The Almighty Dominance (by Sunshine) novel Chapter 834

"The same house! Did you hear that? The idiot has a table at the Grand!" He wiped his eyes. "You can't afford the bread there, boy. You can't afford the smell of the bread."

Across the cobbled yard, Patricia laughed behind her sunglasses. Even Count Charles laughed, high and thin, like a teacup knocking a saucer.

"A table at the Grand," the count said. "Do you know, I tried to book there myself once, from the capital. They told me to call back next year."

"I thought you knew it well," said Alex.

The count's ears went pink. "Know it, yes. Eaten there, no. One doesn't push."

"And which room did you book, cousin?" Patricia asked sweetly. "The one by the kitchen? The broom cupboard?"

Alex thought about it, very seriously.

"The lady said the Diamond Room."

Preston stopped laughing. Then he started again, louder.

"The Diamond Room! Do you know who eats in the Diamond Room? Not ten people on this coast have ever sat in it. The governor asked once and didn't get in! Grandmother couldn't get in, and she's a baroness!"

"Even I have never sat in it," said Count Charles.

"Hear that, boy? Not even a count!" Preston slapped the gatepost. "And you want to eat in it. With what? Dog biscuits?"

"He couldn't even eat its leftovers," said Patricia. "They'd throw them to the dogs first."

"The dogs are my friends," said Alex. "They'd share."

Nora said nothing at first.

She looked at his old jacket, at his old shoes, at his smile. She loved Serena more than anyone in the world. So she counted it up, to be fair.

"Let me see if I have this right," she said. "Your cousin has a car with a driver. He's paying for a gold room. You sleep next to the dogs, Alex. You were waiting at the gate in that jacket." She tilted her head. "And you have the Diamond Room."

"Yes," said Alex.

"Do you think that sounds fair? Even to you?"

"It sounds lucky," Alex said. "I'm very lucky."

Nora smiled at him, but only with her mouth.

Even in the capital, people had heard the joke: the Tiffanys had married their blind girl to the family idiot, a man with nothing. Nora had not minded the nothing. Plenty of good men had nothing.

But this? Lying to his wife's cousins in their own yard, so they wouldn't laugh at him?

He wants to look big, she thought. Serena married a man who would rather lie than be laughed at.

What a disappointment.

"There's no need to fight about it," she said brightly. "If we're all going to the same house, let's all go together. Alex, you'll ride with us."

"Ha! Fine." Preston opened the car door wide. "For Miss Hale's sake, I'll feed you tonight. Come and see what a real restaurant looks like, cousin."

In the long black car, Alex sat squeezed against the door, across from Count Charles. He looked at the count's rings for a long time.

"Count Charles," he said politely. "Did your diamond get home safely? The big one, like an egg. There was a man in a brown suit waiting by it, at the wedding. He said you rent it."

The count's smile stopped. For one moment nobody in the car breathed.

"It is in a vault," Count Charles said. "In the capital. Where it belongs."

"Don't talk to him, darling," Patricia said, and squeezed his arm. "He thinks the moon is a cheese."

"Isn't it?" asked Alex.

The sun was going down when they reached the Grand. Not the Grand Hotel up the hill, which Halcyon had bought: the Grand restaurant, older, the biggest table on the coast. It stood above the harbour like it had been there before the sea: white stone, tall old windows, a great brass door, and over it the old carved name. Fishing boats creaked against the quay below. The air smelled of salt, smoke and something roasting slowly in butter.

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