Page 105 of A Sorceress Comes to Call
“Leave you out of it?”
“Certainly not. But do invite another card player, will you?” She brandished a card menacingly. “Otherwise I’ll insist you play with me, and it won’t be for penny stakes this time.”
“What troubles me,” said Willard, clearing his throat, “is how little we knew about what we were doing. It seems to me that we came extremely close to disaster.” He tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair. “I wonder if the world might benefit from an updated monograph on dealing with sorcery?”
“Willard,” said Richard warmly, “you are a man after my own heart. I was just toying with the notion myself. Granted, my previous writings have all been on the subject of culvert design, which is perhaps a specialized field, but I do know one or two publishers who might be willing to print up such a monograph, if you and I were to write one.”
The butler considered this. “Well,” he said. “As it seems that I have been rehired at Chatham House—and the Squire was clearly puzzled as to why I left at all—I do not know how much time I will have to devote to such an endeavor. Nevertheless, I might be able to make a start.” He lifted his teacup. “I am, after all, on holiday.”
“Is there room for another here?” asked Evermore, later that day, joining Hester on the patio. She was sitting in her new carry-chair, experimenting with how far she could move herself. She still required someone to push the chair any great distance, which galled her, but she could manage to get around a room, slowly. And there was no denying that her knee hurt less.
“By all means.” She waved to the other chair. “Though I’d keep hold of your glass. I keep ramming into the table on accident.”
“The doctor assures me that this is the very latest and most maneuverable model.”
“Possibly, but that doesn’t mean it corners very well.” She huffed. “Perhaps I’ll get a very small pony and hitch it to the front.”
“Your entrance to the assemblies in town would be extremely dramatic.”
“Assemblies. Lord.” She rubbed her forehead. “It seems so unreal, after everything we’ve been through, that we might go and stand around and drink weak punch and watch people being cutting to each other. What’s the point?”
“What was ever the point?”
Hester grunted. On the lawn, the geese waddled past, led by the short-legged gander. His wing had been broken and despite bandaging, he was unlikely to fly again, but that did not seem to bother him much. She’d already seen him mount a much taller lady, who seemed quite pleased with the attention.
I suppose the bloodline will simply have to endure being shorter. If anyone asks, I will tell them that I am breeding for heroism.
“I had a question for you,” said Evermore finally.
Hester felt a knot of tension build under her breastbone. Something about the way he asked seemed important.
Is he going to ask me to marry him again? After everything?
What will I say if he does?
She suspected that Samuel had seen it coming. When she had spoken to him last, shortly after the hurried funeral, he had implied as much.
“Odd sort of thing,” Samuel had said. “That horse of hers! Who’d have thought it? Such a well-mannered beast, and then to turn on her like that.”
“I know.”
“Never a word about it, and then what should she do but get a flash of women’s intuition or some such and demand we come home by the next ship. And then she went haring off to Evermore’s without telling me, and look what happens.”
Hester stroked his cheek. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Oh, well.” Her brother made a hrrrmph sound and looked away. His eyes were a little too bright, but that was all. “Whole thing seems like a dream now. A few beautiful months, and now I’m right back here, same as I always was.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Feels like it would hurt more if we’d had longer together. Now it’s just like she left at the end of the season. I miss her, but nothing’s changed here. Does that sound very bad of me?”
“I think it sounds very sensible.”
“Bah. You’ve always been the sensible one, Henny.” He smoothed down his mustache. “And you needn’t worry I won’t do my duty by the girl. She’s a shy little thing, but she’s my stepdaughter now, and I’ll see that there’s a dowry settled on her that won’t shame anyone. Since it seems like Evermore won’t be coming up to scratch after all.” He gave her a sly look. “Or am I wrong?”
The version of the story that had spread was that Evermore had been wounded protecting Hester from the maddened horse that had killed Lady Evangeline.
Not that the wound was that significant. Hester studied the side of Richard’s face. The edges had only just started to heal, and it would certainly be a raw pink slash, but his eyes looked just as they always had, and who would notice a scar on anyone with eyes like that?
Richard raised an eyebrow at her, tilting his head. “Admiring my war wound? I’m told women find such things irresistible.”
“If you’re going to ask me to marry you again, in hopes that I’m overcome with pity because of your injury…” Hester began.
