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his eyes just before they were interrupted, all made her tremble with hope, made her long to demand that he complete what he'd been about to say. Now.

But she could wait. And perhaps this was all part of it, for Cupid was the god of love...

From somewhere came the pure voice of a castrate.

"The sun was now descended to the main,

When chaste Diana and her virgin train..."

A woman dressed exactly as Diana herself was walked out, accompanied by four handmaidens in Grecian dress, all wearing classical full-face masks.

"... Espied within the covers of a grove,

The little cupids, and the god of love,

All fast asleep, stretched on the mossy ground, "

The actress Diana took up the song in a rich contralto.

"Fell tyrants of each tender breast,

Sleep on, and let mankind have rest.

For oh, soon as your eyes unclose,

Adieu to all the world's repose."

Her attendants joined in harmony as they plotted to break Cupid's bows and arrows, and carried out the deed. Then they joined hands and danced.

"Our victory's great,

Our glory is compleat,

No longer shall we be alarmed.

Then sing and rejoice,

With one heart and voice

For Cupid at length is disarmed!"

Cheers started up in various parts of the ballroom, and the clever actors repeated their piece until people knew it well enough to join in.

At the front of the stage, the actress playing Diana encouraged her impromptu choir by calling out the next words ahead of the singers.

"Ye nymphs and ye swains,

Who dwell on these plains,

And have by fond passions been harmed.

Secure of your hearts,

Now laugh at his darts,

For Cupid at length is disarmed!"

As the ballroom rocked with the noise, Bey was shaking with laughter so the bench rocked beneath Diana's feet. Laughing too, she grabbed a branch of an artificial tree, grateful to find it solid.

"Now what could anyone have against love?" he demanded. "But you'll see," he added with a brilliant glance at her, "love triumphs as it should."

Diana gripped the branch harder, but if Bey looked at her like that, she wasn't sure she'd ever be balanced again.

They were eye to eye, and moving toward a kiss when a male voice broke into the song. She looked and found that Cupid, perhaps feeling left out by the third repetition, had leaped to his feet. He, too, wore a full face mask, this time of a placid youth.

"Oh cruel goddess!" he sang, in a voice that was strong but not as skillful as the actress Diana's. "But I scorn to moan. Revenge be mine!" He shook his gilded bow.

"Lud," Diana remarked, "I think he'd play Mars better than Cupid, but then, this matter of love is a battle, I suppose."

She glanced teasingly at Bey, but he was now intent on the stage.

"Still one unbroken dart remains." Cupid seized it from the ground, and nocked it in his golden bow. "I lance it through..." - the unsettlingly blank mask scanned the audience - "what heart? Come then, my lords, my ladies," he continued in a speaking voice, "who wants to feel the bite of love, to have more love in their heart?"

Unease crept across Diana's shoulders, and suddenly Bey leaped down and moved forward. She tried to follow, but the crowd closed after him. In fact, everyone pushed forward trying to get closer to the god of love.

Some were cheering, some were jeering, but they all wanted to be part of this fun.

With a muttered curse she returned to the bench.

She saw Bey then, cutting ruthlessly toward the tall figure in the gilded Roman helmet, who stood directly in front of the dais. The king.

Trouble?

The whole room seemed to be inviting love or jeering at the thought, and the Cupid egged them on. The other actors stood back, letting him play the audience, his arrow of love still seeking a target.

Diana suddenly focused on the Cupid's shouting voice. Foreign. She'd assumed Italian, like most opera singers, but could it be French? And his voice was not well trained.

De Couriac?

Bey was near the king now and she wanted to scream a warning. But of course he knew. That's why he'd gone.

But de Couriac wanted to kill him.

She heard the king laughing and cheering with the rest. Heard him call, "Shoot me, god of love. I can't have too much love for my queen, what, what?"

As people cheered, the Cupid obediently turned the arrow in the king's direction.

Chapter 33

Diana instantly saw from the way it flexed, that the bow was real. That was when she remembered that she, too, had a real bow