by A. W. Exley
Not from what I’ve seen of Zeb he won’t. Not without a schematic diagram and half a bottle of brandy to loosen him up.
Allie smiled at her friend’s optimism and single-mindedness in the face of overwhelming odds. “You’re such a dreamer but I think you two will make a gorgeous couple one day.”
Eloise flushed a becoming shade of red, the same pale strawberry as her hair. “One day,” she said.
They reached the doors to the ballroom and Allie planted her feet like a mule refusing to shoulder its load.
“What is your problem?” Eloise finally had to ask. “You can dance, can’t you?”
“Well, yes, but not for a number of years. Things were done a little… different in Egypt.” Standing on the threshold she admitted the horrible truth to herself. She was terrified of being humiliated in front of all the senior students.
What if I’ve forgotten the steps and they laugh at me? I don’t need to add more fuel to the gossip fire.
Eloise’s eyes widened and Allie saw a glint of mischief creep in. “Well if you danced like I hear they do in the Harem I’m sure none of the boys would object.”
Allie gave a laugh of mischief as they pushed through the double doors into the ballroom. She slowed her pace as they crossed the threshold.
“It’s so beautiful,” she murmured.
They crossed the intricate geometric parquet floor laid out in three different types of wood. The walls were clad in lush red and gold swirling wallpaper, the red made of velvet and so invitingly tactile Allie wanted to go up to the wall and stroke it.
Enormous, intricate chandeliers hung from the ceiling. They threw spectrals of light in every direction. The late afternoon sunlight came in low through the windows at exactly the right height to strike the suspended prisms.
There were approximately fifty students ranged around the walls in little groups and divisions, each holding their own murmured conversations. It gave the room an electric tingle as though the walls were humming. Matrons stalked amongst the students, raised eyebrows keeping the students in line and ensuring propriety was kept.
Eloise spotted Zeb and dragged Allie over to where he stood on his own. Unsure of what to do with his hands, he kept moving them around his own body, searching for a pocket to secure them.
“Jared has been captured by the enemy,” Zeb observed as they approached, indicating with his head where Jared leaned against the wall, with Madeline and a group of noble girls loosely ranged around him. “And he looks like he might try and escape shortly. Unlike Duncan, who is somewhere in the middle of that group of girls and certainly doesn’t appear to want to be rescued.”
He waved his hand in the opposite direction, where five of the senior girls clustered in an excited group. Duncan’s tall, dark head and powerful shoulders were clearly visible in their midst.
Allie swung her attention back to where Jared lounged. He looked up, to see her across the room staring in his direction. He gave her a brief smile before she noticed his casual posture against the wall stiffen. He turned his head in the direction of Madeline, at something she said.
Allie watched as the noble girls flashed furtive glances at her across the room, before laughing. She saw Jared scowl in response. Allie snorted under her breath. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out who they are talking about.
She turned back to Eloise as the dance instructor clapped his hands and called for everyone to take their places. Eloise grabbed Zeb’s hand and dragged him out to the middle of the room. Allie thought her devotion to the oblivious boy genius was endearing, if somewhat futile.
A voice beside her arrested her attention.
“Shall we?” Jared approached and held out his arm, a questioning look in his gaze.
Allie was about to give him an emphatic no when she caught sight of the laughing coterie on the other side of the room. They think they’re setting me up. A shot of pure resolve ran down her spine.
“Why not?” she replied as she took the proffered arm, allowing Jared to lead her out to the middle of the room, amongst the other dancers. Her pulse raced as soon as she laid her hand on his. His skin was warm under her fingers. She wondered if it was purely nerves or something else accelerating her heart rate. Initially she dismissed him as another arrogant blueblood. Watching how he treated his friends, and her, she started to see the warmth he hid under his rigid exterior.
She knew those watching expected to see her falter and fail in spectacular fashion. It was time she proved something. She had endured two weeks of being constantly underestimated because of her low status and she certainly didn’t want Jared’s pity. She suspected only his sense of honour and fair play drove him to her side, and perhaps the opportunity to pick with his questions. That didn’t mean she wanted to make a fool of herself, nor, strangely, did she want him to regret his decision to ask her to dance.
He released her to her position in the line with Eloise and stood next to Zeb in the lined up young men. The instructor activated a lever and the large quartet of naked metal automatons, who dominated the stage, struck up. Both sides of dancers took their turn to bow and curtsy before moving together. A type of Quadrille; long dormant memories stirred with the music and Allie sighed with relief as the moves came back to her. She stepped to Jared, touched hands as they circled and moved as he grasped her waist to lift her around. The onlookers faded into the background as she concentrated on the steps and thankfully the dance did not allow much opportunity to talk. She only had to feel the music and respond to the movement of Jared’s body.
Allie gave a silent prayer of thanks to her mother, who loved to dance and whirled her around their sitting room from an early age. All too soon Jared had his hand at her waist for the last few close steps, before the final refrain of the music sounded, and it was time to move apart to give the concluding bow.
The room came back into view and next to her, Allie saw Zeb apologising to Eloise for treading on her toes. She also noticed Madeline and her friends no longer laughed but had their heads bowed together, as they muttered amongst themselves.
Take that. Allie turned, slightly flushed, to Jared. “Thank you.” She inclined her head as Eloise came up behind and hauled her off to the side of the room.
Eloise could barely contain her urge to talk. “Three times!” she exclaimed. “Three times he trod on the same foot.”
Allie found, much to her surprise, she was in a better frame of mind. “Perhaps he’s trying to convey some secret message to you,” she whispered light-heartedly. “If he makes you lame he will have to carry you off to the side in a manful display, which will probably make you swoon.”
They both giggled at the image of the slight Zeb carrying Eloise anywhere manfully, let alone making it across the room. “I thought he was just trying to tell me he didn’t know left from right, which is quite surprising for someone so intelligent.”
Both girls were trying not to laugh aloud and the instructor rapped his cane on the floor to call for order. Eloise gave Allie a nudge as Madeline broke away from her group to reclaim Jared. She shot Allie a dark look, before turning her back to them. Picking up Jared’s hand, she placed it on her waist.
“I don’t think she likes you,” Eloise murmured with her head close to Allie’s.
“Well it’s most definitely mutual.” Allie watched the handsome couple out on the dance floor. Madeline as blonde and pale as Jared was dark and shadowy. She lost track of Eloise’s chatter as she disappeared into her own thoughts. She tried to puzzle out what game the noble couple played and how she seemed to have ended up in the middle.
Allie closed her eyes and let the music wash over her. In the harem there were no automatons. The musicians sat on silken pillows, in pride of place, as they played for the entertainment of the women. As a child, Allie thought they screwed up their eyes in laughter, until she learned the tightly shut lids hid empty space. Their sight was the payment demanded for their place in the harem, where only the Sultan or his eunuchs were allowed to lo
ok upon the women. In return, the blind men sat amongst the most beautiful women, were fed delicacies from the hands of nymphs, and spent their days lost in a world of music.
Wearing thin silks and cottons of bright colours, the women danced, twirling feet, hips moving to the music, arms raised over their heads. Free and joyous, they revelled in the movement of their bodies. Opening her eyes, the dancers before her appeared stilted, flesh covered automatons, with none of the sensuality found among the concubines.
The following dance was a waltz and Eloise felt her foot sufficiently rested to sustain another round with Zeb. Allie’s right side tingled as Jared stepped close, waiting to lead her out. She reached out on instinct and put her hand on his arm.
“Let me guess, Madeline was so incensed by our first dance that you’re back for another, simply to show her she can’t tell you what to do?” She was rewarded to see the corners of his mouth twitch, although he didn’t let himself smile at her.
“Something like that,” he replied, as he swung her around. With hands joined and his other on her corseted waist, they waited for the first strains of the music to commence from the pre-programmed automatons.
“You do realise she’ll probably insist you be scrubbed down with hot water and soap after this?” Allie said as they moved off, which earned her another twitch. He was a considerate leader on the dance floor. She only needed to follow, leaving her mind free to wander.
The sight of Eloise being held awkwardly by Zeb triggered a question of more pressing, and intriguing, matters. “When do we corner Zeb?”
Jared glanced to where his friend apologised to Eloise. “We want him somewhere with fewer exits. He gets squirrely when you start asking him questions. Tomorrow, when he’s in his laboratory. I’ll come find you and take you down there.”
He dropped his eyes back to her and changed the topic. “Where did you learn to dance?”
“Where did you learn to dance?” she immediately countered, hoping to stave off an interrogation.
“Here, every Friday afternoon since I was eleven years old. Plus whatever compulsory traumatic social events my mother forced me to attend,” he replied politely. “And you didn’t answer me.”
She gave a small shrug. “Here and there. My mother taught me a bit before she died. And Poppa insisted I had occasional lessons when he could find an instructor.”
Jared drew his brows together while he studied her face.
“I don’t fit your perception of social order do I?” Allie said.
“No. You’re educated, dance, ride, and you are better than any boy I have seen with a blade. What else can guild girls do?” He searched her face, looking for answers in her eyes.
Allie smiled back at him. Let him puzzle it out. As a commoner, she shouldn’t even be at the school, let alone in his arms and confounding him. She met his gaze, unflinching and steady. “You’ll just have to wait and see what else I get up to.”
“You don’t back down, do you?”
“Not often, but I’m not stupid, I know there are times when it pays to run like hell.”
The dance ended and the instructor approached them. “Very graceful,” he said.
Jared hadn’t let Allie go; his hand still lingered on her waist. She took a step back, breaking the physical connection between them.
The dapper little instructor addressed her. “I understand you spent some time in Arabia?”
“Yes,” Allie replied. “I spent three years in Egypt.”
The instructor cocked his head, looking like a chicken regarding an insect on a blade of grass. “Did you by chance, learn any local dances while there?”
Allie bit her tongue; she knew exactly why he was fishing. He wanted to know if she had learned any of the slow, sensual dances of the East.
“Yes I did.” She lowered her tone so only the instructor and Jared heard. “But hardly appropriate to demonstrate here, surely?”
The instructor looked disappointed, but he recovered well. “Yes, quite right,” he gushed. “I was just trying to gauge the breadth of your experience.” He left them to flit to other students, dispensing his advice as he circled the ballroom.
Allie and Jared headed for Eloise, who looked like she nursed a bruised foot. Again.
Their path led straight past Madeline, seething with barely suppressed enmity. As Allie neared, Madeline commented to her friends in a stage whisper. “I do hope Jared hasn’t caught anything, she probably learnt to use her hips in some cheap dockside brothel.” The blonde’s friends sniggered at the insult.
Allie stopped in her tracks, even Jared recoiled at the vehemence in the comment. Allie would not be terrorized by the likes of Madeline. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Madeline,” she said with a condescending tone as she turned to face her attacker. “From what I hear around the school, you’re rather good at writhing your hips too.”
Madeline recoiled from the double blow of being addressed directly by a social inferior and the implied insult.
“Do you have any idea who my family is?” She laughed for the benefit of those around her, who laughed nervously before falling silent. “I can make your position here very difficult you know.”
“Well that’s the good thing about not having a social position,” Allie replied with an even tone, aware all eyes in the ballroom fixed on them. “You can’t use yours to try and intimidate me.”
“You should think very carefully before you make an enemy of me,” Madeline said.
Allie maintained her calm demeanour, unruffled by Madeline’s blustering. She stepped closer into Madeline’s space.
Jared tensed, looking like he was ready to jump in between the two girls if necessary. A matron turned her head and frowned.
Allie looked the other girl up and down. “Did you seriously think I would be scared of your little threats?” She arched an eyebrow. “How long would you last in a real fight?” Allie laughed at the thought, before turning her back on Madeline and walking away. She heard the excited buzz in her wake as conversation immediately resumed.
Saturday, 30th July.
llie emerged from the library and Jared descended upon her.
“I’m heading down to Zeb’s lab now, if you care to join me.” He took her by the arm and swung her in the right direction. “In fact we won’t be asking him any questions without your assistance.”
Allie arched an eyebrow with curiosity. “All right, care to elaborate?” She fell into step next to him, matching his long stride.
“Zeb has locked himself in.” He looked a bit sheepish under his fringe. “I need you to unlock the door so we can corner him.”
“Does breaking and entering violate our agreement?” she asked with a grin.
Jared laughed and shot her a smile, visibly relaxing next to her. She decided to use the opportunity presented by his good mood to elicit more information.
“Why is Zeb here?” Allie asked as they took a corner to a lesser frequented hallway. “He’s obviously some kind of genius, shouldn’t he be finished with school by now?”
“He did, long ago.” Jared glanced at her as they walked. “His father wanted to lock him in a lab at eleven. His mother wanted him to experience social interaction with his peers.”
Allie snorted at Zeb’s idea of being social as Jared continued.
“His mother won the debate, so he came here. He finished his university degree last year and has nearly finished his masters. He goes to St Andrews to see the professors when necessary, otherwise he just uses the school as a study base.”
“And he has to take dance class every Friday.” Allie smiled at Eloise’s persistence and wondered if it was the social interaction Zeb’s mother intended. “So why does he still attend classes?”
“It’s his idea of a joke. He likes to come up with formulas and problems the Masters can’t solve, or catch them making mistakes.”
Jared revealed an unexpected playful side to Zeb, although Allie couldn’t imagine the humour in fiendish quadratic equation
s.
The stairs to Zeb’s laboratory descended deep into the ground and under the school. The steps terminated at a small passageway with only one doorway. An imposing metal door stood guard, completely solid with no window or peek hole. Allie gave it an experimental tap; it sounded thick. Really thick. She briefly wondered how many explosions the door kept contained.
She ran an appraising eye over the riveted metal and frame, before kneeling down in front of the handle and lock.
Jared leaned on the wall next to the door, watching her work. “Can you unlock it?”
“Oh, yes,” she said. She unclipped a long narrow cylinder hanging from her chatelaine. Popping the lid, she withdrew two thin sharp metal implements. “It’s just a simple barrel lock.” She rocked back on her heels, the picks in her hand as she stared at the lock mechanism and the door surround. Something’s not right.
“What’s the problem?” Jared noticed her puzzled expression.
“It’s just a simple barrel lock,” she repeated. “Given this is Zeb’s laboratory I would expect something a little more… creative.” She placed the picks in Jared’s palm and then reached out and ran her fingers back up the hinge side of the wall. She brushed against Jared as she moved up the side of the door. A shiver shot through her body at the contact and he inhaled a sharp breath.
Focusing on the door, she gave a small cry of satisfaction as her fingers found what they sought. The sensitive pads found a seam, invisible to the naked eye. She closed her eyes as she let her hands relay the information about size and shape of the panel to her brain, as she tried to figure out how it opened.
Jared’s gaze was fixated on what she was doing. “Did you make a good living doing this?”
“No, but if I stole enough for the street enforcer to buy alcohol, he didn’t hit me. And I occasionally had food in my stomach,” she answered in a matter of fact way.
