Joyce had seen brave people. She had met brave people but she had not met stupidly brave people.
Why would he come into their house without anyone by his side except for his driver? If it had been her, in his place, she would have brought an army just to be safe.
Why was Adrian Murphy so confident that he could walk into anyone's territory alone?
Joyce turned to look at her father, just a quick sneak peek, if Adrian was as powerful as he showed, then her father might be right to grovel at his feet.
"Mr Murphy." Her father moved forward, taking out his hand for a handshake which Adrian replied with a firm one.
"This is my family," her father began to introduce them, "my wife Brianna, my first born Declan, my second child Joyce and my third Aoife."
A few hellos were sent his way that Adrian Murphy replied with a nod.
It did not take her seconds to realise that he was a man of few words.
"Please," her father raised his arm into the direction of the dining room, "the dinner is ready."
Her father and Murphy left the room first the dining hall, followed by the rest of the family.
Adrian Murphy was definitely a man of power, because he did not work behind her father. One thing she also noted was that he was respectful. Because he did not work ahead of her father either. He walked up with him.
Quite surprising.
Her mother had laid out name cards for everyone in front of their seats, which made it clearly easier to find the seating arrangements without bumping into one another.
My father sat at the head seat of the table and right opposite to him, on the other end, Adrian sat.
That was not the pricing at all. The surprising part was, she was sitting on the right of the guest.
Why was she sitting in the far corner of the table, with the guest and not with her family? It should have been Declan instead of her.
Swallowing nothing, she turned to look at her mother who was avoiding her eyes.
The first course was brought out. Light chatter hit and her father was making conversation with Adrian Murphy along with Declan.
What was she supposed to do? She could not talk to him, but she was sitting next to him. Was she supposed to ignore him for the rest of the night?
She kept her eyes down on her plate, eating her food and not looking into anyone's direction particularly.
That seemed to work until the fourth course. It was when her father and Declan started to talk with him themselves and her mother chimed in. Adrian Murphy slipped out of the conversation like he had never been there before.
A sudden urge grew to look at him. Suddenly, he felt like a mystery she needed to unravel. Just one look wouldn't hurt her, right?
Bundling up the courage to just look, a peak, at him. She took a deep breath. Okay, she thought, this was it.
Angling her body towards him so that she could look away just as quickly without making it obvious, Joyce looked into his direction from underneath her lashes.
The moment her eyes met his, the realisation dawned at her.
Adrian was already staring at her.
Shit, she whipped head around into the direction of her mother. Thankfully, Brianna was talking to her husband and threw her head back laughing at something her father said to annoy her brother.
She lowered her eyes to her plate, still breathing heavily at what had happened. He was looking at her, he had caught her staring at him.
For the rest of the dinner, she did not bother raising her eyes up. Soon, the desert plates were collected from the table and they were left with nothing but liquid on the table.
"Mr Murphy," her father asked for his attention from the end of the table, "would you like to go for a drink in my office?"
Translation: come, let's discuss business.
Murphy did not stall, he had come here to discuss business after all. Men like him must have known that there was an ulterior motive to her father's dinner invitation after all.
Only when the door to her father's study closed with all of the three men behind it, did Joyce release a breath of relief.
"You shouldn't be happy," Aoife whispered, leaning into her ear.
"Why?"
"Because they are talking about you in there."
Her blood ran cold.