“Ha! That’s all tedious spellbooks and magical treatises from top to bottom. As ifthosewere of interest to anyone with a—no.” He let out a heavy sigh and grabbed hold of his hair, tugging hard. “Forgive me, both of you. I’mjust—”
“Frustrated,” I completed for him as I plopped myself down on the end of their bed. “Why don’t you send the journal a letter and tell them they’ll simply have to wait until you’ve finished your visit so you can consult your own books and fix theirerrors?”
“And let the article be delayedagain?” Jonathan’s voice rose to a painedbellow.
“Shh,” said Amy soothingly. “Dearest, I had a chat with young Miss Fennell over breakfast, and it seems she’s been studying some very rare documents about the elven court in hopes of being chosen as the next ambassadress. But she’s having quite a bit of trouble deciphering some of the ancient annotations, so she could do with an expert’s advice and help. She’s in the library right now...and I did promise that you would take a look at them for her. You know how difficult those old manuscripts can be for people without any practice readingthem.”
“They’re probably half-full of ancient Deniscan terms, if they’re about the elven court.” Reluctant interest crept into Jonathan’s voice. “If they really are some of the older manuscripts, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt for me just to glance through them...although I ought to keep fighting with these damnedfootnotes...”
“Later,” Amy told him firmly. “After you’ve had a chance to clear your mind. You know it always makes you feel better to lecture people abouthistory.”
“Rascal.” Jonathan scooped up her hand and kissed it. “But you’re absolutely right, of course. It does. And you’ve put up with more than enough of it already.” He pushed his chair back and brushed down his rumpled waistcoat. His hair, of course, was still standing up in all directions, so Amy stood on tiptoes to pat it down as he shrugged on his dark blue morning coat, which he’d laid over the back of the chair. His lips curved into a worryingly mischievous grin as his gaze landed on me. “Everything resolved now with Wrexham, eh? Lastnight—”
“You are going to forget what you saw last night,” I told himsternly.
“Ha!” He did up his buttons as his expression turned smug. “You can’t cast any spells of silence on me now, little sister. And if you think you can glare me out of remembering exactly what I saw, in vividdetail—”
“Library!” Amy said firmly, and pushed him toward the door. “You don’t want Miss Fennell to give up on those manuscripts and leave before you get there, doyou?”
Shrugging, Jonathan allowed himself to be guided from the room. Just before he closed the door behind him, though, he stuck his head back in for one last comment. “I remembereverything!”
“Argh!” I would have thrown a pillow at him if there had been time. But he slammed the door shut, laughing, just as I lunged across the bed to grabone.
“You two,” Amy said calmly as she walked back across the room, “deserve oneanother.”
“Oh, shush.” I slumped back onto the mattress, suddenly feeling every hour of the sleep that I’dmissed.
Of courseI’dremembered every detail of last night, too...all night long. It had not been conducive to a good night’srest.
But there was no use torturing myself over that now. So before Amy could pursue the matter any further, I said, “I need yourhelp.”
“Oh?” She sat down at the writing table, arranging her skirts around her, and looked at me expectantly. “Is this about Wrexham? Or am I finally going to find out what you were angling after in that meeting? What doyoucare about theelves?”
I pushed myself upright before I could lose all of my momentum entirely. “It’s nothing to do with elvesorwith Wrexham,” I said firmly. “It’s about Miss Banks. But not onlyher...”
Amy listened carefully as I laid it all out, her eyebrows drawing down with concentration. When I finished, she sat in silence for a longmoment.
“You know,” she said finally, “the Boudiccate won’t be happy about this idea atall.”
“The Boudiccate? What business is it of theirs?” I frowned at her. “They aren’t the ones who trainmagicians.”
“But theydorun the country,” Amy said patiently. “And your mother made them certain promises when she allowed you to attend the Great Libraryyourself.”
“What promises?” I demanded. “I was never told ofany!”
“Because you were doing your bestnotto notice any of the politics of it, as I recall,” Amy told me. “Still, it must have occurred even to you at some point, mustn’t it? One female magician could be called a rare exception. Two, though...well, that might begin to change the rules—and not just formagic.”
“Oh, their blessedrules.” I rolled my eyes. “The Boudiccate is entirely too hidebound and you know it. You would be apartof it, if they weren’t so ridiculously attached to their traditions!” I waved an impatient hand. “How could you not tell me the real reason why you were denied Mama’s place all those yearsago?”
“Someone told you that?” Amy’s lips compressed. She laid one hand on her rounded stomach as if to protect it. Then she sighed. “I suppose it was always bound to come out one day. But what would have been the purpose in telling you at the time? You would only have raged and kicked up a fuss and missed all of your important exams to come running to defend me—and truly, we were dealing with more than enough already, in the wake of your mother’s passing. No one needed any more pain added to thatmoment.”
“What about you?” I demanded. “You fought for me to get my place at the Great Library. Why wouldn’t you let me fight for you, too, when you neededit?”
“Because it wouldn’t have worked!” Amy said. “Cassandra, onlythink. The members of the Boudiccate are the proudest women in this land. Do you actually imagine they would have responded well to noise and humiliation in the public realm? Do you believe they would ever have welcomed a new member who’d been forced on them with that sort of battle? I know you like to approach everything with a battering ram, but these women requiresubtlety.”
“And you’re willing to make do for the rest of your life with that cursedsubtletyand compromise?” I snorted. “Being part of their circle but not-quite-one of themforever?”
“Rather than lose my husband? Yes! A million times over.” Amy’s tone hardened. “You come from a family that always loved you, Cassandra, even when they didn’t understand you. I think sometimes you forget how many advantages you have even now, even after everything that’s happened toyou.”
