A moment later, he steered a short, round man toward me. The fellow had small, crafty eyes, and he looked as though he was already calculating just how much he could gain from talking to me.
"You must speak with Edward," Michael declared. "He's terribly serious, our Edward, though equally remarkably promising." He glanced from the man to me, that sly and deeply satisfied grin spreading across his face. "Perhaps you ought to introduce your daughter to him."
"Oh yes, quite right," the man said, his voice too high. "You really must meet my daughter. You'd make a splendid pair." He leaned closer, lowering his tone with a conspiratorial air. "She's an absolute darling. Quite different from everyone here with her…" He paused, searching for a suitable word. "…innocence."
I wondered what he meant to conceal with that choice. Perhaps she was so unattractive that no one wished to spend time with her. Or perhaps she was some quiet creature locked away in a tower, waiting for rescue. Or the word served as a polite cover for far less innocent behaviour.
None of those possibilities interested me in the slightest. Nor had I the faintest idea why anyone present believed I required a wife.
Michael's grin widened. "You seriously need to think about this, Ed. Can't remain a bachelor forever," he said, laughing loudly, which drew curious glances from the nearby guests.
Moments such as this made me want to strike him in front of the entire room.
Sadly, I suspected that even a generous number of blows would fail to rearrange his mind into something sensible.
His instincts were far too mischievous for that.
Well, hoping that the sadist would stop after one introduction would have been childish.
He dragged people to me one after another.
First, an elderly couple, immensely wealthy and thoroughly convinced they represented proper old money.
Then some fresh-faced youth who clearly considered himself a respected businessman. He tried speaking with me about business matters, throwing around terms he barely understood, while making it obvious he was nothing more than a useless fool with far too much confidence. He had years of learning ahead of him. Although judging by what I saw, there were hardly any signs of a future. Most likely, he would end up buried in debt.
Eventually, Michael hauled me across the room to the woman responsible for this entire spectacle.
The baroness.
An unpleasant creature who'd clung to a title granted to some distant ancestor centuries ago. She'd done nothing to earn it and had no connection to the achievement that produced it.
Yet she carried herself as if she were above the rest of society. Higher than any of her guests. And, strangely, they were fine with it.
Which I could never quite understand.
A fair number of guests had gathered around the woman, and each of them looked nearly as awful as she did.
Wonderful.
Standing in that circle would require even more effort than the rest of the evening.
At times, I questioned why this society irritated me so much. I'd grown up in it. By all logic, it should've felt natural.
But it never did.
Why wasn't I like Michael, who seemed to enjoy the whole spectacle far more than he suffered through it? Why did all of this annoy me so much?
Then again, tonight the explanation was quite obvious. The endless headache hardly improved my patience.
"Dear Mr. Mankler, I'm so delighted to see you," the baroness said with a wide smile that looked absolutely false. "How wonderful. Men so busy with their affairs rarely manage to visit me." She sighed in a rather theatrical manner. "I'm very pleased you found the time. I suppose this is, as usual, the work of our dear Michael, isn't it?"
Her gaze moved to him, and the smile she gave him looked far more sincere.
Michael immediately pretended to grow shy.
"Oh, what are you saying," he said with a light laugh. "Not at all. I've nothing to do with it." He lifted his shoulders in a careless shrug. "I merely reminded Edward about this event a few hundred times and made sure he came."
He looked at me with complete satisfaction.
I had no idea why that amused him so much.
"Well then, Edward," the baroness continued, turning back to me, "tell us, what interesting things are happening in the world of money?"
What possible sense was there in telling her anything about business when she wouldn't understand a word of it? For all that pomp and the crowd of eager flatterers around her, the woman possessed very little wit.
Nevertheless, good manners and politeness were the most important things to me.
So I drew a careful breath and answered. "I'd rather not trouble you with boring matters. To be honest, nothing particularly interesting is happening. Nothing that would deserve your attention."
"Oh?" she said. "Really? What a pity. I'd have loved to hear you speak about it, Edward."
Then she turned toward the audience gathered around her, the spectators of this miserable theatre.
"Though I must admit," she continued thoughtfully, "I'm rather surprised everything is so calm in business. Society itself seems to be growing… unsettled. You must've noticed the mood."
Several people nodded at once.
"What troubles me most is the growing activity of those hybrids," she went on, frowning slightly. "I've never understood the desire humans have to mix with beastfolk." She sighed. "The poor children born from such unions never seem to find their place. It's terribly sad." Her tone grew softer. "Sometimes I think it would be far better to gather them all in one place where they could live happily. You know. A neutral zone."
The circle around her stirred with approving murmurs.
A tight knot formed in my throat.
I wanted to tell her to go to hell.
Because what she was suggesting was removing the hybrids. Sending them somewhere far away and locking them out of sight so she would never have to see them.
What a thoroughly vile woman.
One of her admirers spoke up before I could gather my thoughts. "They've grown rather unruly lately. If you look at the newspapers, the news, it's full of clashes with hybrids or their supporters." He shrugged with grave concern. "Our streets would be far better without that brutality. And perhaps we should stop provoking the poor creatures with other races. If life beside us proves so difficult, perhaps they truly should live somewhere else."
Something hot rose inside my chest.
Were they serious?
I could feel the mask I had so carefully maintained beginning to crack. Another moment, and my real thoughts would appear on my face.
Fortunately, Michael stepped in before that happened.
"Well," he said, giving a charming smile to the group. "I'm sure things will calm down with time." Then he turned toward me with sudden interest. "Oh, Edward, I've just remembered something. Didn't you promise to handle that matter for me tonight? That meeting you were meant to attend straight after this." He tilted his head. "You do remember, don't you. I believe you might be running late."
I stared at him for a moment, completely lost. What on earth was he talking about?
It took me a few seconds to realise what he was doing. He was saving me, pulling me out before I said something unforgivable.
"Ah, yes. The meeting," I said at last.
I glanced at my watch, attempting to look convincingly alarmed.
"You're quite right. I'm terribly late." I said and turned back to the baroness. "My apologies. I would be delighted to attend another one of your gatherings, but I'm afraid I must leave at once."
Several courteous farewells followed. Regret at my departure.
Then I was finally free.
Michael didn't follow me. He remained where he stood, already drawn back into the conversation.
Sometimes I asked myself what sort of person he really was.
On one hand, he dragged me into these situations. On the other hand, he rescued me from them seconds before I was about to explode.
Weaving past the guests and doing my best to avoid catching anyone's attention, I moved quickly toward the exit. The last thing I needed was another conversation.
It was cold outside, so I quickly threw on the coat that had been handed to me.
The driver brought the car forward, then opened the door without delay. I slipped into the passenger seat and closed my eyes.
Finally.
Time to get out of here.