Page 39 of Thornbound
“Or for simple amusement,” Lady Cosgrave said bitterly, “if she ever tired of playing with me. She said as much, the last time I tried to argue against one of her unreasonable demands. Itmightnever have happened, if she’d decided it was more amusing to keep me in suspense forever...but.” She sighed, and slid a sidelong glance at her young cousin. “There were always fresh scandals brewing, she said, that could be used to keep any future members of the Boudiccate in line.”
The last of the color drained from Miss Fennell’s face. Miss Banks made a quick, abortive movement toward her and then stilled.
“Honoria,” Miss Fennell began, her voice thick with emotion.
“Enough.” Lady Cosgrave gave a quick, warning shake of her head. “I have made my own decisions, now and always. And I will allowno oneto hurt anyone in my care.”
Well. I straightened my shoulders, adjusting to the new situation. “Neither will I,” I told her firmly. “This school is not a pawn to be sacrificed. Nor is my husband.”
“Oh, for—!” She closed her eyes and sucked in what looked like a sustaining breath. “I told you, Ineverdirected that creature to—”
“You may not haveaskedit to attack anyone but Annabel Renwick,” I said, “but you summoned it into this house, unleashing it from the old agreement that kept it safely off our grounds. And he went into those woods hunting it because of you.” I took a step closer as her eyes reluctantly reopened. “So,right now, Honoria Cosgrave, I want you to tell us everything you know about the fey holding Wrexham...
“And then we are going to walk into those woods with my students to save my husbandandour school and complete averydifferent bargain.”
15
We left Thornfell fifteen minutes later with a grumbling Gregory Luton in tow. We’d swept him up from the meal he’d been busily devouring alone in the dining hall, and he still held a chicken leg impaled by his supper-knife as he trailed after us into the dimly-lit foyer, complaining all the way.
“Itoldyou, I spent hours trying to talk sense into that blasted fey already. If you imagine thatIcould persuade her—”
“I wouldn’t even ask you to try.” I flung open the great front doors. Outside, the sky spread dark blue above the trees, fading gently into black. The lanterns hanging from our hands shone in the evening air like golden, clustered stars. “Trust me, Mr. Luton, I haven’t collected you for your diplomatic skills. As everyone in Angland knows, you haven’t any.”
“Hmmph.” He took a large bite, glowering, while our surrounding students variously watched us with wide-eyed interest or pretended not to be listening with all their might. “Why bother hauling me along at all, then?”
“I’m not accomplished at diplomacy, either,” I admitted—both to him and to our listeners. There was no use in pretending anymore that I was always flawlessly in control, no matter how hard I’d fought to present that deceptive façade earlier. By now, my students had all witnessed my deepest and rawest vulnerabilities...and yet, miraculously, they were all still here, gathered around me, and even more committed to our school now that they weren’t simply following my instructions without question.
“We each have our own particular strengths. And”—I slid a rueful glance at my sister-in-law, who gave me an equally rueful smile from her position at Lady Cosgrave’s side—“I’ve been reliably informed thatno onecan succeed every time on their own. Together, we may yet work wonders.”
Now that I was finally leading the way to Wrexham, every factor but efficiency had dropped away. It was a drumbeat throbbing through my skin, the compulsion to reach him before anything worse could happen.
“Just tell me,” I told Luton as I led our group into the cool darkness, “exactly what you saw today.”
I knew from Lady Cosgrave that the fey was female. I knew from my dreams that she hated my family.
What a gift it must have seemed to her, for a Harwood’s husband to walk into her woods just when Honoria’s bargain had unleashed her full malice.
“As Itriedto tell you earlier,” he said wearily, “I was up late working on my lesson plans when I saw your husband walk into the woods. I thought perhaps no one had mentioned the danger to him—or he’d forgotten it—so when he still hadn’t come out an hour later, I thought I’d better take a look.”
“Despite the danger?” Amy asked.
“And without mentioning it to anyone else first?” Jonathan added.
Luton snorted. “I hardly feared any fey for my own sake.Ican protect myself perfectly well!”
Miss Stewart let out a dreamy sigh behind me, while our other students rustled with interest and the shell-lined drive crunched beneath our feet.
Shielded by the growing darkness, I rolled my eyes and stepped off the drive onto the cool grass. “Regardless,” I said.
The woods bulked thickly ahead of our lantern-cast light, deep and shadowy and secret. Somewhere inside it, that fey and her thorns were lurking, waiting for me in the dark.
She had to know I’d be coming for him. Harwoods never,everabandoned their family. That was the unyielding truth that had kept us strong for centuries. It had built this estate and my family’s political and magical legacies, too.
If she was laying a trap for me now, I would step into it with my eyes wide open. Miss Birch had remained behind to protect Thornfell; it would be waiting, strong and safe, for my students to return to even if I fell in the woods tonight.
“There’s not much more to say.” Luton shrugged. “She’s a typical fey. No interest in any intellectual debates or logic. Wouldn’t let him go or even engage in a simple magical duel to sort it out like gentlemen.”
He’d suggested a magical duel to a fey? As my eyebrows rose, I reluctantly accepted the unpalatable truth: I wouldneverbe able to sack Gregory Luton, after all. No one who had risked his life so recklessly to save my husband could ever be allowed to lose his safe haven at my school.
