The Inner Circle: The Knowing Read Free Page A

fantasies to take her mind off what her father
was up to.
    With a tired sigh, Seteal headed
downstairs to join Gifn in the kitchen. ‘Morning,’ she
grumbled.
    ‘ Morning,’ Gifn
replied with an equal lack of enthusiasm. ‘You didn’t have to be so
rude last night, you know?’
    ‘ Really?’ Seteal
rolled her eyes. ‘You want to start this early in the
morning?’
    ‘ What’s wrong with
the boy?’ Gifn said indignantly. ‘He comes from a wealthy family
and he’s actually quite a nice young man. You could do a lot
worse.’
    ‘ All right.’ Seteal
exhaled softly. ‘We’re actually doing this. Fine.
I--don’t--want--to--get--married. Do you understand me?’
    ‘ Come now, Seteal.
You finished school three years ago,’ Gifn insisted. ‘You can’t
help out in the shop forever . . . and I won’t be here forever. You
need someone who can take care of you.’
    ‘ I can take care of
myself,’ Seteal snapped. ‘I’ll run the business alone if I have
to.
    ‘ You’re a woman.’
Gifn chuckled before his face crumbled at the realisation that he
should’ve kept such a comment to himself. ‘I mean to say: carpentry
is heavy work.’
    ‘ It’s work that you
know I’m far more capable of handling than any of the men you’ve
hired in the past.’ Seteal put her hands on her hips and narrowed
her eyes accusingly.
    ‘ I just don’t see why
you’re so hostile to the idea of at least meeting some of these
young men,’ Gifn intercepted, guiding the conversation back on
course. ‘Most girls would be giddy with excitement at your
age.’
    Seteal stared at her father stonily. He
couldn’t possibly be so dim. Surely he was trying to fool himself
by denying what he must already know on some level, at least. She
felt like shouting it at him, but couldn’t be so cruel. It would
crush him. It wasn’t fair, but that was the world they lived
in.
    ‘ I’ve just met
so many lately,’ Seteal stated, taking pity on her father’s
desperation. ‘I’m tired of not finding the right person.’
    ‘ Well.’ Gifn clapped
his hands enthusiastically, relief and elation dancing across his
features. ‘I’ve got just the man for you! He’s not the wealthiest
in town, but he’s intelligent and handsome. I’ve arranged a meeting
for tonight.’
    ‘ No--enough!’
Seteal’s long-suppressed anger boiled to the surface. ‘For Maker’s
sake, I’m trying to make this easy on you, but you keep throwing it
back in my face. I don’t want to meet a man, any man, ever. Get it?
I’m not interested in men.’
    ‘ What’re you saying?’
Gifn’s face fell, making it obvious that he didn’t truly want the
answer to his question.
    ‘ I . . .’ Seteal
slumped, once again softened by her father’s distress. He was old
fashioned and alone. She was all he had. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling
about tonight, that’s all.’
    ‘ What kind of
feeling?’ Gifn asked warily, clamping his hands over Seteal’s
shoulders.
    ‘ I don’t know.’
Seteal looked up at him awkwardly. ‘A feeling.’
    ‘ What kind of
feeling?’ Gifn repeated more firmly. ‘What does the feeling feel
like?’
    ‘ What does the
feeling feel like?’ Seteal’s face creased in consternation. ‘What
kind of a question is that? It feels like a feeling. The feeling
feels like a feeling!’
    ‘ Are you sure that it
doesn’t feel like it’s not your feeling, but you’re feeling it
anyway?’
    ‘ What the torrid?’
Seteal got up from the table and stepped away to stare at anything
other than Gifn’s eyes, all the while doing her best to remain
calm. Her father had described exactly what it felt like when she
felt the future. It was as though she knew something, but the
knowledge was not her own. Rather, the thoughts seemed to have been
inserted into her head from somewhere else. ‘I’m just not feeling
very sociable.’ Seteal forced a laugh.
    Why was he behaving this way? Had he
figured it out? But how could he have possibly done so?
    ‘ Well, all