Her Dark Curiosity

He commandeered the professor’s dining room and spent the morning testing various serums in an effort to cure my illness, much to the perplexity of Elizabeth and the professor, who ate at the kitchen table instead. By afternoon tea my tongue was raw from swallowing pills, both arms were riddled with needle holes, and I felt decidedly uncured.

 

I rested my head on the dining room table, his makeshift examination space. “I told you, I’ve already tried all of Father’s various formulas. They’re practically the only things that make any sense in his journal, but none of them work.”

 

A commotion sounded in the hall. Montgomery and I hurried to the hallway, where a strange sight met us. Balthazar cringed while Lucy, dressed in an elegant hip-length jacket, pummeled him with her handbag.

 

“Let go of me, you devil!” she cried, boxing the handbag against his ear.

 

“What on earth is going on?” I exclaimed.

 

“Found a girl snooping around the garden,” Balthazar said.

 

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, I was hardly snooping around,” Lucy said. “I came to see if you had recovered yet, and this devil accosted me.”

 

“Let her go, Balthazar,” Montgomery said.

 

“You hear that?” Lucy snapped. “Unhand me!”

 

Balthazar’s mouth folded in a frown, but he released her. She dusted off her jacket and cast an angry stare at him over her shoulder.

 

“You still look like death, Juliet,” she observed. “But at least you’re no longer raving about cutting dogs open. Now you can tell me why the devil I heard you’re engaged. Elizabeth told Aunt Edith, and everyone is talking about it.” She glanced pointedly at Montgomery, who backed away slowly and returned to his medical notations at the dining room table. I pulled Lucy into the foyer, but she kept straining to look back at Montgomery.

 

“That’s him, isn’t it?” She peeked back around the doorway. “Oh my, Juliet, he’s quite handsome.”

 

“The engagement isn’t true. That’s Montgomery James, the assistant I told you about. He followed Edward back to London and made up the engagement as justification for being alone with me while we figure out what the King’s Club is planning.”

 

Her face wrinkled in confusion and I paused, realizing she had no idea the danger spread beyond her father. I pulled her into the dining room, where Montgomery looked up from his work.

 

“Lucy knows everything, except what we learned last night.” I explained to her what we overheard her father and the other King’s Men saying on the balcony.

 

“But why do they need Edward?” she asked, sounding worried.

 

“We aren’t certain,” Montgomery said.

 

“They spoke of extracting something from him to complete the rest of the specimens,” I said, then paused, forgetting I was talking about slicing open the man she loved. “Whatever they’re planning, it seems to culminate on New Year’s Day.”

 

Lucy sat straight up at this. “New Year’s Day? And the King’s Club is involved?”

 

I nodded, filled with an unsettling premonition. “Why, do you know something?”

 

“Papa’s on the planning committee for the club’s charitable activities. This year they’re planning a paupers’ ball for the city’s poor. They’re distributing warm meals and secondhand clothes. The crowd will fill Parliament Square.” She paused. “It’s scheduled for New Year’s Day.”

 

I exchanged an alarmed glance with Montgomery, who stood and paced to the window, deep in thought.

 

“What does it mean?” Lucy asked. “Is it a coincidence?”

 

“We don’t know,” I said. “At least not yet.”

 

Lucy pulled over her handbag and drew out a thick set of keys, which she threw on the table. “Then let’s find out,” she said. “I stole these from Papa. I thought they might come in handy.”

 

My eyes went big. “Lucy, if he finds out . . .”

 

“That’s why we have to be fast. One of those unlocks the smoking room at King’s College of Medical Research, where the King’s Club holds their meetings. It should be empty tonight, since Papa left on business first thing this morning. I’ll need to have the keys back in his desk by the time he comes home tomorrow, or he’ll be furious.”

 

“You want to investigate tonight?” I said.

 

“Juliet, this is my father. You have the luxury of knowing yours was insane. I can’t sleep until I find out what the devil mine is up to.”

 

I shook my head, reluctant to involve her. “How would we even get to King’s College? The professor watches me like a hawk now, especially after the attack at the masquerade.”

 

“There’s a lecture this evening at King’s College on the women’s role in household management,” she said. “It’s being held upstairs in the same building. Tell the professor we’re attending. Montgomery can go as our driver.”

 

Her idea wasn’t a bad one, and I drummed my fingers, thinking. “I suppose I could feign a fainting spell halfway through the lecture. You could run and fetch Montgomery under the guise of taking me home . . .”

 

“ . . . but we’d really sneak into the King’s Club smoking room,” Lucy finished.