Unfinished (Historical Fiction) Read Free Page B

neck that were naked, the strain came from sinew and muscle. Not fat.
    “This is my clerk. James Hillman.” John Stone had stepped forward to shake James' hand but stopped cold.
    “A clerk? I see.” He pulled back abruptly and sat behind his desk, leaving James in mid-pose, leaning forward with his arm at a right angle, shaking hands with the air.
    Lilith marched to fill her father's empty space. “I am Lilith Stone. Pleased to meet you.”
    James' hand swallowed hers, the skin warm and hardened by calluses. He clasped as if shaking a man's hand. Lilith's shoulder shook before she could steady the muscles. She attempted to return the pressure and strength. One corner of his mouth turned up and Lilith could not determine whether the grin was conspiratorial or mocking. She decided it was likely a blend of both. As his flesh receded from hers a deep curiosity replaced it, her interest in Mr. James Hillman piqued.
    The men remained standing until Lilith sat on a small settee, her back as straight as a steel beam. She scanned the room with eyes like a bird of prey, finally settling on Reed. The lawyer squirmed and shuffled aimlessly through a thick file in his hands, murmuring nonsense to himself.
    James searched the room for the largest chair and found a Morris covered in thick, black leather. His hips fit neatly in the straight-backed, low-slung piece of furniture, his back reclined fully. When Lilith sat in it, she needed only the first half-foot of seat to sit up properly, feet flat on the floor.
    She watched him pull a fountain pen and scribe notebook out of a tattered leather business bag. Ignoring her stare, James focused on Reed and Stone as they attempted to disinherit Lilith.
    “Mr. Stone, unfortunately I've found no holes in the legal construction of this trust.”
    “Unfortunately!” Lilith chided. “Unfortunately, the law is sound? A lawyer, one charged with the careful and neutral application of the law, is saddened that the law cannot be circumvented to disinherit me? What a fine, moral specimen you are.” She winked and Reed turned the same shade of red as the Japanese maple leaves outside Stone's library window.
    “Blast. Well, then, what of McLean?”
    Lilith shot her father an incredulous look. “The mental ward? Are you serious? You tried that a few years ago, father. It didn't work then and it won't work now. This is precisely why women need the vote, and need equal treatment under the law. If I were a man I'd be hailed as a powerful, virile icon in a wealthy family. Instead, you treat me like a hysterical female afflicted with nothing more than – ” she gestured at her breasts and torso “-- this!”
    “Stop!” barreled the elder Stone. James tried, unsuccessfully, to turn a laugh into a cough, spilling ink all over his notes and his lapel in the process of covering his mouth.
    Blooming anger that began in her pelvis boiled up into her mouth and spilled over. “Besides, Father, you were able to keep what happened at McLean quiet once. Even a billionaire cannot hide what they did to me twice. Your money and connections aren't that strong. Even God himself cannot hide from the muckrakers.”
    Stone acted as if he'd heard nothing, though a simple nostril flare told her he'd caught the implicit threat. He motioned for Reed to talk. Reed shuffled through a thick packet of notes and said, “Committing Miss Stone to McLean will not dissolve the trust. She will simply inherit it at the age of twenty-five, as usual. Even if she were your legal ward at that time, you have no right to the money. Your wife's father, Mr. Weston, was clear. In the event of Miss Stone's mental incapacitation, the money goes to the Canadian government.”
    Stone leaped to his feet, a crimson fury seeping from every pore. “What?”
    Lilith's laugh captured the room, filling it with a mirth and delight she hadn't felt in years. Looking up toward a heaven she didn't believe in, she melodramatically gestured and said, “Oh,