Free Successio by Alison Morton Page B

somewhere. Especially the gold-plated ones.’
    I glared at him. He never failed to throw my family’s wealth in my face.
    ‘Yes, yes, you can look all Hades at me, but you know I’m right.’
    ‘Give me the details, please.’
    He looked at the arrest sheet. ‘The local squad was called by the bar owner who’d chucked Allegra and an older girl out. The two girls had got rowdy and were starting to annoy the other customers. The two of them started running across the Via Nova playing dodgems with the traffic.’
    I swallowed hard to prevent a scream escaping. The Via Nova was not only incredibly busy; it was the site of Conrad’s accident. How in Hades had she got so drunk? That bar owner should be flogged. I would make it my personal mission to have her licence revoked and her business ruined.
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘When the patrol got there, they found Allegra slumped by the side of the road, weeping, but truculent. No sign of the older girl. They arrested Allegra, put her in a general holding cell with the town tarts and petty thieves. Apparently, Allegra had used some offensive language when she was arrested. The custody sergeant thought it would teach her a lesson.’ Even Lurio looked grim.
    ‘Her name?’
    ‘Don’t go there, Bruna. I can understand why the sergeant did it. The shock often works. But she didn’t realise they were dealing with such a protected little flower.’
    I hated him at that moment.
    ‘She refused to give her name. She didn’t bleat, but as her clothes and accent showed she came from a well-off family, they got permission from the magistrate to scan her.’ He snorted. ‘Imagine the panic that caused when they read her identity on the display! With such a live coal landed in their laps, they called me.’
    Screw the custodes having a bad day, Allegra would have been frightened beyond reason. Not just the custodes , nor the restraints, the arrest vehicle, the humiliation, but the rough element in the holding cell.
    ‘Thank you for contacting me, Lurio,’ I said stiffly. ‘May I see my daughter now?’
    ‘Are you sure you’re ready? I won’t have a screaming session or cat-fight in one of my stations.’
    Juno, he was all heart. ‘You may be reassured, Senior Commander, that we know how to conduct ourselves, even under trying circumstances.’
    ‘Trying to put me in my place?’ He smirked.
    ‘Just get on with it.’
    I tried to ignore the blue-uniformed custodes as we walked through to the cells. They were both wary and polite with us in the PGSF and I knew they’d be watching now. Many of my colleagues sneered at the custodes and used the public’s name for them – scarab, or dung beetle. I’d been a DJ custos once; I kept it formal with them. Well, apart from Lurio.
    Getting one over the PGSF would give them satisfaction. Having the junior heir to the most powerful of the Twelve Families in custody would have been the event of the year. But right now, I was only a mother with a wayward daughter. Through the observation panel of the cell door I saw her hunched over, perched on the edge of the bench, and sobbing. The bitter smell of vomit floated through. My heart ached for her. At Lurio’s nod, the guard opened the door and I went in alone.
    She looked up, eyes red, face streaked with traces of mascara. Any angry words I had for her died in my breath. I held her tight, gently rocking her in my arms on that hard plastic bench until she was all cried out. She glanced up at my face, turned nearly crimson and burrowed her head back between my chest and my arm.
    ‘Hey, it’s okay.’ I stroked her hair, trying to comfort her. I never loved her more than at that moment.
    *
    Lurio countersigned the temporary release, muttering that he’d skin me alive if I failed to produce Allegra in court the next afternoon. I knew he’d been generous; normally they’d have held her overnight in the cells. As we rode home, Allegra didn’t say a word, just gripped my hand with a desperately