Even then Jack had wanted to be a soldier. Their mother had indulged him by taking them to a review of French troops, going so far as befriending a French general. She invited him to dine in their suite, where Jack had pestered the poor man into telling him about the battles he had commanded.
Jack had never had the chance to ride in the cabriolet of adiligence. He begged to go back to France when the Peace of Amiens was declared, but by then Lady Anne was lost, presumed dead, and their father had refused to allow fifteen-year-old Jack to travel with only servants. Darcy, who by then also had to fear repulsion, had no interest in the trip.
Had he known how little time he had left with Jack, Darcy would have dropped everything to go with him.
All he could do for Jack now was to purchase a seat in the cabriolet in his honor.
He was joined in the open-air seat by an old dowager and her female companion. The young woman gave him a shy smile that reminded him of Georgiana, but once thediligencewas moving at speed, the wind rushing past made conversation impossible. Another advantage of riding in the open cabriolet.
It gave him a wider view of the countryside, too, as thediligencesped from town to town. So many fields left fallow, and the ones under cultivation worked only by women and old men. He had seen few younger men on the streets of Rouen, apart from the ones missing arms or legs. France was paying a high price for Napoleon’s wars.
From Écouis to Gisors and finally on to crowded Paris, its imposing stone edifices towering on each side of the streets like the imperial capital Napoleon had made it. He steeled himself to have hispasseportquestioned, but when he disembarked, no one seemed to care about the incoming passengers except a ragtag group of young boys offering to carry trunks.
He let one of them lead him to the Hôtel de Suède, the Sweden Hotel, which the War Office had recommended because its staff and most of its guests were Swedish. Darcy’s accent would not stand out as much there. The innkeeper, who was indeed Swedish, examined his papers carefully before agreeing to provide Edward Harcourt with a suite of rooms and a manservant.
After his all-too-brief sunset moment of loving connection with Elizabeth, Darcy spent the evening penning his letters of inquiry, the ones that would alert his co-conspirators to his presence in Paris. In the morning, he would give them to the innkeeper to post.
Only then, when there had been nothing left but to wait, did it occur to Darcy that something had been distinctly odd about his early trip to France with Jack. Why had Lady Anne decided to take her two young sons on a tour of revolutionary France, when only a year earlier there had been blood running in the streets of Paris as the Terror raged? She told them it was for their education, to broaden their horizons, but that made no sense, either. She had never taken them anywhere before, not even to London.
Had Lady Anne disguised a secret diplomatic mission for the government by taking her children with her? Possibly, but she had not been the King’s Mage then. Perhaps she had only wished to escape her sister, the traitorous Lady Catherine, for a time. Certainly his mother had seemed more at ease on their journey, as if a great worry had been taken off hershoulders. Rather unusual, given the dangers that lurked in France at the time.
What was his mother thinking now? She had already lost Jack at Salamanca and her true daughter had been stolen by Faerie. Did she have any regrets over sending off her only remaining child to what the government saw as an almost certain death in France? Unlike Elizabeth, she had given him no advice on how to try to survive.
If he lived through this, he intended to be a very different parent to his own children.
Chapter 17
Elizabeth scowled at theletter she had just received from Lady Anne Darcy. It was full of advice, but not the sort of motherly guidance that she might have welcomed, or even sympathy over the absence of her husband or delight in the news of her pregnancy. Did she have no interest in the prospect of her first, and perhaps only, grandchild?
No, this missive was all about the great importance of Rana Akshaya’s visit to Pemberley, how much depended upon the Indian mage being pleased with her reception, and how disastrous it might be if Elizabeth somehow offended her – along with a list of questions Lady Anne wanted her to ask Rana Akshaya should the opportunity arise. If only she could just throw the letter in the fire!
“Can you believe this?” she exclaimed to Frederica. “She has no faith in my ability to be a hostess, and a moment later she wants me to interrogate my guest!”
Frederica looked up from her own letter from the King’s Mage. “Hah! Apparently Lady Anne told Rana Akshaya that she would accompany her here, and Rana Akshaya refused to allow it. Her own home, even if she had not been here for years! Oh, she must have been furious! She desperately wants to know Rana Akshaya’s secrets.”
“As if she does not have enough power of her own as the King’s Mage?” Elizabeth gave an unladylike snort.
“To be fair, I think it is more that she is afraid of what Rana Akshaya might do. That she will turn out to be someone who misuses her power, like Lady Catherine. She is always terrified of that.” She grimaced. “Knowing now what Lady Catherine did to her dragon, I understand better. Do you suppose Lady Anne will fear me once she finds out about Quickthorn?”
“We will be in the same boat if she finds out I am a dragon companion.” Elizabeth paused, then added, “I do not suppose she mentioned Granny to you.”
Frederica frowned. “Not so much as a word. I imagine Granny is avoiding her, but still, I wish we had some sort of news! Who knows what mischief she might be up to with the War Office?”
The thought had been troubling Elizabeth, too. Granny could be unpredictable, but without Darcy, Elizabeth was in the dark about what the War Office was doing. How could she be an effective advocate for humans with the dragons when she knew so little? If only Granny would write to her!
She looked down at Lady Anne’s letter again. As if she had not already been dreading Rana Akshaya’s arrival! Her hands were full enough already, between learning to run an estate far larger than she had ever known, dealing with the fae running everywhere, trying to convince the dragons to help protect England, and the fatigue natural to her condition.
She had lost the better part of a week to Frederica’s bonding to Quickthorn, which had taken place much sooner than she had expected, just a day after Frederica agreed to it. Happily, Frederica had recovered quickly, but it still had taken time and energy Elizabeth could ill afford.
No, that was not true, either. She was simply nervous about Rana Akshaya’s visit. She had never hosted even an ordinary dinner party at Pemberley, and now she would have foreign royalty visiting for heavens only knew how long, a woman whose traditions she did not know and with whom she had never had a complete conversation. It would have been hard enough if Darcy were still here. Doing it on her own seemed an impossible challenge.
Just the preparations had been burdensome enough. Chandrika had warned her that the great Rana would require a room larger than any of the usual bedrooms, so Mrs. Reynolds had undertaken to convert the huge state parlor into a grand bedroom. If Rana Akshaya was, as Elizabeth guessed, a dragon companion, the parlor would be large enough for a full-size dragon. Then there were the special foods Chandrika insisted the great Rana would expect. It was nerve-wracking.
Even before this aggravating letter from Lady Anne.
As if on cue, a footman appeared. “Forgive me for interrupting, Mrs. Darcy, but there are carriages approaching. Grand ones.”
Elizabeth groaned. “I am coming.” She hurried out to the portico, with Frederica trailing after her.
