Darcy sighed. “It is too late for me. I will continue to be civil and proper to her, as always, but I have no desire for more.”
She pounced. “Too late foryou, but what about Jenny? And any other children you may have. Does Jenny not deserve a grandmother - and does she notneeda highly trained mage who can help her learn to channel that frightening Talent of hers? Would you deprive your daughter of having the best mage in England as her private tutor because Lady Anne never took time for you while she was under bindings?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. God above, but it was annoying when Frederica sallied forth on one of her crusades and turned out to be right, too. Grudgingly he said, “It would be a fine thing for her to spend more time with Jenny, if she so wishes. But why have you taken this particular bit between your teeth? You are no fonder of Lady Anne than I am.”
“No, I never did manage to like her, but I understand what it is like to have everyone dislike you for something that is beyond your control. I never asked to be a truth-caster, but people still hated me because they blurted out embarrassing things in my presence. I can imagine how it would feel for her to suddenly be free of bindings for the first time, only to discover that everyone has already dismissed her as useless,” she said passionately. Then she added, “I am not sure what I think of the new Lady Anne. She has an annoying edge of primness, but I am going to give her a chance.”
Darcy could not imagine ever feeling comfortable around his mother. “Very well. I will encourage her to visit us and to spend time with Jenny.”
“Do you know what she told me today? When you were a boy, she begged Shadow to find you a powerful familiar who could help protect you from Lady Catherine. So her cat went straight to the top and found a fae lynx, which was not exactly what she had in mind. Even less so after she met the Wicked King and discovered he has a pair of lynxes guarding him at all times, known for both their strength and their bloodthirstiness.”
“That is news to me.” His mother, responsible for his lynx? Astonishing. And all this time he had thought she did not care about protecting him.
It was a reminder, too, that Lady Anne had personal experience with the Wicked King. Perhaps she might have some useful information, too.
Chapter 30
Darcyfoundhismotherin the Queen’s Lodge, where rooms had been made over for her use.
Lady Anne looked up eagerly from the tome lying open on the desk before her when the servant showed him in. “Is there any news?”
It was certainly more abrupt than she would have been before the bindings were removed, but that might mean nothing. “About Jack? No. I explained to him how my land bond works and had him try the same things, but nothing happened. He can produce similar effects, but he does it completely differently. More like altering the earth itself from the inside rather than encouraging the parts of it I want to strengthen, if I understand him correctly.”
“So it is not merely a larger land bond.” She tapped her fingers. “But I imagine that is not why you are here.”
“Not primarily.” Why was he already bracing himself for rejection from a question he had not even asked? It was not as if Lady Anne could hurt him more than she already had. And, regardless of the outcome, Elizabeth would be proud of him for trying. “I will be returning to Pemberley soon, and I want to extend an invitation to you to join us there, now or whenever you wish. We would like little Jenny to know her grandmother. There is no telling what the future will bring, if we will even be able to keep Pemberleyafter the invasion, but you will always have a home with us, wherever we may be.”
He had not expected her look of utter astonishment. “Youwishme to come to Pemberley?”
And quite suddenly, he did. “Yes. I know your duty may keep you with Their Majesties, but you have family, too.”
She smoothed her hand over the open page of the book, as if the answer might lie in its texture. “I thank you for that. I will… consider it.” Clearly it was a radical notion for her.
“I hope you will. I wish I could say you would be safer at Pemberley in case of invasion, but that is not necessarily true. Totally apart from Napoleon’s interest in me, the High King has made several attempts to breach our wards. I do not know what his interest is, which is worrisome.”
She frowned. “I heard something of that when I was there, but I was reluctant to ask, given my… history with him. Do you think it may be related?”
Until now, she had always refused to speak of what happened during her time in Faerie. Could that have changed? “I cannot say, for I know nothing of your dealings with him, only that you made a bargain of some sort.” And he owed that knowledge to Georgiana, not to his mother.
Her shoulders drooped. “So you have discovered that much. I suppose I should explain the rest, in case it is useful to you.” As if she had not refused repeatedly to do so in the past.
“I would be grateful to know more. It is hard to fight an enemy whose motives I do not understand.”
“If it makes you any safer, then I will tell you. My bargain was an act of desperation. My sister’s bindings kept me from warning anyone what she was doing – and planning. He was my last chance to stop her before…”
“Before what?” Darcy asked.
“Before she killed you, among other things.” She grimaced. “Have you wondered why there are so many fewer mages now than fifty years ago? She wanted her daughter to be King’s Mage after her, even though Anne was sickly. And suddenly the children from other mage families startedfalling ill and dying. All the Mortimer girls, and a few of the boys. All the Percys except for one who was living in Italy at the time. She was sparing other Fitzwilliams at first, but then she started seeing them as a threat, too. When the earl’s eldest daughter, our own niece who had just come into her Talent, died of the same symptoms, I knew you and Jack were in danger. Do you remember how I came to Pemberley when you were a boy and began teaching you to access your Talent?”
How could he forget, when those very lessons had caused him to be recruited for his mission to France? “Yes.”
“It was so you could defend yourself against her if needed. I made you practice invisibility again and again, because that is the one thing that could save you from her bindings. She could not bind someone she could not see.”
Was that why Napoleon had failed to bind him to silence during the assassination attempt, too? Because Darcy had fallen back on his earliest and strongest mage skill – invisibility.
If so, he owed the thanks for that to his mother.
“But that was not all,” she continued. “She was sapping King George’s strength, until no one would think it odd if he died. Then she could get Prinny to marry her legally and make her queen. I knew I could not manage the trick of spiriting another of their children away. I had to act, for your sake and for England’s. But how? I was bound against injuring her or even speaking of her to humans or dragons. So I did the one thing that was left and turned to the fae. Even knowing it would end badly.” Suddenly she seemed to diminish right before his eyes. “I could not imagine how badly, though.”
