A Lily Among Thorns(77)

The marquis relaxed. “No, no, don’t get up on my account. My request is this. Sirène, I am becoming extremely ennuyé merely lounging about waiting for you to make up your mind. I would like to make myself useful. Perhaps I might help you with the catering again.”

Solomon tried to look uninterested.

Serena frowned. “You aren’t part of this business anymore, René. I daresay you can wait another week to return to the delights of catering.”

“Really, sirène, I would consider it a personal favor.”

She stared at him. “Your gall is beyond anything, do you know that?” The marquis opened his mouth to respond, but she sighed and waved a hand wearily. “I suppose if you wish to work for free, I will hardly stop you. I just got a new order from Lady Brendan. I’ll give you the details first thing tomorrow morning.”

The marquis smiled in relief. “Thank you, sirène. I will be here to receive them.”

When he was gone, the three conspirators looked at one another in silence.

“Like a lamb to the slaughter,” Solomon said at last, and the other two flinched.

“Lady Serena and Uncle Hathaway,” Elijah said over supper that evening. “I would have liked to see that. Who won?”

“It was a draw,” Solomon said. “But he almost made her cry. He as good as said she was amusing herself among the lower orders and that I’d probably off myself when she jilted me.”

“Cry? Lady Serena?”

“Well, it wasn’t her best day.”

“And—off yourself?” Elijah shook his head. “He didn’t really say that, did he? It’s insulting. You’re not a damsel in a ballad.”

Oh, hell, Solomon thought. He shrugged. “Who knows where the old man gets his ideas?” But he’d never been able to lie to Elijah.

There was a long silence. “Oh God,” Elijah said in a changed voice. “You—you didn’t—”

“No,” Solomon said firmly. “I didn’t. I don’t think I would have. I thought about it desultorily, is all. Don’t—don’t mention it to anyone, all right? I’m not actually sure Uncle Hathaway knew—I may have extrapolated a trifle.”

“I should never have taken this damn job,” Elijah said bitterly. “They told me it was my patriotic duty, and I was so bloody proud of my French, and—”

To Solomon’s complete astonishment, he began to cry—not all-out sobbing, but a sort of sniffling trickle that was somehow worse. “Oh God, Sol,” he said again, messily. “I’m sorry, this is embarrassing, but—if you had—because of me—”

Solomon gave him a handkerchief and a crooked smile. “Now you begin to faintly imagine how I felt, sapskull.”

Elijah blew his nose loudly. “And now—with René—I feel like such a Judas—”

Solomon sighed. “Serena does, too. Sometimes when she thinks no one’s looking I catch her watching him with this unreadable expression—”

Elijah half-laughed, half-snorted. “Does she have any other kind?”





Chapter 18


They arrived two hours before the masquerade to take over the Pursleigh kitchens. There was to be a buffet table in the ballroom and a very light, very elegant supper served at half-past midnight. That was Lord Pursleigh’s plan, at any rate. Presumably, news of his arrest would persuade Lady Pursleigh to call off the proceedings. Solomon felt sorry for the diminutive blonde. She had gone on with her party in defiance of the rumors flying about London that Wellington was defeated and that the French army was already looting Brussels. An expectant pall hung over the entire city, but Jenny Pursleigh had filled her townhouse with a blaze of light and celebration.

The viscountess was young—he had gathered at the Elbourn ball that she had been at school with Serena—and very flirtatious and very charming in her costume: winged Victory. A laurel wreath nestled in her curls and tiny wings of gold foil sprouted from her shoulders. Her yellow gown had barely any sleeves and fastened at the shoulders with vaguely Roman clasps. Gold sandals peeped from beneath the hem.

He wondered what Lord Pursleigh thought of his wife’s patriotism. To drive the message home, she had amassed a small pile of papier-mâché broken Napoleonic eagles and a ripped and stained tricolor to stand in front of to receive her guests. It was all rather ridiculous and bound to be embarrassing when her husband was arrested for treason.