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other direction. “What are you doing here?” she whispered.<br />
“Sleuthing, of course,” he said, whispering too, but loudly, as if for the stage, and he finished<br />
off the pantomime with a bit of an exaggerated tiptoe toward her. “The laudable Mrs. Kirby agreed to<br />
meet me in the theater at five and describe exactly how the crime scene was situated, although at this<br />
point I imagine it will be more of a history lesson than anything forensically useful. And apparently<br />
there is some confidence she must share as well, something so dark and dreadful it’s meant for my<br />
ears only. How was your first lesson?”<br />
“Most unusual,” she said. She hesitated a second, but it was Tom, after all. They kept no<br />
secrets, at least none of this sort. “He asked me to close my eyes.”<br />
“While you were dancing?”<br />
“Of course while I was dancing. He said I was struggling against him when I should be<br />
following. And you know, it did help.”<br />
“Did you like it? This sense of being overpowered by a faceless stranger?”<br />
“Oh, stop looking at me like that, and stop smirking. You turn everything into a joke and I really<br />
want to do well in this waltz. Not disgrace England and the Queen and that sort of rot.”<br />
“So you liked it.”<br />
“I didn’t dislike it.”<br />
“It reminds one of the Scottish rapes, you know.”<br />
“I’m sure I don’t know.”<br />
“The crime we were discussing at the last meeting of the Murder Games Club. You truly don’t<br />
remember? Of course that assailant used a scarf to disorient his victims and you seem to have been<br />
an enthusiastic participant in your own self-blinding.”<br />
“The rapes in Scotland,” Emma said, tilting her head. “That seems a year ago doesn’t it, and<br />
not just last week? But I was hardly Konstantin’s victim and it didn’t make me disoriented. In fact, if<br />
anything I was uniquely oriented, more so than I’ve felt for some time.” She cut her eyes to his.<br />
“When did you say you were supposed to meet Mrs. Kirby?”<br />
“Five,” said Tom, looking over his shoulder. “And I’m rather surprised not to find her here<br />
already. She struck me as the punctual type. But perhaps she is inside.” He pulled against the heavy<br />
door. “Come along, I wish to be introduced to this Siberian with his mysterious methods of
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