She walked over to the grimy window and stared out into the busy London street. It looked no different than any ordinary day, people going about their business, carts and carriages jostling for space. No one seemed particularly afraid of the imminent invasion. Perhaps they did not know about it, since the government had kept the papers from printing stories about it, or perhaps they thought it would make little difference to their everyday lives. Like Roderick, they might care little who created the laws.
But she knew who did care, and deeply. The question was how desperate they were to keep their position, and whether she could play her cards right. A wicked smile bloomed on her face as the idea took form in her head. It might not work, perhaps it could never work, but she had nothing to lose by trying.
It was too early to take the first step in her plan, so Frederica hunted down Jack instead, finally running him to earth at Darcy House. The butler showed her into the study, where her cousin sat on the window seat.
He looked up at her entrance. “You found me, I see.”
“After trying your inn and then going all the way out to Windsor, all to find out how you are doing,” she said tartly. It would have been more accurate to say Roderick had sent her. For someone who was refusing to do anything to help with Jack’s Bond, Roderick seemed to have an unnatural interest in it.
He grimaced. “Better than I was. At least I can be in London without feeling ill or in pain, but still all wrong.”
“What do you mean?
Jack looked away. “It feels like my skin no longer fits me. I cannot get comfortable, even when I sleep. It is like there are voices in my head, always talking, but I cannot make out what they are saying. The churchyard is like a siren song, always calling me.”
“Does anything help?”
“When I stand on iron, which is not a practical way to live. And the land does not like it.”
Poor Jack. This was so unlike the happy-go-lucky, bold adventurer he once had been. “Roderick has written to his father for advice, but any response will take at least a week.” And that only because Frederica had paid for the express rider out of her own funds. Roderick was too frugal for it, always conscious of how every shilling could help his impoverished people. Impoverished by English taxes.
Jack shrugged. “I did not want this bond in the first place, so what does it matter whether anyone can awaken it in me? I will keep trying to learn what I can do for a little longer, because the king has requested it, but after that I intend to leave.”
“Where would you go?”
He grimaced. “As far as it takes to get away from this feeling.”
The butler appeared in the doorway. “Colonel Fitzwilliam to see Mr. Jack Darcy. Are you at home, sir?”
Jack's visage brightened. “For Richard? Of course!”
“A good thing, too,” Richard exclaimed as he elbowed his way past the butler instead of waiting in the hall as callers usually did. “Sorry to say I am here on business today. I’ve been assigned to be your liaison, because they consider you the weapon that can change the course of the war.”
The brief good humor that had lightened Jack faded away to nothing. “I am unlikely to change anything apart from how thickly the grass grows at Windsor,” he grumbled. “I may be the world's biggest cannon, but I am useless without cannonballs and powder. And no one knows how to make them.”
Richard's expression turned to dismay. “But you have a dragon.”
“He refuses to kill, for good reason, and I have promised him I will not, either. Even though Gentiane desperately wants revenge against Napoleon for destroying his Nest.”
“Does that mean he might be willing to work with us? With the Army, that is? Could he cast illusions for us? Help us set traps or build defenses?” Richard asked.
Frederica added, “Richard spent a great deal of time talking to our Pemberley dragons about their abilities while Darcy was in France. None of them were willing to defend any land outside their own, though.”
“Short-sighted,” Richard grumbled. “Soon enough Boney will be there. We have a better chance of stopping him if we do it now.”
“Is there any realistic chance?” Frederica asked. Richard's military opinion was worth much more than most.
Richard snorted. “Anything is possible, no matter how unlikely. Hence my being sent to enlist you in our efforts, even if there is nothing you can do.”
“He can create holes at a distance,” Frederica said loyally. “Ones deep enough to knock down charging men.”
“Is this true?” Richard demanded of Jack.
Jack scowled. “If you do not care about precision.”
“We can work with that,” Richard said. Heavens, he must be desperate!
“The problem is that he could do so much more, if only we had some way to activate the King's Bond,” Frederica explained. “We have everyone hunting for answers on that.” Everyone except Roderick, who had all the answers yet refused to do anything about it, even to speak with Jack.
