Magic In The Storm (25 page)

Kat kept quiet, however, not revealing which
direction she would need to go to find Morgan and whether she would
pass by Bond Street on her way. Very well, she would find out where
he was another way.

Tatiana thought for a moment. Where would the
boy have found lodging close to Mayfair?

“He didn’t mention whether or not he was in
need of funds, did he?” she asked.

“No, he didn’t.”

“Well, perhaps I should take him some anyway.
He’ll need to pay his room and board, for certain.”

“I believe he has money, or at least he
didn’t mention the need for any.”

So he was not staying with friends—not that
he had any.

“But where would he have obtained money?
Unless he applied directly to Vallentyn—but Jonathan would have
told me,” Tatiana said, as if thinking aloud.

Kat once again kept silent. She was becoming
altogether too clever.

“Enough of these games, Katrina,” Tatiana
said, standing and coming toward her niece. “My patience has come
to an end. Tell me where Morgan is staying.”

“N–n–no,” Kat said, taking a step backwards,
and firmly keeping her eyes on the floor.

“You know I will find out from you either
way. Make this easier on both of us and cooperate.”

“I won’t...ma’am.”

Tatiana could feel the girl putting up her
weak mental barriers. They were pitiful, but she supposed it was to
her own advantage, and the girl was quite powerful in many other
ways.

Tatiana raised the girl’s chin with a flick
of her finger, but still she wouldn’t raise her eyes. “Did we not
have a little talk about this show of weakness?”

“It is not weakness, ma’am, it is...”

“What?”

“Defense,” Kat said quietly.

Tatiana laughed. “You can’t defend yourself
against me. Don’t even try. You may be a strong Vallen, Kat, and
hopefully by the time you attain your destiny you will become even
more powerful, but know that you are no match for me. Now be
reasonable. Tell me what I want to know, and I will leave you
alone.”

“No! I won’t. I won’t jeopardize Morgan in
that way.”

“Very well,” Tatiana said, before infusing
her voice with a great deal of power. She would need quite a bit to
put a suggestion into Kat’s mind without eye contact—even though
her barriers were meager, they still required Tatiana to use more
power on her than she ordinarily would. With her voice saturated
with magic she said, “Tell me the address where Morgan is
staying,”

Kat bit her lip so hard it turned deep red.
Her face turned deathly pale as she fought the suggestion.

It was such a simple little piece of
information, Tatiana thought to herself. She didn’t want to have to
befuddle the girl just for this.

“Tell me where he is staying,” Tatiana said
again, her powers reaching out to the girl, willing her to speak
the information that she needed.

Kat closed her eyes, fighting the suggestion
with everything she had, but it wasn’t enough. Finally, her teeth
let go of her lip and the words came out choked, “Dartmouth
Street.”

Tatiana backed off. That was all she needed.
She didn’t know where this Dartmouth Street was, but it didn’t
matter. Her driver would know it, and she would be able to discern
which house once she was there. She gave Kat a little pat on her
arm. “There now, that wasn’t too difficult. Hopefully, next time
when I ask you something, you will be more forthcoming.”

A
driana stood up,
her suddenly limp fingers letting her embroidery fall to the floor.
“Morgan!”

“Adriana! Please tell this man...”

“Miss Hayden, this man is insisting on seeing
you, but he bears no card, nor...” Jackson, Lord Devaux’s butler,
and Morgan said at the same time as they both entered the room.
Jackson stepped in front of Morgan, deliberately barring his way.
They both stopped speaking in mid–sentence as Adriana held up her
hand.

“It is all right, Jackson. I know the
gentleman,” Adriana said with as much authority as she could
command considering her sudden trembling. Whether it was from fear,
anger, excitement or simply the fact that Morgan’s dominating
presence was in her drawing room, she didn’t know. She just knew
she had to clasp her hands together to keep it from being too
obvious.

Jackson looked from her to Morgan, and back
again. He gave Henrietta a significant nod before turning on his
heel, and walking from the room.

In two long strides, Morgan was by her side.
He placed his hands on her arms, making tingles and heat rush
through her, and a strange calm stopped her heart from beating so
quickly. “Adriana, are you all right?”

She was about to say yes, just from habit,
but she stopped herself. “No. No, Morgan, I am not all right.”

There was a discreet cough nearby, and
Adriana realized she had completely forgotten Henrietta’s
presence.

Morgan dropped his hands, taking a step away
from her.

“Henrietta Britworth, may I introduce you
to...” And then she had to stop. Adriana’s voice suddenly
disappeared. It was gone. Her throat had closed up and she could no
longer speak. Adriana put her hand to her throat and turned to look
at Morgan, panic beginning to lace its way through her chest.

He looked blankly at her for the briefest
moment, and then took a deep breath in with realization. Catching
her eyes with his own, he placed his hand on her shoulder and said,
“I release my hold.”

Immediately, the tightness in her throat was
gone. She had to take a step to catch her balance, and was grateful
for Morgan’s hand on her elbow.

“What...?” she said, completely confused, and
not a little scared.

“I’m sorry. It’s all right now,” Morgan said,
his deep baritone voice soothing and calming her once again.

“Adriana?” Henrietta said, looking just as
confused as Adriana had felt.

“I’m sorry, Henrietta. This is Morgan... er,”
she turned back to him. She didn’t know his last name.

“Vallentyn. I am Morgan Vallentyn. Adriana
and I met when she was visiting my family last week,” he finished
for her.

“Oh!” Henrietta said, giving Morgan a curtsey
and Adriana an odd look. She then looked up at him again and her
small brown eyes widened. “Oh! You’re that man! The man in
Adriana’s painting!”

Adriana felt her face heat with
embarrassment, and then grow even hotter as Morgan turned to look
at her, a little smile playing on his lips. “You painted a picture
of me?”

“Uh, well, yes,” she admitted reluctantly
before giving Henrietta a meaningful look. She wished her companion
hadn’t mentioned the painting—he might want to see it, and she
couldn’t bear being so embarrassed yet again. Henrietta gave a
little shrug and a small apologetic smile, but the twinkle in her
eye told Adriana she remembered the painting quite well.

“But that’s not why you came to visit,”
Adriana said, getting away from the subject as quickly as she
could.

“No.” The expression on Morgan’s faced
changed immediately. “No.” Once again he was looking worried and
concerned. He turned his eyes to Henrietta and then back to her.
“We need to speak—about last night.”

“Yes, we most certainly do!” All of the anger
and confusion Adriana had struggled with all night long came
rushing back to her. She hadn’t been able to sleep a wink for
thinking about all she had witnessed the night before. None of
it—not from the moment she had encountered Morgan telling fortunes
in Lady Collingswood’s side parlor, to the time he had left her at
the door to the ballroom—had made any sense to her at all. She
didn’t know what to think about any of it.

But she did know it was not something that
either she or Morgan would feel comfortable discussing in front of
Henrietta. So far, Adriana hadn’t told her companion anything, and
she wasn’t entirely sure she should—mainly because it was all too
bizarre to even put into words, let alone any that made sense.

Adriana turned to Henrietta and looked at her
pleadingly. “Would you mind, Henrietta, I need to speak with Morgan
alone.”

The twinkle immediately disappeared from her
companion’s eyes. “I don’t know, Adriana.” She continued to look
more and more worried as she thought about it. “I don’t think that
would be a good idea, especially considering that paint...”

“Henrietta, I promise to tell you
everything—later. Right now, I would appreciate just a few
moments... please?” She tried to give Henrietta a reassuring
smile.

Adriana knew how much Henrietta loved to be
daring, to live at the margin of acceptable behavior—and she
desperately hoped her companion wouldn’t decide to change now.

Hesitantly, Henrietta began to move toward
the door. “Well, all right. But just for a few minutes. And I am
going to leave the door open,” she warned.

“Yes. That’s fine.” And, in fact, it was
absolutely fine with Adriana when she thought about all she had
witnessed between Morgan and Lady Vallentyn the night before.

As soon as her companion was gone, she turned
to Morgan. She could hardly believe he was here—taking up so much
space in her little drawing room. It wasn’t just his size, but his
whole being that took up all of the space. It was odd, but she
didn’t remember him being this way—being so large.

But his eyes were the same. Dark as the
deepest night, and just now looking at her with such concern. She
nearly melted at his look—and it made it extremely hard to continue
to be angry with him. But she steeled herself, remembering an
entire night spent tossing and turning on her bed.

“You are all right?” he asked again, taking
her hands.

“No, I am not. I want to know what happened
last night. No matter how I think of it, it doesn’t make any
sense,” she said, shades of anger beginning to blend inside of her.
Her head started to ache again just from the memory of the
night.

“I’m sorry.” He softly rubbed his thumb
against her right temple as if he was aware that her head hurt and
knew that this would help. It did. It felt wonderful—warm, caring,
and soothing. Adriana couldn’t help it, she closed her eyes and
just allowed Morgan to massage away the pain. Her anger faded under
his deft fingers.

“Please don’t be upset,” he said after a
moment, his voice as soothing as his fingers. “I promise to explain
everything to you, just... first tell me that you haven’t seen my
mother today or received anything from her.”

“No. Why would I?” Adriana asked, blinking
her eyes open again. Her headache had completely disappeared.

He shook his head. “I... I’m just afraid she
may try to hurt me through you. Just as she did with the animals in
my barn.”

The room around Adriana lost all of its
color. “The pox?” she whispered.

Morgan tried to give her a reassuring smile.
“I’m certain she wouldn’t give you the pox, but she knows that I
care about you, and I don’t want you to be hurt. Please, stay away
from her, and I will do everything in my power to keep you safe.
Kat has promised to help as well.”

Kat would protect her? Was she like him? But
what... “What are you?” she asked before she realized she was
speaking out loud.

Morgan gave her an apologetic little smile.
“I’m Vallen.”

“What?”

“Vallen.” He paused and then frowned. “Some
people confuse us with witches,” he explained.

Adriana laughed. Her shoulders dropped as the
tension slipped out of her. “Please be serious.”

But Morgan hardly cracked a smile. “It’s
true. I, my mother, Kat, even my brother, Vallentyn, to some
extent. We are all Vallen.”

Adriana could feel the smile fade from her
lips. He was serious. “But witches are the stuff of fairytales.
They aren’t real.”

Morgan gave a little shrug. “Even fairytales
have some grain of truth in them.”

Adriana shook her head. She just could not
believe that Morgan was a witch. It was ridiculous. It was silly!
Witches didn’t really exist. People couldn’t do magic.

Morgan frowned, clearly hurt by her
skepticism. “You don’t believe me. I’ll prove it to you, then.”

Adriana tried to pull her hand away from his,
suddenly frightened again. He was so serious, and horrible flashes
of what she’d seen last night kept flitting through her mind.

“No, it’s all right, come.” Once again his
voice was soft and soothing.

Gently, he pulled her to the French doors
behind them leading into the back garden, but she stopped as he was
about to go outside into the rain.

“We’ll get wet!”

“No, we won’t. Watch.” He let go of her hand
and took a step out the door. Adriana watched in fascination as
Morgan stood outside in the rain without one drop falling on him.
It all just seemed to bend around him, as if he were holding up an
umbrella—only he wasn’t.

He took her hand and pulled her outside to
join him under his non–existent umbrella. Laughing at her
expression, and then said, “You know, I don’t think it was supposed
to rain at all today.” With a wave of his hand, the rain
stopped.

Adriana’s world faded once again as she
watched the deep gray clouds just skitter away with the wave of his
hand. A brilliant blue sky appeared, the dazzling sun shining down
on them, warm and full of the expectation of flowers and lovely
walks in the park. She was grateful that Morgan was keeping a firm
hold on her elbow. In the sudden shimmering heat of the
sun–drenched garden, the fresh scent of the earth enveloped them
making her feel light–headed.

Morgan bent down to a rose bush next to the
door that had not yet bloomed, but was filled with the promise of
many deep red blossoms. As he gently cupped his hand under one bud,
it burst into bloom, unfolding its petals even as she watched. He
then plucked it off the bush.

He handed it to Adriana. Their fingers
touched as she took the bloom from him. Small pinpricks shot from
his fingers into hers, leaving her hand tingling.