Page 23 of Aurelia

“Thank you!” he looked as gleeful as a little boy as he used his candlestick to light a massive candelabra that sat on a long trestle table. “The lack of windows is the only drawback of being down here, but I tolerate it because the cold is so good for the pieces. Indeed, there is an ice room several chambers over. I keep untreated samples in there.” He turned to her, the light from a dozen candles causing red and gold flames to dance over his pale skin and making him bear more than a passing resemblance to an inhabitant in a Bosch painting of Hell.

Aurelia shivered.

His glee melted away immediately, concern taking its place. “Oh dear! You are cold. Well, I shan’t keep you long. I just wanted to give you an idea of what there is.” He strode toward one of the walls, which was covered with birds forever in flight. “Anything small you can just carry up to either the library or whatever workroom Crewe has set up for you. If you need something large one of the servants can carry it up for you. For example, you will get to paint that—” he turned to point at the far corner of the room.

Aurelia gasped at the huge panther, which was frozen in mid-leap. “My goodness! It is so lifelike.”

Mr. Montgomery chuckled. “Yes, that is one of my most impressive pieces.” His mouth turned down at the corners. “Although there are some flaws on the other side where the exit wound is. It is most unfortunate.”

Aurelia forced herself to approach the giant beast. “How big is it?”

“Seven-feet-one-inch from his nose to the tip of his tail. He was the biggest of his kind that we saw during the expedition.” He lowered his voice. “This is the very same animal who killed her ladyship and injured Crewe.”

The creature’s paws were massive. Now she understood the destruction on his lordship’s face. “I am surprised this is the same animal, I would have thought—”

“That the earl would not want such a reminder?” Mr. Montgomery guessed.

“Well… yes.”

His mouth shifted into a cynical smile that looked odd on his angelic features. “Crewe does not have delicate sensibilities, Miss Burton. He is a scientist through and through. Even that night—when he was in danger of bleeding to death—he made it clear that the animal needed to be preserved.”

“The eyes are amazing,” she said, barely having to bend to be face-to-face with the savage creature. “So lifelike.”

“I get them from a glass artist in Venice. The same place that—” he broke off. “Murano, it is called.”

For some reason, she didn’t think that was what he’d been going to say.

Aurelia turned away from the disquieting panther and inspected the dozens of birds. “You are an artist, Mr. Montgomery.” She was astounded by the gleam of feathers on the neck of a small bird, the posture of the animal so lifelike it was almost… mocking.

“Thank you. And please, as we will be working closely together won’t you call me Arthur?”

Aurelia turned around and was startled to find him so close they almost touched. She gave a nervous laugh and took a half-step away. “I would be honored. And you must call me Aurelia.”

“Aurelia,” he repeated, entranced. “How lovely”

Aurelia shivered. Whether at the chill or the dead animals or the odd man standing almost on her toes, she couldn’t have said.

He shook himself. “But you are cold. I will escort you back to—”

“I can find my room—truly. Please. Don’t bestir yourself.”

“If you are sure?”

“I am sure.”

“I was going to work a bit.” He gave her an almost dreamy look. “I do a great deal of work during the night. My cousin likes to say I was an owl in a former life.”

With his almost round eyes he certainly looked like one.

“Good night, Mr.—”

“Tut, tut—Arthur,” he said, his smile puckish.

“Good night, Arthur.”

She breathed a sigh of relief once she’d left behind the museum of the dead. Fortunately, she had paid attention on the way down to the bowels of the building so she took no wrong turns going back up.

As she made her way through the sprawling building, fatigue suddenly struck her and her feet felt like lead blocks as she climbed two sets of stairs and plodded down a half dozen corridors to reach her room. It wasn’t terribly late, so it must have been the sea air that had sapped her of energy.