“You will come won’t you?” Chedworth asked. “Misery loves company, you know?”
A magical ball…Was it possible Poppy would find a way to attend? Thoughts of her had plagued Alec ever since he’d departed The Chase. He certainly couldn’t call on her in Devon, but what if he was to bump into her at… “When and where?” he heard himself ask.
“Hallow’s Eve,” Harcourt told him. “Nightshade Manor.”
“I will see if I can make it,” he said, though he knew that if there was even a sliver of a chance to see Poppy Elstone again, he would take it.
Then he nodded his farewell to the pair and left the hell for the cool night air along St. James Street.
* * *
Halwell Chase - Devon
Leaningagainst the balustrade as her memory returned time and time again to Alec Galbraith, Poppy did not feel the cool autumn wind that blew across the countryside, nor did she notice Georgie and Bella below, leading a gelding around a nearby paddock as the sun began to set. In fact, she would not have paid any attention to Laurel pacing the balcony just a few feet away if her sister hadn’t tripped over her own slippers and landed with both a thud and an unladylike curse slipping from her lips.
“Blast and damn!”
Upon hearing those words, Poppy pulled her attention away from her thoughts of Alec and directed it at her sister, who was now splayed across the balcony like a drunken sailor. “You’d better not let Caroline hear you say that.”
Laurel scowled in response. “I could just make her forget if you’d let me,” she said as she pushed back to her feet.
It was the same argument they’d had multiple times over the last sennight. Laurel taking the position that the ends justified the means, and Poppy refusing to manipulate their parents to get the outcome they wanted. Poppy sighed. “You’re not erasing her memory and we’re not casting a spell on Papa either.”
Her sister shrugged. “It’s a better plan than anything you’ve come up with.”
The sad truth of it was, Laurel might be right about that. And they’d found a spell in their grimoire that could possibly do that very thing. Still, Poppy could not, would not, allow them to use their abilities against their father. In the core of her soul, it felt wrong, like an abuse of their powers.
No, no. They’d have to figure out another way to attend Lady Wharton’s ball. But time was wearing rather thin. They had to act. And they had to do so quickly or they’d never reach Nightshade Manor at the far edge of Cornwall by the end of the month.
“Very well.” Poppy tugged the warm, velvet wrap closer about her arms and then made a direct path to the set of balcony doors.
“You’re going to do it?” Laurel followed quickly in her wake, surprise lacing her voice. “You’re going to enchant Papa?”
And take away his autonomy, his very will? Absolutely not.
Poppy shook her head as she opened the door and stepped into the drawing room. “I’m going to do what we should have done more than a year ago. I’m going to tell Papa the truth.”
She heard Laurel gasp a few feet behind her, but she did not stop and she did not turn around. “The truth about what exactly?”
“The truth about everything.” Determined, Poppy navigated her way down the corridor, around this corner and then that one before her step finally faltered at the sight of her father’s study. Her heart thudded in her chest and her breath felt slightly short.
Laurel bumped into her back.
Poppy almost stumbled forward but caught herself in time. She did glare over her shoulder at her younger sister, however. “Watch your step.”
“Watch yours,” Laurel countered. Then she grasped Poppy’s arm, her brown eyes so filled with worry. “Aunt Alora said we shouldn’t tell him, she—”
“Is gone,” Poppy added, not unkindly. “Aren’t you tired of hiding the truth?”
“I sort of like having a secret,” her sister said with a slight shrug. “Something that’s just ours.”
They had become closer in the months since their magic had been restored to them. Poppy treasured their shared connection, though she rarely expressed such sentiments out loud. “We’ll always have that bond, Laurel.” She smiled at her sister. “But there’s a whole world out there, others that are like us too. Telling Papa the truth ishowwe’ll get to Nightshade Manor. It has to be.”
Her little sister swiped at a tear on her cheek. “But what if Papa hates us when he learns the truth? What if he throws us from The Chase and disowns us? What will we do then?”
“Do you really think so poorly of me?” Papa’s voice sounded from behind them.
Poppy and Laurel gasped in unison as they spun on their heels to find their father just a few feet away in the corridor, a concerned expression splashed across his face.
