“I know.”
The party moved about them as though they weren’t baring their hearts in the corner, and Vi felt the surreal contrast. She waved at a passing waiter who appeared with chilled champagne. She handed one of the glasses to Kate and took one herself.
“What am I supposed to do to help him?”
Vi winced both for Kate and for Jack when it had been Vi instead of Victor. She cleared her throat and then answered as honestly as she could. “I’m not sure.”
“Can I be honest with you, Vi?”
Vi nodded.
“Can I ask you to not tell Victor?”
Vi paused for long moments on that one and then she slowly nodded.
“I don’t understand what this is about, and it makes me feel helpless.”
Vi waited. That wasn’t the confession. Not with the sick look on Kate’s face.
“And I’m angry. We have so much, and—”
Before Kate could finish the sentence, there was an unholy shriek from inside the house. Vi’s mouth dropped open as she looked outside. Jack, Ham, and Victor turned towards the house at the sound, and Vi glanced at Kate. Her hand was on the growing baby, but she told Vi, “Go!”
Vi darted through the crowd, bypassing the roller-skaters to find her way. The scream had come in from outside rather than in the ballroom itself.
“Here, Vi!” Denny called when she reached the hallway, and Vi hurried down the hall towards him.
Denny stood at the doorway to the library and his face was pale, but there was an edge of a smirk to his expression. Until she saw that smirk, she had been sure she’d find a dead body. She followed his gaze to a man in the corner. He was holding a bleeding wound on his head, and he was rocking back and forth.
“They took it!” the man cried.
“They?” Vi asked and then she felt hands on her shoulders. She knew those fingers and didn’t need to look up to know it was Jack.
“I was looking at the goblet,” Edward Hollands said, pressing at the wound on his head. “Examining it carefully. I was making notes. It didn’t, well…”
Vi glanced at Rita as she joined them. She was biting her bottom lip and her eyes were flashing with distinct humor.
Ham pushed past them and handed the man a handkerchief. “Put that against your head, Hollands.”
“What happened?” Jack demanded.
A moment later the other Hollands brother arrived. The two of them eyed each other and then the doctor brother took over. “You’ll need stitches, Edward. It’s not too bad. Head wounds bleed rather fiercely.”
“What happened?” Ham snapped. “We left you in here, and now the goblet is gone.”
“The thieves must be going after the treasure on their own. They’re trying to steal my triumph.” Edward sounded half mad.
“I don’t think they’ll get very far,” Rita started.
Denny, however, cut in mischievously. “You have the foremost expert here. Of course they won’t.”
Given that Edward Hollands wasn’t able to look up and see the devilry in Denny’s gaze, he didn’t realize he was being mocked. Instead, Edward nodded despite his brother’s holding his wound.
“What do you think, Shelby?” Jack asked Dr. Shelby Hollands.
“About the wound or the goblet?”
“The goblet,” Jack said with the ease of a man who had served in the Great War and knew a medical emergency when he saw it.
“My brother has followed me around the world more than once.”
The unspoken tale and the expression in Dr. Hollands’s gaze suggested that he didn’t have the same faith in the myth of a treasure that matched that of his brother.
Chapter 9
The party carried on despite the attack on the treasure hunter and the thunderstorm. Although the story of the stolen goblet spread like mad, no one cared except for Edward Hollands. He carried on and muttered low and then dove so deep into his cups that he was poured into a spare bedroom before the party was even close to done, his brother reluctantly following to watch over him.
For everyone else, things didn’t break up until well past dawn and by the time their guests had left, Vi wasn’t quite sure why she wanted to have a party in the first place.
Her brother Gerald grinned at her and then went up to his room chuckling. To her butler, Hargreaves, Vi said, “Wake my brother in an hour with coffee and tell him that it’s noon.”
“What about Lottie?” Jack asked, speaking of Gerald’s wife.
“Those are the consequences of marrying a fiend.” Vi was without sympathy for either of them given the headache that they gave her.
“When he figures out the time, send up another servant with a weak premise. I want him to know I was the engineer of his torment and to drive him mad.”
Hargreaves grinned and nodded, not even trying to hide his amusement. Jack shook his head and then turned Vi towards him and lifted her over his shoulder, carrying her up the stairs. She yawned against his back and then propped herself up on her elbows to look down to those below. It was only Denny and Hargreaves who watched, which was probably why Jack had relaxed enough to be playful.
“This is the kind of high-handed—” Vi trailed off, laughing against his back. She was a tinge zozzled and it had turned her giggly when combining an evening of excitement with exhaustion. She had danced the night away along with taking a few turns with roller-skates, and she’d enjoyed a bowl full of ice cream, along with lobster and shrimp in various forms. “You know what sounds good?” Her question was finished with a laugh as Jack adjusted his grip on her waist so he didn’t lose her.
He bypassed the guest bedrooms that were permanently assigned to their friends and asked, “What?”
“Turkish coffee.”
“You need to sleep, love.”
Vi laughed against his back. “That won’t stop me. But listen, listen.”
Jack snorted and then spun her, so she was in his arms like a bride on her wedding day. “I’m listening.”
Vi was distracted by his eyes and the
