For Darkness Shows the Stars

for her to do, when she’s grown up in the Luddite lap of luxury,” Dee pointed out, her voice textured with the patience of a decade spent dealing with children.
    The same could not be said for Gill. “You’re upsetting a pregnant woman, boy, and you’re disrespecting all the people who helped you get raised—including Miss Elliot here. And you’ll stop it right now or I’ll fight you and I don’t care if I’ve got twenty years on you . . .”
    “Stop it,” said Elliot, holding out her hands between Kai and Gill. Nearby, Ro was openly weeping. These were her friends . Her true friends, not nice to her because she was a North, not nice because she might be able to help them. Kai could hate her now, he could even claim he hadn’t loved her at all, but he couldn’t speak for the rest of them. “There will be no fighting at the Innovations’ party.”
    “Oh, yes, Miss,” Kai drawled in a mocking appropriation of Gill’s voice. “Whatever you say.”
    “That’s it,” said Gill, and stepped forward. Elliot moved in between them.
    “I said stop it !”
    Kai grabbed her by the wrists. “You’ll fight . . . for her?” he asked them.
    Elliot tried to move away, but his grip was too tight. Ever since the day on the beach, she’d wanted him to touch her again. But not like this.
    “You’ll do anything . . . for her?” He shook their hands as Elliot struggled to get free. “And you don’t sit here and wonder why none of you have string-boxes anymore, why none of you have listened to a lick of music in three years?”
    “Let go,” Elliot said. The folks on other blankets had begun to look over, despite the music and the revelry. Ro was tugging in vain at Kai’s sleeve. Gill’s face had turned crimson with anger. “Let go. Please, let go.”
    “You don’t miss the people she’s responsible for driving away? Dee? You don’t?”
    “I put the blame where it belongs, Kai,” was all Dee said. “Now stop making a scene. This is no example for my son.”
    “Neither is living here,” Kai growled. “You’re idiots, all of you. Believe me. I thought that way once.” He drew her in and stared into her eyes. Elliot flinched. His gaze was dark, so dark. His eyes seemed filled with more stars than the sky above. Now she could see it was more than just a trick of the light. His eyes had changed in the last four years. She didn’t know such a thing was possible.
    “I thought she could protect me, too. I thought she cared. But it’s all a lie.” He released her and she stumbled back, holding tight to her wrists and her tears. This was Kai. The Kai she’d loved from the moment she knew what that meant.
    But she didn’t know him at all.
    “Ma!” Jef came running up. “Ma—”
    “Not now, Jef,” said Dee, standing and putting her arms around the boy. “It’s all right.”
    “But Ma,” said Jef, as the music died. “It’s not all right. The baron’s here.”

Eighteen
     
    BARON NORTH WAS NOTHING if not civil to his tenants, but declined to stay more than a few moments at the party on the Boatwright lands. He paid his respects to Felicia Innovation and made arrangements for a more thorough meeting with the admiral the following day. Then he crooked his finger at Elliot, who’d trailed forward a few steps from the near-melee going on at the North Posts’ blanket. Had he seen what had transpired among his servants? Had he recognized Kai? Elliot got the distinct impression that she was very close to making a bad situation much worse.
    “You will meet me in my office in half an hour,” said Baron North, in a voice barely audible over the few instruments still in use.
    Elliot nodded. “Yes, sir.” But her father had already climbed back into his carriage. Elliot caught a glimpse of another male figure inside as it drove away. He hadn’t even offered her a ride back to the house. She should leave quickly, if she hoped to make herself presentable before she was required to meet with him.
    “I’ll take care of Ro,” said Dee, coming up to her. “You should hurry.”
    Gill and Kai were still glaring at each other as if they’d come to blows the moment she turned her back.
    “I won’t let them fight,” Dee said. “Gill wouldn’t risk it now, anyway.”
    No one knew what the baron might do, least of all Elliot. He couldn’t hold the concert against them, could he? They were merely listening to the music provided by the Fleet, Olivia, and the Grove Posts.
    Elliot