Free The Shadow of Albion by Andre Norton, Rosemary Edghill

that such bargains only come to HI ends?“
     
    Dame Alecto smiled her small cat-smile at the memory of the moment opened to
    her in the scrying glass. Let young Falconer think that Roxbury had forged a
    forbidden bargain with the Oldest People – it was better he suspect that than guess
    me truth. And Dame Alecto would take care to keep him from returning to the chit’s
    side until there was nothing about his patient to distinguish her from the woman he
    had known from her cradle. The marks of work and weather would fade with time
    and soothing lotions, scars could be covered with paint and patch and long satin
    skirts.
     
    There was only one difference that the Lotion of the Ladies of Denmark could not
    erase, and that was an inward one. This Sarah knew nothing of her double’s life and
    obligations, and they dared not count upon her assuming them willingly. To shape
    this new Sarah to their plans would require an even more cunning trick than any
    Dame Alecto had yet worked, and a ruthless one at that, and Dame Alecto was more
    than willing to supply it.
     
    „Do you go on reading to Her ladyship, Gardner,“ Dame Alecto said. „And I will
    prepare her cordial.“
     
    (Gardner’s voice took up her reading once more. „‘April 14th, 1798: Mama’s
    funeral was held today, a most extraordinary fine turn out. The death-coach was
    drawn by six black horses, all in plumes, and King Henry himself sent his warmest
    condolences; all the County was there, and I do not know how many Pairs of
    Gloves Buckland distributed to them all. Now Mooncoign is mine, and I am the
    Marchioness! How strange it all seems: they tell me I must make my bow to Society
    this Season instead of waiting until next year, even though of course since I am in
    Mourning for Mama everything must be Very Quiet. And there is to be a Court
    Presentation as well and I must have a Whole Wardrobe in the First Stare of Fashion
     
    – although it must all be Black; how dull! But perhaps I shall set a new mode, for I
    am Roxbuty new, after all – ’ “
    Gardner’s quiet voice droned on in the background, reading aloud from Lady
    Roxbury’s diary, as Dame Alecto set the small ebony box down on the table beside
    the bed. Opening the casket, Dame Alecto lifted out the small crystal flask of Cordial
    of Lethe, The liquid gleamed a baleful violet in the dim light of the bedside candle.
     
    A full draught of the cordial – crafted from La Montespan’s own recipe, faithfully
    handed down through the centuries – would destroy all memory, leaving its victim as
    mindless and unknowing as a newborn babe. But that was not what they wanted for
    this new Sarah. This hard-won substitute must take up Lady Roxbury’s place in
    Society. She must do their work in Mooncoign’s name against the oppression of the
    Corsican tyrant who so ravaged the Continent, and take the place of her world-twin
    whose life had been cut so untimely short by her own recklessness and folly.
     
    Carefully Dame Alecto measured a few drops of thick liquid into a silver spoon.
     

 
    After tipping the cordial into a brilliant cut crystal wineglass, Alecto poured in
    enough wine to cover the bowl of the spoon, then stirred until the two liquids were
    well mixed.
     
    „Come, Your Ladyship,“ she said to the drowsy girl. „It is time to take your
    medicine.“ .
     
    For the past week Wessex had been on the road, the warning he carried too
    sensitive to trust even to the heliograph that could communicate between men ashore
    and the English ships that patrolled the Channel. It had taken three precious days to
    get himself and deMorrissey from Paris to Calais, and another endless day waiting
    until a longboat could safely beach to take them off Once they reached Dover their
    ways would part, Wessex to London a-horseback, leaving deMorrissey to follow a
    little more sedately in what ever transport he could commandeer or hire.
     
    All during the turbulent day-long Channel crossing Wessex