Chapter Fifteen
Fifteen
“What now?” I asked when we were back in the ballroom.
I caught a glimpse of myself in one of the tall mirrors and winced—I didn’t look as though I’d just been doing precisely what I’d just been doing, but I definitely looked rumpled.
“Now we observe,” Marcellus replied. He snagged two glasses of something from one of the passing footmen and handed me one, then tapped his glass against mine. “To memorable terraces,” he said with a wink. I rolled my eyes at him before taking a sip.
It was champagne, and the bubbles went up my nose, making me sneeze. He laughed, taking the glass from me and then handing me a handkerchief while he glanced around the room.
I took it, wondering why he hadn’t offered it before. Hmm. Likely because he hadn’t been thinking straight?
That made what happened feel even better—I was impressed with myself that Lord Aplomb had been so wits addled he couldn’t remember his handkerchief.
“Over there,” he said, looking down at our glasses, “to your right. It’s one of the duke’s henchmen talking to one of Keres’s assistants.”
“Is it Az’gen?” I asked, beginning to turn around.
“Don’t move,” he said, returning my glass. “You are not good at this spying stuff,” he said in a reproving voice. “You need to be discreet.”
“Oh, now you say we need to be discreet,” I began. “Not back then when you took me out onto the terr—”
He glared at me, and I clamped my mouth shut.
“It’s not Az’gen,” he replied. “I don’t remember this one’s name, but I find it unusual that they would be talking to the duke’s man. What can they have in common?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “Working for a person who believes in light punishments, hierarchy, and likely not making enough money for what they do?”
He flicked his finger on my nose. “Enough out of you, my revolutionary. We’ll look around elsewhere, but we might have found our mole.”
It couldn’t be that easy, I thought. Though maybe it could—maybe this assistant did have something in common with the duke’s secretary and let it slip the Devil was going to the tower that day. Maybe the secretary himself mentioned it, not knowing what he’d said either.
Everything felt so random, but the reality was, there had been an attack on a very powerful being, one who, with one flick of his pronged tail, could upend the delicate balance the supernatural species and humanity had worked out since the Great Revelation.
“There you are.” Hannah hovered to my left, her eyes bright as they darted between me and Marcellus. “I didn’t see you for a bit. I need to speak with you. Can you accompany me to the retiring room for a moment?”
I nodded, handing my glass back to Marcellus. I could fix my hair there too. “If you’ll excuse me?”
“I should hear what she has to say—” he began.
“No, you shouldn’t,” I said, cutting him off. “If there’s something you need to know, I’ll tell you. You just go be demonic for a bit, and I’ll be right back.”
I didn’t wait for his reply. I just followed Hannah as she made her way to one of the side entrances.
“Well, what is it?” I asked when we were safely inside the room.
The ladies’ retiring room was for that business, of course, but it was also a place for women to rest for a moment or repair their hems or share a bit of gossip or make sure there wasn’t anything stuck in their teeth—basically, being able to do things that gentlemen didn’t need to see or didn’t want to see, lest it disturb their vision of ideal womanhood.
Needless to say, I normally just used the retiring room for that business.
Hannah and I were seated on two large tufted chairs, the faint scent of clashing perfumes in the air, as ladies went in and out, applying powder or exchanging barbs masked as compliments or vice versa.
“I don’t know if it’s anything, but I was near a human, one of those religious types,” Hannah began.
“You mean a deacon or an archbishop?” I asked.
Hannah shook her head. “I don’t know what he was, just that he was churchy. Fairies don’t have that kind of thing, so I’m not all that familiar with it.”
I motioned for her to continue. “Anyway, he was standing with another churchy type, and the two of them were talking. They didn’t see me, so I could hear what they were saying.
They were talking about the flyers and the meetings—it sounds as though there have been more of them—and saying the results have been good, with more humans becoming aware of the Devil’s presence in London and how dangerous it is.
The important one told the other one to keep the pressure on and that something had to happen soon. ”
“Did they say what had to happen soon?”
Hannah shook her head. “No. That was all they said.” She looked at me. “What do you think it means?”
“I think the church—or at least some of its leaders—must be behind the public swell of resentment against the Devil.” I gave a rueful laugh.
“It’s not as though that isn’t the whole point of the church, though, so we shouldn’t be surprised they’d be so adamant against his being here.
I don’t know if they would go so far as to attack him, however, because the Queen supports his being here, and the church can’t win against the Queen. ”
No one could win against the Queen. We all knew that already.
“But if someone was at that meeting and found out where he was…” Hannah mused.
“Indeed,” I said. “I’ll tell Marcellus what you said.”
“And now,” Hannah continued, her tone changing, “you have to tell me where you were.” She nodded her head toward me. “And how your hair got that way.”
I blushed, and she gave me a sly look. “I’ll tell both of you later. I don’t want to have to repeat myself, and I know Lily is going to want to know all the details.” Heaven help me, but I might just explode into flames recounting the events to my friends.
But I supposed if I could engage in the acts themselves, I could talk about them. Or at least I should be able to. Whether I could was another matter.
We left the retiring room, but not before Hannah straightened out her wings and helped me make my hair look less of a disaster.
“Well?”
Marcellus was standing in the exact same spot as before, which made me secretly pleased; I liked that he wanted to know what Hannah’s information was or that he just wanted to keep being with me.
Maybe it was that he was tired (he wasn’t tired) or that he didn’t care for anybody else in the room (that was very likely), but no matter what, it made me happy.
Hannah had flitted off to see if she could chance upon any other interesting conversations and also to check in on Lily.
I warned her that Lily might not want to be checked on, but Hannah just dismissed me with a hand wave.
I hoped neither Lily nor the Devil—or whoever Lily’s current partner might be, I had no idea if the Devil was still meeting Lily’s needs—got angry.
“Hannah says the church is behind the flyer distribution and the meetings. Or at least some church higher-ups.” I exhaled in frustration.
“But the Saint Aloysius vicar was at the meeting we were at, so we already knew some of them were anti-Devil. It’s not exactly news that the church has antipathy toward the Devil.
It’s rather the basis for all Christianity, in fact. ”
“Did they mention knowing anything about my father’s whereabouts?”
I shook my head. “No.”
Marcellus’s expression was annoyed. “There might be something worth following up there, with the church—it’s just that I certainly can’t barge in and investigate, not without causing an incident.”
“I can, though, should the need arise,” I pointed out.
He frowned. “That would be too dangerous.”
I scoffed. “I can certainly handle a few deacons or whatever, sir.”
A look of realization lit up his face.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I know a way we can keep you safe. If I just—”
“Come here, you!” Everyone in the room turned as the Devil roared from one corner of the room. I did as well, squinting to see his expression. He was looking at Marcellus, who gave an exasperated sigh, then walked toward his father.
“I can’t tell if he’s angry or not,” Marcellus murmured.
I turned around to see Lily, who looked healthier than she had before. I knew why, and I expected I looked healthier, too, and for the same reason. “Oh, Cora, what have you been doing?” she crooned, catching sight of me.
“Never mind that,” I said, taking her arm. “Were you with him until now? Did you find out anything?”
She shifted her shoulders in what would have been a shrug in a normal person but looked like an invitation to seduction on her. “Not much. I was speaking with one of the other demons, a female—”
“Keres?” I asked. “Blue, with horns?”
“Yes, that’s the one.” Lily’s smile grew dreamy. “The Devil was good fun, but not quite as fun as Keres. I promised to visit her tomorrow for a return to—”
I held my hand up. “I don’t need to know the details of your love life. Just—did she say anything that might indicate she spoke about the Devil’s whereabouts to anybody?”
Lily’s expression was sultry. “She didn’t speak much, if you know what I mean.
We just—let’s just say I had quite a good time.
But no. She didn’t say anything at all. Quite close-mouthed, except when she wasn’t.
” And then her smile grew positively salacious, and I had to close my eyes because her beauty and sexual essence were at their peak, and I didn’t need to be distracted.
Plus she was one of my best friends, and I didn’t want to go there with her.
“Right. Well. So Keres isn’t the mole. What about the Devil?”
I opened my eyes to see Lily shrug again.
“He was fine. A bit selfish, but he served his purpose. He spoke quite a lot about himself and mentioned how much he is looking forward to the Exhibition—I almost didn’t believe it when you said that, but it’s all true.
He seems like a great child, but then there are parts of him—”
“Stop. No more, Lily. I cannot.”
She laughed, then nudged me. “So you don’t want to know about your future father-in-law’s prowess?”