309828-0830-3333

mimicking Vlad’s own pose, and said, “Messenger boys see many things in the course of a routine
day. My work has taken me from the homes of the most wealthy and privileged into the most
desperate parts of the city.”
“And witnessing this divide is what has turned you into a revolutionary?”
“You might say that,” Davy said. “I remember one afternoon I saw a woman, maybe just a girl,
digging around in the muck for the core of a fallen apple and then the next place I was sent was a
kitchen so large and fine that there was a cook going through a great sack of apples, tossing aside any
with the slightest mark. You know, any flaw which meant they were not good enough for milady’s
daily tart. I asked if I could take the ones she threw away and she laughed at me and said yes. So I
went back to the street where I had started, but the girl was gone.”
Vlad’s face revealed nothing. “What did you do with the apples?”
“Gave them to the next person who passed. Everyone in that particular street is likely hungry.”
“You never saw the girl in the mud again?”
“No.”
Vlad shrugged. “Such is revolution. The fruits, if you will pardon my pun, never seem to fall
to those whose needs prompted the fight in the first place, only to the strangers who come behind.”
He glanced down at the empty glasses. “So shall we drink again? To the girl in the mud, wherever
she may be?”
“Indeed,” said Davy, raising his glass. “To the girl in the mud.”
The Winter Palace – The Grand Ballroom
5:02 PM
When Emma emerged into the hall after her dance lesson, she found Tom approaching from the