Mrs. Trapping waved her hand toward Vandaariff with a sniff. “The world will lose no sleep over Henry,” she said, and then too lightly, “I did not know if Francis was alive.”
Elöise did not respond, and once more Chang noted the dull hardness of her gaze. Mrs. Trapping must have noticed it too, for she muttered with disapproval.
“I thought you liked Francis.”
“Charlotte… your brother Francis… has changed.”
“But that is where you are ignorant, Elöise. Francis has always changed—it is why he is the opposite of Henry! You would not have known him before he went to school, or again before each of his celebrated travels. Every time he returned he appeared entirely new— and each time he made new friends with no inkling how strange or dissipated he had become. It was as if portions of his character kept vanishing one after another—given over in exchange for… well… something. And what did he have to show for it—for all his boasting? Land? A title? I will tell you, Elöise, and it is Francis all over: nothing but more wicked stories… more cruel tricks.”
“But this is different, Charlotte. It is physical. It is monstrous.”
“Really, Elöise—”
“Francis is beyond whims and cruelties—it is the blue glass!”
Mrs. Trapping pursed her lips and took an unsatisfying sip of tea. “I am heartily sick of this blue glass. Is it true that especially nasty man is dead?”
“The Comte? Yes.”
“And who killed him?”
“Cardinal Chang.”
Mrs. Trapping snorted. “Are you sure you remember correctly? Are you sure it was not my brother?”
“Your brother and the Comte were fast allies!”
“I very much doubt it.” Mrs. Trapping smirked. “Francis is not one to keep promises. He was never the Comte's true friend! And who can blame him? I never liked the way that man smelt. Just like a Russian—or how one imagines a Russian—”
“Charlotte—”
“If you take that tone with me, Mrs. Dujong, I will forbid you shelter in even this crude ruin! We find ourselves at liberty—and you find yourself rescued—precisely because I have learned all there is to know about this blue glass, about this supposedly alchemical woman—and these apparently all-powerful books. Not that I have seen any of them, you understand, but I have done my share of work. You will not perhaps credit that as children I always got the better of Francis playing chess, and always got the better of Henry too—whenever he would play me, which was very rarely, because he hated to lose! Do you think I spent my time at those dreadful Harschmort galas worrying about my evening gown? I watched Henry, and I studied Robert Vandaariff. Look at him now, Elöise! Smarter than Henry, smarter even than Francis, though of course without Francis' appetites.”
“I saw Francis shot in the chest. Yet he lives.”
Mrs. Trapping stopped talking.
“I thought him dead,” Elöise said. “We all did—and drowned beneath the sea. But then there were signs, Charlotte, murders—innocent people, terrible attacks made to look like an animal. Then I saw him myself. He has poisoned himself to stay alive, and the only man who could cure him is dead. It is all hopeless. You must abandon this business. You must go home. You have other responsibilities. Francesca needs you, and Charles, and Ronald. They have no one else.”
Mrs. Trapping remained silent.
“I am sorry,” continued Elöise. “I know how… how… how—”
“Who shot him?”
Elöise's face fell. The woman had not heard a word.
“Charlotte—”
“Who shot my brother Francis?”
“It was Doctor Svenson,” said Elöise, heavily.
Mrs. Trapping stood up and emptied the whole of her tea mug into Elöise's face.
TAKING THIS as the best opportunity he might find, Cardinal Chang took the sill with both hands and vaulted through the window, shooting past the oilcloth to land in a crouch. Charlotte Trapping wheeled to face him, quite obviously wishing she had not just emptied her cup on such a lesser target. Vandaariff stood as well, but this was in mere imitation of the woman, for the man did nothing other than stare as Chang rose, the razor slipped from his pocket.
“It is Cardinal Chang,” said Elöise quickly, her face wet, taking a warning step toward Mrs. Trapping.
“Is he your lover as well?”
“Charlotte, come away from the window.”
Elöise gently reached both hands for Mrs. Trapping's arm, but at her touch the woman sharply shrugged herself free.
“So you are the one who killed that odious Comte,” Charlotte Trapping cried to Chang, her eyes bright and glittering. “I daresay it has saved me the effort, and yet the timing has proven most unfortunate. Ought I to be frightened by your fearsome appearance? I am not. What do you intend with that implement?” She nodded at the razor.
Chang looked at his hand as if he had not known what it held. “This? I suppose I hold it out of instinct—like an animal. Or because I do not choose to share the fate of Doctor Svenson.” Chang kicked Mrs. Trapping's chair across the room with enough force to make both women flinch. “You will sit down until I tell you otherwise.”
The women did so, Elöise moving hastily to right the chair and brush off the seat. Chang watched with disgust, wondering what could possibly drive her to abandon the Doctor, who had saved her life, in favor of an employer. He turned to Vandaariff, still standing with an expression of blank concern.
“Sit down, Lord Robert.”
Vandaariff did. Chang plucked the tea mug from the man's grasp and drank it down, then handed the mug back with a nod of thanks.
“I think you are an animal—” began Charlotte Trapping.
“Be quiet,” growled Chang, and turned to Elöise. “Where is Miss Temple?”
“How on earth are you here?”
“Dry your face and answer my question.”
“Elöise, do not tell this man one thing.”
Chang shot out his hand and slashed Mrs. Trapping's jacket— trusting the razor would not cut through the whalebone in her corset— clean across her torso, causing the blue fabric to hang, the gash made before the woman could even squeak.
“Do not speak again until I am asking questions of you. I promise, we will talk, for I have spoken to your brother. Elöise?”
Elöise looked into Chang's black lenses for the first time since his entry, her gaze grim and beaten.
“I left Miss Temple at the town of Karthe. We became separated. We had quarreled. The Contessa was there, and Francis Xonck. If you have truly seen him—”
“I have seen him.”
“I believe he took me for the Contessa. He attacked me, with a sliver of glass.”