Again the Magic (Wallflowers 0.5)(63)

“Marcus, in the last few minutes you have never sounded or behaved or looked more like him.”

“I’m not!” he said in outrage.

Aline held up her hands as if in self-defense, and spoke in sudden weariness. “I won’t waste time arguing the point. But you might use that clever brain to consider something, my dear…how many other ways might you have handled the situation? You took the shortest and most efficient route to accomplish your goal, without pausing to consider anyone else’s feelings. And if that wasn’t like Father…” Her voice trailed away, and she shook her head with a sigh. “I’m going to find Livia now.”

Leaving her unrepentant brother in the study, Aline hurried after her sister. The effort of walking so fast caused her scars to pull, and she sighed impatiently. “Livia, where are you going? For heaven’s sake, stop for a moment and let me come even with you!”

She found Livia standing in a hallway, her cheeks streaked red with wrath. Suddenly Aline remembered when Livia had been a small child and had once frustrated herself by building a tower of blocks that was too tall to stand. Over and over, Livia had painstakingly constructed the same wobbly tower, crying angrily when it fell…never accepting that she should have just settled for building a less ambitious structure.

“He had no right,” Livia said, shaking from the violence of her feelings.

Aline regarded her sympathetically. “Marcus has been high-handed and arrogant,” she agreed, “and obviously he has done the wrong thing. But we must both keep in mind that he did it out of love.”

“I don’t care about his motivation—it doesn’t change the result.”

“Which is?”

Livia looked at her with annoyance, as if she was being willfully obtuse. “That I won’t see Mr. Shaw, of course!”

“Marcus is assuming that you won’t leave Stony Cross. You haven’t traveled out of the county since Amberley passed away. But what doesn’t seem to have occurred to either you or Marcus is that you can go to London.” Aline smiled as she saw the dawning surprise on Livia’s face.

“I-I could, I suppose,” Livia said distractedly.

“Then why don’t you? There’s no one to stop you.”

“But Marcus—”

“What could he possibly do?” Aline pointed out. “Lock you in your room? Tie you to a chair? Go to London if you wish, and stay at Marsden Terrace. I will manage Marcus.”

“It seems rather brazen, doesn’t it? Chasing after Mr. Shaw…”

“You won’t be chasing after him,” Aline assured her immediately. “You’re going shopping in town—and a long overdue trip it is, I might add. You need to visit the dressmaker, as everything you own is sadly out of fashion. And whose concern is it if you happen to be shopping in London at the same time that Mr. Shaw is there?”

Livia smiled suddenly. “Will you go with me, Aline?”

“No, I must stay at Stony Cross with our guests. And…” She hesitated for a long moment. “I think it would be best to effect a separation between McKenna and myself.”

“How are things between you and him?” Livia asked. “At the fair, the two of you seemed—”

“We had a lovely time,” Aline said lightly. “Nothing happened—and I expect that nothing ever will.” She felt a sharp twinge of discomfort at lying to her sister. However, the experience with McKenna last night had been too intensely personal—she was not up to the challenge of putting it into words.

“But don’t you think that McKenna—”

“You had better go make plans,” Aline advised. “You’ll need a chaperone. I have no doubt that Great-Aunt Clara would stay at the terrace with you, or perhaps—”

“I’ll invite old Mrs. Smedley from the village,” Livia said. “She’s from a respectable family, and she would enjoy a trip to London.”

Aline frowned. “Dearest, Mrs. Smedley is hard of hearing, and as blind as a bat. A less effective chaperone I couldn’t imagine.”

“Precisely,” Livia said, with such satisfaction that Aline couldn’t help laughing.

“All right, then, take Mrs. Smedley. But if I were you, I should keep everything quite discreet, until you have actually departed.”

“Yes, you’re right.” With furtive excitement, Livia turned and hastened through the hallway.

Deciding that it was only fair to let McKenna know about her brother’s machinations, Aline decided to approach him after supper. However, she had the opportunity to speak to McKenna sooner than expected, as the meal ended in a precipitate and distinctly awkward manner. Gideon Shaw was conspicuously absent, and his sister Susan Chamberlain seemed to be in an ill humor.

Seeing that Susan was consuming her wine a bit too freely, Aline exchanged a subtle glance with the first footman, communicating that the wine should be more heavily watered. Within a minute, the footman had circumspectly handed a carafe of wine to a subordinate, who secreted it to the serving room and then quickly returned with it. The entire process was unnoticeable to any of the guests except McKenna, who regarded Aline with a quick smile.

As the first course of asparagus soup and salmon with lobster sauce was removed, the conversation veered to the subject of the business negotiations that would take place in London. Mr. Cuyler innocently undertook to ask Marcus’s opinion about how the negotiations would turn out, and Marcus replied coolly, “I doubt this subject can be adequately discussed in Mr. Shaw’s absence, as the outcome will depend strongly upon his performance. Perhaps we should wait until he is no longer indisposed.”