The Invisible Library (The Invisible Library #1)(44)

Kai edged a little closer. ‘Have you found out anything yet?’ he muttered.

Irene considered the facts she’d picked up so far. ‘I think Silver’s waiting for something. Or someone. He seemed on edge. But he’s being distracted by the glitterati.’ She could see him at the other side of the ballroom, talking to a voluptuous pair of women in black who hung on each other’s shoulders, clearly already half-drunk. ‘I’ve been talking to a couple of other people. Apparently it’s odd that Silver hasn’t invited any other vampires tonight. I’m wondering if Wyndham’s attack might have been anti-vampire rather than anti-Fae, and I’d like to ask Vale a few more questions about his family and if they have any links to vampires. Oh, and Vale thinks there’s going to be an attack on the Liechtenstein Embassy by an anti-Fae society called the Iron Brotherhood, and – oh, Kai, please not the sour cream.’

‘You need it for a proper contrast with the blinis,’ Kai said firmly.

‘Have you found out anything?’ Irene asked.

‘Nothing definite,’ Kai said slowly. ‘And – well, I haven’t actually been trying to talk to any of the other Fae here. I don’t think they’d tell us anything useful.’

‘Uh-huh,’ Irene agreed neutrally. ‘But have you found out anything from anyone else?’

‘That lady in the corner.’ Kai flicked a glance to their left. The woman in question was elderly, rouged, half buried under a vast white wig, and dressed in a construction of black and white striped satin that was viciously corseted and heavily underwired. ‘She’s very well informed. And she actually is part of the literary world, not just a poseur like Wyndham was.’

‘What’s her name?’ Irene asked.

‘Miss Olga Retrograde,’ Kai said. ‘The elder Miss Olga Retrograde. She said so several times.’

Irene wondered what the younger Miss Retrograde looked like, as she moved towards her. ‘You’d better introduce us. What is she?’

‘A retired lady of pleasure,’ Kai said, rather flatly.

‘Well, at least she won’t assume I’m looking for a job,’ Irene said cheerfully. ‘Oh, Kai, don’t look at me like that – ’

The crowd drifted apart, and Irene could finally see who had just entered the room.

It was Bradamant.

She was as perfect as a black and white photograph, her slender neck rising out of the deep grey silk folds of her bodice like a swan, the train of her dress undulating in smooth liquid elegance.

Kai frowned as Irene broke off mid-sentence, then followed her gaze. ‘What?’ he hissed. ‘Her? Here? How?’

‘Four very good questions,’ Irene said through gritted teeth. ‘My god, she’s wearing a Worth gown. That has to be a Worth gown.’

Kai turned to stare at Irene. ‘What’s the gown got to do with it?’ he asked. ‘Is it particularly effective in concealing weapons or something?’

‘No,’ Irene spat. ‘It’s just one of the best dresses from one of the best dressmakers of the period, or whatever the equivalent is in this alternate. Dear heavens, not only does she come in here to try to steal my mission from under me, she has the nerve to do it while wearing something which screams here-I-am-everyone-look-at-me. I mean, do I go round collecting outfits from alternates just so I can be the best-dressed person at a party?’

‘Irene,’ Kai said, ‘you’re holding my arm a bit tightly.’

Irene had to stop herself grinding her teeth. ‘A Librarian is supposed to be about subtlety,’ she muttered. ‘Getting the job done. Not being noticed—oh, sorry.’ She removed her hand from Kai’s forearm and watched Kai affrontedly smooth out the wrinkles on his jacket sleeve. ‘Um.’ She could feel herself flushing. ‘I apologize.’ What she wanted to do was scream How dare she! until the chandeliers tinkled. But she couldn’t.

‘Perhaps she has important information and wanted to talk to you,’ Kai said.

‘But how would she know we were here? Or – wait.’ Irene frowned. ‘Dominic Aubrey could have told her – did she enter this alternate before he died?’

‘Or did she have something to do with it?’ Kai said slowly, completing Irene’s own thought.

Irene was silent for a long moment, turning possibilities over in her head. ‘Unthinkable,’ she finally said. ‘I won’t believe that of her.’

At that moment the crowd shifted again, and Bradamant turned her head. She looked across the ballroom, and for a moment their eyes met. And in that moment, Irene saw something in Bradamant’s face which she hadn’t expected to see. Shock.

‘She didn’t expect us to be here,’ she murmured.

Bradamant recovered almost instantaneously, and turned away with a contemptuous little twitch of her shoulder to bestow her attention on the man next to her, a skinny white-haired man in his eighties with his chest so encrusted with military medals and orders that it was a wonder he didn’t fall over.

‘Why don’t you introduce me to Miss Olga Retrograde,’ Irene said to Kai, composing her face into what should with any luck be a pleasant smile. She’d work out what was going on. And this time she wasn’t going to be Bradamant’s stalking horse, decoy or tool.

Not this time. Not again.