Sophie de Courcy thinks as ‘It is a pity that this isn’t a novel, or for sure, the Count would fall for me so violently that he would dismiss any considerations of wealth or social status with a wave of his hand….’
She has to admit that she does try and encourage him a little, batted eyelashes here, an eager interest in his herbal remedies there (Lord Ynyr, like his late father, is much taken up with herbal remedies and even has a laboratory where he labours upon them).
Their nearest neighbour Kenrick, who lives at the red-roofed Queen Anne building Plas Cyfeillgar, has recently returned from travels in Eastern Europe, and he has a laboratory too; and if Agnes is to be believed, rumour has it that his experiments are less benign than those of Lord Ynyr, though he was influenced too by the late Count.
He is rather an unprepossesing man altogether, with a florid complexion, lank hair, and glassy eyes. Though heavily built, he moves with the speed of a great cat, and that strange attack upon Sophie’s hand, when he salviated upon it, and nibbled at it with his long teeth, was purely horrible to her.
That vision of him standing by her bed, which she hopes was a fading dream (ugh! such a dream) was even worse…