Lucasta had agreed to meet her friends by the Chinese pavilion, and she was grateful that Annis and Minnie were tall; there was a chance of locating them in the crowd.
Lucasta had been warned that some of the costumes would shock her, and that was true. Near the canal where musicians floated in an anchored boat and played a lovely little chamber piece, a woman laughed as a naughty devil snatched away the neckerchief covering her chest. Beneath she was completely bare, not even a shift to cover the bosoms spilling over her tightly laced stays. The woman wriggled her shoulders in a generous display, while the men in the vicinity hooted their appreciation.
Cici let out awhooshof breath.
“That is—the most convincing devil costume I have ever seen,” she whispered. “Pitchfork, horns, everything.”
“I was hoping such antics would wait until after dark,” Trevor said, a tight set to his mouth. “I meant to get you away before the worst started.”
Trevor, turning prim? Lucasta would not have thought it. She had no intention of baring anything, of course, but the wild spirit of play infected her. She could see why moralists crusaded against masquerades, claiming they encouraged licentious behavior, upset the social order, and encouraged transgression. She very much felt like transgressing tonight.
She’d already been licentious, kissing Jem in his draper’s shop. Her toes curled into her slippers at the memory of that kiss. There’d be no more kisses like that, now that she knew the truth of him. She’d had her one and only taste of passion.
“There you are! Yoo hoo! Queen Hera!”
The Gorgons had commanded one of the best spots, a railing along the perimeter of the Chinese pavilion. This elegant structure overlooked the canal and one of the walks, framed by the looming shadow of the Rotunda. They could observe the crowd on shore and watch the small boats punting over the water with their gaily dressed occupants. Lucasta clung tightly to Trevor’s arm as they edged along the plank leading to the Pavilion, built in the center of the canal.
“Mr. Pevensey! Are you Zeus, to match our Lucasta?” Minnie laughed.
“If only I had been so wise as to inquire in advance. I am Julius Caesar.”
Trevor didn’t look delighted to see the Gorgons. They’d been cordial but cool to him, following Lucasta’s lead, and he frowned as Selina drew Lucasta away.
“Miss Pevensey.” Annis pounced on Cici. “Are you Pope Joan? How witty! I adore it.” She winked. “Next time you willhave to make her…” She rounded her hands before her belly. “Enceinte. For full effect.”
Cici laughed. “I knew Trevor would never condone it.”
“Indeed I would not,” said her brother in a freezing tone.
“Lucasta, the strangest person has been asking about you,” Selina said.
Lucasta’s heart gave a foolish leap. “Je—I mean, Rudyard?”
“No, I think I would recognize Lord Rudyard, even in disguise. This was someone else, dressed in the most frightful furs and robes, with a mustache and a beard. I found him quite alarming. He quizzed us terribly on our relation to you, and when we expected you, and what company you were keeping. I think we ought to do our best to avoid him.”
“That’s him in the boat,” Minnie said as one of the long, narrow wooden boats nosed up to them. “Do you know him?”
“Not in that costume,” Lucasta answered.
The man in the boat wore enormous silk robes dyed the orange-yellow of costly saffron and over that what looked like a bear pelt, with claws dangling over a very broad chest. He seemed a stocky sort, not at all Rudyard’s sleek build, and a drooping mustache and black beard disguised his face. The features beneath were not known to her, but there was something predatory, and familiar, in the gleam of his eyes as his gaze lit on Lucasta.
“Queen Hera! The goddesses of Olympus now assembled! Will you do me the honor of floating with me, o Empress of Heaven?” the stranger called out.
“Thank you, no,” Lucasta called back. “I do not think it wise, o menacing one, to trust my divine self with a person unknown to me.”
He wore a black wig and an odd kind of headdress with a furred rim and flaps over the ears, but something about hisprominent nose teased her memory. She knew that nose, but from where?
He shot a scornful glare to the side as another boat on the crowded canal bumped into his, a jester and a lady in mask and domino laughing, and Lucasta’s stomach twisted. He was definitely not a mild-mannered sort of man.
“Who should not wish to be in the company of the Ruler of Heaven?” her suitor bellowed. “Let me make myself known! I, o Queen, am Kubla Khan, great Khan of the Mongols and Emperor of China. The Venetian explorer Marco Polo served at my court for a time. My grandfather was the greatest conqueror the world has ever known, and my empire spans half the earth. Surely of all mortals I am fit consort to a goddess and queen?”
“Who is he?” Annis drew close, watching the stranger curiously.
“I haven’t a notion,” Lucasta replied. But he was making a spectacle of himself and her. Much like Rudyard had contrived to do.
She had a word or three she wanted to say to Smart Jeremy, milord Rudyard.
And also, if she were to be fully honest with herself, she wanted Jem to see her in costume. It was her most flattering gown yet.
