Bewitching Season (35 page)

“Rather!” Charles bent to his exercise book with determination.

“Were the crowds very bad?” inquired Mama. “We can actually hear them, you know, all the way

from St. James Street.”

“Bad enough for carriage traffic. It looks as if the whole city is out and about, in a festive mood.

That’s why I rode over on Lord Chesterfield,” Lochinvar said. “Getting there will be a chore.”

“Ah! So we’ll have the pleasure of seeing you this evening?” Mama asked.

“I wouldn’t miss it for anything, ma’am,” Lochinvar replied. Persy stole a look at him and saw that

he was looking at her.
Why?
she wanted to shout at him.
After what I did to you, how can you even

bear to be in the same room with me?

“Neither would the girls, of course. I’m surprised that the pair of them aren’t already getting

ready,” Mama said with a teasing smile. Persy remembered her own secret preparations upstairs and

felt herself flush. She was saved from anything more revealing by Kenney’s unmistakably discreet

knock on the door.

Instead of the requested tea he’d brought a message. “Pardon me, my lady. But the new lady’s maid

for Miss Persephone and Miss Penelope has arrived.”

“What?” Persy and Pen said together.

Mama blinked at him. “The new lady’s maid?”

“Ooh! Can I watch?” said Charles eagerly. Persy shot him a quelling look.

“But I’ve not engaged a new maid yet.” Mama rose, looking uncertain. “You must excuse us for a

moment, Lochinvar. Perhaps you could have a look at Charles’s exercises. Girls, come with me.”

Thank goodness, a legitimate excuse to leave,
thought Persy. She hurried down the stairs with

Mama and Pen to the front hall, where a straight, slender form stood with its back to them smoothing

its hair in a mirror. Something about the set of the unknown woman’s shoulders seemed familiar to

Persy.

“Good afternoon, Miss … er … ?” said Mama as she reached the bottom stair.

The woman—girl, really—turned. Though she wore a small pair of spectacles on the end of her

nose and had done her hair in a severe, scraped-back style, Persy knew her at once. It was Lorrie

Allardyce.

“Good afternoon, your ladyship and misses,” she said in a slightly croaky voice as she curtsied. “I

am Clements. You will have received the letter that I would be arriving today.” She shot a look at

Persy and Pen that all but shouted, “Hold your tongues, please, and let me handle this.”

“Ah, no,” Mama replied, a slightly interrogative upturn in her voice.

“From Mrs. Forrest, at Tutterow village? I had worked for her sister-in-law, who is leaving for

India next month. She was kind enough to write you to see if you were still looking for a maid for the

young misses.” Lorrie drew herself up, looking remarkably like Ally for a moment.

“Nooo, I don’t quite recall, but there is a great deal of correspondence on my desk that I have not

quite got round to,” Mama said.

Lorrie tsked impatiently. “This is most irregular,” she said. “Mrs. Forrest assured me that it was

all arranged. Has the position been filled already? It will be most unpleasant to have to endure the

ride on the stage again—”

“No, the position’s still open,” Persy said quickly, while Mama seemed to search for something to

say. “It’s providential that you arrived today of all days. Getting ready for the princess’s ball will be

so much easier now, Mama. Poor Andrews won’t be run off her feet trying to help all of us.” She

gave Pen a meaningful look and prayed she wouldn’t drop the ball.

“I’m sure we should be quite happy to give, er, Clements a try, Mama. How kind of Mrs. Forrest to

think of us,” Pen chimed in, right on cue.

“Well …” The mention of having Andrews to herself again made Mama’s face brighten. “I feel

quite awkward at not having known—”

“Nonsense, Mama. Letters go astray all the time. It will be just wonderful to have a maid at last,

especially tonight. Shall I ring for Kenney?” Persy hurried to the bell before Mama could protest.

“I …” Mama looked at Lorrie, who gazed down her nose at the three of them, then at Persy, whose

hand was already on the bellpull. A peculiar expression crossed her face, but before Persy could

decipher it, it had vanished.

“Very well then, dear,” she said. “Please do, then run back upstairs before Lochinvar thinks we

have deserted him. I shall be along in a moment. Dear me, this is most extraordinary … .”

“Yes, Mama.” Persy yanked the bell, smiled and nodded at Lorrie, then followed Pen back up the

stairs.

“What in heaven’s name is going on?” Pen murmured to her, pausing at the landing. “What does

Lorrie Allardyce think she’s doing?”

“I don’t know. We’ll find out later, I’m sure,” Persy whispered back as she kept walking. “Come

on. Lorrie seems quite able to handle Mama without us.” She opened the door of the drawing room.

“—just a dream, she said, but I don’t think so. Ally wouldn’t say there was danger for no reason,”

she heard Charles say in a low, urgent voice. The pair were at the table by the window, but evidently

maths had been forgotten. Charles’s face was red and earnest as he bent toward Lochinvar.

“Charles!” Persy gasped.

He jumped at the sound of her voice.

“What are you telling him?” she demanded, feeling tall and terrible as she advanced on him.

Charles rose, his face even redder. “I’m telling Lochinvar about your dream, ’cause you won’t.”

“What dream?” Pen interjected. “Persy—”

“It’s not any of his concern, Chuckles, nor yours. You weren’t invited to the ball. Please ignore

him,” Persy said, turning to Lochinvar. “He’s making a mountain out of a molehill.”

“Ally comes to you in a dream and says you’re all in danger, and you want to ignore it?” Charles

looked close to bursting.

Pen gasped. “You didn’t tell me about that!”

“I don’t know that it was Ally. I already told you that. It could just as likely have been indigestion,”

she shot back at him. “And even if it truly was Ally, I can’t miss this chance to go look for her, and

help her if she needs it—”

“Lochinvar helped us that day when we sneaked into Kensington Palace and he said he’d help us

again. Maybe he’ll know what we should do about tonight—”

“You sneaked into Kensington Palace?” Pen was starting to turn red. “What have you been doing

behind my back?”

“It was my idea, but she didn’t want to tell you,” Charles told her. “We were trying to look for

Ally.”

“Charles,”
warned Persy.

“You went looking for Ally without me?” The outrage in Pen’s voice was almost tangible. She put

her hands on her hips and scowled.

“If there’s some possible danger … ,” Lochinvar said.

“I didn’t want you to get into trouble if we got caught.” Persy tried to placate her. “I didn’t care if I

created a scandal dressing up as a boy, but you—”

“You dressed up as a boy?”

“She sure did.” Charles nodded proudly. “She borrowed some of Papa’s trousers and my jacket.

Lochinvar said she made a very handsome—”

“Charles!” Persy groaned.

“You were there too?” Pen turned to stare at Lochinvar.

He coughed and reached up to adjust his cravat, as if it were suddenly too snug. “Er, well, yes.”

“He rescued us when that man with the funny eyes came chasing after us, and hid us under the table

in the duke’s library.” Charles now sounded positively gleeful.

“And no one saw fit to tell me?” Pen suddenly bore a remarkable resemblance to Mama in one of

her more ducal moments.

“Is everything all right?” Mama herself came back into the drawing room, still looking vaguely

befuddled. She halted and looked at the four of them.

Lochinvar was the first to recover. “I was just going to take Charles down to visit Lord

Chesterfield, with your permission, ma’am,” he said quickly.

“Thank you, dear boy. That is most kind of you. Charles, no obstreperous behavior, please. You

may be leaving the bandage off your wrist these days, but it is still not as strong as it should be.

Lochinvar, please don’t let him misbehave with that horse.”

“I promise.” Lochinvar sprang to the door with alacrity. Charles needed no encouragement, either.

They vanished before anyone could say another word.

“Girls, perhaps you will take a few moments to get acquainted with this Clements. I am sure I don’t

recall Mrs. Forrest’s mentioning her in her last letter, but post does go astray, and her arrival today

was fortuitous. It would be nice if we could keep a maid for you more than a quarter hour.” She

looked at them very hard for a moment.

“Yes, Mama,” said Pen meekly.

Mama sat down on the sofa with a sigh and poured herself a cup of tea. “Do ring for Kenney on

your way out, if you please. I don’t think we’ll be home if anyone else calls this afternoon. There is

enough going on today as it is.”

That was true, Persy silently agreed. She opened the door for Pen, who swept past her with a chilly

glance that promised their conversation about Ally was far from over.

But before they had gone halfway up the stairs on the way to their room, Lorrie Allardyce appeared

in the hall above them. “Oh, good. I was afraid I’d have to come and get you,” she called.

Persy glanced around to make sure no one was hovering nearby. “Shhh,” she cautioned. “Wait till

we’re alone.” Once they were safely in their room, she locked the door.

Lorrie seated herself in the low chair by the fire and looked around the room. “Very nice,” she

commented.

“Er, thank you,” said Pen. “Now, will
someone
tell me what in blazes is going on here?” She sat

down on the end of the bed and glared at Persy.

“We weren’t getting anywhere with finding my sister,” Lorrie said calmly, as if addressing a small

child. She had dropped the croaky attempt to disguise her voice and folded the spectacles into her

pocket as she spoke. “So I decided that a little more leadership was needed on the premises.”

“Perhaps if
someone
had told me we were actually searching for her, we might have got more

accomplished.” Pen was close to tears.

“I didn’t tell you we were going to search Kensington Palace because I didn’t want you to get in

trouble if we were caught,” Persy said, half pleading, half explaining. “If I’d been found dressed as a

boy wandering about London, I would not have cared if Mama and Papa bundled me back to Mage’s

Tutterow in disgrace. I didn’t want your chances for the season ruined if we got caught, but I didn’t

care about mine.”

Pen frowned. “And then Lochinvar happens to find you and Charles wandering about the palace,

and rescues you from someone, and you all keep it a merry little secret from me?”

“I made him promise not to tell you that we’d been there, because I didn’t want you to be angry

with us.”

“You hadn’t told her?” Lorrie asked Persy. “Well, no wonder she’s in a pet with you.”

Persy’s head had begun to ache. “I told you, I didn’t want you to get in trouble.”

“Ally’s my governess too, Persy. I love her just as much as you do. It wasn’t at all fair for you to

keep me out of it.” She stamped her foot.

“I’m sorry. I thought—I mean, you seemed occupied with other things—”

“This isn’t getting us very far on what to do about my sister,” Lorrie interjected, rising from her

seat to poke the fire. “Now, you said you would talk to old Princess what’s-her-name tonight at the

ball, right? Tomorrow we can see what she’s had to say and plan our next steps.”

“No, not tomorrow,” said Persy before she remembered.

“Why not?” Pen looked at her.

“Oh—no reason. Tomorrow will be fine.” Persy walked quickly to the window to hide her

agitation. Idiot! She needed to be more careful or else she’d give her plans away.

“Hmmph,” Lorrie mumbled.

Persy twitched aside the curtain and peered outside, waiting for the heat to die in her cheeks. A

carriage rumbled past, and then a horse with two riders: Lochinvar, holding Charles before him as

they trotted up the street on Lord Chesterfield. Charles wore an expression of bliss visible even at

this distance. Well, at least Lochinvar didn’t hate all the Lelands because of her.

“Why should he hate all of you?” Lorrie asked.

Persy turned and stared at her. Not even Ally had been able to read her that clearly. “How did you

know what I … ?”

Lorrie shrugged. “Reading people is what I’m good at, magically speaking. I can’t do it all the time

or with everyone, but when it’s as loud and clear as you were, it’s easy. Why should this Lochinvar

hate all of you?”

Persy looked at Pen, who crossed her arms over her chest and stayed stubbornly silent. “Because

…” she began. “Because he has a prejudice against witches, and I deliberately did a halting spell on

him at a ball last night.”

“Persy!” Pen gasped. “You didn’t!”

“Gracious!” Lorrie looked amused. “Why?”

“Because he … I … oh, it’s a long story.” Persy turned back to the window so that they wouldn’t

see the tears in her eyes.