Victoria nodded at her reflection, then rose from the chair. "Time to go down to dinner, then. Perhaps I'll have a bit of gaiety before duty beckons me back to London."
"I'm hoping you do, my lady. Ye deserve it."
Victoria left her room on the second floor and made her way down to the drawing room, where the rest of the guests would gather before going in to dinner. She'd arrived only two hours earlier, and thus had had a short visit with Gwendolyn, and then had repaired to her room to change for dinner.
Now she walked into the large drawing room and found that several of the eleven who would be dining had already gathered. Three gentlemen stood near one side of the room, and appeared to be holding hostage a bottle of some golden liquid. One of them Victoria recognized as Gwendolyn's father, Viscount Claythorne. He was speaking with Baron Front worthy, Gwendolyn's most ardent suitor.
"Victoria! You look lovely." Her friend rose and came to her side immediately. She was accompanied by an older, elegant woman. "May I make my aunt, Mrs. Manley, known to you, Lady Rockley."
Victoria curtsied and complimented the woman on her gown.
"Good evening, Lady Rockley."
Victoria turned at George Starcasset's voice. He bowed over her proffered hand, and she made a brief curtsy. "Good evening, Mr. Starcasset. I must thank you again for making me one of your party."
"Gwendolyn and I are so very pleased to have you with us." He smiled and tucked her hand over his arm. "May I provide you with a sherry?"
"Indeed, that would be lovely." Victoria cast a smile over her shoulder at Gwendolyn, who appeared to be not at all surprised at her brother's attentions. In fact, her friend's twinkling eyes told her that she was quite pleased with the situation.
"The others shall be joining us shortly. Mr. Berkley and his sister Miss Berkley, you might perhaps know, along with Mr. Vandecourt. And our other guest," Starcasset told her as he presented her with a tulip-shaped glass, "I am certain you will be quite pleased to meet. He is rather a celebrity."
"A celebrity?" Victoria sipped the sweet sherry, looking up at Gwendolyn's brother with her head tilted gently to the side. How wonderful it felt to be thinking, not of vampires and stakes, not of losses and grief, but of the handsome gentleman who stood before her.
"Indeed. Dr. John Polidori, the author."
Victoria blinked. No, apparently even here she could not get away from vampires.
Mr. Starcasset took her expression for confusion, and explained, "He wrote the book The Vampyre. It was published in New Monthly under Lord Byron's name, but just recently it became known that Polidori is the true author. Though it is said that he based the vampire character of Lord Ruthven on Byron himself!"
"Indeed," Victoria murmured. It would be interesting to converse with Dr. Polidori. She wondered if he'd ever met a vampire. Quite unlikely, for he wouldn't be writing romantic novels about it if he had.
"Dr. Polidori and Mr. Vioget arrived only some minutes ago, and they hastened to change for dinner. We will wait for their arrival before going in to supper. Lady Rockley, is something the matter?"
"Dr. Polidori is not traveling alone?" Victoria managed to make her voice casual, but what should have been a small sip of sherry turned into a rather large gulp and set her to suppressing a rough cough.
"He travels with his friend Mr. Sebastian Vioget, whom he met, I believe, while lately in Italy with Byron."
"Italy? I see." So it was Sebastian, and he was here. With the author of a book about vampires. How very unexpected.
Victoria finished her sherry. The last time she'd seen Sebastian, she'd left him in his carriage after a most intimate interlude—which ended quite abruptly as he delivered her to a group of vampires out for her blood.
He'd had her half-undressed in that carriage, and lazy with desire, as she recalled, her face warming. He'd been delighted to learn that she'd broken her engagement with Phillip, and had attempted to take full advantage of her newly unbetrothed status… until she sensed the presence of vampires.
Since they had been riding in his carriage, under his direction, and Victoria hadn't seen any vampires for weeks until these three suddenly appeared, surrounding their vehicle, she couldn't help but suspect Sebastian's hand in the matter. His way of denying had been to protest that he had saved her life before; why would he endanger her at that moment…? But Victoria hadn't fully believed him.
"He seems a very amiable gentleman, if a bit shy," commented Starcasset, hovering rather close to Victoria in a gentle waft of balsam.
"Mr. Vioget? Shy?"
"I meant, rather, Dr. Polidori, although Mr. Vioget is also very pleasant. Ah, and here they are now."
Starcasset moved toward the door, but Victoria impudently remained across the room and with her back to it, pretending to be admiring an arrangement of tall purple lupine. She would find out soon enough if Sebastian was as surprised by her presence as she was by his.
Behind her, the other guests were being introduced to Dr. Polidori and Monsieur Vioget, as Sebastian identified himself. At the sound of his familiar voice and its intriguing accent, Victoria felt an uncomfortable prickle.
Then, at last… "And Dr. Polidori, and M. Vioget, may I introduce to you my sister's particular friend, Victoria de Lacy, Marchioness of Rockley."
Victoria turned to face the three men. "It is a pleasure to meet a man of such renown, Dr. Polidori. Your work has made quite a reputation for you," she said, offering her hand to the man with messy dark hair. A quick skim of her attention over Sebastian told her that she had the advantage of him. She had never seen such a look of discomposure on his handsome face. It would be comical if she weren't as taken aback as he.
"Madam, I am very well pleased to make your acquaintance. And thank you for your kind words." Polidori bowed and released her hand, then turned to take a glass of brandy from the viscount as he remarked on his trip from London.
"M. Vioget," Victoria said, and offered her hand to Sebastian. Obviously recovered, he took it gallantly, closing his fingers over her gloved ones and raising them to his lips.
He'd not changed in the last year: still impeccably clothed in the highest of fashion, with tawny hair curling over the high collar of his shirt and the same superficially charming smile that always seemed to have a hidden message behind it.
"May I express my condolences, Lady Rockley," he said as he raised his face from her glove. He let her fingers slip through his as she returned her hand to her side, looking at her intently. "I was terribly sorry to hear of your loss."
Considering the fact that he'd been quick to take advantage when he'd learned she broke her engagement with Phillip, Victoria found that highly unlikely. But there was that hint of abashment in his face… perhaps he was feeling contrite over the events that had left the Silver Chalice in flames, and Phillip and Max ultimately in the hands of Lilith. Although whether it was the loss of his business or the cause of Phillip's death that he regretted, she was not certain.
"I was terribly sorry to experience it," she replied coolly, and turned back to Gwendolyn's brother with a warm smile. "Who is that lovely woman in the painting over the mantel, Mr. Starcasset?"
Happy to oblige her interest, Starcasset removed her from the presence of his guests and strolled with her to the portrait in question.
Victoria took care to keep him in conversation for the next several minutes, whilst they waited for the last members of their party to join them. As she continued to ask questions regarding this painting and that vase and the statue on the table thither, she kept the edge of her attention focused on Sebastian.
He watched her without appearing to do so, covertly scanning her whenever he turned to speak to someone, letting his eyes wander in her direction whenever he lifted his glass to drink. Instead of the chill over the back of her neck that she felt when a vampire was watching, Victoria felt Sebastian's attention as a never-ending prickle between her shoulder blades. It was accompanied by an unfamiliar squirming in her stomach. She and Sebastian had unfinished business to attend to.
When it was time to walk into the dining room, Mr. Starcasset remained at her side and led Victoria to a seat between himself and Dr. Polidori. Sebastian was placed at the other side of the table, near the opposite end, between Miss Berkley and Gwendolyn.
"I have had the pleasure of reading your work, Dr. Polidori," Victoria offered, removing her gloves and folding them neatly in her lap. She'd read The Vampyre even before becoming aware of her Venator calling. "It is very unique, as most other stories about vampires portray them as mere beastly creatures of low class, while your gracious and charming Lord Ruthven could easily find himself a place in the ton. How did you ever come to this different understanding of these creatures?"
"Indeed, it was rather Byron's fault. I was visiting him along with Shelley and his wife in Switzerland, and she thought up a game for each of us to write a story about a supernatural or monstrous creature. Byron dabbled with the story for a bit, then moved on to something else, and as the idea piqued my interest, I decided to pursue it." Polidori's reply was glib, as though he'd given it many times. His hair was an explosion of wild black curls that could not, no matter the amount of pomade, be tamed. They framed his round, youthful face and curled in every direction. Yet, despite his easy carriage and words, a wariness limned his eyes, as though something worried at him.
"You wrote so convincingly, Dr. Polidori. Do you believe that vampires exist? That they actually can move among us in Society? Could any one of the peers really be a vampire?" Mrs. Manley, Gwendolyn's aunt, who sat across from him, appeared quite taken with the idea that a vampire might be sitting at the very table.
Victoria refused to exchange glances with Sebastian, although he tried. She hoped quite heartily that the woman never came face-to-face with a vampire, in Society or no. "Only members of the peerage who do not show their faces during the day," Victoria commented with a smile. "According to Dr. Polidori, they do not come out in the sunlight. If they did, would they die a horrible death… or merely be burned?"