Page 84 of The Lady Glass
“Free Napoleon, of course.”
Dread billowed beneath her panic. If she didn’t live to warn the others, Mr. Lewis would get away with far more than a handfulof deaths. He’d be responsible for millions of lives lost.
“Money cannot free him.” She wasn’t certain, but surely it couldn’t.
She could feel Mr. Lewis’s smirk near her ear. “Money has more power than any army or navy.”
“But no glassblower is rich enough to do as you say.”
“You’re teasing me, Miss Dvorak. Your father was a leader among his fellow craftsmen and was made the treasure’s protector. The secret is in this vase.”
“H-how do you know it isn’t a different vase?”
“Because this is the only one he didn’t sell. He saved it... for you.”
Was it true? Was there some great treasure after all? Had her father meant to tell her about it but had died first? Was that the real reason Mr. Plasil had avoided her question about it and encouraged her to return to Ashbury Court to settle her heart? Was it all about the vase? Did he want the treasure as well?
She forced out an answer to placate Mr. Lewis. “Maybe if you let me study the vase for a few days, I can learn to read the map.”
“I have a better idea.” She heard the cock of a gun. “You’re going to read it right now.”
He released her arm, and the relief was instantaneous, but the fear was still building. There was no way she could decipher the cuts of crystal to mean anything, and either way, there was no way Mr. Lewis would let her leave this room alive.
Chapter 40
The supper dance was over.It was too late for Rolland to change his mind. He’d made his decision, and his future was sealed. The noise of the ballroom made his head spin, and he couldn’t stay a moment longer. He needed fresh air. Pushing past the other guests, he made it onto the veranda. It wasn’t enough to just stand there though. He had to move, to find a shred of himself again. Leaving the strains of the orchestra behind him, he walked down the side of the house and turned the corner. Finally, the sounds of the party faded. He shoved his fingers into his waistcoat pocket and kicked at a stick in the grass.
The moonlight caught on something. The toe of a shoe. What was that? He bent over and examined the dance slipper. Was that a glass flower? Some new style? He ran his finger over the smooth edges, and his Lady Glass came to mind. His hand froze and his eyes went upward.
The shoe was directly below his window. A window that was wide open.
Theresia!
He tucked the shoe under his jacket into the waist of his breeches and began to climb. The trellis wasn’t the most stable beneath his weight, but he pushed forward anyway. She was there, waiting for him. He knew it.
When he reached the top, he barely got a foot grip before having to throw himself inside the window. He somersaulted onto the floor and groaned. How had she done that not once but twice?
“Theresia?” He gazed through the dark, but the room was as still as a crypt. “Where are you?” He dusted himself off and climbed to his feet, not waiting to think before strolling to the door. If she’d come back to search for her blasted vase over coming to see him, she was going to hear exactly how he feltabout it.
The corridor was as empty as his room.
“Theresia?” he hissed. Where was she?
He glanced toward the guest chambers. She’d searched all of them before. Would she search his parents’ room next? He glanced the other direction, toward Marcus’s room and Lewis’s. She wouldn’t dare breach their privacy. He turned back toward the guest chambers when he heard a small noise.
Had that come from Lewis’s room? Lewis wouldn’t leave the ball, but that didn’t mean Theresia wasn’t in there. “I’ve found you again,” he whispered, his traitorous lips tugging into a small smile. She’d left him for more than a week and made him face the most miserable ball of his life alone. There was so much he wanted to say.
Even if it was only a proper goodbye.
He reached for the handle, but Lewis’s voice made him stop before opening it more than a few inches.
“What do you mean you can’t find the code?”
Rolland frowned. What code did Lewis mean?
Theresia scoffed. “Is it a code or a map? Make up your mind.”
“You should know, so you tell me.”
