“Gosh, I’d never have thought of trying that,” Caleb muttered.
Amelia stepped forward. “Let me.”
“I don’t think you’ll have better luck, ma’am,” Sheffield said kindly (in other words, condescendingly, but with a well-meaning smile).
“Nevertheless,” Amelia replied in the tone every man recognizes as A Woman at the End of Her Patience. Wisely, Sheffield retreated. Amelia pulled a delicate brass hairpin from her coiffure and, with some careful manipulation, inserted it into the door’s keyhole.
“That won’t work, ma’am,” Sheffield advised her. “It’s a myth that hairpins can open a lock. You’d best step aside so that I—”
Click.
Amelia glanced with a forgivably smug smile at Sheffield, whose own expression had gone blank. Behind him, Caleb was trying not to laugh.
“I was head girl at secondary school,” she explained. “I spent half my days unlocking things.” Sliding the clip once more into her coiffure, she opened the door and entered the dining hall.
“Oh, dear,” she said in dismay.
“What is it?” Sheffield demanded, hurrying in behind her, Caleb at his heels. Both men stopped abruptly, staring.
A long chamber stood before them, its portrait-laden walls gleaming as morning sunlight shone through several arched windows on either side. Four narrow tables stretched toward a low dais at the far end where the masters’ table stood. A few bench seats had toppled over, and a few table lamps lay broken among them. But the glass-domed plinth that held Dervorguilla’s sapphire brooch stood untouched at one corner of the dais, and altogether the chamber’s state appeared not much worse than the aftermath of a rowdy dinner. With one exception: an eerie blue tint stained the air, sparkling with dust motes.
“Magic,” Caleb said.
“Miss Tunnicliffe is not here,” Sheffield noted.
Amelia pointed to the vaulted wooden beams overhead. “Look again.”
Vanity floated high above them. Arms sprawling, purple-and-red lace dress hanging like the flag of an especially enthusiastic country, she was endeavoring to turn herself toward the door, but moving with all the grace and efficiency of a swimmer in a mud pool.“Help!”she screamed. “Help me!”
“Stay calm,” Amelia called to her in the perfectly unruffled tone that only a teacher who daily faces anxious students (to say nothing of exploding antiques) can achieve. “We’ll get you down in no time at all.”
“Aaahhhh!” Vanity replied (much as the students tended to do, especially when the antiques exploded).
“What happened to her?” Sheffield asked, his voice unsteady, his eyes straining as if he could will the girl into a safe descent.
“She got her comeuppance,” Caleb said, and Amelia whacked him with the back of her hand.
“The teaspoon has psycho-conjunctive powers,” she explained more sensibly. “And a rather twisted sense of humor. Perhaps Miss Tunnicliffe was thinking highly of herself when she tried to use it to break the brooch’s security dome.”
“How will we get her down?” Sheffield demanded, not taking his gaze from the levitating girl. “A ladder won’t reach that far. What if the magic stops? She’ll never survive the fall!”
“I have a plan,” Amelia said, although it was only now taking shape in her mind. “It’s a little risky—”
“Risky?!”Sheffield and Vanity squealed in unison.
“—but you are correct about the possibility of the magic stopping. Most thaumaturgic effects are short-lived.”
“Perhaps that’s not the best phrasing to use in Vanity’s presence, under the circumstances,” Caleb murmured.
“Sh,” Amelia whispered to him. She gave Vanity the reassuring smile that never failed to work on students whose academic prospects were almost as dire as the girl’s current situation. “Never fear, Miss Tunnicliffe! You can count on me to save you. Now, if you please, where is my teaspoon?”
“I dropped the horrid thing over there!” Vanity said, gesturing in a way that encompassed half the Hall. “All I did was touch it to the glass dome and everything went—”
“Boom?” Amelia suggested.
“More like zoom,” Caleb said, pointing upward.
“Aaaahhh!” Vanity screamed, and not just in response to their wit. She had suddenly dropped several inches before coming to an abrupt, juddering halt. “Aaaahhh!” she added, grabbing at the air.
