“No.” He stopped and stared into her eyes, searching once again to be sure he was doing the right thing before he answered her with complete honesty. Trust, he reminded himself. “There was a prophecy. It was foretold I would be the most powerful Vallen of our time, and that I have a great destiny.”
He turned away from her and stepped over to the old oak tree that dominated the garden. “My mother has always said that because I’m male I’m magically weak and I’ll never attain this destiny. She chose Kat to take my place.” He paused and ran his hand down the trunk of the tree, taking comfort in its familiarity. “I’ve spent my whole life trying to increase my powers, without success. But now they are increasing. I don’t know why, or how, but if I can do anything to help them, to make them grow faster, I need to do that. You see, if I don’t attain my full powers by my twenty–first birthday, I’ll lose everything and become an ordinary man.”
“Would that be so bad?” Adriana asked, joining him under the tree.
Morgan nodded somberly. “When you’ve been expecting to be so much more? Yes, I’m afraid it would.” Just the thought of it turned his stomach.
Adriana nodded, her eyes filled with understanding.
“Well, do you know anyone who can help you? Who you can ask about your powers?”
Morgan shook his head. “I don’t know anyone, aside from my mother.”
“You don’t know any other... Vallen?” She said the new word awkwardly.
“Only one, but he doesn’t know how to help me.” Morgan reached up and toyed with a leaf that was hanging down from the tree. “I can’t exactly walk up to people and ask if they are a Vallen, can I?”
Adriana laughed at the thought. “But surely there is someplace where they get together? Like a society party, only it would be... a Vallen party, I suppose?” she asked.
Morgan smiled at her. “Actually, there are Vallen in society. I just don’t know who they might be.”
“Really? Members of the beau monde?”
“So I’ve been told.”
“Then why don’t you go to a society party and see if you can meet one, and ask if they’ll help you?”
“I’m not invited to society parties,” he said with a shrug, and he wasn’t about to try the same fortune telling trick he had before. That had been an utter failure.
Adriana seemed to be thinking this through. “If I could get you an invitation, perhaps you could attend a ball with me.”
Morgan turned to look at her, the muscles in his stomach beginning to loosen. She was willing to help him? “Could you do that? Would you?”
“If it would help you, of course.”
He took her hands in his. “Adriana, I can’t tell you how much that would mean to me.” His voice dropped into a quieter, more intimate tone. “How much it means to me that you are willing to help.”
He pulled her into his arms and gave her a strong hug.
But then her soft curves were pressing into his body. Heat shot through him like a lightning bolt. He loosened his grip on her, and kissed her with all of the hunger and passion that resided within him.
But then she wiggled and pulled herself away. “No, Morgan! This is wrong. We’ve got to stop doing this.”
Twenty Two
How can you stand to live in a place such as this?” Tatiana said, looking around at the shabby furnishings of Mrs. Lunden’s drawing room.
“It’s much nicer than my cottage in the woods at Vallentyn.”
Morgan stood with his arms crossed in front of his chest. If he was trying to look powerful, he was doing a very good job of it, Tatiana admitted reluctantly to herself.
In fact, she’d been extremely surprised when he’d walked into the room. The entire feel of the room had changed. Somehow it had gone from being a small room to being a tiny room, as her son—and she could hardly believe that he was indeed her son, took up so much of the air in the room.
It wasn’t that he was particularly large, although he certainly took after his father in the impressive breadth of his shoulders and his height. No, it was more the feel of him.
When Morgan had walked into the room, immediately, Tatiana knew that this was a man to be reckoned with—which was ridiculous. This was Morgan after all. Her measly, powerless little boy. When did he become... no!
She refused to believe what her own well–honed senses told her. He certainly could not be the powerful Vallen he seemed. It was impossible!
She wouldn’t allow it!
Tamping down the anger that had begun to simmer inside of her, she asked, “Well, won’t you ask me to sit down at least?” A brief look around at the shabby furnishings almost had Tatiana take back her words. If any one of her other children had dared to live in such squalor she would have removed them at once. For Morgan, this seemed almost fitting.
“No. This interview is not going to last long enough for you to get comfortable. Please, just say what you have to say, Mother.”
Tatiana’s eyes snapped to his and he met hers with equal force.
How dare he? It was beyond rude—it was disrespectful. The nerve of this boy!
But she grudgingly had to admit he did not lower his eyes the way Kat did. She had to respect him...
No! She did not have to respect him for anything!
She ground her teeth together, but then took a deep, calming breath.
Walking over to the window, she kept her back to him so he could not see the fury in her eyes. “You know very well why I am here,” she said, beginning to gather together the force of her magic, calling on it from all around and within her. It would have been better had there been a fire in the hearth, for then she could have called on her element to assist her, but she would have to make do with what she had. On the other hand, perhaps it was better the way it was, after all. If she wasn’t mistaken, Morgan too was tied to the element of fire, as were all the seventh children in her family.
“I am not returning to Vallentyn.”
“Why? What is it you want here in London? If it is Miss Hayden, you can simply remove that thought from your mind. She is already engaged to your brother.”
She sensed Morgan twitch at that. Ah, so he hadn’t know that little piece of information. Tatiana supposed Miss Hayden had conveniently forgotten to mention it during their assignation the night before. Now was the time to hit him with her magic. Now, when he wasn’t expecting it. When he was thinking about Adriana.
She gathered her energy together quickly. She wasn’t sure how powerful he was, but she would hit him with all she had the first time. There was very little likelihood that she would get a second chance.
Putting it all into her voice, she spun around and made direct eye contact with him. “There is nothing for you here. Return to Vallentyn!”
He took an involuntary step backwards, but then smiled as he shook his head slowly from side to side. “It’s not going to work anymore, Mother. I’ve grown too powerful for you.”
Tatiana stifled her gasp. There had been so much power in that suggestion she was a little weakened from it. How could he have blocked that? When had he become so strong? Where was his magic coming from? It just didn’t make sense—he’d never had any powers. This simply wasn’t possible.
The heat of her anger boiled within her, but she kept a strong rein on it. She would not allow him to see how he affected her. If she did, he would surely take advantage of it—she knew she would if she were in his place.
No, she would simply have to use something else to convince him to go back. If sheer brute force of magic didn’t work, there were other ways to get what she wanted.
Oh yes, he was confident now. But what about when she mentioned Miss Hayden? He didn’t seem to be quite so sure of himself.
“Very well, Morgan. If you will not go back, then stay. Enjoy yourself and your new–found freedom.” She eyed the parlor, it’s shabby gentility and sneered, “Enjoy your new home. Enjoy it now, for you will be spending the rest of your life at Vallentyn. After Miss Hayden marries your
brother, there will be nothing else for you here, will there?”
“She won’t be marrying him,” he said, trying to put on a good show of bravado. But she could sense his uncertainty.
Tatiana could see right through him. He was scared she was right. “Oh no? Do you think she’ll marry you instead?” Tatiana gave a little laugh and congratulated herself on finding his weak point.
Morgan remained silent.
“My dear boy, Miss Hayden is too intelligent for that. She knows marrying Vallentyn is in her best interests. She will do as she is told.”
“Only because you have put the suggestion into her mind.”
“I? Oh no, I assure you, I have done no such thing,” Tatiana said in all honesty.
Morgan could sense this, she could tell. He frowned at her.
“No,” Tatiana continued, “Miss Hayden is marrying Jonathan because she knows just what she will get from marriage to him. Does she really know you, Morgan? Trust you? Does she know what marriage with you will be like? Do you even know what you’ll be doing for the rest of your life? How do you expect Miss Hayden to give up a certainty like the Viscount Vallentyn—a title, wealth and a position in society—to be with you, Morgan?”
Worry lines creased her son’s forehead. His shoulders slumped a little and his eyes dropped to the floor.
Tatiana kept the smile of triumph from her face. There was always more than one way to win a war—and she always won.
She walked to the door. “Enjoy your time here in London, Morgan. I will see you back at Vallentyn.”
With her parting shot, Morgan’s eyes met hers once more, and then she turned and walked out the door. She had given him enough to think about, and she had no fear that her words would come true, very soon.
<><><>
Adriana fiddled with the tassel of the pillow next to her. It was a beautiful pillow, covered in dusty rose silk perfectly matching the striped chair on which she sat and the others surrounding the rose marble fireplace.
She hated what she was about to do, but it simply had to be done. She had no choice.
Lord Vallentyn was seated across from her in the lovely drawing room of Vallentyn House. His face was that of an innocent man, and indeed, he was. It was Adriana who was guilty.
She looked around her once again and wondered if Lady Vallentyn had decorated the room herself. Somehow she just couldn’t see that woman in a shop picking out such pretty fabrics.
“I am so sorry, my lord.”
“Sorry about what, Miss Hayden?” Lord Vallentyn gave her a little smile. She guessed it was supposed to be reassuring, but it wasn’t. “If this is about your disappearance the other night from Lady Collingswood’s soiree, I completely understand. Your companion explained to me that you’ve been excessively tired of late. All the planning and preparations for our wedding, I suppose?”
“I have been doing quite a bit of planning for our wedding, but I’m afraid it has been for nothing.” Adriana took a deep breath and continued, “I’m afraid I cannot marry you after all, my lord. I am terribly sorry.”
Lord Vallentyn lost his easy smile. Scowling heavily, he looked, well, almost frightening. “That is impossible. It is unacceptable. No. I am sorry, Miss Hayden. You promised to marry me, and you will.”
“No. I cannot.” The tassel popped off the pillow, its fragile string toyed with beyond endurance.
Lord Vallentyn sat forward in his chair, now beginning to look a little scared himself. “You must. My mother is expecting us to marry. She has planned out my future, and you are the key to it. She will accept nothing less.”
Adriana shook her head. “I honestly do not wish to make Lady Vallentyn any angrier with me than she is already, but I simply cannot marry you. Not with what I have learned about her and... and your family.”
Lord Vallentyn’s pale blue eyes widened. “What have you learned?” he asked in a hollow voice.
Adriana took a few deep breaths and remembered that Morgan had told her that his brother had very few powers of his own. She lowered her voice just in case there were any servants lingering in the hall. “I know you are Vallen, and that your mother is too, and very powerful.”
“But you are...”
“No, my lord. I have seen her powers, I have seen what she is capable of doing and I will not, I cannot, subject myself to living under the same roof as her or putting myself under her power. I will not do it.”
Lord Vallentyn sat back once again, his mouth and eyes drooping with defeat. Slowly he nodded his head. “You are very wise, Miss Hayden. Either that or very stupid. I’m not entirely sure which one. It is wise of you to not want to put yourself into this position—as you say, under my mother’s power. On the other hand, I don’t want to see what she will do when she learns that you are refusing to marry me.” He shook his head slowly. “Oh, no. I don’t believe I even want to be in the city when she finds this out.”
A chill ran up Adriana’s spine. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be here either. Perhaps she could... but no, there was nowhere for her to go.
“You aren’t actually leaving the city?” she asked.
He gave a little laugh. “Actually, I will be next week. I have plans to visit my estate in Wiltshire, why?”
“Oh, no reason,” Adriana said, thinking hard. This was how she was going to be able to get Morgan to a society function! If Lord Vallentyn would be away for Lady Cowper’s ball next week, then perhaps Morgan could attend with her. She just needed to write a note to Lady Cowper—and hope their friendship was strong enough that she could impose on her in this way.
Lord Vallentyn broke Adriana out of her thought when he stood up, “Well, Miss Hayden, I beg you to think about our marriage some more. You must not make this decision in haste.”
Adriana, too, stood and looked around one more time. How nice it was to be surrounded by such elegant beauty. She gave a sigh. “I assure you, my lord, I have thought about it. I am terribly sorry, but my answer will not change.”
He took her hands, returning her sad smile. “No, I have confidence in you. I know you will do the right thing—the intelligent thing—and marry me.” Giving her hands one last squeeze, he said, “We will be very happy together. And don’t worry about Mother. As long as you do as she says, she can be very pleasant, even kind.”
<><><>
Morgan clasped his hands together in a desperate attempt to keep himself from fiddling with his neck cloth. Nestor had tied it just so, and not five minutes later was scolding Morgan for having touched it and ruined the effect he had managed to attain with the starched cloth. Now all Morgan wanted to do was run his finger around the inside of the tight linen binding his throat, but he did not dare.
He envied the ladies with their low–cut, flowing dresses. They did not have to squeeze themselves into tight fitting coats and pantaloons, and then nearly choke themselves to death with a piece of starched linen. He wished Nestor had not been able to obtain for him such perfectly fitting clothes.
Adriana looked so relaxed, walking next to him with her fingertips resting gently on his arm. She was looking even more beautiful than she had when he had seen her at the soiree, and he hadn’t thought that anyone could look prettier than that. But somehow, she managed it. Perhaps it was the color of her dress, which managed to bring out the red in her hair, the green of her eyes, and set off the pink blush of her cheeks. Or perhaps it was the gentle swells of flesh that her décolletage managed to just not hide from view, and which Morgan yearned to reach out and touch—with his lips and tongue.
They entered the main salon where most of the guests wandered about chatting here and there, greeting people, and sipping from glasses of wine and lemonade. Morgan nearly stopped in mid–stride. “My God, there are so many people!”
Adriana gave a nervous little laugh. “Welcome to the beau monde,” she said quietly, so that only he could hear. A shiver went down his spine at the intimacy of her voice, but instead of reveling in it, he had to steel himself for the onslau
ght of humanity.
At least a hundred people crowded into the large room, and there were probably many more in the other rooms about the house. All of the ladies’ dresses were as low, or lower cut, than Adriana’s, with glittering jewels gently resting on their pale white skin and dangling from their ears. Many of the gentlemen looked to be wearing clothes even tighter than Morgan’s. He marveled at how they moved with ease, without the slightest hint their clothes were in the least bit restricting.
Adriana pulled Morgan’s attention to the man and woman who were standing just inside the door.
“Lady Cowper, how wonderful to see you again,” Adriana said, curtseying. “My lord,” she added to the gentleman.
The lovely raven–haired woman greeted Adriana warmly, “Miss Hayden, how wonderful it is to see you getting out, finally. I have been telling Lord Devaux for the past two years that he must insist you attend ton functions.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” She indicated Morgan next to her and said, “May I introduce Mr. Morgan Vallentyn, to whom you were so kind as to extend an invitation?” Turning to him, she said, “This is Lord and Lady Cowper, Mr. Vallentyn.”
Morgan quickly placed a grateful smile on his face. “It is an honor, ma’am, sir. And thank you so very much for the invitation.”
“Not at all. When Adriana told me you were in town, I was very happy to send an invitation. I know so many members of your family, you are most welcome, Mr. Vallentyn.”
“Thank you,” Morgan bowed again before leading Adriana off, and allowing the couple behind them a chance to speak with their hosts.
“That was well done,” Adriana said quietly.
Morgan gave a little shrug. He noticed quite a few people were looking their way. He supposed it was Adriana they were looking at—she looked so lovely tonight.
“Do you see anyone who might... you know,” Adriana whispered, leaning closer on his arm.
Morgan looked around, and then shook his head. “I don’t know how I’m ever going to find someone among all of these people.”
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