Winterly (Dark Creatures Book 1), стр. 46
“An apothecary? How…” Milli glanced at her sister, as though the ink-smudged word she sought might be found on Emma’s face. “How industrious.” Her face lit suddenly with mischief. “I wonder if, perhaps, Miss De Grigori, you might recommend some antidotal elixir for somnambulists? My sister happens to—” She clenched her teeth as Emma pinched her to silence.
“I think,” said Emma, “my aunt and uncle will be wondering at our lateness, we were expected home at midnight.”
M. De Grigori exchanged a look with Tanith, his hair only slightly lighter than her platinum locks. Their eyes differed by only a slight gradation of russet shades. As compliments and adieus were exchanged, Emma considered the uncanny resemblance and was almost certain that Tanith and the brother must be twins.
Later, as the carriage rambled home, Milli seemed disinclined to discuss anything but the De Grigoris. “I knew Madame Strange must be a gypsy mystic or a pythoness of some sort. Did not I say so that first day?”
“Milli, brewing homemade remedies hardly makes her a pythoness.”
“Well, at least the brother seems quite normal.” Milli sank back against the seat. “So amiable and far handsomer than Mr. Valko.” Then, under her breath, she said, “Mr. Valko who was too beastly busy to attend the ball of the season.”
“You seemed to weather the disappointment rather well.”
“Never mind that, where did you disappear off to with Lord Winterly? It is rather unfair of you to have kept him all to yourself like that, for I wanted to dance with him too.”
“I didn’t monopolize the man, he disappeared soon after our dance.”
“Oh, yes,” said Milli, yawning, “Victoria did mention they would be leaving betimes—something about having to start out early for Winterthurse. Oh, I wish we could have gone earlier with them in the barouche.”
“Are you certain you even wish to go? How well do we really know the Winterlys?”
That certainly banished the sleep from Milli’s eyes. “Oh, Emma, why are you so determined to throw a rub in the way? Stay in London if you will, but do so alone and do not begrudge me my happiness.”
“I would do nothing of the sort!”
“Then stop being a windsucking old scold and let me hear no more of our not going. Come the Summer Solstice Ball, I will be waltzing in Winterthurse, with or without you.”
“Then I shall thank you to behave and stop making silly comments to strangers like you did tonight about my sleepwalking,” said Emma as the carriage reached its destination, “which, incidentally, I haven’t done in a while. If I ever did at all.” But Emma knew she had a better chance of lifting a fog with her breath than wasting it, as now, on words Milli would soon dismiss anyway. Best not to let her irritation get the better of her, she decided, alighting from the carriage.
She had no sooner reached the front door when Milli gave a shriek of delight behind her. When she glanced around it was to find her sister, still on the sidewalk, stroking a very large marmalade cat. The creature was even now using Milli’s skirts as a rubbing post, its throat rumbling with pleasure as it arched and stretched against her gloved hand.
“Isn’t she delightful?” said Milli.
“Mind you don’t catch fleas.”
Milli shot her sister a glare. “She doesn’t have fleas.”
“Nonsense, all vagrant little beasts have fleas. You had better get out of the street and come inside, or have the fleas distracted you from the mad butcher—he is still very much at large, you know.”
“If she’s homeless then she ought to come inside with me.” That said, Milli lifted the cat and joined Emma at the front door just as Reid was opening the door.
The poor man gaped in horror as Milli flounced past him with the cat in her arms, her cape billowing regally behind her. The whole scene was too ridiculous for Emma to keep a straight face, but she did her best to stifle her laughter as Reid closed the door.
Though, upon reflection, the adoption of the cat soon lost some of its comicality, for Milli would inevitably lose interest in the cat, the responsibility of which would then be transferred to Emma. Sometimes Emma really believed her sister would be the death of her.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Devil's Bane
My Dear Mary,—What shall I say about Lord Winterly but that he is the most compelling, maddening creature I have ever met. And were it not an insult to your monastic mores, I should be quite convinced of his being a wicked monk! With all respect and love,
Emma.
Postscript:—Milli has been adopted by a peevish ginger cat.
The morning rays streaming through the window promised a day free of fog and rain. Well, sunlight was certainly long overdue. Despite the beautiful morning, Emma rolled over and buried her head beneath her pillows, loath to get up. She had been turning Ana’s warning over in her mind since the ball, nearly a sennight ago, which was challenging enough for the mind without Winterly’s kiss besieging it at every turn.
Oh, how that kiss bedeviled and consumed her sleepless thoughts in the darkest hours, every moment since he’d imparted it. And tomorrow they would depart for Winterthurse; tomorrow she would be a day closer to seeing him again.
A sudden weight on the bed startled Emma and she emerged from under her pillows to see the cat perched at the foot of her bed.
“Come to demand a saucer of cat-lap, have you?”
It gave no answer, only stared with unblinking yellow eyes, the pupils no more than reptilian black slits in the sunbeams. To their uncle’s great disgust, the creature seemed quite fixed to Milli’s side no matter how often he’d had it evicted. Boudicca found her way back night after night, and at length their uncle had surrendered to Milli’s pleading and the cat was then suffered to remain.
Emma threw her