were right,” I go on, warming to my subject. “It is unhealthy to feel about an animal the way you would about a man.” The expression on the Viscount’s face nearly makes me burst out laughing. “She’s trying not to pine, but it’s difficult for her. They had such a strong physical connection.”
It’s too much for Karloff. He stammers something about remembering an obligation, and hurries away. I duck my head and try to smother my giggles.
On the other side of the ballroom, Mama’s deep in conversation with an older woman with towering ostrich feathers in her hair. She’ll be gossiping all evening. Aubrey’s nowhere to be seen, so I decide to use the bathroom.
As I wander back to the ballroom, I picture what it must have been like twenty-seven years ago in these rooms. I’ve heard tales of blood all over the floors. Guards being slaughtered by People’s Republic soldiers. I picture the Archduke as a young man, taken prisoner as his King died.
I push through the gilt-inlaid door, but stop when I find myself in a room shrouded in darkness. I must have taken a wrong turn.
The lights flick on, and a cold voice speaks behind me. “How dare you.”
Oh, sugar.
I turn around and see Archduke Devrim Levanter in the doorway. A thrill of fear goes through me. I’d forgotten how striking he looks in his scarlet uniform. This isn’t just my friend’s father I’ve angered, but the head of the Court of Paravel and the King’s Guard.
I put up my hands. “Before you say anything, Aubrey asked me to tell Viscount Karloff that silly story.”
Levanter just stares at me like I’m the rotten spot on his apple.
I start to back away slowly. “She doesn’t want to marry that man, and she didn’t know how to tell you.”
Levanter follows me. “Aubrey would never do such a thing.”
I risk a glance over my shoulder as he’s talking. Rats. There’s no other exit. I could throw myself out of a window, but we’re two floors up. “Maybe you don’t know her as well as you think. When was the last time you talked to her? Really talked to her? Go and ask her yourself and you’ll see I’m telling the truth.”
Instead of leaving, he shuts the door behind him. When he turns back to me, his eyes are glimmering with sadistic intent.
He doesn’t want the truth. He just wants to punish me.
“I warned you what would happen if I caught you sneaking around my daughter.”
My breath comes in short pants. “You wouldn’t dare.”
The Archduke smiles wickedly. “Wouldn’t I?”
He strides toward me, and I dart behind the sofa.
He halts, seething with irritation, and then starts around the sofa the other way. I move too, keeping my distance from him. Then I pick up my skirts and flee across the room, taking shelter behind a desk.
The Archduke growls in frustration.
“If you cause a scene, people will gossip about us,” I point out.
His eyes narrow, scheming, calculating. Just waiting for me to put a foot wrong. “No one’s going to know, unless you lose your head and start screaming.”
“Then I’ll scream!”
“Go ahead. I rather think your reputation will suffer more than mine.”
My heart pounds wildly in my chest. I glance toward the door, as if I’m going to run that way, and he steps toward it. Then I snatch up a cushion from a sofa and hurl it at his head.
He ducks, and the cushion sails past him, narrowly missing a vase and falling to the floor.
“Think about your daughter. What would she say if she knew what you were doing right now?”
I can see I’ve said entirely the wrong thing. His face suffuses with anger. “You really will use anyone for your own ends.”
He stalks around the writing desk toward me, but I take off. I stop behind the sofa, panting, and he comes to a halt on the other side.
“I know your kind, and you’re a bully. You hated me the moment you laid eyes on me and for no good reason. Can’t you just admit that you made a mistake when you assumed I was a thief, so we can both move on?”
His eyes are darting everywhere, searching for a new strategy to get to me. “Perhaps you’re not a thief, but you still need to be taught a lesson. If I don’t uphold the sanctity of the Court, then the country will come crashing down again.”
“I’m going to single-handedly cause another revolution by being friends with your daughter? Prison