Without letting himself think about it too much, he put back the common chunk of granite he’d originally picked up and instead pulled a more expensive piece of amethyst from a drawer. Amethyst absorbed protective glyphs better than granite.
He began to carve a series of interconnected warding runes that made up a powerful glyph. He etched the lines lightly at first, then deeper and deeper into the gem as he called up his own power, making the glyph as potent as possible.
Much later, Nicholas sat back, studied his work, and decided the stone could fit one more rune. It wasn’t a matter of having enough space—he could engrave the designs smaller—but even the amethyst could only support so much magic. He’d chosen a gem that did particularly well with protective runes, but there were still limits.
The question was, what did he want to engrave to finish off the glyph? A truth-rune would make Sadie more inclined to honesty while she carried the charm. The chance to get a straightanswer tempted him less than he expected, though. Not because he’d feel guilty tricking her that way—though he would—but because he didn’t want the answers if they came via trickery.
He was still debating what to do when a servant came to inform him that he was due to meet Beatrice in less than five minutes. Nicholas slipped the amethyst into his pocket and left the engraving room. He’d have to make his final decision later.
Beatrice waited for him in the lavender sitting room, standing just inside the door. She accepted his arm without a murmur, and they headed out to the gardens. The day before, Nicholas had been the one to break the silence with both Jane and Helen. Given her lack of greeting in the sitting room, he fully expected the same to happen with Beatrice, but once they had moved away from the manor a bit, she surprised him by stopping and freeing her arm from his.
“We need not pretend we are courting. We can keep up appearances enough to satisfy your mother, but when it is just us, I think honesty is a better policy. Neither of us is looking for romance.”
Nicholas nodded, trying not to let his surprise show. Why should Beatrice feel any differently than he did? “I appreciate your bluntness. I take it the decision to accept the invitation to visit was not your own?”
“Not quite. I accepted for myself, but my motivations had more to do with silencing my father than anything else. He is not pleased that I am yet unwed and make no efforts to change my status when we visit court.”
“I understand.” Nicholas swept his arm out toward the garden. “Please choose your path. We should stay out for at least an hour, lest the servants report we came in early, but otherwise we can do as we wish. Is there a non-courtship topic you’d care to discuss, or shall we stick with our own thoughts for the remainder of our time?”
“I suppose that depends. Do you read historical texts?”
“Not since my tutors stopped assigning them.”
“Then I suppose we will each be happier with our own thoughts.”
Nicholas smiled. “Indeed.”
For the next hour, while Beatrice contemplated her history texts, Nicholas ran his thumb over the charm in his pocket and contemplated how to give it to Sadie. He wouldn’t add the truth-rune, though if she would tell him something of what she was afraid of, he could add a more targeted protection.
Of course, first, she’d have to admit she was afraid of something, and he didn’t expect that to happen. Convincing her even to accept the charm would be difficult. But he’d have an entire hour alone with her tomorrow during their walk to make the attempt.
At the appointed hour, Nicholas and Beatrice made their way back to the manor. “Thank you for walking with me, Beatrice. I enjoyed your company.”
She laughed. “Yours wasn’t so bad, either.”
They walked together through the halls for a bit, but when Nicholas stopped at the sitting-room door, Beatrice continued on without a backward glance. After that surprisingly painless walk, he knew better than to expect the next to go so well. The most powerful luck charm he could craft wouldn’t be enough for that.
???
Nicholas quickly discoveredthat Lenora didn’t expect him to actually participate in the conversation as they walked the grounds. She never paused long enough for him to answer any of the questions she threw at him, sharing her own opinions and moving onto new topics with impressive rapidity.He occasionally made sounds that could be interpreted as agreement or interest, and that satisfied her.
It satisfied Nicholas as well. Not quite as restful as walking with Beatrice, but not as annoying as maintaining his end of the polite conversation about nothing he’d had with Helen. He at least enjoyed walking outside, even if he’d prefer to be under the shade of the trees given the summer heat.
He never intended to lead Lenora into the forest, but he did angle their path a little closer to the tree line as their time went on and the heat from the sun grew stronger. And maybe Nicholas tried a little too hard to get to the relative coolness and drifted a little too close.
The bat took him by surprise.
It terrified Lenora.
The tiny creature swooped out of the trees into the harsh sunlight soundlessly. Nicholas noticed it at first because the amethyst in his pocket grew warm, the protections he’d engraved flaring to life. By the time he identified the dark blur, Lenora had seen it and started screaming.
She covered her hair with her hands and ran, preventing him from casting a ward to protect her from the bat that was behaving abnormally enough that it had triggered his enchantments. The bat followed Lenora, rising higher, then diving at her over and over. Nicholas cursed and ran after them both.
Fear gave Lenora surprising speed and grace. She reached the closest manor door before Nicholas could catch up, not tripping over any of the uneven paths or having any issues with her skirts while running. She threw open the door and darted inside, the bat making to follow her.
Nicholas threw up a ward over the doorway just in time to prevent the creature from getting inside. It flitted around thedoor as he crossed the final distance to the manor, then arrowed away, back to the forest in a straight line.
Nicholas let the poor bat go and dropped his ward. He entered the manor and, after closing the door firmly behind himself, followed the continuing screams deeper inside his home.
