Spellmaker

Two days after the somewhat awkward engagement dinner at Seven Oaks, Elsie was still wondering what it would be like to kiss Bacchus Kelsey. She’d chided herself many times and even tried to start her novel reader, but the pleasure of it had faded—she found she couldn’t care about the fictional baron nearly as much as the real-life master spellmaker, and it made her miserable.

For the briefest moment, she had thought Bacchus might try, there in the duke’s hallway. Kiss her, that was. But that had just been bread crumbs on her chin. Thinking of it made her coil in embarrassment, and pining for the man only flared an uneasy depression. She’d only ever kissed Alfred, unless one were to count that boy at the workhouse when she was nine. His name was . . . Matthew, if memory served her right.

At least Bacchus still tolerated her. He hadn’t yet discovered she was disposable. And if she knew him at all, he might be noble enough to keep her around even once he did.

“Miss Camden?”

Elsie jerked to attention. She sat at the dining table in Ogden’s kitchen, barely a sixth of the size of the one at Seven Oaks, Miss Irene Prescott just across the corner from her. Blast, I missed what she said.

“Hmm?” she inquired sweetly.

Miss Prescott smiled patiently, a small iron rod in her hands. “Do you detect the points of this rune?”

Miss Prescott had brought temporally enchanted items today, as the Temporal Atheneum was all the way in Newcastle upon Tyne, and it was easier to have a local aspector enchant items than take the long trip north. The spell was a reverse aging spell, meant to remove rust. The rod in the spellbreaker’s hands looked fresh and new, but it had the telltale smell of mushrooms.

Elsie touched the rod, detecting the points of its knots. “I think so,” she lied. She knew exactly where they were. She could untie them while standing on her head. Assuming she still had that skill. She hadn’t tried since she was a child.

Miss Prescott went on to discuss the rune for the next fifteen minutes, followed by the assurance that even though Elsie couldn’t see the rune, she could still untie it.

Elsie’s cheeks were beginning to hurt from all the forced smiling, and she was so relieved to untie the bloody thing, she didn’t bother making any mistakes.

“Wonderful!” Miss Prescott set the now-rusted rod on the table. “What a quick learner you are, Miss Camden! It took me a month to feel out temporal runes.”

A month? Elsie tried to remember the first temporal rune she’d come across, and found she couldn’t. “Beginner’s luck,” she offered. She’d need to stall her learning next time. The last thing she wanted was Miss Prescott announcing to important people that Elsie was talented, lest the magistrate determine she’d had more practice than Bacchus had let on.

Thoughts of Bacchus had her fiddling with the ring on her finger. She’d need to procure one for him as well. A nice band . . . But what would Bacchus like? Something simple, most likely. She wouldn’t have much time to look until . . . She wasn’t sure. After the wedding, certainly.

The wedding.

They were going to keep it simple, yet Elsie still had two sheets of paper upstairs filled with discussions on it, mostly inquiries from the duchess, though Bacchus always wrote them out himself. Having a duchess as a guest made her almost as nervous as having Bacchus as the groom.

“Rational spells are the trickiest, in my opinion. We’ll get to those last,” Miss Prescott said, and Elsie became aware once more of the opus spell tucked beneath her dress. “I’ll set up an appointment for us at the Spiritual Atheneum so you can get a feel for that type of magic before we start focusing on individual disciplines. It shouldn’t be hard—the atheneums are always in need of spellbreakers. They’ll be happy to have us.”

Elsie perked up at this. Perhaps she could learn something more of Lily Merton at the Spiritual Atheneum? Could she have left any tracks uncovered? So far, Ogden had had no success in tracking her down, but maybe he’d been looking in the wrong places. “I would very much like that.”