Merciless Reason by Oisin McGann Read Free Book Online Page B

pink scars traced irregular patterns on the skin of his face. His eyes were a cold winter’s blue and hinted at the arrogance of someone who was confident that he was more intelligent than anyone else he knew. That confidence was well-founded.
    But Gerald had changed in the last three years. In fact, most of the changes had been sudden. Daisy suspected that this was down to the fact that he had felt forced to betray the people closest to him. Or it might have been from the trauma of being thrown by his best friend off a four-hundred-foot waterfall onto the submerged rocks below. It was difficult to tell. But the sardonic spark that had always been at the root of his personality had been extinguished, leaving a jaded, obsessive intensity. It made him next to impossible to deal with.
    â€œYou’ve changed the church plans again , Gerald,” Daisy said to him. “We were almost finished, for heaven’s sake. What is it all about?”
    â€œIt is an experiment,” Gerald replied, as if that explained everything. “I had to rethink the dimensions of my design. It couldn’t be avoided. Walk with me, Daisy. I’d like to talk with you.”
    Daisy sighed quietly and excused herself from the architect, catching up with Gerald as he walked out of the room. The boardroom was a large, light, airy room on the tenth floor of the main tower of Wildenstern Hall. Gerald led her to the lavishly appointed elevator and told the uniformed boy working the brass lever to take them to the top floor.
    Trapped with him in this enclosed space, Daisy tried to suppress the fear she felt. The tension of living in this house for the last five or six years had aged her. She was not yet thirty, but she felt older, and she was starting to find lines on her strong, attractive face, etching their contours too early. The first few strands of grey had appeared in her thick black hair. Some of the color even seemed to have gone out of her blue eyes, but that probably had more to do with how she regarded her life now.
    While her husband, Berto, had still been alive, she had spent so much time worrying about his safety. But there had been a kind of system of life in the house that she had come to understand. Gerald’s actions had changed all that. These days, everyone lived in abject fear of him … especially after what he had done to his cousin, Ainsley. And now here she was, going up to the top floor with him.
    Shutting her eyes, she told herself over and over again that she was there of her own free will. He had not hypnotized her or taken over her mind or whatever it was he did. Gerald could not make her do anything she didn’t want to do. She focused on this with all her will.
    â€œDon’t get your knickers in a twist,” Gerald said to her, staring at the ceiling. “I have no reason to wish you any harm … do I?”
    â€œI see your paranoia is in full flower,” she retorted. “Are you still trying to sleep with your eyes clipped open?”
    â€œThat was merely a theory I was testing,” he told her in a petulant voice. “I am convinced that sleep was originally an evolutionary mistake that accidentally kept animals out of trouble. I see no reason why we shouldn’t be able to do away with the habit, given sufficient training.”
    â€œI believe lack of sleep can lead to insanity,” she said, staring into his face.
    â€œYou believe all sorts of nonsense,” he sniffed. “Your church is proof of that. Ah, here we are!”
    The boy brought the elevator to a stop and its bell chimed. The ornate brass doors opened and Gerald stepped out, taking Daisy by the hand. They were on the top floor, most of which was occupied by a massive study where Edgar Wildenstern had once held court. Her father-in-law had been the unopposed ruler of the family for decades, until some even older relatives had murdered him at the dinner table.
    â€œLet’s take a stroll