“What in the world is going on?” Lady Cosgrave demanded from the doorway behind me. Her silvering dark hair was piled high atop her head tonight and pinned into place by a truly magnificent ruby. A necklace of shining silver twined in intricate elven knots around her throat, and she sailed forward in her crimson fey-silk gown like a warship surging through a shoal of fishing boats as my students cleared hastily out of her path.
Amy stood just behind, one hand raised to her mouth as she took in the scope of the disaster. For once, my sister-in-law made no move to step forward and bring calm to the room; only too clearly, we were past any possibility of that. Her gaze shifted from the leaves and the open windows to me, her brown eyes wide and questioning.
The time for strategic misdirection had ended. I said, my voice pitched to reach the students who hovered outside the room, “Someone in this house has been bargaining with a wild fey to attack Thornfell. Now Mrs. Renwick has been taken.”
“Taken?” Lady Cosgrave’s eyebrows shot up as the crowd behind her dissolved into anxious gasps and whispers. “What do you mean,taken? To where, exactly?”
“The woods, I assume.” There was nowhere else any wild fey could transport themselves so easily with an unwilling human companion. As this particular fey hadn’t been thoughtful enough to drag Annabel inch-by-inch across the grounds for us to watch along their way, they could be hiding anywhere in those woods by now. I hadn’t stepped past the tree line myself since bluebell season first began, and I’d never once stepped off the official woodland paths before the safety of Samhain any year, not even in my most rebellious youth.
Now, apparently, for the sake of my old childhood tormentor, that most immutable Harwood law—Leave the fey to their secrets!—was about to be broken for the first time...and yet again, my whole family might pay the price for my actions, if the rest of the fey in our woods took it as a final betrayal of our long agreement.
I clenched my jaw tight and bit out my words as Jonathan set down the piled journals and stepped up behind me in support. “We cannot rescue her without magical assistance. As soon as Mr. Westgate returns with one of his officers of magic—”
“Wait. She’s been carried off to thewoods?” Behind Lady Cosgrave, Miss Stewart blanched and clasped Miss Banks’s bare forearm for support. “But Professor Luton, in our vision—”
“Indeed.” Lady Cosgrave turned to give her cousin a meaningful look, and Miss Fennell swiftly averted her gaze from Miss Stewart’s hand upon her secret fiancée’s arm. “We did all witness Gregory Luton in those woods today, did we not? Standing directly by thebluebells.”
“Oh, for—!” I forced myself to pause for a deep, sustaining breath, as Amy’s warning gaze landed upon me. “Professor Luton had nothing to do with this matter, I assure you,” I continued as steadily as I could. “In point of fact, I am almost certain that the true culprit—”
“Then whatwashe doing in those woods today? Especially after all of those dire warnings you issued last night?” She looked around the gathered company for support. “I wasn’t the only one who heard them, was I? ‘No one is to enter the woods onanypretext until the end of bluebell season, on threat of expulsion?’”
“That warning,” I said, “was intended forstudents. Professor Luton is an established weather wizard, so—”
“Perhaps,” said Amy, moving forward, “we should hear all of the facts before we start casting wild accusations inanydirection. Cassandra?” Her tone and facial expression might appear as composed as usual in the midst of any political storm, but I knew Amy better than almost anyone, and what I glimpsed in the shadows of her gaze made the ground suddenly feel unbalanced beneath my feet. Could that be raw pain she was trying to hide?Why? What about this could have hurt her on such a personal level?
I wanted to turn to Jonathan for help, but she spoke again before I could. “What exactlydoyou know of what’s been happening?” she asked me. “And how long has it been going on?”
Ohhh. I sucked in a breath as realization hit, sickeningly.Iwas the one who had hurt her. Damn it! “I wasn’t keeping it a secret from you!” I said hastily. “We only discovered it late last night—”
“We?” said Lady Cosgrave sharply. “So there aremultiplepeople in this house who knew of grave danger and intentionally kept it hidden from us?”
Her cousin’s strong-boned face went stiller than ever. Safely outside Lady Cosgrave’s line of sight, Miss Banks gave a tiny, frantic shake of her head.
Reluctantly, I released the safest truth available. “Wrexham was visiting me for the evening.”
Amy’s eyes widened. Behind me, I felt Jonathan shift position. But my focus was on Lady Cosgrave now, and I caught the exact moment that her lip curled with wry satisfaction. “What a pity,” she murmured. “We had all understood that your husband, at least, was reliable in his work. But if he’s been secretly traipsing about the nation for romantic assignations when he was meant to be fulfilling his official duties...” She shrugged. “I don’t see how even I could defend him any longer to the others in the Boudiccate.”
“You—?” My jaw dropped open. “Whoareyou, Honoria Cosgrave? Who have you allowed yourself to become?” The words ripped themselves from my chest; her familiar face turned even colder and more unreachable with every new word that I uttered. “You’ve known me since I was a child,” I said desperately. “Youtriedto matchmake me and Wrexham last winter. I don’t care how much you disapprove of my school. How can you possibly justify trying to ruinhim?”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Whatever Annabel may be holding over you,nothingjustifies what you’re doing now.”
If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought she’d grown a full inch in her icy fury. “Believe it or not, Cassandra Harwood,” Lady Cosgrave snapped, “you arenotthe only woman in this room with a mission to protect the vulnerable. And I would takegreat carewith your personal insinuations about me and my colleagues! There are far worse fates possible foranyonethan the loss of a mere magical appointment.”
“Cassandra!” Amy hurried toward us, one hand outstretched. “This isn’t the moment for recriminations or accusations. Perhaps if we all step outside and take a few minutes to calm ourselves before—”
“No!” I lurched away from her soothing touch for the first time in memory. Jonathan caught hold of my shoulders before I could slam into him, but I never looked away from Lady Cosgrave’s frozen face. “Icannotlet this go, not even for a moment! This isn’t a political game to be played for points amongst colleagues. This is my husband’slifeand his career that you’re threatening! Wrexham hasn’t done anything wrong, and you know it. So long as he fulfills his professional duties to the Boudiccate—”
“I beg your pardon?” Lady Cosgrave let out a startled-sounding laugh. “Did Lionel Westgate not even mention why he had been called away in that message he sent you?”
“What?” I stared at her. “What are you talking about?”
“The private messageIreceived from him an hour later, of course.” She waved one hand impatiently, her ruby and topaz rings glinting in the fey-light. “I assumed he must have told you about it, too, andthatwas why you went and hid away from everyone for so long. My cousin went looking for you as soon as we received the message, but she couldn’t find you anywhere.Imight have chosen to discuss the matter with you myself after supper, but as you didn’t bother to attend that meal, either...”
Jonathan’s hands tightened around my shoulders, as if he feared I might lose control and strike her. Above my head, his voice sounded harsher than I had ever heard it. “I think we’dalllike to know what that message said if it pertains to my brother-in-law, Lady Cosgrave.”
Amy stepped up to close us into a tight circle of privacy, her back blocking the view of our onlookers. “Don’t be cruel, Honoria,” she murmured, too softly for anyone outside to overhear. “It’s petty and beneath you, and you know it.”
It was the first time the two had directly spoken to each other since Lady Cosgrave’s arrival, and a flash of pain crossed Honoria’s face at Amy’s words. Then her expression hardened.
