Vain (The Seven Deadly 1)

“He isn’t?” I asked. “Why not?” Dingane stopped breathing altogether and I stifled the snort threatening to escape.

“He says he will never marry,” one little girl answered.

“Never marry. How interesting. Do you think it is because no girl will have him?” I teased.

He turned around then and shot me a look to kill, but I just shrugged my shoulders in question.

“No,” she answered, “he is handsome enough.” No kidding, kid. “I think it is because he doesn’t think he deserves to marry.”

“All right, that’s enough!” Dingane said, parting through the line of children before us like he was Moses and they were the Red Sea. “I have to talk to Miss Price. Excuse us.”

He grabbed my arm.

“He likes Sophie,” the little boy who had asked where I was from proclaimed, making me want to squeal in happiness at Dingane’s obvious want to squirm.

I looked up at him as he led me away, but he refused to acknowledge me.

“He does? I do not think so,” Namono added.

“Yes, he stared at her in class all morning.”

My mouth gaped open at Dingane and he closed his eyes tightly before focusing them on me.

“I did not stare at you,” he whispered.

“When I said I thought her the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, I asked if he agreed and he nodded his head yes,” the little boy added for confirmation.

Dingane led me to the front of the line. “Two, Katie,” he asked and she handed over two plates of rice and beans. I took one and he forced me to a table by the door.

We sat down and I just stared at him as he began to eat.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I told him, digging in myself.

“I was not staring at you,” he told his plate.

I leaned over. “Did you hear that, Dingane’s lunch? He was not staring at you.”

He looked up at me crossly. “I was not staring at you.”

“I never said you were.”

“I was merely explaining that Henry was exaggerating. I did not stare at you.”

“Okay,” I stated, implying in my tone that he had done just that.

“I didn’t. I-I wasn’t.”

“I believe you,” I told him.

“I may have looked at you a few times to make sure you were doing your job.”

“Oh, I see then.”

“But I certainly wasn’t staring.”

“We’ve established that you were not staring.”