He supposed time would tell.
He exhaled deeply and picked up his quill then set his mind on the ledgers before him.
Alaric hadn’t been working long before there was a knock at the door.
“Enter.”
Marlene poked her head around the frame, and for a moment, he was confident that his heart had ceased to beat in his chest. She was attired in an orange and white striped robe à l'anglaise. Her dark hair was arranged in a simple style that accentuated her features to perfection. But then, anything she wore accomplished that feat.
He also noted that she held her mother’s journal in her grasp. From the moment he’d given it to her, it had been her constant companion. Then again, it was likely a comfort to her, a piece of her past that she could cling to in these dark times of uncertainty.
He leaned back in his chair. “Good morning.”
She smiled, although when she glanced at the clock on the mantel, she returned dryly, “It’s half past noon. I would hardly consider that morning.”
“Didn’t you use to keep town hours?” he asked pointedly. “In that regard, two in the afternoon was generally morning for some.”
“I was never in the habit of lazing in bed so long.”
His gaze swept her from head to toe. “Perhaps not yet, but someday, you might change your thoughts on the matter.”
He was glad to see that she didn’t miss the inuendo in his words. “I’m sure that is true.” Her lips twitched and he had to grasp the arms of his chair to keep from striding across the room and taking her into his arms. To keep from giving in to the instinct, he changed the subject to the journal. “I trust you had time to peruse the diary?”
She glanced down at the cover as she sank into a chair nearby. “Several times, in fact. It was very… insightful.”
He despised bringing up the man’s name, but there was no choice in the matter. “Then you are aware that Hector pursued you when you were a child.” He paused, allowing that to sink in. “And that he was responsible for so much devastation, and why I must safeguard you so fully now.”
She cast her gaze downward. “I am.”
She looked so lost, so melancholy in that moment, that Alaric knew he couldn’t stand by and watch her suffer in silence any longer. He got up and walked over to kneel down in front of her. He reached up and set a finger beneath her chin. “You don’t have to feel as though you are alone in this.”
Her dark eyes were pools of abject misery as she looked at him. “I just don’t understand why he wanted me. I have no special abilities. I’m just a simple girl.”
“That, my dear, is where you are wrong.” He ran his thumb slowly along her lower lip. “You are quite special, and he knows it. You may not be a witch, but whatever spell he cast upon you to heal your illness, somehow you found a way to use that power. He saw that and decided to claim it for his own purposes.”
She closed her eyes, as if to calm herself, and then she looked at him and whispered, “I had another vision, last night or early this morning, I can’t say for sure. It was after I was put to bed.” She reached out and laid a gentle hand on his jaw. “I know I have you to thank for that.”
He grasped her hand and moved it around so he could bestow a kiss upon her palm.
She pulled away from him, and he was sorrowful for the loss, but he could tell she did so with great reluctance. “I saw something in my vision this time that might have added another piece to the puzzle. I just don’t know if I should tell you.”
“You can tell me anything,” he said sincerely.
A single tear fell from her eye. “I told you about a masquerade party I went to not long after my parents died.” He could see her swallow. “I think the man I laid with that night was Hector.”
Marlene hadn’t wanted to reveal this knowledge to Alaric, but she couldn’t keep it to herself, especially if it might help to end all of this madness. However, when he stiffened and pulled away from her, she had to wonder if she’d done the right thing by telling him after all.
“What made you reach that conclusion?”
She inhaled steadily. “In the dream, I was back in London at the party. I was moving through the crowd, grief and sorrow my constant guide. I knew I wasn’t thinking clearly, but I was determined to ruin myself, if only to forget what had happened for a short time. I looked up and saw a man wearing a plain, black mask when all of the others around us had some sort of theme. I was impressed by the simplicity of his costume, and it drew me to him. When I approached him, he held out a hand, as if he knew what I wanted. He led me to an alcove away from the rest of the revelers and—” She looked away. “I’m sure you can imagine what happened next. It was only after I read my mother’s diary and had the dream so soon afterward, that it made me believe he was the same mystery man.”
Alaric looked at her for a time, and then he stood with a mumbled curse. He turned his back to her and set his hands on his hips. She was afraid she had upset him, but when he shook his head and muttered, “I’ve been a fool,” she realized he was angry with himself. When he turned back to her, his blue eyes were shining with that almost unholy hue. “It didn’t occur to me, until now, that Hector would use any sort of underhanded deceit that was possible to gain what he wanted. That includes using your melancholy to bring back your visions, and the power you had believed was gone, but what had only lain dormant.”
He held out a hand and a book appeared in his palm. She blinked in surprise as he opened the tome. After riffling about a bit, he paused at a certain page and silently held it out to her.
Curious, she set aside the journal and accepted the offering. When she started to read, her eyes widened in disbelief. “I’ve never heard of such a thing as… sex magic.”
“It’s not a spell that is used often, because there is no purpose for it. But for someone like Hector, who is determined to find a lost relic that he believes is in my possession, as well as your ability to read from a language lost to time, your allure is unfathomable, like a potent drug.”
