“Everyone else left so quickly that you were the first one I could tell.” Thomas stood close enough that she could smell the opium on his breath.
Rosetta fought to conceal her relief. Surely providence was with her this night. She straightened her spine and spoke with what she hoped was a scornful, yet reasonable tone. “Good, for no doubt if word returned to our master that we were plotting to kill the hunter without notifying him, he would take our plan as mutiny and the one responsible for inspiring the idea would likely suffer a punishment most severe.”
“I say, I didn’t think about it that way.” Thomas slumped against a tavern wall, unmindful of the soot and grime coating it. “You are wise for your meager years, Rosetta. Do you think we should just tell him?”
“No!” she cried and then composed herself. Thomas was a drug-addled idiot. She couldn’t imagine what would possess a vampire worth its salt to Change him. “That is, Burnrath seemed quite vexed with you tonight. Let me inform him of the vampire hunter’s presence in London, and then when the moment is right, I’ll tell him that the information came from you. After all,” she added. “I am too young to qualify for advancement to a loftier position. You, on the other hand…” She trailed off, allowing him to speculate.
“You may be right. But what if he does not believe you? Or worse, what if he does not listen or heed the danger?” Thomas scratched his beard. “Perhaps we should tell Ian’s second.”
Rosetta hid her shiver with a mocking laugh. “The Spaniard? If he hears a hunter is in town, he’ll tear the city apart in his fury. You do realize that’s what caused his injuries.” She shook her head. “Involving him is too dangerous. I say we follow through with your original plan and take care of this Ben Flannigan ourselves.”
Thomas chuckled. “That’s my clever girl. At the rate you are headed, you will be lord of a city by the end of this century. We’ll do it your way for now.”
When Thomas left, Rosetta shivered and rubbed her arms. Could she do it? Could she pass herself off as a human to this vampire hunter? There was no other way to contact him, for she couldn’t risk putting anything in writing. She ran through the fog, cutting through the thick air like a predatory sword as she weighed the risks and hunted her next meal. Surely if this Flannigan spotted her for what she was, she could overpower him with ease.
And if she did nothing? If she continued to hide Polidori from the duke until he eventually discovered her ruse, which—from the way his wife and now the Spaniard looked at her—would be soon… then a multitude of likely punishments loomed overhead. She could handle the punishment, or so she preferred to believe, but the thought of what would happen to her beloved John struck chords of terror within her being.
And what if she went through with it and was caught? If the duke discovered that she’d hired a vampire hunter to assassinate him, her death would be painful, to say nothing of John’s. That was the law when it came to traitors.
But if she succeeded…
Rosetta allowed a rose of hope to bloom in her breast. She and John could be safe. She would kill the vampire hunter and none would be wiser. Then, while the Spaniard was occupied with taking the reins, she and John could leave the city peacefully. After a few years she could apply to her new lord to Change her love, or perhaps she would be powerful enough by then to do the deed herself.
She was so lost in thought that she nearly tripped over a vagrant lying in a gutter. As her fangs sank into his throat, another thought reared its ugly head. Could she bear having the murder of her master on her conscience? She’d never killed anyone before. And was the life of another worth the safety of her love?
Twenty
Angelica spent the next two weeks in frantic preparation for her first ball. Her days were spent receiving callers, shopping, and planning the party. Her mother came every day to help with the invitations and seating arrangements, and the two gradually grew closer.
Her nights were spent in Ian’s passionate embraces as he made love to her and afterward held her in his arms as they talked quietly together, replete in their passion. She had the windows boarded up on the entire upper story so that Ian could sleep with her. He was reluctant at first, but once she convinced him that not a sliver of sunlight would touch that level of the house and had the door armed with a massive lock so no one could disturb his rest, he consented to abandon his secret lair below the house.