“We shouldn’t have done this,” I panted.
“And why is that?”
“I liked it too much. And it’s. It’s complicated.”
“Uncomplicate it,” he said.
“I can’t,” I said.
“Well then,” he said, a Cheshire cat look on his face, and he left the room, lingering on the doorway to give me a wink.
Oh, this was a problem, I thought.
Chapter 9
I’d tidied myself up as best I could, and tried to reconnoiter with present-Vic. It was hard to look at him directly in the face. This Vic was so different. It was hard to really put my finger on what it was.
Finger. I would have laughed if this wasn’t such a problem.
I looked at his hands and found myself blushing again.
It was just an Echo, I thought to myself. Just an Echo. None of this is real. All of this is some mass house hallucination.
“Did you find anything out?” present-Vic asked, pulling at his bowtie.
I tried to speak, but couldn’t find the words, so I just shrugged.
“Well, I was busy while you were screwing around,” he said. “That blonde woman in the corner. She’s the Widow Foster, wife of the former Governor. Apparently, when Governor Foster passed away, she inherited his property and everything. From what I’ve worked out in conversation with the staff, the little girl in the kitchen, the soup girl. She was the lovechild of Tremblay and this woman. At the time, she was a prostitute, and he paid her off to take the child and let Mother Cantwell raise her. Well, now that she has money, she wants her child back. Only problem is, Tremblay has dirt on her, that she was a prostitute. She has dirt on him—evidence that he’d visited a lady of the night. They’re in a stalemate, so she comes and tries to visit her daughter. Widow Foster’s bound to silence, though, for fear Tremblay will reveal her past and damage her standing in society. They hate each other, apparently.”
“So she has motive,” I said.
“Exactly,” he said. “You sure you didn’t find anything out?”
“Umm,” I said. “Okay. I found the Duke’s room. I found his secret ledger. He’s shipping Opium in place of metals, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was hiding it from Tremblay.”
“Alright, then that means there are two people with motives here,” he said.
“Well,” I said. “Then you came and found me.”
“Me?” Vic asked. “I’ve been out here—ohhhh.”
“Yeah,” I said. “The past you said you were working for Tremblay. That you were hired to investigate all of his close allies, that this party was really a ruse to get everyone together and try to see what was going on with their plans.”
“That sounds like something I would have done, too. What’s wrong?”
“I. Uh. There was. An incident.”
“He—I—you weren’t bitten, were you?”
I shook my head.
“No,” I said. “He made a pass at me.”
Vic blinked and then shrugged.
“Yeah, fits the mark,” he said. “I’m sorry. Why do you still look—oh, oh no.”
“Yeah,” I said.
