by Nyna Queen
Cecile chortled loudly. Everybody turned to look at her.
“Excuse me,” Cecile said, holding a hand to her mouth. “It’s just … my little brother had a pet bunny called Bonny.” Her frame was shaking with little snickers. “I presume, the two of you would have gotten along quite well. It was extremely fond of carrots.”
That caused the other girls to burst into laughter. Bonny blushed a deep red, which only made them giggle more hysterically.
“I heard they reek awfully, too,” Sharon said with a disgusted face, after they had recovered a little.
Cecile shrugged her delicate shoulders. “Bernadette’s family lives on a farm”—the way she said the word “farm” made it sound like a dark, dirty sinkhole—“don’t you, Bonny?”
“Well … yes,” Bonny answered, sounding unsure.
“So you’re probably used to the stink anyway.”
The other girls neighed with laughter. Bonny turned an even deeper red and looked down into her glass, clearly hurt but trying not to show it.
Following an impulse, Alex bent forward and sniffed at Cecile’s hair. The women’s laughter faded and Cecile gave Alex a bewildered look. “Huh?”
Alex returned it with a sugary-sweet smile. “Oh, I was just wondering … What’s that fragrance? Eau de Bitch?”
This time it was Bonny who chortled, snorting bubbly through her nose. Alex swallowed a grin. Edalyne softly cleared her throat and touched her hand to her forehead, looking as though she wanted to hide behind it, and Alex knew she probably shouldn’t have done that. Yet she couldn’t really feel sorry for intervening. The little bitch deserved to be brought down a peg or two.
Fury distorted Cecile’s doll-like features. “You—”
“Ladies.” Elizabeth Saunier, who’d watched the beginning catfight with calculated amusement, soothingly raised a hand. “Why don’t we—”
The servant who’d brought them in peered into the room and bowed formally. “Milady, there is a call for you.”
Lady Saunier waved her hand with the champagne flute. “I’m unavailable right now.”
The man hesitated. “It is … rather pressing, milady. A … family matter.” His gaze intensified.
Alex felt the quickening of Lady Saunier’s heartbeat, although her face remained completely unchanged.
Pretending to take a sip of champagne, Alex let her sensory threads subtly taste the air currents. Yep, definitely excitement. Who are you expecting, Elizabeth?
“Ladies, I’m afraid that I have to take this call.” Lady Saunier’s voice was still light but Alex noted a slight tension in there. “Why don’t you go on ahead into the garden? I believe the shades have been set up and there are pitchers with iced tea and lemonade. Personally, I prefer them over hot tea on a sunny day like this, don’t you?” She leaned forward conspiratorially. “And I tell you, the closer you get to your menopause, the more you appreciate anything that keeps you from sweating like an old mare.”
The other women laughed, some genuinely amused, some—like Alex—not to stick out.
“Ramon here will show you the way. I’ll be with you in a minute.” Lady Saunier scurried away, while the rest of the girls flowed after the servant in a buzz of swishing skirts and mumbles.
Alex gave Edalyne a quick questioning glance. The other woman inclined her chin with an almost imperceptible nod before making a move for the door.
“I’ll just quickly powder my nose,” Alex announced a little louder than necessary, using the appropriate term among trueborn royalty for taking a piss—as if nobody knew what the speaker was really up to!
“Of course, my dear,” Edalyne said. “I believe you’ll find us easily. Just follow the chatter.”
As the other women exited into the sun-flooded garden, Alex left her glass on a small table and slipped into the same corridor Elizabeth Saunier had vanished in a moment ago. It was completely empty. Alex listened, letting her threads scour her surroundings in an invisible web. No close vibrations. Coast was clear.
It wasn’t exactly difficult to track Elizabeth; Alex just had to follow the scent trail of her sweet perfume. Right, then straight. She reached the intersection where they had been told the bathroom would be on the left. Elizabeth’s perfume said “right,” and right she went.
Two chattering maids were coming her way from another corridor, carrying heaps of linen. Alex quickly slunk into a niche behind a life-sized bust of a naked man, stealthy and silent like a spider. His stony ass was cold against her side but nice to look at. Not nearly as nice as Darken’s though …
Alex gritted her teeth. Thinking about Darken was like lighting a match on her heart. And the fire it inflamed both warmed and hurt her. He had returned to the manor yesterday, sooner than anyone had expected, but ever since his return, he had kept a cold and clear distance from her, almost treating her as if she were a stranger.
Alex clenched her hands. That was fine. She had a mission. One she’d better focus on.
When the maids’ voices trailed off, Alex continued down the corridor and then puzzled over the right direction at the next fork; the perfume trail had nearly faded away by now. A sound came from her right and Alex quickly followed it. A door in the middle of the hall stood slightly ajar and a fine line of bright sunlight spilled onto the apricot-colored carpet, as if someone had tried to throw it closed behind them but in their haste had not noticed that it hadn’t shut properly. Muted words were leaking through the door, too quiet to understand but unmistakably the voice of Elizabeth Saunier.
Alex stepped closer. Hesitated. Listening at the door was risky. If someone were to come into the corridor, there would be no place for her to hide in time. Her options flashed before her: go through the adjoining room, climb out of the window, scale the wall, and listen at the window.
But by the time she got there, the call would likely be over and she might have missed whatever interesting tidbit it was Elizabeth couldn’t wait to hear. And then, her dress wasn’t exactly the perfect climbing outfit. The soft silk would rip at the touch of stone, not to mention that she’d get it dirty in a pinch. Now, that would be a nice conversation to have when she returned: Dear Alexandre, my, what happened to your lovely dress? Oh, I ran into a fight with a stone wall, but as you can see, I won. Yeah, maybe not!
This wouldn’t do at the ball either. If Alex wanted to be able to use her abilities to their advantage, she’d need more flexibility. They’d have to think on that one.
Anyway, she hadn’t followed Elizabeth this far to go back empty-handed.
Alex flattened herself against the wall and pushed at the door ever so slightly with her fingertips, opening the slit just a little wider. Concentrating, she let the spider emerge, using her heightened senses to catch the words.
“… is a very inopportune moment,” Lady Saunier was saying. “I have the house full of guests.” Alex rolled her eyes. Exaggerate much?
“So what was so urgent that it couldn’t wait?” The other woman’s voice sounded different from the flourish she had used in the reception hall. Sharp. Cold. Impatient.
Alex leaned forward and, through the narrow opening, caught a glimpse of Elizabeth pacing back and forth in front of a table that was mostly hidden by a wall. Her mouth was pulled into a flat sneer, her eyes cold and hard. The mask had finally fallen off. Yeah, that’s more like it, bitch. Show me your true colors.
Alex waited for an answer, but none came. Damn it, Elizabeth must be using an earpiece.
The woman huffed loudly and braced her hands on the table, leaning forward. “You know how much I’d like him to be out of the way, but we have to be more careful! We’ve been too obvious lately. Someone might—Yes? … Oh, please, don’t be insulting.” She threw up her arms. “Of course, I got it! It wasn’t easy, either. That’s not something you get in any drugstore around the corner.”
Elizabeth’s expression changed and she smirked. “I know, I know. He won’t know what hit him.”
Alex froze. What couldn’t yo
u get in any drugstore? Her mind came up with a whole range of possibilities, the most prominent, due to her personal history: poison! Her hackles rose to the ceiling. Was Elizabeth planning to murder someone?
Lady Saunier was leaning on the table again—almost as if she were leaning toward someone. Wait a minute! Maybe it was a holographic call! Excitement rushed through Alex’s body.
“Don’t worry,” Elizabeth said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Henry will play his part. If I serve him lamb and tell him it’s chicken, he’ll gladly eat it as such. And he knows what’s at stake as well.”
Adjusting her feet very softly, Alex gently upped the pressure on the door. If she bent in just a little more, she would be able to get a glimpse at whoever was at the other end of this call. Just a liiiiittle more.
There it was. The bluish glow of a holographic projection. Come to mama!
Sudden vibrations announced someone approaching the corner at the end of the corridor.
Shit!
CHAPTER NINE
THE steps approached quickly. Fast. Male. Sure steps, projecting confidence. Adrenaline shot into Alex’s veins. She only had a second to act.
Without thinking, she scooted down the corridor in the opposite direction, stopped midway and spun around, doing her best to project not-so-bright innocence. In any other situation, she would have simply slipped up to the ceiling and hoped he wouldn’t look up, but this stupid dress didn’t allow for such stunts.
A man marched around the corner. Six-foot-something, muscular, and armed with a stun-stick and hand-cuffs attached to his belt, he must be one of Elizabeth’s well-praised bodyguards. Just my luck!
He startled a little at her sight, then his gait widened. “Hey, miss!”
Alex, who had been pretending to look around with big eyes, raised her head in feigned surprise, and pulled out her best damsel-in-distress-imitation, hoping Lady Saunier was too occupied to hear. “Oh, sir! Thank the Great Mother. I was looking for the bathroom, but I must have taken a wrong turn …”
She took three steps towards him, putting an extra spring in her step, which put the focus on her boobs bouncing up and down in the silken cage of her bodice. Stay put, pleeease, stay put!
His gaze snagged down to her cleavage. He quickly looked away, slightly embarrassed, and cleared his throat. “Bathroom, ah … yes, well … hem … miss, at the last turn you should have taken a left …” He waved his hand toward the end of the corridor behind her.
Alex hit him with a thousand-watt smile. “Thank you, sir! You’re a life-saver.” She made a curtsy, giving him another fabulous insight into her low-cut neckline and quickly sashayed down the corridor, knowing his eyes were glued to her ass. Idiot!
Well, at least now she could see the advantage of a low neckline. She still preferred using her knives, but it never hurt to have another ace up your sleeve—or, rather, your neckline. Especially when you weren’t permitted to carry any knives.
After that, Alex actually did go to the bathroom, just in case someone was watching her. After hurriedly doing her lady business, she contemplated returning to Elizabeth’s room, but even if the call wasn’t over yet, which was quite possible, the other “ladies” would be waiting for her and she didn’t want anybody loudly wondering where she had been so long; lest some bodyguard might hear and let it slip that a stranger had been lurking around in the wrong corridors.
When she stepped out into the garden, however, Elizabeth was nowhere in sight and Alex almost regretted her decision.
“Alexandre!”
Bonny was waving at her from where she was sitting at an elegant stone table, bordered by cushioned chairs. “Alexandre, I’ve been saving a seat for you.” She pointed at the empty chair next to her.
Alex gracefully landed in the seat, ignoring the fact that all of the other chairs were empty too. Edalyne and Priscilla were standing at the border to a vast lawn, engrossed in some sort of political conversation—likely Edalyne’s way of getting some valuable information from this meeting—while the other three girls huddled together at the southern edge of the terrace. Alex heard her name mentioned several times, courtesy of her acute shaper-hearing.
Bonny beamed at her. “You took a while. I was wondering where you were.”
“I got a little lost,” Alex said, more or less truthfully.
“Oh, that happens to me all the time. Alexandre, I—”
“Call me Alex.” The words just slipped out of her mouth habitually and she cursed herself. On the other hand, Bonny had offered a nickname as well, hadn’t she? “Or Lexy,” she added. “Alexandre always sounds so formal.”
Bonny nodded earnestly. “I know exactly what you’re talking about. I mean, you know, Bernadette.” She grimaced. “My mother liked the novels, you know—Bernadette Powerell the fierce red-haired princess? Oh, well, never mind those. It’s just … you have to be careful. Some people around here are very touchy when it comes to nicknames.”
Yeah, tell me about it!
“Anyway, I just wanted to say that I thought it was amazing how you stood up for me back there.” Her eyes flickered to Cecile and the other girls whispering among themselves, and her lips drooped a little. “Though you probably shouldn’t have done it. Now, you’re in the firing line, as well.”
Alex followed her gaze. The other girls had been looking at them and now moved their heads closer again, giggling harder than ever.
“What’s their problem, anyway?”
“Oh, that’s still tame,” Bonny said, bravely acting as though it was just some children’s squabble despite the pain flickering in her eyes. “If you don’t fit into a certain mold, they will pick on you. Law of the royal elite, I guess. Don’t mind them, though, it’s just their way of staking out their territory. You’re a danger to them.”
“Me?” Alex’s eyes widened. “That’s ridiculous! I’m a nobody.”
Bonny shook her head. “You’re pretty, that’s your first mistake. And you’re young and unattached, and you have ties to the Dubois!” She made them sound like royalty and it occurred to Alex that they actually were a part of the royal elite and Stephane was competing for one of the highest posts available in the realm’s government. A useful but dangerous connection.
“That’s enough reason for some important people to knock on your door,” Bonny went on, absently playing with a pink peony on the table. “You’re the new toy and that makes you both interesting and a threat.
“But don’t worry,” the sunny-haired girl added, “they’ll get used to you, eventually. Who knows, if you prove yourself worthy, they might even let you into their little elite club.”
Although there was scorn beneath Bonny’s words, Alex noticed her longing gaze in the direction of the other girls. Yeah, not belonging simply sucked. She knew that only too well.
Alex had the strange feeling that she could like Bonny, and Bonny seemed to feel the same about her, most probably because Alex had thrown herself into the fire for her.
Yeah, and if she knew what you are, she’d shun you just the way those other girls are shunning her now.
Well, she wasn’t here to make friends, anyway.
Before there was any chance for further talk, the garden door opened and Elizabeth appeared, smiling as widely as ever, as if she hadn’t just plotted to kill someone only moments ago.
She clapped her hands. “Now, ladies, who wants lemon tart?”
THE moment they were back in the safety of their coach and racing off from the Saunier Estate, Edalyne grabbed Alex’s hands.
“And?”
Alex grimaced, glad she could finally relax her facial muscles after all that fake smiling.
“Elizabeth Saunier is a bitch and her daughter …” She shuddered theatrically. Then she quickly recounted what she had overheard from Elizabeth’s call.
When she had finished, Edalyne was staring out of the big window at the graying clouds that were gathering in the sky, looking thoughtful and concerned.
Alex grippe
d the leather bench beneath her. “There’s something really fishy about Lady Saunier.”
Edalyne snorted in a very unladylike way. “My dear, there’s so much dirt under her carpet, it’s a wonder the woman can walk straight.” She paused. “You did well. Although, I’ll pretend that the ‘Eau de Bitch’ comment didn’t happen.”
A small smile tugged at Alex’s lips, but then her face fell as the worry that had been gnawing at her finally found its way into her mouth. “Do you think Lady Saunier is planning to kill your husband?”
“I think that she has just moved to the top of our suspect list,” Edalyne replied as the first raindrops hit the coach windows. Within seconds, they were drenched in a heavy summer rain. “We will have to watch the Sauniers carefully. Very, very carefully.”
“DADDY, please!”
Alex bit back a grin and hid behind the “Complete Guide on Higher Etiquette: A manual for gracious living and proper decorum.” It was an oversized volume comprising of twelve chapters of boredom that was arduous to read and a complete waste of time. Yet, Heloise had insisted that Alex study this piece of pooh-paper as her evening read, and the old shrew would be asking questions in the morning to make sure she hadn’t skipped her daily assignment—an exercise that, in Alex’s opinion, served no other purpose than to torture her.
After dinner, which had consisted of an otherworldly salmon fillet with pink pepper and lemon slices, served with green asparagus, and rosemary potatoes, everybody had retired to the family parlor. It was the coziest of all the sitting rooms in Helton Manor, and now Alex was sitting on the couch with her legs tucked beneath her and her book balanced on her lap.
Heloise was—thank the Jester—out for dinner with a friend, and Edalyne had just left to tell Max his bedtime story. Which left her, Darken, Stephane, and Josy. And Slobber, who was dozing on a thick blanket, in a food coma, after having gobbled down half a cow’s femur. Stephane had initially grumbled about the dog being on the couch again but, interestingly, had made no move to shoo him away.
