“Yes, I am sorry you witnessed that. Believe me, if it were my choice, High Mage Darkwood and I would be perfectly amiable. But High Mage Darkwood has always been jealous of me, even from a young age. He saw me as a challenge to his father’s affections.” He stopped and cleared his throat. “Forgive me. Perhaps I am speaking out of turn. How is High Mage Darkwood received in the neighborhood?”
Cassia let out a soft laugh and shook her head. “Oh, not well at all. I would bet most see him as a pompous, high minded man, too good for any of us, if they attended the last assembly. Of course heisvery rich, no one can deny such a fact, but his manners are all bad, I am afraid.” She could not help but think of his expressed unwillingness to dance with her.
“You have judged him just right then,” said Lieutenant Malum with an approving nod. “For he treated me with the same level of contempt. He denied me the living I was promised and only then was I reduced to buy a commission in the army. I would have indeed loved the church.”
“How could he?” said Cassia, indignation rising in her whispered voice.
“Darkwood gave it to his cousin instead, after he gave up the military, and played a favorite.”
Cassia wondered if it could be the handsome, tan cousin she had met at Netherfield.
“I cannot believe it! How awful!” cried Cassia, grateful the card players had gotten riotous enough to not notice her exclamation.
“Though Darkwood has less feeling than the average man, to be sure, but he cannot help it.Thatcomes with his abilities.”
Cassia’s eyes tightened. “What do you mean? I thought he excelled in business?”
“Oh yes,” said Malum. “And then some. He’s extremely persuasive, he knows how to ‘put on the pressure’ so to speak until he gets his way.”
A shudder ran the length of Cassia’s spine. She wished she understood exactly what Malum meant. Perhaps the pressing push of wind she had felt—maybe that was part of his ability.
Suddenly those newcomers scared her. If they possessed magic, what power would they attempt to wield? She closed her eyes for a moment and then said softly, “Do you find yourself with any magical abilities?”
“Me?” he said with a laugh. “Heavens no. I am just like you, just like most of us here. Merlinite blood is not something my family prides itself on.”
Thank goodness. Relief flooded Cassia’s body. She couldn’t trust someone with power—it often tainted their ability to reason. Her father had instilled that in her, and now knowing about High Mage Darkwood solidified her thoughts.
“You look eased by my answer,” said Lieutenant Malum, with a slight hint at a tease. He had been studying her face. She was grateful he had kept his tone light. There was much information she had yet to process.
“Indeed I was,” she tried to laugh, “for I do not trust...high mages. I haven’t met any but Darkwood, and if they are all like him, they must all be fearsome. Too much power does something to a person.”
Lieutenant Malum nodded. “Yes that is often the truth. Though you might find if you do travel outside of Meryton, you will see that magical abilities are much more common than you may think. I would venture to say, notallhigh mages are bad. Darkwood is the one of the worst of his kind. That is why I wished to inform you. I have the desire to look out for your family. A future connection with Blythesome would be advantageous for your sister, but on Darkwood’s score, I would advise you to steer clear.”
He was undoubtedly right. She wished to ask more, when Master Clovis sauntered over to their couch. “Lieutenant Malum, your friend Deston informs me that you grew up in Derbyshire?”
“Yes, I know we met earlier, but I did wish to speak with you more.”
Malumwantedto speak with Clovis? All the sense Cassia had thought Malum possessed was now in question. How he, too, had interest in her strange cousin astounded her. She had expected Alyria’s fawning, but not his. Lieutenant Malum maintained every aspect of civility to the utmost. “Have you traveled there?”
“No,” said Mr. Clovis, with an affected air, “but I wish to, if only to honor and praise the connection it has with the right honorable Magess Degowyn, my esteemed patroness.”
The two continued with an ease and familiarity that astonished Cassia.
Master Clovis droned on. “I have the esteemed privilege, as you know, to be the Rector of Huntsford parish, which backs Magess Degowyn’s estate. The Magess is of course sister to Lady Anella, High Mage Darkwood’s mother, and therefore has close connections with Derbyshire.”
It seemed too perfect. Master Clovis, with all of his pompous ridiculousness, would of course be connected to High Mage Darkwood’s high and mighty family. Good heavens. It all fit into Malum’s narrative, that was sure. She wished then that Malum would remain close to her family, for he seemed sensible and not obsessed with magic.
“You are the one with the truffles, I gather? I think I have heard of them.”
Master Clovis could not have puffed any bigger at such a reference. Cassia waited for Malum to laugh, but his genuine interest in fungi surprised her.
The two men then walked toward a corner of the room as Master Clovis began a long screed on the properties of truffles and his exceptional abilities to procure them, and Cassia grimaced. Their voices dropped lower, and their conversation lasted another several minutes.
Chapter Five
Cassia attempteda smile toward Master Clovis as they finished their family dinner a week later. “You are absolutely certain you’ll come to the Netherfield ball this evening?”
“Oh of course. I do not think it is beneath a rector to dance. I must confess that I quite look forward to standing up with you, my dear cousin.”
