Lady Diana's Disguise (Seven Wishes Book 3)

by Bree Verity

  The other woman sniffed. "Second-hand clothes and a bed that's not your own? That's no way to live."

  "How do you live, then?" asked Diana, and the woman winked and smiled

  Agnes made a disconcerted noise and the other passengers shuffled uncomfortably. Diana was confused. "I am afraid I do not understand," she said.

  "She's a whore," a male passenger said baldly from the other side of the carriage.

  For a moment Diana was alarmed at being in such close proximity to a lady of ill-repute. But then she paused. Unless she had particularly been told, she would never have been able to identify the prostitute from any of the other women in the carriage. She found herself a little curious about the woman.

  "How on earth does a woman find herself in such a profession?"

  Before the woman could answer, Agnes said loudly, "Do not associate yourself with her, miss. She could only sully you."

  Diana's brows rose. "Indeed, I cannot see how a simple conversation to pass the time could do such a thing."

  The woman grinned at her, and Agnes turned away, crossing her arms over her breast and muttering, "Well, it's only your eternal soul, but I suppose you can do whatever you wish with it."

  The harlot, who went by the very unlikely name of Chastity Maude Prudence, was happy to talk about her profession and how her circumstances had led her into the life. And to her credit, she did it without saying anything that would raise a blush in even the most puritanical of minds.

  Diana for her part was fascinated and a little bit horrified by Chastity Maude's descriptions of an early life of dank poverty and a young girl's determination to rise above it. "I have been very particular with my clientele you see," she explained to the fascinated Diana. "Each time, a step up. From grocery boys to shopkeepers to gentlemen. I refused to go backward. And when I stood still, I learned how to walk and speak and behave like a lady, so my clientele would expand. And most of all, each time I made an improvement, I got a better price."

  Diana shook her head and as she did, she caught the fascinated glances of the other occupants of the carriage. It seemed that despite their disdain, Chastity Maude's tale interested the rest of the coach passengers. Other conversation had stopped and Chastity Maude's voice, though quiet and cultured, was the only sound.

  "But what about the future?" Diana asked. "What about your old age? And," she glanced at Agnes on the other side of her, "your eternal soul?"

  Chastity Maude's smile was tinged with sadness. "Many of us fail to reach old age, Miss. Rough treatment, too many children, disease... and poverty. I have succeeded, I think. Most of the others fail. But for me?" She straightened up a little, and the sadness left her face, replaced by determination. "My plan is to put away enough for a comfortable life once I have passed my prime. And as for my soul? Well, I only hope the Good Lord will see that I never did anything to harm another person and the course my life has taken was really, the only one available to a girl like me."

  Agnes mumbled something that Diana couldn't make out, and she ignored her.

  "A girl like you?"

  "Pretty, you know. But without learning or money. Or family to take care of me."

  And suddenly, Diana did understand. Being forced into a certain course because of the accident of one's birth. Making the most of the hand you were dealt. And wistfully wishing life could be different, even though you knew it would never change.

  Impulsively she lay her hand over Chastity Maude's. "I will admit, I am lucky to have been born into the family I was."

  "Indeed Miss. You seem a well-bred lady, despite your clothes. Believe me, I can pick an actual well-bred lady from a practiced actress. So, it makes me wonder, what are you doing traveling all alone on the mail?"

  Diana's lip quirked into a grimace. "A misunderstanding, that is all. I hope it shall all be sorted out in a day or two."

  "And where are you headed for in London in the meantime?"

  "I hardly know," confessed Diana. "I plan to exit the mail on the outskirts of the city and find a place to stay. I am afraid that the small amount of money I have will only be enough for a night or two of lodgings."

  Chastity Maude nodded decisively. "In that case, you should come and lodge with me."

  Doubtfully Diana replied, "I am sorry, Miss Prudence, but I do not believe I should be comfortable taking lodgings at a brothel."

  She noticed the nods from the other women in the coach, but Chastity Maude laughed. "No, silly," she replied. "At my own home. Far away from the brothels, I can assure you. It is not a large house, nor is it a very fashionable address, but it is comfortable, and you are welcome to share."

  Diana was inclined to accept Chastity Maude's invitation but before she could say anything there was an interruption in the form of an audible gasp from Agnes. "You should do no such thing!" she said, obviously shocked. "It is the devil's house, mark my words. You should be sucked into that kind of life if you do so much as to cross the threshold." Agnes drew the sign of the cross over her breast and while the other passengers did not show quite as much religious fervor, they nodded in agreement with Agnes.

  Chastity Maude regarded them with contempt. "Do you really think I would lead anyone into this life?" she asked scornfully. "After what you've heard of me? Shame on you all. I offer merely a place to lay her head for a few days in a safer and quieter environment than she would ever find at any lodging house. You may condemn me for my profession as much as you wish. But I will not have you questioning my integrity." She turned back to Diana. "The offer is sincerely made, I assure you."

  Diana wanted to shout "Bravo!" at Chastity Maude's words, but instead, she grinned at the woman and said, "In that case, how can I refuse?"

  Chapter Twenty-Three.

  Fenella arrived back at the Edenburgh's mansion in the freezing quiet of early morning. Winter had taken hold overnight, dropping a solid covering of snow over the whole estate, but in the almost-too-early-to-be-morning gloom, it all seemed gray and dispirited.

  Fenella looked for Diana using a sense that only she wielded - her godchildren appeared in her mind as white, winking lights. To her bemusement, she could not locate Diana anywhere in the house.

  Brows knitted, she winked into Diana's bedroom, knowing that she would find Lachlan there. He was asleep in the guise of Lady Diana, long blonde hair tied in a braid, dark lashes laying softly on the rose-stained porcelain cheeks. Fenella looked down on him fondly, a half-smile crossing her face. She knew there would be trouble, but right now, she put all that aside at the pleasure of seeing him again.

  She leaned down over the prone form and whispered, "Lachlan."

  He must have been sleeping very lightly, for the brilliant blue eyes sprang open and Diana's voice shrieked, "Fenella," before she found herself being tackled over the top of Lachlan and on to the other side of the spacious bed, with Lachlan beside her. He shimmered, changing back into his own body and pressed his lips against hers. She threw her arms around his neck, capturing his lips in a kiss that held all the passion she had been holding inside for the past few days. Lachlan fought to free his arms from the bedsheets which had them both laughing through the kiss, then he embraced Fenella in his warm, comforting arms.

  "I'm never letting you out of my sight again," he breathed in her ear and Fenella shivered. She and Lachlan had not been intimate, however circumstances as they were, and with Fenella pent up with excitement over her new skills, and trepidation over the manner of her homecoming, she was all for throwing caution to the wind.

  "There are far too many layers between us," she declared, but even as she started to burrow her way into the blankets to get closer to him, Lachlan seemed to remember that he was supposed to be angry with her. He sat up suddenly and his bare chest, bronzed and toned, made Fenella's mouth water with desire.

  "I wonder what other parts of you are bare under there," Fenella quipped, but Lachlan frowned and tucked the blankets tight around his hips, drawing a pout from Fenella.

  He crosse
d his arms over his chest. "Just where have you been?"

  "It's a long story," Fenella began earnestly, but Lachlan's interrupted with a sarcastic, "I'll bet it is," and she threw him a long, stony glare.

  "If you must know, I have been off saving a little girl's life."

  Lachlan's brows drew down. "You have no healing skills," he said bluntly. "Try again."

  Fenella struggled to her knees. "I'm telling the truth," she insisted, pouring all the earnestness into her voice that she could muster. "Turns out that Phineas and I between us are healers, when we use our blackdark together."

  "But blackdark is destructive," Lachlan spluttered. "And I knew this would have something to do with that brother of yours. I thought we agreed you wouldn't go with him?"

  "I had to," Fenella insisted. "He told me a life was in the balance."

  "So, you just believed him and scampered off, leaving behind your obligations?"

  "I didn't leave forever. Stop dramatizing everything."

  "Well, you stop downplaying everything. From what you've just said, you listened to your brother - who you were going to be wary of - and then you've gone Rianna knows where with him and then what happened? You saved someone's life?" He snorted in derision. "This should be a good one."

  Fenella glared at Lachlan, the fire in her eyes igniting and the dark vapor forming around her ankles. But she kept her voice steady. "We saved a little girl who was dying from soul sickness."

  "Soul sickness? Of course!" He jumped out of bed so he could pace the room. (Somewhere in the back of Fenella's mind, she was disappointed that he was wearing breeches.)

  "It's real Lachlan. I promise."

  "How can you promise? It's an old wives' tale. You know what it sounds like to me?" He came to a halt before Fenella. "It sounds like you and your brother maybe shared some special fungus then went on a journey to wonderland."

  Fenella's eyes narrowed and her lips thinned. "It was no such thing." She levitated, lifting just an inch or two off the ground, her arms crossed over her breast. "When have I ever lied to you Lachlan?"

  "Just now, I think, is the first time," he retorted, coming to face her. With Fenella levitating, they were face to face and Lachlan's blue-white light was firing. "Why can you not just tell me what really happened?"

  "I am you... stubborn mule," she replied, voice tight with agitation. "Why can't you open your mind?"

  "Open my... really? I've been training a dark fae to be a fairy godmother. You don't think I have an open mind?"

  "I think you see what you choose to see, and that's all."

  "Oh, that's rich coming from you," Lachlan retorted. "You who have no ability to even stick to a single obligation without having to have a good look around to see if there's anything more interesting to do."

  "That's not fair. I take my fairy godmother duties very seriously..."

  "So seriously, in fact, that you would forget the First Imperative, drop everything, and follow your wastrel of a brother into some foolish scrape."

  "Saving a life is more important than the First Imperative."

  By now, Fenella was hovering over Lachlan, in full dark fae. Her clothes had darkened to a deep, blood red, smoke encircled her entire body and lightning played between her hands, which now bore red talons. Her dark hair was a halo around her sunken, deathlike face and her voice was deep and loud. The room around them was icy, despite the fire glowing in the grate, and any item that was not fixed down now whirled around them in a crazy dance.

  As soon as she said it, Fenella knew that in Lachlan's eyes, she had committed an unforgivable error. Lachlan's face grew grave and sad. Fenella returned to normal, feeling a little ashamed and realizing for the first time that her newfound powers and her commitments as a fairy godmother might not be compatible.

  "Lachlan." She took a step toward him, but he threw up a hand and stepped away. She tried again. "I never knew there were things that could supersede the First Imperative. But I know them now. And I'm one of the very fewpeople who can do this thing."

  "What thing?" Lachlan was bitter, as well he might be.

  "Harness the blackdark to save people."

  Fenella couldn't look at Lachlan anymore. The sadness and the betrayal in his expression made her feel as if she had committed a dreadful crime against him in person. And it hurt so badly - he was the one person she never wanted to hurt.

  Lachlan exhaled heavily and his whole body showed his despair, from his sunken shoulders to the dreadful flatness of his voice.

  "So, what are you going to do?"

  Fenella thought for a moment. "I'm going to complete Diana's happily ever after first," she said. "After that? I'm just not sure."

  Lachlan nodded slowly, his face a mask of misery. "And the rest of your apprenticeship?"

  Fenella shrugged. "We'll have to see what happens."

  "You know by enacting the First Imperative we're saving countless lives, right? Not just one?"

  Fenella could have argued with him again over Grimshaw's essay and whether the epic journey of Gnythe Morsteyn was just a myth, but now was not the time so she just stayed silent.

  "Fenella," whispered Lachlan. She heard the pain and fear and sorrow in his tone and approached him, wrapping her arms around him and leaning against his chest. He lay his cheek on her hair.

  "We can work this out," she said with a quiet confidence she was not sure she felt. "But for now, we need to put everything to rights here. Where is Diana? I could not see her."

  After a deep sigh, Lachlan gently pushed Fenella away until they were looking into each other's eyes.

  "She was dismissed from service and has taken the mail coach to London."

  "What! Why?"

  "Because you took too long to come back and the deception started to crumble." There was no note of censure in Lachlan's voice, but Fenella felt it anyway.

  "So how do I fix it?" she asked.

  Before Lachlan could answer the chamber door was swung open with a bang and a gentleman Fenella vaguely recognized from the party stood before them, clothes disheveled, unshaven and appearing as if he had not been to bed all night, which in fact he had not.

  "This will simply not do. I cannot even sleep for worry about what might become of her. You have to do..." The man caught sight of Fenella, and venom entered his tone. "You." In two fast strides he was beside Fenella grasping her arm.

  This time there was no buildup. Fenella instantly turned dark fae, gratified to see Simon's face turn from loathing to fear. A surge of dark power passed through her, and the man was thrown to the other side of the room.

  "You're not a fairy, you're a demon," the man gasped at the same time as Lachlan snapped, "Fenella. That's enough."

  She let her fiery, scornful gaze rest on each of them in turn before closing her eyes and resuming her normal appearance.

  The man gaped. "It is unnatural," he declared, crossing himself.

  "I assure you, it is totally natural for a dark fae," Lachlan replied soothingly, throwing Fenella a glare that said in no uncertain terms that she should keep quiet.

  "Dark fae?" The man rose unsteadily to his feet. "What is that?"

  "There are light and dark fae," Lachlan explained. "Usually fairy godmothers are light fae, like me." He drew a hand down his body. "But sometimes - very rarely - a dark fae will try their hand at fairy godmothering. But," he threw a dark glance at Fenella, "they are supposed to suppress their dark tendencies so that they do not make humans fear them." He raised an eyebrow in Fenella's direction which she chose to ignore, instead smoothing down her pink gown and patting her hair in place while imagining Lachlan covered in a hundred stinging scorpions.

  "Good idea that." The man's wry tone told Fenella that he had overcome his fear, or at least, had covered it with some good old-fashioned bravado. Since he was no longer a threat, Fenella turned back to Lachlan.

  "So, back to the question at hand, how do we find Diana?"

  She was met by a blank look from Lachlan, but the
man replied, "The only thing we can do is to go to the mail office in London and work our way back from there. She did tell me she was going to go to outskirts of London."

  "Just who are you again?" She was irritated by him assuming he was included in her plans.

  "Fenella, meet Dr. Simon Moore." Lachlan seemed amused, which did nothing to improve Fenella's annoyance.

  "And he is?"

  "I'm pretty sure he's the happily ever after."

  Fenella narrowed her gaze to have a better look at Dr. Moore. Sure enough, his aura suggested that he was enraptured with Diana, and that she would favor a suit from him. Fenella's interest in Dr. Moore increased, even as he said, "What do you mean, the happily ever after?"

  "Never mind," Fenella said. "Where is this mail office?"

  "Lombard Street, in the middle of London."

  Fenella nodded and winked out of sight.

  "Where did she go?" Simon gasped.

  Lachlan shrugged. "Where else? To find Diana."

  "But... I was going to take a fast carriage and find her myself!"

  Lachlan smiled encouragingly. "You go ahead and do that then, if it will make you feel better."

  The doctor nodded firmly and strode out of the room.

  Lachlan sighed and said to himself, "I fear it's going to be a long day."

  * * *

  Fenella didn't find Diana at the mail office, but from there, she could sense her presence at a house a few miles distant, so she winked to that address.

  It was a deceptively modest house in a line of modest houses, with shining white stoops, symmetrical windows and a square of garden before them which proclaimed them to be less than ordinary. Diana's presence was clear in one of the upstairs rooms, but Fenella could not identify if she was alone there, so instead she stepped up to the front door and rapped loudly.

  It was opened by a surprised maid, who looked Fenella up and down and said, "What do ye want at this hour of the mornin'?"

  Fenella raised one haughty eyebrow. "I wish to see Annie. I understand she is staying here."