CHAPTER 28 #2
“Ju-Ju, my dear.” A mournful sigh followed as Justinian DeVere cast a look at Hollister’s crumpled body and shook his head. “This can’t go on.”
“I know, I know, and there will be no need,” she replied in a honeyed voice. “We’re almost there. Tonight it will happen, and then our momentous discovery will make the world deem all the sacrifices worthwhile.”
“Mr. DeVere,” murmured Charlotte. “Please, you must make her see reason.”
“Reason!” repeated Julianna. “What do you know of reason, limited as you are by conventional thinking? Like your cousin, your mind is incapable of understanding the divine workings of the cosmos.”
“Mr. DeVere.” Charlotte fixed him with a steady stare. “Surely, you don’t wish to see any more lives lost in this experiment.”
He drew in a deep breath. “Julianna—”
“The secret is now in our hands, I swear it!” declared his ward.
“We’ve worked so hard for this, and now we’re so close.
The new electrolyte has proved successful.
And with this one last element . . .” She touched a hand to Charlotte’s coiled hair.
“Imagine the accolades when we succeed at transcending to a new plane of knowledge and unleashing the power of eternal life.”
Her voice had a macabre note of persuasiveness to it.
Madness could make hell sound like heaven.
“You’ve agreed with me on this, Justinian—Western thinking is so very limited.
In India, the idea of reincarnation has been understood for centuries.
We’re simply discovering a different form of it.
Think of it—bringing back corporeal life for the people we love. ”
Charlotte suddenly understood how an unspeakable horror had kindled the obsession behind her twisted thinking . . . a young girl witnessing the murder of her parents . . . the sense of unbearable loss.
But that did not forgive—
“Just one more sacrifice, that’s all,” she crooned. “And then you’ll be one of the most famous men of science in history, immortal in the annals of great thinkers.”
“Just one more?” repeated DeVere.
Ye gods, he was as deranged as she was, realized Charlotte.
“One more,” promised Julianna.
“Mr. DeVere—”
But he had already turned his back to her and disappeared into the darkness.
The pistol’s snout dug in between Charlotte’s shoulder blades. “Move!”
* * *
“Danger!” exclaimed Sheffield. “Have you found something in the puzzle Lady Charlotte brought to you?”
Cordelia shook her head. “No, I can’t begin to make sense of all that mystical habble-gabble. It’s something far simpler—the bloody hat!”
She made a wry face. “I suddenly recalled that I’ve seen a Wellington hat in Lady Julianna’s private study.
As you know, I’ve often attended the scientific soirees at the DeVere villa, and one evening I took a wrong turn on my way to the ladies’ withdrawing room and came upon her gathering some books to take back to the drawing room.
She was quick to leave the room and close the door—locking it, I might add.
But I did catch a glimpse of the hat and a dark overcoat. ”
“Did the overcoat perchance have one shoulder cape trimmed in braid?”
“Why, yes. I believe it did. Is that important?”
Before Wrexford could respond, a hackney came careening into the square, shaking and shuddering like a bat flying out of hell.
He started to reach for his pistol as the door flung open.
Damnation. On seeing a small figure dart down from the cab, he pushed through the bushes. “Over here, lad.”
Hawk spun around, terror writ plain on his face. “Oiy, oiy—ye got te come quickly!”
The earl raced across the cobbles, Sheffield and Cordelia right on his heels.
“M’lady . . . m’lady,” gasped the boy.
“Steady, steady.” Wrexford seized him, only to realize his own hands were shaking. “What’s wrong?”
“M’lady’s in trouble!” Hawk managed to explain about following Charlotte to DeVere’s villa and what he had seen through the glass windows of the conservatory.
“Hoy, there,” called the driver. “The imp promised some fancy toff wud pay me double the fare fer making the trip quick-like.”
Wrexford dug out his purse and flung it at the man. “You’ll have a second one of these if you get us back to Marylebone Park even faster.” To Hawk, he added, “Fetch Raven and Tyler. Then go find Griffin and bring him to DeVere’s villa as quickly as you can.”
Sheffield was already climbing into the hackney.
“No need for you to come along,” said Wrexford as Cordelia placed a booted foot on the rung.
“The villa is a labyrinth,” she replied. “But I think I know where to look for Lady Julianna.”
“Then up you go. And let us pray you’re right.”
* * *
The soft swish-swish of the leaves indicated that the grove of potted trees lay just around the bend. Charlotte coiled her muscles, ready to—
Julianna fisted a hand in her collar and jammed the pistol up against her skull. “A clever thought. I, too, would have chosen this place to try an escape. However, as you see, your mind is no match for mine.”
They marched through the greenery in silence, and several more turns brought them to the door leading into the villa. The latch clicked open and then fell shut behind them.
Inside, the opulent furnishings and expensive artwork spoke loudly of wealth and taste. The whisper of madness could only be heard in the sound of their footsteps crossing the thick Axminster carpets.
Anger clenched in Charlotte’s chest. Let her captor think she would go meekly, like a lamb being led to slaughter. Hubris could be a two-edged sword.
Julianna paused just long enough to pick up one of the oil lamps from a side table, then shoved her forward. “Keep moving.”
At the end of a long teak-paneled corridor, Charlotte was ordered to shift a sixteenth-century tapestry wall hanging. Behind it was a matching door, barely perceptible amid the decorative flutings.
At Julianna’s touch, it swung open noiselessly. A finger of lamplight showed a spiral staircase made of pale stone, winding down, down . . .
Drawing a deep breath, Charlotte plunged into the gloom.