But Lizzie did not answer. Her near-panicked gaze had fallen on an ironwork in the wall that seemed to be connected to a frame on the ceiling. “Tigg, hold the lantern up. Look, just there, and tell me what your engineer’s eyes see.”
It did not take long for him to reach a conclusion. “It appears that those levers control the walls of the cages. They can be made larger or smaller by dropping in a grate or removing it altogether.”
“If you were a dolphin, say, and you remembered how you were brought in here, would you be able to find your way out again?”
He left off his perusal of the mechanism to gaze into her eyes. “Are you planning to use a dolphin as your guide?”
“I’m planning to let them all go,” she said with grim resolve. “There is no way out of here, and the minister will just come down when it’s convenient and feed us to the snake—or that thing with the tentacles. Or lock us up in prison. We can’t swim past all these cages, so we’ll just winch them up and free everyone, leave the dolphins for last, and swim out with them.”
“He saw both of us, Liz. He’ll know we did it.”
“He’ll see neither of us again, then. It will prevent our going on the jaunt to the prison, and don’t think I’m not happy about that.”
“You’d rather face a grotto full of tentacles than a tour of the prison?” Tigg’s voice held teasing, but his gaze was absolutely serious.
“I would.” Lizzie nodded firmly. “You pulled me out of the Thames when I was five. I’m quite confident that you’ll do the same now if I need it. Can you see any other course of action we might take?”
Silently, his gaze moving from pulleys to levers to the increasingly agitated splashing in the cages, Tigg shook his head. “No time like the present, I suppose. Hold the lamp.”
With one final moment of study that seemed to set the working of it in his mind, he hauled on a lever. In the far reaches of the grotto, metal screeched and rattled, and the splashing of many—what? Flippers? Legs? Fins?—was the result.
Tigg pulled on the next, and the snake flowed under the grate and out the other side, thrashing and sliding in the light. One more lever, and the two tentacled creatures released their grip on the grate just before it cleared the water. Time seemed to stop as the larger creature’s baleful gaze met those of Lizzie and Tigg—it took them in—seemed to understand. Its many tentacles released the grate and it fell into the water with a loose, messy splash. The water mounded up over its body with the speed of its departure, following the snake, until it was lost to sight in the darkness.
By now the dolphins were making curious conversational noises, swimming in tight circles, bumping the grates impatiently with fluke and nose.
“Hang on just a minute,” Lizzie told them. The words were barely out of her mouth when the boom of the door above startled her nearly off the edge of the landing. “Tigg, someone’s coming!” she hissed in alarm.
Tigg rammed the final lever forward, and the last of the grates lifted, dripping with seawater, weed, and the remnants of whatever the minister had tossed in for food. The dolphins surged in the direction the other creatures had gone.
The pounding sound of boots on stone echoed in the stairwell.
“Now, Liz!” Tigg grabbed her around the waist and together they leaped off the landing. Lizzie had just enough time to gasp in a big breath before they plunged into the cold, dark unknown.
*
“I cannot think what has become of Tigg and Lizzie.” Claire gazed anxiously around the crowded ballroom. The whirling color and movement, to say nothing of too-brilliant lights and the crush of bodies, were beginning to give her a headache.
“They were following Meriwether-Astor,” Andrew murmured, “but he returned some time ago and is standing there, by the punch.”
“And what of the Minister of Justice?”
“No sign of him. And since we have had no real success with our other efforts, I am hoping Lizzie will have had better luck.”
This was not like Lizzie—or Tigg, for that matter. The point of scouting was to come back and report what one had seen, not to vanish with one’s young man and find a private corner in which to spoon.
“Do you want me to look for her, Lady?” Maggie asked.
“No, darling. It is not safe for you to scout alone. Wouldn’t you rather dance?”
“I danced with Claude and Mr. Malvern.”
“But there are several other young gentlemen among Claude’s friends, are there not?” Arabella de Courcy, dressed as a medieval maiden in the style of Waterhouse, floated past in the arms of Adolphus von Stade, who had borrowed an aeronaut’s uniform. How original.
“Perhaps, but I don’t much fancy them.”
Claire sighed. “I cannot blame you. I don’t much fancy them, either. I wonder if everyone at the Sorbonne is so odious?” She rose on tiptoe and scanned the ballroom once again. “Andrew, do you think perhaps she and Tigg have gone into the courtyard? Or even outside, to walk along the canal?”
“It is possible. Shall we check?”
“Could we? The very thought of a bit of starry sky and some air is a relief.”
Maggie hesitated, clearly uncertain about whether she might be intruding. “Shall I come with you?”
“No, you wait here. When Captain Hollys returns with Alice from the polka, ask them to meet us outside, at the canal. I’m sure we shall see Lizzie and Tigg out there.”
“Neither of them are ballroom people,” Maggie agreed. “I like it in moderation, but this is … too much.”
“Venice does tend to strike one that way,” Andrew murmured as they crossed the floor, winding between the couples until they reached the central courtyard. But other than servants hurrying this way and that, and a cluster of gondoliers talking among themselves, there were no other guests visible.
“The street door is here.” Andrew nodded at the gatekeeper and the two of them emerged onto the fondamente with a sense of having escaped out the end of a kaleidoscope.
Claire walked to the pavement’s edge, where the water seemed disturbed, though no gondola or one of the slender rowing boats that ordinary people used was visible. “Andrew, does the water level look higher to you?”
He peered over the edge. “I cannot tell. But it does seem rather rough—Claire! Get back!”
For in the canal was a most astonishing sight. The water roiled with the force of a large creature’s passing—a creature with many legs, swimming with speed and power by means of flexing its body in and out like a bellows.
“Andrew—can that be a—kraken?”
“If it is, it is a very small one—but still large enough to swamp a gondola without much trouble. Look, there it goes, into the Grand Canal. Great Scott! I hope it will find its way out to sea. That is not a sight one wishes to encounter when going to visit St. Mark’s in a boat.”
“It must be lost. My word, Andrew—look there!” She pointed at an enormous snake, rolling along the canal in sinuous S-curves, its wedgelike head breaking the surface with such force that a small wave purled before its chin. “Please tell me it is not hunting the kraken.”
“Please tell me the canals of this city are not routinely infested with creatures born of a nightmare. For if they are, it is becoming more urgent by the moment that we free our young friend.”
Claire shuddered. There were places where she must not allow her imagination to go, or she would fall to her knees screaming and be of no use to anyone.
A sound rather like laughter now rose from the restless waters, and she could not help it. With wondering eyes, she leaned cautiously over the edge to see the smooth, satiny bodies of dolphins, rising and falling in a rocking-horse motion as they rode the waters. It almost looked as though they were pursuing the kraken and the snake—which made no sense whatsoever.
“There are no dolphins in the canals of Venice,” Andrew said flatly. “I could believe a kraken might live down there—or a snake—but dolphins, absolutely not. Something is definitely ou
t of the natural balance here.”
And there was that peal of laughter again.
One she knew very well.
Claire’s mouth dropped open as a drenched figure, its long blond hair clinging wetly to its head and shoulders, broke the surface of the canal. It clung to the dorsal fin of a dolphin—and behind it was another, larger figure, equally soaked and covered with weed.
“Steps!” the first figure called, and released her mount. “Thank you!” she told it. The dolphin chattered, rolled, and dove, following its fellows to the Grand Canal visible at the end of this smaller tributary.
The larger figure, naked to the waist, hoisted the smaller one up the first several stairs and the two of them crawled on all fours to the top, as if they’d forgotten how to use their legs—or were too weak to manage it.
They heaved themselves up onto the pavement in a wave of canal water, practically at Claire’s and Andrew’s feet, and Lizzie rolled onto her back, gasping and laughing in equal measure.
And then she realized who was gaping down at her. “Lady,” she managed, and went into a coughing fit. “Oh, thank heaven. I believe there is a sardine in my hair.”
13
The polka, Alice was quite sure, had been invented by a snob to separate those who belonged from those who did not.
“Right foot, Captain Chalmers. A lady always starts on the right foot.” Ian Hollys corrected her course and turned her the opposite way. This particular version was called the “traveling polka,” and involved galloping sideways for three counts, then turning to face the other direction for one count, then galloping again. Making the turn in one beat was physically impossible, since the music was so fast. Captain Hollys had been reduced to taking her into the center of the crowd presently leaping around the ballroom, and describing much slower, shorter steps.
And the center of the floor, as everyone knew, was where the incompetent were penned, so they would not get in the way.
“Please take me back, and dance with someone else,” she begged for the third time.
“Nonsense.” His tone was bracing, as though she were a midshipman learning the ropes. “The trouble is that you are trying to lead. If you leave that to me, both mind and body will accept the step easily.”
Alice, whose opinions about the leadership of men had been formed in the unforgiving desert and rocks of Resolution, tightened her lips and did her best to do as he asked, but it wasn’t easy. If he had been a terrible dancer, her feelings would have been different. But as it was, any woman in her right mind would have been delighted to let him take the lead. Why did she have to be the one woman who objected?
“You’d do better asking Gloria. At least she knows what she’s doing.”
“I have already danced two dances with Gloria. If I am to do my duty, I must dance an equal number with you. To the right, please.”
Thanks ever so much. His duty was to keep her from being recognized. She didn’t appreciate in the least being reminded that, to that end, it was also his duty to dance with her so that they blended more completely into the crowd.
“Captain? Alice?” The voice at her elbow made Alice miss her step, and she and the captain came to an ungraceful halt. Maggie stood there in her fairy costume, her face as pale as her own silvery skirts. “The Lady asks that you come. We are returning to the hotel.”
Thank goodness.
“Maggie, are you quite all right?” the captain asked, examining her keenly. “Has something happened?”
“Lizzie—”
“She has news,” Alice told him with sudden understanding. “I must let Gloria know we are leaving.”
“Allow me,” the captain said. Did he have to sound quite so eager?
“We will both go.”
Gloria made no secret of her disappointment at their departure. “But you’ve barely been here two hours. Do you not want to stay for the fireworks?”
Ian said, “It would give us great pleasure, but young Miss Seacombe has been taken ill.”
“Oh, such a shame. I hope she will be better tomorrow. Oh!” Gloria’s blue eyes widened. “I almost forgot. Father is dragging me along on some dreadful tour of the prisons and gearworks in the morning. Please come—I know it’s awful, and not the sort of exhibition we are all here to enjoy, but I would so like the company of congenial people.” Her face clouded. “The combination of my father and a prison would be enough to make anybody ill. We can help keep one another’s spirits up.”
“I shall be honored to accompany you,” Captain Hollys said gallantly. “I am afraid Alice and some of the young ladies will be unable to, but we shall certainly convey your invitation to Lady Claire and Mr. Malvern.”
As they hurried out of the palazzo, Alice said, “That was a little high-handed, Captain. I’m quite capable of accepting or declining my own invitations.”
“I will not allow you anywhere near the prison.”
“Allow—”
“I should hope not,” Maggie said, following so closely she was practically clutching Alice’s arm. “If anyone should recognize you, it’s hardly the work of a moment to clap you in an underwater cell.”
Well, fine. There was that. But he could have put it a different way.
Out on the pavement they were treated to the astonishing sight of Lizzie and Tigg, drenched to the skin and reeking of effluvium and seaweed. They closed ranks and hustled the pair along the canal to a water taxi. It wasn’t until they had both bathed and changed into their normal clothes that they all gathered in the sitting room of the suite that Lady Claire had taken to hear the tale.
And what a tale it was.
“Lizzie, dearling, you have a positive genius for getting into scrapes that no one else would ever dream of,” Alice said when Lizzie and Tigg, holding hands as they sat side by side on the settee, had finished.
“I am only thankful she has an equal genius for getting out of them,” Claire said. “Did it never occur to either of you to return to the ballroom and seek safety in numbers with us?”
“It did,” Tigg said, “but there wasn’t time. They’d have caught us. And the good thing is, we were able to free the creatures.” His face clouded. “It was awful, Lady. The poor kraken, used to being the king of the sea, and there it was, reaching out a tentacle like it were pleading for help.”
“Seeing if it could reach its dinner, more like,” Maggie corrected, hanging over the back of the settee, close to her cousin.
“No, it wasn’t like that,” Lizzie said. “It looked at us, like an intelligent being. If it wanted to have us for dinner, it certainly could have waited in the canal and had us, and any number of dolphins for dessert. But it seemed to understand we were all in the same boat, with only one chance of escape.”
“For which the minister will not thank you,” Claire told her. “You are going to have to lie very low now. In fact, I would suggest that you and Tigg return to Athena on the mainland if it were not for the fact that you must be chaperoned.”
Lizzie blushed scarlet and even Tigg cleared his throat in embarrassment.
“Aside from kraken and cages,” Andrew said, “what disturbs me most is this dreadful plan of Meriwether-Astor’s. Waylaying the convict transports and kidnapping the occupants! Is there no depth to which he will not sink?”
“Every time we plumb the depths of his wickedness we find something new,” Claire agreed. “Even his affection for his daughter is tainted by it.”
“She has asked for our help tomorrow,” Alice said, recollecting the message they had been asked to deliver. “No sooner did Lizzie overhear Meriwether-Astor browbeat the minister into a tour of the prison and the gearworks than he must have sought out Gloria to tell her she was going along.”
“I accepted on your behalf, Claire,” Captain Hollys said. “The poor girl was quite distraught at the thought of braving the place in only her father’s company.”
“As well she might be,” Claire said.
“And I have made it clear to Alice that sh
e will not be accompanying us, and she has agreed it would be far too dangerous.”
“Have you?” Claire raised an eyebrow in Alice’s direction.
“I have,” Alice said. No point in going into detail and giving Ian Hollys the opportunity to rub it in a second time.
“Lizzie and Tigg cannot go, of course,” he went on. “It is a shame. Tigg, I would have been glad of your support.”
“Sorry, Captain. I lost my head and—”
“No need for apology. Your duty was to protect Lizzie, and while your methods were unorthodox, they were also effective. Claire, I believe that leaves you and Mr. Malvern to make up our party.”
“And me,” Maggie said quietly.
“Maggie, I do not think—” Claire began.
“If you need a scout, Lady, it will have to be me. Luckily, I can swim.”
“We could scout around the outside of the place, Lady,” Lizzie suggested. “We wouldn’t have to go in.”
Claire shook her head. “It is entirely too dangerous. In fact, a thought has just occurred to me. Alice, you must also remain concealed from prying eyes. I think it would be most practical if you were to return to Athena with Lizzie and Tigg. That way, you will all three be safe, and if we must make a quick exit once we have Jake in hand, it would be very helpful if the ship already possessed a captain and an engineer on board. Do you not agree?”
Of course it was a practical plan.
It made all the sense in the world.
And as Alice exchanged glances with Lizzie and Tigg, it was clear that the three of them would sooner be captured than allow it.
14
Claire’s cream linen dress, ruffled parasol, and pinwheel hat loaded with tulle and a large green satin bow created such a contrast with her surroundings that it felt almost obscene—as though one were laughing in a cemetery.
She and Andrew followed Meriwether-Astor, Gloria, Maggie, and Ian from the majestic, marble-inlaid Hall of Justice down a stone ramp to what lay below the surface of pavement and canal. Claire wished she had worn raiding rig. Anything else seemed like snapping one’s fingers in the face of fate.
A Lady of Integrity Page 10