“James!” I cried, but he had already swept up the pug dog and charged out the door. He nearly tripped over a rather foolish-looking boxer—who had been Ramsey Webb a moment before.
Aunt Charlotte stood staring, for once quite unable to say anything, as the servants poured out of the house in a panic and the central tower slowly disintegrated. I could feel the magic draining away, and I half expected one or both of the Webbs to resume their natural forms at any moment, but it was no such thing. They both remained dogs.
James looked from the pug to the boxer and back. Then he turned to me and raised an eyebrow inquiringly.
“He was drawing on the ley lines to break the spell on his sister,” I said, thinking it out as I spoke. “And the train went by and distorted the ley line at just the wrong moment and caused a backlash.” I looked at the dogs. “I don’t think the transformation spell is part of the ley line network anymore. I think it’s all right here, on the two of them. And it’s going to be nearly impossible to take off again, if all the power I felt a minute ago went into reinforcing it.”
This left us to deal with the Webbs’ servants and the two coachmen. As soon as she recovered her voice, Aunt Charlotte declared herself to be quite overcome and utterly unable to travel. Mrs. Pentworthy’s coachman agreed with unseemly enthusiasm that she ought to remain at Haliwar while he returned to his mistress, and we saw him off with a message for Walker and James’s valet (who had remained in Stockton). Our own coachman we sent on to Darlington with a message for Herr Schellen and Mr. Skelly (who we presumed had regained his natural form when Adella transformed into the pug dog).
Then we set about soothing the servants enough to arrange rooms for James, myself, and Aunt Charlotte, for of course we could not leave Haliwar with its master and mistress in such straits. Fortunately, Mr. Webb’s study and Miss Webb’s workroom are both in the undamaged wings, and once they understood the situation, the servants were only too happy to have us search through the papers for a means of disenchanting their employers.
We found a good deal of interest, and James sent off an express letter to Lord Wellington. Mr. Skelly and Herr Schellen arrived yesterday, with the news that the stone circle at Goosepool has collapsed (and with your latest letter). They are currently examining the ley energy that remains in and around Haliwar, and the state of the other ley lines in the immediate vicinity. A week as a terrier has vastly improved Mr. Skelly’s manners; I will be interested to discover what effect their transformation has on the Webbs, once we determine how to return them to their normal forms. It is almost a pity that it is too late to apply the spell to Aunt Charlotte.
James remains extremely put out with her, as he is convinced that it was her injudicious remarks about “strange dogs and foreign men” that caused Mr. Webb to attempt whatever enchantment he was beginning when James struck him. For of course, Mr. Webb would surely connect the “strange dog” with the enchanted sheepdog, and the “foreign men” with Herr Magus Schellen, and leap to the conclusion that we had discovered his enchantments. Though James cannot deny that we would not have discovered as much as we have without the unexpected confrontation (and its even more unexpected results), he still scowls and looks black whenever it is mentioned. I believe he is offended by the inelegance of it all.
For myself, I am simply glad that it is all over, or nearly so. As soon as Lord Wellington sends some wizards to replace us and take charge of the Webbs, we will be on our way to reclaim the children. I do not expect to remain here above another fortnight; I shall write the very moment I know the exact date of our departure.
I am astonished to learn Drina’s identity; the child must have a will of iron to have kept so great a secret for so long, threat to her mother or no. It augurs well for her possible future as queen, I think.
Yours,
Cecy
18 May 1828
Skeynes
(Enchanted by T.S. out of sheer habit)
Dear Cecy,
Thank goodness it wasn’t you who went through the doorway! Canine life is not without interest, but I hate to think of you in such trim. How fortunate James has never displayed any aptitude for performing magic. It says a great deal that Aunt Charlotte was too shaken to make a sermon out of it, for a clearer case of reaping and sowing I cannot imagine.
I hope it will gratify you to learn that the case against the Webbs will benefit from a witness willing to testify against them at every turn. After many promises, I am at last able to deliver news of the interrogation of Mr. Scarlet.
Mr. Scarlet is not his real name. He was born Adolphus Medway. His mother was one of the servants in the Webb household, as were many of his relations. I find it difficult to think of him as anything but Mr. Scarlet now, so forgive me for confining myself to that name. As Mr. Scarlet was hand in glove with the Webbs in the matter of the stone circles and the network of ley lines, he has offered all matter of testimony condemning them of crimes as black as his own.
What produced this miraculous volte-face, you may wonder? The moment Colonel Winters read out the charges listed on the writ of arrest (with the tactful omission of Thomas’s name, of course), Mr. Scarlet mended his manners. Gone was his disdainful air.
“If I swing, I won’t swing alone,” Mr. Scarlet declared. “There’s that blackmailing swine Francis Conroy, for a start, and John Conroy himself over him. More than that, there’s a pair up north you should know about, real beauties both—the Webbs.” With that, he proceeded to regale us with a litany of his villainous deeds faster than Colonel Winter’s men could write it down.
It was crowded in the cellar, and it was with some relief I found myself called away from the throng to deal with a question of kitchen logistics posed by our cook. I would not have left, I promise you, before the burning issues of Mr. Scarlet’s guilt had been resolved. No asparagus receipt in the world could have lured me away before I had my curiosity satisfied on the salient points.
From Thomas, I have the full story.
Scarlet was born mere Adolphus Medway, servant to Scalby Webb, a cousin of the pair you know so well. Scalby Webb was sent to university to refine his knowledge of magic, and Scarlet went along with his master. Webb had little interest in magic, as he was intent on keeping to himself and drinking all the claret he could come by, but his servant missed no opportunity to listen at keyholes and pick up what titbits of learning he could.
In Webb’s second term at university, he took a fever. Scarlet nursed his master, and claims to have caught a mild form of the indisposition himself. When Webb died, Adolphus Medway traded places with him. So completely had Webb kept to himself, Scarlet was able to turn the trick and assume Webb’s station in life and place at university.
Scarlet studied magic diligently and mastered a good deal in his limited time at university. He was adept at aping Webb’s scrawl, and Webb never wrote home except to plead for money, so no one was the wiser until the Webbs came to visit their cousin in his rooms.
Scarlet was blackmailed into their service. As an agent of the Webbs, Scarlet was sent on all manner of errands to do with their schemes for power and financial gain. They were intent on concealing their misdeeds as long as possible. When they learned that Lord Wellington sent for James, they were sure that some papers of interest to them had accompanied the summons. Hence Scarlet took it upon himself to investigate Tangleford. There is a stone circle there, as you know perfectly well, and once he had added it to the ley network, he was able to penetrate your defenses almost at will. It was never part of his plan to be discovered in his misdeeds, so Scarlet fled as soon as he detected your spell-casting to counter him.
Scarlet had no idea he would ever have anything to do with Tangleford Hall again. It gave him a nasty shock, therefore, when Arthur espied him at the Bull and Mouth. Double the shock, indeed, as he was returning from Leeds, having made his report to the Webbs with all speed. As he was not in disguise, Arthur recognized him. After that encounter, Scarlet made no bones about shifting his appe
arance more frequently even than usual.
Scarlet was recruited into Conroy’s treasonous scheme when Conroy’s cousin Francis tracked him down in London. Francis Conroy had been at university during Scalby Webb’s first term at university. They shared the same tutor, in fact. Thus, Francis Conroy noticed when Scarlet made the switch. (More than the tutor did, it seems.) He held his peace at the time, but kept his eye on Scarlet thereafter. When the Conroys contrived their dastardly plan, Scarlet’s talent for shifting appearances made him a valuable accomplice. Francis Conroy blackmailed Scarlet into colluding with the scheme.
Scarlet claims he was given no choice but to play along. Disguised as a physician, he was smuggled into the palace by one of the ladies-in-waiting Conroy had corrupted. Scarlet cast the glamour that made Victoria Conroy resemble the princess. Francis Conroy had plans for Drina thereafter, but he reckoned without Scarlet’s initiative. Scarlet spirited Drina away to his pied-à-terre in Stroud. By the time Francis Conroy, using the unimaginative alias of Mr. Jones, found the house in Stroud, Scarlet was long gone.
As an agent of the Webbs, Scarlet had been charged with frightening Daniel into backing the Webbs financially. Daniel foiled the Webbs by running away. They believed he could be brought to heel by threats to Georgy, and so once her whereabouts was known, Scarlet was ordered to arrange her abduction. Scarlet felt that a well-delivered threat would be just as effective and far less trouble, so he did not actually bother to carry out that order.
I wish I could describe Georgy’s expression when she learned that, far from plotting her demise, Daniel had been trying to protect her all along. Her eyes went wide, her jaw dropped, and by the time she recovered enough to close her mouth, her lower lip was already trembling. She took herself off then, thanks be to a merciful providence, for a coal cellar thronged with wizards and soldiers was obviously no place for her finer feelings to take wing.
Had Scarlet simply evicted Edward the moment he detected his presence in the cart and left him to his own devices on the road, he could have had Drina safely in his hands almost indefinitely. Instead, he chose to add Edward to his collection of misdeeds. I suppose I owe him some thanks for abandoning both the children without a struggle.
“Couldn’t tie my own shoes with the magic the chit left me,” Scarlet explained. “Anything that came from the ley lines, she lapped up without even noticing. My own magic still worked, else I’d never have been able to cast the glamour on the Conroy brat. But any ley magic I tried on her fell flat. I followed you at a distance when you came to fetch the brats. I was glad to be rid of her, to tell the truth. I knew I could collect her from you whenever I needed to, provided I was willing to go without ley magic the whole time I had her.”
As confident of his ability to draw on the ley network as he was of his ability to fool the Webbs into permitting him to do so, Scarlet made a new plan. He believed, as Conroy had, that Drina and her mother would be too frightened of endangering one another to speak to the authorities.
As long as Scarlet was privy to the ley powers, he had the ability to come and go almost at will, no matter the strength or sophistication of the magical barriers he faced. Rather than forgo that power, Scarlet intended to leave Drina with us until the time suited him to come and collect her like an unclaimed letter. Word of Conroy’s arrest had not reached him at the time Scarlet set out to invade Skeynes and seize Drina. If Scarlet had known that the Conroy scheme was discovered, he would never have run the risk of crossing the boundary spell we cast, nor of being linked to Drina’s abduction.
Scarlet went on for an hour or more after I left to see about the asparagus. Thomas assures me that there will be testimony aplenty to dish all his accomplices, most particularly the Webbs, and enough circumstantial evidence to establish Scarlet’s account as one to be trusted.
Once I left the cellar, my first consideration was the comfort of our exalted guests. My second was the unrest in the nursery caused by the impending loss of Drina. A poor third, I confess, was Georgy’s opinion of all this.
No, fear not. She has not written another poem. (Or if she has, Georgy has sufficient good sense—just—not to tell me about it.) No, the new burden of her song is that she has sadly misjudged her poor darling Daniel. I need hardly tell you how tiresome I find this refrain. For all we know, Poor Darling Daniel has had to fly the country to avoid his debtors.
But I must not complain. As you have had Aunt Charlotte to deal with, yours is by far the more odious role. It gives me great pleasure, I must confess, to learn that she more than met her match at Haliwar.
The Duchess of Kent, not surprisingly, intends to whisk her daughter back to Kensington Palace under military escort first thing tomorrow morning. The children seem to be taking Drina’s departure in as good part as they can be expected. The loss of their playmate is redeemed, but only just, by the romance of her situation.
Edward is taking this the hardest of any of the children. My heart would be wrung by the look in his eyes if I did not know perfectly well that the next bullfrog to cross his path will set his spirits entirely to rights.
I am only thankful that Arthur and Eleanor have been so effectively distracted by the Wrextons, who are administering the most thorough magical examinations imaginable. They make Lady Sylvia and her tea tray seem quite antiquated in comparison.
I am sure the Wrextons will write you a full account of the twins before they breathe a word of their results to me or to Thomas. Rest assured I shall relate to you any crumbs of information that fall in the interim, on this or any other topic.
Drat. I distinctly heard the parlor maid swear just now. If Edward has found another snake, when I have specifically forbidden him any more experiments in natural history whilst the Duchess of Kent is in residence, I shall make Thomas roar at him immediately.
Until the next domestic disaster then, I remain,
Yours,
Kate
19 May 1828
Skeynes
Dear Cecy,
Peace has descended on our household at last. I am delighted to report that Mr. Scarlet was dragged off in irons yesterday, with soldiers and wizards at the ready in case his recent good behavior wears off.
The Duchess of Kent and her military entourage took Drina home today. I cannot pretend that the departure of the duchess was anything but a relief, but Drina is a different matter.
The children said good-bye to the princess in the relative privacy of the little parlor. (I suggested the nursery, but apparently that was considered beneath the dignity owed Drina’s station. The little parlor made a compromise acceptable to all parties.) The Duchess of Kent watched us all attentively throughout for any signs of familiarity. The children could not have behaved better.
Drina was gracious and unaffected about the whole ritual. She took leave of her former playmates with the same dignity she has displayed throughout her stay. How a woman as haughty as the Duchess of Kent could have subjected herself so utterly to the will of a cad like Conroy, I cannot imagine. Colonel Winters told me the man entered the household as her late husband’s equerry. He insinuated himself into her good graces until she trusted him with everything, and he repaid her by substituting his daughter for hers.
Drina accepted as her due rather surprisingly graceful curtseys from Eleanor and Diana, and an equally elegant bow from Arthur. Edward’s attempt at a bow was interrupted when he thought he saw a bug on the carpet at Drina’s feet, but a swift nudge from Arthur recalled him to his senses in time to straighten up before the duchess made any slighting remarks. (Not that Edward would care a jot for any remark an adult could make if he had discovered a truly distinctive bug, mind.)
Diana presented Drina with a rather wilted nosegay she had gathered herself—rather wilted, but still very pretty. Drina kissed both the babies farewell. I cannot speak for anyone else’s opinion of that gesture, but I found myself unaccountably moved by it. If ever she should manage to grow into her formidable name, Alexandrina Victoria will make
an admirable Royal Highness.
We waved Drina and her mother (not to mention the escort arranged by Colonel Winters) off with cheers. The children were pleased with the grandeur of the soldiers in their red coats. I was pleased to see the back of them. With no soldiers on the premises other than the toy ones guarding the Map, the household felt almost empty. I reveled in the fact that our only remaining houseguests were the Wrextons. (I admit it. I count Georgy and your children as permanent fixtures in the household now.) Life is so much simpler without the military presence.
Mr. Wrexton feels sure that Scarlet’s inability to perform magic on Drina stems from the realm itself. Any use of ley power against Drina merely fizzles to nothing. If true, this would explain why Drina had no opinion of Scarlet’s magical abilities. It also implies that my spell did less to subdue Scarlet during his struggle with Thomas than Drina’s mere presence did.
Aunt Elizabeth has a further refinement to the theory. She hopes to prove that the ley power Drina sapped from Scarlet explains the precocious use of magic the twins display. Until Drina arrived, the toy soldiers were just toys, the Map a mere map.
The Wrextons accompanied Thomas and me this morning as we rode out along the boundary, as Thomas wished to renew his protective spells. I could not help but enjoy myself in such company, and the expertise of both the Wrextons was very welcome in the matter of revising and improving his choice of enchantments. With good weather for the ride, the day approached perfection.
We recast the protection spells and rode through the gates on our way back to the house just in time to see an elegant carriage drawn by four matched bays fairly thundering up to our doors ahead of us.
Thomas rose in his stirrups for a better look at the equipage. “From the look of the daubs on the doors, that’s Daniel’s turnout.”
The Mislaid Magician Page 23
