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Walking into the huge ballroom that had been converted into a dining hall, Jane felt the weight of speculative gazes turned towards her. She did her best not to allow them to affect her composure, but she could sense the negative threads whirling around. Most of them were directed towards Lizzy, who was either used to them, or was becoming much better at concealing her feelings.
A footman came to offer her some beef barley soup from a silver tureen. The soup was delicious, but after a few spoonfuls, she could no longer do it justice as she pondered her strange predicament. Food was the last thing on her mind. She was still too dismayed at the terrible mistake she had made. To have walked through the Wards of the two most powerful Warders in the Kingdom was bad enough. But now that she had stumbled upon the Royal Mages’ secret, she knew she would never be allowed to return home.
And what of her family? She had not even said goodbye to them. Who knows when she would have the chance to see them again?
Even worse, by now Mama would have gossiped all over Meryton that Jane had gone to offer her help to the officers. Even if Papa came up with a story to account for her absence, Jane would still be the object of malicious tongues. Perhaps her reputation would not be in complete tatters, but there may well be enough doubts cast on her character to destroy her chance at marriage and happiness altogether.
In her daydreams, she had imagined going to the Academy and meeting a handsome mage. The reality was very different. If her encounters with the Council so far were anything to judge by, the likelihood of anyone looking at her twice were very slim.
If she was able to disclose the truth, her reputation would remain intact. Unfortunately for her, there was no way to reveal that Netherfield was the residence of the most powerful mages in the land, including unmarried female mages who were carefully chaperoned. The Academy was known for observing the strict rules of propriety for its young ladies.
Alas, the one piece of information that could save her reputation, was the very thing she could not make known.
The only thing that could make up for it was that Lizzy was present. At least she would have the chance to spend time with her. Not now, obviously, when Lizzy was scowling at her white soup as if she had witnessed a horde of insects crawling out of it.
Jane’s musings were interrupted when the young gentleman with golden curls – Mr. Bingley— seated himself next to her. Lizzy looked up, a shadow crossing her face, just as an elegant young lady took his arm firmly and pulled him in another direction.
“Not here, Charles.” The young lady threw Lizzy a disdainful look. “You should not sit with the person who caused your affliction.”
Jane tried to keep her expression neutral, but she was jolted by the woman’s words. Did they know what his affliction was? And what did Lizzy have to do with it?
The gentleman remained stubbornly in place, despite the young woman’s attempt to drag him away. He would not budge. Short of making a big scene, there was nothing the young lady could do.
“Very well. If you are determined to stay, I will leave you to it. You will have to manage on your own. I will not sit at this table.”
The young gentleman smiled amiably and took up his spoon. A footman came at once with the soup, but instead of Mr. Bingley helping himself, the footman ladled the soup for him. Her instinct as a healer roused, she threw him a few glances, trying to assess the nature of his affliction. He was smiling pleasantly, but his eyes were clouded. He could see her, but she could not tell if he was aware of her presence. Intrigued, she determined to discover how conscious he was of his surroundings.
Jane watched him, puzzled. He seemed perfectly capable of doing things for himself. How was it, then, that he did not seem able to connect with anyone? She thought of that encounter in the sick room.
“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jane Bennet,” she said to him.
He continued to eat, ignoring her words completely.
“What is your name?” she said.
There was no indication that he could even hear her. She sighed.
“Perhaps you think me uncivil. Let us do this the proper way, then. Lizzy, perhaps you can introduce me to the young gentleman?”
“Of course.” Lizzy wiped her mouth on her napkin.
“This is Mr. Charles Bingley, a Talented mage who was injured in battle.”
Jane puzzled over this. The young lady who had spoken earlier had spoken of an affliction. Lizzy was talking about injury. Had he received a head wound? Had Lizzy accidentally struck him?
“Is this a recent affliction?”
“It has been almost three weeks.”
From the way Lizzy dropped her voice, and the tightness of her expression, it was clear this was not a topic her sister wished to discuss. But she was used to pushing her sister for answers, and some instinct told her it was important for Lizzy to talk to someone about it.
“Did it happen as that young lady said? Were you inadvertently responsible for his injury?”
“That is what many believe,” Lizzy replied, bitterly. “Possibly everyone, with the exception of Darcy.”
The vehemence in her voice suggested to Jane that was a bone of contention between her and some of the other Royal Mages.
“Do you believe it to be the case?”
“Yes – no. No. Not directly. I do not believe I caused it, but—. Never mind. Let us just say that it might be the case.”
It was not like Lizzy to shy away from discussing things, but then Jane did not know her sister as well now as she used to. Lizzy had been through experiences Jane could not imagine, and even though they had spent several weeks together when Lizzy returned home, she had already changed in subtle ways even then. She was certainly more serious.
A spoon clattered to the ground next to her, and she turned to find Mr. Bingley looking around for it. She bent down and picked it up without thinking, but then felt foolish because she could not give it to him to use in any case after it had been on the ground.
As she straightened, she found Mr. Bingley’s gaze fixed on her face. She recognized the look. She had seen it on enough gentlemen’s faces to know it was admiration. Apparently that was one aspect of his character that had not been affected by his affliction. His instincts were intact, if nothing else.
“I will ask a footman for another spoon, Mr. Bingley.”
Already his mind had already wandered elsewhere. He was trying to find his spoon and growing vexed that he could not find it. The smile dropped and he looked lost.
Jane hastily drew the attention of the footman, who quickly provided the missing spoon.
The smile returned, and Mr. Bingley resumed his eating.
Jane felt her stomach clench in dismay. How could an injury strip a gentleman of so much? The only mercy was that he was not aware of it. Or at least, she hoped not.
“Is there no cure?”
She whispered the words, not wishing to upset Mr. Bingley, just in case he could understand what she was saying.
“Nothing the Healers have done has made the least bit of difference.”
“Is he the only one?”
“There are two others. They were both part of the same division. Their minds were linked to Mr. Bingley’s mind, as far as I can tell.”
“Have they shown any signs of improvement?”
“They are not here now, but I am sure we would have heard if they were cured.”
“You do have Healing abilities, Lizzy. They may not be your strongest magic, but they are quite good. Why are you telling me nothing about Mr. Bingley’s condition? You must have had a chance to examine him.”
The silence which met her question had Jane wishing she had not said anything. She had not meant to intrude.
“I have not had a chance to. Let us just say I have encountered some opposition to the idea.”
Jane found it hard to believe that Lizzy had not had the opportunity to examine the three afflicted mages. The old Lizzy would have done so at once. Had Lizzy changed that much? There must be a good reason that stopped her from doing so.
Jane looked towards the dais, where Mr. Darcy was in earnest discussion with several of the mages and wondered what on earth she had let herself in for. She was not made for intrigue or battles, but it seemed she had been sucked into them anyway. She was completely out of her depth.
Perhaps she could help with Mr. Bingley. That was something she was good at. A sense of purpose revived inside her.
If she could heal Mr. Bingley, then it would have been well worth it to come here.
***
IN THE NEXT TWO DAYS, Jane was faced with an unexpected problem.
Mr. Bingley attached himself to her like a puppy, following her everywhere and gazing at her in the most embarrassing way possible. Miss Bingley had done her best to reason with him verbally. She had tried to drag him away, and even enlisted the help of the Healers, but to no avail. Mr. Darcy had even tried to entice him away by taking him on a short ride. But he seemed to have an uncanny ability of knowing where Jane was. Short of locking him in a room, there was nothing they could do to prevent him, and Jane would never do anything so cruel.
Jane was familiar with the kind of calf-love Mr. Bingley was displaying. She had treated enough younger men in Meryton and the surroundings to know that her healing abilities, along with what Mama would call her good looks, inevitably seemed to provoke some form of attachment. She had learned to deal with it by adopting a brusque and no-nonsense air, but sometimes it did grow tiresome and somewhat predictable.
In Bingley’s case, at first, Jane felt vexed. She did not fear him; she did not believe him capable of harm. But his behavior made her situation at the Hall even more uncomfortable. Not only had she arrived unannounced and put everyone out, but she was now walking around with a grown man in pursuit. It was enough to compromise her thoroughly, though she made certain never to be in a room with him unaccompanied. Within a few days, however, the novelty of her unexpected arrival as well as the attentions of her admirer had waned, and the looks she encountered became pitying looks directed at Mr. Bingley rather than at her. Fortunately for him, he was completely unaware of the attention he was receiving.
“What was he like, Elizabeth?” she asked, as her sister was brushing her hair before braiding it to go to bed.
Elizabeth winced and looked uncomfortable.
“I wish people would not talk about him as if he were dead.”
“Oh, Lizzy, I am sorry. Of course he is not. Far from it. I was simply curious about what he was like, before the incident.”
Since the word ‘affliction’ seemed to make Elizabeth unhappy, Jane did not refer to it that way.
“Mr. Bingley is as amiable a gentleman as you will ever meet. He showed me kindness when I had no friends.” Lizzy looked dejected. “He was also one of the first people I trained with. Unfortunately for him.”
Jane still found it hard to believe that Lizzy could have done something like this to him, even unintentionally. She wished Lizzy would tell her more about it. She was becoming more reticent. It was a pity. Unlike Jane, Lizzy had always confronted awkward situations head on. She was not a gossip. She could keep a secret, but she was not the type to push things under the rug.
“There appears to be no love lost between you and his sister,” she nudged gently. She had never seen Lizzy so reluctant to talk.
“It is – complicated. Miss Bingley’s position among the mages is not the easiest, and she has always been prickly. Right now, she blames me for her brother’s fate.”
Jane had been wanting to ask her sister about this very thing. but did not want to raise a subject which she suspected was unpleasant for her sister, but she really wanted to know what had happened. No one else seemed inclined to tell her. She seized the opportunity to discover what had happened as quickly as she could.
“I have been wondering why since I arrived. I have heard whispers, too, but nothing that makes the situation any clearer. What did you do to arouse such hostility?”
“I did nothing, because I was not there. It is a long story, and I will be happy to tell it all to you, especially since you’re caught in the middle, but the crux of the matter is that I taught my team a new magical skill, which is for us to connect in a manner similar to a Healing Circle. Bingley and two other Warders were injured while they were using that skill. It is a perfectly logical conclusion to assume that they were injured because of my magic. I did not see it at first, but I am slowly coming to think it is a distinct possibility. Needless to say, it makes me question whether teaching others my type of magic is a good idea.” She wrung her hands. “Jane, every time I look at Bingley, I am consumed by remorse. I wonder what it is that went so wrong.”
It was extremely unfair to blame Lizzy. “You do not know for certain if it was because of your magic. Very likely, it was simply a coincidence,” Jane said.
“I do not believe in coincidences, Jane. If it were just one of the Warders, I might have discounted it. But all three of them were affected while they were connected to me. I must face the truth. I was the one who destroyed them.”
Jane put her arms around her sister and gave her a tight squeeze.
“There must be another explanation.”
Lizzy gave her a shaky smile. There were tears in her eyes.
“You always think the best of people, even when evidence points to the contrary.”
“The evidence you are referring to is little more than guessing. I would like to come to my own conclusions. If there is another explanation, then I will find it.”
***
OVER THE LAST FEW DAYS, Darcy concluded that the Council had only one goal, and that was to disagree as much as possible. If it were not for his uncle’s hardnosed determination to put things to a vote, they would never decide on anything. He could not help admiring Matlock’s ability to bring some order into the chaos.
Still, there were two matters that they continued to argue interminably about. The first was the matter of the French mage. It was Darcy who first put his foot in it by raising the question Elizabeth had brought up. The government questioned enemy spies. Why should the Royal Mages not push to get as much information as possible from de Riquer?
He had truly opened a bag of worms, and he wished now he had never uttered the dratted mage’s name, or captured him, for that matter.
“He comes from an illustrious family,” Devereux was arguing. “We cannot treat him like a common spy.”
“It stands to reason, that if we can extract any information from him, it may give us an advantage.”
“And how do you propose to make him confess?” The speaker, Mrs. Belfry, rarely contributed to the discussion, but even she was drawn into this one. “We cannot beat it out of him. We cannot even risk being in the same room with him.”
“We can use a Truth spell.” Timothy Tolkins was a charming young man, but he had a great deal more hair than sense. Darcy had nothing against him. He liked him. He was a solid, dependable gentleman. And he was one of the best Conjurers in England. He was almost as good as Pickering. But whoever had offered him a position on the Council had to be an idiot.
Devereux turned the full blast of his contempt on Tolkins. “No one has used a Truth spell since the time of the Inquisition, and I do not think it worked even then. Much of the information they needed was acquired through much more unpleasant means.”
He chuckled. Tolkins chuckled uneasily along with him. “I suppose it’s no good, then. It was just a thought.”
“So, as always, we are at an impasse,” said Matlock. “Then let us move on to our second issue of concern: the Wards. I believe in this one we have found some progress. Darcy?”
“I am very pleased to say that, with the help of the other Warders, we have now succeeded in keeping Miss Bennet out.”
“You have let her leave Netherfield?” said Devereux.
“No, we have set up the Wards in such a way that she can neither go in nor out. We have even asked Mr. Bennet to ride out and try them, and they have rebuffed him. That should at least reassure us that the Wards are safe.”
He carefully avoided adding from the Bennet family because it was still a contentious issue.
“Speaking of the Bennets—”
Darcy gritted his teeth. There was no avoiding it. The Bennets were the elephant – or elephants – in the room.
“—what have we decided to do about Miss Bennet?”
It was interesting that Devereux referred to Jane as Miss Bennet, while he continued to call Elizabeth ‘the Bennet girl’.
“I have spoken to the other Healers,” said Lady Ashcombe. “And I do not believe we need any more Healers here. Perhaps she can be sent away to some other Academy where she might be needed, or to London.”
Devereux scowled. “The whole point of having her here is so she will not reveal our location. We have been over this. She is to stay here. If the Healers won’t have her, we will have to train her to do something else.”
“The Healers,” said Lord Grayson, sounding more harsh than usual, “cannot refuse her, if she has the Talent.”
Pickering coughed and put on his glasses. “She may be adequate as a rural Healer, but that does not make her eligible as a Royal Mage. We have standards to maintain. I say, send her home, like we did with her uncle Edward Bennet, and good riddance.”
“Her father,” Lord Matlock corrected.
“Father, uncle, it is all the same. The Royal Mages is not a place for the Bennets.”
“For those of us who do not know this Mr. Edward Bennet, what exactly was he guilty of, Lord Pickering?”
Darcy was not certain if Mrs. Belfry was asking a genuine question, or if she was challenging Pickering.
But Pickering, having had his say, had already lost interest. He had gone back to his book, and was thumbing his way through the pages, searching for something.
“Does anyone know?” It looked like Mrs. Belfry really did want an answer.
Darcy had been curious about this issue for a while. Perhaps he would finally discover what it was.
“It was a long time ago,” said Grayson. “Boyish mischief, nothing more. It has no bearing on the situation now.”
Darcy had a feeling there was more to the story, but it seemed that no one was going to expand on it.
“There is only one way out of this dilemma,” said Lord Sudbury. “We will have to test Miss Bennet and find out what sort of Talent she possesses. Only then will we be able to determine whether she is worthy of being a Royal Mage.”
Well, it was bound to come to this, sooner or later. Darcy did not have the slightest idea what the outcome would be.
***
JANE DECIDED TO START working to discover the nature of Bingley’s illness as soon as she could. The main obstacle that faced her, of course, was that she would have to work closely with him, but as a single young lady, she could not do so alone.
Normally, she would have asked the Healers for their help, but she already knew they would refuse. Darcy had already told her that the Healers did not want her to join them. Of all the mages, the Healers were the most protective of their territory. The fact that she was not Academy trained and that they were suspicious of Lizzy were more than enough reason to turn her away. She did not blame them for it.
Asking them if she could examine one of their patients could only make the situation worse. It would seem as if she was casting doubt on their assessment of Bingley’s condition. It was out of the question to ask the Healers for their assistance.
Which meant the only way she could examine him was if Lizzy was with her, and she would have to do so in Mr. Darcy’s room instead of the sick room. She would need Mr. Darcy’s approval. Once she had obtained that, Jane would wait for Mr. Bingley to show up, which he invariably did at some time after noon.
“Do you think Mr. Darcy would object if I examined Mr. Bingley in his room, Lizzy?”
“I do not see why he would, but you do not necessarily need his permission. I am his wife, after all. I am sure his valet Evans can let us in, and then either Emily or I can stay with you to observe the proprieties.”
Jane did not like the idea of using Mr. Darcy’s room without asking first. True, Lizzy was his wife, but it was still his room.
“I would prefer to ask Mr. Darcy first, just to be certain.”
Lizzy looked amused. “Have it your way. I can see that not even you take my role as his wife seriously. Let us go and speak to Mr. Darcy, then.”
Darcy was in the middle of teaching a spell when they found him. Lizzy only had to wave from the doorway, and he broke off in the middle of his sentence and came over.
Whatever doubts Lizzy may have about Darcy, it was obvious she had him in her thrall.
He came over at once, concern written all over his face. “Is there something wrong, Elizabeth?” His eyes were dark and intense as he sought reassurance.
“Does there have to be something wrong for me to seek you out?”
He chuckled. His voice always changed when he talked to Lizzy. It became deeper and huskier. “Not at all, but I suspect you have a purpose.”
“You have caught me out.” Lizzy chuckled back. “Jane had a question.”
Jane explained quickly what she planned to do, keeping her voice lowered so none of the apprentices could hear her. She had scarcely completed her explanation when Mr. Bingley showed up.
“If you can find a way to cure my friend, then I will be forever indebted to you, Miss Bennet.”
“I cannot promise anything at all.” She hoped she was not raising false expectations. “At the moment I am simply seeking a diagnosis.”
Behind Darcy, the young apprentices were starting to grow restless.
“Of course you have my full permission, Miss Bennet. Just tell Evans I said so.”
Darcy took his leave, his gaze lingering briefly on Lizzy, and returned to his pupils.
Jane let out the breath she had been holding. Mr. Darcy was much nicer than she had expected, and it was obvious that he cared deeply about her sister.
Well then. She had committed herself now. She felt giddy and nervous about it, with so much expectation riding on her explorations. It was impossible to say if she would succeed, but she had caught a glimpse of something uncommon the night she touched his hand. It may have born from feverish dreams, or it might be a false trail, but she was determined to follow it as far as she could go.
It took Jane three days for her magic threads to get beyond the turbulence that blocked them. Mr. Bingley was amazingly patient. He seemed perfectly content to sit on the bed with Jane holding his hand.
On the third day, she found what she was looking for.