Seventeen Stones

by Vanessa Wells

  Ella was staring out the glass wall that looked out onto the veranda and into the gardens. The scene also held Lady Anne’s interest. She seemed pleasantly surprised. “The gardens are exquisite! It’s too bad that this will be a mid-winter party instead of summer. I can just imagine when the roses are in full bloom! But I’m sure that the gardener will be able to do something impressive with the gardens. This is perfect. It will hold two hundred and fifty with room to spare, which is excellent.” She flipped open the fan at her wrist and gave a few graceful flutters before snapping it back in a business-like manner. Mia made a mental note. They didn’t teach Fan Management at college either. Lady Anne beamed at them. “I despise being at a ball where the guests are crushed together like sardines, however fashionable it might currently be. Now, the next question is, do your stables have a place for all the carriages to wait while their owners are busy at the ball?”

  The stables were examined before Mr. Smith appeared. He met them as they were returning to the house. Mr. Smith made a slight bow to Lady Anne and escorted the ladies into a sitting room. “Lady Anne” he said as they walked “It’s very kind of you to consent to guide Mia during this first party. Your reputation for extravagant assemblies precedes you.” Lady Anne caught the nervous tone behind the solicitor’s query, and reacted with kindness to what was actually more of a cut than a complement. “Thank you Mr. Smith. I must admit that my parties always seem more extravagant than they are. Mia’s cook has just informed me that almost all of the foodstuffs that we’ll need have been gathered from the estate over the past two years. The ballroom is lovely and will only require minimal decorations, perhaps some evergreen boughs, holly, and ice lilies if we can find them in the area. We haven’t discussed the rest of the plans, but other than Mia’s extended wardrobe, I don’t imagine that it will cost the estate nearly what you fear.” Mr. Smith breathed an almost audible sigh of relief and said warmly. “My lady, you do ease my mind. I had wondered if I had exceeded my authority as trustee in recommending the party.”

  The bill from the dressmaker, though cleared in advance with the trustees had made Mr. Smith very nervous. For fifteen years the solicitor had dutifully measured the profits coming in to the estate, with very little in the way of expenditure.

  Mia didn’t mention to Mr. Smith that she had ordered six dresses specifically for Ella with shoes and accessories to match. She knew her friend couldn’t afford to buy them. So she had enlisted Vivian’s help.

  Mia had deliberately intercepted Vivian on her way back from art class. Vivian could tell that Mia had a plan, and Vivian was always up for one of Mia’s schemes. They broke up the tedium nicely, in her opinion. “…so if we had Ella’s measurements…” Vivian grinned. “It solves that problem. I was wondering what we were going to do…you are the closest to her size.” Lizzy and Beth happened to be walking by, six buildings away from their last class. “But you are not the only one who wants to help. Actually, through some act of foresight…” Beth winked. “Lizzy and I brought a bunch of gowns from home that we outgrew this spring.” Lizzy cocked her head. “That will cover most of the tea gowns she’ll need, and add two riding habits.”

  Together they talked Ella into a short visit to Madam Reece’s shop, ostensibly to look at some samples of lace and take Vivian’s measurements. Madam Reece took Ella’s measurements at the same time. “…so that I can alter Miss Mia’s gowns to suit you dear.” Madam Reece tut-tutted away Ella’s comments about payment, shamelessly lying and claiming it was part of the usual service.

  Technically, they were Mia’s dresses: Mia was buying them, but they weren’t made for her, they were made for Ella. Ella would have protested if she’d known that they were ordered specifically for her, but she accepted the loan during the party with only minimal resistance.

  The other girls couldn’t pull the same kind trick on Ella. Vivian was built on a larger scale, and Sarah was more petite. The twins were close in size; but they had more rounded, womanly figures, the old dresses from last spring fit perfectly. Ella and Mia were almost exactly the same size but their coloring was so dissimilar that the colors needed for one would make the other look ill. Madam Reece had agreed to take a few of Vivian’s, Lizzy’s and Beth’s gowns up, so she would have a respectable wardrobe for the party. Mia hoped Ella would accept the gift of the six dresses she’d specifically ordered for her: Mia wouldn’t be able to wear any of them unless she wanted to look like she’d come down with scurvy.

  Mia pulled her mind back to the task at hand. After the stable inspection, the lady requested a tour of the available guest rooms. Mrs. Wallace graciously led the way. Lady Anne looked around with a slight frown. “I think if you use the space available on the nursery floor, that you should be able to invite sixteen guests to stay the week of the party. Lizzy and Beth can share a room, just as my husband and I intend to.” The lady contemplated the small bedroom they were standing in, one of the nursery suite. A brass four poster bed stood in one corner, with a chair and reading lamp across the room. A tiny oven, rather than a normal fireplace stood in one corner.

  “On the other hand, it’s always better to invite less than complete capacity, just in case. It makes things more comfortable for the people staying with you.” Lady Anne started ticking guests off using her fingers. “So far you’ve invited Greatlady Imogene, all five of your dorm mates, myself and my husband, and your guardian, am I correct?” Mia nodded. “So we have nine already. You can invite two or three more, and then we can use the nursery rooms to house any unexpected additions.”

  Mia couldn’t really think of anyone else she particularly wanted to stay for the entire party. Inviting less than complete capacity struck her as a good idea. Vivian still hadn’t received permission from her parents because they were in Southport supervising the offloading of the final trading ships of the year.

  Mrs. Wallace tucked them into the carriage for the ride home, with blankets and warm bricks to ward off the chill of the autumn evening. The housekeep was half apologetic, half proud when she informed Mia “That carriage doesn’t have a heating or cooling spell on it…the Greatlady always cast one if it was needed. The spell most Greatlords put on their equipment only heats or cools the interior of the coach. She could heat or cool the whole carriage, from the coachman to the footman at the rear. Your mother always said that if she was too weary to see to a spell, that she shouldn’t be warm or cool when others were suffering.” It wasn’t cold enough inside the carriage to make either the hot bricks or a heating spell entirely necessary, especially since the carriage was still rather crowded (even with Sarah riding back to the City with her mother). Mia imagined the coachman would appreciate it though, and she tucked that question away to look up later. The girls nibbled on leftovers from the food tasting and dozed a little as the carriage drove them home.

  Two hours later the weary girls disembarked and trudged to the dorm, stretching aching muscles as they walked. Mia headed for the study and didn’t raise her head from her books until Vivian brought up a tea tray about eleven o’clock. “Everyone else has used the bath, and I even remembered to spray the tub down when I finished.” Vivian dimpled. She wasn’t known for remembering housekeeping details. “Drink a cup of this and have a few pastries before you get washed up, then go to bed. Otherwise you’ll fall asleep in here and drool on your essay.” Mia laughed and thanked her friend as she poured herself a cup of tea and snagged a plump pastry.

  School progressed and the lingering autumn was knocked roughly aside by a harsh winter blast. The girls pulled out their warmest cloaks, heavy stockings, gloves, and boots. Ella was unprepared for the colder temperatures at first. The coldest winters she’d ever encountered simply hadn’t prepared her for winter in the City. She shivered through a full day before her friends noticed.

  Lizzy picked up the thin cloak that Ella had worn all day. The temperature had dipped down to freezing last night and wasn’t expected to come back up for a few days. “No wonder you’ve been cold! This cl
oak isn’t even lined!” Mia looked over and started going through her closet immediately. Ella blushed furiously and pulled Mia’s hands away from her searching.

  “I’m fine. The school’s scholarship program gives me a quarterly allowance. I’ll buy new things when it comes in.” Beth looked mulish. “The quarter isn’t for another two weeks.” Ella shrugged. “I’ll survive.”

  Mia groaned. “Don’t be stupid Ella. Just borrow my extra cloak for a couple of weeks until you can buy your own.” Ella’s jaw was locked. It was a sure sign she didn’t intend to take any more charity, and she wasn’t going to argue about it. She hated that she was going to college on a scholarship.

  Sarah came to the rescue. “Why don’t you transfigure the thinner cloak into a thicker one?” Ella’s head shot up. “Can you do that?” The blond girl shrugged. “I don’t see why not. It’s a subtle transfiguration, and we haven’t covered anything like that yet in class, but we could probably find a book on it in the library.” The idea was no sooner submitted than accepted. Ella even agreed to borrow Mia’s extra cloak for the trip to the library.

  “Here we go, The Well-Dressed Wand Wielder had an article about transfiguring cotton to silk about three months ago.” Vivian flipped through the magazine. Sarah was disgusted that Vivian had been able to get to the information quicker than she had.

  Fortunately for Sarah’s self-esteem, the magazine’s instructions were less than perfect. The girls looked up the reference works cited in the article. “It says here that it’s a simple wand movement.” Beth was eyeing the book uncertainly. Mia was more willing to experiment. She pulled her own cloak off the hook and pointed her wand at it, keeping the type of material that she wanted firmly in mind.

  “Well, it’s warmer, anyway.” Sarah giggled at the purple fur wrap that was sitting in place of the woolen cloak. Mia grimaced and picked up the book. “I must have missed something in the instructions.” She re-read them carefully and tried again.

  Mia put the cloak down on the table with an annoyed noise. “Who would want a leather cloak?” Sarah raised her brows. “Someone who’s going to be riding in the rain. It just soaks through wool. Let me have a go.” She jabbed her wand at the cloak. This time it turned into wool, but the color was bright orange. Sarah grimaced and muttered. “That’s going to clash with her hair.” Three tries later she shook her head over it. The cloak was thick water resistant wool on the outside, but the inner lining was some sort of heavy sheep skin, and it turned mottled green and brown.

  Ella sighed and turned her wand to the task. The heavy wool remained and the color was original gray. The sheepskin was transfigured into lovely soft rabbit’s fur, but the fur was an unfortunate shade of magenta. Lizzy giggled. “That’s better.” Ella shot her a look and tried again.

  It took two days, but in between Sarah, Ella, and Mia, they finally managed to fix Mia’s cloak. They applied their hard-won knowledge to Ella’s wardrobe. She had warm, fur-lined boots and, rabbit-skin liners in even her mittens before they were done. Sarah giggled. “You look like some sort of snow beast!” Only Ella’s bright eyes and red hair were recognizable under the mounds of fur and wool. Even her mouth and nose were buried in a scarf. The other girls heard a muffled chuckle as Ella unwound herself out of the winter clothing. “I don’t care what it looks like, at least I’m warm.”

  ***

  Mia and the others were busy with other things of course: there were fittings for the dresses, accessories to buy, and a full load of school work to fit in somehow. School work included Professor Petrov’s mid-winter concert: each music student who qualified was required to perform at the end of the semester. Mia (due in no small part to Beth’s gentle guidance) was able to qualify, but she was far from perfect. The professor grew steadily more irritable as the performance approached and Mia was her favorite target when there were issues with the sets or props. “Amelia! Stop torturing those keys or I will be forced to transfigure your fingers.” Practice when Petrov was in the general area wasn’t Mia’s favorite thing.

  Perhaps it was just that the professor was annoyed with Mia most of the time and the least little error set it off. Whatever the reason, Mia’s performances suffered from each attack. She ran out of the theater building one blustery November morning in tears after a two hour ‘practice’ session that had consisted of her playing a stanza or two and then enduring a fifteen minute rant about her playing. She couldn’t remember being so bad at anything in her life.

  The paths were kept magically clear from snow and ice, though two feet of white accumulation decorated either side of the walkway. It was actually warmer today because it wasn’t snowing or sleeting all over her. During the first two days of snow, you were actually more likely to get wet from a snowball attack than from the falling flakes. At this point, even the most die-hard snowball commandos had been dissuaded by magical snowball retaliation. It is a universal truth that there is nothing like a watermelon-sized snowball falling on your head to end the urge to throw them at others.

  Having lived a mere two day’s journey from the college all her life, Mia knew the snow wouldn’t last. In a few days the ground would be clear again. But right now she was glad of the cold. People kept their heads down when it was cold; everyone had red eyes and a red nose.

  She entered the study with a sigh of relief and only a mild sniff. Vivian looked up from the latest Botany assignment. “You aren’t catching cold are you?” Lizzy took a closer look at Mia and said “I have something that will fix you right up in my wardrobe.” Mia didn’t argue; she really didn’t feel like discussing the Professor’s behavior this afternoon, or her own inability to deal with it. Once they were alone, Lizzy handed her a familiar looking bottle of red-eye remover, and said “Spill it. Professor Petrov’s been evil again, I can tell.” Mia nodded silently as she applied the drops to her eyes. Darn sighted people.

  Lizzy continued. “Do you want to work with Beth and I?” Mia shot her friend a wan smile. The twins had already sacrificed quite a bit of composition time to help her get up to standard. “No. Another month and this will be over, whatever happens. I’d love to drop the course, but when she’s not around I really do enjoy playing. I’ll never be as good as you and Beth” Mia shook her head to forestall her friend’s protest. “The two of you are amazing. It’s not like that for me. This isn’t my gift, and I may not have much aptitude for it, but I want to learn anyway.”

  Lizzy sighed. “You aren’t bad at it Mia. You are playing simple songs with a few mistakes in each phrase. That’s normal for someone who’s only been playing a few months. The professor simply can’t understand that. I’ve noticed that she’s one of those people who seem to think that if you’re good at what she’s good at you’re brilliant. If you aren’t she thinks you’re a waste of perfectly good oxygen.” Mia swallowed down a laugh. Lizzy smiled. “It’s a rest day; why don’t we finish our homework and go down to the tea room?”

  Finishing the homework wasn’t quite as simple as Lizzy had made it sound. With thirteen subjects Mia was constantly in danger of overextending herself. Add in the preparations for the midwinter party and her continuing education in estate management, and it could not come as a surprise that she spent most nights studying until midnight. Things should ease up after midwinter, at least then she wouldn’t be spending nearly every rest day either at the estate, planning the party, or shopping.

  Mia picked up her notes and wearily started writing out another essay for Magical Theory. She’d finished a complicated piece of work for Creation the night before. Animal Husbandry hadn’t produced much homework since the terribly tricky working model of the Pegasus; Professor Stoats was still rhapsodizing about the four legged flying beast. At least he was only talking about it. She didn’t know what she was going to do when he progressed to actual riding lessons. Maybe she could fake an injury…

  Mia was also preparing to start some third year Alchemy work, so she’d been doing a lot of reading in her ‘spare’ time. She didn’t want t
o disappoint Professor Ambrose. She was thankful that Sight wasn’t the sort of course that required a lot of study. Seer Glen encouraged them to keep a dream journal and jot down any visions that they had during the day, but Mia rarely remembered her dreams anymore, and her Sight simply wasn’t powerful enough to show her anything in visions. At best she had flashes of insight, mostly concerning other people’s motivations. She wondered sometimes if Lizzy and Beth spent so much time on music to get away from the visions. It was a rare day when one or both of them didn’t suddenly stop mid-sentence and scribble something into the tiny books they kept in their pockets. They didn’t seem to want to talk about it much, so Mia didn’t press them.

  After the Theory essay she turned to a folio of plants she was painstakingly charming into a book for Botany. Professor Cavendish wanted her to have a field guide that was as up to date and correct as possible, hence the need to make it themselves. Mia wasn’t drawing the plants. She was using a charm to extract her own memories of the plants she knew best and transferring an image of that memory into the book. The charm was expensive in terms of calories; she could only do it a few times before she was completely drained. She added one or two memories to the page on week days and tried to add four or five each rest day. Professor Cavendish was slowly doing the same with his vast store of botanical knowledge, but at one or two plants a day it would be years before he finished. That’s why Mia was handling the plants she knew, to save him the energy.