Bewitching Season (42 page)

looks in Lorrie’s direction. Persy knew that they had not learned about her new position as their

lady’s maid until Ally came to see them the day after the princess’s ball.

Then a fourth figure came forward to greet them. Persy had to stop and grab Ally’s arm as panic

rose in her throat.

It was Michael Carrighar.

He bowed to her and to Pen, and though his mouth smiled, his strange eyes reflected the trouble that

must surely be evident in hers. She had nearly forgotten about him in the flurry around the wedding.

Ally put her arms around her and Pen’s shoulders. “Girls,” she said quietly. “I should like you to

meet my future husband.”

They stood in stunned silence. Charles stepped forward, looking outraged.

“Him?” he cried. “But I clobbered him! You can’t marry him, Ally.”

Michael bowed gravely to him as well. “You did indeed clobber me, sir. The lump you left me is

only just gone down.”

“I know you’ve only known him as an enemy. I did too, for a long time. I can’t expect you to

understand what happened between us at Kensington, and indeed it has taken me these months since

then to sort out my own feelings for him,” Ally said softly.

“Are you sure, Ally?” Persy could not bring herself to look at him yet.

“
I’m
sure, Miss Leland,” he answered for her. “You don’t know how happy I was to be bested by

you—and your brother,” he added as Charles moved impatiently. “You are a formidable witch for

your years. But then again, you had the best teacher. I don’t ask for your friendship yet, or even your

approval. I know that I will have to work hard to earn them. All I do ask is that you believe that I love

Melusine, with all my heart.”

Mrs. Allardyce had bustled them to the table then, and Pen and Persy found themselves plied with

enough of her best tea pastries and cordials to threaten the fit of all their new dresses from Madame

Gendreau’s. Fortunately Charles was able to maintain family honor and eat fully as much as Mrs.

Allardyce could wish.

Before they left, Persy took a moment to draw Mrs. Allardyce aside and thank her for letting Lorrie

stay with them.

“Well, so long as she does her job properly,” Mrs. Allardyce conceded. “Lorrie is a

flibbertigibbet through and through, but if being an abigail is what she wants to do … and if she’s

giving satisfaction …”

“She’s most satisfactory, and is looking forward to coming to live with me after my marriage,”

Persy assured her.

“Lorrie in the country? Hmm.” Mrs. Allardyce looked dubious. “Well, we’ll see. You can always

bundle her home if she doesn’t suit.”

Persy smiled. “I think we’ll suit each other just fine.”

As they clattered home in the carriage, Persy touched Ally’s hand. “When I scryed for you, I knew

—I could feel that something between you and Mr. Carrighar … .” She stopped, embarrassed.

“We had many weeks alone together—quite time enough for me to understand here at last was a

man that I could love and respect. Feeling as I do about my father, how could I not understand his

feelings for his? Love is a very strange thing indeed, Persy. As I’m sure you understand.”

“Indeed,” Pen echoed. “I hope that when I find it, it isn’t so strange and difficult, though.”

“Don’t bet on it, Pen. I’ll probably have to sort everything out for you, too,” Charles said smugly,

then clutched his stomach as the carriage hit a bump. After that, he kept his mouth firmly shut.

And now, the last surprise: this invitation to tea at Buckingham House with the queen. Persy leaned

against the carriage door and wondered what it would be like.

“At least it isn’t Kensington,” Pen said, peeking around Ally to grin at her. “You don’t think Sir

John will be there, do you?”

“Don’t even joke about it.” Persy shuddered.

They were ushered into a small sitting room decorated with dozens of watercolors and countless

bric-a-brac, and Persy realized as she stole looks around them that this must be the queen’s own

private parlor. She didn’t have much time to examine her surroundings, for in less than a minute the

queen herself came flying into the room. A small King Charles spaniel yipped and danced close on

her heels. Following at a statelier pace was Baroness Lehzen.

Pen and Persy and Ally at once sank into curtsies. The queen went to them and, taking their hands,

greeted them each with a kiss.

“I should be curtsying to you instead,” she said, her beautiful eyes wide. “If it weren’t for you I’d

probably still be back in the schoolroom at Kensington, agreeing to all manner of ghastly things

because
that man
wanted them. And Lehzen here would be back in Germany, starving in a garret

somewhere. Dash, stop that! Sit down and be a polite doggy, if you please.”

“I am sure you exaggerate, Your Majesty.” Baroness Lehzen smiled as she scooped up the little

dog. “But most grateful I alzo am to zhese ladies.”

The queen led them to a sofa and made Persy and Pen sit on either side of her. “I would have liked

to have you here sooner, but it has been so busy, you see. It was nice to see you at my drawing room

in July, though. How is your dear little brother?”

Persy remembered the whispers they had heard among the august attendees of the queen’s very first

drawing room reception—the whispers that had grown to a near roar when the queen came forward

and kissed them on both cheeks rather than holding out her hand for them to kiss, as was proper for

their rank.

“Rather put out at not being able to see you, ma’am,” Pen answered her. “I think he’s developed

something of a crush on you.”

Queen Victoria smiled and colored. “He was quite charming. Will he be able to study magic now

as well?”

“He will return to Eton next month for Michaelmas term. One of his masters is an old acquaintance

of Lord Seton’s, who is writing to ask if he might not be able to tutor Charles in magic—on the side,

of course. We haven’t told him yet, in case he spontaneously combusts from joy.” Persy chuckled at

the thought.

Queen Victoria laughed her silvery laugh. “I might see him sometime when I am at Windsor. Do

you think he would like to come for tea?”

“I know he would, but we’d better not tell him or he
will
combust.”

Tea arrived then, and the queen poured under Lehzen’s watchful eye. She had taken Ally to a pair

of chairs set a little to one side of the sofa.

“It must be most interesting to be able to do magic,” the queen commented. “Was it frightfully hard

to study?”

“Not for my sister, ma’am,” Pen answered. “She was always the more studious of the two of us.

Now I have to make up for lost time.”

“Indeed?” The queen handed her a cup.

“I’m ashamed that she had to do most of the work the night of your ball. If I had been a better witch,

I would have seen that circle and been free to help her,” Pen said, her face sober. “So it has been

decided that I will go to Ireland with Miss Allardyce and her husband next spring to study magic and,

I hope, become as good a witch as my sister.”

Persy smiled as Pen spoke. The queen must have noticed, for she asked, “Why do you smile, Miss

Leland?”

“Because back in the spring, I would never have guessed that everything would turn out this way. I

was sure that Pen would make a brilliant match and that I would go back to my family’s home to

devote myself to studying and magic. That’s the way I wanted it to be, though I knew I would miss

Pen dreadfully. And now, here we are.” She met the queen’s eyes. “It’s Pen who is going on to study,

and me who is getting married. I suppose the going-home part was close to right—Galiswood isn’t

more than a forty-minute ride from home.”

Queen Victoria sighed. “That moment when Lord Seton proposed to you was
so
romantic. Was it

really such a surprise to you? When is your wedding?”

“It certainly was a surprise, ma’am. I was sure he thought I was the last female on earth that he’d

consider marrying. The wedding will be at the end of September, at Mage’s Tutterow.”

“Oh, I am sorry it won’t be in London. I should have liked so much to be invi—but I can’t do that

sort of thing anymore, can I?” The queen’s face fell. For a moment she looked like just another

eighteen-year-old girl not allowed to attend a party she had looked forward to. “Will you write to me

and tell me all about it?”

Persy gulped. The
queen
was asking her to write to her. “I would be honored—and very happy—to

do so, ma’am.”

Pen looked thoughtful. “I would imagine that becoming queen might have its less agreeable

moments, on occasion.”

“Well, yes, it does,” Queen Victoria confided, with a glance at Baroness Lehzen, who was

absorbed in conversation with Ally. “I am still learning what I can and cannot do. But on the whole, it

has been wonderful.”

“It allowed you to rid yourself of—of persons you did not want to have about you,” Persy said

quietly.

The queen shuddered. “Even after what happened that evening, Sir John still tried to importune me

for a position. I haven’t seen him since June and am quite looking forward to never,
ever
seeing him

again. It is expected he’ll be leaving the country shortly. And my mother …” She sighed. “She is my

mother and I honor her, but it is such a relief to have room to
breathe
and learn how to be myself

without her hovering over me.” She set down her teacup and cleared her throat softly. At once,

Baroness Lehzen turned to her.

“Now?” she asked.

“Yes, if you please,” the queen said. She looked in turn at Pen and Persy, and Ally too, with a

serious expression on her round face.

“Lehzen and I have discussed several times what the three of you did for me. I wish to reward you

somehow, but I didn’t know what we could do that wouldn’t call attention to the, ah, unusual

circumstances of your service to me.”

Persy felt her own cheeks grow pink. “We don’t need a reward, ma’am. We did what we did—

well, because we’ve loved and admired you all our lives.”

“Oh, dear.” Queen Victoria’s eyes grew bright. “Thank you very, very much. But I still want to do

something for you, even if it is something only those of us in this room will ever know about. So I am

founding a new royal order, like the Knights of the Garter or the Bath. But this one will be secret, and

shall be given to recognize those persons who have performed magical services on my behalf.”

Persy tried to look at Pen and Ally to see how they were receiving this, but tears blurred her

vision. She felt for her hanky, remembering Ally’s talk before they came to London. They
had
been

able to do good with their power, and now that good had been acknowledged by the person who

mattered most.

“Only I haven’t been able to think of a name I like,” the queen continued. “It will have to be Dames

rather than Knights, of course. Dashy, no! You may
not
have a biscuit.” She pushed her little dog

away from the tea table and tapped him playfully on his upturned nose.

“Might I propose one, ma’am?” Persy asked as she dabbed at her eyes.

“Oh, yes, if you please.”

Persy took a deep breath. “Call it DASH—Dames at Service to Her Majesty.”

Pen clapped her hands. “The emblem could be a little figure of your dog. That way, if the name

ever slipped out, no one would suspect it meant anything.”

Smiling, the queen leapt up from the sofa and ran to a shelf. She returned with a sketchbook and

pencil. “Like this, perhaps?” She drew a quick cartoon of the little dog, not begging for a treat as he

had just now, but stretched out like a heraldic lion couchant, his ears forward and alert and his tail

held proudly erect.

“Almost,” said Persy. “May I?”

The queen handed her the sketchbook and pencil, then laughed in delight as Persy added a little star

at the end of the figure’s tail.

“Perfect!” she cried. “He will have a sapphire for his eye and a diamond in his tail, and his collar

will have DASH spelled out in diamonds, too. He will hang from a ribbon of light blue and gold, I

think. Lehzen, you shall take this to the court jeweler this afternoon and ask him to get started at once.

When do you return to the country?”

“Next Tuesday, Your Majesty,” Ally replied. Her cheeks were pink, and she too had had to resort

to her handkerchief.

“Very well, then. You must come back on Monday and we will hold your investiture. Please bring

your little brother and Lord Seton as well, so we will have some audience to applaud you. I’m afraid

we can’t supply trumpet fanfares and processions for the occasion.” Queen Victoria smiled and took

their hands.

“That will be fine with me. I don’t care much for crowds, ma’am.” Persy grinned. “They make me

nervous.”

Pen rolled her eyes.