“How fortunate you are to have friends with magic! Wisewomen are usually lonely.” Elizabeth would have loved to have a confidante with magic.
“And none of your sisters have magic? That is unusual.”
Elizabeth shrugged. “Perhaps they do but are unaware of it, or I suppose they might be hiding it as I did. My eldest sister knows enough about my activities to guess, although she never said anything, but my younger sisters must have been surprised to hear I am a witch.”
“I wish you would not use that word! It is so ugly and has been used so cruelly.”
“I do not like it either. I never used it before, but I cannot pretend that other people are not calling me that. But I am enjoying the freedom to use my magic now. I always had to check carefully before using it, and it was easier to do things without magic than to hide it. Being exposed has been freeing. I light candles with my fingers and ask a breeze to blow away smoke from the fireplace. I have even been experimenting with new skills. Shall I show you my favorite?”
“Pray do.”
“I need a stain. There – do you see that yellowed spot on the damask chair?”
“Yes.”
Elizabeth licked her forefinger, wrapped it in her handkerchief, and rubbed her covered fingertip over the stain.
“Good heavens! It is gone!”
“Not gone. It has moved to my handkerchief.” Elizabeth held out the square of fabric to show a yellow stain on it. “As you can see by the number of spots, I have been hunting down stains to practice on.” She was quite proud of her accomplishment. If only she had known how to do it before the ill-fated Meryton Assembly, she would have worried less about Darcy discovering her magic.
“That would be an extremely useful bit of magic. How did you figure it out?”
“The same as always. I wanted to remove a stain from my dress, and I let the magic show me how to do it.”
“Do you think you could teach me how?”
“Why not? It will help to pass the day.”
AFTER BREAKFAST ATRosings, Eversleigh asked Darcy and Richard, “What is the spell you wished to ask me about?”
Darcy flushed. “I should not have said anything. While I would like your help in removing the spell, Matlock is the one who placed it, and he does not want it removed. He is your colleague and friend, so I cannot ask you to go against his will.”
“Remove one of Matlock’s spells against his wishes? No. I am not prepared to do that, and I am surprised you would consider it, Darcy. I trust his judgment.”
“I would have said the same until I discovered he had cast a binding spell on his niece.”
“A binding spell? Ridiculous! Matlock opposes them, and he knows better than to cast a spell on a family member. There must be some misunderstanding here.”
“No misunderstanding,” said Richard. “He admitted it in front of both of us. He did it.”
Eversleigh stared at them in disbelief and began to pace the floor. Finally he said, “If what you say is true, the spell should be removed. I am almost more shocked that he would break the rules against using magic on a relative than the binding spell itself. One of my duties on the Council of Mages is to deal with improperly set spells, usually ones set on a family member. Matlock often sends those cases to me. He knows the rules.”
“Still, he seems to think he did the right thing in this case. He even warned me against trying to remove the spell myself. He said it was unbreakable.”
“Unbreakable, is it? We will see about that.” Eversleigh seemed offended by the idea of a spell he could not break. “I will not try to remove it behind his back, but I will do this much. I will check the spell to confirm it is of his making and to judge if I would be able to break it. If it is his, I will speak to him about it. He will see reason.”
Darcy was not as certain about that. Lord Matlock could be quite obdurate when he set his mind on something.
DARCY MANAGED TO PERSUADEAnne to join them in the drawing room, but he could not convince her companion, Mrs. Jenkinson, that there was no need to follow her. Mrs. Jenkinson reported most of Anne’s activities to Lady Catherine, so their efforts would not remain secret long.
Anne seemed perfectly willing to listen to Eversleigh, whom she had met at dinner the previous evening.
“Darcy has told me you are frequently subject to fainting spells and that doctors have been unable to find a reason,” said Eversleigh. “I have some expertise in the matter. Would you consent to allow me to see if I can find the source? It would only involve touching your wrist and possibly your neck where I can feel your pulse.”
“If you wish, I have no objection,” said Anne.
Mrs. Jenkinson said, “Miss de Bourgh, I cannot permit this without Lady Catherine’s knowledge. We must wait until she is recovered.”
