I buttoned up my coat in tense silence. “She doesn’t want to buy you.”
She swept past me with a mischievous grin, wiping a bead of sweat from my brow. “Shall we find out?”
Madame Labelle waited in the foyer. Two of my brothers stood beside her. Expressions wary, they looked unsure whether she was welcome at this hour. The Tower—and kingdom—enforced strict curfews. She stood calmly between them, however. Chin held high. Her face—perhaps once exceptionally beautiful, but aged now, with fine lines around her eyes and mouth—broke into a wide smile upon seeing Lou.
“Louise!” She held her arms out as though expecting Lou to embrace her. I almost laughed. “How splendid to see you in such good health—though those bruises on your face look ghastly. I hope our gracious hosts aren’t responsible?”
All inclination to laugh died in my throat. “We would never harm her.”
Her eyes fell to me, and she clasped her hands together in feigned delight. “How wonderful to see you again, Captain Diggory! Of course, of course. I should’ve known better. You’re far too noble, aren’t you?” She smiled, revealing those unnaturally white teeth. “I do apologize for the lateness of the hour, but I need to speak with Louise immediately. I hope you won’t mind me stealing her away for a moment.”
Lou didn’t move. “What do you want?”
“I’d rather hoped to discuss it in private, dear. The information is quite . . . sensitive. I attempted to speak with you yesterday after the interrogation, but my escort and I found you otherwise occupied in the library.” She looked between the two of us with a knowing smile, leaning forward and whispering, “I never interrupt a lovers’ quarrel. It’s one of the few rules by which I live.”
Lou’s eyes boggled. “That wasn’t a lovers’ quarrel.”
“No? Then perhaps you’d be amenable to reconsidering my offer?”
I resisted the urge to step between them. “You need to leave.”
“Rest easy, Captain. I have no plans of whisking away your bride . . . yet.” At my expression, she winked and laughed. “But I do insist on speaking privately. Is there a room that Madame Diggory and I could use? Somewhere less”—she gestured to the Chasseurs standing at attention around us—“congested?”
At that moment, however, the Archbishop stormed into the foyer in his nightcap. “What’s all this commotion? Don’t you all have duties to attend—” His eyes widened when he saw Madame Labelle. “Helene. What an unpleasant surprise.”
She curtsied. “Likewise, Your Eminence.”
I hastened to bow, fisting a hand over my heart. “Madame Labelle is here to speak with my wife, sir.”
“Is she?” His gaze didn’t waver. He stared at Madame Labelle with burning intensity, lips pressed into a hard line. “How unfortunate, then, that the church locks its doors in approximately”—he pulled a watch from his pocket—“three minutes.”
Her answering smile was brittle. “Surely the church shouldn’t lock its doors at all?”
“These are dangerous times, madame. We must do what we can to survive.”
“Yes.” Her eyes flicked to Lou. “We must.”
Silence descended as we all glared at one another. Tense and awkward. Lou shifted uneasily, and I contemplated removing Madame Labelle by force. Whatever she claimed otherwise, the woman had made her purpose perfectly clear, and I would burn the Bellerose to the ground before Lou became a courtesan. Like it or not, she’d made an oath to me first.
“Two minutes,” the Archbishop said sharply.
Madame Labelle’s face twisted. “I am not leaving.”
The Archbishop jerked his head toward my brethren, and they inched closer. Brows furrowed. Torn between following orders and removing a woman from the premises. I suffered no such qualms. I too stepped forward, shielding Lou from view. “Yes, you are.”
Something flickered in Madame Labelle’s eyes as she looked at me. Her sneer faltered. Before I could throw her from the Tower, Lou touched my arm and murmured, “Let’s go.”
Then several things happened at once.
A crazed gleam entered Madame Labelle’s eyes at Lou’s words, and she lunged forward. Quicker than a snake’s strike, she crushed Lou into her arms. Her lips moved rapidly at Lou’s ear.
Furious, I wrenched Lou away at the same moment Ansel leapt to subdue Madame Labelle. My brethren joined him. They pinned her arms behind her back as she fought to return to Lou.
“Wait!” Lou thrashed in my arms, twisting toward her. Eyes wild. Face pale. “She was saying something—wait!”
But the room had descended into chaos. Madame Labelle shrieked as the Chasseurs attempted to drag her out of the building. The Archbishop motioned toward Lou before rushing forward. “Get her out of here.”
I complied, tightening my grip around Lou’s waist and hauling her backward. Away from the madwoman. Away from the panic and confusion of the room—of my thoughts.
“Stop!” Lou kicked and pounded against my arms, but I only tightened my grip. “I changed my mind! Let me speak to her! Let me go!”
But she’d made an oath.
And she wasn’t going anywhere.
Chill in My Bones
Lou
My throat is weeping.
Not tears. Something thicker, darker. Something that bathes my skin in scarlet, streams down my chest and soaks my hair, my dress, my hands. My hands. They scrabble at the source, fingers probing, searching, choking—desperate to stem the flow, desperate to make it stop, stop, stop—
Shouts are echoing around me through the pines. They disorient me. I can’t think. But I need to think, to flee. And she’s behind me, somewhere, stalking me. I can hear her voice, her laughter. She calls to me, and my name on her lips rings loudest of all.
Louise . . . I’m coming for you, darling.
Coming for you, darling
Coming for you, darling . . . darling . . . darling . . .
Blind terror. She can’t find me here. I can’t go back, or—or something terrible will happen. Gold still flickers. It lingers on the trees, the ground, the sky, scattering my thoughts like the blood on the pines. Warning me. Leave, leave, leave. You can’t come back here. Never again.
I’m lunging into the river now, scrubbing my skin, washing away the trail of blood that follows me. Frantic. Feverish. The slash at my throat closes, the sharp pain receding the farther I run from home. The farther I run from my friends. My family. Her.
Never again never again never again
I can’t see any of them ever again.
A life for a life.
Or I’ll die.
I woke with a start, my eyes darting to the window. Flushed and agitated, I’d left it open last night. Snow coated the ledge in fine powder, and occasional gusts of wind blew snowflakes into our room. I watched them swirl through the air, trying to ignore the icy fear that had settled in the pit of my stomach. Blankets weren’t enough to warm the chill in my bones. My teeth chattered.
Though I hadn’t heard all of Madame Labelle’s frantic words, her warning had been clear.
She is coming.
I sat up, rubbing my arms against the chill. Who was Madame Labelle, really? And how had she known about me? I’d been naive to think I could truly disappear. I’d lied to myself when I’d worn my disguises—when I married a Chasseur.