There. Let her stew on that.
Cecelia nodded gravely. “If they were sleeping at the time, they would have died from the smoke. They probably never woke up, if that’s any consolation.”
“It’s … yes, thank you.” I frowned. This girl wasn’t much for etiquette, it seemed. I wondered what sort of topics she would consider off the table. Were there any?
She seemed to catch my quizzical look and smiled. “People are uncomfortable with death. But it’s part of the cycle of life, is it not? In the end, it comes for all of us. I personally would rather not dance around conversations on the subject.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I appreciate your line of thought, Lady Alvarez.” I glanced toward the duke, feeble in his chair while his family stood around him. “I would rather deal with a quick, painless death than be forced to watch someone I care about slowly wither away.”
She followed my gaze. “Although they will be prepared when the time comes. The grieving has already commenced for them. They have the opportunity to say their goodbyes.”
“That, they do.” I shifted. “Have you … lost someone close?”
“I have not.”
“Yet you speak like an authority on the subject.”
“Thank you.”
I squinted at her, trying to figure her out as Melbourne returned, shoving a glass into Cecelia’s hand with little ceremony. “There. Happy?” he said.
“Quite,” Cecelia replied, stone-faced.
He looked to me. “What did I miss?”
“We were reflecting on death,” I told him.
Melbourne sighed. “The last I checked, this was a ball, not a funeral.”
Cecelia lifted her glass to her lips before pausing. “Is this season not a death of sorts? The death of childhood, moving into adult life through marriage and—”
“Yes, yes, new phases of life, etcetera. Must you always be so morbid, Cecelia? You cannot expect to secure the future duke’s fancy with such talk. Now … if you’d rather leave the courtship to me, I would be happy to step in for you. We can’tallbe equal competitors, after all. There are going to be favorites.”
“And you are the logical choice?” I asked with a teasing smile.
“Who can resist this magnetism?”
A new voice cut into the conversation. “Anyone who’s caught a whiff of your reputation, perhaps?”
Two girls joined us. The one who’d spoken was a pretty blonde girl with her hair pulled up to showcase her neck. My eyes were immediately drawn to her throat, an enticing sight for the vampire instincts lingering within me. She wore a cobalt blue dress that matched my coat, and she was decked out with diamond jewelry, from her necklace, to her earrings, to the melee diamonds in her blue mask. She was flaunting her wealth and looked good doing it. She turned the bluest eyes I’d ever seen on me and smiled, although it was clearly forced. “Nice color. A shame that it looks better on me.”
“I think it looks wonderful on the both of you,” the other girl piped up. This girl was short and pale, with light brown hair and glasses perched on her nose. She was rather plain, but her red dress flattered her figure, and her smile was radiant and infectious. She’d made an attempt to thread red ribbons around her glasses to give them the semblance of a mask, but the ribbon was loose at her left ear and hung down to graze her neck. She bobbed her head to me. “I’m Violetta Abbott.” She gestured to the first girl. “This is Isabel Crane. And you must be Lady Grafton’s great-nephew, Count Lucian Cross?”
“I am. Word travels fast.” I eyed Isabel’s dress. It did become her very nicely. I wondered what Zachariah would think. No doubt I was more ravishing than this disagreeable girl. Her temperament alone lowered her in my esteem. I couldn’t imagine Ambrose overlooking it.
“Always a pleasure, Isabel,” Melbourne said, bowing to the girl. He reached out for her hand, but she snatched it away. He sent me an embarrassed shrug.
“Have you been to the library?” Violetta asked me, eyes sparkling. “It’s simply marvelous. It’s much better than the town library.”
“I haven’t perused the collection yet, but I’m sure I’ll find it adequate during my stay.”
Violetta nodded vigorously. “Especially if you have an interest in the occult. I’ve never seen so many books on the supernatural in one place.”
“I’ve noticed that as well,” Cecelia said. “It even puts The Bodleian Library in Oxford to shame. I was researching ghouls and Emmett recommended I take a look here, and sure enough, everything I could have wanted and more was available. I heard Thomas Grange gifted many of them to the duke. He’s quite the occult scholar.”
“Of course you would be researching ghouls for fun,” Isabel muttered, crossing her arms. “Why do they have so many grisly books anyway?” She shook her head. “Probably because they have three boys. If they’d had but one girl, that room would be brimming with more appropriate titles for an impressionable mind.”
Melbourne wrinkled his nose. “Aren’t there enough libraries full of Jane Austen and those flowery romances?”
