Read Online The Parasol Protectorate Boxed Set by Gail Carriger - Free Book Online

rare among the bloodsucking
set. It took a lot of political, psychological, and supernatural strength for a vampire to separate from his hive. And once
autonomous units, roves tended to go a bit funny about the noggin and slide toward the eccentric end of societal acceptability.
In deference to this status, Lord Akeldama kept all his papers in impeccable order and was fully registered with BUR. However,
it did mean he was a mite prejudiced against the hives.
    The vampire sampled the fish, but the delicious taste did not seem to improve his temper. He pushed the dish away peevishly
and sat back, tapping one expensive shoe against the other.
    â€œDon’t you like the Westminster hive queen?” asked Alexia with wide dark eyes and a great show of assumed innocence.
    Lord Akeldama seemed to remember himself. The foppishness reappeared in spades. His wrists went limp and wiggly. “La,
my dear daffodil,
the hive queen and I, we… have our differences. I am under the distressing impression she finds me a
tad
”—he paused as though searching for the right word—“flamboyant.”
    Miss Tarabotti looked at him, evaluating both his words and the meaning behind them. “And here I thought it was you who did
not like Countess Nadasdy.”
    â€œNow,
sweetheart,
who has been telling you
little
stories like that?”
    Alexia tucked into her fish, a clear indication that she declined to reveal her source. After she had finished, there was
a moment of silence while Floote removed the plates and placed the main course before them: a delicious arrangement of braised
pork chop, apple compote, and slow roasted baby potatoes. Once the butler had gone again, Miss Tarabotti decided to ask her
guest the more important question she had invited him over to answer.
    â€œWhat do you think she wants of me, my lord?”
    Lord Akeldama’s eyes narrowed. He ignored the chop and fiddled idly with his massive ruby cravat pin. “As I see it, there
are two reasons. Either she knows exactly what happened last night at the ball and she wants to bribe you into silence, or
she has no idea who that vampire was and what he was doing in her territory, and she thinks you do.”
    â€œIn either case, it would behoove me to be better informed than I currently am,” Miss Tarabotti said, eating a buttery little
potato.
    He nodded empathetically.
    â€œAre you positive you do not know anything more?” she asked.
    â€œMy dearest
girl, who
do you think I am? Lord Maccon, perhaps?” He picked up his champagne glass and twirled it by the stem, gazing thoughtfully
at the tiny bubbles. “Now there
is
an idea, my treasure.
Why not
go to the werewolves? They may know more of the
relevant
facts. Lord Maccon, of course, being BUR will know
most
of all.”
    Alexia tried to look nonchalant. “But as a minister of BUR’s secrets, he is also the least likely to relay any cogent details,”
she countered.
    Lord Akeldama laughed in a tinkling manner that indicated more artifice than real amusement. “Then there is nothing for it,
sweetest
of Alexias, but to use your plethora of feminine
wiles
upon him. Werewolves have been susceptible to the
gentler
sex for as long as I can remember, and that is a
very
long time, indeed.” He wiggled his eyebrows, knowing he did not look a day over twenty-three, his original age at metamorphosis.
He continued. “Favorable toward women, those
darling
beasties, even if they are a tad brutish.” He shivered lasciviously. “Particularly Lord Maccon. So big and
rough.
” He made a little growling noise.
    Miss Tarabotti giggled. Nothing was funnier than watching a vampire try to emulate a werewolf.
    â€œI advise you
most
strongly to visit him tomorrow
before
you see the Westminster queen.” Lord Akeldama reached forward and grasped her wrist. His fangs vanished, and his eyes suddenly
looked as old as he really was. He had never told Alexia