The Wisdom of Madness: The Ministry of Curiosities, Book #10

by C. J. Archer

  A soldier shoved Seth in the back to hurry him along. Now wasn't the time to ask intimate questions of Eva. He only hoped he got the chance one day. The closer they got to the queen's castle, the heavier the weight pressing down on him became. He focused all his attention on how to escape, putting thoughts of Eva behind him as much as he could. Now wasn't the time for distraction.

  Lady Oxana and Lord Quellery joined the procession after traveling by barge along the river. They requisitioned horses from the general's senior officers and Lord Quellery led the way at the front of the column of soldiers. Lady Oxana fell back to speak with Seth.

  "I could have saved you from this," she said smugly. "If only you'd agreed to break your marital vows for one night. Pity. It'll be a shame to impale your pretty head on a spike."

  So she still believed he was married to Eva. He had no reason to tell her the truth and Eva, walking beside him, didn't correct her either. She stared straight ahead and appeared not to be listening, but Seth noticed the rigidity across her shoulders, the pulse throbbing in her throat.

  "I take my marriage vows very seriously," he said.

  "It's not too late. I can have a word with the queen when we reach the castle. We're friends. She'll allow you to live if I promise to keep you house bound." She leaned down and brushed her fingers along the nape of his neck.

  Every part of Seth recoiled. The thought of lying with her made him sick. In the past, he'd slept with women he disliked for money but it had never turned his stomach like this. Some of those women hadn't been nice, but they'd never held any real power over him. He'd been able to walk away without payment if he wanted to. He couldn't walk away from Oxana—she could free him, and if he could be freed then he could free the others. It was the wielding of that power in this exchange that made him hate her.

  He forced himself to set aside his disgust. Today, he wasn't selling himself for money to put a roof over his head or pay off his father's debts. Today, his price was higher. "I'll do it on the condition—"

  Eva rounded on him. "You will not, Seth. Do not even consider it." She looked as fierce as a warrior, as vicious as a wild animal protecting its herd. She turned ice-cold eyes onto Lady Oxana. "My husband is not for sale."

  "Not even when I can save his life?"

  "We'll find another way."

  "I doubt it." Lady Oxana wheeled her horse away. "You there," she said to an officer. "Flog this woman."

  "You touch her and I'll break every bone in your body," Seth growled. He directed his threat at both the soldier and the viper. The muscles in Lady Oxana's jaw bunched but she said nothing and rode off. The soldier pretended not to hear and fell back into step with his comrades.

  Eva and Seth didn't speak for the rest of the way, but Seth didn't mind. He enjoyed just being near her. There was something so compellingly fascinating about her. Something quiet yet profound. These feelings for her had crept up on him ever so slowly that he couldn't even say he was fully aware of them until now, yet in a way, they had always been there, lurking.

  She must feel them too, because not only had she defended him to Lady Oxana, she'd claimed him.

  Seth just had to convince her to take a chance on him. Then they had to get out of here so they could be together. He liked to think the former was easier than the latter, but going by her stoic silence, he wasn't entirely sure.

  Chapter 12

  Eva

  The dungeon was even more crowded than the last time they'd been locked up. Eva recognized the donkey who'd wished them well. He stood silently at the bars of his cell, his shoulders slumped as he watched the guards lead Alice and the others past. They'd been his last hope too.

  "What happened?" the rabbit, Sir Uther, asked.

  "We were captured," Gus spat. "It's all your fault. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for you."

  "That's not true, Gus," Alice chided.

  The rabbit's nose twitched. "I'm sorry, Princess. I'm very sorry."

  They were pushed into a cell at the end and the door locked behind them. The guards retreated into the inky darkness.

  "Did my father survive?" Markell asked Sir Uther in the cell opposite.

  The rabbit shook his head and his ears drooped. "I'm sorry."

  Markell turned to Alice and she held him in her arms.

  Gus and Seth searched for a way out. They shook each of the bars, testing their foundations. They clawed at the grimy stones and thumped their boots on the floor, searching for a hollow space. Eva sat in the corner. She didn't care that it was hard, slippery and smelled like urine, she just wanted to get off her aching feet.

  "How do we get out?" David asked, joining her on the floor.

  She shrugged.

  "Tell me. I need to know."

  "I don't have the answer, David. I don't even know if we all get out in the end."

  He pulled his knees to his chest and rubbed them, over and over. "If you get out, then I must too." He said it so decisively that she wondered if he had a little second sight too, until he said, "Don't you agree?"

  "I'm sure we'll both survive this." She looked to where Seth and Gus spoke quietly near the bars. "We all will." Perhaps if she spoke with conviction, it would come true.

  David followed her gaze. "You defended him strongly to Lady Oxana. That was very brave of you."

  "It was nothing." She meant it. Defending Seth had come naturally. She'd seen the revulsion in his eyes when he looked at Lady Oxana, and she would never allow him to sell himself to her. Not even in exchange for their lives. Eva just couldn't let him do it.

  She knew why; she just didn't want to admit it to her brother. He wouldn't approve and the last thing she wanted was an argument.

  "I see the way you look at him, Eva," he said, trying to broach the subject.

  "It's none of your affair, David."

  He sighed. "It seems you no longer care what I think. Do you hate me that much?"

  She frowned at him. "I don't hate you. But I don't appreciate you telling me what to do. I'm a grown woman. I can make my own decisions. Some of them might even be good ones."

  "I'm quite sure all of them will be good ones. Speaking of which, well done on saving Alice earlier. She owes you her life."

  Was he being sarcastic? "It was instinct and training," she muttered.

  "You'll make an excellent doctor. You already do, but I know you need the piece of paper to back up your incredible instincts."

  She blinked at him. He hadn't been this nice to her since they were children and he wanted to swap bedrooms with her because she had the bigger one. Either he'd turned a corner or he wanted something from her. Perhaps he still thought she could tell him if he survived this.

  He tipped his head back against the wall and stared up at the ceiling. "Will you take some advice from your older brother?"

  "That depends on what it is."

  His smile was sad. "Don't tell anyone in your workplace that your mother is Romany and has visions."

  "I'm not ashamed of her, or of our Romany heritage."

  "Nor am I."

  He wasn't making sense. "David, is there something you want to tell me?"

  A dozen white-clad guards approached their cell. One unlocked the door while another beckoned Alice and Markell.

  "You have been summoned by Her Majesty the Queen of Hearts to stand trial for high treason," he announced.

  "No!" Seth and Gus both cried.

  "We stay together," Seth said. "Either we all go or we all stay here."

  Two guards drew their swords. "Come with us, Miss Alice, Sir Markell. This is not a request."

  Gus rushed forward, fist raised, but Seth held him back at the same time that Markell blocked his way.

  "This isn't your fight," Markell said.

  "What will happen to my friends?" Alice asked. "Will you send them home?"

  "That's up to the queen," the guard said. He ordered his men to bring them out. One grabbed Alice by the wrist only to let go when Markell bared his teeth in a snarl.<
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  Alice exited of her own accord and Markell followed. The guard was about to shut the door but he hesitated. He studied Seth and Gus before indicating Gus should leave the cell too.

  "I'm separating you," he said, slamming the door closed and locking it.

  "Why?" Seth asked.

  "You've both got shifty eyes and warriors' builds. I don't trust you. You need to be separated."

  "You can't!" David said, standing alongside Seth. "This is outrageous! We've done nothing wrong here! I demand better treatment."

  The guard unlocked the door again, pulled David out, and re-locked it. He shoved both prisoners into the cell opposite with Sir Uther. Gus glared at the rabbit. Sir Uther shrank back into the shadows.

  Eva rushed at the bars. "Alice!" She didn't know what else to say. 'Good luck' didn't seem like enough, and she didn't want to say goodbye. She couldn't bear this to be the last time she ever saw her.

  Alice cast a grim smile over her shoulder. Her gaze touched on each of them, lingering longest on Seth. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again and turned forward. Perhaps no words seemed appropriate.

  Eva sat again and rested her forehead on her drawn-up knees. She wished desperately for a vision to know what happened to them, but none came. Her talent was utterly useless if she couldn't control it. She wished she had her mother's power. Then again, perhaps not. Charlie's would be more useful in a situation like this.

  Seth sat beside her. He didn't speak but his presence was a comfort. She felt a little stronger, a little more hopeful and less weepy. He would survive, as would she. It was the others she worried about. Alice was most likely being led to her death, and with Gus and David now in a different cell, she could foresee how the separation would allow her and Seth to escape but not them. It was only a matter of time to see how it all played out.

  "Close your eyes and rest," Seth said gently. "I have a feeling you're going to need it."

  "Do you have a plan?" she asked, hope rising.

  "Do you count overpowering the next guard to unlock that door a plan?"

  She smiled and nudged his arm. He hissed a little. She'd forgotten about the wound. "Let me see."

  He glanced toward David and Gus's cell. They both sat against the back wall, legs outstretched, eyes closed. Seth undid the buttons on his shirt and slipped it off his shoulder. Dried blood crusted the cut and stained the shirt.

  Eva fidgeted with the hem of her dress, searching for a loose thread. She found one and started unpicking.

  "What are you doing?" Seth asked.

  "I brought some carbolic acid with me." She widened the hole in the hem and plucked out the vial wrapped in a piece of gauze.

  "You brought it with you?" Seth repeated dully. "In your dress?"

  She unwrapped the gauze to reveal a small glass phial filled with liquid.

  "Eva," he said carefully, "why did you hide medicine in your dress?"

  "In case of cuts like this." She didn't look at him. She didn't want to see the shock in his eyes, the distrust.

  "You knew. You knew you'd end up here. You knew you'd have a use for carbolic acid too, so you sewed it into your dress to make sure it crossed through the portal with you. My God." He barked a brittle laugh. "I can't believe it. You had a vision of yourself in Wonderland and came prepared. I feel like such a fool for not realizing."

  "You're not a fool." She dripped some of the carbolic acid onto the gauze and dabbed it on the cut.

  "Why didn't you tell me?" he pressed. "Why didn't you tell anyone else?"

  "What does it matter? It changes nothing. I didn't know who else came with me or what transpired here. Besides, it wasn't my vision, it was my mother's. She warned me and helped me sew these into my hem. She then made sure I wore this dress the day we visited Lichfield and traveled through the portal."

  She felt his gaze on her as she dabbed the antiseptic into his wound. She couldn't bring herself to look at him. What if she saw disappointment, distrust, or worse, dislike?

  "Perhaps I should have told you sooner," she said, "but I didn't see the point."

  "The point is that you kept something from me, Eva. Don't do that again, please."

  "Why?" she asked carefully.

  "Because I want us to have an open and honest relationship with one another."

  "As far as I'm aware, we don't have a relationship."

  "Don't we?"

  She fumbled and dropped the gauze. She reached for it but he caught her hand. His other touched her chin, forcing her to look at him.

  "You're holding something back," he said, searching her face. "What is it?"

  She jerked away. She couldn't tell him what she knew of their future together. How could she admit that she'd known they would marry ever since meeting him? What if it forced him down a path he didn't want? He was a man who'd had many lovers but never proposed to a woman. Why would he want that to change? What if telling him about her vision led him to make the worst mistake of his life?

  She concentrated on tying the gauze around his arm and not meeting his gaze.

  "Very well then." He folded his arms over his chest. His very bare, very masculine chest. She refused to look him in the eye, but she could look at his bandaged bicep and chest. There was no law against it. "Since you're too afraid to tell me your inner most secret, it seems I'll have to tell you mine. I'll entrust you with my darkest secret so you can entrust yours to me."

  "I know you're trustworthy, Seth," she said, finally meeting his gaze. It was a mistake. His warm eyes captured her and held her prisoner.

  "I want to tell you anyway." He cleared his throat, shifted his weight. She waited for him to be ready. "You'll recall that I sold myself for money to pay my debts."

  "Your father's debts. I recall."

  "Well, sometimes the highest bidder was a man."

  She fought hard to school her features. He'd taken an enormous leap of faith to tell her and she wouldn't betray her surprise. In truth, she was more surprised at her own naivety than his confession. He was, after all, extraordinarily beautiful, and wealthy men outnumbered women in the world, so why not at the auctions too? She'd heard all sorts of stories through her medical studies, both from patients and doctors, so she knew what acts some men performed behind closed doors.

  "Don't tell anyone else," she told him. "You could be thrown in jail."

  He cocked his head to the side. "That's all you have to say?"

  "I'm not shocked, if that's what you mean." She did have several questions, but she wasn't quite sure if he was ready to answer them.

  "Are you…disgusted?"

  "No. I do know men sometimes share a bed with other men, and women with other women too. I may have had a sheltered upbringing, but I am an adult with keen observational skills."

  He let out a measured breath. "Then you will have observed that I prefer women."

  She smiled. "Oh yes, I have definitely observed that."

  "My experiences with men were simply a means to an end."

  She closed her hand over his. "Thank you for telling me."

  He looked up from their linked fingers. "Is there anything else you'd like to know? I can answer your questions. I'm not ashamed, Eva. Not with you."

  She was glad he felt he could confide in her, and relieved that he wasn't ashamed to reveal his secret to her. "Then I do have a question. How did it begin? The auctions, I mean. What made you think to do it?"

  He turned his hand palm-up so that he was clasping hers. "It was actually a man who gave me the idea. A Frenchman, Monsieur Fernesse. I first met him when he was living in London. He was a friend of my mother's and took a keen interest in me. I knew he wanted to be with me, but I was eighteen at the time and found myself too busy with women to pay him much attention."

  "I'm sure you were very busy."

  "I took full advantage of all female interest, without a care for how my fickle heart affected them. I'm sorry to say I took the virtue of a number of debutantes before learning my lesson the
hard way. One of the fathers confronted me and ordered me to marry his daughter. He withdrew her hand when he learned how poor we really were. After that, I chose more carefully. No more debutantes, only merry widows with no interest in walking down the aisle. The widows were better in another way too—I didn't have to woo them with gifts. In fact, they gave me gifts.

  "Monsieur Fernesse had been at the edges of my awareness for some time at that point, but he swanned into my life in a bigger way when my reputation grew in certain circles. He told me I should make those widows pay for my services, not with gifts but money. I was skeptical. I didn't think they would. So he set up a private viewing with some of his wealthier clients—he's a decorator—and gauged interest."

  "Let me guess," Eva said. "Interest was strong?"

  "Enough for me to agree to an auction then and there. It quickly became apparent to us both that it wasn't just women who wanted to bid for me. A few husbands asked him if they could bid on behalf of their wives."

  "Really?"

  He chuckled. "So I have shocked you."

  "I'm shocked that men were prepared to share their wives with another man."

  "Some wanted nothing to do with the post-auction prize, some wanted to watch, and others wanted to join in. Monsieur Fernesse refused the latter, telling them I wouldn't cross that line. After a particularly nasty creditor sent his thugs to my door, I told Monsieur Fernesse I'd be willing, for double the final bid. Monsieur Fernesse insisted I be…initiated first. He took me under his wing and showed me what to expect. Once I set my masculine pride aside, I found I didn't dislike it as much as I thought I would. It wasn't…natural for me, but he was a kind lover. He made sure ground rules were set at the auctions too. He was good to me."

  "Do you think he was using the initiation as an excuse to be with you?"

  "I'm sure of it. Don't worry, Eva." His mouth quirked in a devilish grin. "I dined finely for several weeks as he courted me. I led him to believe we had more than a mentor-mentee relationship when I knew nothing more would ever develop between us. Looking back, I wasn't fair to him."

  "You won't get me feeling sorry for him, Seth. He took advantage of you."