“What I earned,” I spat. “Get out.”
With a last, worried look at Rahel, he backed out the door and shut it behind him.
“Lock it,” I said to Will. He pulled himself to his feet, coughing into his arm, and did as I said. Then he pulled over a chair and tilted it under the doorknob. When that was done, I lowered the knife and pushed Rahel toward the armchair in the corner. She staggered, then sank into it, pulling out a handkerchief and pressing it to her neck.
I put a hand over my heart, where the Stone still throbbed. It wasn’t finished. It had paused during the fighting, somehow knowing I could not attend. But now that my pulse was slowing, fingers of warmth started to spread through me again.
“What’s the plan, Bee?” said Will. “We can’t hold them back forever.”
“It’s almost finished,” I said, my voice coming out a whisper. “Then I cure you, cure Dominic, and we leave.”
Will nodded slowly. He coughed into his arm again, and brought it away bloody.
“Sounds good to me,” he said. “Though I don’t see how the last part is going to work. We’re dead the minute you let her go.”
“You’re dead,” Rahel snapped at Will. “I have no quarrel with her.”
“A quarrel with Will is a quarrel with me,” I said.
“Then you are much stupider than you look. Why would an intelligent young woman want to take all the quarrels of a worthless rogue? Why claim so many enemies you need not have? For him?”
Rahel spat toward Will. He was standing warily, far enough away that it did not reach him.
The Stone had paused again, and I felt the warmth begin to retract.
“Be quiet,” I said to Rahel. I needed my mind clear for this to work, I could tell. And Rahel’s venom toward Will distracted me. It started a buzz of worry in the back of my mind that I couldn’t easily push aside.
“I thought you must not have known what he did, but Valentin told me that you do, that you choose him anyway.” She winced slightly and pressed the handkerchief harder against her neck. “Even when you read the letters. How you could forgive such treachery, I do not know.”
“Letters?” I asked, in spite of myself. My pulse began to speed up. “What are you talking about? What letters?”
“We don’t have time for this, Bee,” said Will.
“The letters between them. My poor little fool of a sister and your precious Will,” said Rahel. “All his lies, his broken promises. I left them in the letter box in Ada’s room and instructed Valentin to keep you there. But … don’t tell me!” She peered at me, her mouth half open. “You did not read them! But you must have seen the letter box! I left it there in the vanity!”
Of course I had seen it, and some part of me had recognized it for the trap it was.
“I am not in the habit of invading the private correspondence of others,” I said.
But I couldn’t stop myself now. I looked at Will, and I couldn’t pretend he didn’t look frightened.
“Bee.” There was an edge of desperation in his voice. “She is a liar. I don’t know what she thinks she has. She must have written the letters, forged my handwriting—”
Rahel leaned toward me, her full, parted lips curving into a malicious smile.
“You don’t know,” she said. “You don’t know he seduced her?”
“I know you believe that.” I meant to sound defiant, but I didn’t fool any of us.
“Ah, let me guess his story. He scorned her advances, and she lied to us all? Turned my father against him?” My expression betrayed me, and she laughed. “Tell me, then, how did he explain the baby?”
“Baby?” asked Will, with an attempt at scorn. “What baby?”
“Yours, you spineless creature.” Rahel’s joyless smile disappeared, and her face burned with rage again.
Will’s pale face paled even more, but he turned to me. He reached for my hand, and when I pulled it back he met my eyes and held them instead. “She’s lying, Bee. If Ada is with child, it isn’t mine. It can’t be. I swear it.”
Rahel laughed scornfully. “And you believe that?”
I wanted to. Oh, how I wanted to. I searched his beautiful eyes and saw the same man I had always seen, the one who loved me, the one who knew me. The only one I could trust.
There is only one way to keep a man from betraying your trust, said my mother’s voice. Don’t give it to him.
I tore my eyes from Will’s. “I want to see the letters,” I said to Rahel.
“Clever girl,” she said.
“Bee!” cried Will. I steeled myself against the hurt in his voice. If he had told the truth, he would forgive me for wanting proof. But if he had lied to me, I might not be able to forgive myself.
“Get up,” I said to Rahel. She obeyed. I went to the door.
“Valentin,” I called. “I know you’re there.”
There was a short silence. Then, Valentin’s voice. “Yes?”
“You and your men, go outside to the gate. I must be able to see each of you from the window in five minutes, or I’ll start cutting off the Fräulein’s fingers.”
Quick, hard bootsteps echoed down the hall, and at a glance from me Will went to the window to look.
“I see Valentin,” he said. “The two who were up here. And more … three more.”
I tried to make a mental tally of the men I knew Valentin had here. I was certain I had never seen more than six together, including Valentin. I couldn’t be certain there were not more, but this would have to do.
I took Rahel by the arm and held my knife to her throat again, then nodded at Will.
“They could have left someone,” he said. “They could run back in the moment we leave this room.”
“I know.” I couldn’t meet his eyes. “I’m sorry. I have to know.”
“You do know,” he said. “You know
