“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 addingfrom the Bennet familybecause 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?”
