by Paul Kater
grinned. "There is nothing you have that I would possibly want. I just felt the need to tell you that I know, and in exchange I gave you something about me that most people don't know. To keep it even, so to speak. Like allies. Or friends."
"You were the woman trying to steal things from the other rooms, weren't you?" Lily asked, sharp and direct.
This time however it was Dumitra's turn to be surprised. "Steal from other rooms? What on earth are you talking about?"
Lily explained about the caped woman in black that she had met as the woman had tried to break into her room.
"No, that was not my doing. No one would know if I did something like that." Dumitra shook her head. "I should investigate this. Alone. And a word of advice: stay with your singing facade, you have a very good voice. Also don't leave your room tonight, get some sleep." The duke's sister rose from the chair and put it back. "I'll tell everyone I checked on you and that you are fast asleep. Tomorrow you will go home again, and we'll probably never meet again. Does that sound acceptable?"
"So you are not going to rob museums again?" Lily asked.
Dumitra smiled. "I did not say that. I'll simply stay out of your reach, because you are a bit too powerful for my taste." She held out a hand. "Friends?"
Lily stared at the slender hand as thoughts raced through her mind. How could she be friends with someone who was attracted to the wrong side of the law? But then, some of the things she did, being her alter ego, were not entirely pure either, even when she had never stolen things. Lily had to admit to herself that she had hurt people. Bad people, but still. Perhaps it would not be a bad idea to have a friend like Dumitra. Well, friend was a bit much. Acquaintance, perhaps. Someone with contacts in the vampire world, someone of a higher standing.
They shook hands.
Sleep had been a shallow experience for Lily when she woke up. Dreams had haunted her, dreams where people came up to her and told her that they knew all about her secret, that they would expose her, that she would pay for everything she'd done. What had she done, Lily asked herself as she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. She had helped innocent people. Protected them. She had stopped bad people from doing bad things, which was good. But why, she wondered, did it feel so bad then? Was it because she did all these things in secret, masked, hiding in the shadows?
Lily left the bed, had a quick bath to freshen up and then dressed. It was still early. Her sensitive ears told her that no one was going through the corridor, so she slipped out of her room and started wandering around, just to have something to do, to get away from her dreams. To her surprise she ran into Billy who leaned against a wall as he stared out of one of the few larger windows.
"Good morning Lily," he smiled, veering up. "Are you feeling better now? Did you sleep well?"
Instinctively Lily wanted to back away. Billy showed all the signs of wanting to do something with his hands, like put an arm around her or something similarly intimate. He did not attempt that though, and she stayed where she was. "Yes, I slept well," she lied. "Did you?" Lily observed Billy. He had been in her dreams as well, as one of the people who came to tell her that they knew about her.
"Not very well," Billy shrugged. "I worried about you. You looked so vulnerable yesterday evening."
"You worried about me?" Lily was not sure if she should find this endearing or preposterous. No one should worry about her, she had always managed well on her own since the mishap with Doctor Drosselmeyer. It hadn't always been easy, but...
"Yes. I did," Billy interrupted her train of thoughts. He glanced outside for a moment. "It's snowing again. I'd invite you for a walk, to clear our heads, but in this weather that probably is not such a good idea. Maybe we can find some breakfast?"
He offered her his arm and before Lily knew it she had accepted it. Her first impulse was to pull her arm back, but somehow his presence gave her a feeling of belonging, of not being alone. Yes, even a feeling of trust and security. They walked down a staircase and found the breakfast room prepared. To Lily's surprise she saw Dumitra there, who greeted them with a smile that assumed far too much about her and Billy.
"Would you like to share my table?" the fair-haired woman asked.
Billy accepted, as Lily hesitated a moment too long. She scolded herself as she let him help her with her chair, and at the same time she was surprised that he was brought up so well. She had not expected that. They chatted about the events of the previous night while more and more people came in for breakfast. Everyone who had seen Lily 'faint' came over to ask how she was doing, and Lily assured the kind people that she was feeling well.
Selma, who had put herself in charge of arranging the transport for the return voyage, then came in to call Billy away. Before he left, Dumitra assured him she would see to it that Lily would not get lost. With Billy gone, Dumitra winked at Lily and she started speaking very very quietly. So quiet that only Lily's ears could pick up what the woman said. "I have found the person who was stealing," Dumitra told her. "It was someone from our staff. Needless to say she is not in our staff anymore."
"What did you do to her?" Lily whispered.
Dumitra only smiled. "Your hearing is remarkable. And your man friend is really nice. Hold on to him."
"He is not my man friend," Lily hissed.
Dumitra just looked at Lily, a knowing smile around her lips. Then, on a conversational tone, she continued talking about the latest fashion fads that had found their way over from France, and how she would love to acquire a few new dresses. Lily understood that the smalltalk meant the end of their very short conversation.
-=-=-
Snow was no longer falling when the ladies' choir had assembled in the hall near the front door. Mrs. Hensley and Selma made sure everyone was accounted for and then Selma announced that the dirigible was waiting for them in the courtyard. "Please go inside the airship as quickly as possible, ladies," Selma urged the waiting group.
Lily looked around the hall in vain; Dumitra was not there, nor was (of course) the vampire count. She found Billy next to her, the last bits of melting snow on his shoulders. He had helped stow the ladies' luggage. "You are supposed to stay here," she told him in a sudden impulse of mischief.
He stared at her in disbelief. "What makes you say that?"
"You are not a lady." Lily kept her face straight as she saw Billy fathom her words. As he started to grin, Lily had to grin as well. Maybe he wasn't so bad a person as she had thought he was.
One of the servants of the count's staff then opened the door, allowing a wave of cold to rush in. Everyone in the hall pulled their coats and cloaks tightly around themselves. Quickly the ladies, and Billy, filed out of the rapidly cooling castle hall, walking over the path that had been cleared of snow, and into the cabin of the small airship.
Everyone was urged by the airship's captain to find a good place to sit, and soon the ship was in the air and speeding over the white landscape.
Lily stared at the cold outside, her thoughts still trying to deal with all the strange things that happened. For a moment she looked left and right, looking for -
'Oh no,' she caught herself. Hopefully nobody had seen how she had looked for Billy! She found him sitting with Selma, busily talking while he held a few sheets of paper. She wondered what they were on about, so she increased her hearing. The two were talking about the logistics of getting everybody back home again. After all, they were returning a day too soon. The highly annoying incident with the now dead duke had invoked an early end to the meeting in the castle. Lily stopped listening in on their conversation. It was not polite to eavesdrop.
Only then she suddenly remembered the tiny box that Dr. Calgori had given her. She had not looked at it a single time! Her heartbeat quickened for a short while, as she told herself that she would not have been able to do anything for the kind man, being so far away in the castle. She'd pay him a nightly visit as soon as she was home and had her things in order, luggage-wise. Nightly visit... that took her mind back to Dumitra's calm
face as she had told that the thieving woman was 'not in their staff anymore'. Somehow Lily managed to become friends with strange people, and Dumitra was one of the very strange ones; a not fully changed vampire.
"Why the frown, Lily?"
Billy's voice, so suddenly and so close, made Lily jump from her seat and bump into Isabelle Jenkins. "Oh, Isabelle, I'm so terribly sorry!"
The young woman just laughed and said that nothing had happened. Lily, red in her face, sat down again. "You should not approach me so silently," she scolded Billy, while she hated herself for not hearing him come.
Billy smiled. "I am truly sorry. Next time I shall whistle, would that be better?"
Lily gave him her best displeased look. "One whistles at a dog, Mr. Masterson."
Billy's smile faded away quickly as he was put in his place by her words. "My sincerest apologies, Lily. Honestly. I just wanted to know why you sat here frowning. Can I get you a cup of tea to make good for my mistake?"
Tea would be wonderful, and soon she sat with a steaming cup. Billy asked her again why she had been frowning. She explained how her head was still spinning over the murder and everything around it.
"Lily," he said while gently taking her hand that did not hold the hot tea, "you really should put that out of your head. It happened, and it was indeed an ugly event, but we are on the way home now. Which
