Royal Blood - By Rhys Bowen Page 0,68

however.

At the doorway to the salon I heard the sound of girlish laughter and I paused, my mind racing back to that disconcerting moment when I had stumbled upon Matty the evening before. I had seen her with blood running down her chin and she had begged me not to tell anybody. She couldn’t help it, she had confessed. Was it too improbable to believe that she had been bitten by a vampire and had become one of them? Darcy had been so amused by my stories of vampires that I hadn’t even mentioned Matty to him. I suppose it did sound ridiculous to anyone who hadn’t experienced it personally. I would have thought it ridiculous myself if it hadn’t happened to me. My nightly visitation could be explained by a case of mixed-up rooms, but then a normal room-hopper would not need to climb up walls—let’s face it, would not be able to climb up walls. And where could an outsider have come from with the pass closed and no habitation nearer than that inn, and snow too deep to walk through? I am normally a sensible person, I told myself, but the things I had witnessed defied rational explanation.

I took a deep breath, opened the door and went in. Matty rose from the sofa near the fire and came to meet me. “My dear Georgie,” she said. “Are you well? I was worried when nobody had seen you this morning.”

She looked and sounded completely normal, but she was wearing a scarf around her neck that would hide any bite marks.

“I’m quite well, thank you,” I said. “Darcy O’Mara and I went for a little walk.”

“Nicky’s groomsman? Ah, so that’s where your interests lie. Poor Siegfried, he’ll be devastated.”

That’s when I remembered that I had actually not discouraged Siegfried the night before. Oh, no, Siegfried didn’t really think I had changed my mind, did he?

“Of course, you’re lucky,” she said. “Nobody would mind whom you married. It wouldn’t make any difference to world peace.”

“My sister-in-law is keen for me to make the right match, and I think the queen expects me to cement ties with the right family,” I said.

“It’s such a bore being royal, isn’t it?” She slipped her arm through mine and led me over to the other young women at the fire. “I’m really becoming convinced that communism is a good idea. Or maybe America has it right—choose a new leader every four years, from among the people.”

“America maybe,” I said, “but look at the mess in Russia. Communism doesn’t seem to have made life for the ordinary people better there.”

“Who cares, really.” Matty gave one of her slightly fake laughs. “So no more talk of politics or any other boring subject. We are all going to be happy and enjoy my wedding. I could have killed that awful man for spoiling the evening last night.”

“I don’t think he intended to have a heart attack,” I said cautiously.

“Maybe not, but I’m still angry with Nicky for inviting him. This morning Siegfried was muttering about trying to send one of the cars to Bucharest for the royal physician and Mama and Papa were distressed to hear that one of our guests had become sick.”

“I don’t think it was Prince Nicholas’s choice to bring Pirin along with him,” I said. “He’s a powerful man in that country. I rather suspect he does what he wants.”

“Well, I certainly didn’t invite him to my wedding,” she said. “He invited himself. I rather wish he’d hurry up and die and then we could all stop worrying about him. It’s like a cloud of gloom hanging over us, knowing he’s lying up there.”

I didn’t like to say that her wish had been granted. She turned to the other girls and obviously repeated what she had said in German, as it produced a titter of nervous laughter. I observed her critically. She was so different from the needy, unconfident girl I had known at school. I was almost prepared to believe she wasn’t the same person. I’d already been fooled by one imposter this year, so surely two was a little much. And her parents obviously recognized her as their daughter, so she had to be Matty, but she had certainly grown up in a hurry. The couturiere approached, clapping her hands as if she were directing a flock of chickens.

“Highnesses, we have no time to waste. So much work to be done. Now, who is ready to volunteer to be first today?”

I