“Now come along. Our lovely gentleman friend is waiting,” Melly added, pointing down the hall into the darkness.
“Where is your candle? Now we shall have only one light, and you know how weak my eyes are in the darkness,” said Winnie. “I vow I cannot see past my own fingers even in my own bedchamber at night unless Rudgers leaves the fire blazing.”
Nilly turned to the golden-haired man and found he was gone. Her mouth opened, then closed once again without making an intelligible sound.
There was nothing about to indicate that either of the men had ever been there, except her dropped candle—which had gone out when it landed—and a small pile of dust that she hadn’t noticed earlier.
“But…” Nilly gave up trying to speak and, with one last glance backward, followed the others.
“I begin to wonder if Victoria has made her way back to the party,” Melly said suddenly, as she and her companions started back down the hallway. Their gentleman guide had been left standing at the corner of an intersection of two passageways when the ladies had realized Nilly was no longer with them.
“I hope she’s found that nice Mr. Zavier,” Nilly said, finally having obtained control of her tongue. “Perhaps they are becoming better acquainted.”
“I certainly hope not.” The Lady Winifred straightened up as though Nilly had suggested Victoria might have fallen in love with a vampire. “As kind as he might be, he’s much too coarse and…and…unshaven, and he certainly isn’t up to snuff for our marchioness. After all, she stepped up from being a mere miss to become the wife of the Marquess of Rockley—God rest his soul—and it won’t do to have her sliding back into a dank, drafty castle in the Highlands. Why, there’re probably vampires flapping—”
“Ladies,” called the gentleman guide’s voice, beckoning them toward him. “Are we all together again?”
“Indeed we are, sir. Please lead us on,” Melly replied, conveniently ignoring the fact that they hadn’t yet been introduced to their savior.
Just as they rejoined their guide, a pretty blond woman came bursting on the scene from a different branch of the hallway. The man turned in surprise, and the young woman grasped his arm, pulling him away from the older ladies. “At last! I have been searching the whole villa for you!” And then her voice dropped very low, and it sounded as though she said something about a…senator?
“I shall not abide it if that chit insists on accompanying us,” Winnie fumed, glaring at the pair, who’d moved far enough away that she couldn’t hear what they said. For, despite her complaint about failing eyesight, her ears worked perfectly well. What was so important about a Roman senator that the chit had to interrupt their treasure hunt?
And then from behind them came the sound of heavy, rushing feet. The three ladies turned to see Mr. Zavier hurrying down the hall toward them. With him was another gentleman—unknown to Winnie and Melly, but perfectly familiar to Nilly as the handsome blond who’d interrupted her tête-à-tête with the dark-haired, pale-skinned man.
“There ye ladies are,” Mr. Zavier exclaimed, his brogue thick with emotion. His cheeks were flushed enough that they showed their ruddiness even in the low light, and he was holding something in his hand—something long and thin and pointed—but before anyone save Nilly could take notice, he shoved it in his pocket. “We must take our leave now,” he said, looking about.
The blond man, who was also approaching, peered beyond them into the darkness. But when the ladies turned to follow his gaze, they saw that their gentleman guide and the young blond woman had disappeared.
“We’ve almost found the treasure,” the duchess complained as Mr. Zavier offered her his arm. “We cannot leave now.”
“I’m afraid the treasure has already been located, and that it is well past time to leave. All of the other guests have gone,” said the handsome blond man in his comforting voice.
“And what about Victoria?” Lady Melly asked Mr. Zavier, taking his other arm, yet still looking behind her to find out what on earth had happened to that handsome man who’d been leading them about. “How vexing that he should have disappeared so suddenly,” she muttered. “He was quite charming, and I didn’t even learn his name.”
“Victoria, thinking ye had done so, has already returned home after joining me for a short time in the parlor. After ye disappeared”—Mr. Zavier fixed a dark look at Winnie, and she returned his glance with all the haughtiness she could muster—“she had come with her slipper fixed and was quite disappointed that ye’d gone on without her. Come, ladies, ’tis best that we be on our way.”
“May I?” The blond gentleman offered his arm to Nilly, and when she accepted it, began to hurry her along the hall.
If the two gentlemen happened to look back over their shoulders, the older ladies didn’t appear to notice; they were much too intent on keeping their footing alongside the agile men and their long, rapid strides.
“But this is not the way we came in,” Melly exclaimed when they came to a door—a small, unobtrusive one that was most certainly not the grand entrance they’d been welcomed into.
The night air was cool, and the half-moon glowed down on them as they stepped out of the villa onto…grass.
“My slippers,” shrieked Nilly, lifting her feet one at a time in a mad, hopping manner. “They’ll be ruined!”
“Come, come,” Mr. Zavier said, ushering them along the dark building toward the front of the villa where their carriage was waiting.
As the ladies climbed in, their creaking joints reminding them they’d had hardly a spot of rest in the last week, with Carnivale and all of the other excitement, they noticed that theirs was the only carriage in sight. Mr. Zavier handed each of them in and then followed with an energetic leap, slamming the door shut behind him.
Rapping harshly on the roof, he settled back into his seat, surrounded by gowns and panting ladies. Not, perhaps, his preferred environment to be surrounded by such feminity…but it was his duty, nonetheless.
It wasn’t until the carriage pulled away from the street in front of the villa that the ladies realized the blond gentleman had disappeared.
In fact, none of them could recall seeing him once they came outside of the villa.
“Well, I never,” snapped Winnie, looking back out the carriage window. “That man! He tricked us into leaving so he could have the treasure.”