Ella wasn’t expecting the huge reaction from Henry, nor the sick look on Remus’ face. She wondered how numb she had become to the horrors of her life, and if things were really as devastating as their expressions implied.
“It’s… I mean… You’ll have to excuse me.” Remus stood but Ella protested, worried he would make a bigger mess of things for her.
“You can’t say anything! She doesn’t like people to know I’m her stepdaughter.”
Henry ran his hand over his face. “How did… I don’t… How?”
Ella answered as thoroughly as she could in hopes it might keep them from confronting Lady Tremaine. “Lady Tremaine married my father. She was a good actress in the beginning, but it didn’t matter. My father died a few months into their marriage. She was living here when the deed was in my father’s name. Her Pulse is Submission, but my father figured that out too late. He was in the process of trying to divorce her, but he died before it was finalized. He signed the house over to me, with the legal stipulations that it would never be sold from my bloodline. So Lady Tremaine got part of the life insurance money, but the bulk was put into a trust for me. It’s safe until I turn twenty-five. I’ve done my best to make sure she can’t get her hands on it then. She doesn’t know that part, though.”
Remus had his cell phone out at the same time Henry pointed at his mentor. “Lock that trust airtight, Remus. We’ll get my financial team to move the money on her birthday. I mean, like, 12:01am. When’s your birthday, Ella?”
She lowered her chin and rattled off the date, which was two months away. It was only when her stomach growled that Henry seemed to remember his manners. “When was the last time you ate anything?”
Ella stared at the tops of her thighs, wishing Remus wasn’t watching her every move. “I had breakfast.”
“It’s almost dinner time.” Henry’s agony pulled at his features as woe took him over. “That horrible woman starves her, Remus. What time will Lionel have dinner ready?”
Remus sent out a text message. “Momentarily, I’m sure. We can move this conversation to the dining room. Ella, everyone who works for the Chancellor’s family signs a privacy agreement, so whatever is said in this house stays here.” He stood and extended his hand to her, but Henry was already moving toward her, helping her up as if she was an old woman, too fragile for long walks.
Though Ella was usually stalwart enough to move about without an escort, she indulged herself and leaned on Henry’s proffered arm, letting him steady her rocking world as they moved to the dining room.
“I can get started cleaning in the kitchen,” she offered. “I just need you to show me where it is.”
Henry clutched Ella closer to his side. “You aren’t a servant here. Remus doesn’t have servants; he has employees that he pays. You’re a guest in his home. My guest. That means you don’t do chores.”
She cast a baleful look up at him, finally allowing a little of her personality to seep through. “Hello, Remus paid for me to work in his home four days a week. I’ve been sitting around talking for way too long. I should probably get started.”
Henry paused and turned her to face him, placing his hands on both her shoulders. “I want you to hear me very carefully. Remus is paying Lady Tremaine because I told him to do whatever it took to get you out of there. He needs time, and the fee bought us exactly that. Time is what he’s paying for, and that’s all. Time to teach you, get to know you, and also get to know Lady Tremaine’s true intentions and just how deep all the manipulative plotting goes. I’m guessing you heard the threat on Eustace and Caleb’s lives because the Baron told Lady Tremaine?”
Ella cast a guilty look over at Remus, who clasped his hands loosely to imitate patience while she decided how much she was willing to trust him. “I didn’t overhear Lady Tremaine. I heard the Baron himself. He was talking about it in the Smoke Shop with Mr. Herchon and a bunch of other men I didn’t know well enough to recognize by the sound of their voices.”
Remus’ head tilted to the side. “How did you manage that? The Smoke Shop is members only, and it’s generally thought of as a boys’ club.”
Ella shot Henry a look of pleading. “Please don’t turn me over to the state. I don’t want to be like this! I can’t always control it.” Her shoulders slumped. “But that day, I did. I knew he was in there, so I did a little trick I’m not supposed to.” She glanced at Remus to show him how guilty the whole thing made her feel. “My dad used to call it ‘sending out my Listening.’ I can…” She gulped, worried the words might stay stuck inside of her forever. Her father had been so adamant that she keep her abilities private, showing her pictures of lobotomies, and reading accounts of people whose only crime was being in the area at the time of an attack, and they were thrown in jail without a trial.
Henry’s hands slipped up her shoulders to cup her cheeks. “Please, Ella. I need you to trust me. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me all that’s broken.”
She wondered if she truly was broken, or if she was just different. Either way, she knew she’d been carrying this burden by herself for too long.
So quiet, her voice was barely above a whisper, Ella closed her eyes and finally jumped over the edge of reason. “My Pulse isn’t through touch, like everyone else’s. It makes me able to hear through walls. Sometimes several walls. Sometimes blocks away.” She swallowed hard and glanced tentatively at Remus, knowing it was all or nothing at this point. “When Henry and I almost kissed, I got nervous and happy and all the things you feel when you’re about to be kissed, and something weird happened. I couldn’t just Hear through the walls, I could See, too. That was the first time anything like that ever happened to me.”
“Can you show me?” Remus requested with a stern look on his face before Henry could voice his shock.
She’d half-expected them not to believe her, but when Remus took to her nuances so readily, she nodded. “I’m not dangerous. I don’t hurt people. It’s just how my Pulse works. I don’t touch people and Hear or See them. I push it out, and it travels for me, like a friend doing me a favor.”
Remus clapped Henry on the shoulder. “Henry, go into the kitchen and ask Lionel what’s for dinner. Ella, I want you to see if you can hear what he says.”
Her eyebrows pulled together. “I can do farther distances than that.”
“Then let’s go outside. Shall we?” He proffered his arm to her like a gentleman, taking her hesitation in stride.
She glanced up at Henry, as if to silently ask him if Remus was a safe person with whom she could be alone. Henry stroked her cheek and coiled her hand around Remus’ forearm. “Let’s do this part, and then we can eat. Seriously, Remus. She hasn’t had anything in hours.”
“Forgive me this one curiosity.” Remus inclined his head to her, trying not to spook the cautious creature on his arm.
Ella finally nodded her consent and moved with Remus down the hall and out into the vast expanse of the backyard after he draped Henry’s coat over her shoulders and put on his own.
Just like everything with Remus, his property was immaculate and well-groomed. The icy topiaries were shaped into balls at varying heights, and the entire soccer field-sized property was hemmed in by a towering privacy fence that had barbed wire coiling the top. The entire thing was a winter haven—cold but somehow it left Ella with a touch of warmth to her insides.
Remus followed her eyeline and patted her hand. “My niece is my best student, so she comes here often for her lessons. I take her safety very seriously.”
Ella pursed her lips, but decided she was in too deep now not to give trusting him a try.
Remus sat her on one of the wrought iron chairs on the deck. He took the seat opposite her at the round table that had curly legs to add a bit of delicate grace to the look of the heavy furniture.
Ella sat on her hands again, and kept her head down while she sent out her Listening.
Henry’s voice was easy to pick out. “Roast duck, eh? Was it a large duck? I’m only asking because my girlfriend hasn’t eaten in a while.”
Ella’s mouth curved into a small smile. That he thought of her as his girlfriend? She wanted so very badly to belong to him, and for him to belong to her.
“I can set out more rolls. Would that help? I made some pâté with the duck fat. Mixed it with apricots.”
“Sounds good.”
They spoke as if Henry was being boyish while Lionel was trying to get work done. “You would eat your shoe if it had butter on it. Remus has a more refined palate. The apricot duck pâté is more for him than for you, but your girlfriend might like it, too. It’ll fill anyone up.” He chuckled, and the sound was deep and lovely. “Girlfriend, eh? Never thought I’d see the day.”
Ella kept her Listening active, and spoke quietly to Remus. “Roast duck, extra rolls, duck fat pâté mixed with apricots.”
“Incredible!”
Ella touched her temples. “That was just my Listening. I’m still getting the hang of sending out my Sight. Give me a second.” She touched her temples, feeling like a cheap psychic as she grimaced and tried to focus on the other parts of her brain she’d only recently learned to access.
“She’s allergic to peanuts, you know.” Henry revealed the nugget of truth as if he was lauding himself for knowing some closely-guarded secret. Though, so much was a secret to Ella that she could hardly categorize that as a big one.
“I’ll make a note of it.”
She watched Henry leaning on the island in the center of the kitchen, taking in the majesty of the dark marble top. The base was solid stone, and looked a strange mix of modern, yet ancient. There was a hibachi between the stove and the matching stainless-steel refrigerator, and her eyes drew to it with fascination. She wondered if she could ask the chef to show her how to cook on it. “Can you sauté asparagus on a hibachi without crisping the edges?” she asked Remus, though she couldn’t see him.
“You can see my kitchen?”
“I can go farther than that, if I really concentrate.” She knew she was growing more comfortable with Remus if she was willing to throw a little bravado into the mix. Her fingers started to tremble, so she tucked them under her thighs, even though she longed to wipe the quickly forming beads of sweat from her brow. She widened her scope beyond Henry, seeing the mailbox in the front of the house, and the span of the sidewalk. She followed the walkway down the street, stopping at the curb and turning, as if she was an avatar in a reality-based video game of her own making. She wanted to be able to have an aerial view, but that required more concentration than she could spare at the moment. So her Sight took on movements as if it was a person confined by gravity.
“You’re pale as a sheet, and you’re sweating,” Remus observed, worry dampening his tone.
She shook her head, her eyebrows pulling together when she let go of her Sight and brought herself back to the view in front of them. “I’m guessing that’s not good.”
Remus touched his frown as he thought. “For now, let’s not try to Listen or See beyond my home. Let’s get the basics down before we go worrying about the larger scheme.”
Ella bobbed her head, trusting Remus a little more after that nugget of wisdom. He didn’t seem to want to exploit or push her abilities, but to help her hone them in. “Dinner’s ready,” she informed him, standing. “It doesn’t feel right that I’m not in the kitchen, at least offering a helping hand.”
Remus rose to his feet and twisted at the waist to give his body a little stretch. “Does it feel right that your stepmother sold you to the highest bidder? I could’ve been wanting you to come with me for any number of unseemly depravities, and I have the feeling she would’ve said yes if the price was right.”
Ella balked at him and took a step back. “Why would you say that to me?” She hadn’t thought of it like that, but now the horror seemed glaringly obvious. “Oh! What if you’re right?”
Remus held up his hands to settle her worries. “I have no intention of letting you return to your home in its current state. The moment you say so, I’ll have her removed from the premises and charged with all sorts of fun things that will stick on her record longer than she can outlive them.”
Ella’s face was pinched with dread. “You can’t do that! I mean, I appreciate it and all, but you don’t understand what she’s capable of. She’ll out me to the community. She’ll tell everyone what I can do! They’ll take me, Remus!”
Remus remained calm, controlling his tone to ease her fears. “You can’t go back there, and I won’t let anything happen to you here.”
“I just want her to leave me alone!”
Remus shook his head slowly, kindness shining in his eyes in earnest. “I think you’re destined for dreams for greater than that.”