“It’s sometimes hard to speak of these matters in the mundane world, where there are so many things to distract us. I’d like to extend an invitation to you to come and see me at my office in Morgantown, anytime you like. I’ll find a slot for you, even if I’m booked. It might be nice for you to have a little distraction-free space to explore things. Or I could refer you to a good local therapist.”
Alice blinked. “Oh . . . I don’t think that’ll be necessary, but thanks for offering it.”
“Think about it,” Sidney said, his gray eyes soft, but compelling. “You have a lot of things to come to terms with in your life, and twice as many things that might get in the way of your focus.”
He glanced around the large dining room. Did his gaze land on Dylan?
Alice didn’t respond, because she wasn’t sure how to. The spell of Sidney’s somberness broke when he glanced around. “Ah, good. They’re calling for us to be seated.”
He placed his hand gently on her back and urged her to the candlelit tables.
*
THE dining room Alice had wandered into on her first visit to the house had undergone a transformation. The entire wood-paneled far wall had been moved back to expose an additional area, doubling the square feet and expanding the already spacious dining room into a ballroom of sorts. The long formal dining table had been removed. A dozen or more large circular tables dressed with white cloths and silver candelabra had been put in its place.
There were name cards at the place settings. She was less than thrilled about being seated next to a venerable-looking Durand Alumni named Jason Stalwalter, but glad to see Thad appear on the other side of her. Sort of glad, anyway. Yes, what happened in the woods yesterday was still leaving her prickly. But Thad was a friend, after all, despite all of the other . . . stuff. She couldn’t help but feeling comforted by his familiar face.
“I bribed Dave to switch seats with me,” Thad leaned over and whispered directly next to her ear after introductions were made and there was a rustle as they all settled in their assigned seats. “Stalwalter is the northeastern region’s vice president of marketing and sales. I’ve been trying to meet him all night.”
Alice wilted a little at this. She hadn’t been very proactive about networking and putting herself forward tonight. Alice despised the idea of promoting herself. If only she possessed Thad’s, Kuvi’s, or Brooke’s breeding and polish, that social ease that came from interacting with movers and shakers since first crawling out of the cradle. That was a large part of what the Durand Alumni Dinner was about: getting your face and qualifications in front of some of the most influential Durand managers and supervisors in the world.
“Oh, we should have switched places,” Alice whispered to Thad. As she spoke, the image of Brooke Seifert’s anxious face suddenly came into focus in the crowd. Brooke sat two tables away. It bizarrely struck Alice that they were dressed alike; Brooke also wore black with pearls tonight. Alice wasn’t sure how she felt about the fact that she could pass as one of Brooke’s peers.
Her gaze flickered and stuck on Sebastian Kehoe’s face. He sat at the same table as Brooke, and he, too, was staring at Alice. She blinked in momentary indignation. Was he staring at her breasts? No . . . Kehoe frowned as he looked at the pearls she wore.
Unsettled by the brief observation, she forced herself to focus again on Thad. “Maybe it’s not too late for us to switch places—”
“Alice.”
She started in surprise at the sound of the brisk, booming voice and turned in her seat. Jason Stalwalter was regarding her with benevolent warmth as a waiter set a highball glass on the table in front of him.
“I’ve heard rave reviews about you from our CEO. We’ve completely revamped our VitaThirst campaign on a nationwide basis, thanks to you. I think Mr. Fall would patent that brain of yours if he had a chance.”
“What?” Alice asked stupidly. For a few seconds, she couldn’t draw breath. Was Dylan crazy, talking Alice up in front of other Durand executives? Her gaze shot to the head table, where Dylan sat. She wasn’t surprised to see his dark eyes pinning her, but then his gaze flickered to the man on the right of him and they began talking. Alice was left hanging in confusion.
“I . . . uh, I’m not sure what you mean,” she said awkwardly, uncomfortably aware of Thad leaning forward and listening to the exchange.
Upon her arrival at Castle Durand, Dylan had requested that she have a look at some Durand annual and quarterly reports. He was aware that Alice was a trendspotter, that she possessed an ability to absorb large amounts of data and statistics and quickly break them down into meaningful trends, spot anomalies, and even predict outcomes. Alice had gladly jumped at the chance to lose herself once again in the comfortable world of numbers.
Was that why Dylan asked me to look at the reports? Because he realized it would calm any disorientation I might be having, coming to the castle?