“Do you know who that is?” Elizabeth asked quietly.
“Surely it cannot be…Jack?” Frederica squeaked.
Jack? Darcy’s brother who had been killed in the dragon massacre at Salamanca? No wonder the staff thought him a ghost!
Jasper half-tumbled down the stairs and enthusiastically pumped Jack’s hand. “Good God, you are alive! We thought you were dead!”
“It is a long story, and I will tell it in due course. Is that Freddie I see back there? What is this, a family party?”
Darcy suddenly seemed to remember Elizabeth’s existence, holding out his hand to her. “Elizabeth, look who is here! It is my brother Jack.” Darcy, who seemed very pleased to see him… but not particularly surprised.
Puzzled, she stepped forward. “This is a great – and very unexpected – pleasure. You are most welcome here.”
“I thank you, Mrs. Darcy,” he said, “and I look forward to your better acquaintance. If I may address you as Companion Elizabeth, I have a dragon of my own waiting just outside your formidable wards. Could he be invited in, too?”
Darcy’s mouth dropped. “You are a companion now, too?”
Jack gave a crooked smile. “It was that or let Gentiane die when Napoleon took over the Nest. All those years I refused to develop my mage abilities, and look at me now!”
“Well, that is convenient,” said Frederica in an odd voice. “Now we have four dragon companions after all.”
Chapter 22
Itwasadayof celebration, despite the looming darkness. Jack entertained everyone with stories of his adventures getting back from the Vosges, which had included a stop off in the mountains of Norway to deliver eggs from the Vosges dragons to a Nest there, a tiny fishing boat over stormy seas to the Shetlands and then another to Scotland, and thence to England and Pemberley. “We were almost out of money by then, so we flew by night and camped during the day. Gentiane wanted to stop at one of the Highland Nests, but I insisted on coming here first.”
“As well you might!” cried Mrs. Reynolds, whom Jack had invited to join them for the story, as she had all but raised him. Today she was alternately beaming and wiping away tears as he gulped down and extravagantly praised every dish that came before him, swearing that there was nothing like true English food and drink from Pemberley.
“But how do you come to be alive?” Jasper demanded. “We thought you died at Salamanca.”
“I still have no recollection of the battle there,” Jack said soberly. “I was pushed through the Gate to the Vosges, naked as the day I was born, holding a note that said, ‘My freedom is already forfeit to the Wicked King, but I will not give the monster a road to another Nest. Do not let this man go.’ The Gate was destroyed soon afterwards. The Vosges dragons believed Napoleon must have learned that I had survived the dragonfire unscathedand demanded the dragons deliver me to him. The poor doomed dragon decided not to cooperate, just in case I knew the location of another Nest.”
“Oh, my!” breathed Frederica. “And you knew nothing of this?”
“Not a thing, from the time I lined up for battle in Spain until I awoke in the Vosges. I did not even know the outcome at Salamanca until Will told me. What a shock that was, when the Nest sent me to rescue some unknown Englishman and it turned out to be our Will!”
Frederica rounded on Darcy. “You knew he was alive, and never told us?”
“Do not blame poor Will,” Jack said. “He was under a binding not to reveal my presence. Must have driven you moon-mad to have to keep that to yourself, old man!”
Darcy raised his glass to his brother. “It certainly did!” Thankfully, the binding seemed to have lifted, at least while he was in Jack’s presence.
“That explains a great deal,” Elizabeth said with feeling. “I knew there was something. How did you go from prisoner to dragon companion?”
“Desperation.” Jack took another huge bite of plum cake and washed it down with wine. “Taking a companion was the only way the dragons could escape Napoleon when he found the Nest, so all the ones who were young enough were trying to bond with anyone they could find, even people with no history of Talent. Gentiane is a few years too old for it, certainly too strong to bond to an ordinary mortal, but he thought I might manage it since I had already survived dragonfire and gone through a Gate.”
“I thought they never bonded to soldiers,” Frederica said.
“Well, I had to promise never to fight again, which was hard, but since otherwise they were going to send me to a different Nest to hold me prisoner, it came down to the same thing. I will miss the Army, but it is worth the price.”
Frederica said, “You may not be able to fight, but how do you feel about rescue missions? Lady Catherine de Bourgh is up to no good, and we need to stop her before her antics destroy the war effort.”
Jack whistled. “The old witch is back? I never met her, even though she is our aunt. I think Mother believed she would be a bad influence on me. Never mind, though – I am happy to do anything I can to stop Boney.”
Darcy straightened at the reminder. “Oh, God. Mother. She is here, at the Dower House, and does not yet know you are alive. We had best make our way there post-haste.”
Jack grimaced. “I suppose we must. But is there any more of this cake first?”
“Perhaps you should borrow some of Darcy’s clothes,” Frederica said. “Lady Anne could cope with your present attire, but as it happens, the king and queen are at the Dower House, too.”
