Hidden Devotion

by Lila Dubois

  J.

  Tossing her phone to the corner of the bed, Juliette closed her eyes then curled her legs up to her chest, feeling small and alone in the big house.

  *****

  Juliette kept her expression carefully blank as she looked around the Grand Master’s office. The room was windowless, as were all the rooms in the Trinity Masters’ headquarters, located deep under the Boston Public Library.

  She had been in here several times with her father, which, while not forbidden, had been unusual. Trinity Masters’ events were not family affairs; more often than not the children ended up together at one residence or another with the nannies or au pairs watching them while their parents attended meetings or galas. Only rarely had circumstances aligned so she was under the sole care of her father, leaving him with no choice but to not only bring her with him to headquarters, but into the sacred Grand Master’s office.

  In her father’s time the office had been a musty, secretive room. Under her brother’s rule the room had a homier feel, like an avuncular professor’s office, but was tidy and well organized. There was even a computer, which Juliette’s father had never used. It made sense, since her brother was a professor, and she’d heard from Seb that limited digital communications were now allowed, due in part to the fact that some of the best digital security people in the world were members.

  There was still an air of mystery—with no overhead lights, the various table lamps with their heavy leather shades left large pools of shadow. The room had a midnight feel, as if the dark and dangerous night waited outside the walls. She gave herself a quick mental smack. It was one o’clock, and the sunlight against the snow-covered ground had been blindingly white on the way in. She was an adult, not a child to be cowed by shadows.

  “Juliette.” Harrison rose not from the seat behind the desk, but from one of the chairs around a small meeting table. “Can I take your coat?”

  Juliette turned on one heel, letting Harrison tug her cream cashmere trench off her shoulders. She wore a trim wool dress in eggplant with elbow-length sleeves, black tights and black boots. The dress was a bit snug—she needed to lay off the feta cheese, olives and bread, which she’d regularly consumed for all meals in Bulgaria and Turkey—but not obscenely so. Her only jewelry was a gold collar necklace with a stamped triquetra in the center. It was the symbol of the Trinity Masters, worn to signify her membership and identify her to other members.

  She waited for her brother to hang the coat on the stand in the corner before greeting him. “Harrison.”

  They pressed their cheeks together and Harrison squeezed her hands. Juliette tugged them from his grip then turned to face the other men who’d risen when she entered. Price Bennett she recognized vaguely—he was the CEO of a major security firm. Michael she knew—he was Harrison’s best friend and now husband.

  Price got a handshake, Michael a hug, but she didn’t let the greetings last too long. Juliette sat in the previously vacant chair. The men looked at each other before resuming their seats.

  That look—men acknowledging that they now had to deal with a petite blonde “girl” and they’d rather not—was one she’d seen a thousand times before. Icy calm coated her, and she swallowed the hot words she’d been practicing all morning. An angry rant was the last thing this situation needed—if she was going to do this, she had to take command. Starting now.

  “Juliette, thank you for coming back so quickly. I hope it didn’t cause too much trouble.” Harrison was smiling slightly, the sort of uncomfortable expression he’d always worn around her.

  She remembered when she was little wanting nothing more than to spend time with her handsome older brother, but their age difference was too large for them to have been companions. Later she’d realized that there had been tension in their parents’ trinity, a tension she hadn’t understood, but which Harrison had been all too aware of. Their disparate knowledge, along with the twenty-year age gap, meant they had never been close.

  “I wasn’t going to solve Eastern Europe’s human trafficking problem in the next four days.”

  “Is that what you were working on?” He smiled, like a parent encouraging a child to report on their day.

  “As if you didn’t know.”

  Harrison sat back, smile fading. Michael put a hand on his arm.

  Juliette placed her hands gently on the table, each movement slow and meticulous. “Tell me what you did, and what happens next.”

  Price seemed slightly taken aback, but then rubbed his lips, as if hiding a smile. She stared at him coolly, and Price dropped his hand. “I almost forgot you’re an Adams,” he said.

  There was a moment of silence, during which the tension ratcheted up, her brother and his councilors seeming to realize that she was not going to meekly follow their orders.

  Harrison cleared his throat then started talking. More had happened in the last month than she knew. Harrison’s failure to marry and his decision to be with Alexis no matter the cost was only part of the story, and Juliette was horrified to hear about the death threats he’d received. At the same time his councilors had been confronting him about his failure to marry and relationship with a non-Trinity Masters’ woman, he’d been receiving threats from an unknown enemy, who had first struck at more vulnerable members of the Trinity Masters. Though he had eventually married, his disregard for the rules meant he couldn’t keep his position. Juliette didn’t say it, but she found it romantic that Harrison had risked so much to be with the woman he loved. Losing his position as Grand Master was light punishment.

  When he was done, Juliette leaned back, sorting through her questions to find the most important one. “What does everyone know?”

  “About the threats? Only a handful of people are aware. About your brother stepping down?” Price was the one who responded. “Nothing.”

  “Usually when there’s a new Grand Master it means the old one has died, and there’s usually some sort of ceremony acknowledging the death.” At the first event after her father had died, Harrison had stood silent and unmoving before the membership, a lit black candle in one hand. He’d extinguished it before addressing the crowd. “It seems wrong to light a candle when you’re not dead.”

  “The Winter Gala is coming up. Perhaps you could make an announcement about the former Grand Master stepping down.”

  “An announcement?” Juliette raised her brows. An announcement was both too informal and too ordinary for something like this.

  “What happens if we don’t say anything?” Michael asked.

  “You mean don’t acknowledge it?” Price shook his head. “The Grand Master’s identity is unknown, but Harrison’s height and voice are recognizable.”

  “If it’s clear that there’s been a change in leadership, but no death, people will wonder what happened. They’ll wonder if there was a problem.”

  “You want to make this seem voluntary?” Juliette asked.

  “Yes,” Harrison replied.

  “And will anyone believe that?”

  Michael let out a startled bark of laughter. “I forgot how much you’re like your old man.”

  “I’ll ignore that insult.” But she smiled—Michael had that kind of laugh.

  Harrison shrugged. “Our members aren’t exactly known for being the kind of people who can’t put the pieces together.”

  “If that’s the case, is stepping down enough punishment?”

  Harrison sat back and his jaw clenched. Michael rose to his defense, insisting Harrison had sacrificed more than enough, but it was Price who really answered the question.

  “I can only counsel the Grand Master, and stepping down seemed a fitting punishment. However, if you don’t think so, then as the next Grand Master, it would be up to you to make that decision.”

  Michael opened his mouth to protest, but Harrison stopped him. “Price is right. It may not be enough. You’re both biased, Price less so, but it shouldn’t be either of your decisions.” Harrison looked worried, and the way he glanced
at Michael made her think that it wasn’t for himself that he worried, but for the other members of his trinity.

  “If I don’t step in as Grand Master, who would the position go to?” Juliette looked at Price. He certainly had the personality and power to handle the Trinity Masters.

  Price shook his head. “We’d have to check the laws. It’s always been an Adams.”

  “But never a woman,” she pointed out.

  “Frankly, I think selecting a man over the traditional bloodline would cause more problems than a female Grand Master would.”

  Juliette nodded in agreement with Price. Anyone who joined the Trinity Masters had to be accepting of nontraditional relationships since they’d be expected to be part of a ménage marriage. Throughout their history, female members had been some of the most powerful women in the nation, able to rely on the strength of the Trinity Masters to push political agendas and break glass ceilings. Misogyny was almost inherently against the ideals of the Trinity Masters.

  “While I agree, this is a break in tradition, and I’m young. Considering the condescending way the three of you were acting when I got here, I can only assume if I were to be Grand Master, it would be an uphill battle.”

  “It would, but Price and I will serve as your councilors, help you transition.” Michael’s tone was cool—it seemed he hadn’t forgiven her for mentioning Harrison’s punishment.

  “I’ll choose my own councilors.”

  All three men exchanged glances. Clearly that wasn’t what they wanted to hear.

  “The Winter Gala is coming up, so you have some time to make a decision.” Harrison reached out to her but paused, his hand slowly sinking to lie palm down on the table. “Juliette, I never expected this to pass to you. I never meant…”

  She met her brother’s gaze and something passed between them. Others, people like Price and Michael, might think they understood, but in Harrison’s eyes she saw the weight of the responsibility that he’d born, the same weight that had made Juliette’s father such a hard man.

  Juliette had come to this meeting knowing that there was no real choice. Price was right. Her age and gender were problematic, but it was her lineage that mattered most. She was willing, if not prepared, to become the Grand Master. Grudgingly, angrily, with the intention of making some serious changes, but willingly, she would take on the mantle of her family responsibility.

  There was one aspect she hadn’t considered, until now.

  Juliette placed her hand over Harrison’s and lowered her voice. Hoping only he could hear what she said next.

  “I’m glad your children won’t have to grow up the way we did,” she whispered.

  Harrison squeezed her fingers. “Juliette, I’m so sorry.”

  She leaned back. “I’m ready.”

  “Do you want time to think about it?”

  “No.”

  Her brother stood. “Price, Michael, if you’ll leave us.”

  “Harrison, do you need…” Michael’s brow was furrowed.

  “No. This is between the Grand Master and me.”

  Juliette shivered to hear herself referred to as the Grand Master.

  Both Price and Michael, who’d been councilors to the Grand Master and therefore part of the already secretive Trinity Masters’ most exclusive and reticent inner circle, looked surprised that something was about to happen that even they couldn’t know about.

  In the ceremony room, Grand Master laid the book on the altar—his final task in this role. It was a thin tome, the paper thick but old, some of its few pages cracking in the corners. He wore the robe of his office, black velvet trimmed in gold, face shadowed by the deep hood. A gold chain draped his shoulders.

  This ceremony was rarely used, the role of Grand Master usually passing with the previous Grand Master’s death. His movements were hesitant, like a man performing a dance he couldn’t remember the moves to.

  She wore a white robe, the kind worn by women when called to the altar to meet their partners. Approaching the stone from the other side, she moved with grace, lacking the hesitance the Grand Master showed.

  The book was opened, the short list of names revealed. The last name on the list, Harrison Adams, was stark black compared to the faded ink and stains of the others.

  Taking a pen from his robe, Harrison wrote his initials next to his name, signifying the end of his time as Grand Master. Using the sharp tip of the fountain pen, he cut his finger, letting a drop of blood well then smearing it across his name. A sign that this had been done willingly. Above Harrison’s name, their father’s lacked the blood mark, his shaky, nearly illegible initials a sign that he’d relinquished the chain on his deathbed. Only one name was struck through, indicating that he’d been removed from the position. It was a gift to Harrison that his name would not bear that black mark.

  The now former Grand Master took off the chain, laying it on the altar then shrugged out of his robe. Juliette shed hers, unashamedly naked beneath. Harrison helped her into his black robe, pulling the hood up to cover her hair, putting her face in shadow. She might have been short, and a bit more slender than other Grand Masters, but the robe did what it was meant to do—render her the anonymous, powerful Grand Master.

  Harrison covered his nakedness with a plain gray robe before continuing. Draping the chain over her shoulders, Harrison spoke their words. “Mitimur in Vetitum.”

  Juliette Adams, Grand Master of the Trinity Masters, took up the pen and signed her name under the bloodstained signature of her brother then closed the book.

  Harrison bowed his head. “Grand Master.”

  In the shadow of the hood, he couldn’t see the fear that twisted her face, or the tears that slid down Juliette’s cheeks as she said good-bye to her life as she’d known it.

  Chapter Two

  “You actually did it.”

  “Yep.”

  “You’re the Grand Master.”

  “This conversation is getting repetitive.” Juliette shook out a sweater dress, wondering if it was too dated to wear again.

  “I’m trying to process.” Sebastian’s voice cracked through her earbuds. The internet call had fairly good quality, but he’d gone back to a remote area outside of Diyarbakir, where he was working with the Kurdish ethnic minority communities. One of Sebastian’s strengths, thanks to his degrees in international relations and civics, was in helping communities make the transition to self-sustaining governments, an undervalued step in the process of raising a community from poverty and/or disarray to self-sustaining governance.

  “How’s your brother handling this?” Sebastian asked.

  Juliette opened her mouth, prepared to tell Seb about everything else that had happened leading up to her brother stepping down, but she stopped herself. She was used to telling Seb everything, but things were different—had to start being different. Grand Master was not a role she could shrug off, even if it meant she held back information from a friend.

  “He’s handling it. Honestly, I don’t think he’s that sad to give it up. Now he can focus on his trinity. Have kids. Write boring research papers.”

  Seb laughed. “He can have his boring life. What I want to know is what you, all powerful Grand Master, are going to do next?”

  “First I’m going to finish unpacking.”

  “Your Boston clothes?”

  “Yep.” She tossed a pair of artificially faded nineties’ jeans onto the floor. “Most of them are still useable.”

  “Is anyone else there?”

  “Nope, just me. Hopefully no one else will be around. I need some alone time.”

  “You hate alone time.”

  “Oh shut up, you know-it-all. You should be nicer to me. I am the Grand Master, after all.”

  His reply to that was an elegant snort. Strangely, that made her feel better.

  “What are you going to tell North Star?” Now Sebastian’s voice was somber.

  Juliette sat heavily on the side of the bed. North Star was the human trafficking no
nprofit she worked for. Since money wasn’t really a concern for her, she wasn’t on the payroll but spearheaded several projects, including technical training for cities and organizations that wanted to set up hotlines to report human trafficking for exploited women and children to call. If Seb knew how to implement infrastructure, Juliette knew how to work with and empower people.

  “I told them there was a family emergency. I can finish up the project in Edirne via conference calls, and then I just need to report out to some of the mapping agencies.”

  “Do you have a lot to report?”

  “Enough. I traveled with the local lead along the border areas.”

  Seb made an odd noise, one she couldn’t understand until he spoke. “You might be able to keep working, once things settle down.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Bastian.” She used the nickname on purpose, a signal that she wasn’t up to thinking about the future, and how different hers was going to be.

  “But of course, oh all-powerful Grand Master.”

  She snorted, smacked her hands on her knees and stood. “Right now I’m going to finish sorting my clothes, check in with the business manager and then start going through the records.”

  There was a long pause, and she thought the call dropped. “Seb? Seb?”

  “I’m still here. What was that last thing?”

  “I have to start going through all the Trinity Masters’ records.”

  “The membership records?”

  “Yep. Those and the archives.”

  “Do you need to do that? I mean you don’t have to go through all of those at the same time.”

  She couldn’t tell Seb that it was the archives she was really worried about, not without explaining that the key to solving the mystery of the threats on Harrison’s life had been hidden in their father’s records. She remembered the dusty boxes of diaries and old files that used to fill the Grand Master’s office in her father’s time.

  “Files are priority number one.”

  “Sounds boring, but you’re lucky I love you, because I’m still coming.”

  “You’re coming? Why?”