Magic In The Storm (11 page)

Lord Devaux’s eyes widened as he looked
directly into Lady Vallentyn’s eyes. Slowly he began to nod his
head. “Adriana will marry Vallentyn. I will see that she does,” he
repeated.

“And you will forget this nonsense about
being fascinated with me. I am a very attractive woman, but not one
with whom you would want to become more intimate, I assure
you.”

Lord Devaux took a step backward away from
Lady Vallentyn, shaking his head. “No, no, of course not. Whatever
put that idea into my head? How ridiculous! Well, I suppose not so
ridiculous, as you are an extremely attractive woman, but...
no!”

Lord Devaux blinked his eyes a few times and
then laughed awkwardly. “Of course, it is the children who will
marry, not us! And it is certain that they
will
marry. I
will see to that. You should have no fear on that head. Adriana and
Vallentyn will marry, and the sooner the better.” Nervous sweat
rolled down Lord Devaux’s face.

Adriana nearly gasped. What had just
happened? One moment things were looking up, and the next her fate
was sealed. She did not understand this. Kat’s eyes met hers, but
there was something—could it be fear?— Adriana saw in her friend’s
eyes.

Lady Vallentyn looked with obvious disgust at
Lord Devaux, but then suddenly spun toward Adriana and Kat. “What
is this?” she hissed.

“Good afternoon, Aunt Vallentyn,” Kat said
quickly, clearing her face of all expression. “Lord Devaux.” She
nodded in his direction.

Lady Vallentyn narrowed her eyes at them.
“Good afternoon.”

“Adriana and I have just come in from the
garden to see about luncheon. I thought Thomas would know. Have you
seen him?”

The large dog Adriana had seen once before
was by the front door. He stood and gave a hearty bark.

“The footman? No,” Lady Vallentyn said, not
even looking over at the dog. “You
just
came in?”

“Yes,” Adriana said, matching her tone to
Kat’s carefree one and curving her lips up into a smile. “Just this
minute. I suppose you and Lord Devaux were talking, so you did not
see us come in.”

“We were just discussing the fact that I need
to send an announcement to the Times regarding your betrothal,”
Lord Devaux said smoothly.

Adriana looked at him, trying to hide her
shock and dismay. “I thought you were going to wait until I have
had a chance to consider Lord Vallentyn’s proposal.”

“There is nothing for you to consider,
Adriana. You will marry Vallentyn.” Lord Devaux took a few menacing
steps toward Adriana.

“But...”

“Adriana, what is that in your hand?” His
voice came out high with annoyance.

Belatedly, Adriana remembered the box of
paints she was still carrying.

“They are mine! Those are my paints.” Kat
said quickly, dropping her hand which was carrying the painting to
her side and a little behind her. “She was just carrying them
inside for me.”

“You do not paint, Katrina,” Lady Vallentyn
said, her voice gliding through the words.

“I... I wished to try it,” she said, trying
to cover her lies.

“And I had promised to give her a lesson.
That is what we’ve been doing in the garden,” Adriana added.

“Yes. Adriana is an excellent artist. And she
has been very kind and patient in teaching me how to paint.”

“Excellence is subjective. If you like
emotional hogwash, then yes, her painting is excellent. If you
prefer good solid representations of nature, then they are
disgustingly bold and often quite bizarre. I would suggest, Miss
Havelock, that you find a lady who knows how to paint properly if
you wish to learn the art.”

Lord Devaux paused for effect and narrowed
his gaze on Adriana. “I believe I made myself clear when I told you
that you were not to show your art to anyone. Now, if I learn you
have been doing anything other than just teaching Miss Havelock how
to paint, Adriana, I will be forced to search your room and have
all of your materials disposed of immediately. Is that clear?”

Adriana took a deep, shaky breath and nodded
her head.

Lord Devaux lowered his voice, “Any more
transgressions on my good will, and I will not hesitate to carry
out this threat.”

“Katrina, you will please attend me in the
solarium. We have matters to discuss,” Lady Vallentyn added, in as
threatening a tone as Lord Devaux’s.

Kat blanched noticeably. “Oh?”

Lady Vallentyn gave her a falsely sweet
smile. “I want to hear what you learned regarding our conversation
at dinner last night.”

“Oh, yes.” Kat’s eyes slid toward Adriana
nervously. “I, er, just need to put away my paints and I will be
there directly.” She took the paint box from Adriana’s hands, gave
her a very brief little smile, and then ran past Lady Vallentyn and
Lord Devaux and up the stairs.

There was definitely something odd going on
here, but Adriana just couldn’t figure out what it was. She just
prayed that her friend hadn’t just gotten herself into trouble on
her account.

C
ome on now, just a
bit more.” Morgan tried to coax the foal into swallowing more of
his potion. The poor animal was so weak it could barely lift its
head to swallow.

“Have you given him milk?”

Morgan twisted around from his seat on the
floor of the stall. His cousin, Kat, stood just at the door,
watching him.

Relaxing a bit, he turned back to the foal.
“He’s too weak to stand on his own to nurse.”

Kat came over and squatted down next to
Morgan and the animal. Looking deeply into the foal’s moist brown
eyes, she stroked his head and then said, “He’s hungry and he
yearns for his mother’s comfort.”

Morgan nodded sadly. “I’ll do what I can,” he
said, getting up and retrieving a small pail. He then stroked the
doe’s nuzzle and told her, “I need your milk for your foal.”

The doe moved herself to allow Morgan to milk
her. He squatted down next to her and set to work on his task as
Kat continued caressing the foal and murmuring words of
comfort.

Finally she said, “Morgan, how did you put a
suggestion into Adriana’s mind?”

Morgan stopped what he was doing and looked
at Kat. “I did what?”

“You put a suggestion into her mind. Didn’t
you know?”

“No... are you certain?” A small fire sparked
into life inside of Morgan’s belly.

It only grew as Kat related to him the events
of the previous evening—how Adriana hadn’t been able to speak his
name or mention that she’d met him.

He couldn’t speak for the excitement, the
thrill, that was welling inside of him. The doe shifted, reminding
Morgan of what he had been doing. He set to work once again, but he
hardly paid any attention.

He had put a suggestion into Adriana’s mind!
He had performed magic! But how? And how could he have done it
unintentionally? It didn’t make sense. He almost wished that he
could just accept this as fated, but it was too important to not
examine. He needed to know more. Did this mean that he now had his
powers—the powers he should have had his whole life? It took all of
his willpower not jump up and try something—anything!

“What were you doing when you put the
suggestion into her mind? Where were you?” As always, Kat was
thinking along the same lines. Yes, he thought with a sigh, this
had to be explored before he could try anything new.

Morgan remembered the day before and the
incredible time he had spent with Adriana—it didn’t take much to
think back to it since it had hardly left his mind. “We were
sitting outside. I was making the potion to cure the animals.”

He replayed the wonderful scene again in his
mind, but this time tried to look for any magic that might have
taken place, or for anything... different. There had certainly been
sparks between them—that had been magic of a sort. But it was
surely not the kind that could put a suggestion into Adriana’s
mind.

His hands paused their work, and he shifted
uncomfortably on the ground before saying nonchalantly, “And I
kissed her.”

Kat jumped as if he had just touched a flame
to her skirts. “You kissed her?” she nearly shouted.

The doe startled, nearly knocking over the
pail of milk. Morgan calmed her, and then looked to see if there
was enough milk. He could hardly see it. All he could see was
Adriana’s green eyes sparkling with unshed tears when he had told
her he knew what it was like to have no one care for you. All he
could feel was the burning of her hand in his and the knowledge
that she, too, felt the deep loneliness that perpetually resided
within him.

He shook his head to clear his mind, and then
truly did look at the amount of milk he had collected. It would be
enough. He set a cloth into the pail so that he could feed it to
the foal.

Morgan could sense Kat watching him closely.
Finally, he couldn’t delay answering her any longer. “Yes, I kissed
her,” he said, straightening his back but not meeting his cousin’s
eyes. “She’s very beautiful and I... I’m attracted to her. I told
her she was very pretty and then I kissed her.”

He tried to hide his smile as he remembered
Adriana’s soft lips and her sweet scent when he had leaned forward
and pressed his lips to hers. She reminded him of a field of wild
flowers on a warm summer’s day. She had that same fresh smell and
made him feel warm and happy.

“I hadn’t intended to kiss her—it just
happened,” he admitted. “It was incredible,” he added very softly.
He didn’t tell her how shaken up he’d been by the kiss. How she’d
touched him something deep inside both his body and his mind. How
heat had flooded his nether regions, but that it was the sparks in
his mind that had really... There was no way to explain something
like that to Kat, and even if there was, Morgan wasn’t entirely
sure he could, because he didn’t even understand it himself. He
just knew that being with Adriana made him happier than anything
else ever had.

Kat sighed and sat back. “I hope someday a
man might kiss me,” she said, wistfully.

Morgan smiled and stole a peek at her. She
was sitting staring blindly at the foal. “I would offer, but you
don’t make me feel the way Adriana does. You don’t stir my
blood.”

That broke her out of her spell. She laughed
and said, “Well, I should hope not! We are almost brother and
sister.”

Chuckling quietly to himself, Morgan took the
cloth from the foal’s mouth and set it back into the pail to soak
up more milk.

“And I assure you, I was not asking
you
to kiss me, Morgan,” Kat said seriously.

“No. I know that,” Morgan said, letting the
words fall through his laughter. But then, he too became more
serious. “I must admit, I was a little surprised when I kissed
Adriana. She is the first girl I have ever wanted to kiss.”

“She is the first girl you have ever met
aside from me and your sisters,” Kat pointed out needlessly.

Morgan gave a little shrug of dismissal, and
then added, “Well, if I could leave this forest...”

“Don’t even try, Morgan! You remember what
happened the last time you did.”

Morgan stifled his sigh and turned back to
the foal, placing the cloth back into his eager mouth. “Yes. If you
hadn’t been there to put out the fire, my leg—and perhaps more of
me—would have been horribly burnt. My mother’s spells can be very
cruel.”

He was quiet for a moment, but not even the
thought of how he was held here in this forest against his will
could dampen the inner joy that had begun singing inside of
him.

He had done magic—powerful magic! And he had
met Adriana.

She was so beautiful. And, oddly enough, as
attracted to him as he was to her. They didn’t even know each
other, and yet he had felt such a deep connection with her. She was
as lonely as he. She, too, was being held against her will. And the
way they had recognized each other...

“Something’s coming, Kat. Something is
changing.”

Kat’s eyes jerked to meet his. She lifted
herself onto her knees. “What is it? Did you hear something? Your
mother, did she...?”

But Morgan could only shake his head. “No, my
mother has nothing to do with this. I don’t know... It’s just a
feeling,” he shrugged, watching the foal suck greedily at the
cloth.

Kat sank back down again, disappointed.

“But something’s got to be changing,” Morgan
continued, dipping the cloth into the milk once again. “I did
magic, Kat, real magic!” He could still hardly believe it. “And
Adriana? There must be something special happening for her to come
into my life.”

Kat gave him a sad smile. “Adriana is here to
become betrothed to your brother, Morgan. I’m sorry.”

“Yes, I know. She told me. But she’s being
forced into this marriage against her will.”

Kat nodded. “That’s true. And so is Jonathan
being forced, but that doesn’t change things. Adriana’s not here
for you. You weren’t supposed to meet her at all. It’s just an
accident that you did.”

“I don’t know...”

“Morgan,” Kat said, and then reached over and
put a consoling hand on his knee.

He was quiet for a moment as her magical
touch warmed him and made him happier. “Well, one thing is
certain—my magic is increasing, for whatever reason. And I plan on
helping it. Working harder at it. I am going....”

“No! Morgan, you mustn’t!”

“Why not?”

“You just said yourself, we don’t know where
this magic is coming from.”

“No, but the more I think about it, the more
certain I am that we’ll never know—so I might as well use it, make
it stronger.”

“I don’t think that’s wise, Morgan. In fact,
I think it could be dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” Morgan started to laugh, but the
seriousness of her expression stopped him. “Kat, you can’t mean
it!”