Pandora's Box: The Deleted Scenes
Four
(From Chapter Fifteen)
Davina looked down at Amelia's sleeping form, now convinced that her friend was past the worst of her illness. Whatever Constance had done, it had saved the headmistress's life, and Davina didn't know how she would ever be able to repay the deputy for the sacrifices that she had no doubt had to make. Constance's previous acquaintance with the Devil was something she had made extremely clear that she did not want to share with the world at large, and as such Davina dreaded to think of the terrible price that Constance would have had to pay in unpleasant memories if not physical repercussions.
As Davina moved through the castle in search of her own bed and what little respite might come with it, although she doubted that sleep would be forthcoming, she reprimanded her imagination for scaring herself with flights of fearful fancy, summoning up ever more awful situations, ever more unpleasant recompense that the Devil would demand in return for restoring Amelia's health. Davina knew that she would not have been able to take the deputy's place had she been incapacitated in the same way as Amelia, and she was on the verge of working herself into a full-scale panic attack at the thought of Constance having disappeared never to be seen again. After she had been gone for a time deemed by all to be 'too long', Algernon had disappeared off to investigate her whereabouts, but that accounted for little with Algernon's general lack of common sense. Davina thought it highly likely that he would end up run to ground going round and round the Circle Line on the London underground and not getting anywhere. Tiptoeing quietly along the corridors so as not to wake the girls, Davina forced herself to think of something different: tap-dancing porcupines, Della's chocolate fudge cake, the lights in the lab that shouldn't have been there …
Davina stopped and did a double-take. No, the candles in the lab were definitely flickering, and since their mistress was most definitely absent, they were most certainly not meant to be there. Suspecting foul-play afoot, at the very least something worrying on the part of Fenella and Grizelda, Davina crept down the staircase and pushed open the lab door, left on the latch.
The sight that greeted her was not one that a witch of her years would have expected to come across in the middle of Cackle's potion laboratory.
Constance was sitting calmly at her desk, accompanied by a young man. What made this highly irregular spectacle even more unusual was the fact that whilst Constance was fully clothed, the man was wearing little more than a pair of black boxer shorts printed with little red horns and tails.
"Constance, what are you doing?" asked Davina incredulously.
"I would have thought that was perfectly obvious," said Constance, indicating the cards in her hand. "We're playing poker. Tony, this is my colleague Davina, Davina, this is my ex-lover Tony."
Davina and Tony nodded their acknowledgement of each other.
Constance laid down a royal flush of diamonds and sat back with a rather satisfied smile playing over her lips.
"To the victor the spoils, Tony dear. Hand them over."
Well, we know from Inferno that Constance is a secret cardsharp…