Visions Anew

She could not, however, stop herself from tracking his presence. Thelonging to be with him drew her toward him, even as she guided herself deliberately in the opposite direction. Self-denying, she moved herself steadily, throughly away. Lord Maximilien allowed her to lead him subtly, and she soon found herslef, for the moment, safe.

A group of Lord Maximilien's many acquaintances suddenly arrived, a group of men and women high drunk off the libations and the vening. The women were flushed and merry, thier gentlemen, if they could be called so, leering and smelling strongly of spirits. Lupin looked steadily through them. She held to Lord Maximilien's hand and smiled, laughed. Then she was pulled away. A gentleman smelling perhaps less badly of champagne, a gentlean in a dark purple coat of velvet and silver lace, desired her hand in a dance. She accepted - she was courting Paris, that strange love of Lord Maximilien's - and she would put o the show of wanting the proper status. She laid her hand gently on the arm of velvet and silver; and her expression froze.

There was something very wrong in this. The waves of cold seemd to emanate from the gentleman. She knew in a flash at that moment that she had somehow made a very bad mistake. Soemthing in this evening had gone terribly awry. Her dream of Lrod Grefham flashed before her eyes - but it was changing even as she saw it. It ws turning into duplicates, multiplying infinitely, his death over and over and over in her mind - the blood splattered on his gold ocate - he lay at her feet on the stairs at Greye, the staris down which she had flown at him. She saw his figure falling from his horse in Green Park, where he had saved her life from the black hoofs of her stallion. She saw him lying, white and cold at ehr very feet at htat moment. And the images swirled to a stop with the image of hs white, fast-draining face as she lay in his arms - and her gaze faded to black, the ultimate black of finality. She had paused in the floor midwqay to the dancing salon - she realized she was blankly gazing at her hand, the hand that had worn Lord Grefham's signet. At that moment, she felt her soul was being lost by the absence of it on her finger.

Her companion was looking at her oddly, his eyes narrowed. "I'm sorry," said Lupin, avoiding his eyes for fear he would see the echoes of dath in hers. "I realied I have lost my ring!" She held up her empty right hand in shock. "I must find it immediately!" she cried, looking at him in alarm.

He frowned, as if not certain what to think. "Will you walk me to the stairs there," she inquired, gesturing urgently to the steps to the ladies withdrawing room.
He nodded his head. "Certainement, mademoiselle," he replied quietly, his accent a little strange. Lupin did not require the auditory cue to let her know the situation was darling. There ws the inescapable truth of her own inner visions - though she tried to escape them in her mind, they remained, accusing.

Lupin mounted the stairs swiftly, but carefully, glancing back at the top with a seductive and polite smile of high society understanding. She entered the curtained doorway to the ladies' salon. The she paused. Why had he not asked her to send a maid?