“Jem, then?”
Something flickered in Wil ’s eyes. “No. Not tonight. Jem is not wel enough, but he wil say he is. After last night I owe it to him to leave him out of this.”
Tessa looked at him hard. “Then what do you propose to do?”
Wil ’s mouth quirked up at both corners. “Miss Gray,” he said, “would you be amenable to attending a bal with me?”
“Do you remember the last party we went to?” Tessa inquired.
Wil ’s smile remained. He had that look of heightened intensity that he wore when he was strategizing a plan. “Don’t tel me that you weren’t thinking the same thing I was, Tessa.”
Tessa sighed. “Yes,” she said. “I shal Change into Jessamine and go in her place. It is the only plan that makes sense.” She turned to Sophie.
“Do you know the dress Nate spoke of? A white dress of Jessamine’s?”
Sophie nodded.
“Get it brushed and ready to be worn,” said Tessa. “You wil have to do my hair as wel , Sophie. Are you calm enough?”
“Yes, miss.” Sophie got to her feet and scurried across the room to the wardrobe, which she threw open. Wil was stil looking at Tessa; his smile widened.
Tessa lowered her voice. “Wil , has it crossed your mind that Mortmain might be there?”
The smile vanished from Wil ’s face. “You wil go nowhere near him if he is.”
“You cannot tel me what to do.”
Wil frowned. He was not reacting at al in the way Tessa felt he should. When Capitola in The Hidden Hand dressed up as a boy and took on the marauding Black Donald to prove her bravery, no one snapped at her.
“Your power is impressive, Tessa, but you are in no position to capture a powerful adult magic user like Mortmain. You wil leave that to me,” he said.
She scowled at him. “And how do you plan not to be recognized at this bal ? Benedict knows your face, as do—”
Wil seized the invitation out of her hand and waved it at her. “It’s a masked bal .”
“And I suppose you just happen to have a mask.”
“As a matter of fact I do,” said Wil . “Our last Christmas party was themed along the lines of the Venetian Carnevale.” He smirked. “Tel her, Sophie.”
Sophie, who was busy with what looked like a concoction of spiderwebs and moonbeams on the brushing tray, sighed. “It’s true, miss. And you let him deal with Mortmain, you hear? It’s too dangerous otherwise. And you’l be al the way in Chiswick!”
Wil looked at Tessa with triumph. “If even Sophie agrees with me, you can’t very wel say no.”
“I could,” Tessa said mutinously, “but I won’t. Very wel . But you must stay out of Nate’s way while I speak with him. He isn’t an idiot; if he sees us together, he’s quite capable of putting two and two together. I get no sense from his note that he expects Jessamine to be accompanied.”
“I get no sense from his note at al ,” said Wil , bounding to his feet, “except that he can quote Tennyson’s lesser poetry. Sophie, how quickly can you have Tessa ready?”
“Half an hour,” said Sophie, not looking up from the dress.
“Meet me in the courtyard in half an hour, then,” said Wil . “I’l wake Cyril. And be prepared to swoon at my finery.”
The night was a cool one, and Tessa shivered as she passed through the doors of the Institute and stood at the head of the steps outside. This was where she had sat, she thought, that night she and Jem had walked to Blackfriars Bridge together, the night the clockwork creatures had attacked them. It was a clearer night tonight, despite the day of rain; the moon chased stray wisps of cloud across an otherwise unmarked black sky.
The carriage was there, at the foot of the steps, Wil waiting in front of it. He glanced up as the doors of the Institute closed behind her. For a moment they simply stood and looked at each other. Tessa knew what he was seeing—she had seen it herself, in the mirror in Jessamine’s room.