kindred spirit. Things with Linwood were spiralling dangerously out of control. She could no longer trust herself.
She clamped a hand across her mouth, afraid not of Linwood, but of herself. Just the thought of him made her pulse throb and her blood rush and her heart fill with yearning. When he touched her she was lost. The danger was too great to continue. She knew what she was going to have to do. It was fortuitous, indeed, that tomorrow was Tuesday.
Her eyes flickered again to the small battered vase. Maybe her mother was looking after her after all, better from beyond the grave than she had ever done in life.
* * *
Venetia’s rehearsal at the theatre the next afternoon was the worst she could remember. She forgot lines, missed cues and could not focus. She could see the way the rest of the actors were looking at her. A worried-looking Mr Kemble called a break.
Alice followed her into the dressing room, closing the door behind her. ‘What’s wrong, Venetia?’
‘Nothing is wrong,’ she said, facing her friend squarely and letting a small careless half smile play across her lips as if she were still in control of her emotions. But she was lying. What was wrong was what was happening between her and Linwood. She could think of nothing else.
Alice’s eyes scanned her face, with concern. ‘You look like you haven’t slept.’
‘I slept like a baby.’ Another lie.
‘It’s Linwood, isn’t it?’
Her heart jumped just at the mention of his name. It took every last shred of willpower to maintain a calm expression and to hold Alice’s gaze with her usual confidence. ‘You are obsessed with Linwood, Alice.’ But in truth it was Venetia who held that obsession.
‘Venetia...’ Alice sighed softly ‘...I’m worried about you.’ She took Venetia’s hand in her own. ‘I’ve never seen you like this before. Please tell me what’s troubling you?’
She only wished that she could. She shook her head and smiled to gentle the refusal. ‘I am just a little out of sorts. It is my time of the month.’ More lies upon lies. So many that she did not know what was real and what the lie any more. ‘I will take a couple of days off and I will be better when I come back.’
Alice gave a nod. ‘I’ve been too caught up with myself and Razeby. I’ll come round tonight. We can have a good old chat.’
Venetia shook her head. ‘Another night. When it is over.’ This game of entrapment that was raging out of control between her and Linwood.
Alice looked at her strangely, as if she knew there was something more going on with her friend than the monthly female bodily function, but she did not probe with more questions, she just gave her a hug. ‘I’m here for you if you need me, Venetia. Just remember that.’ She pulled on her shawl. ‘I don’t like leaving you here alone like this.’
‘Go,’ said Venetia. ‘Razeby will be waiting for you. Besides, I have plans of my own.’
‘If you’re sure...?’
‘I am sure.’
The door closed behind her.
Venetia waited a few moments sitting there at the dressing table, with no costume to change or paint to remove. The theatre was silent, she knew that the oil lights at the front of the house would already be turned off and the little corridor outside the dressing room would soon be in darkness. She looked at her reflection in the peering glass and saw the uncertainty in her eyes and the smudges of sleeplessness that sat beneath them, and the pallor of her cheeks naked without a touch of her usual artifice to add colour to them. Wrapping her long shawl around her, she turned off the lamps in the dressing room and made her way to the stage door of the theatre.
Her carriage was waiting at the edge of Hart Street. The late afternoon was as dark and heavy as if night was already upon them. She stood there for a moment, before Robert stepped silently from the shadows and they climbed into her carriage.
‘How does our plan progress?’ He looked across the carriage at her.
‘My job with Linwood is done. There is no need for me to see him again.’
Robert leaned forwards in his seat, a sharp look upon his face. ‘It is barely begun. We agreed you would court him for three months, to find out all there is to know of the snake.’
And now that the time had come to tell him, the words