“It doesn’t matter. It’s over.”
“That’s what you told me last time we spoke, and I let it go. But I’m not going away so easily this morning. Something happened in that club. I want to know what it was.”
“Why? Nothing’s going to change. The courts have ignored my appeal, and I’ve taken up enough of your time.”
“And we just spent another hour on you,” Tristan interrupted. “We’ll spend another hour traveling back to New Bristol. Don’t waste our time, kid.”
“Tristan!”
“It’s the truth.”
Simon shook his head. “I can’t talk about it, Lila. You know that. I can’t discuss family business with outsiders. Not even with you.”
“You’re not a Wilson any longer,” Lila said. “Do you honestly think your mother will take you back into the family? She’ll send someone with your mark the day you finish your slave’s term, and that will be the end of it.”
“My mother will be long dead before I finish here. I’ll be a workborn in the end, anyway. None of it matters.”
“Wrong. If you’re not guilty, then you could finish high school. You could marry into a new—”
“Highborn do not marry. We liaise. Marriage is reserved for the poorer classes.”
“Your brothers married into other highborn families. They can help you do the same.”
“I’m not them.”
“You’ll be one of the poorer classes eventually if you don’t. But if you don’t want to marry, then fine. Take a servant’s contract instead. You could even start a business. You’re not yet eighteen, Simon. You have options. You have plenty of time. But you won’t have either if you stay here.”
Simon frowned and brushed at the dirt on his jeans, fighting a losing battle to keep the muck of the vineyard from his clothes.
Lila grabbed his hands and squeezed, ignoring the grit on his fingers. “Simon, this may feel like some big adventure or a vacation right now, but if you stay here, this might be it for you. If something happened that night, you need to tell me. How far has loyalty gotten you?”
Simon dug his toe into the earth. He did not answer for some time. “I didn’t do it, Lila. You know me. You know my friends. I’ve never even seen heroin before. Still haven’t. I wouldn’t even know what to do with it.”
“What happened in the club that night?”
“I don’t know. It wasn’t like the militia said. There weren’t even that many people in the club. My cousins and I were there to blow off steam and have a few beers after midterms. One minute we were sitting around the table, laughing, the next minute two Bullstow blackcoats entered the club. They didn’t even stop to talk to Mr. Sutherland. They just came in and headed right for our table, like they knew us and knew exactly where we’d be.”
“Did Mr. Sutherland rat you out?” Tristan asked.
“Why would he do a thing like that? We’re kinsman.”
Lila ignored Tristan as he rolled his eyes. “Did they search you?”
“Yeah, they didn’t find anything, though. It didn’t seem to matter to them. They arrested us all anyway, then they took us to the security office on the estate and put us in a holding cell. I’d never even been in there before. There were over a dozen people in the cells already. I heard them talking. Half of them hadn’t even been on the estate when the militia took them, and none of us had any drugs.”
“No one fought back in court?”
“Of course they did, but they were poor workborn. They didn’t have much money for lawyers. I think some of their families were threatened or paid off, because a few just agreed to whatever the blackcoats put in their report.”
“Do you have proof of that?” Tristan asked.
Simon shook his head. “No. The prosecution used those who had been turned as witnesses against the rest of us in exchange for reduced sentences. They said whatever the blackcoats wanted, even when it contradicted the militia report. The ones who spoke the truth weren’t believed.”
“And you?” Lila asked.
“I wasn’t about to admit to something I didn’t do. Some law firm offered to defend us for free, at least those of us who couldn’t afford lawyers, but I guess you get what you pay for. The charges against Dan and Tobias were dropped before my trial, and their parents threatened to take away their dividends if they tried to speak in my defense. I can’t blame them for staying quiet.”
“Why was Bullstow even on the e