Page 84 of Confounding Oaths
With commendable pluck, Miss Caesar set her lips into an expression of firm displeasure. “Your proposition, then, is that youdrugthe prince regent’s brother, causing him to fall for my sister inthe hope that a sequence of improbable deaths will propel her to the throne?”
Iruffed once more in approval.
“Improbable deaths happen all the time. And as for a drug … why do you scruple now at attracting a partner by magical means?”
The Lady, I have always felt, is incomparable in her role, but one must be so careful when one confronts mortals with their hypocrisy. They are strangely prone to take it ill. “What do you mean?” asked Miss Caesar, knowing full well the answer.
“‘Who that hath an heed of verre, fro cast of stones war her in the werre.’” It was a more acceptable quotation. And since the Caesars had made certain to educate their daughters appropriately, one that was understood. “At the very least you should, perhaps, give your sister the choice. It is, after all, not so very different from the one that you had yourself.”
The Lady faded from mortal sight, and I growled at the place where, from Miss Caesar’s perspective, she had lately stood.
Absently, she scratched me behind the ears. “Oh, Ferdy,” she mused aloud, “whatever shall I do?”
I had no answer. I was not sure what answer I wanted to give.
In the immediate aftermath of the Lady’s visit to Miss Caesar I had certain vital duties to attend to. Our kind are inveterate liars, but the bargains we offer are always exactly as stated and if the Lady announced a royal ball three days hence, then such a ball would occur irrespective of the wishes of any mortal agency. It would, I had no doubt, be held at Carlton House (or at least primarily in Carlton House; any event attended by the Queen of Moonlightwould extend along at least six axes into realms otherworldly) and my master would expect to be informed.
So I informed him.
The wonder, glory, and honour of being in my master’s presence was so great and so unspeakable that I shall not speak of it. Certain things are, after all, too sacred to be shared with mere humanity. My master, in this context, is very much a pearl and you, my gentle readers, are most certainly swine.
Fortunately the natural swiftness, sleeplessness, and efficacy of my people permitted me to resolve all of my courtly duties in the night that Miss Caesar was using to ponder her available options, and to return to the house in time for breakfast.
Matters that morning were subdued, for the family had adopted something of a siege mentality. Not an unexpected outcome, given that they were in many ways being besieged. Captain James had become a near-permanent resident at the house and the various members of the Irregulars visited, well, irregularly to keep him and the family informed of pertinent developments.
It was, therefore, into an already tense atmosphere that Miss Caesar introduced the news of the Lady’s most recent offer.
“No,” said the younger Mr. Caesar at once, his tone more fearful and less severe than I might have expected from him. Then he looked to his father for reassurance. “It is unconscionable, surely?”
The elder Mr. Caesar set down his fork. “You will be head of this household when I am gone, John, not before. Although I agree that this whole matter should be treated as suspect.”
Miss Anne, who had calmed a little since accepting that her latest gentleman was a murderer, was beginning to backslide ever so slightly. “Well,” she said, “I don’t see that it’s so very wrong formeto take advantage of the same powers Mary has been employing.”
“I don’t think it is necessarily an advantage,” Lady Mary cautioned. “It seems like it might be—”
“A trap,” finished Captain James, whose dashing-ness in the eyes of the Misses Caesar had been elevated by Miss Bickle’s approval then subsequently dulled by familiarity. “You want my advice, miss, I’d not trust it far as you can spit.”
“A lady,” Miss Anne pointed out, “does not spit at all.”
Captain James nodded. “Exactly.”
Staring blankly into his coffee—now prepared in the English style, which was to say terribly—the younger Mr. Caesar was beginning to lose himself in the pursuit of unknowable contingencies. “But do we know what sort of trap it may be?”
While the company were affirming their ignorance, Miss Caesar looked down at her feet. “I think I may need to dosomething.”
The rest of her family followed her gaze. Having no idea what to do about her gradual fragmentation, they had thus far refrained from discussing it, although most of those present had observed the change by now.
“I am in no pain,” she clarified, “but I am concerned that if I continue at this rate I may—I do not knowwhatI may.”
The elder Mr. Caesar turned his attention to the captain. “Would Mr. Barryson know anything about this?”
“No idea,” the captain replied. And then, almost as an afterthought, “And he’s not a mister; there are no gentlemen in the ranks.”
The elder Mr. Caesar’s lips curled into half a smile. “Such distinctions mean little in this house, and I prefer to treat men with respect until they prove unworthy of it.”
Conscious that the conversation was taking a turn away from her control, and aware that if she did not speak now her courage might desert her entirely, Miss Caesar attempted to moisten herlips, realised that she had no saliva with which to do so, and then said, “I may also know a witch.”
“You mean the woman you met after—” Lady Mary began, although she did not quite have the stomach to sayyour brother failed to bind the fairy that did this to you in the first place.
