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THE ORDER OF THE BOOT

Princess Asa Vajda was on her knees at the foot of her bed, face pressed to the eiderdown, hair a thistly tangle The coverlet was streaked with bloody tears

Toet her attention The last time he&039;d been sent to ask after the Princess, she&039;d tossed a Faberge Devil Egg the size of a hand grenade at him The door was dented and the bauble lay unnoticed on the thick carpet, its sur inverted cross bent out of shape It was priceless but in hideous taste

&039;Princess,&039; he said

Asa&039;s back was racked with sobbing She was like a dark Ophelia, driven out of her rief

&039;Princess,&039; he insisted

She looked up fro like seaweed over her eyes Ses of blood were smeared on her cheeks She&039;d chewed her lush lower lip There was even a little water in her tears

&039;Penelope Miss Churchward wondered if you would like to come down, and have tea The police have left&039;

Inspector Silvestri was tactfully refraining fro the Princess for an interview But the cops caene every day and had still not finished their investigation of the scene of the criuarded

Asa&039;s hands crawled over the bed like white spiders To for another weapon Instead, she stood up She&039;d been wearing the sa dress she was cheated out of The garment would do for a shroud

The room was musky with an odour of the dead A basin of shrivelled violets stood beside the bed

The Princess ran fingers through her hair Her knuckles caught on snaggles and knots She was not fit for society

The dead bitch fastened Toainst her fascinations Penelope had overwhelth to resist an elder like Asa, but that he had no will of his own to be doave up

&039;Tea will be served in an hour,&039; he said &039;Coht be love He&039;d once assu the emotion everyone talked about actually existed Now his whole person rapped up with another, a dead woman at that His contentment and ease of mind were dependent on her s, he&039;d have been terrified to have stepped so far off the track Now he understood why people spoke of &039;falling in&039; love rather than &039;ascending to&039; it He was plu at a paper-strewn desk In late afternoon, the sun didn&039;t shine into the roolasses The murder of il principe had thrown the rest of the household into a panic, but Penelope showed an English cool head She coped with everything fro relations between the cops and the Carpathian Guard

&039;I&039;ve told Princess Asa about tea,&039; he said

&039;Will she come down?&039;

&039;I don&039;t know&039;

Penelope&039;s mouth narrowed &039;Very well Come here, would you, Tom?&039;

This time, he would not obey He was deter by Penelope&039;s desk, a schoolboy summoned to the headmaster

She stood, bent back her hatbrim, and stuck her mouth to his neck The electric shock of penetration came, and a little more of him flowed into her She sed, dabbed her lips with a hankie, and sat down, looking again at the ledger open on the desk

Tom swayed a little, unsteady on his feet He was not sure if he was disularly as ever, she was more businesslike about it She nipped without passion, as if he were an animal or a servant She was concerned with tooHe didn&039;t evenas he could stay

&039;I think we have discovered why the late Prince was so attractive to the House of Vajda,&039; Penelope said

She stabbed a finger at a column of numbers

&039;Not to put too fine a point on it, Asa is stony broke and has been for two hundred years She inherited a fortune with her title, but spent it all on living from decade to decade She has never had any income except plunder, never old, the poor dear will have to throw herself on the mercy of her creditors Or find herself another wealthy fiance&039;

Penelope spoke as if this discovery didn&039;t please her She seeenuine sympathy for the Princess

&039;That&039;s the trouble with elders,&039; she said &039;They live forever and don&039;t realise things run out They were born in an age when stewards ran households, and never learned to balance the books&039;

A little of his blood was sed at the corner of her er shut

&039;Asa&039;s bankruptcy is a minor inconvenience Since no connection was actuallywith a charitable handout The real nightmare will couests who are expected for tea will complicate matters I had hoped to put them off until after the police closed the case, but they are ie because someone had to When word caht of Dracula&039;s death, the elders asse to the corners of the world Without their Prince, most of the Carpathian Guard felt no duty to remain at Otranto Dead one overnight Some exposed themselves to the sun and crumbled, out of shame at their failure to protect theirwith them whatever items of value they could lay their claws on Many of the servants also hightailed it out of the palace The retainers who stayed did so perhaps because they couldn&039;t think of anywhere else to go

There was all manner ofup

Klove opened the door and let five people into the room

&039;Good afternoon,&039; said Penelope, a perfect hostess

The distinguished newcomers were Clare Boothe Luce, the American Ambassador; John Profumo, the British Minister of War; General Giovanni Di Lorenzo, head of the Italian Secret Police; Andrey Gron Minister; and General Charles de Gaulle, President of the Republic of France De Gaulle ht have come in person to make sure Dracula was truly dead

Double doors opened and servants wheeled in a convoy of tea trolleys

&039;Might I offer you hospitality?&039; asked Penelope &039;It is a tradition of this house&039;

She was acting like theAs she picked up a hefty teapot and bent forward to pour, Profumo sneakily eyed the top of her suh his prominent beak at this British affectation Penelope drew his attention to a decanter of brandy that evidently met with his approval Mrs Luce, who reminded Tom nastily of his aunt, didn&039;t take kindly to the display of indulgence; she was as ill at ease both with taking tea from a dead woman as with the presence of a known Communist Groer like a charracious lady,&039; said the Russian

&039;You are welcoet down to brass tacks, Andrey,&039; said Mrs Luce She used the Russian&039;s Christian name like an insult