A Golden Fury

her, and feel he had won a great victory. I looked at her and wondered.
“But you are quite correct, of course, of the dangers. I understand that.”
“Think of your daughter, ma chère, if you will not think of yourself!”
My mother glanced to the corner again, then turned her icy blue eyes on me. They were unnaturally bright, her color still high.
“My daughter…” she said in a low voice.
I drew back, startled. There was a strange intensity and a calculation in her gaze I did not recognize. My mother did not look at me this way, as though she were assessing my talents, my worth. She always looked at me as though she knew everything in me, and had always known it, and had no need to seek anything further.
“I should not like to part with her,” said my mother, again in a low voice that was unlike her own.
“Then you must both come!” The Marquis glanced at Adrien. “Er—rather—you must all come! I have let a place in London with plenty of room—”
The Comte’s jaw tightened. He looked at my mother with anger I did not understand.
“It is kind of you, most kind,” said my mother. “I shall think on it. Not for myself, but as you say, I must think of my daughter.”
“Your daughter has a father in England,” said Adrien with forced calm. “And a mother who could go there tomorrow. There is no need for her to go unchaperoned with a man she does not know at all.”
I straightened in my chair. The edge in Adrien’s voice told me that this was not the first time this topic had been broached. I glanced at my mother, who was carefully ignoring the Comte’s gaze, and I understood. The Marquis wasn’t for her at all. She intended to send me away with him.
For all that she had turned on me and shut me out, I never imagined this. We had never been parted. She had never allowed it, nor had I wished it.
“I am not going to England!” I exclaimed.
“Thea has a father in England she does not know, and who does not know she exists,” said my mother, as though I had not spoken. “He is no use to us.”
“What do you mean, he does not know she exists?” the Comte demanded. “You swore to me you would write to him of her! I saw you seal the envelope!”
“I sealed it, but did not send it,” said my mother. “I had no need to, once Phillipe sent word of his plans.”
Adrien slammed his fist onto the table, sending the glasses and silver rattling. The Marquis seized his wine with both hands to keep it steady, his eyes wide with shock.
“Marguerite!” Adrien thundered. “Thea is not going to England with this man!”
I stared at him. I had never heard him raise his voice to my mother, or give her an order. He was finished now. Mother might not be leaving France, but she would certainly be leaving him. These were lines no man could cross and keep any part of my mother’s affections. Still, I was grateful.
“No,” I agreed fervently. “I am not.”
The Marquis pushed back his chair from the table, lips quivering with outrage. But instead of placating him, my mother leaned past him toward me, ignoring him completely. Venom sharpened her glassy-eyed stare.
“You will go where I tell you,” she hissed. “With whom I tell you to go! Do you think you know better than I what is best for you? I protect you! But for me, you would have thrown your virtue away on that libertine—”
“I would not!” I exclaimed, my face aflame. “And Will is not a libertine, he is an alchemist!”
“You foolish child, you think you know more than I of men?”
“Not of men,” I said. “But of Will, yes! You only hated him because he defended me from you!”
“Defended you?” My mother stood. Her cheeks were scarlet with rage, her eyes wild. “He turned you against me with flattery, and you were too stupid to see it! No alchemist who knew anything would say you were ready for your own laboratory!”
“And that was why you really threw him out, wasn’t it?” I exclaimed, rising from my own chair as well. “Because he dared to suggest I did not need you, that I might even be better than you!”
“That was when I knew he was a liar!” Her eyes were strangely dark, pupils flaring, and her arms shook as she gripped the table. The Marquis stared at her, aghast, and so did I. She never lost control like this, not before a guest. “No one would say something so absurd without a sinister purpose! He thought to seduce you and steal my secrets through you!”
My breath caught. I shook my head, my mouth twitching and twisting around a denial.
“You thought he wanted you for yourself, I know it,” snarled my mother. “But I saw you together. You were as clumsy as a giraffe and as blunt as a bull! You have no charm for men—it is why I have no fear of sending you with the Marquis!”
“Marguerite!” exclaimed the Comte. “You are being cruel!”
“I will take my leave now, Marguerite,” said the Marquis stiffly. “I will not stay where I am so clearly not wanted. But if you should ever find yourself in need of assistance—”
My mother blinked at him, chest heaving, as if she had forgotten he was there. And somehow she had, surely, or she would never have spoken this way in front of him when she still wished to win a favor. After a long, dead moment, she held out her hand, which the Marquis bent over hastily.
I sat down again, rooted to my chair. I did not look at the Marquis as he left. My eyes and throat burned. Adrien was right. She was being cruel, and needlessly so, when it didn’t even suit her ends. When the Marquis was gone, she turned, trembling, back to me.
“See what you’ve done,