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“Your sanctuary.”<br />
“Yes. My sanctuary from the world.” He looked around slowly, in the manner of a man who is<br />
saying goodbye to something. “Within these walls, I could be whatever I wished to be. But now…”<br />
“It is a room of death.”<br />
“The other ladies do not come,” he said. “And yet Emma Kelly is here. So it does not frighten<br />
you, this room of death?”<br />
“I used to be frightened of everything,” Emma said. “And then the worst thing I could ever have<br />
imagined happened. My sister–“ He was looking at her expectantly, but she shook her head.<br />
“There is a strange gift that comes to you after the worst thing you can imagine actually<br />
happens,” she said, raising her arms in the position of the dance. “You find yourself with nothing left<br />
to fear.”<br />
The Winter Palace – The Guest Quarters<br />
4:57 PM<br />
“So that’s it,” Trevor said irritably, as Rayley wrapped up an abbreviated description of his<br />
conversation with Filip Orlov. “The only reason you and I were ever invited into the inner sanctum<br />
was because one of the tsar’s bodyguards wished to implicate Antonovich as their prime suspect in<br />
the murders of three people.” In anticipation of the group meeting, Trevor had ordered up the Russian<br />
equivalent of a British tea, which turned out to be a tray of elaborate confections and a hot beverage<br />
so strangely sweet that Trevor suspected they would all have trouble getting it down. But privacy<br />
within the Winter Palace was proving to be elusive, so he was glad to have this chance for them all to<br />
confer together, no matter how different from their customary leisurely evenings in Gerry’s parlor.<br />
“That’s all I took from it,” Rayley admitted. “He theorizes the dancers were killed out of<br />
professional jealousy and that Cynthia Kirby was killed because she somehow learned Konstantin<br />
was to blame and had gone to the theater to confront him.” Rayley raised his palms at the barrage of<br />
objections certain to come his way in the wake of such an illogical statement. “Don’t shoot the<br />
messenger. I’m only repeating what Orlov shared with me. I was braced for him to query me about
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