Velvet Shadows by Andre Norton Read Free Book Online

could so approach me. Perhaps I had been too carried away by his easy manner so that my own had verged on forwardness. I must watch my tongue and be on terms of strictly polite correctness when dealing with Mrs. Deaves’ Alain. And that knowledge gave me a sense of loss and even a twinge of pain. It was as if I had been awakened out of a long time of boredom, given a glimpse of brightness, and been sternly forbidden to seek that out again.
    It was with little pleasure that I answered the dinner gong. Mrs. Deaves dominated the conversation at the table, her purpose perfectly transparent to me. She sprinkled her sentences with names, taking as her subject the social round in San Francisco, the “season” to come, and the role Victorine would be expected to play. She was freezing me out of that charmed inner circle by all her implications. And if Mrs. Deaves achieved the goal Victorine had suggested, that of the mistress of the Sauvagehousehold, I believed my term of employment would be far shorter than that which had been agreed upon.
    When Mrs. Deaves at last suggested that we return to the salon Victorine yawned, saying that she was finding train travel very conducive to slumber and that she was about to retire. I said I had a letter to write and escaped so easily that I knew it was to the relief of Mrs. Deaves.
    But I had no more than gotten into my wrapper and was giving my hair its nightly brushing when Victorine slipped into my room without any warning knock.
    “What did that old henwife say to you earlier, Tamaris? She was hot with rage when she went past my stateroom. Was that because my brother had talked with you for a while?” She curled up on my divan without invitation.
    “Bah—you are going to be discreet.” Victorine made the last word sound as if it were a sin of sorts. “I see by your look you will not answer me. But I am not stupid, I can guess that is the truth. That one thinks to become Madame Sauvage—already in her ears she is called so. She is so afraid of not gaining her desire that she sees in every female a threat to her plan. Well, listen to me, Tamaris, she shall never get what she wishes!
    “First—because she is really a fool, and, though I have only known my brother a short time, this much I have learned of him—he is not one to suffer a fool gladly. Also, she tries too hard. Sooner or later she will make plain what she wishes and that will give my brother a disgust of her. She is no fit mate for him!”
    There was no hint of amusement in Victorine’s eyes, rather they were brilliant with the same emotion which deepened her voice, low though that already was. It was plain that the girl did possess some feeling for her brother. And Mrs. Deaves might well be defeated before she realized she had this particular adversary.
    Now Victorine laughed. “Do I frighten you a little, Tamaris, when I speak so? Do you think that I plan some dark way to rid my dear brother of Augusta? That I am, perhaps, even a witch?” She made a grotesque face.
    “Good! Then I think I shall be a witch, and I shall layupon Augusta a curse, a strong curse. Shall I give her a spotted skin so all will turn from her in disgust—or—? Do I not frighten you now, Tamaris—just a little?”
    I laughed. “Of course. Do you not see I am shuddering in horror at your evil plans?”
    She gave me an odd, searching look with no answering amusement in it.
    “Do not laugh at what you do not understand, Tamaris. There are things—” She broke off abruptly. “But those are of another time—another place—not of this safe little world. Finish your letter, chère Tamaris, then sleep well.”
    As silently and swiftly as she had come she was gone. My amusement of a moment before had ebbed. I glanced about me sharply, seeking to know what had for a second or two so disturbed me. But that feeling had been only a flash, and if a warning, I was not wise enough to heed it.
    During the course of the next morning Mr. Sauvage