Elizabeth could not help a tiny smile. Darcy would not have noticed Granny’s pain before. Coquelicot was a good influence on him.
“I feel like a very old woman with the joints of a young girl, and pray permit me to tell you this is a very fine thing,” Granny said, flexing her fingers in stunned disbelief. “And the sun is so bright!”
“Excellent,” Darcy said. Elizabeth would be pleased with this news.
“I could do more for your eyes, but my Little One told me I must stop for now,” said Coquelicot sadly.
“Coquelicot will exhaust herself with healing if left to herself,” Frederica explained. “And Darcy is the only one she will listen to.”
“That is not true,” the French dragon protested. “Sometimes I listen to my other Little One, too. His half-sister. They are so alike, the two of them!”
Darcy winced inwardly. He would have to warn Coquelicot not to express that opinion around his mother.
“When I am rested, I would like to speak to you further,” said Granny. “There are tales of healer dragons in Wales, but this goes beyond their abilities.”
“Oh, and we must tell you about Rana Akshaya! So much has happened since you left,” Frederica said. “And Roderick – he is a companion now, too.”
Granny’s eyes widened. “Roderick has a dragon? Good for him. No one could deserve it more.”
“He is on his way, and should be here soon,” Cerridwen said.
A footman appeared then to announce Lady Anne’s arrival. At Darcy’s gesture, he closed the doors behind him.
His mother wore a slight frown. “What is the matter, Fitzwilliam, that you sent for me so precipitously?”
Of course she would consider it a breach of manners. Darcy forced himself to modulate his voice. “I thought it important that you hear the news Lady Amelia has just brought back from London. Your sister apparently has her Talent back and has managed to be re-appointed as the King’s Mage.”
A surprisingly brief shadow crossed her face, but none of the dismay he had anticipated. “Unfortunate, but I always knew it might happen. The first thing we must discover is her intentions. Last time she wanted to marry Prinny and become the Princess of Wales, the mother of the next King. Her dream was to have Fitzwilliams on the throne she always felt should have been theirs." Had she been planning for this possibility all these years?
“Surely they are not still repeating that old canard!” Granny said. “My father would never have been chosen to succeed Queen Anne, even if he had not flirted with Catholicism. Too much commoner in his mother’s bloodline, not to mention that he was a tyrant. He was lucky they let him keep the earldom.”
“It is but a family joke now, that we have more English royal blood than the royal family,” Frederica said.
“My sister saw it as a grave injustice,” Lady Anne said. “I doubt that has changed. But the Prince Regent is married now, so she cannot become his wife, and she is too old for childbearing. Unless she has some strange Talent that allows that, too.” She sounded doubtful, though. “It would not surprise me if she intends to try to marry one of my brother’s sons to Princess Charlotte.”
“Surely Prinny would never approve that. He wants a European prince for her,” Darcy said.
“The Prince of Wales will be completely under Catherine’s thumb,” Lady Anne retorted. “I imagine he has as many bindings as I did.”
Darcy drew in a deep breath. This was grim, but once again, not the greatest danger England faced right now.
A knock at the door preceded the entrance of Hobbes. The butler held a silver salver with a newspaper on top. It must be important for him to have interrupted their conference.
Then he noticed he was wearing a hastily tied black armband, and a chill ran through him.
Darcy took the newspaper from the salver. It was still hot from being ironed, another sign that Hobbes felt this was urgent. Then he saw the headline.
He looked up at the others and said in a hollow voice, “The Princess of Wales is dead.”
Elizabeth took a seat next to Darcy at the edge of the ballroom, taking comfort in sliding her hand into his. Roderick and Frederica were already there, sitting alongside them.
The large space was crowded with both Cerridwen and Rowan there. Coquelicot and Quickthorn were in attendance, too, but of necessity they took their bird forms. Otherwise there would not be room to breathe.
The dragons had been the ones to call this meeting, which was odd enough. And likely not good. They must have a reason, and of late reasons always turned out to be bad news.
Rowan began, “The Dark Peak Nest has come to a decision about the Traitor Companion Catherine. When she broke her bond to Hornbeam, we cut all ties with her. However, we cannot afford to have her wreakinghavoc when a mad dragon is at large, so we have concluded we must stop her.”
Could Elizabeth possibly be understanding correctly? “Surely you cannot think she would ally herself with Napoleon.”
