Rises the Night by Colleen Gleason

Author:Colleen Gleason [Gleason, Colleen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: *
ISBN: 9781429538077
Goodreads: 7004517
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Published: 2007-06-04T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

In Which Mrs. Withers Has Double the Fun

Victoria’s first glimpse of Rome caused an unexpected shiver along the tops of her shoulders. As she looked upon the city of so much history, she felt a sense of foreboding prickle her, as though the sight of the city portended some catalyst of which she was ignorant.

But when the wagon that had brought her and the others from the port of Ostia finally stopped and she alighted, Victoria didn’t feel the sensation, nor the trembling of the earth underfoot that she might have expected when stepping into a place that burned with such a sense of prophecy. She merely felt that her consciousness would be overwhelmed by the sounds, the smells, the sights of the streets… of Roma.

Despite the lure of the city, Victoria didn’t have much opportunity to enjoy or experience it. Within a day Aunt Eustacia had her settled in a small town house with Oliver and Verbena and a retinue of Italian staff, approximately fifteen minutes from where the Gardella matriarch herself was staying. As in Venice, Victoria and Aunt Eustacia had deemed it prudent to keep their connection under wraps.

Victoria didn’t know where Sebastian had gone.

They’d seen each other only at meals after their mock sword battle and tête-à-tête confessions, and he was nowhere to be seen when Victoria and her retinue disembarked from the ship back in Ostia. He had apparently found other means of transportation into the city.

She was content not to see him, for she wasn’t sure how to react to his announcement. What did it mean that he’d lost his father to the vampires? That he’d been killed by them? Or, perhaps, turned into a vampire? It was also possible, she supposed, that his father was a member of the Tutela. That could explain why Sebastian knew so much about them.

It made sense. That would account for how he’d gotten involved with Polidori, and how he claimed to know where they would be meeting here in Rome.

He made no contact with Victoria for three days after they arrived in Rome, leaving her to stew and wonder if they’d come here only to be manipulated by Sebastian; but then on that third day, he sent a message that he would call in the afternoon.

She was waiting for him in the parlor. She would have mistaken the tiny room for a broom closet if it hadn’t been for the two chairs and small table that made it what the Italians who’d let the town house to her claimed to be a parlor. Whatever it was, it was much too small for her and Sebastian. She felt the room condense as he came in and closed the door behind.

“I presume you’ve spent the last three days working very hard to establish the clandestine location of the next Tutela meeting, and determining the best way to sneak me in,” was how she greeted him. She sat, despite the fact that he remained standing, making the room feel even smaller.

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