Incarceron Part 96

"You haven't eaten?"

"No ... I suppose ... in all the fuss ..."

"You should take more care of yourself." The voice was hard. "Too many hours working at these forbidden devices."

He waved a hand. Jared saw that the table near the window was covered with pieces of his experiments, the scanners, the imagers, the devices to block alarms. He said nothing.

"Of course you understand that all these are illegal." The Warden's eyes were ice-cold. "We have always allowed the Sapienti a certain leeway, but you seem to have been taking great advantage."

Then he said, "Where is Claudia, Master?"

"I told you-"

"Don't lie to me. She is not at home. There are no horses unaccounted for."

"Perhaps ... she may be on foot."

"I do believe she is."

The Warden sat opposite him, his black satin breeches creasing elegantly.

"And perhaps you thought you were not lying when you said home?"

Jared put the cup down. They faced each other.

"How did she find out?" John Arlex said.

Jared decided, quite suddenly, to tell the truth.

"The girl in the Prison told her, Attia, Finn's friend. From some records she had discovered."

The Warden nodded in slow appreciation.

"Ah yes. How did she take it?"

"She was ... very shocked."

"Furious?"

"Yes."

"I would expect nothing else."

"And upset."

The Warden shot him a keen glare, but Jared returned it calmly.

"She had always been so secure as your daughter, sir. Known who she was. She ... cares for you."

"Don't lie to me."

The sudden snarl shocked him with its anger. The Warden got up and paced down the room.

"There has only ever been one person Claudia has cared for in her life, Master Sapient. And that is you."

Jared sat still.

His heart hammered. "Sir ..."

"Did you think I was blind?"

The Warden turned.

"No indeed. Oh, she had her nurses and her waiting women, but Claudia is far above their level and she knew it early. Every time I came home I saw how she and you laughed and talked, how she fussed with your coat if it was cold, sent for possets and sweetmeats, how you had your private jokes, your shared studies."

He folded his arms and stared out of the window.

"With me she was distant, reserved. She didn't know me. I was a stranger, the Warden, a great man at Court, someone who came and went. Someone to be wary of. But you, Master Jared, you were her tutor and her brother and more her father than I have ever been."

Jared was cold now. Behind the Warden's iron control was a blazing hatred; he had never sensed the depth of it before. He tried to breathe calmly.

"How do you think that felt, Master?"

The Warden swung around.