Free Banquet of Lies by Michelle Diener Page A

glared at Edgars and took up the four baskets she’d set on the table. “Come, Iris, we’re late already.” She held two of the baskets out to the maid.
    Iris came past Edgars warily and took them, her eyes on her hands, rather than on either of the fighters in the ring.
    Gigi turned on her heel and marched up the stairs, fought the key a moment before it gave.
    As she held the door for Iris she looked back down on Edgars, who stood exactly in the same spot, his face white with a small red mark on each high cheekbone, as if he’d been slapped twice.
    Forcing herself calmer with a deep breath, Gigi closed the door carefully and took the alley down to Chapel Street. Their destination was in the opposite direction from Goldfern, but she couldn’t resist a quick look in its direction.
    A man walked past it, his head turned to the house, his back to her, in the clothes of a well-heeled member of the nobility. In this area it was a common sight, except for the extremely early time of day.
    Returning home after a night in the gaming hells or playing cards at his club?
    “Have you seen that man before?” Gigi asked, and Iris, who was facing the other way, turned on her heel and squinted in the dawn light.
    “Can’t say I ’ave. Can only see his back, and I don’t notice the nobs if I can help it.”
    Gigi stared after him, looking for anything familiar about him, and as if he could feel their eyes on him, he turned and stared back for a moment, then continued on his way.
    She caught the flash of a cravat, blue as a duck’s egg, and a black or very dark blue jacket, but that was all.
    Was it her imagination or did he pick up his pace?
    He could be the shadow man.
    He was the same general height, with hard, sharp features, but even this very quick glimpse of his face was more than she’d seen of the shadow man at Tessin Palace.
    She started down the street with Iris beside her, and only looked over her shoulder again as they turned left onto South Audley.
    The man was standing at the very far end of Chapel Street, just a tiny figure in the distance. Watching them.
    Fear pricked her neck and arms with cold, sharp needles, and she shivered.
    Iris kept her eyes on the street as they walked, her arms folded across her chest so she could tuck her hands under her armpits to keep them warm. “You put Edgars in his place, right and proper.”
    She didn’t say it in a way that gave Gigi the impression she approved.
    Gigi narrowed her eyes. The way Edgars had spoken to her, she should have demanded an apology from him, as well as putting him in his place.
    That, and trying to deny her coffee, was a declaration of war.
    “You’ve put him in a spot now. He either has to go to Lord Aldridge and tell him about your threatening to give notice, or he has to give you your way. And as he knows his lordship wouldn’t mind at all if you wanted coffee, and would love a cup at home if someone could make it properly, he looks a fool either way.”
    “Why did he pick a fight over it, then?” Gigi was outraged all over again.
    Iris sighed. “I don’t know. I think it’s ’cause he loses his head sometimes. Gets so excited about where he’s at, he can’t help it.” It was as if the thought dragged her down.
    “If he’s going to play the fool, he has to accept he’ll sometimes end up looking the fool.” Gigi knew her voice came out hard, unbending.
    “He’s got away with it since Cook left. ’Cause you’re younger ’n’ him, and a woman, maybe he thought he could best you.” She kicked a small stone out of her path. “You have to understand, he didn’t grow up with much. ’Bout the same asMavis, or maybe worse. That’s why he hired her on, I think. Aldridge House is the only place he’s ever worked. Came as a stable boy, moved up to footman, and now he’s butler. Pulled himself up by his bootstraps, ’e ’as.”
    Gigi looked at Iris, but her head was bowed and her cheeks were high with color. There was more to the