“Is your lady not present, my lord?” Trey asked.
“No.” There was much fury in that single word. Again, he struggled to compose himself. “She has taken ill since her return. Mayhaps the babe troubles her.”
And maybe, the wind whispered, it is something else.
“Do you think she might see me?” I asked. “It’s unseemly she spends such a time of celebration by herself.”
Marcus studied me for a moment, and then nodded abruptly. “It is worth a try, I suppose. If you can convince her to come out of hiding, even if only for an hour or so, I would be appreciative.”
He snapped his fingers, and a blue-clad pageboy instantly appeared. “Escort the lady N to my lady’s rooms.”
Trey released me. I bowed to Marcus, and then followed the page out of the ballroom. In the colder silence of the halls, the wind’s chatter seemed to increase, whispering of dark secrets and even darker actions in play. Details, however, remained scant.
The Rossi family’s private accommodation consisted of one entire side of the V-shaped house, and its halls were even more ornate than the guest and entertainment spaces. It was a place of gold and silver, with rich hues on the walls and the floors in the form of tapestries and carpets. Lady Saska’s apartments lay at the rear of the building, in what would be a wide, blunt end of the V-structure.
The page stopped at the ornate silver-and-blue door and pressed a buzzer. After several seconds, footsteps approached.
“Yes?” The woman who opened the door was middle-aged and friendly looking.
“The lady N is here to see Lady S.”
Obviously, even though we were now beyond the boundaries of the masque, initials still had to be used in public.
The maidservant hesitated. “One moment, and I shall ask m’lady if she wishes to be disturbed.”
The door closed again. The page shuffled his feet from side to side, looking rather impatient—at least until he caught my amusement and remembered his manners. I felt like telling him not to bother, but refrained. In this place, my attitude had to appear no different to any of the others here.
The footsteps approached again. Although I’d half expected to be turned away, the maidservant rather surprisingly opened the door wider and bid me to enter. “Please, Lady N, come in.”
I thanked the page then entered. Saska’s rooms were—unsurprisingly—far grander than the one I shared with Trey. The lounging room was vast, and filled with enough cloudsaks, hassocks, and divans to seat several households. To my right, there were three doors—the sleeping quarters, bathroom, and separate privy, from what I could see of the rooms beyond—but to my left, there was an entire wall of sliding glass partitions, several of which were open. The wind whistled in, filling the room with the salt of the sea and a feeling of anger. Whatever was going on in this place, she did not like it.
The maidservant led me out onto the balcony. The wind was even fiercer out here, her touch cold and almost violent, tearing at my dress and mask as if she meant to strip me bare. I hastily slipped off the mask and handed it to the maidservant, who, after announcing me, curtseyed and rather sensibly went back inside.
Saska leaned against the stone cap railing, her silver-touched black hair streaming out behind her like a wind-torn thundercloud.
For a minute I wasn’t even sure she was aware of my presence, but then, in a voice that was little more than a whisper, she said, “The wind admonishes me.”
I stopped beside her and leaned my forearms against the rail. The stone was as cold as the wind, and just as furious. This close to Saska, I could see the paleness of her lips and the shivers that assailed her.
“And why would the wind do that, Lady Saska?”
“I do not know.”
The wind battered her, forcing her to grip the railing tightly to prevent being flung backward.
After a moment, she whispered, “She’s angry with me.”
Obviously. The question was, why?
“You’re her voice in this world,” I said carefully. “What is it that you’re not saying for her?”
Saska’s gaze came to mine. Her silver eyes were remote—distant—and I had a vague feeling it wasn’t me she was seeing or hearing. There were others—others who might or might not be real—who had her attention right now.
She stared at me for so long I didn’t think she intended to answer, and then she swallowed heavily. “I can hear them, you know.”
I frowned. “The whispers of the wind?”
She waved a hand almost impatiently. “No, the other voices. The ones that belong to her.”
“Her?” I hesitated, gathering skirts that threatened to end up around my ears. The wind spun around me, her voice filled with amusement. She might be angry with Saska, but it seemed she was feeling very flirtatious with me. “Do you mean one of the women at the masque?”
“I’d thought that by taking them off,” she continued, as if I hadn’t spoken, “it would break our connection. But I was wrong. And she is very angry.”
So she wasn’t talking about the wind as much as that other, nebulous she—the person who’d given her those bracelets. The woman she had designated “queen.”
“Why would the queen be angry with you, Saska?”
“Because I ran. Because it makes communications difficult.” She shivered again and rubbed her arms. “I cannot do what she asks. I simply cannot.”
A sliver of alarm ran through me. Was Lord Kiro right—was the epicenter of whatever was happening to be found right here in this house? With Lady Saska herself? “And what does she want, Saska?”
She blinked, and that odd remoteness disappeared. Whatever had momentarily possessed her had fled.
“Neve,” she said. “What a surprise.”
I curtseyed lightly. “I came to see if you’re okay, Lady Saska. You are missed at the masque.”
She snorted. “Certainly not by my whore of a husband. He has his hetaera to accompany him in my place, after all. Did you know the bitch has borne him three sons?”
“So I heard.” I touched her arm lightly. “I’m sorry for the position you’ve been placed in, Lady Saska, but it’s not unexpected given your length of time away.”
She glared down at my hand for a moment, but she didn’t shake me loose and something within her oddly seemed to relax. “I guess. But it rankles nevertheless.”
“Then why hide in your suite? Why not go out there, into that masque, and show everyone who is the true mistress of this house?”
She stared at me for another lengthy amount of time. The wind continued to stir around us, but its force was gentler against me than her. And for once, I could hear what it said to her; it wanted her to do as I suggested. That the whispers would be lessened if she were not alone.
The wind knew what afflicted her. It just wasn’t ready to tell me. Which was frustrating but not unexpected. She was beholden to Saska, not me.
“You don’t stand on ceremony around me, do you?” she said eventually. “You give your thoughts and opinions honestly, and that is rather rare around here. The wind says I should trust you.”
I half smiled. “The wind is wise. And I didn’t save your ass in Tenterra, Lady Saska, to threaten it in any way now.”
“Indeed.” A small but nevertheless real smile touched her lips. I had a vague feeling that didn’t happen all too often. “Then let us get out of the chill of this wind, and go create some havoc at the masque.”
I smiled and turned to walk alongside her. Once inside, her maidservant hastily smoothed her hair and dress, and then placed the mask upon her. Once I’d donned mine, a pageboy was summoned and we were escorted back to the ballroom, where she was grandly announced.