Magic In The Storm (39 page)

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about what
Jack the Lad said. He told me the powers had to have come from
inside of me. And I do believe he is right. I’ve probably had these
magical powers my whole life, but something, somehow, triggered
them into coming out.”

“But what?”

“I don’t know. My growing confidence, maybe?
I can tell you, I have a great deal more self–confidence now than I
ever had in my life.”

“And did you get that confidence first before
any of your new powers began to show themselves?”

Morgan sighed. “I don’t...”

A knock on the door interrupted him. “There
is a lady to see you, Mr. Vallentyn. She’s downstairs in the
drawing room,” the maid announced, after Morgan had opened the
door.

“And it’s not the young lady who’s come to
see you before, either. It’s someone new, and not so young. And
she’s got something with her,” the girl said, very
mysteriously.

Morgan gave Nestor and Cosmina a surprised
look, then went downstairs to find out who this new woman was.

Adriana’s companion was sitting at the edge
of the sofa when Morgan came in, followed immediately by Nestor and
Cosmina. She stood up and give him a hint of a curtsey, but no
smile.

Picking up a good sized package, she handed
it to Morgan. “Miss Hayden asked me to deliver this to you.”

Morgan’s heart lifted. “Adriana did?”

“Yes,” she said, her mouth in a straight
disapproving line.

Adriana had thought of him! She had thought
to send him a gift? Morgan was so overwhelmed with relief and with
happiness, he could hardly move for a minute. She still thought of
him. She still cared! His heart soared.

Morgan quickly tore the paper from the
package and found the most lovely painting. It was beautiful and
magical. As he looked at it, Morgan’s heart began to race.

He had dreamed this! Last night, and the
night before. He had dreamed of this place, of this very scene. The
moonlight and the stones...

“Stonehenge!”

Morgan spun around to face Nestor.
“Stonehenge? What is that?”

Nestor pointed at the painting. “That’s what
that is, in the painting. It’s Stonehenge.”

Morgan shook his head, not comprehending.
Nestor explained. “It’s an ancient circle of stones. No one knows
who built it. Some say it was the druids. But all I know is that it
is...”

“It is a place of magic,” Cosmina finished
for him.

“Yes,” Nestor said, looking a little put out
that she had finished his sentence.

“I’ve been there,” Cosmina said.

Morgan turned to look at her, standing beside
him. “You know this place?”

“Yes, but that isn’t there,” she said,
pointing at a small copse of trees in the lower corner of the
painting. “Stonehenge is in the middle of a large field. There are
no trees nearby. And I don’t like the look of those wolves,” she
added as an afterthought.

Morgan looked more closely. There were rather
nasty looking wolves there. “Has Adriana ever been here?” he asked
Henrietta.

“No!” she answered her eyes widening.

“Are you certain?” Nestor asked.

“Absolutely,” the woman responded
straightening herself as if affronted by the question.

“Then how did she paint this?” Cosmina
asked.

The woman deflated a bit. “I, I don’t
know.”

Morgan knew however. She must have had the
same dream he’d been having. It was the only answer. And it made a
great deal of sense now that he saw it. This painting was filled
with magic. Real magic! Just as there was magic in everything that
Adriana drew or painted. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it
before.

Adriana was Vallen! Not only that, but they
were
meant to be together. Morgan knew it with a
certainty—and Adriana probably did too, otherwise she wouldn’t have
sent him the painting.

There was such a rush of good feelings, love
and... Morgan searched around in his mind to name this feeling
coursing through his veins. It was... magic. Strong, empowering
magic.

He turned back to Nestor. “Do you feel it?”
he asked, knowing that his friend would know exactly what he was
talking about.

Nestor looked at the painting, and then
nodded his head. “Yes.” He then paused and asked, “Do you
think...”

“Yes. She must be!” Morgan turned back to
Henrietta. He didn’t wish to say anything in front of her, just in
case she didn’t know anything about the Vallen.

But the thought that Adriana had recognized
the magic and the importance in this painting... it made
everything, absolutely everything, fit into place.

“Please thank Adriana for me. This is very
special. And that she thought of me... well, please tell her I am
touched. And...” Morgan thought to choose his words very carefully.
“Tell her this painting means as much to me as she does. I think
she will understand.”

With a harrumph of disbelief or just
disgruntlement, Adriana’s companion bobbed him a curtsey and
left.

Morgan looked back at the painting. Staring
deeper into it, he could feel the chill of the night air, smell the
fresh grass of the field all around and even sense the age of the
stones. It was almost as if he were there, standing in the center
of this magnificent structure. He could feel it.

There were others there as well. Standing in
the shadows were other Vallen. They all seemed to be excited, happy
in their anticipation of the night.

But, even as Morgan looked around and reached
out with all of his senses, he knew there was something missing.
There was something wrong.
He
needed something more that he
just didn’t have and without that, the evening would be wasted.

There was something more that he needed
before he could attain his destiny.

“... are disturbing,” Cosmina was saying when
Morgan pulled himself back from the painting.

He didn’t know what it was that she found
disturbing, but it didn’t matter. He knew what he had to do.

M
organ!” Vallentyn
said, with as much shock at seeing him as Morgan felt at meeting
his brother.

“Hello, Vallentyn,” Morgan said, taking his
brother’s hand. He had changed, Morgan thought. He was definitely
looking older. It was odd, but he supposed he hadn’t seen his
brother for a number of years now, despite living on the same
estate. Only Vallentyn never came to visit him in the woods, and
Morgan had never been able to leave them.

His brother looked around the nearly deserted
room nervously. Morgan had never been inside a gentleman’s club
before, but when Nestor discovered this was where his brother was
this, and every, afternoon, they had decided that it was much
easier for Morgan to meet Vallentyn here than risk seeing his
mother if he had gone to Vallentyn House.

The room they were in was large, but where
they were, near the back wall in one of the many small clusters of
chairs scattered about the room, there was a feeling of
privacy.

“Please sit down,” Vallentyn said, gesturing
to the chair next to the one he had just vacated. “Would you like
some brandy or port?” he asked, raising a finger to call the
footman who was hovering nearby, but not so close that he could
hear their conversation.

“No, thank you.”

“Oh.”

The footman placed a tray with two bottles
and two glasses on the table at the edge of their little area.
Vallentyn walked over and helped himself with a slightly shaking
hand.

“Did you go to the house?” he asked, after
taking a liberal gulp of his wine.

“No. A friend of mine went for me to see if
you were home. He learned you were here,” Morgan reassured his
brother.

“So she doesn’t know that we’re meeting?”

“No.” Morgan didn’t need to ask who
‘she’ was. He was certain his brother was just as
terrified of their mother as he had been until very recently.

Vallentyn gave an almost inaudible sigh of
relief before sitting back in his chair and taking another sip of
his drink.

“So, how have you been?” Vallentyn asked
awkwardly.

“Well, thank you,” Morgan answered, just as
uncomfortable. They had never really spoken much to each other,
even when Morgan lived in the abbey. Vallentyn had always been out,
seeing to the estate—or, perhaps, as Morgan had always imagined,
avoiding their mother.

“Well, it’s quite something to see you here
in London. How did you manage to escape the woods and Mother’s
curses?”

“My powers have increased,” Morgan answered
simply.

“Ah, yes, so I heard. Mother was quite
furious, you know.”

“Yes.”

A silence fell between them. Morgan cursed
Cosmina and her practicality that had driven him to seek out his
brother in the first place. “What are you going to do after you
tell Adriana you love her?” she had asked—damn her.

He hadn’t had an answer. He knew he had to go
to this Stonehenge, and that there he would probably attain his
destiny whatever that was, but beyond that he hadn’t really thought
of what he was going to do with his life. He wanted to do good for
society, but that, he was certain would be tied up with his
destiny.

But Cosmina had been right. He needed to have
some place more permanent to live than Mrs. Lunden’s boarding
house. He certainly couldn’t bring Adriana there. He knew he wanted
to marry her, but again, if he did so, he would need to find some
way of supporting her, and himself.

It was all very disconcerting having to think
of such things. He’d never had to before. So here he was, in front
of his brother, the head of his family. If anyone would know what
Morgan could do, it would be Vallentyn. Once he had this settled,
he would be able to turn his attention to his destiny, but not
until then. Adriana had to come first.

Morgan swallowed hard, forcing down his pride
and said, “I’m in a bit of a fix.”

“Oh? Anything I can do to help?” Vallentyn
asked, putting down his drink and focusing his full attention on
Morgan.

“Well, er, I was hoping you would know...”
Morgan paused, and wished he’d accepted that drink. He took another
breath and started again. “I’d like to marry.”

“Really? Why, that’s wonderful! I didn’t know
you knew any young ladies. Is this someone you met here, in
London?”

“Er, well, no, actually. It is... well,”
Morgan took a deep breath. It would be easier if he just got on
with it and said it, he thought to himself. Right. He took another
breath and said, “Actually, it is Adriana Hayden.”

The smile on Vallentyn’s face froze. For a
full minute he sat there looking at Morgan. “You do know that
Mother wanted her to marry me?”

“Yes. I know. But I love her. And... and I
have very good reason to believe she loves me as well. So I... I
want to ask her to marry me, but I, er, don’t have anywhere to
live. I’m staying at a guest house right now, but I can’t stay
there forever, and I would need a way to support her, and myself.
So, I was wondering...” Morgan finally ran out of breath and nerve.
He swallowed again and then got up to help himself to the
brandy.

Vallentyn just sat there quietly. Steepling
his fingers, he tapped his two forefingers together, clearly
thinking this over.

Morgan drank down half a glass of brandy and
nearly choked on it. He wasn’t used to spirits.

“Mother doesn’t know about this, does
she?”

“No!” he said, a little too vehemently. He
then added, more calmly, “Although, she does know that Adriana and
I have met.”

Suddenly Vallentyn stood up and took a step
toward Morgan so quickly that he was worried for a moment that his
brother was going to attack him for stealing his fiancé Morgan took
a few quick steps back, but Vallentyn went straight to the bottles
and poured another drink for himself.

After drinking down nearly a whole glass, he
said, “I would help you, really I would. But if I did, and then
Mother found out... well...”

“I’ll protect you from her. Don’t worry about
that.”

Vallentyn stopped, his drink raised halfway
to his lips, and just looked at him. “You can do that?” he asked,
lowering his drink again. “You can protect me? Er, stop her?”

“Yes. Oh, yes, most definitely. I’m probably
much stronger than her now, although I haven’t actually tried out
my powers to see just how strong they are. But the last time we
met, I was able to stop her rather easily.”

“But you don’t have any powers to speak of,”
Vallentyn scoffed, taking a sip from his drink and sitting down
again.

Inside of Morgan, all his childhood feelings
of inadequacy fought with a new–found anger that he would be
dismissed so easily. Pushing aside both, Morgan stood in front of
his brother.

Vallentyn looked up, a shadow of uncertainty
already clouding his eyes.

“I am stronger than Mother. Do you not
believe me? Do I need to prove myself to you?”

“How can you?” he paused and shifted his eyes
around the room. Morgan turned, too, to see if they were being
observed. The room was still mostly empty except for another group
of men at the other end of the room.

“Listen, Morgan,” his brother continued, “I
appreciate the fact that you’ve fallen in love with Miss Hayden,
really I do. She is a beautiful girl. But it is simply too
dangerous from where I’m sitting...”

“You will help me,” Morgan said, infusing his
voice with magic. “You have the power to help me, and you will. I
don’t need to prove myself to you.” He paused and let the magic
fall away. “I am above doing parlor tricks, Vallentyn.”

His brother’s jaw dropped open, but he
quickly caught it and closed his mouth again. “You... you really
are powerful now. I could feel that. I could hear it. You put a
suggestion into my mind, just like Mother does.”