Page 99 of The Girl Out of Time
The lively atmosphere of the ballroom felt foreign, almost invasive, as she made her way back to where she’d left Louisa and Sebastian. She touched her cheek. Did she look different on the outside? She should—a realizationlike this was bound to do something to her appearance. But no one looked at her differently, and when her first dance partner came to pick her up for a quadrille, he only made the most casual, polite remarks about her countenance and the swiftness and accuracy of her steps.
And yet, everything had changed. She glanced around the room as she danced and conversed, eyes landing on Lady Cassiopeia, who’d shaken her group of admirers down to three. Emmeline smiled to herself.Shedidn’t need ten, or five, or three.
There was only one worth fighting for.
Chapter 24
“May I see the riddle again?” Theo asked as they walked up the stairs to the second floor of the British Museum. He kept his voice low; it tended to echo across the empty hallway, and even the display rooms, while populated by smaller groups of visitors, were quiet, almost as in a library.
Emmeline handed him the piece of paper. They strolled through the first room, hosting a collection of ancient Greek vases.
“Under the watchful Romeo’s eyes,” Theo murmured. “I assume that’s what led you to the museum?”
“Yes. Montague House.” She gestured around them. “I’m sure there’s something else in London one could ascribe toRomeo and Juliet, but a museum seems a fitting place to hide a clue.”
“Fitting, and large.”
“It won’t be as bad once we figure out where to look.”
Theo stroked his chin and murmured the previous lines of the clue. “Where the great library burned; and the monster his glory had earned; in its steel cradle now lies…”
The next room displayed a collection of pristine white marble Greek statues. Emmeline couldn’t help but examine the fine work: the smooth lines of Discobolus’s muscles as he bent down in preparation for the discus throw, and the incredibly precise, lifelike draping of Venus’s chiton, so fine the fabric, even though etched in stone, looked sheer enough to outline her knees.
The statue was nude from the hips up, and Emmeline suddenly felt self-conscious as her eyes slid over Venus’s breasts and down the smooth curve of her belly, past the navel, to where her dress barely hid her pubic region, leaving one tantalizing wrinkle in the marble flesh, between her belly and her thigh. Emmeline became strangely aware of her own body—her breasts, restrained by the light corset and three layers of clothes—her belly, and a glowing ball of desire pooling into the area between her legs—all because Theo was standing right there. While he oh-so-innocently studied the note, her mind flashed to last night, to that amorous couple in the bedroom, and it all blurred into a strange yearning. How would it feel if Theo had touched her? Her mouth went dry, imagining Venus as herself, and Theo looking at her, and—
“She is quite obsessed with Bonaparte, isn’t she?”
“Huh?” She shook herself out of her reverie. Theo had finally glanced up from the note; if he’d noticed anything strange about her—was she blushing?—he gave no sign of it.
“Lady Scarlet. This is the second time she’s brought Bonaparte into a riddle, at least assuming it refers to the same ‘monster.’ But it would fit. The great library is Alexandria, in Egypt, where Bonaparte made his name.”
“And there’s an Egyptian exhibition here!” Emmeline did a little jump. “That must be it!”
“Let’s go see it.”
They progressed to the next room, Emmeline glad they’d left the naked statues behind. Focusing on the clue didn’t help; she still felt awkward, like her every move was being watched and her desires somehow betrayed.
Howwouldit feel if he touched her? Not her hand, not her shoulder, not even her cheeks or her lips. If he went lower, past her collarbones, past the edge of her dress—
“Isn’t that your friend?” Theo said.
Stop!She tried to re-focus. Wait, thatwasLouisa. Emmeline called her name and got shushed by one of the museum attendants. Louisa looked up from a flock of stuffed birds and pushed her spectacles further up her nose.
“Emmeline!” She ran to her in short steps, as if trying to disguise it as a walk. “How lovely to see you here. And …” She squinted at Theo. “You look familiar.”
Emmeline and Theo shared a quick glance. “I may have worked for you for a few months last summer,” Theo said.
“Now I remember!”
The attendant coughed again, and Louisa lowered her voice. “Wasn’t he your servant—well, you said he was, but then, you also said—hold on, is he your accomplice?”
“No,” Emmeline said in an urgent, hushed tone.
“Did you also give us a false name?” Louisa asked, more curiously than accusatory.
Theo cleared his throat, his ear tips coloring.
“He did no such thing,” Emmeline said. “He didn’t know about my scheme.”
