David Liss - The Twelfth Enchantment - A Novel

Just as the pages Mary had shown her had in them instructions upon the subject of sacrifice, so too these wanted to tell her something. It was something just out of her grasp, like a word she had forgotten that would come to her at any moment, but she had not time to puzzle over it now. She would not stay in Lady Harriett’s house a moment longer than necessary.

Without waiting any longer, Lucy took her penknife and cut the pages from the book. She folded them and placed them within the hidden pouch in her gown, and then set the damaged book back in its pile. Now she had to decide if she should trust Byron or pretend to continue looking and convince him she must walk away disappointed.

She moved some more books about and then turned to Byron to see how he occupied himself, but as she did she saw two people standing behind him. One was an odd-looking man of middle years, wearing an out-of-fashion and rumpled tan suit. He had unruly hair that stuck up at strange angles, and unnaturally large eyes that appeared wild and gave the impression of being propped open against his will. His hands shook, and he bit his dry and peeling lips. He frightened Lucy, but not nearly so much as Lady Harriett Dyer, who stood near him, wearing her usual widow’s black. Her gray hair flowed about her shoulders. She stood with her arms folded across her bosom, and she gazed upon the scene with evident disgust.

“Can you really suppose that I would not have wards in my house to protect against something so trivial as a hand of glory?” said Lady Harriett. “Did you not know it is possible to keep another’s charms from working within your own walls? Miss Derrick, you clearly have no idea with whom you are dealing. And you, Byron”—she moved across the room, her stride swift and purposeful, and stood before the baron—“have you no wish to live that you would defy me like this? I was under the impression we understood each other.”

“Lady Harriett, this is a silly misunderstanding.” Lord Byron showed her his best smile.

He managed to proceed no further, however. Lady Harriett struck him across the face with the back of her hand. The blow was impossibly swift, and equally strong, for Byron was lifted off his feet and traveled his body length through the air, landing upon the hard floor with an alarmingly solid noise.

Lucy rushed over to Byron, but her eyes were on Lady Harriett, who was evidently far more than what she appeared.

26

B YRON HAD BEEN MOTIONLESS FOR A MOMENT, BUT THEN GROANED and with Lucy’s help managed to bring himself to the sofa, where he sat looking gloomy while his fingers repeatedly tested the tender skin of his face.

“Your beauty is bruised, not broken,” said Lady Harriett. “Reckon yourself lucky I did not snap your neck.”

Byron said nothing, only leaned against Lucy as if for support, though she could not imagine what sort of support a sitting man required. What was Lady Harriett that she had such strength? And what could Lucy do about it? She began to think of all the spells she knew, all the talismans she had memorized, all the tools she had hidden upon herself. There was one to induce weakness and vulnerability, but she had not brought it. She would certainly have one ready if she were ever to face Lady Harriett again. There was the failed summoning circle, which would kill the most arrogant person in the room, but Lucy could not be sure that person was Lady Harriett and not Byron himself. And then there was the matter of Lady Harriett’s wards. Lucy had read of wards, but knew little of them, and had never had the time or inclination to make inquiries into that branch of knowledge. Would anything she knew work here?

Lady Harriett paced the room, and the odd man remained still, standing near the fireplace, watching them, twitching and scraping dry skin off his lips with his teeth. Lucy told herself that she could find a way out of this disaster. Lady Harriett clearly possessed powers terrible and dangerous, but Lucy had three pages of the Mutus Liber hidden away, and she would escape with them. Emily depended upon it.

“I have yet to decide what to do with you,” said Lady Harriett. She turned to the man. “They come into my home, the home of my late husband, and violate it with their presence. Do you see, Mr. Bellingham? Do you not see what sort of enemies there are here? They have come to do you harm. They have come to keep you from receiving your money. ”

“I want what’s mine!” This Mr. Bellingham shouted at them. It was like an eruption. He was quiet and twitching, then his mouth opened, his eyes expanded, and he shouted with incredible vehemence. Then back he shrank to his previous meekness.

“Of course you do,” said Lady Harriett. “And you shall have it if you do as I say. Now, get some sleep, Mr. Bellingham. I shall manage your enemies.”

“You are very good, Lady Harriett. Yes, quite good.” He shambled out of the room, bouncing upon the doorframe as he departed.

Lucy watched him depart, not knowing what to make of him, but understanding intuitively that Lady Harriett played upon his madness in order to get something from him. Lucy had always thought her vile and self-serving, but she had not imagined her capable of this sort of manipulation. She dared not wonder why Lady Harriett toyed with this Mr. Bellingham. There were bigger matters that concerned her—primarily, escaping with the pages in her possession.

No sooner was he gone than others began to drift into the room. They were undeniably corporeal beings, but they moved with the distracted, otherworldly indifference of ghosts. There were three men and two women, all of different ages, all well dressed, though every one of them had some sign of indifference in attire—a ribbon not tied properly, a loose cravat, buttons hanging by threads. They entered the room and stood looking at books or out the window. One picked up a marble bookend and held it up to the wall sconce to better examine the veins.

Lucy looked at Byron, who shrugged and put an exploratory finger to test the severity of the bruise upon his cheek.

“Lady Harriett,” Lucy began, but managed nothing further. The moment she spoke all five of Lady Harriett’s guests turned to her with a suddenness that verged on terrifying. The marble bookend fell to the rug below as the man who had been holding it took three sudden steps toward Lucy, stopping only a foot away. He bent forward, putting his face near hers, staring with great intensity.

Lucy could not help but notice that he had a rather nice face—beautiful even, if pale and slightly gaunt—but his eyes were wide, unusually colorless, and unfocused. His hair was thick and the gray of an overcast sky.

“She ought not to be here,” he said in a dreamy voice. He stood up straight again, and began to examine his thumbnail.

“I know that, Mr. Whitestone,” snapped Lady Harriett. “I shall deal with her.”

An old woman of perhaps forty, who had previously been staring out the window, leaned forward. “We are counting on you to do precisely that.”

“Yes,” answered Lady Harriett. “And now you must let me proceed as I see fit.”

“She intends to gather the leaves,” said the first man.

“I know that,” snapped Lady Harriett. “This girl will accomplish nothing.”

The other woman, a bit older than the first, remained at the window. “If we kill her, we need not think of her anymore. Is that not so?”

Lucy’s pulse thrummed in her neck. If Lady Harriett wished to kill her, Lucy did not believe she knew of anything that would prevent her.

“If that were true, then I would have killed her before now,” said Lady Harriett, her voice so cold that Lucy had no doubt that this assertion was true. “She has protected herself, so if we kill her, we shall be worse off than we are with her alive.”