Courting Magic (Kat, Incorrigible #4)(30)

Yrs, a Friend.

“So, the Prince of Wales returns,” Alexander murmured behind me. “Packenham must have seen an opportunity there.”

“Who knew he was so clever?” I grimaced as I refolded the note and slipped it into the bodice of my gown. It scratched at my skin, but I ignored the discomfort. We might well want it as evidence later. “I was so certain he was tipsy enough to walk back into the ballroom even with all of us waiting there.”

“The note was cleverly written, too,” said Alexander. “He obviously has a brain, despite all appearances. Perhaps he wasn’t as deep into his cups as you’d thought.”

“Well…perhaps.” I frowned. Could Mr. Packenham’s drunken fa?ade have been a ruse? Was he far more intelligent and cunning than he had appeared?

There was no time to worry about that now. I hurried forward, trying not to flinch as I passed the sweet chestnut tree. Soft murmurs emerged from behind the branches, and I caught a glimpse of moving shadows underneath.

Ouch. My face heated up as I moved even faster.

Alexander didn’t say a word.

Luckily, the next moment, I had the perfect distraction as a stick came flying at my face.

I ducked.

“Oof!” Alexander let out a grunt as it hit him instead.

Oops. But I was already running, dodging more flying branches and following the sound of Lucy’s voice.

“How dare you!”

A loud thwack! followed her words. More branches flew over the top the tall, thick hedge that concealed the back corner of the garden.

Alexander tossed forward his golden ball of light. It flew through the air to hang above the hedge as we squeezed, one after another, through the narrow gap to find a corner of open grass between the hedge and the even taller garden wall.

The so-called Prince of Wales huddled on the ground, moaning, as Lucy stood perfectly straight and unharmed before him, her arms crossed, sticks flying all around her but never brushing against her skin.

“That is for trying to take my diamonds,” she announced, as one stick rebounded off the rogue’s thick shoulders, “and that is for trying to touch me in a completely unmentionable place, and that…”

“That had better not be the real Prince this time,” Alexander whispered. His shoulders were shaking with the force of his withheld laughter.

I gave him a narrowed look. “Oh, very amusing.” The scent of burnt sugar hung in the air—sweeter and lighter than the scent I’d smelt earlier from Mrs. Montrose’s witchcraft, but unmistakable nonetheless. With a single thought, I reached through the air, found that telltale strand of magic, and snapped it.

Aha. Mr. Packenham cowered on the ground before us, shielding his head with his hands.

Lucy’s branches stopped flying and dropped to the ground. “Kat?” She looked around. “Is that you?”

With a nod to Alexander, I dropped my own magic-working. He followed suit a moment later. “George Packenham,” I said sternly. “We hereby arrest you on behalf of the Order of the Guardians for—”

A cold, sharp point pricked through the back of my gown. My voice broke off.

“Oh, no, I don’t believe you shall,” said Mrs. Montrose. “Or I’ll simply have to slide this dagger into you. And you wouldn’t like that at all, would you?”

***

Curses. I should have known better.

“You were working together all along,” I said. Resignation sank like a stone inside me, weighing down my voice.

How could I have been so stupid? My own family never kept their noses out of my business. I should have known that their family would be the same, but I’d been misled by Mr. Packenham’s sullen ramblings into believing that he and his twin weren’t close.

Lucy had told me that Mrs. Montrose liked to mix with higher circles of Society whenever possible. I simply hadn’t realized that her social climbing had performed a double duty as research for her twin brother’s disguises.

Alexander hadn’t moved, but I could feel an aura of tightly packed danger gathering around him. “I take it that you were the one who wrote the note to Miss MacTavish?” he growled.

“As if George would ever have thought of it?” She sniffed. “Get up, little brother, do. Don’t just lie there like a worm.”

“Little brother?” I fought the constriction in my chest to speak, trying to ignore that lethal knifepoint hovering at my back. “I thought you were twins.”

“Oh, I emerged well over an hour before he did,” said Mrs. Montrose. “And he’s never caught up.”

“And you’ve never let me forget it, damn you.” Mr. Packenham groaned as he pushed himself up, wincing at each new ache and brushing off the remains of branches that had attacked him.

Lucy started forward, the fallen branches beginning to rise.

“Ah-ah-ah!” Mrs. Montrose tutted.

The dagger twisted against my back with a tearing sound, slicing through the net overlay and the muslin underneath, and I bit back a gasp.

It had actually broken my skin that time.

Lucy stopped, her eyes wide and fixed on me.

“Exactly,” said Mrs. Montrose. “Now I understand from my brother that a Guardian can break any spell cast by a witch, so my own magic may be useless against this pair…but I believe a knife is something very different indeed. So there won’t be any more branches flung about, if you please. And you’ll hand your diamonds to my idiot brother without any more fuss.”