Page 44 of A Sorceress Comes to Call
Don’t listen, Cordelia told herself, concentrating on the cards in front of her. What you don’t hear can’t be used against them. She bit her lower lip, but it was impossible to close her ears completely.
“… heard Vann’s sister ran off with a schoolteacher…”
“… good for her if she did…”
“… not something I can fix…”
“… Cordelia…”
She caught her name and looked up, surprised. “Sorry?”
“It’s your turn, dear,” said Lady Strauss gently, and Cordelia played a card completely at random and ended up winning the hand, entirely by accident.
CHAPTER 16
Mrs. Green was late to breakfast the next morning, and came in heavy-eyed, moving more slowly than usual. Cordelia saw dark circles under her eyes and hastily surrendered the teapot to her.
Hester frowned, looking across the table. “Penelope, are you well?”
Mrs. Green laughed, but it was not quite up to her usual exuberance. “I fear I didn’t sleep well last night. The storm kept me awake, that’s all.”
Lady Strauss and Hester exchanged puzzled looks, but it was the Squire who said, “Storm? Was clear as a bell all night, m’dear.”
“What?” Penelope looked genuinely startled. “There was a terrible wind. It blew my balcony doors clear open and rattled the windows like anything.”
More looks were exchanged. Lady Strauss said, cautiously, “Penelope, dear, we’re on the same side of the house and there wasn’t a breath of wind. I’d swear to it.”
A sudden suspicion gripped Cordelia and she looked over at her mother. Evangeline was nibbling daintily at her toast with a small smile on her face.
She couldn’t have done something, could she?
No, surely not. She twists up people’s minds, she doesn’t control the weather. This must be something else. Surely.
“No wind? None at all?” Penelope sat back in her chair, and then suddenly she laughed aloud, much more like her old self, and said, “Well! You’ve relieved my mind enormously, then. I must have been dreaming. And in that case, it was all a dream, and I’m not going out of my head.” She grinned at the others around the table. “And now I shall be that terribly boring person and tell you about my dream, while you all secretly wish you were elsewhere. But I promise you that this was a regular whale of a dream.”
“Do tell,” said Lady Strauss, leaning forward. “I’ve always thought that you could tell so much about a person from their dreams.”
“Well, if you find out all my secrets, please don’t share them.” Mrs. Green folded her hands. “In my dream, there was this terrible wind, you see, rattling the balcony doors. Such a wind! I almost thought I heard voices in it, and as you all know, I am not the sort of person who imagines such things. I’ve absolutely no nerves at all, I fear. Put me in a haunted house and I will sleep like a baby.” She gave a self-deprecating shrug. “Still, this wind was something quite different. I kept listening, wondering if someone was outside, calling to be let in. It had that quality of speech to it, you know?”
Lady Strauss nodded. The Squire folded back the corner of his newspaper. “Lot of nonsense,” he muttered.
“I don’t know,” said Lord Evermore mildly, “do you remember that blizzard that struck old Hollowell’s hunting box? We were stuck for two days with the wind howling, and when it blew just right under the eaves, it sounded like a horse screaming. We slogged out to the stables three times checking on them.”
“Mmm. Forgot about that.” The Squire jerked his chin in agreement. “Fair enough.”
“It was all a dream anyway,” said Mrs. Green. “I wouldn’t make any claims for winds that happen in other people’s heads. I thought for a moment I heard—well, never mind. But at any rate, I got out of bed, and the balcony doors were rattling like anything. Then they flew open and banged so hard against the wall that I was afraid the glass would shatter. I went to close them—which now that I think of it was not sensible, since if they banged open again, they very well might break, but of course we’re not always sensible in dreams, are we? But when I reached the balcony, the wind died down. I stepped outside, wondering if the storm was passing. But then…” She gave a little laugh. “Have you ever had the sense that someone was watching you? Because I had the strongest feeling of eyes on me.”
“Something dangerous?” asked Lord Strauss.
“Oh, I shouldn’t say that, no. It was more like being at an assembly, you know, and then you turn around and someone is glaring daggers at you from across the room.” Penelope shook her head. “I would have gone back in at once, you know—I was in my night rail, and it would be a trifle scandalous if someone was watching me—but I looked over the balcony and do you know, I saw the oddest thing?”
She paused then, and looked around the group. Even the Squire had put down his newspaper and was listening raptly.
“What was it?” breathed Lady Strauss.
“A glow,” said Mrs. Green. “Like foxfire. Some glowing shape just past the little line of trees. I couldn’t see it all, just bits and pieces between the trunks. I watched it moving and I had the oddest feeling that it was watching me back.”
“A person?” Hester asked.
