The Veils of the Budapest Palace (Darke of Night Book 3) (26 page)

Such a little thing to have caused so much heartache, I thought. I wished I’d given him the chance to speak before. But my heart was warmed by the knowledge, even as I recognised the issue was such a small part of what had been going on.

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” Karl said impatiently. “Even if it were true, could you not find a more private way of explaining such things to your wife, instead of embarrassing her—and us!—so horribly?”

“Oh, Caroline isn’t embarrassed, and as for the rest, I’ll more than embarrass you. You and Elena allied with Gabor to kill Caroline and leave me with her money. You thought to marry me to poor Sofia here, though I’d be surprised if Elena would not betray you on that score.”

What chilled my blood more than anything was the fact that no one at the table thought his accusations ridiculous. Almost as one, all eyes turned on Gabor.

“
Garabonciás
,” Zsigmund said softly. “We don’t believe in such things. We’re not ignorant, medieval peasants but noble, educated people of the nineteenth century. And yet everyone knows about Gabor. Fear of his name dragged our most eminent bishop more than a hundred miles out of his way just to marry Gabor’s cousin.
He
is the man with influence, not my grandfather, who’s been virtually a recluse for more than twenty years. Gabor holds power over people he’s met throughout his life, even if they were never his friends. Old government, new government, there is always a hold.
That’s
how I was able to come home. And how I’ve been pinned in this house instead of being sent to the country where I should be able to do less harm. Gabor wanted me
here
, wanted my wife here, where he could dispose of her and her money.”

Gabor’s flat, contemptuous gaze flickered from Zsigmund to me, and I felt sick. A wave of the strange nausea I’d felt as soon as I entered this house, and several times since, broke over me.

“You were kind to me,” I whispered. “You helped me write invitations. You comforted me after the mist, talked to me about the pillow...”

“He was kind to my mother too,” Zsigmund said harshly. “You might never admit it, Gabor, but I know you did it. You made her take her life, as you made my father ill in the first place. With him out of the way, you thought
you
could have her, but she turned against you completely, didn’t she? She may have blamed herself, too, but she knew what you’d done. That’s why you killed her.”

Gabor curled his lip. “You have all their drama and volatility and none of their charm. If you believe this, you need a doctor.”

“Don’t be unkind, Gabor,” Gizella said, so unexpectedly that even Gabor himself turned to her, blinking. “Zsigmund is obsessed with his parents’ death, and we must all take the blame for that. We wouldn’t speak of them, wouldn’t let
him
speak of them. He was a child, and we stopped him mourning. Even when he went away to fight, my main thought was that away from this house, he would forget.”

Zsigmund, sitting next to her, covered her curled hand on the table.

“I’m sorry, Zsigmund,” Gizella whispered. “We were a poor substitute.”

“None of this is your fault,” Zsigmund said, low, and then, more strongly, “That’s why I wanted us all here. Let’s put the blame at last where it belongs, not on my dead parents, but on
him
.” He jabbed his finger across the table at Gabor.

The old count spoke for the first time in what seemed ages, his voice much less firm than usual, almost pleading. “But you can’t truly believe this is true, Zsigmund. No one can do these things. There are no real magicians, however hard they study their so-called art. They’re only folktales.”

I wasn’t so sure. My nausea, which had faded a little when Gizella spoke, returned now with a vengeance, and when I looked at Gabor, I knew.

Not that his attention seemed to be on me, save for the odd flicker of his gaze which remained mostly on Zsigmund and the old count. But it had always been him, wishing me ill, or at least controllable, which Zsigmund had never been for him. But he’d made me dizzy and fevered, magnified my self-doubts, almost made me kill myself with the pillow. Only minutes after the smothering incident, I’d seen him through the study keyhole, the book before him on the desk, muttering the spells he’d meant to kill me.

His motives, I thought sickly, must have been complicated. Power, any and all power, were what moved him. Alliance with Karl and Countess Narinyi gave him power over them, only they’d been too foolish to see that. They’d imagined they could use Gabor’s peculiar talents for their own ends...

His face, his figure, looked fuzzy to me now. I gripped the edge of the table hard, trying to force back the dizziness. There seemed to be two indistinct figures there now, a second looming over Gabor’s shoulder, weak but constantly moving, agitated. I tried to focus on this figure and recognised her with relief.

“Ilona,” I whispered.

Beside me, Zsigmund’s head whipped around. I felt his arm, his shoulder, as though I’d fallen against him, and then his voice roared in my ears. With a crash, he leapt onto the table, jumped over crockery and glass, and hurled himself on Gabor.

Gabor, the chair, and Zsigmund all fell backwards out of my view, but I could still see Ilona. The plump arms holding me now were Gizella’s. She was shouting at the count and at István. “He’s made her ill, don’t you see? He is killing her! You have to stop him!”

But I wasn’t dying. The sickness, the blackness had faded to an echo. I pulled free of Gizella, rushing around the table to the other side. Everyone was on their feet. The old count clutched his head. István was plucking feebly at Zsigmund’s shoulders, for my husband had his hands around Gabor’s throat, squeezing the life from him.

“Zsigmund, don’t kill him!” I cried. “They’ll lock you up, execute you! No one will understand...
Please
don’t kill him!”

Zsigmund’s murderous eyes lifted, seeking mine.

“Zsigmund,” Karl said hoarsely. “She’s right.” And bizarrely, I was sure his concern was not for Gabor but for Zsigmund.

The violent, desperate rage in my husband’s eyes began to fade. His fingers loosened on Gabor’s neck, though they didn’t release him. Horrible coughing, gasping sounds came from the older man, but Zsigmund gazed down at him without pity.

“They care,” he said harshly. “I don’t. I finally read your book last night, so I know what you can do and I know the signs. I know you have to be close. So understand this: if you even begin to attack her again, I will find you and I will kill you before you even have a hope of causing more than a hiccup. And I’ll consider my own execution well worth it.” He moved as if to release him. I could see the faint, desperate hope in Gabor’s pained eyes, but then Zsigmund gripped him harder once more. “That goes for everyone else in this house. No more attacks, Gabor. You leave now, with Karl if you wish, or you die.”

Zsigmund glared fiercely around his stunned audience, coming to rest at last on his grandfather. “No one objects, do they?”

The old man swallowed, shook his head dumbly as if the whole world were falling down on his shoulders. But Ilona smiled as if she understood enough. She looked directly at me, and then at Zsigmund. I saw her ghostly hand reach towards her son, who couldn’t see her, as she faded into nothing.

But I thought I finally understood what had kept her here for so long, watching over Zsigmund. Somehow, perhaps just with the sheer power of her love from beyond the grave, she'd been protecting him from Gabor. That was why Gabor's magic didn't work on him.
It’s love for him that keeps her here between realms
, Barbara had said.
She’s strong, protective...

Zsigmund rose to his feet, throwing his arm around me, hugging me close to his side.

“Zsigmund,” Karl said again, his voice unsteady. “It was never about money. It was for you. I knew it would never be the same after the revolution. I knew we’d have lost the brotherhood we once had. I wanted to make it real again, make us family through your marriage  with Sofia.”

Oddly, I believed him. Zsigmund was a man who inspired strong and not necessarily sane feelings.

“Take him and go,” Zsigmund said. “Arrange someone else to check on me each day, or I’ll visit the damned barracks.”

Sofia, white-faced, was tugging wordlessly at her brother’s hand.

Karl patted hers absently, his attention still on Zsigmund. “I hope you’ll forgive me one day. In time.”

“I’ll never forgive you,” Zsigmund said.

Karl closed his lips and turned away. Zsigmund hauled Gabor to his staggering feet and strode to the door.

“János!” he yelled, and held the door for Karl, Sofia, and Gabor to exit. The magician, rubbing his neck, kept his gaze on the ground as he limped from the room in silence. And yet something about that tall, hunched, defeated back spoke to me of sheer malevolence. A shiver passed down my spine, which was when I realised my whole body was trembling.

T
he old count still stood at the head of the table, lost and broken. Zsigmund, returning to the room, took him by the shoulders and embraced him.

“I’m sorry,” he said gently, “but you needed to be free of him too.”

The old man didn’t dispute that. Almost like a child, he said, “But what will I do without him?”

“We’ll hire an assistant for your work,” I said. “One who’ll learn quickly. Our gift to you.”

“For the rest, there will be changes,” Zsigmund said. “Comfortable ones. Ones you’ll like.”

“I want to go to bed,” the old man said.

“Come,” Zsigmund said, leading him from the room.

Gizella nudged her husband. “We’ll take care of him,” she said to Zsigmund. “For once. You look after Caroline.”

Zsigmund stood aside for István, and the three left the room. The count glanced back over his shoulder once, just as Gizella pulled the door closed.

Silence enfolded us. Zsigmund and I stood gazing at each other over half the dining room. I thought I was numb from bewilderment and reaction, and yet my heart drummed in my breast as it had the night I’d made the decision to go to his bed. This felt like another such moment, one perhaps of even greater significance, because of what had come between. It was no longer about a night of pleasure; it was about forever.

I said, “I don’t need looking after. I never did.”

“I know.”

“You said you’d keep me and protect me,” I blurted on a sob. “And you did, and oh, Zsigmund, if anything ever happened to you—” I took a hesitant step that turned into a firmer one and became a run.

He met me, catching me in his arms, crushing me to his body. Which was when I realised he was shaking.

“I was so afraid,” he whispered into my hair. “For you and everyone, and yet I had to do it. I couldn’t let it go on. It was like the war all over again, making decisions, risking people who had no choice... Risking you!”

I held him tight, stroked his hair. “I know. I know. But you made the right decisions and saved us all. Zsigmund—”

“I didn’t know who you were when I spoke to you in the assembly room. I had no intention of pursuing
any
rich widow, of sacrificing my freedom for luxury. The letter was just another jibe at Gabor.”

“I know.” I dug my fingers into his hair. “Why didn’t you tell me that when I asked you?”

“I don’t know. A dislike of justifying myself. A need to be liked despite as many faults as I can display. I’m a perverse, mixed-up fool.
I
don’t even understand half the reasons I do or say things, so I can hardly expect you to. But you must believe I love you.” With an abrupt tenderness that was almost fierce, he caressed my face, cupped my cheek. “And I’ll do everything in my power, everything, to make you love me.”

“Oh, Zsigmund!” I didn’t know if I was laughing or crying. “Don’t you know that I have always loved you? Quarrelling with you only taught me that I always will!”

For an instant, he stared down into my face as if looking for a reason to disbelieve me. A low, rumbling groan began deep in his chest, and then he fell on my mouth like a starving man. My feet were no longer on the floor; he held me so tightly, I could barely move, and yet everything in me leapt to meet him. My whole body seemed to melt into fire as I kissed him back.

His wild urgency had already transferred to me. “I’m prepared to be ravished on the table,” I whispered. “Or the floor... Or against the wall.”

Another of those animalistic groans broke from him. He swept me up in his arms, and excitement soared. The floor was undoubtedly nearest and most convenient, but I didn’t care where it happened. I just needed him inside me, now. Perhaps it was reaction to the most recent dangers, or the older quarrel that had kept us apart. In those hectic moments, I didn’t care about causes, only love and a desire so urgent that I was sure I’d shatter as soon as he entered me. And, God, I wanted that...

He stilled, slowly detaching his mouth from mine, letting me slip back down his hard body to land on my feet. His breath came in shallow, uneven pants.

“No,” he said hoarsely. “This isn’t right for tonight. Because it will be all night. Let me take you to bed.”

“You can take me anywhere,” I said frankly. He always could. Disappointment raged through my impatient body, and yet there was pleasure too in the wonder of him releasing me and offering me his not quite steady arm. The gesture was old-fashioned and courtly, and he didn’t take his hot gaze off my face as I placed my hand in his arm and we walked together out of the dining room and across the hallway to the dark staircase.

Zsigmund paused to light one of the candles at the foot of the stairs, then, in its soft glow, we began to climb. I watched him all the way, drinking in every expression of love and lust. I could see only the unscarred side of his face, the sharp delineation of his cheekbones and the shadowed hollows beneath, the sensual promise of his lips.

We walked in silence, save for the sound of our uneven breaths mingling in the air and the drumming of my heart. On the first-floor landing, we paused. There was no light under the study door tonight, though a faint glow could be seen from the next door along, the count’s bedchamber. Zsigmund’s gaze went beyond me towards the music room and his parents’ apartments.