And she was very appealing. Even as he frowned with disapproval, he couldn't deny how much she stirred him.
The strains of music faded as the graceful dance ended. Cordelia smiled distractedly at her partner, then turned away, striding off the floor with the freedom of movement her costume allowed. It was clear to Leo that she was looking for someone as she circled the room, prowling with a long-legged feline grace that sent a shiver down his spine. Judging by the quiver of arrows on her back, she was playing Diana the Huntress. She didn't seem to be aware of the attention she was drawing. The stares, the whispers, scandalized, envious, and in many cases undeniably lascivious, followed her every step.
Michael would have a seizure if he could see her, Leo thought. But instead of being shocked, he wanted to laugh. Sheer madness. Encouraging her was the last thing he wanted to do. Dear God, whyever had he agreed to take on such a charge? But, of course, he'd been expecting a timid, obedient debutante. Instead of which…
Impatiently, he started to cross the room toward her, keeping her in his line of sight. She had paused beside the young musician, Christian Percossi, who was listening attentively to some bewhiskered general. Leo saw her brush her friend's arm in passing. Then a back obscured his view for a second, and when he had a clear view again, Diana the Huntress had vanished.
Frustrated, he stopped, looking around. Then he saw young Percossi making his way purposefully to the doors leading to the courtyard outside the ballroom.
Clearly another assignation. Leo's eyes rolled heavenward. He quickened his step, following the musician.
There was a nip in the night air; the stars were crystalline against their black velvet background. Leo shivered in his thin toga after the heated ballroom with its myriad candles and hot press of bodies. A red carpet covered by an awning ran from the ballroom to the main structure of the Belvedere Palace; flambeaux lit the pathway that disappeared into the glittering maw of the palace. There was no sign of his quarry, but Leo followed the path into the palace. The great entrance hall was unnaturally quiet. A lone footman hurrying across the vast marble expanse gave the viscount in his Roman costume a curious glance and seemed to hesitate, then a clock somewhere chimed the midnight hour and he continued hastily on his way.
Leo heard Cordelia's voice, low but both urgent and excited, coming from an antechamber to the left of the grand staircase. He entered the small room without ceremony and was relieved to find the two of them standing decently far apart beside the open window. For all their protestations of pure friendship, he hadn't been completely convinced. But this was clearly no lovers' tryst.
Cordelia sensed his presence and turned swiftly to the door. "Oh!" she said. "It's you."
"Yes, it's me." He advanced into the room. "What in the name of the good Christ are you doing in that costume?"
"I was just asking her the same thing, sir." Christian ran a distracted hand through his fair curls. He was dressed unimaginatively if decorously as a minstrel. "It's shocking, Cordelia. What if the empress discovers your identity? Or your uncle! Can you imagine what he would do to you?"
"Yes," Cordelia said cheerfully. "But he won't know, and neither will the empress. Only Toinette knows, and she would never betray me."
"Cordelia, you're impossible." Christian looked toward the viscount in unconscious appeal.
"Come over here, Cordelia." Leo took her hand and led her over to a wall mirror. "Now, take a look at yourself and tell me what you see."
Cordelia, head to one side, examined her reflection. It seemed a strange question; it was obvious what she saw. "Me, dressed as Diana the Huntress."
"No. You, dressed in the most provocative, seductive fashion."
"But it's a costume ball. It's part of the fun to be incognito and slightly shocking."
"You are not yet old enough, wise enough, or sophisticated enough to be enflaming men."
"Do I?" she interrupted. "Do I enflame you?"
Leo was speechless for a moment, and it was Christian who exclaimed, "Cordelia!"
"I didn't say it first," she said. "Do I enflame you, Christian?"
"No… I mean, well, you could do." He ran his hand through his curls again. "It's just shocking, Cordelia. You're the empress's goddaughter and you're about to be married-"
"Precisely." Leo waded in, once more on track. He took hold of her shoulders, feeling the slender shape of them beneath his hands, and turned her once again to the mirror. "Look at yourself, Cordelia. You don't think of the effect you have on men. Every man in that ballroom was salivating when he looked at you, and you blithely swan through it all like some innocent fairy in a dream. I tell you straight, your husband will not appreciate such a performance."
He felt some of her ebullience leave the slim body under his hands. She sighed. "I don't see why you should both be so cross, when no one except ourselves and Toinette knows who I am. And it's past midnight, so I can disappear and no one will ever be any the wiser. Besides, I didn't notice anyone salivating over me."
"That, I suspect, is your only saving grace," Leo said aridly. "If you had calculated the effect you had, you would be quite insufferable."
Cordelia turned aside and stared fiercely out of the window. She was accustomed to being scolded for her high spirits, but not in this fashion, and certainly not by Christian. "Maybe it was a mistake," she conceded, her voice a little muffled. "So, can we stop talking about it now, please? I have something much more important to discuss."
"Something private?" Leo inquired with a raised eyebrow.
Cordelia turned back to face him, regarding him intently, her eyes glowing turquoise through the slits in her black silk mask. "I would like to take you into our confidence, my lord. I… I think perhaps you might be able to help us."
"Oh." The eyebrow almost disappeared into his scalp.
"Cordelia, I don't think-" Christian began hesitantly.
"Viscount Kierston will help us," Cordelia interrupted. "You will, won't you?" She laid a hand on his forearm, on the bare flesh exposed by the toga. Despite her preoccupation, her eyes darted upward, an almost startled expression in them as her fingers crossed over his warm skin. Leo pulled his arm from her.
"Go and change your clothes," he said, keeping his voice level only with an enormous effort. "I refuse to discuss anything with you in that outfit."
"But you'll both stay here and wait for me?" she asked urgently. "I won't be many minutes."
"Christian and I will further our acquaintance in your absence," he responded coolly.
"Very well." She whirled to the door. "Christian, you can explain the situation with Poligny while I'm gone. And then I'll tell you both of my plan when I come back."
The viscount shook his head as she vanished. "I find I need a glass of champagne to restore my equilibrium." He strode to the bellpull hanging beside the door and summoned a footman.
"Cordelia does sometimes have that effect," Christian ventured with a timid smile. "She's so full of energy and ideas, she often throws me off balance."
Leo's smile was a trifle rueful, but he didn't respond. He gave orders to the footman who'd appeared instantly, then said, "So, put me in the picture, Christian."
Cordelia flew upstairs to the small chamber she occupied when the court was in residence at the Belvedere Palace. It was nowhere near as elegant or spacious as her apartments in the Schonbrunn, although not as cramped as those in the ancient Hofburg Palace, but the court was accustomed to moving from one palace to another according to the empress's ceremonial obligations, and Cordelia was at home in any one of them.