“Truly? She does it frequently with Mr. Collins.”
The colonel’s eyebrows shot up. “Does she, indeed? She allows non-mages to touch her, knowing they will learn nothing from it. How deviously clever she is! Still, it is a good thing you saved her. If she had died magically when Darcy was here, some people might have suspected he had a hand in it.”
“Mr. Darcy? Why would he want her to die? He tried to save her.”
“I know, I know. But some people might suspect he wanted Lady Catherine out of the way, so he could marry Anne and have complete control of all the Rosings assets without interference. But, as you may know, Darcy has no interest in marrying Anne, even with Rosings as herdowry.”
Elizabeth smothered an urge to laugh. So Colonel Fitzwilliam did not know Darcy had offered for her. That was a relief. “I have never seen him show an interest in her, despite all of Lady Catherine’s hints.”
“And my father’s. He is even more set on Darcy marrying Anne than Lady Catherine is. Poor Darcy. But that reminds me – might I examine that inert elfshot of yours?”
“Certainly. Here it is.” She paused eating just long enough to remove the tin from her satchel.
“Thank you. I have never seen such a thing before.” He opened the box and set his fingertips on it, his eyes taking on a distant look.
“Really? Every wisewoman has one.”
He raised his eyebrows. “The procedure you did today is common, then?”
“No, not at all. If elfshot hits anywhere but the arm, it reaches the heart too quickly for any hope of stopping it.”
“Yet all wisewomen carry these?”
Elizabeth smiled. “Not for that reason. We use them to determine if someone’s death was caused by elfshot. That way we know whether to bury them with iron over their heart to prevent it from escaping and seeking a new target.”
“Interesting. I should talk to wisewomen more often.”
She was tempted to laugh. “Good luck. It is unlikely they will want to talk to you. Wisewomen have good reason to fear mages.”
“I suppose so. But how did you become one? I was under the impression wisewomen were usually, er, older.”
“They are. It is considered ill luck for a woman with young children to do this sort of work, so mostly it is spinsters or women whose children are grown.”
“So how did a marriageable young lady like you become one?”
She laughed. “I am a fraud. I am not really a wisewoman. I havejust been present when a wisewoman was working often enough to have learned her ways. The local wisewoman sought me out when I was twelve because she thought I could be of help to her.”
He raised an eyebrow. “With things like lighting candles and destroying elfshot?”
“You saw through my deception! Yes, that sort of thing. She had lost her vision, and with it her ability to do magic. I went with her whenever she was called to see someone, and I paid attention.”
“Your parents permitted it?”
Elizabeth flushed. “They did not know. They thought I just liked to take long walks alone. But I would have had to stop when I turned eighteen because the wisewoman said it was unsuitable work for a marriageable gentlewoman, but then there was a rash of fay-borne illnesses this last year and the work was too much for her. I saw the easier cases myself, the ones where a half-trained student is better than no wisewoman at all.” She paused and said ruefully, “Your aunt was not an easy case. I am surprised I succeeded.”
“But you did succeed,” the colonel said with a smile. “How did you learn to light candles and destroy elfshot?”
“By experimentation. When I was a child, my father amused himself by making illusions for me, and one time he showed me how he did it. I could not remember the spell, but once I knew it was possible, I somehow found my own way to cast illusions, little ones, mostly so I could hide things from my mother. When my father caught me doing it, he refused to show me anything more. I learned a few more things by watching him. I was determined to master unmaking so I would never be made to eat food I did not like. I detested fish, you see. I can unmake small objects, but I never became quite good enough to unmake fish.”
He chuckled. “Living things and things that have been alive resist unmaking. It would take a powerful mage to unmake a fish.”
“Is that why it did not work? I was so frustrated by it.Fortunately, our cook eventually left us and I liked the new cook’s fish dishes much better.”
“What else can you do besides unmaking and illusions?”
“Mostly healing, since I avoid doing unnecessary spells for fear of being caught. I can heat up lukewarm tea. I can see fay folk and tell when they have been present, like finding the elfshot traces, and I can perform a few fay spells - how to make milk curdle and that sort of thing.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam straightened abruptly. “Good Lord! You are full of surprises. How on earth did you learn fay spells?”
