The Red Necklace Read Free Page B

the marquis’s latest acquisition, a collection of scientific instruments.
    “Look where you’re going!” His voice was sharp and cold, his lips pursed together as if they had just tasted something sour.
    Sido felt herself blush. Blown backward by his words, she bumped into another table, sending it and its arrangement of leather-bound books crashing to the floor. The noise was shocking in the quiet room.
    “In heaven’s name, are you as stupid as you appear? And I see you still have that unpleasant limp. It seems not to have improved in the slightest,” said the marquis irritably.
    Sido stood there wishing with all her heart that the floor would open and swallow her up.
    At that moment Count Kalliovski was shown into the chamber. At his heels was a large black wolfhound, his famous dog, Balthazar.
    Sido had not seen him since she was small, and her first impression was that she would not like to be left alone with either the man or his dog. She dropped her gaze and curtsied as she felt his sharp inquisitive eyes upon her. Glancing up quickly now and then for a discreet look, she saw a tall thin man, elegantly dressed, his skin smooth and ageless, without lines, as if it had been preserved in aspic. He had the perfume of wealth about him.
    “That,” said the marquis abruptly, “is my daughter. Why I went to the expense and inconvenience of bringing her back here, I cannot imagine.”
    “To humor me, I do believe,” said Count Kalliovski, setting the table to rights but leaving the books where they had fallen. He sat himself in a chair and stretched his long legs out before him, placing his hands together to form a steeple in front of his mouth. They were large, ugly hands that somehow didn’t seem to go with the rest of him. The dog settled near his master. Sido saw that the pattern on the count’s embroidered silk waistcoat was of little black skulls intertwined with ivy leaves.
    “Charming,” said the count, studying Sido with an expert eye. “But is there no food at your convent?”
    “Not much, sir,” Sido replied.
    The count smiled. “Tell me then, are the nuns all as pale and thin as you?”
    “No, sir.”
    “I thought not. Do they eat at their own table?”
    Sido nodded.
    “And which convent is this?”
    When Sido told him, the count laughed out loud.
    “I know the cardinal. I have lent him money in the past to settle his gambling debts.”
    The marquis looked most uncomfortable.
    “My dear friend, I may not have your eye for art, or the finer details of architecture, but I do consider myself to be a connoisseur of women. Your daughter has the most bewitching blue eyes. Give her a few more years and you will find her to be ravishing.”
    The marquis stared at Sido. He looked like a spoiled overgrown child who is being asked to play nicely. “With respect, my dear count, plain she is and plain she will remain. I fear you have been taken in by the beauty of my study and the afternoon light.”
    “Not in the slightest. I am just concerned to hear that your daughter has been sent to such an indifferent school. Tell me, Marquis, what use is a dull and charmless wife? No, to make the most of your daughter I suggest that from now on she should be educated at home.”
    Sido stood there, surprised to find that she had an ally in the count.
    The marquis rang for his valet.
    “The girl is to be bathed and the dressmaker summoned,” he said grudgingly. “She will be dining with us this evening.”
    It took Sido a moment to realize what her father had just said. Perhaps she might be allowed to stay here after all. She wondered if just for once fate was smiling kindly on her.

chapter three
    It was eleven thirty, and the guests had just finished eating. It had been a feast to be savored, and glasses clinked as the wine flowed. Upstairs the gaming tables had been laid out and a group of musicians played in the long sitting room.
    On their arrival, Topolain, Têtu, and Yann had been shown into the library,