The next days to come aren't any better for Meir.
He hasn't even made it to the front door when the mansion goes into lockdown mode. Sheets of steel crash down over the windows, and a metallic crunch-clink indicates that the emergency latch has engaged. He gasps in horror and hastily looks around.
That's when Giselle comes out of the atelier, expression straight and flat.
"You can't do this," he fumed, balling his fists.
"I can, and I have," she said as she approached him, but he dodged around her and run toward his room.
He hears her call out for him, but he slams the door and locks it, pressing his back against it with more strength than necessary – as though it might keep her away. He is shaking all over, his lips and fingers quivering.
"Do you think these repeated acts of rebellion will make your uncle any more disposed to allow you to go out?" she demanded from the other side of his bedroom door.
