It was a fair point. It was exactly what Alec had done, but aside from the shrapnel in his leg that still bothered him and probably always would, Alec had no regrets. “I found purpose on the battlefield.”
“I have duties that require my attentionhere.”
“Duties to the man who is trying his very best to blackmail you into a marriage with one of his daughters?”
“It doesn’t make any sense, I know.” His friend shook his head. “You know what I should do?”
“Change your name and hop a ship to the Caribbean?” Alec suggested.
“I’m not you. I’mnotrunning away.” Daniel scowled. “I think if I found a wife of my own choosing, I could put an end to this madness once and for all.”
That wasn’t an option Alec ever thought Daniel would propose aloud. His friend had been rather vocal about enjoying his bachelorhood for as many years as possible. “Also a valid suggestion,” he conceded. “Of course, Halwell could still leave his unentailed fortune elsewhere.”
Daniel sighed. “There is that. I suppose I’ll need an heiress, then.”
Alec wasn’t sure if his friend was serious or not. Part of him was simply relieved that Daniel hadn’t settled on Poppy, not that Alec had any claim to Poppy himself. “I had come to tell you that I planned on leaving Devon in the morning,” he began. “Now, I’m afraid to leave you alone under your uncle’s roof.”
A laugh escaped his friend. “If you can give me a few days, I’ll come with you. Just need some crutches and a more solid footing.”
Before Alec could respond to that, a calm settled over him, over everything really. He glanced down at his hands and saw the faintest sparkle of blue shimmers before they disappeared into the ether as though they’d never been there at all.
The protection spell.
Poppy and her sister had clearly found the spell in their grimoire. Of that, Alec had no doubt. He couldn’t help but smile at her adeptness.
“What are you smiling about?” Daniel asked sourly.
Of course, his friend would have never noticed the faint blue shimmers of Poppy’s spell. “I’ll just be relieved to return to London.” Then Alec shrugged. “As soon as you’re feeling up to it, that is.”
While it was probably in Alec’s best interest to run as quickly as he was able from Halwell Chase, he was also loathe to do so and prove his friend’s point that he ran away from his problems. Not that Poppy was a problem, and not that Daniel would know he was running from her, but Alec knew the truth of it. She beckoned to his soul, but for her sake, he needed to resist the call.
CHAPTER7
Poppy wantedto hole up in her chamber and pour over every page in the Branwyck grimoire. There was so much to learn, so many pages of spells and potions, so much magical history that she wanted to understand. It could take a lifetime to absorb all the information in the ancient book. While it was exhilarating to finally have some answers to their questions, it was also frustrating to realize that she and Laurel were so far behind in their magical knowledge. They should have had access to this important material when they were much younger.
She did not know how long the two of them sat on the settee, completely absorbed in the book. However, when Bella came to the sitting room for the second time to call them for dinner, Poppy heaved a sigh. She closed the ancient tome and looked at Laurel.
“I’ll put it in my bedchamber,” she began.
“Why? Because you’re the oldest?”
Younger sisters! Poppy narrowed her eyes. “Because it’s the furthest from Papa and Caroline. If we’re up late, they won’t realize.”
Apparently, that was an acceptable answer because Laurel shrugged in response. “Very well. I’ll meet you in the drawing room,” she said as she bounded off the settee.
A flash of blue light filled Poppy’s vision, and the sitting room was gone in the blink of an eye.
Poppy found herself in her father’s study. He look troubled as he stared at an unopened letter in his hands. Poppy crossed the floor to stand at his shoulder. Her eyes dropped to the letter and was surprised to find her name and Laurel’s emblazoned on the front in a distinctive and elegant hand. Papa tuned the envelope over and Poppy noticed an ornate symbol pressed into the wax seal. A dragon with a trident against a full moon. A sea dragon. It did not look familiar in the least.
After heaving a sigh, Papa opened his desk drawer and tucked the letter beneath a ledger and a stack of papers.
A mix of confusion and anxiety washed over Poppy...
“Poppy?” Laurel’s cool fingers on Poppy’s cheek brought her back to the sitting room. “What did you see?”
Goodness! Why was Papa hiding that correspondence from them? What was inside?
“There’s a letter in Papa’s study,” she said while her heart pounded like a racehorse just out of the gate. “He’s hiding it from us.”
