“Papa, you must not stress yourself. We are all here to help you, and you need do nothing but rest.”
Elizabeth released his hand. Her voice seemed to come from far away as she asked, “How do you feel? Does it still hurt?”
Pepper jumped off Lord Matlock’s chest.
“Not at all. The pain and pressure have disappeared.” Lord Matlock sat up and swung his legs off the sofa. “Definitely better. I thank you, Miss Bennet.” He sounded drowsy.
Elizabeth frowned. “I was not able to fix everything. I patched the broken area of your heart, but I could not heal it. It is a temporary measure.”
“You made me well enough to deal with Catherine, and that is the important thing.” He heaved himself to his feet.
“Papa, you must rest!” Frederica cried. “Elizabeth, should he not rest?”
Elizabeth turned her palms upwards. “I cannot say. Wild magic is different from normal healing. Lord Eversleigh may know more.”
“I rarely use wild magic,” said Eversleigh. “I have been determined to prove I could succeed as a mage using only mortal magic, but in this case it does not matter. Lord Matlock, you might as well rest because I cannot allow you to have any part of this matter of Lady Catherine. No part at all, do you hear me? Lady Frederica, I would be obliged if you would send an express to Lady Matlock informing her of what has happened and that I will be sending Lord Matlock back to London by carriage as soon as I am certain he is well enough.”
“No need,” grumbled Lord Matlock. “She is already on her way. She wished to come with me, but Richard and I rode ahead.”
“All the better,” said Eversleigh. “You can go back to Londontogether.”
“I should stay. Even if I do not see Catherine, I can still be of use to you here,” said Lord Matlock.
Eversleigh paused. “Until we have a clearer idea of what spells Lady Catherine can use, it is safer to send everyone far away from her. Everyone except Darcy. Although I would prefer not to have any of Lady Catherine’s kin here, I would ask you to stay simply because you are apparently immune to her spells, and I have no reason to assume I am. Miss Bennet, I will need your assistance in setting wards of power this afternoon, but after that, you should go as well.”
Darcy did not like Eversleigh’s appropriation of Elizabeth. “I will stay here if you wish, but I must remind you Miss Bennet is not obliged to follow your orders.”
Elizabeth gave Eversleigh a teasing look before turning to Darcy and saying lightly, “In fact, according to fay protocol, I do have to honor his requests, but I still prefer to be asked. In this case, I am willing to do what I can, but I know nothing about setting wards. Surely Mr. Darcy or Lord Matlock or even Lady Frederica would be of more use to you.”
“Can’t do it,” grunted Lord Matlock with some annoyance. “Wards of power are blood magic. Using the blood of one of Catherine’s relatives creates a weakness she could exploit. Eversleigh, does your blood count as fay blood?”
“Alas, no. I am a mere mortal,” said Eversleigh.
“Pity. It would be more interesting that way,” said Lord Matlock. “Is it true that spells mingling fay and mortal blood are more powerful?”
“It increases the power greatly when both are mixed. I was once the mortal component of such, and it is quite remarkable, even by the standards of Sidhe magic. One of the great wonders of Faerie is the giant oak – and it truly is giant – at the end of the void where Caerdic of blessed memory and his mortal brother Alber spilled their heart’s blood together to break Faerie in twain.”
“Heart’s blood?” asked Elizabeth. “Is that different?”
Eversleigh straightened his lapels. “Quite different,” he said. “It happened only in ancient times, and it is not something you will ever see. This spell will not mingle our blood, but it will require giving four drops of your blood to the wards, and you must give it willingly. Blood magic is tricky business, and using blood given under duress can lead to unpredictable results.”
“You would be perfectly safe,” added Lord Matlock. “The worst thing that can happen is that the spell will not work.”
“But I only know wild magic,” said Elizabeth.
“That does not matter.” Eversleigh smiled suddenly. “I can teach you what you need to know as we go along. Discovering sorcery qualifies as an emergency which authorizes me to teach anyone at hand, including women. And while I might pride myself on using formal spells whenever possible, I do have wild magic in my blood, as you just saw while you were healing Lord Matlock. “
Lord Matlock frowned. “You were involved in that, too?”
Eversleigh nodded. “I worked with Miss Bennet, following her lead and taking some of the effort on myself. I wanted to protect her strength so she could make the wards. Since we areshurinn, I can work in tandem with her.”
“What are you talking about?” Darcy could barely hold his anger in check.
“It is complicated,” said Elizabeth quickly. “Just a fay matter. Because we are both connected to Aelfric, Viscount Eversleigh and I can entwine our magic. I can explain it later if you like.”
Darcy nodded tersely, not trusting his voice. He was not a fool. Magic was not the only thing Eversleigh wanted to entwine with Elizabeth. How dare he use her connection to the fay prince to accomplish it? To think he had the gall to tell Darcy he wanted to protect her!
Frederica blurted out, “May I watch you set the wards?”
