
25 Gertie
26 Gertie
27 Gertie
28 Gertie
29 vail
30 Gertie
31 Vail
32 Gertie
33 Vail
34 Gertie
35 Liam
36 Gertie
37 Gertie
38 Vail
39 Gertie
40 Liam
41 gertie
42 Gertie
43 Dicie
Acknowledgments
Spark Teaser
About the Author
Table Of Contents
Smoke Page 26
