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Alexia demurred "Quite" So

"Spoilsport," said the inventor wryly before retreating into her rooer ee from her friend

"Wel , this is unconscionable!"

Alexia and Floote exchanged startled looks

A tirade of French outrage flowed out the stil partly open door

Alexia knocked tiht, Genevieve?"

"No, I aiven me to wear!"

Alexia nosed her way in to find Mada up a dress of pink ginghaown to shame

"It is an insult!"

Alexia decided her best move at this juncture was a retreat "You’l leton the threshold, "if you need, perhaps, assistance with--oh, I don’t know--the bustle?"

Madaave her a dirty look, and Alexia departed in possession of the field, only to find, across her own bed, a dress of equal y layered outrageousness

Really, she thought with a sigh as she pul ed it on, is this what they are wearing in Italy these days?

Her dress was orange

Professor Randolph Lyal had been three nights and two days hunting with very little sleep The only thing he’d gotten was a lead as to the whereabouts of Lord Akeldaned to tail the potentate--if one could use the word "tail" when referring to a vampire

Professor Lyal had sent Lord Maccon off to explore the lead further, arranging it so that the Alpha thought it was his own idea, of course

The Beta rubbed at his eyes and looked up froland ative distractions and manipulations, but Alpha was Alpha, and Lord Maccon was restless knowing Alexia was out in the world being disappointed in hi the earl active meant that Professor Lyal was stuck with the stationary work He checked every day after sunset for a possible aethograph fro through the oldest of BUR’s records He’d had them extracted with ned in triplicate, a box of Turkish delights to bribe the clerk, and a direct order from Lord Maccon The accounts stretched back to when Queen Elizabeth first forht, and there were few references to preternaturals, even less about any feeny

He sighed and looked up, resting his eyes Daas imminent, and if Lord Maccon didn’t arrive back presently, he’d be arriving back naked

The door to the office creaked open, as though activated by that thought, but theas the Woolsey Alpha and walked with the same air of self-assurance, but he was ful y clothed and clearly in disguise However, when Lyal sniffed the air, there was no doubt as to his identity

--olves had an excel ent sense of shter How do you do?"

The Earl of Upper Slaughter--commander in chief of the Royal Lupine Guard, also known as Her Majesty’s Growlers; sometime field marshal; holder of a seat on Queen Victoria’s Shadow Council and lared at Professor Lyal

"Not so loudly, little Beta No need to broadcast my presence here"

"Ah, not an official visit, is it? You haven’t coe for Woolsey, have you?

Lord Maccon is currently out" The deas one of the feolves in England who could give Lord Maccon a fight for his fur and had reputedly done so, over a ga like that?"

Professor Lyal gave an elegant little shrug

"The trouble with you pack types is you always assuot"

"Tel that to the chal engers"

"Yes, well , the last thing I need is the additional responsibility of a pack" The dewan fussed with the hood about his neck, arranging it to suit his taste

The deas ain a pers under the eyes He sported a ful head of dark hair, with a touch of gray at the temple, and fiercely bushy brows over deep-set eyes He was handsoh to have broken hearts in his day, but Lyal had always found the man’s mouth a little ful and his mustache and muttonchops quite beyond the limits of acceptable bushiness

"To what, then, do I owe the honor of your visit at such an early hour?"

"I have so for you, little Beta It is a delicatethat it cannot be known that I am involved"

"Oh, it does, does it?" But Lyal nodded

The olf pul ed forth a rol ed piece of nized it at once--a slate for the aethographic trans device and used it to careful y unrol the e had been burned through--already transmitted

The note was short and to the point, each letter printed neatly in its segned

"A va a death bite on Lady Maccon’s neck

A she cannot be bitten, but I suppose it is the thought that counts"

"I understand it is just their turn of phrase"

"As you say A death order is a death order, and it is signed by the potentate, no less" Professor Lyal let out a deep sigh, placed the metal doith a tinny sound on the top of his desk, and pinched the bridge of his nose above his spectacles

"So you understand the nature of ned

"Was he acting under the authority of Queen Victoria?"

"Oh, no, no But he did use the Crown’s aethographor to send the order to Paris"

"How reht him in the act?"