Immortal With a Kiss by Jacqueline Lepore

Author:Jacqueline Lepore [Lepore, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780061878152
Google: yDxxc4XNCDIC
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 9549656
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2011-03-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

I went into my first class with the heavy, leaden feeling that I remembered from my nineteenth year, when I had, in a supreme act of rebellion, snuck into my father’s study and consumed a large amount of the quality gin he kept in a cut-crystal decanter. I had paid a dear price the next day, after a night spent over a chamber pot, sporting an abused head and two pits of fire where my eyes had been.

I could not let my physical state slow me down, however, and I had set a mental agenda for the things I needed to accomplish. I had so many questions: How much were the girls aware of what they were dealing with? Had they been promised eternal life? Were they, even now, made by Ruthven into a harem of companions? Yet, if the vampire created them as strigoii vii, then how was this related to what had happened before, to Dora and the others Madge had told me about?

If I could get to Eustacia, I might be able to find some answers—if I could get her to trust me. Margaret and the others knew she was their weak link, however. They surrounded her as soon as my class ended, ushering her out with a tight escort. Margaret lagged behind and smirked at me. “Is something wrong, Mrs. Andrews?”

Pushing aside the unsettled feeling Margaret gave me, I strode up to her. “I met your Cyprian Queen,” I told her with quiet confidence. “His name is Ruthven and he likes me quite well.” I allowed my smile to grow sly even as hers went slack. “Very well indeed.”

Rage gathered on her features. Lilliana, who stood behind Margaret and had heard me, grabbed at Margaret’s arm as if she were afraid of what she might do.

“You best go,” I said pleasantly.

Margaret allowed herself to be pulled back. Lilliana was talking to her, trying to calm the anger that was noticeably boiling behind her shock.

“Oh, Margaret,” I called. “By any chance do you know what happened to Janet, who works down at the Rood and Cup? She’s gone missing.”

I immediately saw I had hit my mark. Apprehensiveness sprang to her wide eyes.

“I thought so,” I intoned mysteriously. “Go on now, get out,” I commanded, not bothering to glance to see if they obeyed.

My triumph, sweet as it was, was shallow and short-lived. No sooner had I quit the girls than I spied from my window a familiar and disturbing face that doused my momentary triumph. Outside, a man I recognized as the fellow who had berated me yesterday at the Rood and Cup was walking purposefully toward the front entrance of the school. My immediate—and panicked—thought was that he was here to make good on his threat to complain to the headmistress about me.

I had not long to wait to find out. Miss Sloane-Smith walked through the door of my classroom not an hour later, her face pinched with irritation. “A word, please, Mrs. Andrews,” she said.

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