Read Online The Glass House by Ashley Gardner - Free Book Online

said, and she laughed.
    Inglethorpe turned to Lady Breckenridge and
offered the bag to her. She loosened the mouth of it and put it to
her nose, inhaling and squeezing the bag in a practiced way.
    Mrs. Danbury continued to titter as though
she could not stop herself. Inglethorpe, smile wide, continued
across the room.
    Lady Breckenridge closed her eyes and leaned
back a moment, then opened her eyes and gave me a beatific smile.
"Excellent for the humors," she said.
    Mrs. Danbury found her statement amusing,
judging from the escalation of her laughter. The bag passed to the
gentlemen but emptied before it got to me.
    Inglethorpe handed me the second bag and
loosened the string for me. I lifted it to my nose and tried to
duplicate what I'd seen the others do.
    A waft of air forced its way into my
nostrils, but it smelled in no way unpleasant, or, indeed, any
different than the air in the rest of the room. I wondered whether
Inglethorpe was making fools of us.
    As I passed the bag to the next gentleman,
however, my lips and tongue began to tingle. It was a curious
sensation. I touched my tongue to my lower lip and resisted the
urge to tug it. Lady Breckenridge laughed quietly at me.
    As I turned from her, my injured knee
collided with the gilded edge of the settee. I felt a jarring but
no pain. For a moment, the fact did not connect in my head, and
then, in pure astonishment, I stared down at my leg.
    I felt no pain. All day long my knee
had throbbed in the damp, and now, it seemed as right as it had
been before I'd hurt it.
    For two years after the original injury,
which had shattered the bones, my knee and lower thigh had hurt
continuously, some days more than others. Always the leg was stiff;
every morning I had to walk about to loosen it up. If I used it too
much during a day, such as today, I woke aching and cursing in the
night. And now, I felt no pain.
    Amazed, I stood. Mrs. Danbury pressed her
handkerchief to her mouth and laughed at me, her eyes shining. I
grinned back at her.
    "Do you like it, Captain?" Inglethorpe asked.
He passed the second bag to Lady Breckenridge and picked up the
third.
    "Certainly," I answered.
    I paced back and forth. I glanced at my
walking stick, which I had left leaning against the settee. My bad
leg moved where I wanted it to go without protest. I turned in a
circle, resting my weight on my left leg. Nary a twinge. I
laughed.
    Inglethorpe handed the third bag to me. I
took it and inhaled gladly, taking a long breath.
    I wondered what the concoction was. Grenville
had called it a "magic" gas. I felt awake and alert and rested.
Brandy and gin left one heavy and sleepy, opium gave a false
euphoria and a weightiness in the limbs, but this made me feel fine
and fit. I wanted to leap about the room, and to my alarm, I found
myself nearly starting to do so.
    "Dance for us, Captain," Lady Breckenridge
said. "Do, please."
    Several of the gentlemen laughed. The others
leaned back, idiotic grins on their faces. Inglethorpe, the only
one who had not partaken, watched us all with an indulgent
expression.
    I crossed the carpet and held out my hand.
"Do you waltz, Mrs. Danbury?"
    She gazed at me in astonishment and through
the strange clarity I felt a twinge of embarrassment. Then she
smiled, put her hand in mine, and rose to meet me.
    I waltzed Mrs. Danbury up and down the long
room and around Lady Breckenridge's settee to the windows. Lady
Breckenridge turned to watch us as we went by.
    I had learned to waltz in Spain, when the
fashion first took. I had waltzed with Louisa, under her husband's
glowering eye, and with the wives of other officers. My injury had,
of course, put an end to this entertainment.
    Never had I danced with a woman who simply
wanted to dance with me. No pity for the lonely officer who had no
wife to escort. No duty in attending the wives of superior
officers. Just dancing for the pure joy of it.
    Mrs. Danbury matched her steps to mine and
rested her hand on my shoulder. I grasped her