Season of Skulls by Charles Stross

Author:Charles Stross [Stross, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781250839398
Publisher: Tordotcom; Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2023-05-15T16:00:00+00:00

STAND AND DELIVER!

The trouble with lies was that unless you were very good and very lucky they inevitably came back to bite you on the arse, Eve reflected. Not the little lies, like her successful plea of poverty due to highwaymen—mere background color that lulled any suspicion on the part of the jeweler that she and the baron might be thieves—but the big lies. Such as the one Number Two had locked her into with his geas.

Viktor Von Franckenstein was terrifyingly astute—as befitted a fellow who was evidently an occult researcher—and Eve found him increasingly frustrating to deal with. Most of the time he concealed it behind a blandly inoffensive facade. But it became clear that he’d learned that Eve was frantically searching for Rupert, and that he was her putative husband and a threat to her. When she asked how he knew he just smiled and changed the subject. (And he also changed the subject whenever she asked about François, about how he’d ended up in the Village, about why the boy’s mere identity might be perilous to know—none of which were acceptable topics of polite conversation to the baron, any more than her precise relationship with Rupert was to Eve. None of which gave her the warm fuzzies.)

“Although we are traveling in company for safety I am unable to trust you with my most intimate secrets, madame—and I can’t help noticing that you seem to feel likewise about me. Why don’t we agree to keep our own counsel?”

Eve resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “If you insist,” she conceded. “But I must continue to read the papers. Just in case.” She could sketch a ward on the underside of the bedroom chair and compel him to honesty. But if she went that far it’d destroy whatever tenuous trust they had built, and she still needed a fake husband while she was on the road. Even if she hired an abigail—a temporary lady’s maid—striking out for London on her own would be considerably harder. Viktor could open doors for her that were routinely barred to women, an infuriatingly common problem in this century.

They stayed at the Black Swan Inn for two more days. Eve paid the publican’s daughter Rose to accompany her to the shops. She acquired a spare frock and was able to have her old one laundered and mended. She also bought some sundries: handkerchiefs, a detachable pocket to wear under her gown, a new bonnet. The pocket she enchanted to divert wandering fingers and confuse avaricious eyes. She paid for a bath and then to have her hair styled closer to current fashion, the better to attract as little attention as possible. Rose chattered cheerfully, emitting a constant stream of consciousness. Eve listened discreetly, taking note: the girl revealed far more than she realized, especially about the local perceptions of the slightly odd wife of the extremely odd German exile. And when the noise became too wearisome Eve sent Rose out with a sixpence to fetch the latest newssheets.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.