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“I’ll be right back,” he assured me, over his shoulder.
“Don’t hurry,” I muttered.
Lord Brompton and his rolls of fat started moving. “I know a good place to sit,” he said, beckoning me on. “They call it the old maids’ corner, but we won’t let that bother us. We’ll shock the old maids into going away by telling improper stories!” He led me up a few steps to a small gallery where there was a sofa. From up there, you had a good view of the whole ballroom, and sure enough, the sofa was already occupied by two ladies who were not as young as they had been, and probably not as pretty. But they happily adjusted their skirts to make room for me.
Lord Brompton rubbed his hands. “Comfortable, don’t you think? I’ll be back in a minute with the count and something to drink. I’ll make haste!” And he really did, pushing his huge body through the sea of velvet, silk, and brocade like a galumphing hippopotamus. I took advantage of being above the crowd to look out for James, but I couldn’t see him anywhere. However, I did spot Lady Lavinia and Gideon dancing, quite close, and I felt a pang to see how well they harmonized. Even the color of their clothes matched, as if Madame Rossini had chosen them herself. And whenever their hands touched, electric sparks seemed to fly between them. I felt as if I could hear Lady Lavinia’s musical chime of laughter all the way from where I was sitting.
The two old maids beside me sighed wistfully. I abruptly got to my feet. I really didn’t have to put up with this. Wasn’t that James’s red coat just disappearing through one of the doorways? I decided to follow him. After all, this was his home and also my school, so I’d soon find him. And then I would try to straighten out the Hector business.
As I left the ballroom, I glanced at Lord Alastair, who was still standing in the same place and never took his eyes off the count. His ghostly friend was shaking his sword with a murderous light in his eyes, and he would certainly be croaking words full of hatred. None of them noticed me. But my disappearance did seem to register with Gideon. There was another disturbance in the line of dancers.
Damn! I turned and made my escape. The corridors outside were more dimly lit, but there were still any number of guests milling around in them. I had the impression that several of the couples were looking for a quiet, private corner somewhere, and right opposite the ballroom, there was a kind of gambling salon to which a few gentlemen had withdrawn. Cigar smoke wafted through the half-open door. I thought I saw James’s red coat at the end of the passage, just turning the corner, and I ran after him as fast as my dress would let me. When I reached the next passage, however, there was no sign of him, which meant that he must have gone into one of the rooms opening off it. I opened the nearest door and closed it again at once when the glimmer of light caught a chaise longue in front of which a man (not James) was kneeling, busy taking off a lady’s garter. Well, if you could call her a lady in those circumstances. Smiling slightly, I made for the next door. These party guests behaved very much like people partying in my own time.
I heard raised voices in the corridor behind me. “Why are you in such a hurry? Can’t your sister be left on her own for five minutes?” Unmistakably the voice of Lady Lavinia!
Like lightning, I slipped into the nearest room and leaned against the door from the inside to get my breath back.
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, JULIUS CAESAR
NINE
IT WASN’T DARK as I had expected. The room was lit by a few candles, casting their light on a bookcase and a desk. Obviously I was in some kind of study.
And I wasn’t alone.
On the chair behind the desk sat Rakoczy, with a glass and two bottles in front of him. One bottle contained something liquid with a red glow—it looked like red wine—while the contents of the other, a delicate and gracefully curving flask, were a suspiciously grubby gray. The baron’s sword lay right across the desk.
“That was quick,” said Rakoczy. His voice, with its harsh east European accent, sounded slightly blurred. “I was just wishing for the presence of an angel, and lo and behold, the pearly gates open and send me the most charming angel that heaven can offer. This wonderful medicine is better than any I have ever tried.”
“Er … weren’t you supposed to be watching over us from the shadows, or something?” I asked, wondering whether it mightn’t be a better idea to clear out of this room right away, even if I risked running straight into Gideon’s clutches. I didn’t much like Rakoczy, even when he was stone-cold sober.
However, my remarks did seem to bring him some way back to himself. He frowned. “Oh, so it’s you!” he said, still in a blurred voice but sounding considerably less ecstatic. “Not an angel, only a stupid little girl.” And with a single, supple movement, almost faster than I could blink, he had picked the delicate little flask up from the desk and was advancing on me with it. Heaven knows what kind of substance he’d been taking, but it didn’t seem to affect his ability to move fast. “Although a very beautiful stupid little girl.” He was so close now that his breath hit my face. It smelled of wine and something else, a sharper, strange odor. He stroked my cheek with his free hand and ran a rough thumb over my lower lip. I was transfixed with terror.
“I’ll wager these lips have never done anything forbidden, am I right? A little of Alcott’s miraculous potion here will change all that.”
“No, thanks.” I ducked under his arm and stumbled out into the room. No, thanks—oh, great! Next thing I knew I’d be bobbing him a curtsey! “Keep that stuff away from me, will you?” I said rather more firmly. Before I could take another step, with the vague idea of jumping out of the window, Rakoczy was beside me, forcing me over to the desk again. He was so much stronger than me that he didn’t even notice my resistance. “Ssh, ssh, never fear, little one, I promise you’ll like this.” There was a little plop as he took the cork out of the little flask, and then he tipped my head back by force. “Drink this!”
I pressed my lips together and tried to push Rakoczy away with my free hand. I might just as well have had a shot at shifting a mountain. Desperately, I thought of what little I knew about self-defense—Charlotte’s knowledge of Krav Maga would have come in very useful at this point. When the flask was already touching my lips and the sharp smell of the liquid inside it rose to my nostrils, I finally had a good idea. I snatched a hairpin out of my towering wig and dug it as hard as I could into the hand holding the flask. At the same time, the door flew open and I heard Gideon call, “Let go of her at once, Rakoczy!”
Too late, I realized that it would have been better to run the hairpin into Rakoczy’s eye, or at least his throat. It stuck there in his flesh, but he didn’t even drop the flask. However, his iron grip on me did slacken, and he turned around. Gideon, who was standing in the doorway with Lady Lavinia, looked at him in horror.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Nothing at all! I only wanted to help this little girl to … to gain a little more enlightenment!” Rakoczy threw back his head with a raucous laugh. “Will you venture to try a sip? I assure you, it will give you sensations such as you have never known before!”
I took my chance to break free.
