Courting Magic (Kat, Incorrigible #4)(35)

I should have been smiling, like my sister, but I couldn’t. Alexander hadn’t met my gaze even once since he’d entered the room. I had to fight to keep my breathing steady as I followed the others to the far corner, by the pianoforte, where five tall candles stood in a candelabra to light our faces. As the rest of the guests erupted into conversation behind us, Alexander took a position almost military in its rigidity, his hands behind his back and his gaze directed directly in front of him, clearly waiting for Mr. Gregson to speak.

I didn’t bother to wait. “How can this be?” I hissed. “How—how—?” I waved my hand frantically at my former magic tutor, running out of words. The stiffer that Alexander’s posture became, and the more carefully he kept his gaze averted from me, the more wild and uncontrollable I felt inside. Soon I would be hopping in agitation if I didn’t find a way to restrain myself.

“Sir,” Lord Lanham said, and bowed his head respectfully to Mr. Gregson, as was no doubt more befitting when addressing the Head of our Order. “If you wouldn’t mind explaining to us…”

“Of course not,” Mr. Gregson said mildly. “It’s very simple, actually. As you two both already know, the late Lord Ravenscroft’s title and estate were reclaimed by the Crown in an Act of Attainder for his crimes.”

“Er…yes,” Lord Lanham said, sliding an uneasy gaze at Alexander.

Alexander’s face was positively stony in its lack of expression. I wanted to grab him and shake him, to make him wake up and look at me.

I clenched my hands in my skirts to keep them still. “So why did Henshawe call Alexander that?”

“Why do you think, my dear?” Mr. Gregson gave a smile of prim satisfaction, his spectacles glinting in the candlelight. “Lands and titles belonging to the Crown can be granted to new recipients, you know. And when a young man has performed a signal service to his country…particularly when unmasking a rogue who had disguised himself as the Prince of Wales in his wrongdoing, thus turning his own crime into treason against the Crown…”

“I didn’t do it alone,” Alexander said abruptly. “Kat was the one who found him out in the first place. She deserved to be rewarded at least as much, if not more. And—”

“Fortunately,” said Mr. Gregson, “Kat didn’t mind sharing the glory just this once. In fact, she gave me the idea in the first place, whether she realized it or not.” He flashed me a knowing look. “She was quite insistent that any reward be granted to you alone…but I did rather hope that the reward we chose might prove beneficial for you both.”

“For them both?” Lord Lanham frowned, looking between us. “How so, sir? I don’t understand.”

Mr. Gregson smiled smugly as he put one hand on the Marquess’s arm. “Perhaps you might reintroduce me to your charming fiancée, Alistair, while we leave these two to sort out that question for themselves.”

They walked away, leaving Alexander and me standing together by the piano, our faces only partially shielded from the rest of the company by the tall, thin branches of the candelabra. Silence built around us, heavier and heavier. I fought the impulse to shatter it with a scream.

“Forgive me,” Alexander finally said. He had his gaze trained above me, and he looked braced for a blow. “I know you must hate it.”

“I beg your pardon?” I stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

His gaze finally flashed down to mine…then jerked away as if the contact had burned him. “Me as…Lord Ravenscroft,” he said, as stiltedly as if the words pained him to utter. “I know what he tried to do to your family…and to you. I wouldn’t blame you if you couldn’t even look at me now that I’m carrying his name.”

“Are you mad?” I couldn’t reach out and shake him in front of all of my sister’s guests. But I could roll my eyes, and I did so with vigor. “If there’s one thing that all of us should have learned from Mr. Packenham, it’s that no one should be judged by their father’s actions, good or bad. And at any rate…” I crossed my arms, glaring at him. “Which of us has been refusing to look at the other one all evening?”

He blinked, his stiff stance loosening at last. “I thought—that is, I assumed you wouldn’t wish—”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded. “It’s been five days, Alexander. Five days, and I didn’t hear a single word from you. I thought you were gone! I thought you’d vanished back into the countryside, and I would never, ever see you again or—”

A sob broke through my voice, and I slammed my mouth shut, burning with humiliation. Scowling as ferociously as I could, I turned toward the wall to avoid being seen by our audience on the other side of the room as I dashed away the tears from my eyes. “Those were tears of fury,” I told Alexander as I turned back to him. “Because I am furious with you!”

He lifted his hand as if to touch my shoulder…then pulled back before he could reach me, with a swift look back at the other side of the room. “Truly, I couldn’t tell you,” he said in a low voice. “I didn’t even know it myself until yesterday. I thought that I would be leaving soon, too. I thought there was no purpose in even trying to see you again. It would only pain us both, and make it harder to—”