“How can I?” Ianthe cried. “People have died. My parents. What if I make a mistake? What if I hurt someone? I can’t control it.”
Cordelia glanced to Lord Bentford. He closed his eyes and seemed to take a deep breath, pained by her words. Maybe he hadn’t realized just how frightened his niece was with the changes she was experiencing. He then put an arm about Ianthe’s shoulders. “Your aunts were the same. There were mishaps and whatnot. That is why we come here, so you can learn so that when you do leave Nightshade Manor you have complete control,” Bentford assured his niece.
“Someone found out about my mother,” she whispered as the tears spilled from her eyes.
Cordelia’s heart ached for the girl. No wonder she was so frightened.
“We don’t know how that came about, and I am so sorry that it did.”
“If they will not go away, then I am never leaving Nightshade. Ever!” She turned and ran away, back from where she’d come.
“She will make no progress until she calms,” Madam Boswell warned.
“Can you give her something?” Cordelia asked. “A talisman?” Madam Boswell had given such to her sister-in-law. “Or maybe Brighid could prepare a special tea.”
“This is not something I can do,” she said. “She must find it within herself. No talisman, tea or spell can be of assistance.” Then Madam Boswell looked to Cordelia. “However, you can help her.”
“Me?” Cordelia didn’t know how she could teach Ianthe anything.
“Think back to when you were a child.”
She’d been frightened once, terribly frightened, and barely slept.
“You must teach what you learned to Miss Ianthe so that she can control her gift and be at ease.”
“I’m not even certain how. It’s been so long.”
“No, it has not,” Madam Boswell argued. “It is part of you, and you practice it every day.”
Cordelia frowned. It was such a part of her that she hadn’t even realized. She’d even drawn on some of what she learned after that uncomfortable tea with Lady Chandos. Cordelia looked to Bentford. “I’ll visit you tomorrow if it is allowed and teach her what my governess taught me.”
“You’ll begin now,” Madam Boswell ordered. “Catch up to her, take her home and start teaching before it’s too late.”
“Too late?” Bentford asked.
“There is a point where she will not take to the lessons and likely won’t leave Nightshade Manor if that fear is not addressed now,” Madam Boswell claimed. “Cordelia’s grandfather took too long to see Cordelia’s fear and the governess was nearly unable to help her and then almost bungled it,” she said to Lord Bentford.
“I was only ten and I am perfectly fine now.”
Madam Boswell lifted an eyebrow as if to argue, but thankfully said nothing further.
Cordelia knew that her fear was irrational, and Madam Boswell knew that it still plagued her, but Cordelia didn’t let it control her and she was certain it would not have overtaken her as her grandfather had feared. She’d been a child, simply reacting to a terrifying event. Madam Boswell was making too much of the incident. However, what she had learned could be of assistance to Ianthe.
Chapter 10
Damon watchedMiss Cordelia march away. What had happened to her at the age of ten that she needed to learn to calm? “I’ll go with her,” Bentford said with concern. “It was a pleasure meeting you Madam Boswell and thank you for your assistance.”
“You are not leaving.” Madam Boswell pointed at him, her old hand gnarled with age and her finger no longer straight. “We have much to discuss.”
Damon wasn’t certain what to make of the old woman, but immediately sat when she pointed to the stool. Did she wish to tell him more about Ianthe?
“You will not discourage a friendship between Ianthe and Edward,” she began. “Their destinies are intertwined and the more you try to keep them separated, the more they will defy authority to be together.”
“How do you know this?” he asked.
She just stared at him with her dark, penetrating eyes and Damon was given the impression that she thought his question quite impertinent.
“She trusts him, but their friendship should not grow out of defiance, but in trust or it could reflect how their futures unfold.”
