Fascinated (29 page)

“I know, my dear, but I don’t think it’s safe yet. Not with the Fae still looking for you.”

“Yes, of course. I can’t pull Verity from one danger and throw her into another.”

Edward moved to the bell. When the footman answered he gave orders for the carriage, and also for writing materials. Once the servant left, Edward turned back to Alicia. “Now, for the message.”

“How do we get any message to her without my aunt seeing it? Aunt Eugenia looks over all the mail and they know my handwriting.”

Edward smiled and spoke gently, as to a child having a difficult
lesson. “Alicia, you will please be so good as to remember you are a Sorceress.”

“Oh! I am also a fool.”

“Only slightly and very agreeably. Now.” A knock sounded on the door, and Edward opened it to admit the footman with the writing implements. These Edward placed on one of the room’s tables. He also filled the enamel basin on the washstand from the jug and placed that on the table.

“Sit down, please, Alicia, and take up the pen.” He held out the chair for her, and Alicia complied with his instruction. Edward moved behind her and settled both of his broad hands on her shoulders. The effect was both reassuring and distracting.

Are you ready?
asked his voice in her mind.

Yes.
It struck her how normal this means of communication had come to seem and she felt, rather than heard Edward’s soft chuckle in response.

Now, as I send you the magic, look into the water and imagine it to be a mirror, one that reflects your cousin, wherever she may be.

I thought it was Seers who could see from a distance.

Only a Seer can scry the future, but we can see the present, and the past. Try now.

Alicia willed herself to relax, and in a few heartbeats, she felt the warm and energetic current inside her. It was difficult to see outwardly and form an inward picture at the same time, but as she struggled, she felt Edward’s confidence in her ability and understanding. She thought of Verity, of her cousin’s sharp wit and quick laughter. She thought of all their days in the library, of the many times Verity had covered for her missteps and her confusion
as she labored against the confinement of her sensibility. She thought how dear her cousin was, and how much she wanted to see Verity safe.

Edward, she knew, saw these memories as well. It was strange, he now knew so much of her family now, and she knew nothing of his. What would she see of his past if their positions were reversed? What…

Focus, Alicia,
Edward cautioned her firmly.
We must reach Verity.

Yes, of course.
Alicia pulled back her wandering thoughts, and bent to the task at hand. As she concentrated on thoughts of Verity, the water in the bowl clouded over. She could not tell if this was an outward happening or another form of the visions that had taken her before, but when the fog receded, there was Verity’s sparse chamber, and there was Verity in a sprigged morning dress, pacing back and forth, and clearly fuming with impatience. She stopped in front of her window and peered out at the quiet street.

“Where are you, Alicia?” she demanded of the world at large. “Where have you
gone
?”

Guilt threatened, and Alicia felt Edward gently squeeze her shoulders.

Write to her, Alicia. Tell her to expect the carriage at the garden’s side gate. She must go at once to meet it, and not bother to pack.

Alicia groped for the quill, and dipped it hesitantly in the ink. Her hand moved, leaving untidy words on the page. She could not take her gaze from Verity in the mirror. At last she signed her name.

Now, we will send it to her.

Following Edward’s instructions, Alicia laid the paper into the water, covering the image of Verity in her room. She spread their magic
into ink and paper as both dissolved, waterlogged, into the basin. She held fast to the picture of Verity’s room, concentrating on her nightstand, willing the disintegrating paper with its missive to
be
there, with Verity. The letter should be there. It belonged there. It must be there.

Abruptly, the paper was gone from the basin, leaving Alicia’s view of the moving reflection unobstructed. Verity jerked back from the windowsill as if startled by a sudden noise. She turned, and her gaze fell on the nightstand. Alicia saw her untidy letter propped up against the carved music box that was Verity’s prized possession. Verity ran to the paper, picked it up, read the crooked words, and read them again. Alicia waited, her heart hammering despite Edward’s continued calm reassurance. Would Verity believe this was from her? Would she do as it said? It was so extraordinary, so impossible.

She should not have doubted. This was Verity and in the reflection, Verity clutched the letter tight, and grinned as if she were a child seeing the sun for the first time.

Edward withdrew the magic slowly, and Alicia let the vision fade. She fell back in her chair, a little winded, but immensely relieved.

“We were in time,” she said. “She’ll be safe.”

“You can count on it,” Edward told her. “Once she is installed at Jane’s school, her parents will receive a visit from the captain, which will persuade them she is safe and does not need to be sought after.”

She suspected there would be magic or glamour involved in that, and it made her uncomfortable. Enough deception had been practiced on the Hartwells. She would have to speak with the captain. There had to be a way to explain.

“Strange,” she murmured.

“What is?” asked Edward.

“Before we began, I wanted nothing more than to get away from that house and my family. Now, I am thinking of how to return to them, and how to help them. Especially Aunt Mary. There must be something we can do.”

Edward nodded, his face drawn tight. “I have no doubt it was Hester who brought Mary’s illness down on her as punishment for her defiance, but she cannot risk Mary actually dying. From what we’ve seen so far, there’s no Seer in the family to replace her, and without a Seer, they will not only be working blind, but they will be going against what she was taught as necessary for the family’s survival.”

“And Aunt Hester would not do such a thing,” Alicia finished for him.

“Just so.” Edward came forward and kissed her, his mouth warm and welcome against her own. She leaned into that kiss, yearning springing from the deepest part of her. When he straightened up, he cupped her cheek and smiled into her eyes.

“You should rest yourself now,” said Edward. “Lady Jane and Lynne will send a message as soon as they have Verity safe with them. I must report to the captain, but I’ll return as soon as I am able.”

He drew away and turned toward the door. Alicia knew she should let him go, but suddenly she could not stand his leaving. She was tired, but she already knew she would not find any rest. Not alone. Her mind was too full with all she had seen and done. There was something else as well, an unease that would not leave her, but that she could not fully name.

“He knew,” she said abruptly.

Edward paused with his hand on the doorknob and turned back toward her. “Knew what?”

“That we weren’t married. He said he could not see the mark of it on me.”

She waited for him to tell her she was being foolish. In the face of all they had waiting for them, how could she consider such a trivial matter now? But Edward only returned to Alicia’s side and took up her hand, gently running his thumb over her fingers. “They play on our emotions, Alicia,” he reminded her. “He was searching for a weakness he could turn against you.”

“I thought as much. It doesn’t mean anything.” But she turned her face away as she said it.

“Alicia?”

“I know. You will marry me if I wish it.” She clasped her hands together, trying to will mind and emotion into some semblance of order. Edward needed to leave. He needed to report to his captain, and she needed to let him go. She had nothing to fear from being alone with her thoughts. She was safe in this house. Nothing could harm her here.

She lifted her face toward him once more and shaped her lips into a smile, but it faded swiftly away when she saw how he looked at her. There was an intensity in his regard different from any she had yet seen. Edward seemed to be skirting the edge of anger, but at the same time, she saw need welling up inside him as well.

“It’s been too soon, too strong.” He was down on his knees beside her so she could look him directly in his eyes. “I want us to be sure, Alicia.”

“But we’ve…” she stammered, heat rising fast to her cheeks.

“Yes, yes, we’re shared a bed and explored our passion, and I’m glad of it. But that is different from marriage, different from a
declaration of love.” He reclaimed her hand where it lay nerveless in her lap. “I do not want you to be hurried into saying something you will regret, Alicia. I would spare you that. But you must understand, if I have not spoken plainly, it is not because I feel nothing for you.”

“Edward…”

She got no further. “I wish there was more time,” said Edward harshly, bowing his head to kiss her hand once more. “I wish I could make you understand one-tenth of what I have come to feel for you.”

Slowly, Alicia raised her free hand. Almost distantly she watched as its palm lay on Edward’s head. She liked the feel of his hair threaded between her fingers as she pulled back gently, just enough to raise his eyes toward hers. She had to see his eyes. She had to be sure.

And she saw the love, the trust and the need in him. There was no mistaking it. But there was doubt too; doubt of himself more than her and she could not permit that to remain.

“You told me to trust my feelings,” Alicia breathed.

“Yes.”

She kissed him. It was no tentative gesture. It was open and deep, with her tongue seeking his. She pulled him up and forward so his hard chest pressed against her breasts. He wrapped his hands around her waist, steadying her and raising them both to their feet. His cock had already begun to swell and he pressed their hips together, letting her feel it. She answered by hissing in a deep breath.

“I want you, Edward,” she whispered in his ear. “I want you now.”

“Alicia, you have me.”

He laid her back against the bed, kissing her slowly and sweetly as he lowered her down so he could cover her completely with his body. She writhed beneath his weight, equally impatient and delighted as her hands tugged ineffectually at his coat and shirt. She needed him naked. She needed them to be skin to skin without any impediments. She needed the whole of him, now, at once.

Edward caught her urgency and understood. His hands moved swiftly and efficiently, teasing her breasts, her belly, her ass and thighs, and at the same time stripping them both bare. Naked, he rolled her over until they came to rest, panting, in the center of the bed. He reared up over her, taking his weight on his elbows while he rubbed his erection hard against her damp slit.

“Now, Edward.” She took his face both her hands so he could not look away from her. “I need you to fuck me, right now.” She wrapped her legs around his thighs, pulling him down, inviting him into her as brazenly and urgently as was possible.

The mischief faded from his face, leaving only the love and the desire. Their gazes locked as he pressed his hips forward. His cock sank into her. A sensation like relief spread through Alicia and still looking into his gray eyes, she lifted her own hips, urging him deeper. With agonizing slowness, he slid himself into her until his balls brushed her folds and his cock filled every inch of her sheath. But it still wasn’t enough.

“Hard,” she demanded, as he had taught her. “I want it hard!”

“Oh, yes.”

He thrust suddenly. His fingers dug into the flesh of her hips as he tightened his grip on her, so he could thrust again, and again. He drove into her wildly, all caution and restraint gone. Alicia cried out, arching her back and tightening her legs around his. Edward fell against her. His weight crushed her breasts against
his chest, and that felt good too. But there was more, beyond the relentless thrust of his cock in her sheath, beyond the honeyed fire spreading across every inch of her skin where his hands moved, squeezing and touching and urging. The golden current that was their magic rippled through her blood as well. It made a conduit for their pleasure, wrapping her in his sensations and at the same time filling him with hers, until there was no distinguishing between the two. Cock or pussy, breasts, chest, clit, balls—it was a single, glorious delirium. She felt his fierce joy in the greedy pleasure of her body, and knew he felt hers. She felt the thrill of her own heat, and he felt the pleasure of being filled so completely, the frustrating delight of being pinned by greater weight and strength, helpless to do anything but receive. She felt the maddening contractions, the hot, silken glide, the triumphant power of sexual control.

It was too much, far, far too much and yet Alicia knew with what shred of reason remained, she’d never again be lured by counterfeit of passion. In taking her so far with love and magic together, Edward had freed her of that. In his embrace, Alicia was finally, gloriously and completely free.