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"Around here, we call that a case of the shits"
The new voice was loud and filled with lusty good humor I looked up and nearly heaved all over her platforus all thrown overboard It wasn’t that she was ugly--far fro steady in her prime, lush and flush and clearly the queen of the ship She was a Pinky, but dressed with a Bludwo a pipe She was just fine--ry
The problem was that ere surrounded by clouds
"Welcoloved hand to Casper "Still can’t believe it’s you, although I’ve read about your exploits in the papers You’ll be fitting in right well, I think And welcome to you, too, Miss?"
"My niece, Miss Anne Carol," Casper said "My brother’s daughter From London"
"Miss Carol" She nodded in my direction I smiled as best I could, mouth closed over teeth stained with blood froet your air legs about you soon enough Looks like your little ot a trade yet, that one?"
She narrowed her eyes at Keen’s blindingly pretty s fro in the wind and her cheeks pink with excite future growth andher in harpsichord," Casper snapped
"Pity" The wo to bloo the clouds I’m Madam Laurabelle May, by the way But everyone calls , "Although certain lads with enough copper can call me Mother-May-I, then, can’t they?"
"Pleasure to rin I hadn’t seen before
"Pleasure’s all ed to groan, my head down and my mouth hidden behind my hand
"Did she ask for a stateroohness I’ll have the palanquin fetch you to your gilded throne!" Once she’d gotten all the laughter out, she pointed at me with her pipe and said, "Small, less, as requested, and all three of you will share it But I’ll have someone take you there before you yark onand the slap of a bare hand on skin I was grateful for the nausea, because I began to suspect that there was an overabundance of naked flesh on the Maybuck Better to be ill than bloodhungry
"Colette! Victoire! Please show the Maestro and his niece to the Velvet Rooer than Keen ran up and curtsied When I saw that they wore nothing but diaphanous white gowns, I covered love and tried to think about abear corpse I’d once come across on a hunt Casper’s hands on my shoulders steered me across the ship, and with ine that ere on land Alirls in a distinctly Sanglish accent The Franchian naowns I heard a door open, and Casper ushered irls, and slammed it behind us I collapsed across the bed onaside the s up?"
He sat down beside h to touch, but I felt the soft ht Another first: I was alone in a se round and species
"I’enerates," I muttered into the soft pink velvet coverlet It was so luxuriously deep that it reue I had once seen at the royal zoo "I’ to be sick?"
Out of the corner of loved hands move toward my back and hover there, as if his i held him back The princess and the beast weren’t the only instincts within e, the one that had awakened with his kiss, the one that wanted to be touched Instead, I slunk fro a tasseled pillow to e it now" I breathed in stale air thick with Casper’s scent and fanned h air in here"
"You wanted a cabin with no s, and that’s what you got"
We both looked around the small room The walls were papered in red velvet das that looked like entire scalped sheep To them like an overfed sultan, and I realized that I e cat, who had been left behind with Reve The bed took up e, but there was a s desk with a stool on one side and room for our trunk Two smaller doors must have led to the bathroom and closet I secretly s to be uncoaboard a brothel
It would be hell forI would be trapped in this tiny, airless roo but a cask of vials? Casper’s blood wasn’t entirely perfect, but it was still nutritional enough to keepKeen would be hard to resist, if only for the peace and quiet I wondered exactly how ers were on the Maybuck and hoell they were accounted for If the promise of a hand under my skirt was all it took to lure so hiht boat--provided I could pitch his body overboard before anyone noticed