The Conspiracy of Us (The Conspiracy of Us 1)

Heat crept across my skin. I drew the robe tighter and frowned at him to disguise the fact that I was now trying—unsuccessfully—not to think about him in the shower. He was doing this on purpose, I reminded myself. And it still wasn’t going to work. “Can I help you?”

His slow smile said he knew exactly what I was thinking. “I suppose I’ll take a rain check on the shower. Now I am taking you to get a gown for the ball. A welcome gift.”

I blinked. “For the what?”

“The ball.” He’d untucked his dress shirt and rolled up the sleeves, and when he drummed his long fingers on the doorframe, I could see the muscles in his forearms twitch. “Tomorrow night. It’s a celebration for the Dauphins’ new babies.”

“Babies.” I remembered the pregnant woman downstairs, who got the Olympics as a baby shower gift.

“Madame Dauphin is giving birth to twins,” Stellan said, like it should be obvious.

“And there’s a ball that’s a baby shower. And I need a . . . gown.” Obviously my brain hadn’t woken up yet.

“Madame Dauphin likes her guests to reflect well on her.” He shot a disdainful glance at my prom dress, now balled up in the corner. I opened my mouth to protest, but honestly, he was right.

“Shouldn’t I wait here until Jack shows up? Or the Saxons?”

“Do I really have to tell you this again? Alistair Saxon is supposed to arrive tomorrow. You’ll see them soon enough. I have other errands to run, so unless you’re wearing that, I suggest you get dressed. You can find something in the closet.” He gestured to a door in the corner that I’d found earlier led to a huge, well-stocked walk-in.

He left, and I called my mom again. Still no answer, on either phone. With that on top of the shock of being here that was finally starting to hit me, nerves fluttered in my stomach. I kind of wanted to curl up under the covers and not leave the room until my family got here.

But it wasn’t like there was anything wrong with shopping. It could be fun. It was nice of the Dauphins to take me in, and I might as well enjoy the perks while I could, before my mom found out what I’d done and locked me up until I turned eighteen.

I searched the closet for an acceptable ball gown shopping outfit. Ball gown shopping. I smiled. There was a phrase I never thought would apply to me.

I slipped on a navy sundress with white stripes, grabbed a similarly striped piece of taffy from a candy bowl on the desk—I was starving—and headed toward the hall where I was meeting Stellan. I passed a library with the door open a crack. The pregnant blond lady, who I assumed was Madame Dauphin, sat at a conference table with four men. As I passed, a word jumped at me.

“. . . about the mandate,” one of the men said. I tripped over my sandals.

“Any news?” Madame Dauphin asked.

I flattened myself against the wall next to the doorframe.

“The Mikados claim to have a lead, but it’s unlikely,” one of the men replied.

“And nothing has come of the Louvre exhibit?”

“Not yet,” said another voice. “Cecile, time is running out. If more information on the mandate is not found—”

“Then we choose the union ourselves, and assume the rest are intelligent enough to rally behind us, even without confirmation of the One. We can’t let this opportunity pass us by. Meanwhile, we keep searching for the tomb. As much as some of the families want to believe it, the mandate isn’t magic,” Madame Dauphin said scornfully. “This is the modern world. No one’s even certain anything will happen.”

There were murmurs of assent, then a few moments of silence, broken by a hesitant voice. “And we must have a united front if we expect to stand against the Order. Aren’t you particularly concerned about them right now? The recent attacks . . . They seem to know so much. They even found out about the baby girl.”

“What are you saying?” another man said. “Do you think information is being leaked?”

There was a loaded pause. The taffy stuck in my teeth was sickeningly sweet.

“It doesn’t matter how they’re finding out. You heard what Alistair Saxon has been saying. He thinks the Order should be eliminated altogether, just in case,” someone else said. “And it sounds like many others are starting to agree.”

Madame Dauphin cleared her throat. “And if we vote to do that, it will be made easier by finding the tomb. Shall we return to the matter at hand?” she said coldly. “Monsieur Dauphin has sent some intelligence out of Egypt. If you will turn to page three . . .”

I took this time when everyone would be looking down to creep past the door. I glanced in as I did, and saw another familiar face.

One of the men who had been speaking was the president of France.

•   •   •

The mandate. The Order, whatever that was. Alistair Saxon—someone from my own family. The president of France. Attacks.

It didn’t sound like they’d been meeting for a fund-raiser. I thought about all the paranoid looks at the party, and it was almost enough to make me forget I was in a limo, driving along the Seine. I tried to shake off worries about politics that weren’t my problem and enjoy that I was going dress shopping in Paris with friends of my family. And especially that I was suddenly able to say “friends of my family.”

Stellan sat in the facing seat and looked me over, from my sundress to my white wedge sandals. I followed his eyes down to my chipped eggplant-purple pedicure, which looked out of place with these casual-but-obviously-expensive clothes. I tucked my feet back against the seat.

“So, Avery West,” Stellan said. “I’ve been wondering about you. You don’t know much about your extended family?”

I looked up from my hands in my lap. “I think we’ve established that.”

“Why were you so willing to come along, then?” Stellan leaned forward. For the first time, I noticed that his eyes were deep blue, with splashes of gold around the irises.

I frowned. “I—”

“What kind of girl abandons everything for people she doesn’t know?” he continued, eyes narrowing.

“If you’d stop interrupting, maybe I’d tell you.”

“Please do.” Stellan splayed his long legs casually into my foot space, and I ignored them with Zen-like control. I couldn’t help but wonder again what he was trying to do. He could be one of those guys who saw an uninterested girl as a challenge, but I felt like there was more to it.