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“He is Marquess of Stancliff.” The duke’s nostrils flared. “I instilled in him a sense of duty.”
“And the sense that he has already failed,” said Alan in a low voice. “That he has already dashed your hopes. That he is the source of your abject misery.”
“I’m not miserable.”
“Brother, you are rancid with it.” Alan leaned forward. “Misery permeates your house. Your foul mood is as bad for Claud as a wet climate.”
“Here it comes. I’m making Claud ill.” The duke sneered. “Like our mother made you ill.”
Alan’s face turned white.
Nina started forward. The duke turned his head and gave her a look of vague surprise.
“I don’t think you invented Claud’s illness, or that you’re the cause.” Alan was still as stone. “Claud has tuberculosis.”
The duke’s head snapped back around.
Alan rolled his shoulders, straightening. “He should go to Pistoia, if that’s what the doctors recommend.”
The duke froze, jawbone straining against the skin. He stood for three heartbeats in silence, then twitched into motion. “I need to find him.”
He was halfway across the room when Alan called out.
“Let me help.”
The duke kept walking. Nina gave herself a shake, picked up her skirts, and ran. She beat him to the door, with enough time to whirl around and—
“Dear God.” He recoiled, just avoiding the collision. “Remove yourself from my path.” He flicked the air, grimacing his distaste, then whipped around as Alan came up behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder.
“Where is he? You are hiding him, dammit.”
Alan glanced at Nina, a question in his eyes. She nodded. Tell him.
She’d guessed too.
“I’m not hiding him.” Alan sighed. “But I know where to look.”
The duke shrugged off his hand. “After you, then.”
—
The Royal Aquarium was an enormous building, with a soaring barrel-vaulted roof of glass ribbed with iron. Nina’s heart sank as she entered the great hall. It was chaotic and noisy, crowded with hothouse plants, fountains, statues, and above all, spectators, hundreds of them, cheering and heckling the different acts. She craned her neck and watched a pretty girl dance on a wire in a costume that resembled satin smallclothes with stockings. It was only a moment’s distraction, but it was enough. The people around her had reconfigured completely. She’d been separated from Alan, and the duke as well. Now that she was on her own, the search felt more overwhelming.
She asked after the aquatic entertainments, but they didn’t begin for half an hour. She ducked into annex after annex, peered into the faces of the little boys clustered by the strong man and the conjurers. Back in the great hall, she started marching, determined to search it end to end.
“Why the hurry, pet?”
The question followed her. She rolled her eyes at each grinning masher in turn. The Royal Aquarium reminded her a bit of the Knack.
At last, she veered around a perfume stall and felt her insides unknot.
A tall man faced one of the fish tanks. His black coat hugged an unmistakably magnificent set of shoulders.
“Miss Fritz!” Claud leaned around Alan and waved to her.
In her haste to reach them, Nina stomped the toe of the next man who tried to bob along beside her.
She didn’t apologize. Or slow down.
