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“Good heavens, Dr. White, are those surgical clamps?” Gideon laughed. “Now we know what you think of an eighteenth-century soirée!”
“I like to be ready for all eventualities,” said Dr. White, putting the instruments back in his bag.
“We’re anxious to hear your report,” said Falk de Villiers.
“I want to get some of this stuff off first.” Gideon was undoing his cravat.
“Did it all … work out?” asked Mr. George, glancing nervously at me.
“Yes,” said Gideon, throwing the cravat aside. “Everything went according to plan. Lord Alastair arrived a little later than expected, but in plenty of time to see us.” He grinned at me. “And Gwyneth played her part to perfection. Viscount Batten’s real ward couldn’t have done it better.”
I couldn’t help blushing.
“It will be a pleasure for me to tell Giordano that,” said Mr. George, with a note of pride in his voice. He offered me his arm. “Not that I expected anything else.”
“No, of course not,” I murmured.
* * *
I WOKE TO HEAR Caroline whispering, “Gwenny, stop singing! It’s so embarrassing! You have to go to school.”
I abruptly sat up and stared at her. “Was I singing?”
“What?”
“You told me to stop singing.”
“I told you to wake up!”
“Then I wasn’t singing?”
“You were asleep,” said Caroline, shaking her head. “Hurry up, you’re already late. And Mum says you’re not on any account to use her shower gel.”
Under the shower I tried to suppress my memories of yesterday as far as possible. But I wasn’t very successful, so I wasted several minutes pressing my forehead to the door of the shower cubicle, muttering to myself, “It was all just a dream!” My headache did nothing to make me feel better.
When I finally came down to the dining room, luckily breakfast was all but over. Xemerius was hanging head down from the chandelier. “Sobered up again, have you, little tippler?”
Lady Arista looked me up and down. “Did you make up only one eye on purpose?”
“Er, no.” I was about to turn and go back to my room, but my mother said, “Breakfast first! You can put your mascara on later.”
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” Aunt Glenda informed us.
“Nonsense!” said Aunt Maddy. She was sitting in the armchair beside the hearth in her dressing gown, with her knees drawn up like a little girl. “You can always leave out breakfast and save the calories to invest in a little glass of wine in the evening. Or two or three little glasses of wine.”
“A liking for the bottle seems to run in your family,” remarked Xemerius.
“We can see that from her figure,” whispered Aunt Glenda.
“I may be a little plump, Glenda, but I am not hard of hearing,” said Aunt Maddy.
“You ought to have stayed in bed,” said Lady Arista. “Breakfast is more relaxed for all concerned if you have your beauty sleep.”
“I’m afraid I didn’t get the chance,” said Aunt Maddy.
“She had another of her visions last night,” Caroline explained to me.
“Yes, I did,” said Aunt Maddy, “and it was horrible. So sad. It really upset me. There was this beautiful polished ruby heart sparkling in the sun.… It was lying on a rocky ledge above a precipice.”
