The Pyramid Waltz (33 page)

“It did as it was supposed to.”

Katya applauded, and Starbride’s confused expression melted into one of joy. “I did it!”

“I knew you would,” Katya said.

“Your happiness is well deserved, no doubt, but we have a long road ahead of us, one which we’ll have to explore later.” As Crowe came around the other side of the table, Starbride embraced him and whispered something. He grinned and gave Katya a glimpse of a much younger man. “You’re quite welcome, child.”

Katya frowned. No one hugged Crowe. Most were afraid of him. But if Starbride could win him over, she could win anyone. “Well, you two can work out your own schedule, then. We’ll leave you to your preparations, Crowe. No word yet from Layra?”

“I don’t expect it for another few days.”

“And nothing new on our guests?”

He shook his head. “They’re better guarded than the crown jewels, though.”

Good and bad news always came at the same time, it seemed. Crowe waved them farewell, and Katya led the way back toward her apartment. “I’ve got to speak with my parents and tell them you’re coming to the welcome dinner. My mother requires knowledge of her guests’ likes and dislikes so she can make appropriate conversation.”

“Oh
dear
,” Starbride said. “Well, that’ll make things easier. I won’t speak unless she does, and we’ll be guaranteed not to stray into unknown territory.”

“Wise.” They walked in silence for a moment. “What did you whisper to Crowe?”

“Aha! Good to know I’m not the only one with the curiosity bug. I just said thank you.”

“He grinned like a schoolboy.”

“Maybe no one ever thanks him.”

“I thank him all the time.”

Starbride said no more about it, and Katya didn’t press. Whatever endeared her to Crowe was a step in the right direction, just as long as Crowe didn’t share Pennynail’s identity with her. Well, not unless she then shared it with Katya.

When they entered her apartment again, they faced one another. “You don’t mind going back to your room without me, do you?” Katya asked. “It’s a skip to my parents from here.”

“I’ll forgive it this time, on account of the injured shoulder.”

“Oh, thank you ever so much, Miss Meringue. What would I do without your consideration?”

Starbride’s smile made the day seem bright again until Katya’s throbbing shoulder reminded her that fortune was a two-sided coin.

Handwritten on creamy white paper with a matching envelope, the invitation awaiting Starbride in her room was simple in its elegance. “My, my.” She turned the card over and over. “It’s from Lady Hilda.”

“No perfume, no crests, no monogram. Just a little note,” Dawnmother said.

Starbride read it aloud. “‘I’d be honored if you’d have dinner with me. Lady Hilda Montenegro.’”

“She left off the crest because she doesn’t want to be traced. She’s planning to kill you.”

“If she wanted to kill me, she wouldn’t have signed it.”

“Humph. She’ll claim she
didn’t
sign it. When she bashes your skull in near her rooms, she’ll point to this note and say, ‘If I’d sent it, it would’ve been on my private stationary,’ and she’ll deny all knowledge. Mark my words.”

“They’ll find my body in a ditch?”

“They won’t find it at all.”

A chill traveled down Starbride’s spine. “You’re coming with me, right?”

“You’re accepting?”

“I
have
to see what she wants, Dawn.”

“If you must. Well, she’ll have to bash both our skulls in.”

“Yours is far too hard.”

“True. I’ll throw my head in the path of the stick.”

Starbride put her nose in the air. “
Lady Hilda
would never use something so common as a stick.”

“I’ll throw my head in the path of the bejeweled scepter.”

“Speaking of jewels, I wonder if it would be gauche to bring a guest.”

“Countess Nadia Van Hale?”

“I’ll write her a note. I believe she’d be amused by my situation.”

“Lady Hilda is sure to behave herself in that august company. Ask her to show up late. It’ll be a nasty little surprise. While you write the countess, I’ll write Averie and tell her where we’ll be.”

“Why?”

“Just in case.”

With a chuckle, Starbride set to work.

Lady Hilda had two rooms to herself, a small sitting room and probably a bedroom, but the door stood shut. Her two maids set out a small dinner before withdrawing. Dawnmother sat on her little stool in one corner with a stubborn air and pulled an embroidery hoop from her basket. Lady Hilda raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at her presence. Starbride shrugged. She couldn’t have moved Dawnmother with a team of horses.

“Allusian custom,” Starbride said.

“Of course.” Lady Hilda offered a smile that was false to the hilt. “Will you try the walnut salad?”

“It looks lovely.” Starbride held up the cloth-wrapped bundle she’d brought. “Do have one of these rolls my maid baked in the kitchen.”

Lady Hilda stared before taking one. Starbride spooned a bit of walnut salad onto her plate. As one, they took a bite. “I’m so glad you could make it with your busy social calendar,” Lady Hilda said.

Starbride ate slowly and didn’t put anything on her plate unless Lady Hilda had it also. She knew the rolls weren’t poisoned, but she couldn’t be sure about the rest. “I was honored by your invitation and happy to fit you in.”

Lady Hilda offered a polite smile, but Starbride could tell she wasn’t used to being
fit in
. “The princess must keep you busy.”

Ah, there it was. Her bluntness was rather refreshing after the hordes of courtiers waiting for news of Katya. “Indeed. We’ve much in common.”

“Let’s cut to it, shall we? Your maid’s presence won’t keep me from speaking my mind.”

“Allusian maids respect privacy.”

“Custom?”

“Yes.”

“I want what you have.”

Starbride wondered just how nasty she could be, how much scorn she could get away with. “What do you expect me to do about it?”

“Leave.” Lady Hilda took a folded bit of paper from the flounces of her dress—a concealed pocket—and pushed it across the table.

Starbride envied the pocket for a moment, picked up the paper, and glanced at it, an offer for two hundred thousand gold crowns. Not a king’s ransom. Not quite a princess’s either, but a fortune nonetheless.

“You have this much?”

Lady Hilda’s look said, “Backwoods peasant.” Starbride had no idea that any of the titled people had that much ready cash, but it wasn’t impossible. “You want proof?”

Starbride shrugged.

“Not enough?”

“She’s not a commodity. And neither am I.”

“She’ll tire of you. She has favorites, but she always leaves them with nothing in the end. You’ll have the money.”

“What makes you think she’ll let me go?”

Lady Hilda toyed with the neckline of her dress. “I’ll distract her.”

“You couldn’t manage it before I showed up.”

Lady Hilda’s face turned to stone, her eyes hardening to jade, a real expression at last. “I won’t discuss my relationship with the princess with the likes of you.”

“I was just about to say the same thing. Keep your money.”

“And how many Allusian troubles can this buy away? Your people can hire proper lawyers; you can break the Farradain monopoly in Newhope and get some of your own people in charge.”

Starbride marveled at Lady Hilda’s spy network, a system that was good, but wasn’t good enough. “I’ve already taken care of that.”

Lady Hilda blinked, and Starbride could almost see the wheels spinning in her mind. “How?”

Starbride shrugged again.

“If you don’t take this offer, you’re a fool.”

“If we’re down to name-calling, it’s time to go.”

“We’re not finished talking.”

Dawnmother’s stool scraped against the stone as she rose. Lady Hilda sneered and dropped a fork on the floor. As it clattered against the stone, her bedroom door and the door to the hallway opened, and her two maids stepped inside. Starbride kept her face composed as she heard her mother’s appalled voice in her mind. Lady Hilda couldn’t be preparing to attack, to
brawl
with her. Surely not!

But Lady Hilda was always trying to impress Katya, and Katya was good with weapons. What if Lady Hilda thought the best way to impress was to share in her would-be lover’s interests? What if she demanded the same of her staff?

The whole room crawled with tension for half a second before someone asked, “Am I late to the party?” Exhaling, Starbride turned to where Countess Nadia stood in the doorway.

“Countess Nadia,” Lady Hilda said. “I’m…It’s a pleasure to see you. What, uh, what brings you by?” Her two maids faded to the back of the room.

Countess Nadia gave everyone a curious look and then cast a pointed glance at the dinner table. “I was curious as to what you were up to. I don’t suppose there’s room for one more? I do miss your conversation, Lady Hilda.”

Lady Hilda bowed, her courtly composure returned. “Please, join us.” They sat around the table again, and Dawnmother resumed her little stool. The other maids withdrew after a curt gesture from their mistress.

Lady Hilda didn’t seem nervous over Countess Nadia eating the food, convincing Starbride that it wasn’t poisoned. Poisoning was probably for peasants. That left direct attack, though Starbride couldn’t be sure of what they had intended to do. For all she knew, they were going to make fun of her until she acquiesced. With her wedding cake of a dress, they would’ve had plenty of ammunition.

Dinner went on for another half hour, filled with empty pleasantries, idle gossip, and the occasional jibe from Countess Nadia to Lady Hilda about this or that. All Lady Hilda could do was laugh in her brittle-glass way. When Countess Nadia seemed tired of it, she took Starbride’s arm. “Walk me to my room, child.”

Starbride held in a smirk. Lady Hilda couldn’t argue; she could only bow and remark on how pleasant it all had been. Starbride kept her chuckle inside until they were a good deal down the hallway.

Countess Nadia tsked. “You play with a viper, child.”

“You made her toothless.”

“I won’t help you in these games. It amused me this once, but I will not be available at your every call.”

“No, of course not. Please, excuse me, Countess. I involved you because I thought it would entertain you.”

“That’s the end of that, then. Now, what was going on as I came in? You looked like tavern brawlers.”

“You’ve seen a tavern brawl?”

“I’ve seen things that would turn your hair white.” The truth shone in those pale eyes.

“I don’t doubt that. She was warning me away from the princess. She tried to bribe me.”

“I see. A considerable sum?”

“Considerable.”

“And your answer was undoubtedly no. Hmm, I wonder if she was going to kill you or beat you into submission.”

“I had a plan in case the evening turned violent. Lady Hilda’s letter and a letter stating my whereabouts are with the princess’s lady-in-waiting.”

“Smart.”

“Thank you, Countess Nadia.”

“And you indicated a time at which you would report to the princess or the lady-in-waiting, and if you did not make this report, they would know that something had happened to you?”

“Yes, Countess.”

“And you would still be dead or injured?”

“Well, yes, but—”

Countess Nadia didn’t let her finish. “And so these precautions helped you how?”

“Um, I was just about to inform Lady Hilda of them.”

“As she was beating you to death?”

“It would have stopped her,” Starbride said, but she realized how lame it sounded.

“Ah, I see. You put yourself in danger and then inform your attacker that your whereabouts are known to a particular lady-in-waiting, therefore giving your attacker her next target.”

“She…she couldn’t have gotten into the royal apartments!”

Countess Nadia snorted. “Do not underestimate a determined member of the nobility, my dear, especially that one. You walked into a bear’s den with a paper spear, as my grandmother used to say.”

“What would you have done?”

She tilted her head. “Declined her invitation but made one of my own. Invented some excuse to maneuver her to a time and place of
my
choosing. I would have informed the princess
and
had her present. Not in the room, of course, since you wanted to know Lady Hilda’s intentions, but close by, eavesdropping. I would’ve had at least one other person nearby, besides your maid, someone familiar with weapons.”

“But surely Lady Hilda wouldn’t…” She trailed away. Now that she thought about it, she had no real idea what Lady Hilda would or wouldn’t do.