If I let him get to me, I’ll get careless. Last month, I managed to listen to Irmgard von Hirsching talk for five solid minutes without slapping her into a fountain. I can keep my head now.
“I don’t buy it,” I lie, knowing that sheer bullheaded denial has to annoy him. Sure enough, his shoulders tense. “Typical, trying to blame the servant, since you could barely walk in a straight line around Gisele.”
He scoffs. “Hardly. From the moment we met, you were expecting a nervous, enamored schoolboy. I just showed you what you wanted to see.”
“Big assumption that Iwantedto see you,” I mutter. Then I raise my voice to cover the scrape of the hairpin in the manacle lock. “And don’t be so smug. You asked me about a party Gisele wasn’t evenat.”
“To see if I could make you slip again.” He’s lit enough candles now for me to see something unsettlingly familiar in his dark eyes: the haughty, muffled thrill of knowing you’re two steps ahead.
I know it because—because—
Because it’s how I feel every time I leave a red penny.
“You nearly threw your coffee on me when I slandered your fellow servants.” Emeric returns to the hearth and tosses the charred spill-stick into the fire. “Youdidslip again when I mentioned the Eisendorf penny. The break-in wasn’t discovered until after ‘Gisele’ had gone, but you weren’t surprised in the least.”
One manacle lets out a rasp as it slides loose. I quickly slump in the vanity chair, wiggling my arms to rattle the chains and explain the noise. “Fine,maybeyou got me there.”
Emeric picks up Yannec’s ledger and tucks it into the satchel at his side as he walks back over to me. “I did. All it took was making you think you’d be caught once Klemens arrived, and you panicked just like I expected. I’ll admit I didn’t anticipate the charitable extravaganza, though—”
“Wait. The—the spyglass thing. That wasn’t true?” I stare up at him, feeling a good deal more foolish than I like. “Klemens won’t— youcan’tfollow the penny?”
Emeric shrugs as he comes to a stop a few feet in front of me. “All a lie. I’m sure you’re familiar. People get sloppy when they panic.”
“Sloppy—” I begin, indignant.
He cuts me off. “Yes, sloppy. Need I remind you which of us is wearing the manacles right now?”
“I think I get it now,” I announce with an air of discovery. “You’re what happens when an encyclopedia wishes on a star to be a real boy, if that encyclopedia was also an absolute prick.”
“Uncalled for.” He pats his waistcoat and pulls out the writing charcoal, thumbing open his notebook. “Now then,frohlein, I wasn’t lying about having more questions—”
“You really don’t haveanyway to trace the thefts back to me?” I demand.
Emeric frowns down at me, and I can tell I’ve cut to the bone this time. “It’s never that simple. If it were, the local bailiff could handle everything. There’d be no need to call in a prefect like me.”
The remaining shackle slips open.
I huff a laugh of disgust. “Juniorprefect.”
Then I kick him in the shin as hard as I can.
He curses and staggers back as I spring for his hands. Emeric is clearly more used to clapping people in irons than avoiding the clappening, because it’s easier than it should be to slam his own manacles around his wrists. I only come up to his chin without the pearls, but it’s just as laughably easy to trip him with a strategically placed boot, sending him crashing to the carpet between the hearth and the veranda door.
Then I put a foot on his chest to keep him there.
“Here’s the deal, Junior,” I say, icy. I pull the string of pearls from my pocket and hold them up. “You make a single unsolicited peep and I will scream like everygrimlingin Bóern is coming in through the window. And then I’ll put these on, andyoucan explain to the guards what you’re doing menacing Gisele von Falbirg in her own bedroom.”
He regards my boot with a sneer. “This is highly unnecessary, Miss Schmidt.”
“I bet you say that to all the girls.” I lean on his chest until he winces. “How did you find me in the Göttermarkt?”
“I wasn’t looking for you at all,” he grits out. “I was checking in with the outpost of the Order of Prefects. I would have told you that if you just asked, youreallydon’t have to keep stepping—”
I don’t ease off. “You never saw me without the pearls before this afternoon. How did you know it was me?”
“The ruby.”
I shake my head. “The ruby was covered up.”
