The Diamond Slipper

Chapter Twenty-two

The fencing master dropped his point and stepped back as the buttoned tip of Viscount Kierston's foil met his shoulder. "That was too quick even for me," he conceded, wiping his brow with a lace-edged handkerchief. "You have wings on your feet today, Milord Kierston."

Leo shook his head in disclaimer and mopped his own brow. It was early afternoon and warm in the gallery over the stables where courtiers tried their foils against the skill of Master Leclerc. Leo was a regular here, dueling with the master several hours a day whenever he had the opportunity. But today there was a deadlier purpose behind his practice than mere sport, and it showed in every muscle of his body, in his lethal concentration, in the ferocity beneath the impassive surface of his eyes.

"You are planning a duel, milord?" Leclerc never beat around the bush and he knew from years of experience how to read the signs.

Leo merely laughed and picked up the water carafe from the low stone sill behind him. He drank thirstily, then tilted back his head and poured a cool clear stream over his face. His hair was drawn tightly back from his face, accentuating the clean lines of the set jaw, the high cheekbones, the broad expanse of forehead.

"I pity whoever it is who's fallen foul of you, milord," Leclerc said phlegmatically, taking the carafe that Leo now offered him. He drank. "Another bout? Your footwork on the lunge is occasionally just a minuscule beat off perfection." He illustrated the gap with finger and thumb.

The dauphine's concert was not until three o'clock. Leo raised his point, saluted the fencing master, and the clash of blade on blade, the soft pounding of stockinged feet, were once again the only sounds to be heard in the long gallery.

As they fought, others arrived, ready to try out their skill against the master. Several pairs began a match of their own; others gathered to watch the master and his opponent. Leo was peripherally aware of the audience. Deliberately, he blocked them out, concentrated until he saw only the opposing blade, flashing, flickering, always looking for an opening. He reduced his opponent simply to a blade, as he knew he must do when this practice became reality. Then he would be watched, and by an audience much less disciplined that these fellow fencers. There would be rustling skirts and whispering women, languid comments from the fops and dandies who preferred the less active pursuits at court. All of those he must block out.

And all thoughts of Cordelia.

His blade faltered. Monsieur Leclerc slipped beneath Leo's guard, and the slender foil bent in a graceful arc as the button pressed into his ribs. He dropped his point, held out his hand. "Well fought, monsieur."

"Something happened in your eyes, milord," the master said simply. "Only you know what."

Leo gave a brief nod and picked up his coat from a chair. He responded casually to the greetings of friends and acquaintances, mopped his brow again, put on his shoes, then rested for a moment perched on the windowsill, his long legs, ankles crossed, stretched out in front of him.

No one looking at him taking his ease, watching the swordplay, would guess at the hot red anger in his soul at his mistake. An anger that had its roots in fear. Fear of his own death. He could defeat Michael only as long as he allowed nothing to interfere with his concentration. The prince was a superb swordsman, renowned throughout the Prussian army for his skill. He was older and heavier now than in his youth, when he'd dispatched ten of his fellow cadets to their deaths on the dueling ground in as many months. But he was still almost matchless. He still practiced religiously. And he could kill.

But he must put all thoughts of Cordelia from him. He must ensure that she and the children were safely out of the way. If he fell to Michael's sword, then Cordelia and the children would be defenseless unless they could disappear into thin air. His sister would hide them if they could reach England, and they would be safe for a while. At least until the immediate hue and cry had died down.

He must put from him the knowledge that if he succeeded in killing the prince, Cordelia would be free.

Elvira would be avenged; Cordelia would be free; Elvira's children would come under his own protection. All three goals achieved with one thrust of a rapier. But he must concentrate only on avenging Elvira-on punishing her murderer as was his legal and moral right. If he allowed himself to think beyond that, to a future-a life of love with Cordelia, where their children could grow in love and security-then he risked losing the concentration that was as great a weapon as his sword. A concentration that was all that stood between him and Michael's death cut.

"I was watching you fence, Lord Kierston."

Leo glanced up. Christian Percossi was smiling somewhat tentatively. He was still rather shy of the viscount. "I don't mean to be impertinent, but you seem very ferocious, as if it was not sport."

Leo pushed himself off the sill. "How observant of you. Walk with me awhile. There are some matters I need to discuss."

Christian, gratified at such in invitation, accompanied Leo from the gallery. But now the viscount's face was dark and closed, his eyes hard as iron, and those who glanced up as he passed felt a cold shiver as if an icy wind gusted in his wake. And Christian's blood stirred with foreboding.

They strolled along the gravel paths between the fountains, two courtiers engaged in conversation like any of the other couples around them. But this was no ordinary conversation.

"I intend to challenge Cordelia's husband under the ancient law of trial by duel," Leo was saying, his voice perfectly calm although the subject matter was incendiary. "It has to be a public accusation before the king, and a public trial. Cordelia must not be there. If I should lose, she will be in immediate danger from her husband and must be in a position to flee France with her stepdaughters."

"You would accuse him and fight with him because he mistreats Cordelia?" Christian asked hesitantly. Surely such a statement would immediately give rise to speculation about the relationship between the viscount and the prince's wife.

"No," Leo said flatly. "I will accuse him of murder. Of murdering his first wife, my sister."

Christian paled, his jaw dropped. "He did such a thing?"

"Yes." Leo plucked a rose from the trellis of the arbor under which they now walked. "He did such a thing. And I will claim my family right to avenge the death of a sister."

"But… but surely it would be simpler… less uncertain… to accuse him before a court of law?" Christian stammered.

"Maybe. But he took the blood of my sister, and I will take his." Both voice and face were expressionless, and it seemed to Christian that the viscount was encased in ice. An ice sculpture far from the reach of ordinary human contact. A man contained by a most terrible rage.

"What… what would you have me do?"

Leo's response was succinct, his voice still without expression. "In the event of my death, I would like you to escort Mathilde, Cordelia, and my nieces to the coast and there arrange passage for them on a packet to Dover. You will be pursued by Prince Michael, but you'll all have correct papers and passports, you'll need to be disguised in some way, and you'll need to travel warily. Do you think you can undertake such a task for Cordelia?"

"Yes, yes, of course I would try," Christian said. "But

Cordelia will want to make all the arrangements. She always does." He looked stricken at this admission, as if he was in some way failing Leo, but the viscount smiled for the first time. It was a fleeting smile, but it somewhat reassured Christian.

"Yes, I'm sure she will. But I need to know that you'll assist her in whatever ways are necessary."

"You have my word on it." Christian impulsively stuck out his hand. Leo took it in a firm, dry clasp.

"Good. Thank you, my friend." He shook the musician's hand briefly, then dropped the rose he'd been holding to the gravel. With a short nod, he turned and strode away in the direction of the palace.

Absently, Christian bent to pick up the fallen rose. He sat on a low stone bench in the arbor, inhaling the flower's delicate scent. He would have to get a leave of absence from his patron, who might well be displeased, since Christian had been such a short time in his service. He couldn't tell the Due de Carillac the truth, of course, so he'd have to invent some foolproof tale. But when was the viscount intending to drop his bombshell? Christian kicked himself for not asking. He didn't know whether he had a day or a week or a month in which to prepare.

He glanced at his fob watch and leaped to his feet with an exclamation of horror. It was just after half past two and he was to play for the dauphine at three o'clock. He couldn't possibly be late. He set off at a run, arriving breathless and sweaty in the small oval music room off the Hall of Mirrors.

Mopping his brow, he examined the harpsichord. It was an elegant instrument, with glowing inlaid wood and soft ivory keys. The disturbing conversation with the viscount faded into the background of his mind as he sat down on the blue velvet stool and played a few chords, his head tilted as he listened to the notes.

"I trust the instrument is to your satisfaction, Signor Percossi?"

"Yes, thank you," he replied absently to the hovering footman, only vaguely aware of the activity in the room behind him as servants arranged little gilt chairs in rows and set out decanters and platters of fruit, tarts, and sweetmeats.

"If you wouldn't mind moving for one minute, sir, we need to roll up the rug," an apologetic footman murmured.

Christian looked startled, but he stood up and moved aside obligingly as the Turkey carpet was rolled back to reveal the smooth oak floorboards. "Why are you doing that?"

"For the dancer, Mademoiselle Clothilde, sir."

Oh, yes. How could he have forgotten? Christian smiled involuntarily. He had arranged for Clothilde to dance this afternoon through the influence of his patron. The girl's father had been delighted at the honor done his daughter and was inclined to look upon young Signor Percossi with a favorable eye. Christian was not as yet sure how Clothilde viewed him; she was as timid as a fawn. But Christian had discovered in himself all the patience of a skilled hunter.

He moved away from the harpsichord and went to look out of the long window opening onto a flagstone terrace. The scene was as tranquil as always, the lawns and pathways dotted with bright-plumaged figures, hooped skirts swaying gracefully, the silks and satins of their escorts glowing like so many jewels under the late afternoon sun.

It was all so rich and artificial, Christian thought. Life centered around frivolities; no one had a serious thought in his head. Hunting, gaming, feasting, dancing, and the endless gossip occupied them from the moment they opened their eyes on the day until the last courtier had vanished from the marble corridors with the first birdsong.

A shiver ran down his spine as he remembered Leo's face, heard his voice again. There was nothing artificial or superficial about the viscount's deep, cold, contained rage, and his vengeance would shatter this peaceful, orderly world as effectively as a hurled boulder would smash one of the great mirrors in the gallery. And there was nothing playful, no hint of fantasy, about the responsibility he had laid upon

Christian. A life-and-death responsibility to save Cordelia and two small children from a murderer.

The last time he'd seen Cordelia had been in his lodgings when she'd come to visit Mathilde. He knew then that something definitive had happened between her and the viscount, and he had known then that the situation was so fragile that something would have to break. Leo, Cordelia, and Mathilde had been drawn together, forming an intent circle from which he had felt excluded. They seemed to share a knowledge, an experience of an evil that had not touched him directly. But now he had been touched by it. Now he was no longer excluded. And he would play his part. The fire of determination smoldered in his belly, giving him courage and the exulting sense of being someone he wasn't. Of breaking through some barrier of his character.

"Your pardon, sir, but… but I wondered what music you would be playing?"

Christian turned at the timid voice behind him. A slight brown-haired girl stood there in a simple gown of white muslin, her hair drawn back to reveal the pale oval of her face. "Why, Clothilde." He smiled with pleasure and was infused with a wonderful sense of his own strength and experience beside this fragile young creature. He was a man with a mission.

"Good afternoon, sir." She curtsied gracefully.

"There's no need to be frightened, child." Child. He relished the sound of it on his tongue. He tipped her chin, lifting her face, and smiled down at her. What a little thing she was. So young, so timid, and her eyes were filled with awe as they fixed on his face-the face of an acknowledged genius, one who had played for royalty across the continent.

"I've never danced privately for royalty, sir," She confided, curtsying again, her tiny slippered feet peeping from beneath the hem of her gown.

"There's nothing to be afraid of," he said from the vast wealth of his own court experience. He'd been playing for imperial audiences since childhood… "What would you like me to play?" He took her hand gently, drawing her over to the harpsichord. "What do you intend to dance?"

"Anything that you wish, sir," Clothilde said, still as tremulous as before. Christian felt himself growing, expanding like some tall protective tree that would shelter this shy woodland creature.

He sat down at the harpsichord, took her hands between his, and drew her beside him. "Let me play a little of a ballet by Cavalli and see if you know it."

Clothilde listened her head on one side as he played. Her smile was radiant. "I know it well, sir."

"Then we shall entertain the company with Cavalli," he said with another flashing smile. "How old are you, Clothilde?"

"Fourteen, sir."

The same age as the dauphine, Christian reflected. But this child seemed so much younger, so much more innocent.

A stir came from the anteroom adjoining the music room. Christian stood up as the dauphine entered on the arm of the dauphin, their entourage flowing behind them, He bowed, Clothilde curtsied, and the dauphine acknowledged them with an inclination of her head before seating herself in the first row of chairs.

Cordelia, dressed in canary silk, topaz circling her neck, glowing in her ears, entered the room on her husband's arm, the two little girls walking just behind them, their eyes sometimes fixed on their feet, sometimes gazing more boldly around at the glittering throng.

Toinette beckoned Cordelia, calling in her clear high voice, "Come and sit with me, Cordelia. And the children too."

Cordelia glanced up at her husband. His face still had a gray cast to it, and beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead, but his eyes were as pale and cold as ever. "You will excuse us, my lord," she said punctiliously before escorting Amelia and Sylvie forward.

They settled excitedly on footstools at the feet of their stepmother and the dauphine. The dauphin shifted uneasily on his little gilt chair, nodding briefly to Cordelia when she curtsied. It seemed an unfriendly acknowledgment, but she guessed that he was still ill at ease in his wife's company. They certainly didn't appear close, exchanging not so much as a smile or a touch as they sat stiffly side by side. The poor boy must be aware that his lack of interest in the bedchamber was now the talk of the court.

Michael took a seat two rows behind the royal couple. He could see the back of his wife's head, the dusky ringlets piled atop the slender alabaster column of her neck. He looked sharply at the musician, recognizing him as the young man whom Cordelia claimed as a childhood friend. His mouth tightened. He had to get Cordelia away from Versailles, but he felt too damnably ill to gather together a coherent plan. But ill or not, he wouldn't let her out of his sight. He folded his arms grimly and stared fixedly ahead.

Leo entered the music room a few minutes later. He stood at the back, leaning against the door, his gaze flickering over the scene. The sight of Cordelia with the dauphine and away from Michael brought him some comfort, although he knew it was spurious. She was never in danger from her husband in public.

"I thought you would wish to sit apart from your husband," Toinette said in an undertone.

"Call Signor Percossi over," Cordelia whispered. "I wish to say something to him but my husband has forbidden me to speak with him."

Toinette obliged without demur. She knew that Christian and Cordelia had been friends at Schonbrunn.

Christian came over, bowing low. "Your Highness, you do me too much honor."

"Not at all," Toinette said with a smile. "We are always delighted to support our friends from the past." She turned to her husband. "Monseigneur, may I present Christian Percossi. He was a most particular protege of my mother's."

Christian flushed with pleasure. The dauphin accorded him a short nod and a movement of the lips that could have been interpreted as a smile. Christian turned to bow to Cordelia.

She smiled at him from behind her fan and gave him her hand. He bowed over it, receiving the slip of folded paper in his palm with all the discretion of an experienced conspirator. Then he returned to the harpsichord.

The audience stirred and settled like so many birds coming to roost in a spinney. With considerable address, Christian greeted them and introduced the dancer. Smiling warmly, he drew her forward to make her blushing curtsy. "Clothilde is a little shy, my lords and ladies," he said. "But I know you will be entranced by her performance."

He began to play, and he played for the girl who danced. Every note was a note to inspire, to enable her to lose herself in the magic of the music. For the first time in his life, he was not playing simply for himself and Cordelia, who had listened to him so many times, listened to his private self-critical practices, his agonies of creation. Now Clothilde brought an extra dimension to his art. It flowed from his fingers, shone in his rapt eyes, and his audience was spellbound, entranced by the exquisite dancer who seemed to fly on the notes he played, an embodiment of the music.

For a moment Cordelia could forget Michael's steady gaze on the back of her neck. Only when Christian's hands finally came to rest on the keys did the sense of danger return, lifting her scalp. She knew Michael was plotting how to hurt her, as he gazed at the vulnerable, exposed column of her neck, and it was all she could do to keep her seat. She couldn't flee yet. The plan was not in place and every detail had to be worked out if they were to avoid the horror of recapture.

She felt him come toward her and stiffened. Instinctively, she placed her hands on the girls' shoulders as they still sat at her feet. "I trust you enjoyed the recital, madame." Michael spoke with cold indifference.

"Very much so," she returned blandly, rising from her seat.

"Mesdames, the king's daughters, have expressed a desire to meet my children," the prince informed her. "You had better take them over and perform the introductions." He took a pinch of snuff, regarding his daughters with the same dispassion as they rose hastily at his approach and now stood attentively hand in hand. "Much as I disapprove of children in adult company, I suppose one must indulge a royal whim."

Cordelia dropped an ironic curtsy, took the children by the hand, and led them away to where Mesdames de France, the king's unmarried daughters, were gathered in a circle before the window, sipping champagne and nibbling savory tarts from a tray held by an immobile footman. He might just as well have been a stuffed dummy as far as the royal princesses were concerned. They turned in unison as Cordelia approached with the children.

"What dear little things," Princess Adelaide declared. "Such perfect identical little dolls. Have a sugared almond." She took two sweetmeats from the salver and popped them into the girls' mouths. Sylvie and Amelia looked startled but gratified. It seemed that since they'd arrived in this enchanted palace, they were always being fed sweetmeats from royal fingers. They sucked the sugary nut with solemn pleasure and received the shower of compliments from the princesses in wide-eyed silence, remembering to curtsy whenever it seemed required.

"Goodness me, how do people tell you apart?" Princess Sophie exclaimed, clapping her hands in exaggerated astonishment.

"With difficulty." Leo answered the question with light amusement. "Mesdames." He bowed to the royal sisters. "And my little mesdames." He offered the same courtesy to the children, who giggled, before turning to Cordelia. "The dauphine wishes to speak with you, Princess. May I escort you?"

"Leave the children with us while you talk with the dauphine," Princess Sophie insisted. "Come, my dears, would you like to see my songbirds?"

"And I have a pet monkey," Princess Louise put in. "A most amusing little thing, you'll love him."

It seemed that the princesses, always on the lookout for new amusements, had decided to vie for the attention of Prince von Sachsen's identical twins. The novelty probably wouldn't last long, but Michael couldn't object to Cordelia's leaving his daughters to bask in the royal competition to amuse them.

She put her hand on Leo's arm and allowed him to lead her away. "I have a plan," she said in a low voice. Large groups were ideal for exchanging secrets so long as one kept one's expression bland and one's voice an undertone. No one took a blind bit of notice of what anyone said anyway, unless it was the juiciest morsel of gossip. "I will bring the children to Christian's lodgings in Versailles on the pretext of their taking a music lesson. The Nevry woman will cooperate. I gave Christian a letter explaining the plan; I'm sure he'll agree to do what he can to help."

"Good. I want you and the children to leave the palace tomorrow afternoon. Take nothing with you and go directly to Mathilde and Christian. They will know what to do."

"But what are you going to do?"

They had reached Toinette, and Leo didn't answer; instead he said, "Madame, I bring the princess to you, as commanded."

"Oh, good, I wish to play piquet, Cordelia." Toinette flourished a pack of cards. "It's been ages since we played together."

"I wonder if you cheat each other as well as everyone else," Leo commented carelessly, drawing out a chair for Cordelia at the card table.

"What calumny, Lord Kierston," Toinette declared, quite pink cheeked. "Whatever makes you say such a thing?"

"A long journey in the company of the princess," Leo responded with an amused smile.

"As it happens, Toinette and I never have the slightest need to cheat with each other," Cordelia said with a dignified tilt of her head, slipping easily into the role he was dictating. Light, slightly flirtatious banter was enjoyed by everyone at court. "We developed the strategy, as I told you, to combat the underhand dealings of others. Fight pitch with pitch, my lord." She glanced over her shoulder as she said this, and her eyes held a very different meaning. Leo merely smiled, bowed, and moved away into the main body of the room.

Tables were being set up for gaming. The children seemed to have vanished with the royal sisters. Michael was sitting at a whist table. It seemed to Leo that the man was having difficulty sitting up straight in his chair. His shoulders kept slumping. For the first time, Leo remembered Mathilde's potion and how Cordelia had said it had kept Michael from the boar hunt. So many momentous things had happened since then, he'd completely forgotten.

There were as yet only three people at the table just behind Michael's. Leo went over. "May I join your rubber? Or are you waiting for someone?"

"Not at all, dear fellow. But all means, sit." A snuff-stained whist player waved jovially at the empty chair. Michael glanced over his shoulder and acknowledged Leo's smiling greeting with a stiff bow. He looked ghastly, Leo thought. And then he thought grimly that if Michael was ill, he couldn't be expected to fight a duel. Leo would be expected to hold his challenge until his opponent was fit and well.

But he could still issue it. Once the challenge was issued, Cordelia would be beyond danger. The matter would fall under the king's jurisdiction until it was resolved.

He picked up his cards and sorted them. He intended to make his accusation in the most dramatic way possible. The following afternoon, after the play, on stage, he would speak out. He had his speech prepared and it would create a stir that would live in the memory of this court into the next generation.

He laid an ace of spades on top of the ten and took the trick. A hand touched his arm. A tiny dimpled hand. "Monsieur Leo."

He looked down at the twins, standing together at this chair. They curtsied as his eyes fell upon them, and then they gazed at him solemnly, as if a little unsure of their welcome. "Madame Cordelia said we could come and pay our respects, sir. We have something most particular to ask you.

"These are your nieces, I understand, Lord Kierston." A dowager duchess put up her lorgnette and examined the children, who were so fascinated by the ostrich plumes in her powdered mountain of hair that for a moment they stared unabashed as the feathers bobbed perilously close to the rim of a glass of champagne.

"Make your curtsies," Leo reminded them softly, and they did so hastily.

"May we watch?" Amelia inched closer against his arm, gazing up at him with Elvira's eyes, where appeal and mischief mingled.

"If no one else objects," he said, glancing at Michael's back at the next table. He didn't seem to be aware of his daughters' somewhat unorthodox arrival.

"Not in the least," the duchess said airily. "Have a comfit, mes petites." She selected two chocolate dragees from a silver dish. The girls, experienced now, opened their mouths to receive the sweet and smiled politely at their benefactress.

"What's a passport, Monsieur Leo?" Sylvie asked when she'd swallowed her chocolate.

Leo's hand froze in the act of scooping up his new hand. "Why do you ask?"

"You said to Madame Cordelia that you were going to get us one," Amelia put in. "Is it a present?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Amelia," Leo said with a slight, dismissive laugh, examining his cards-"And children with big ears certainly aren't given presents.

They both looked crestfallen, but that couldn't be helped-

"Go back to your stepmother now," he instructed. "You're disturbing my play."

They curtsied disconsolately and scurried off, but recovered sufficiently to take strawberry tarts from a salver that a footman obligingly held down to them.

"pretty little things," the dowager duchess said. "So like their mother. The same eyes." She leaned sideways and bellowed at Michael's averted back. "I was just saying, Prince. Your daughters… such pretty little things… the image of their mother-may she rest in peace," she added piously, crossing herself.

Michael looked over his shoulder. His eyes were blank. "How kind of you to say so, madame." He turned back to his cards.