Free Knots (Club Imperial Book 4) by Katherine Rhodes Page B

after, and she wouldn’t have to come back for a week.
    Roger took his place at the head of the table, and Charles sat to his right. Hannah sat next to him, Marjorie at the other end of the table, and Cece alone on the remaining side. Figured. The black sheep. She just wished that Hannah had sat on her side.
    Mrs. Perkins and two of the other staff members brought dinner out, already plated. Cece wanted to roll her eyes. Even when she had gone to Nathaniel and Emmy’s, Joanne had severed everyone family style. Nathaniel Walsh had more money than the Robbes and four other families; he wasn’t too good to pass the potatoes. She looked down at the plate in front of her. Mother’s portions: about half of a cup of potatoes, three ounces of the Chicken Marsala, half a cup of green beans, five baby carrots and one half of a candied pear. The last of which she hated.
    She looked over at Hannah’s plate and saw basically the same thing. Her mother’s plate had even less of everything. But glancing at her father’s and brother, the food was heaped on the plate. Looked as though she’d be stopping on the way home for a snack. And perhaps she should take Hannah with her. Wendy’s was open late.
    Once Mrs. Perkins and the two other staff retreated, Cece reached for her knife and fork.
    “Frances.” Charles one word carried the contempt of a thousand parents. She looked up at him and saw that he had his hands folded in front of him in prayer. Hannah, Roger and Marjorie had as well. Mother and father weren’t looking at her, Hannah had pleading in her eyes. Chas was just pissed.
    “You are kidding me.” Cece put down her silverware and dropped her hands into her lap.
    “We say grace.” Chas stared at her hard.
    “You say grace. I’ll wait.”
    “We all say grace.”
    “So? Say grace. I'm not digging in, I'm waiting for you.”
    “Why aren't your hands on the table in prayer?”
    “Because---” Cece cut herself off. Her comment about fingering herself under the table was way beyond the pale. “Because I say my own prayers in my own time.”
    Marjorie gasped. “Oh, no. You haven't joined one of those store front religions!?”
    “Did you know there are two things that you should never talk about in polite company?” Cece bore her gaze into Chas. “Politics and religion. Say your prayers, Charles, before we all waste away.” She left her hands in her lap, desperately biting her tongue from any further comments.
    Charles stared right back her for another minute, then bowed his head. He said the short prayer that fell completely inauthenticly from his lips. “Dear Lord, please bless the meal before us. We are grateful for your bounty and for your generosity. Continue to heap your grace upon us. Amen.”
    Cece waited until her brother picked up the utensils. She picked up her own and carefully cut into her delicate portions.
    “So, Frannie” Roger’s voice boomed through large space fueled by his scotch. “Why can't you make it on Mondays?”
    “I have a standing meeting at the library and I can't miss it.” True, not a lie. They just didn't need to know what that meeting was. “I have the chance to move up here and I need to be at that meeting every week.”
    “You know your husband won’t approve of your working,” Marjorie said, and smiled at her husband. Roger didn’t even see it. He was busy cutting up his overly large portion of dinner. “You should really think about your future, Cece.”
    “I’m not getting married right now, mom” Cece stabbed a carrot. “I need to pay the bills for the house.”
    “Your father and I think it’s high time you quit that job and moved back home.” Marjorie was ignoring her again, and listening to herself talk. “You’ll never get a husband if you’re so… so… independent.”
    “You say that as if it were a bad thing.”
    “Darling, independence never won a husband.”
    Cece closed her eyes for a moment. “It’s not contest, mom. I’ll find a