Courting Magic (Kat, Incorrigible #4)(33)

Don’t worry, Alexander whispered inside my mind. I’ll take care of transporting both of our magical twins to the Golden Hall. You and Lanham can provide your evidence later.

I’ll come as soon as I can, I promised.

The intimacy of speaking inside his mind was almost too much to bear. It made me vibrate all the way down to my bones in a way that felt so raw, it was almost painful. Worse yet, it brought everything else we’d shared vividly to mind…along with the sickening knowledge that it was all coming to an end.

We would all provide our versions of the evidence to Mr. Gregson, and then the Order would punish the wrongdoers. Society had been saved from magical malfeasance once again…

And Alexander would be on his way, sent back to his old Order. He might even be gone by tomorrow morning.

My throat was so tight, I could have choked on it. I said to Angeline in a near-croak, “You meant to invite Lord Lanham and Mr. Harding to dinner on Wednesday, didn’t you?”

Her eyes narrowed, and I knew she was remembering the lecture she’d given me earlier. Still, I’d asked her in public, so there was only one acceptable response. “Of course they are,” she said smoothly. “And Miss…MacTavish? If you and your chaperone would care to attend as well?”

“We’d be delighted,” Lucy said, leaning into her fiancé’s side and giving a bounce as if she couldn’t help herself.

The Marquess gave us a positively brainless grin as his arm tightened around her.

But Alexander’s voice was tight with strain. “I’m afraid I may not be able to attend your dinner, Mrs. Carlyle. You see, I’m expecting to be called out of town any day now.”

I bit down hard on my tongue. My hands fisted at my sides.

“I understand,” said Angeline. Her face softened. “I wish you luck, Mr. Harding, I truly do.”

Elissa stepped forward, holding out her hand. “Come, Kat. It’s been a long night for everyone.”

“Yes, it has,” I whispered.

I didn’t turn to look back at Alexander. I followed my sisters back to the house and then the carriages, walking farther and farther away from him with every step.

We never even said good-bye.

***

I was afraid they would make me talk, but they didn’t. Over the next few days, Angeline took me to a circulating library, to Gunther’s for ices, and to the park to see the whole social world promenading past, but she never made a single comment about the fact that I was barely saying a word about anything to anyone.

Whenever we were at home, Elissa released all three of her children from their nursery and let them run riot around us to cheer me up. It didn’t work, but it did help to hold their wriggling little bodies close against me for a moment and feel their sticky, jammy kisses on my cheek before they leapt on to their next chaotic adventures.

When Angeline and Frederick shared the news that there would finally be a child in their family, too, after all their years of waiting, it broke through my haze of misery for a moment. After Papa and Elissa had had their turns, I hugged Angeline close, and I didn’t even try to avoid her too-knowing eyes.

“You’ll be a wonderful mother,” I said, and I forced a smile. “A dangerous one, too. They’ll never get away with anything.”

Frederick let out a shout of laughter and clapped me on the shoulder. “Come now, Kat. Angeline’s children? Oh, they’ll get away with everything, if they’re anything near as clever as their mother. They’ll be terrifying me into white hairs by the time I’m nine-and-twenty.” He grinned and put his hand on Angeline’s lower back, his grin blinding. “I can’t wait.”

Angeline didn’t smile, though. Instead, she smoothed a hand over my hair and sighed. “Oh, Kat,” she said. “I do wish…”

But she left it at that, and I was glad. I went back to where Elissa’s children were rampaging with a set of soldiers, and I threw myself into the game while my sisters and brothers-in-law and parents all talked about the practicalities.

There were times when I wished I hadn’t had to grow out of my nieces’ and nephews’ world of childhood. It felt safer there, when I looked back on it…and it hurt so, so much less.

I didn’t see Alexander at the Golden Hall when I presented my evidence against the magical twins in front of the rest of my Order, including their shaken and deeply shamed Guardian father. I told the truth as clearly and as fairly as I could, and even when the other Guardians left, I didn’t ask Mr. Gregson where Alexander had gone.

I hadn’t even asked Angeline’s butler, Henshawe, even though he worked with Alexander’s Order, so it had felt like swallowing hairpins to hold the questions back every time I had stepped into my sister’s house.

Mr. Gregson stopped me before I could leave the Golden Hall. “Kat,” he said, “we haven’t yet discussed the matter of rewards for you and Mr. Harding. I know you were only doing your duty, as always, but in this particular case, the Crown is eager to show its personal gratitude. The scandal that would have erupted, had Mr. Packenham succeeded in impersonating the Prince of Wales in his crimes—”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said wearily. “I don’t need any reward.”

Mr. Gregson frowned, his expression far too intent for comfort. “Kat…”