The Kindred of Darkness by Barbara Hambly Read Free Book Online

table at Ned Seabury, who had clearly been invited to ‘make up the numbers’ disarrayed by the unexpected inclusion of Julia Thwaite’s hired companion Mrs Bellwether. Lydia could almost feel the meeting of their eyes.
    Carriages for the Opera had been ordered for eight, and Sir Alfred Binney made sure everyone knew he’d been to the opera in both Milan and Paris.
    At the first opportunity, Lydia retreated to the little cloakroom adjacent to the ladies’ toilet, intending to lie down there – she knew the room was furnished with a daybed – and be ‘discovered’ in a debilitated condition by the next person into the room, hopefully not Valentina. But she found Cece Armistead there already, stuffing tissue-paper into the toe of one of her too-long slippers.
    â€˜You must excuse Daddy.’ The girl looked up as Lydia entered. ‘He’s such a diamond in the rough. But he has such
feeling
for paintings, and for manuscripts …’
    Lydia had formed the impression that the American’s ‘feeling’ for paintings, incunabula, and medieval manuscripts was largely that of his accountant, but she said, ‘Indeed.’ Though she had a hint of her father’s sturdiness, Miss Armistead was a pretty girl, with her Peruvian mother’s dark coloring and a voice – despite a tendency to drop back into her American accent – both pleasant and sweet. She was glaringly overdressed for her years – nineteen, her father had said – and her debutante status: in addition to a gown of claret-colored silk cut deep in the bosom, she wore sparkling girandole earrings, diamond bracelets on both wrists over her gloves, a diamond tiara (Lydia had already seen her stepmother and Aunt Lavinnia eyeing this with scorn), three strands of very large pearls that hung almost to her waist, and a ‘dog-collar’ necklace of diamonds and pearls that put Valentina Willoughby’s to shame.
    A single strand of pearls – Lydia could almost hear Aunt Lavinnia say it to Lady Savenake – was the only thing appropriate for a girl in her first season …
    â€˜I’m so grateful to Sir Alfred and Lady Mary for sponsoring me this way,’ added Cece, a little shyly. ‘He and Lady Mary met us in Paris before coming on here. Lady Mary – dang it!’ she added, as her necklaces caught on the profusion of her curls. ‘Ow!’ The attempt to pull her hair clear sent the dog-collar slithering to the floor.
    â€˜Oh, I hate the catch on that thing! One of these days I’m going to lose it and then Daddy will be furious …’
    Well he might be
, Lydia reflected as she gathered up the glittering weight in her hands. The thing was easily nine hundred guineas. ‘I’ll get it.’ She moved to put it around the girl’s throat.
    And as she did so, even without her spectacles, she saw on the right side of Cece’s throat, just above the jugular vein, the small, fresh scab of two puncture wounds, as if the flesh had been bitten by an animal.
    For a blank second Lydia wondered if this were her imagination.
    But Emily, coming in at that moment saying, ‘Cece, have you got a cigarette? After listening to Ned Seabury for two solid hours I deserve—’ then stopped in her tracks and said, ‘Cece, what
did
you do to your neck?’
    And Cecelia put her hand over the wound and said, ‘Just a stupid accident with a pin.’
    And she smiled a smile of dreamy ecstasy.

FIVE
    I s it Grippen?
    Light rain, blowing in late, clattered on the window. Across the street, the chime on All Hallows church struck one.
    Or one of his fledglings?
    What can I do?
    Lydia stared unseeing at the neat pages of handwritten notes before her.
Jan. 12
, Empress Josephine
from Bordeaux, Matthias Barrière and Family, of Bordeaux – 2 trunks 2×2×5½ 275 lb. Same craft, Ottakar Dusik of Prague, trunk 2×17 – ×4 200 lb. Jan.