Page 39 of Tell Me Why
“What is this room for?” he asked quietly. “You didn’t anticipate us. What did you anticipate?”
Isabella sighed and turned her knees forward on the chair.
“I decorated,” she said. “Do you like it? It was much different when I came here.”
“What was it before?” Tell asked quietly. She shook her head.
“You know,” she said.
“Everything here smells like you,” Tell said. “You’ve been over every inch of it to cover what was here before. What was it?”
“Youknow,” she said again.
“And yet you stepped into it,” he said. “Was it the past driving you away or ambition drawing you forward?”
“Ambition,” she scoffed. “As though I’ve ever had such dreams.”
“Has Daryll held his station in your esteem the way you’d hoped?” Tell asked.
“Yes,” Isabella said. “Above reproach.”
“Even as he owns this property, and operated it before you?” Tell asked.
Did Tell know where theywere? That was actually quite a bit of a relief.
Isabella looked at the door again.
“How sure are you of the men you have out there? How sure that you disabledallof the surveillance?” Tell asked quietly, barely a breath. “Are you holding or held?”
Isabella looked away.
“You are my guests,” she said. “It is just a fraught moment, and I still don’t know whether you have brought Keon to my door.”
“What would he have to say to you?” Tell asked.
“That’s between the two of us,” Isabella said.
“Certainly, but you must have considered it. He has offered a great price to send yousomething. What would be worth that to him?”
“Just my return,” she said with no small bitterness. Tell shrugged.
“Then you have your answer. There is no message. Just bait. As you say, wittingly or otherwise, you must assume that my role in this was to unearth you.”
“And now I hold you where you cannot do that,” Isabella said.
“Do you believe that I am here against your interests?” Tell asked her.
“I can’t know,” Isabella said.
“But what do you believe?” Tell asked. She shook her head.
“I cannot believe,” she said.
“And out there?” Tell asked.
“It is the same,” she said. “There is too much going on, too many interests.”
Tell turned his face away, maybe looking at the door, maybe looking anywhere but at Isabella.
