He smiled. “Longview?”
“Dallas.” This grinning professor was so unlike the Lieutenant.
His eyes twinkled. “Ah, the Bible Belt. Tell me, Shay, how closely have you studied scripture?”
I frowned. “Scripture?”
He reached around me for a glass of wine, coming unnervingly close. “Say what you will about religion, but there’s no denying the Bible is a great work of literature. Endlessly teachable.” He sipped his wine with a satisfied smile. “You’ll see.”
Uneasiness hollowed my stomach. There was something about his cheer, the way he spoke to me as if I were a child. I could feel his desire to diminish me humming underneath his smile.
His eyes caught movement to my right, and he jerked forward, grabbing someone by the elbow. “Speak of the devil!”
He pulled a young girl forward, wisp-thin and stringy-haired, no older than twenty. Her dowdy collared dress hung loose off her limbs, and her elbows were sharp, cheekbones too pronounced. “Shay, meet Katie. It’s her special night.”
For a moment, I blinked between them, trying to read Katie’s face. Her cheeks were flushed. “Hi,” she said shyly.
“Hi, Katie.” Run, Katie.
The man squeezed her arm tighter. “I was just asking Shay what kind of student she was.”
“A bad one, I’m afraid.” I took a step back. “I almost didn’t graduate college.”
“Pity,” he said, eyes finding mine. “Then you won’t understand why the daughters call me the Marquis.”
I took another step back. I’d read de Sade.
He winked. “Like I always tell Katie, pushing girls into higher education was where we started to go wrong. We told a generation of women they needed to have a life of the mind to be happy, and now look at us—girls enrolled at twice the rate of men, and men committing suicide in record-high numbers. If this continues, it’ll only get worse.” He shook Katie’s arm. “Katie was miserable in college. All her instincts told her it was unnatural from the start. Isn’t that right?”
Katie nodded but said nothing.
How did the Marquis know that about her? I searched her face for a clue, or a hint of rebellion, but all my attention seemed to do was make her shrink even further into the Marquis’s bulk.
“Women in the academy now, you can practically feel their lust for power. They want to control everything: the courses, the department rules, the production of knowledge itself. They need to keep feeding society lies to serve their agenda. Well, all that falseness rots them from the inside out. You can tell them by their stink.” He made a show of sniffing Katie’s hair, then in my direction. “Thank goodness. Sweet as can be.”
I closed my mouth, all my questions dying on my tongue.
“Enough of that.” The Marquis leaned forward conspiratorially. “I came over to crown you the most beautiful girl in the room. Isn’t she, Katie?”
Katie nodded, a slip of her chin, and smiled at me wistfully, like I’d won a prize.
I remembered what the Lieutenant said: If you’re lucky, and a Pater likes the look of you, he’ll honor you by asking for your service. My heart pounded. Maybe that’s what the Marquis wanted.
“I’m the host of this party,” he started, puffing out his chest. “To be chosen—”
I gripped Katie’s arm. “I’m sorry.” I picked up a second wineglass from the piano. “I just remembered I promised someone I would bring this to him a while ago.”
Before either could respond, I beelined through the living room, then slipped down the empty hallway, moving blindly. My pulse jumped in my throat. How many times could I get away with escaping? This made three now. One of these nights, a Pater wouldn’t take no for an answer.