This meant I was also losing my temper, something which also happened easily and, unfortunately, frequently.
“Can someone please tell me what everyone is talking about? Who’s Lucien?” My voice was still cold and now also sharp.
At my words I felt my mother turn to stone in horror at my side. Cosmo grinned. The female examined me for a moment then she threw back her head and laughed.
“What’s funny?” I snapped.
She stopped laughing but, even so, it still danced in her eyes as she replied, “I’m Stephanie.”
“That’s lovely, you being Stephanie and all, but that isn’t an answer to my question,” I told her.
“Leah,” my mother said softly in her mother tone, this one also sounding slightly alarmed.
“Leave her be, Lydia,” Cosmo ordered gently. “No harm will come to her.”
I felt my eyes grow wide. No harm would come to me?
What did that mean?
I thought this whole farce was about urbanity and civility. How could harm come to me? Other than the harm that would come to me if I was selected, of course.
“She is a Buchanan, after all,” Stephanie added before I could form a question.
“Yes. There is that and, of course, Lucien,” Cosmo put in and Stephanie turned to him.
“Where is Lucien? I thought he’d never miss her arrival,” Stephanie asked Cosmo.
“He’s going to be late. He’s having some difficulty with Katrina. She’s…” Cosmo paused and glanced at me before looking back to Stephanie, “not happy about him attending this particular Selection.”
I watched, with no small amount of unease, as Stephanie’s face grew hard. “What would she have him to do? Starve?”
“I think in this instance,” I watched Cosmo’s eyes shift to me again before returning to Stephanie, “she would.”
“Whore,” Stephanie spat with such fierce, terrifying emotion, I couldn’t help myself, I stepped back.
“Calm, Teffie, you’re frightening Leah,” Cosmo warned.
I felt it important to save face. I mean, I was frightened. Stephanie was scaring the shit out of me, but I didn’t want them to know that.
“I’m not frightened, I’m annoyed,” I announced. “No one has answered my questions.”
Cosmo’s eyes came back to me. “You’ll get your answers soon enough, love.”
That didn’t sound too good.
Cosmo moved to my mother and took her elbow. “Let’s get you something to eat, my love. I distinctly remember you like to eat.”
As Mom moved away with Cosmo I heard her reply in a voice filled with fond laughter, “I remember you like the same.”
Cosmo laughed. I couldn’t help it, I grimaced. I mean, even if it was my Mom, it was still gross.
“You’ll like it too,” Stephanie said and my eyes shot to her.
“Sorry?”
“You’ll like it too,” she repeated.
“What?” I asked, even though I knew.