Chapter 5: The Brother Comes to Dinner
Liana was given a room on the third floor.
It had a lock she could use from the inside, a window that faced the garden, and a connecting door to a smaller room where a temporary crib had been placed for Nico.
She did not use the connecting door.
She kept Nico with her.
At four in the afternoon, one of the household staff knocked and left a dress on the chair outside her room.
Dark blue.
Simple.
Her size exactly.
There was no note.
At six, Matteo knocked.
"He'll be here in an hour," he said through the door.
"I need you downstairs.
At the table."
Liana opened the door.
"Why?"
"Because if Dario knows something is wrong, I want to see his face when he sees you."
"You're using me as bait."
"I'm using you as information." His voice was careful.
"You don't have to speak.
You don't have to explain who you are.
You're a member of the household staff who is assisting with Nico's care.
That's all."
"And if he recognizes me?"
"From where?"
"I don't know.
If he arranged what we think he arranged, he may have seen my file.
My photograph.
He may know exactly who I am."
Matteo considered this.
"Then we'll know something important."
Liana looked at Nico, sitting on the bed behind her, gripping a fold of the blanket with both hands and watching them with his large, steady eyes.
She picked up the blue dress.
Dario Varric arrived at seven fifteen.
He was taller than Matteo by two inches and carried himself with the ease of a man who had never been told no by a room.
His suit was dark gray.
His smile arrived before he was fully through the door.
"Brother." He embraced Matteo in the foyer.
"You look terrible.
Still not sleeping?"
"Getting better," Matteo said.
Dario's eyes moved across the room.
They passed over the guards.
They passed over the housekeeper.
They stopped on Liana, standing near the base of the staircase with Nico against her shoulder.
His smile did not change.
But his eyes did.
It was small.
A fraction of a second.
The kind of shift that only registered if you were already watching for it.
Liana was watching.
"New staff?" Dario said pleasantly.
"Liana.
She's been helping with Nico."
"Helping." Dario moved toward her.
He stopped at a polite distance and looked at the baby.
"He seems calmer."
"He is," Matteo said.
"What changed?"
"She did."
Dario looked at Liana's face.
She held his gaze.
He was very good.
His expression showed nothing but mild, friendly curiosity.
But his right hand, hanging at his side, closed slowly into a fist and then opened again.
"Remarkable," he said softly.
Then he turned back to Matteo.
"Shall we eat?"
Dinner was served in the formal dining room.
Liana sat at the far end of the table, Nico in a chair beside her.
The housekeeper had offered to take the baby upstairs.
Matteo had said no.
Dario ate well.
He talked about business.
He asked about the estate accounts.
He mentioned a property deal in the south that needed Matteo's signature.
He was charming and relaxed and completely in control of every word he said.
Then Nico reached across the table toward the bread basket, missed, and knocked a small glass onto the tablecloth.
Dario's hand shot out and caught it before it fell.
He set it upright.
He looked at Nico.
And for just a moment, something crossed his face that was not charm and was not friendliness.
It was hunger.
Liana's hand moved to Nico's back.
"He's getting strong," Dario said.
His voice was perfectly even.
"How old is he now?"
"Nine months," Matteo said.
"Growing fast." Dario picked up his wine glass.
"Children that age form attachments quickly.
It can be difficult when those attachments have to be broken." He looked at Liana.
"For everyone involved."
The table was quiet.
Matteo set down his fork.
"What does that mean?"
"Only that staff turnover can be hard on a child." Dario smiled.
"You'll want to be careful about who you let get too close.
For Nico's sake."
"I'm careful about everything," Matteo said.
"For Nico's sake."
The two men looked at each other across the table.
Liana kept her hand on Nico's back and her face completely still.
After dinner, Dario said his goodbyes in the foyer.
He kissed Liana's hand with perfect courtesy.
His lips were cold.
"It was a pleasure," he said.
"I hope we'll see each other again."
She smiled.
"I'm sure we will."
He left.
The front door closed.
The foyer was silent.
Matteo turned to her.
"He knows who you are."
"Yes," she said.
"How certain are you?"
She thought of his hand closing into a fist.
The hunger on his face when he looked at Nico.
The careful threat wrapped inside a polite sentence about attachment.
"Completely," she said.
Matteo's phone buzzed in his pocket.
He looked at the screen.
His expression shifted.
"Ferrante," he said.
He read the message.
May you like
Then he looked up at her.
"The results are early," he said.
