it is to you now, Jesse had told him, that first night she’d come to stay at Tranquility. i give to you her earthly cares, her beating heart and mortal life. she’s rich with magic, rich with possibilities. be careful, louis. protect her. she’s more fragile than she looks.
Right, he’d thought. Thanks for that, you bloody damned bastard. She looks about as sturdy as a dandelion tuft, so you’re bloody reassuring.
Then again, Armand heard talking stars now. So nothing was exactly reassuring.
From her place down the table, Chloe released a musical laugh. Sophia echoed it, sharper. They sat up straight and ate only what they should, smiling and chatting, practicing their English-rose charm. He knew from experience that Chloe would have half the men in love with her by dessert, and those she didn’t manage to ensnare, Sophia would scoop up in the following days. They were well matched in their mutual hatred: both attractive in their different ways, both witty, both relentless.
Yet when he found his gaze drifting to them now, all they inspired in him was a vague sense of weariness. He couldn’t help but think there wasn’t anything genuinely interesting about either of them. He’d known girls like them forever and ever.
The secret dragon at his table took her final bite of salad and glanced up and around, candlelight tangled pink in her hair, gold along her lashes. He watched her tighten into her silent coil, still and taut until the next course was served, then bend her head and begin again.
I smoked back to him that night, and this time I didn’t hesitate to shake him awake.
“We’ve got to work on a plan to get Aubrey,” I said as soon as his eyes snapped open. “I can’t stay here and be a nurse.”
Armand’s hand reached up and covered mine, pressing my palm to his shoulder.
“All right,” he said.
We met just after dawn at the swimming bath. I thought it’d be belowground (even the term “swimming bath” made me think of dank, moldy places), but it wasn’t. It was located at the back of the mansion, up against one of the unfinished wings. I’d glimpsed it from the air and thought it a hothouse, because it was long and rectangular and, like Prince Albert’s famed Crystal Palace, composed almost entirely of glass. Tall glass walls, peaked glass roof. A glistening sparkler set upon the emerald lawn.
Perhaps someone else had considered it a hothouse as well. Inside there were palm trees in elaborately enameled Chinese pots, and some sort of fleshy, flowering vine crawling up stakes secured in all four corners. The air was moist with the scent of plants and disinfectant and loam—a considerable improvement over the meat smell any day.
The light around us bloomed lustrous soft, colored with the new day. Condensation from the bath formed a thousand crystal tears that trickled slowly down the walls.
“Ready?” Armand asked. He was in his bathing costume, standing upon the first tiled step that led down into the blue-green pool.
No, I wasn’t. But I shrugged out of my robe anyway, approaching the steps.
I’d never swum in the ocean. I’d never had the luxury of a hot bath. Even at Iverson we washed ourselves with sponges, because that’s what ladies did.
Yet thanks to Moor Gate, I had nearly drowned too many times to count.
I thought of Jesse in my dream, telling me about fate. I thought of Aubrey, who was suffering, and how endless the Channel looked from Iverson, slippery chopped water that went on and on and on, a skin over bottomless depths.
“You remember how to swim?” I asked Armand, which was dumb, because of course he did.
“Yes,” he said, holding out a hand to me.
Armand’s bathing costume consisted of a skintight black tunic that stopped at his shoulders and midthigh. It was the least amount of clothing I’d ever seen on him. On anyone.
My costume was similar, but red with white stripes and a belt above bloomers and a short ruffled skirt. I looked like a stick of peppermint candy. It was all Armand had been able to find in storage, a forgotten leftover from someone’s long-ago summer visit.
Fashions changed, but even so. I could not imagine the woman who’d first spotted this rig in a shop and thought, I’ll look stunning in that!
“Right,” I said, steeling myself. “Let’s get this over with.”
I walked forward, took his hand. His fingers closed over mine.
I touched one foot to the water and jerked it back again.
“You said it was heated!”
“It is,” he soothed. “It feels a bit brisk now, I admit, but you’ll get used to it. Trust me.”
I lowered my foot back into the water, fighting the goose bumps that raced up my skin. I held his hand hard and brought my other foot in. The water sloshed up to my shins, and I stifled a shriek.
Heated water should be warm, and this wasn’t anything close. Only Armand’s hand felt warm, and I fancied that was just because the rest of me had gone so cold.
“Come on,” he coaxed, and took me down another step, and then another one.
Ice water to my thighs, my hips, chilling me in places I refused to consider. My feet halted in place.
“Who’d have thought,” Mandy said, laughing, “that a girl bold enough to take on the Huns themselves would be so frightened of a little water?”
“I’m not frightened,” I bit out. “I am freezing.”
“Sorry, waif. Only describing what I see.”
“I am not frightened.”
To prove it I took another big step—too big. My foot skidded off the tiles and I lost my balance and plunged all the way into the pool. Water flooded up my nose, into my mouth, my eyes and ears.
Armand yanked me upright, still laughing as I sputtered.
“Oh, God,” I said, my teeth chattering, my body trembling, my hair fat dripping ropes down my face. “Oh, crikey. Crikey!”
Smooth as satin, he glided in front of me and took me in his arms. He pressed me to his chest and kept me there, both of us bobbing in place.
Water to my shoulders, neck. Shoulders. Soft lapping water, the steadily brightening light. His arms around me. My cheek above his heart.
Mandy wasn’t laughing any longer.
I became abruptly, acutely aware of my breathing. Of his. Of how my own arms had stolen around his waist.
Of how wherever we touched, I was no longer cold at all.
I felt his hand shift, his fingers weaving though the floating mass of my hair. His touch along my shoulder blade, satin again … but it brought back the shivers.
“Bad news,” he whispered, not letting go.
“What?” Was that my voice? It sounded so reedy.
“I’m afraid this is the warmer end of the pool.”
I tried to laugh, but it came out mostly choked. He pulled me closer.
“Lora—”
“My, my,” said someone behind us. “You do realize the walls are made of glass, don’t you?”
We broke apart at once. I ended up on the deeper side; Armand had to pull me back until I could stand without the water smacking me in the face.
“Good morning, Sophia,” he said evenly. “What a surprise to see you up and about so damned early.”
She stood at the edge of the tiles in a vanilla lace dress that already looked wilted, smiling a cool, cool smile. “Well, you know. The early bird and all that. I’ve found that one discovers the most interesting sights first thing in the morning.”
“I’m teaching Eleanore how to swim.”
“Oh? Is that what you’re teaching her?”
“So far. Perhaps you’d care to shove off so we can get back to it.”
“Back to what, exactly? The swimming or the lovemaking?”
I said, “We weren’t—”
“Both,” retorted Armand. “And if you don’t mind, I’d rather we didn’t have an audience.”
“Then don’t do it under glass.”
“Stop it, both of you.” I slapped my hand against the water for emphasis. “We’re just swimming, Sophia. Honestly.”
“Honestly, Eleanore, apparently neither of you have realized that half the mansion is already awake. So unless you’re planning a wedding in here—”
I bobbled back and choked again, water filling my mouth.
“—I think it’s best that I stay. I’m an excellent chaperone. Pious as a saint. Ask anyone.”
“Bugger you,” Armand muttered.
“Language, Lord Armand! I’m shocked.”
“I doubt it, since you’re the one who taught me that word.”
Her smile returned. “Chloe was right about one thing. This summer would have been positively wasted on dances and social calls. Why, I might have missed all of this! Shall I go wake her to join in our fun?”
Armand shook his head in disgust. “Stay, if you must.”
“Smashing!” She clapped her hands. “Swim away, children. Swim away. I’ll just be right here. Chaperoning.”
I looked at Armand standing inches from me, water breaking against his chest, all ivory skin and toned muscles, his jaw set, his eyes narrowed.
I couldn’t tell if it was me or the pool, but suddenly I was much, much warmer than before.
And I knew I should be glad that Sophia was going to stay.