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Angelique stumbled over the fallen forht there," yelled Lady Maccon in her best muhjah voice

French maid and mu Angelique viciously with the tip of the parasol

Angelique froze, turning her head toward her forave her a tight little sirl could answer her, she hauled her arelique as hard as she could over the head

The maid and the mummy both fell

"Apparently, just one is sufficient"

At the top of the stairs, Miss Hisselpenny gave a little cry of alarm and then clapped her hand to her mouth "Alexia," she hissed, "how could you possibly behave so forcefully? With a parasol! To your ownto discipline one’s staff so barbarically! I mean to say, your hair always looked perfectly well done to me"

Lady Maccon ignored her and kicked the ? That is an ancient artifact You love those old things!"

Lady Maccon could have done without the commentary She had no ti too istical night the scientific consequences

She checked Angelique’s breathing The spy was still alive

The best thing to do, Lady Maccon decided, was eli else could be dealt with subsequently

Resisting the intense pushing sensation that urged her to get as far away froed the mummy out onto the massive stone blocks that for anyone else in danger

Mada particularly toxic to preternaturals, if there existed such a substance, but Alexia was confident sufficient application of acid could destroy

She opened the parasol and flipped it so she was holding the spike Just to be on the safe side, she turned the tiny dial above the netic disruption emitter all the way to the third click The parasol’s six ribs opened, and a finedehydrated skin and old bone She swayed the parasol back and forth, to be sure the liquid covered the entire body, and then propped it over theacid permeated the air, and Alexiashe had ever smelled before: the final death of ancient bones, asensation ean to decrease The creature itself was gradually disintegrating, turning into a luular bits of bone and skin sticking out It was no longer recognizable as hu pitted

Behind Alexia, inside Kingair Castle, at the top of the grand staircase, Ivy Hisselpenny screamed

On the other side of the British isle, in a hired, unmarked cab outside what looked to be a quite innocent, if expensive, town house in a discreetly fashionable neighborhood near Regent’s Park, Professor Randolph Lyall and Major Channing Channing of the Chesterfield Channings sat and waited It was a dangerous place for tolves to be, just outside the Westerous in that they were not there in any official capacity If this got back to BUR, Lyall was tolerably certain he would be out of a job and the major cashiered

They both practically jumped out of their skins, a true skill for a olf, when the cab door crashed open and a body tued on the roof of the cab with his pistol and the hack july loud clatter in the London night air

"Well?" questioned Channing, iain his feet and his dignity

Biffy tossed back the black velvet cape that had fallen askew during his mad dash to safety Lyall was at a loss to kno a cape could be of assistance when breaking and entering, but Biffy had insisted "Dressing the part," he had said, "is never optional"

Professor Lyall grinned at the youngster He really was a rather good-looking gentleht say about Lord Akeldaht say a lot, he had excellent taste in drones "So, how did it go?"

"Oh, they have one, all right Right up near the roof A slightly olderorder"

A good-looking and effective gentleman

"And?" Professor Lyall quirked an eyebrow

"Let us si, that it is o"

Major Channing looked at Biffy suspiciously "What did you do?"

"Well, you see, there was this pot of tea, si, tea," corinned at him

It was not one of Ivy’s normal breathy, about-to-faint sort of screams It was a scream of real terror, and it caused Lady Maccon to abandon her parasol to its acidic work and rush back inside, alone

The scream’s assertiveness had attracted the attention of others as well Tunstell and a wobbly-looking Madaed from the downstairs parlor, despite Alexia’s orders to the contrary

"What are you doing?" she yelled at them "Get back in there this instant!"

But their collective attention was entirely held elsewhere It was fixed on the landing above, where Angelique stood close behind Miss Hisselpenny, a deadly looking knife held to that young lady’s throat

"Miss Hisselpenny!" yelled Tunstell, his face suffused with horror And then, abandoning all decency and decoruelique, no!"