Rebel Magisters

by Shanna Swendson

I was so stunned by his request that I had to blink a few times to be sure I was actually awake. “Of–of course I can do that for you, Your Grace,” I stammered. “But I don’t know any of these people well enough to know what behavior is unusual.”

  “I trust you to tell if anything strikes you as odd. Thank you, Miss Newton.”

  It was rather flattering that the royal governor of the American colonies had asked for my assistance, even though it put me in a difficult position. Obviously, I couldn’t actually report on anyone who was involved. If he weren’t making the same request of Flora, I might have been able to get away with claiming not to have noticed anything, but any report I made would have to match Flora’s report. It was easy to assume that Flora would only notice her visitors’ attire, but I’d learned not to underestimate Flora’s intelligence.

  “Flora, my dear,” the governor said as we entered the parlor. “Might I ask you to keep your eyes and ears open as you visit with callers today?”

  “I don’t expect them to say anything interesting,” she said.

  “There have been some unusual events here that might be related to magisters. Young people would be more likely to talk to you about their activities.”

  “Only if they’re foolish. Who would tell the governor’s granddaughter about unseemly behavior?”

  She had a point, and that made me feel better. Even firebrands like Maude and Camilla were unlikely to parade their exploits in this house, and besides, no matter what they’d planned, they hadn’t actually done anything.

  The governor smiled fondly at his granddaughter. “That’s likely the case, but I would like to hear about your visits, nonetheless. Miss Newton will provide a report, as well.”

  He left us, and I took a seat in the back corner and began to knit. I would have preferred to read, but that was apparently considered rude, even if I was being treated like I was invisible. I still wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do as a chaperone if anything untoward did happen. I imagined hurling myself bodily between Flora and a caller and had to smile. It was more likely that my presence was expected to serve as a deterrent. My existence suggested that chaperones weren’t just a useless social custom, though I suspected that my mother’s magister paramour had been beyond an age to be chaperoned. That proved how foolish the rules were. How many others like me were there?

  Much to my surprise, I recognized our first callers. When Camilla and Maude were escorted into the parlor, I barely remembered not to greet them, and they didn’t openly acknowledge me, though I thought Maude darted a glance at me. They wore aesthetic dress, which I thought rather daring when visiting the governor of the colonies, and Flora barely managed to get through the initial social niceties, she was so dumbfounded by their loose clothing.

  “I don’t suppose dear Henry is in,” Camilla said. “He and my brother were such good friends in school, and I would dearly love to talk to him today.” I thought I detected a hint of menace in her voice and tried not to wince. The magisters probably weren’t too happy with Henry at the moment.

  “I have no idea where Henry is,” Flora said. “If you know him at all, you know how little use he has for social conventions.”

  “But I would hope he has use for old friends,” Maude said. “We hope we’ll see him at the ball. Such exciting things have been planned for that night. I’d hate for him to miss it.”

  I was glad I was sitting behind Flora because I wasn’t able to stop myself from flinching. Maude’s tone and the glint in her eyes suggested that the exciting plans had nothing to do with gowns, music, or dancing and everything to do with making up for not being able to carry out their own tea party. But would Flora pick up on that, or was I only getting that impression because I already knew about Maude’s affiliations?

  “I’m sure Grandfather will force him to attend,” Flora said. Her tone made her sound like she didn’t much care.

  “We’re quite looking forward to it,” Camilla said, and her smile was fierce enough that I thought surely it would be obvious that she had dangerous intentions, even to one who didn’t know her. I hoped that Flora was so distracted by talk of a ball that she wouldn’t notice if her guests did handsprings around the room.

  “I’m afraid my heart isn’t in a ball,” Flora said with a deep, dramatic sigh. “Alas, the one I love will not be there. I’ll likely never see him at a ball.”

  I barely managed not to groan out loud. I’d thought she’d have forgotten Colin by now. I bit my tongue and bent my head over my knitting, glancing upward to peer at our guests.

  “Oh, do you have a beau?” Maude asked with a trilling laugh. She did such a good job of portraying a vapid society girl that it was hard to believe she was the same person who’d been rallying the troops and arguing with the Mechanics the night before.

  Again, I wished I could see Flora’s face. “Not exactly,” she said. “But there is a man I admire who’s likely far more worthy than any pampered nobleman.” She hurried to add, “But you can’t tell anyone!”

  “You can trust us,” Maude assured her. “Pampered noblemen are nice to dance with, though.”

  Both visitors stood. “We look forward to seeing you again, Lady Flora,” Camilla said. “We’re sure you’ll find our Boston ball quite diverting.”

  “Well, they were certainly suspicious,” Flora said when they were gone.

  My heart thudding painfully, I tried to keep my voice from shaking when I replied, “What makes you think so?”

  “Did you see the way they were dressed? They might as well go out in their nightgowns. It’s positively scandalous.”

  “I hardly think that indicates that they’re troublemakers,” I said as mildly as I could manage.

  “But they aren’t proper ladies.”

  “I don’t think that’s what your grandfather is concerned about.”

  “True. He cares little for ladies’ fashions. I honestly have no idea what he expects me to tell him.”

  The rest of the visitors were far more conventional, and far more boring. I couldn’t find even the slightest thing that I thought Flora might report to the governor. At the end of the afternoon, the governor rejoined us. He moved stiffly, like he was too tense for his limbs to function normally. “Well?” he demanded, skipping all pleasantries.

  “Nothing more than terrible fashion sense, Grandfather,” Flora said. “I never thought I’d see someone paying calls wearing aesthetic dress.”

  “And you, Miss Newton?” he asked.

  “I noticed nothing untoward. No one mentioned any activities that sounded suspicious.”

  “Hmmph. I suppose it was unlikely, but it was worth trying. Thank you both.”

  Once he’d gone, Flora mused out loud, “If that’s the way Boston women dress, I won’t have to do anything to my ballgown, after all, and I’ll still outshine them all.” She rose and drifted out of the room, leaving me to sigh in relief.

  Henry spoke to me later that afternoon in the guise of checking up on the children’s schoolwork. “No one’s saying anything specific,” he reported, “but there’s been a steady stream of official visitors and some raised voices.”

  “I think your friends have something planned for the ball,” I told him. “You should have seen the way Camilla looked when she spoke of it.”

  “That may just be Camilla. She’s always been rather combative, about everything. She may merely have a romantic conquest in mind.”

  I put my hands on my hips and glared at him. “Are you implying that a young lady is unlikely to have thoughts other than romance? That seems very unlike you.”

  He winced. “Touché, Verity. I should know better. After all, she planned the event last night.”

  “They didn’t get to make their big move with the tea ship, so I think they’re planning to use the ball to make a political statement.”

  “I’m not sure what they could do without revealing their identities, since everyone there will know everyone else. Even dressing like the Mechanics won’t make for
much of a disguise.”

  “You should find out. You can visit your school friends. Though I imagine you’ll get quite an earful when you do. I think they’re angry at you.”

  “They probably see me as a traitor,” he said with a wince. “But you’re right, I should go, and maybe I can learn something or talk some sense into them. I wish you could come with me. You’d probably be better at dealing with them than I am.”

  “Alas, I am a mere governess, and I can think of no reason to go, unless Flora also comes with you. But if Flora comes with you, then you can’t talk openly. So you’ll have to go alone and bring me a full report.”

  Although I tried to sound like I was teasing him, it reminded me yet again that I didn’t fit into his world. He was my closest friend, and yet I couldn’t go out in public with him without the children also being there or without sneaking around. Even if his friends had revolutionary leanings, I couldn’t openly socialize with them.

  *

  That afternoon, I wrote an account of the rebel “tea party.” I wasn’t sure how much credit the Mechanics wanted to take or how public they wanted to be about their magic-dampening device. I settled for saying that “unknown parties” had carried out the raid, using “mysterious means” to defeat the magical security measures. When Mary came to alert me to dinner being served in the schoolroom, I handed it to her to pass on to her contacts within the Rebel Mechanics. I definitely didn’t want my “Liberty Jones” pseudonym to go on that one, and I tried to change my writing style so the authorship wouldn’t be obvious.

  The next day, I forced myself to focus on lessons with the children and a brief outing to a museum with them, even though I longed to hear what Henry had learned from Maude and Camilla. He was home when we came back from the museum, but we didn’t have a chance to speak without an audience until teatime, when I brought the children to the parlor.

  Flora played the piano and the other two eagerly told their grandfather about everything they’d seen in the museum, which gave Henry the chance to ask me how the children had behaved on our outing. When it was clear that no one was paying any attention to us, he said softly, “I’m afraid I have no news. They played innocent with me, claiming they had no plans, even though I could tell they were lying. They probably suspect I’ll run straight to the Mechanics to tell them everything.”

  “That’s better than them suspecting you’ll run straight to the governor.”

  He gave a wry grin. “True. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see what they do. That should make the ball more interesting.” He raised his voice slightly to normal conversational level and added, “Perhaps you should assign an essay about the museum. Or would that make museum visits seem too much like a chore?”

  “I would prefer that the children learn to think of museums as fun, though Olive has already announced plans to write a story about the visit, and Rollo sketched weapons while we were there.”

  “That should suffice for educational merit,” he said with a nod. “Thank you, Miss Newton.” He returned to the family, and I felt a pang at his departure. Even though he was only on the other side of the room, he may as well have traveled to another country. All I could do was look at him, and I didn’t even dare do much of that with the others present.

  *

  When the night of the ball came around, Mary helped me dress while a proper lady’s maid was hired to prepare Flora. Mary was able to lace my corset and do up all the buttons I couldn’t reach, but she wasn’t much better than I was at arranging my hair. The two of us laughed as each of her attempted fancy styles failed horribly. Flora would have been in tears and probably hurling hairbrushes, but I knew my appearance mattered little, as long as I didn’t embarrass the family.

  “A ball must be a lot of fun,” Mary mused as she tried to anchor a twist with hairpins.

  “I’m going there to work,” I reminded her. “As a chaperone, I’ll mostly sit along a wall and keep my eye on Lady Flora. At my last ball, I danced one dance.” It had been with Henry, and I could still recall every moment, every sensation.

  “That’s not right at all,” she said with a sniff. She studied my head and added another hairpin. “You should get that Lord Henry of yours to dance with you.”

  “He might be kind enough to do so, but I’m sure he’ll be much in demand as a partner for the other ladies.” I thought he’d also be dancing with them as a way to converse about recent events under the governor’s nose.

  “But you can still look at all the pretty dresses. I bet it’s like something out of a fairy story.”

  “The one ball I’ve gone to was,” I admitted.

  “Well, I think you look lovely, miss,” she said, admiring her work in the mirror. I had to agree with her. The simple style she’d managed to create suited me better than any of her more elaborate attempted concoctions would have. “You have a grand time.”

  Henry was already waiting downstairs, dressed in white tie and tails, his unruly sandy hair somewhat tamed for the occasion. He greeted me with a big smile. “You’re wasted as a chaperone, Miss Newton. You may be too busy dancing to keep an eye on Flora.”

  “I hardly think that’s likely,” I said, hoping my cheeks didn’t look as red as they felt.

  “You have to promise me one dance.”

  “If you insist.” I added a hasty, “Sir,” when I realized that the governor had joined us.

  “Still waiting for Flora, are we?” he asked Henry. “My daughters would have missed the first half of every ball if I’d let them take all the time they wanted getting ready.”

  “I believe Flora’s too eager for this ball to risk missing any of it,” Henry said.

  Only then did the governor seem to notice that I was present. He turned as though he’d only just caught a glimpse of me out of the corner of his eye, and he smiled in the way he’d greet an old friend he was glad to see. But once he turned to face me, he appeared to realize who I was, and his smile faded. “Miss Newton,” he said with a brusque nod. “You are aware of your duties?”

  “Yes, Your Grace.” I bobbed a slight curtsy.

  “And you’ll do what I asked you the other day? Keep your eyes and ears open.”

  At that moment, Flora appeared at the top of the stairs and paused for us to admire her before she made her way slowly down the staircase. I wasn’t sure why she bothered making a dramatic entrance with only her uncle, her grandfather, a couple of servants, and me to witness it, unless perhaps she was practicing for the entrance she planned to make later that evening.

  “Good, there you are,” the governor said with a grunt. “Now, stop dillydallying and come on. The carriage is waiting.”

  Chapter Twelve

  In Which

  the Ball Proves Exciting

  The ball was held at a nearby mansion even larger than the place where we were staying. The ballroom might have held the house where I grew up, and its gilded and painted ceiling was so high I could barely make out what the fresco depicted. When we entered, the governor, Flora, and Henry were announced with much pomp. I hung back behind them as the assembled crowd cheered the governor’s entrance. He escorted Flora down the steps into the ballroom, Henry a few feet behind them and me trailing after the whole group. Henry shot a few glances over his shoulder at me, so I knew I wasn’t entirely forgotten.

  We had seats on a dais at one end of the room, as guests of honor. The governor’s was practically a throne, and those for Henry and Flora were also grand, with velvet cushions. I had a modest chair at the rear of the dais, in Flora’s shadow. I quietly lowered myself onto it and willed myself to be invisible.

  I’d thought that the last ball I’d attended had been an elaborate affair, and had scoffed at the idea that it was considered a very modest event. Now I understood why Flora had described it that way, for this ball outstripped it. Everything about it was larger: the flower arrangements, the refreshment tables, the orchestra, and the guest list.

  In fact, I wasn’t sure how anyone could dance,
there were so many people there. They were packed in, shoulder to shoulder. Yet somehow space cleared on the floor when the governor and Flora stepped out to begin the dancing. After the first minute or so, the floor filled again, all the dancers moving around the floor and miraculously not bumping into each other.

  Flora had barely returned to her seat after the first dance when a line of young men formed to beg a slot on her dance card. She didn’t respond with much enthusiasm to any of them, but I didn’t notice her rejecting anyone. Her heart might still be with Colin, but that wasn’t going to stop her from enjoying the ball. I presumed that anyone who was invited would be considered suitable, so my presence was purely ceremonial and to show that her family was following the custom for her class.

  Both Brad and Theo were in the group asking Flora to dance, which meant at least some of the rebel magisters were present. The room was too crowded to spot anyone else while they were dancing.

  Flora was off on the floor again as soon as the next dance began, and it appeared that the governor was making the rounds, dancing with the various noblewomen. Henry stood and said, “I suppose I’d better ask enough women to dance that I don’t look rude. And maybe I can find out what Camilla has planned.”

  “Have fun,” I instructed, trying not to feel and sound jealous. I finally spotted Camilla when she danced with Henry because both of them were tall enough to stand above much of the crowd. She wore more conventional attire, corset and all, tonight, though her gown was out of fashion. She must have been honest with the Mechanics about her family’s financial position.

  I soon spotted Maude because she was definitely not dressed like anyone else at the ball. She wore a flowing Grecian-style gown that veiled her figure when she was still but that draped around her, outlining her body, as she moved. She wore her hair loose and no jewelry. I was rather impressed at the confidence it must have taken to appear like that, but she didn’t seem to notice the stares or the mutters of disapproval. I had to wonder what her rank was. Only someone immune to societal censure could get away with flying in the face of convention to that extent. She didn’t lack for dancing partners, though. Young men seemed utterly entranced, possibly because of their mothers’ disapproving scowls.