Again the Magic (Wallflowers 0.5)(27)

Taking leave of the guests, Aline went to the kitchen in search of Mrs. Faircloth. Oddly, although the scene was completely normal, Aline knew without being told that McKenna had just been there. The air seemed alive with energy, as if a lightning bolt had just been hurled across the room. One look into Mrs. Faircloth’s eyes confirmed her suspicion. Yes, McKenna had come immediately to find the housekeeper, after seeing Aline. Of everyone who had once known him, they were the two who had loved him best.

McKenna…Thoughts swarmed in her head like bees in an overturned hive…she couldn’t seem to catch hold of one coherent notion, one clear image. It seemed impossible that McKenna could have returned to Stony Cross as if drawn by the polarity of some magical lodestone, needing a resolution to the past that had haunted them both. He wanted something from her…some ransom of pain, regret, or pleasure, that would finally bring him a measure of peace. And she had nothing to offer him, though she would have given her very soul as a willing sacrifice, were it possible.

She wanted another glance of him, just to make certain that he was real. She needed the sound of his voice, the feel of his arm beneath her hand, anything to confirm that she had not gone mad from her eternal craving. Struggling for self-mastery, Aline made her face blank as she moved toward the long wooden table. She glanced at the page of notes between the cook and Mrs. Faircloth, and quietly suggested a few changes to the menus. When the final decisions were agreed upon, Aline considered the prospect of joining the crowd of visitors for the midmorning meal, and felt a wave of exhaustion sweep over her. She did not want to eat and smile and make conversation with so many eager strangers. And to have to do so with McKenna there watching…impossible. Later tonight she would have set herself to rights, and she would be the consummate hostess. Right now, however, she wanted to go somewhere private, and think. And hide, a little mocking voice added. Yes, and hide. She did not want to see McKenna again until she had managed to compose herself.

“The earl will want to see you,” Mrs. Faircloth said, drawing aside with her to the kitchen entrance. Her gaze was warm and concerned as she stared into Aline’s bloodless face.

Of course. Marcus would want to make certain that she wasn’t weeping or shaken, or otherwise dismantled by the appearance of a man whom she had once loved. “I will go find him,” Aline said. “And I will also tell him that he will have to entertain the guests this morning without my help. I feel…rather fatigued.”

“Yes,” Mrs. Faircloth agreed, “you will want to be well rested for the ball tonight.”

McKenna, attending a ball at Stony Cross Park—it was something Aline had never dared to imagine. “Life is strange, isn’t it,” she murmured. “How ironic it is that he should finally come back.”

Naturally Mrs. Faircloth knew which “he” Aline was referring to. “He still wants you.”

The words caused a quiver to run through her, as if her spine had been plucked like an archer’s drawn bow. “Did he say so?”

“No…but I saw his face when I mentioned your name.”

Aline took a strained breath before asking, “You didn’t tell him—”

“I would never betray your secret,” the housekeeper assured her.

Discreetly Aline took Mrs. Faircloth’s warm, work-coarsened hand in her own soft, cold one. She was comforted by the housekeeper’s touch as their fingers entwined tightly. “He must never know,” she whispered. “I couldn’t bear it.”

Aline found Marcus and Livia together in the family receiving room, a private place where they occasionally met to discuss issues of particular urgency. This appeared to be one of them. Despite her inner havoc, Aline smiled as she glanced at her brother’s dark, concerned face, and her sister’s tense one. “There is no reason to look as if you expect me to hurl myself through the window,” she told them. “I assure you, I am perfectly calm. I have seen McKenna, we spoke quite cordially, and we both agreed that the past is completely irrelevant.”

Marcus came forward and took her shoulders in his broad, square hands. “The past is never irrelevant,” he said in his distinctively gravelly voice. “And now, circumstances being what they are…I don’t want you to be hurt again.”

Aline tried to reassure him with a smile. “I won’t be hurt. There is nothing left of the feelings I once had for him. I was just a muddleheaded girl. And I am convinced that McKenna feels nothing for me now either.”

“Then why is he here?” Marcus asked, his gaze hard.

“To conduct business with Mr. Shaw, of course. And to discuss your investment in their foundries—”

“I suspect that is a subterfuge to conceal McKenna’s true purpose.”

“Which would be…what?”

“To finally make a conquest of you.”

“Really, Marcus, do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”

“I’m a sportsman,” he said flatly. “I’ve ridden to the hounds and shot game for most of my life—and I know a hunt when I see one.”

Pulling back from her brother, Aline gave him a mocking glance. “I should have known you’d reduce it to that. Life is about more than pursuit and conquest, Marcus.”

“For a woman, perhaps. Not for a man.”

Aline sighed and gave Livia a meaningful glance, silently enlisting her support.