Courting Magic (Kat, Incorrigible #4)(2)
Angeline narrowed her eyes. “So what exactly do you plan to do with the rest of your life, may I ask? Because Stepmama will certainly not allow you to live with her and Papa forever. And—”
“You—!”
“Shh!” Elissa hissed. Stepping between us, she gave us both minatory looks. “I’m sure no one else wishes to hear our silly family quarrels.”
The modiste’s assistants didn’t say a word. But I could have sworn I heard a muffled giggle.
My left forefinger began to burn.
I had never in all my life been so relieved to feel it.
It was my amethyst ring producing the heat, and it was an urgent alert: the Head of the Guardians was summoning me. If I didn’t come now, he would send someone to fetch me…and wouldn’t that shock the assistants!
“If you’ll excuse me…” I started plucking at the pins that held masses of white muslin gathered all around me. “I’m afraid I have to leave for just a moment, so—”
“What?”
“No!”
My sisters both grabbed me at once. I rolled my eyes at them meaningfully. “I have to visit the necessary,” I mouthed.
“Oh.” Elissa’s hands fell away.
Angeline gave me a suspicious glance, but her fingers relaxed on my arm. Still, when I reached for the closest pin, she shook her head. “Don’t be absurd. You can keep that on while you go. Just be careful.”
“But—”
“You must, Kat!” Elissa said. “These girls have put so much work into it already. If you aren’t properly assembled in it when Madame Fontaine arrives…”
“Oh, very well!” Sighing, I started across the room, carefully maneuvering my way past the modiste’s assistants, the chairs, the sofas, and the various fabric samples that had been laid across them all. I had to hold the gathered muslin carefully before me so that I wouldn’t trip. Still, with five pairs of eyes watching me, I walked with my head held high, as gracefully as possible, out of Elissa’s pretty blue-and-white drawing room, turned into the corridor…and breathed a sigh of relief as I finally closed the door behind me.
None of her servants were in sight.
I dropped the cloth, twisted the ring on my finger…
…And Whoosh! I was surrounded by high, shining golden walls on every side, rising to a rounded ceiling. My shoulders relaxed for the first time in half an hour, and I took a deep, calming breath.
Unlike witchcraft, Guardian power could be inherited by only one child in each generation of a family. That meant my sisters couldn’t follow me there even if they tried…and the Guardians’ Golden Hall was the one place in England where I could be entirely safe from thoughts of matchmaking, gowns, and being shoved at eligible young men like a side of beef for their appraisal.
At least, that was what I thought.
“Katherine.” My former tutor’s voice came from behind me, sounding wearily resigned. “How good of you to come so quickly.”
“Well, of course I did.” I turned, adjusting my muslin draperies with a tsk of irritation. Really, could there be any more pins left in the world after this? “I…”
The words dried up in my throat.
My former tutor, Mr. Gregson, the small, spectacled and deceptively harmless-looking Head of the Order of the Guardians, wasn’t alone as I’d expected. He wasn’t even surrounded by the other Guardians in their fifth or sixth decades who customarily prosed on at the Order’s larger meetings.
Instead, he stood by two tall young men who couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me. They were both staring at me with their mouths gaping wide open.
…Or, more accurately, they were staring at my outfit.
One of them, the red-haired one, lifted a quizzing glass to one eye as if he needed extra evidence to prove that what he saw was really true.
“Oh.” I put one hand, stupidly, to my chest. My face was suddenly hot. “I was just…that is, I was in the middle of a fitting, but the message was urgent, so I thought…”
The young man with the quizzing glass gave a slow and perfectly horrible grin, his pale blue eyes gleaming with a message I most definitely did not want to understand.
“Of course.” Mr. Gregson kept his own eyes politely averted as he coughed pointedly.
The blond gentleman jerked his gaze away from me, his color heightening. He was quite handsome, actually, with a deep blue coat that set off his eyes and…
…Truly? I grimaced, catching myself before I could complete that sickening thought. I really had spent too many hours listening to Angeline and Elissa talk about dress patterns and young men in the last few days. It was more than time to get hold of myself.
There was only one time in my life so far when any young man had really managed to make me lose my balance, and I had been far younger and less sensible back then. I certainly wasn’t going to let it happen today.
I dropped my hand from my chest, straightening my shoulders and meeting the red-haired young man’s eyes challengingly. After all, no matter what the disgusting expression on his face might imply, I was hardly indecent. I might be wearing only a shift under my makeshift muslin covering, but I was entirely wrapped in fabric, without so much as an inch of extra skin bared to his view…and the sharp metal pins glinting off all my corners could hardly look less like an invitation to flirtation.