by C. J. Archer
She pulled her hand free. "Quite."
"Do you have a few moments to assist us with our inquiries?"
"I'm never too busy to meet with Miss Steele. I am always glad to see you, dear girl." She smiled at me and patted the space beside her on the sofa.
Matt blinked hard, and I tried not to laugh. I doubted he'd ever been snubbed so blatantly by a woman before.
"How are you holding up now that it has been made public?" she asked me gently.
"Made public?" I echoed.
She leaned closer and whispered, "The engagement." She jerked her head at Matt.
"I, er… I'm fine."
"It must have come as quite a shock to learn that he was betrothed to another all along."
"I…I was shocked, yes. And quite upset."
Matt's eyebrows arched so high they almost met his hairline. I did my best to ignore him. If I was going to follow this path to get answers from her, then I couldn't afford to be distracted.
She rubbed my arm and alternated between sympathetic pouts directed at me and scowls directed at Matt. Thankfully the butler brought in tea, giving her something else to focus on. While she wasn't looking, Matt indicated I should use her sympathy to my advantage.
I began by taking a leaf out of his book of charm. "It's very kind of you to receive us, Mrs. Delancey."
"Not at all, my dear." She handed me a teacup and saucer. "You are more than welcome to visit any time, to talk about anything you like, or simply to pass the time of day. Do consider coming alone, however. I feel we could be such good friends if we talked freely and without censure."
I bit the inside of my cheek to stop my smile.
She handed a teacup to Matt then promptly presented him with her shoulder. "Since you are here, I have something to ask of you, Miss Steele."
"You want me to infuse a watch with magic?"
"Only if you wish to. Actually, I wanted to invite you to a soiree I'm having this evening. It's all very last minute, but five of my friends have said they will attend. I'm sure the rest will come if I tell them you'll be there."
"These are friends from your magic collector's club?"
"Only the women, or the wives of members. No gentlemen allowed." She patted my arm. "I can see you're nervous, but don't be. All of them know about magic. All of them support it. You'll be among friends."
"I'm not sure," I said. "I think I have other plans tonight."
She pouted. "Do say you'll come. They'll be excited to meet you, Miss Steele. You'll be the toast of the evening. It will be great fun, you'll see." I went to look at Matt but she caught my chin. "No, no, no. Don't look to him for guidance. He is not your betrothed, after all, merely your employer. Surely you don't let him have a say in your private life."
I might not be looking at Matt but I sensed him tense, nevertheless.
"Let me think about it," I told her. "Mrs. Delancey, we have some questions for you."
She let my chin go but not before stroking it with her thumb. "What about, dear?"
"Do you recall our last visit when we asked if you knew of Mr. Hendry, the paper magician?"
"Of course, and I told you he supplies us with all our stationery needs."
"We know you visited him this morning."
She lowered her cup to the saucer. A second passed before she laughed. "I remember now. Yes, I did visit him. I needed more calling cards."
"Don't your staff take care of that?"
"Usually, but I decided to take it upon myself this time. I admit to being curious about his magic. I wanted to meet him." She lifted her cup to her lips but didn't sip. "He's an intriguing fellow. Very odd."
"And disagreeable," I said.
"Why do you say that?"
"Oh?" I said innocently. "You argued, didn't you?"
She drank deeply, perhaps giving herself time to think of an answer. "Not at all."
"Come now, Mrs. Delancey," Matt said. "You were seen leaving Hendry's shop. His voice was raised."
"I don't recall that. Perhaps he had to raise his voice to be heard over street noise. Smithfield is rather a boisterous place. Anyway, I don't remember our conversation. I asked him to make more cards, he wrote my order down in a book, and that was it."
"You didn't question him about his magic?" I asked.
"That would be rather forward for a first meeting, don't you think?"
"Did you ask him?" I pressed. "Is that why you argued?"
She smiled. "India. May I call you India? Have you come to a decision about tonight?"
"Not yet."
"You should think very carefully. Perhaps I'll remember what I spoke to Mr. Hendry about by then." She touched her gloved fingers to her temple. "The slight ache in my head is making it difficult to concentrate right now, but I'm sure I'll be better by this evening."
I caught Matt rolling his eyes. "Just one more question before we go," I said. "Why was Mr. Isaac Barratt here?"
She set her teacup and saucer on the table very carefully then folded her hands in her lap. "Mr. Glass, please stop spying on us. My husband will take great offence."
Matt set his own cup down and leaned forward. "Perhaps your husband would be very interested to know that Mr. Isaac Barratt visited you."
Good lord; he couldn't say such a thing to a lady of Mrs. Delancey's status! It was quite inappropriate. She did not look as shocked as I felt, however. She just smiled at him, although it held no humor.
"He already knows," she said. "Mr. Delancey was here and met with Mr. Barratt himself. It was a business matter, Mr. Glass, and confidential in nature."
"Do you know what they spoke about?"
"Are you asking me to break my confidence, Mr. Glass? Betray my husband?"
"The thing is, Mrs. Delancey, if it was a business matter, Mr. Barratt would have gone to your husband's bank and spoken to him there. But he did not. Your husband came home from his work specifically to meet Barratt here, didn't he?"
She leveled her gaze with his. "As I said, it is none of your affair. Not only that, I will not speak out of turn to you."
But she might to me. "What time do you require my presence at your soiree, Mrs. Delancey?"
She smiled slowly, victoriously. "Eight o'clock."
I smiled back. "I'll only attend if you make it worth my while. Is that understood?"
"Quite. There may be a little extra for you too."
"Extra?" I echoed.
"A piece of information I'll give you for free." She smiled into her teacup.
Chapter 12
"I don't like it," Matt said. He was watching me choose a dress, but I knew he wasn't referring to the outfits.
"Which do you prefer? The pink or green sage?" I asked, studying each one laid out on the bed. "Or are they both too formal for a soiree? What does one wear to a soiree?"
"I don't know. India, I don't think you should go," he said for the second time since arriving home.
"Of course I'm going," I repeated, also for the second time. "Mrs. Delancey made it clear that if we wanted answers, I had to attend."
"It could be a trap."
"It is a trap—a trap to get me to meet her friends. She only wants to show me off, Matt, not kidnap me and keep me in the attic."
"Don't joke, India."
I joined him by the window where he perched on the sill. "Your nerves are more frayed these days than when your life was in peril from your watch stopping."
"And yours aren't frayed enough. I wish you'd be more careful when it came to your own safety."
I touched his chest over his waistcoat. I could just make out the shape of his magic watch, tucked into the hidden pocket. It pulsed in response. I smiled, more relieved and happy than words could express. My magic made it pulse. It recognized me, its creator. My magic helped keep Matt alive. How could I fear or resent my art when it had the power to do that?
He smiled back and closed his hand over mine. "Come here," he purred, hooking his arm around my waist.
We kissed until
I heard footsteps in the corridor outside my room. "You shouldn't be in here, Matt. If the servants catch us, your uncle might find out."
"The servants know if they tattle I'll dismiss them."
"Even so, I’d feel better if we don't meet like this. You're not a free man yet." I turned back to study the dresses. "The green, I think." I put the other away then hesitated. We might have exchanged several kisses, but I would not undress in front of him. I raised my brows at him.
"If you insist on going to the soiree then I'm coming with you," he said, pushing off from the window sill.
"Men are not invited. I'll be fine, Matt. Stop worrying."
He crossed his arms. "She wants something in exchange from you."
"She only wants my presence. She might ask me to speak a spell into a watch or clock, but I'll just tell her I don't know any, if that makes you feel better. I'll fix it or something instead."
His fingers drummed against his thigh. "Allow me to escort you to keep an eye on everything."
"I'm going alone." I stepped around him and opened my dressing table drawer. I wished I hadn't said no to Miss Glass's pearl earrings. They would go nicely with the dress.
"Is this because of the wedding announcement?" he asked.
"What do you mean?"
He sat on the bed and dragged his hand through his hair. Being still, even for a moment, seemed beyond him. "I'm not even sure any more. That announcement coming so soon shocked me. I can only imagine how it affected you. Not to mention the wedding being brought forward, along with our plan to leave. I won't lie to you, India. I hate what we have to do to Patience."
I sat beside him on the bed. "I hate it too. Do you want to delay our departure?"
He shook his head. "That's the one thing I don't want to do."
"Then what can be done?"
"That's the problem. Nothing, and I hate doing nothing."
I pecked his cheek and returned to the dressing table. I unpinned my hair and let it fall around my shoulders. He watched me in the mirror's reflection, his eyes warm. He'd finally gone still.
"Are you sure you don't want me to escort you?" he asked.
I laughed. "No, Matt."
"I know how becoming you are in that dress. All the men will be looking at you, and with the damned announcement now advertising your availability…" He muttered something under his breath that sounded like a slang American word I'd heard Willie say when she stubbed her toe. "I hate this."
I stroked his hair back and kissed his forehead. "There'll only be women there, no gentlemen."
"Footmen may act like they see and hear nothing, but they're men too, and neither blind nor deaf. The Delanceys have a lot of footmen."
I laughed. "Go on, off with you or I'll never be ready in time."
He finally left after another kiss, only to be replaced ten minutes later with Miss Glass. She brought Polly with her and the pearl earrings.
"I know you said you don't want them, but you may want to borrow them for tonight." She thrust the box at me. "Polly will do your hair. She's keen to try the more fashionable styles the young women wear nowadays. I like my hair the way it's always been done, but you ought to try something new, India." She steered me to the dressing table chair and ordered me to sit. "Something that shows off the earrings."
"There won't be any gentlemen there," I said, thinking about the footmen and dismissing them just as quickly. Miss Glass wouldn't consider them potential beaus, even for me. "It's for women only."
"India," she chided, making way for Polly to stand behind me. "I am not playing matchmaker. I know how things are."
Did that mean she accepted my relationship with Matt? I eyed her in the reflection, but her face didn't give away her thoughts. She fussed with the things on my dressing table and acted as assistant to Polly, passing the maid pins and combs when she requested them.
"You look lovely," she declared when Polly finished. "A real beauty. Who would have known when you first arrived here that such a lovely woman hid behind that mousy façade? You were so demure and quiet, and those clothes and hairstyle made you look quite plain."
I chose to take that as a compliment and thanked her.
She dismissed Polly and picked up the earrings box. "Put these on. I have a necklace to go with it, if you like."
"It might be too much," I said, fixing one of the earrings in place.
"Nonsense. In a room full of ladies, no amount of jewelry is too much."
"Why only in the presence of ladies?"
"I have no idea." She plucked at the shoulder of my dress, teasing the stiff silk into a peak. "You do look lovely."
I narrowed my gaze at her. "Miss Glass, is something wrong?"
"May I not admire my pretty young companion?"
I wanted to sigh but kept it in check. "Does calling me your companion mean you've accepted Matt and me?"
Her sharp gaze met mine in the mirror's reflection. "I don't like it, India. What do you call it? Blackmail?"
"We're not blackmailing you. You have a choice."
She sat on the bed and skimmed her hand lightly over the coverlet. "It feels as though my mind has been made up for me."
I joined her on the bed and rested my hand over hers. "Are you worried about what will happen to you when we leave?"
"Matthew has already made it clear that I'll be getting a new companion."
"Is that all you want? A new companion?"
"I want my old companion, India. You know that." She stood with surprising vigor and marched out of the room.
I sighed and finished getting ready before going in search of Matt. I found him in his study. He leaned back in his chair, smiled, and beckoned me to join him. "You look beautiful. I'm jealous."
"Of the footmen?"
"Of anyone who gets to stare at you all evening while I'm tackling this paperwork."
"I'm sure the others will challenge you to a few rounds of poker. Or why not go out to the theater? It might do you all some good."
He nodded. "I'll take my aunt and ask her on the way if she wants to leave with us on Saturday."
"Do you think she should be told yet? She might let it slip to someone in the family—or even to Polly. I don't want anything to go wrong at the eleventh hour."
He pulled me onto his lap and locked me in his arms. "Nothing will go wrong, India. As to my aunt, she can't be kept in the dark any longer. She should know."
I snuggled into him with a sigh. "You're right. But extract a promise from her first that she won't tell. Hopefully she'll manage to keep it."
I may not have been to many soirees before—indeed, I'd been to none hosted by the likes of Mrs. Delancey—but I was quite sure the long table set up in the refreshment room should have sandwiches and cakes on it, not watches and clocks.
"Champagne, India?" Mrs. Delancey pressed a glass into my hand. "May I call you India?"
"Please do."
As I sipped, I became aware of the gazes of the other guests on me. I felt like a performer in a show, yet I had no tricks for them, no amazing feats. They would be disappointed when they learned my magic had no visual appeal. It wasn't like Oscar's, where he could make words float from the page, or even when I combined my magic with the medical magic in Matt's watch and made it glow.
"Allow me to introduce you to my friends." Mrs. Delancey did not steer me from one guest to another as I expected, but clapped her hands and called them to attention.
The footmen quietly exited the room, and the butler shut the door as he left. The ladies gave their hostess their full attention. Like Mrs. Delancey, they were dressed in elegant evening gowns and jewelry worth more than the entire stock in my father's store. Thank goodness for Miss Glass's earrings, or I would have felt like a slum dweller by comparison.
"Please extend a warm welcome to our guest of honor, Miss India Steele." Mrs. Delancey waited until the applause ended. "You all know of her, but allow me to remind you of her capabilities. She is the granddaughter of the watch magician wh
o was the first in recent memory to experiment with combining his magic with that of other magicians. Her magic is powerful enough that her devices work independently of any spell to save lives."
"Er, that's not correct," I said.
"Come now, India, don't be modest. Lord Coyle witnessed your watch protect you in his own home."
There was no point denying it anymore, but I could at least make sure her information was accurate. "My watch, Mrs. Delancey. It was a device I've owned for years and had worked on hundreds of times. I cannot make other people's watches or clocks do that."
Murmurs of disappointment rippled around the drawing room.
"Can your magic heal the sick when combined with a doctor's magic?" one woman asked.
I had expected the question, but even so, the woman's directness, coming so early in the evening, unsettled me. "That rumor was begun by a murderer and a liar," I said. "I wouldn't trust what he says. He'll do anything in his power to cause problems for my friends and me."
"You haven't answered the question directly, Miss Steele," the woman pressed. "Can you heal people by combining your magic with a doctor's, as your grandfather once hoped to do?"
I held her gaze. "No."
More murmurs. The woman arched a sharp brow at Mrs. Delancey.
"India's merely being cautious," Mrs. Delancey said quickly. "In these trying times, can one blame her?"
I shook my head. "That's not—"
"You can trust us, Miss Steele," said an elderly woman dripping in diamonds. "We're all friendly here, and supportive of people like you."
"Your kind are so peculiar," added another. "I admit to being quite intrigued. Tell us, how does magic feel?"
"Warm," I said, remembering the heat that surged from Matt's watch as it filled with my magic and Gabe's. I'd never felt anything quite like it.
Another round of murmurs rippled among the semi-circle of women.
"Does it hurt you?" the same woman asked. "Does the sensation tingle?"
"No."
"They say you're powerful."
"Who does?"
