Zacharias sighed.
“Miss Gentleman,” he said, “I beg you will look here.” He rolled up his sleeve, holding his arm out.
“It is your arm,” observed Prunella, after a moment’s puzzled contemplation.
“You will not, I am sure, have failed to notice its colour,” said Zacharias. He rolled down his sleeve again, conscious of Prunella’s intent dark eyes, waiting for a conclusion.
“Certainly society has not,” he continued. “My colleagues are compelled to deal with me, however much they may dislike it. But in the circles to which you aspire, I am of no account whatsoever. A magic-making African might serve as a diversion in high society, but never more than that. Society would never consent to be influenced by such as I.”
“But you are the Sorcerer Royal,” said Prunella. Her cheeks warming unaccountably, she added, “Ifyouwished to be married to anyone, you would never be refused on account of your colour.”
Zacharias stood for a moment gazing down at his own hands. Hecould not say whether he agreed. Lady Wythe would have dismissed his doubt, even as she allowed that not every family would be delighted to own such a son-in-law:
“But you should not like such illiberal connections yourself! There are a great many sensible people who will know how to value you even as you deserve. You need not shut yourself off from the world for fear of the few who might be so little-minded.”
But the world had given Zacharias little reason to believe that the sensible, as Lady Wythe termed them, outnumbered the little-minded, though he had not sought out opportunities to test the truth of her statement. He needed no further reminder of the peculiar loneliness of his position—of the fact that, but for the intervention of fate, he might never have known the ease he now enjoyed; might never have had even the few friends he possessed.
“Perhaps not,” he said. “I have never made a trial. It is not within my power to make you respectable. I cannot even do that for myself.”
“Lady Wythe could,” said Prunella. “Anyone to whom she lent her countenance could not but be respectable.”
She clasped her hands. Zacharias had never seen her so serious.
“You know what it is to be on the fringes of everything—to see that others have what you lack, for nothing more than an accident of birth,” she said. “I suppose my scheme sounds wild enough, and perhaps no one will marry me after all, for fear of whatmycolour might signify. But I must try, or spend the rest of my life a lady’s maid, working petty magics as it suits my betters—and that would not suit me at all!”
Zacharias looked at the elegant hands wound together, the head crowned with cloudlike dark hair.
“I doubt you need have any worry of that,” he said, feeling the blood rise in his cheeks, though he spoke in the driest manner he could manage.
“Not if you will help me,” said Prunella. She was so engrossed inwhat she was about to say that she did not notice Zacharias’s embarrassment. “And if you do, as I know you could, I shall study as many tomes as you like, and what is more”—she flung back her shoulders, raising her head—“you may have an egg!”
Zacharias did not at first understand what she meant. Then he went still. “You have another?”
“I have four more eggs, besides the ones I hatched,” said Prunella. “But I should think one would be sufficient to pay for the expenses of my coming out, do not you agree?”
Zacharias could tell she was not nearly so confident as she pretended, but Prunella was not in fact wrong. He could think of several thaumaturges who would pay a great deal more than she could spend in a year for a familiar’s egg, and count it a bargain.
“How did you acquire seven familiars’ eggs?” he demanded.
“Why, I found them while I was rummaging in the attic.”
“Pray be serious,” said Zacharias, frowning. “It is a matter of greater consequence than you know.”
“Never mind where they are from, for there are no more to be got from that quarter,” said Prunella firmly. “All you need know is they are mine, to do what I will with them. What do you say to my offer?”
Zacharias hesitated, hardly knowing what to think, or what to do. “I am not sure it is not my duty to take them from you, if only for safeguarding.”
“As if you would!” said Prunella. She looked at him, and her brow clouded. Doubt, and a touch of fear, entered her eyes.
For a moment Zacharias saw how fully sensible Prunella was of the weakness of her position. Even with three familiars, an untrained female, alone in the world, could not resist the Sorcerer Royal if he chose to compel her compliance. But defiance lit her eyes: she squared her shoulders and tossed her head, as though she would fling off any uncertainty.
“Even if you did, the eggs would be no good to you,” she said. “Theyare bound in an ensorcellment, a vastly strong one, and they will never be anything more than four dead stones unless the spell is lifted. I have the secret of unlocking the charm, but no one else knows it.”
Zacharias said drily, “I can quite see why you do not feel the need for education, since you possess such a number of magical secrets!”
Prunella did not smile. Her face was composed, her mouth a determined line, but she could not altogether conceal her uncertainty. Zacharias recalled the look of alarm that had passed fleetingly through her eyes.
“Come,” he said gently, “are not we friends? I do not think we are so far apart. You will wish to learn as much as you need to, to be able to govern your familiars, and I understand that you require some assurance regarding your future. I do not say you have convinced me that a London Season is the best means of achieving it—”
