Otherworldly Discipline: A Witch's Lesson (26 page)

“Exactly,” Moriarty said, as if Ashcroft hit the nail on the head. Moriarty had no idea what his problem was. “What can I possibly do with Alice? Now she’s better, and I think she… I don’t know. She’s absolutely beautiful, her voice, her innocence, and she’s so sweet, really, and…”

“So you brought her here without any end-game at all?” Ashcroft said frankly.

“Don’t say that like it’s a surprise to you,” Moriarty cried. “This is a real situation, here! I figured that I would have time to figure out a game plan as she got over the sickness, but I haven’t had time to think at all thus far, and—” He was running his hands through his hair, pacing.

“Wait—before you blather on,” Ashcroft said, putting out his hand to signal Moriarty to stop. “Let me just go back and get the facts
straight
.”

Moriarty put his hands on his hips, ready to answer any questions that might shed some wisdom on the situation. “Please do.”

“Alice is… immortal?”

“Yes.”

“Beautiful?”

“Yes.”

“She likes you?”

Moriarty had to think for a moment, and then remembered how she made a little moan when he’d kissed her not thirty minutes ago. “Yes—I think so.”

“You like her?”

Moriarty nodded. “Well, yes, I daresay. She’s extremely tolerable.”

“You already saved her life?”

“Yes.”

“And she was a virgin until you came along, so she
i
s quite unused…”

“Yes.”

“And needless to say, you
ha
ve just dedicated six weeks of total hell to her.”

Moriarty nodded. “Well, it was more hell for her than for me, but—”

Ashcroft put his hand over his eyes and sighed. “This isn’t very complicated, Moriarty. Just marry the damn girl. You’ll be happy, she’ll be happy. Everyone will be happy. And you won’t keep wearing down the wood floor with your pacing.”

With horror, Moriarty dropped his jaw wide open. Certainly, that couldn’t have been Ashcroft’s advice? He knew Moriarty better than anybody! He should know that Moriarty couldn’t actually handle marriage. He cleared his throat, feeling the need to clarify. “You mean… Monogamy?”

“Do you think she’d allow polygamy?” Ashcroft asked.

Moriarty didn’t know, and didn’t act like he did. He just stood there, worrying.

Ashcroft didn’t seem to be care that he wasn’t giving Moriarty what he thought he’d
like to
hear. “Let’s assume she won’t, then. Yes. Monogamy. Even you can do it.”

His life would be unrecognizable! One woman? One? True, she was beautiful, delicious, sensuous yet innocent, but… But one? “But what about my days off? What would I do with them?”

“Do the same thing you have been doing. Relax, have fun and lots of sex—with your wife.” He looked up at the ceiling. “For being the same man who told me to pull my head out of my ass about Charlotte…”

“Yes, but it’s different with you! You haven’t had very many partners for your years, Ashcroft. Marriage would only increase your sex life and
decrease
your loneliness, and—”

“Marriage will do the same for you. Only instead of a different girl every night, you get the same girl, one who you obviously like to a level you thought before impossible. And so you need to think about it like this: why sleep with a girl you don’t
even
like every
week
, when you can sleep with a girl you love every day?”

Moriarty nodded thoughtfully. “I’ve never thought about it like that, Master
..
.”

Ashcroft waved his fingers. “Good. Now, go back to her before you really screw everything up. She’s probably feeling abandoned.”

Moriarty turned toward the door, and then wheeled back. “Did you want to talk about the Charlotte problem? Because if she did set the barn on fire—I would like to state that I don’t think she’s actually criminally insane. I
am in her debt
.”

“
Her debt? Oh, please, pray do
n’t encourage her that way,” Ashcroft sighed. “
She’d
think it
’
s fine to ignore my orders if she does
not
agree with them and she thinks she knows better. Which happens constantly because
does happen to be
a teenager who ALWAYS thinks she knows better, with the supplemental fact that she leaps before looking… Though I have a feeling something
i
s not right with her. Something
i
s very out-of-place…”

“Because she saved Alice?” Moriarty simply couldn’t understand what Ashcroft was so worried about. But he feared that Ashcroft simply didn’t like Charlotte helping Alice.

“No, Moriarty. Not because she saved her. But because she was able to,” Ashcroft huffed, clarifying. “In my experience, when you see something too good to be true, that means it is. And let me just say, the amount she
ha
s improved since we’ve been intimate certainly is too good to be true.
It hasn’t been natural.
” Ashcroft’s gaze, which was gloomy, paused slightly with amusement probably because Moriarty remained in the room. “Go back to your woman, Moriarty. I can handle mine by myself—this is
not
the first time I
ha
ve had to take her in hand, you know. I’m getting quite good at it.”

Moriarty grinned and bowed before turned out of the room, eager to look at Alice with new potential.

A wife.  He never thought that the notion would cause excitement, but it did. Excitement that made his stomach churn a bit with nervousness, but it wasn’t deterring. One woman—forever. But this woman would be his.
His woman
.

He would teach her exactly the right way to please him; she had seemed eager to learn. And he was eager to figure out how to make her swoon with pleasure. So far, he hadn’t done a good job of it.

The only time they’d had sex, he had taken her virginity with a harsh thrust. Never again. He would show her how to get pleasure in ways that she didn’t know were possible!

And then he’d
spoil her properly. Not too much, of course. He loved spanking her that one time, after all. Even thinking about her little bottom turning pink under his hand made him hard as a rock.
Ha, yes!
he bemused to himself.
I will spoil her and then spank her for being spoiled. Ah, how lovely.
He couldn’t help a wolfish grin from crossing his face. Yes—life was going to be absolutely fantastic.

He opened the door, expecting to see Alice on the bed, waiting expectantly for him.

Instead, he saw an empty room and an open window.

Ashcroft wasted no time whatsoever in tracking Moriarty as soon as they were done speaking, since in the one minute of sitting there in his chair, contemplating what sort of disobedient streak was surely living within Charlotte, he was only getting himself to be worked up. And Charlotte was always very easy to find in the twelve-story tower. She was noisy.

She was obsessed in stringed instruments, and was always playing them if she felt she had enough free time. All he had to do was follow the music until the noise became louder and louder where she was in her chambers, which served as her music room since she’d been spending her nights with him in his bed.

“Charlotte,” he said, not waiting for her to finish her piece, but began to sternly speak to her as soon as he came through the door. “We need to have a discussion.”

Charlotte stopped playing and removed her violin from underneath her chin with a sigh. “About what?” she asked tersely, sounding frustrated with his presence.

“Do
no
t
dare play innocent with me, my girl
. You know very well,” he snapped, putting his hands on his hips. “You know someone could have gotten hurt from that fire. How could you pretend
not to have something to do with it
?” he demanded.

“I wasn’t pretending at all,” she replied simply, as if she was quite bored with the conversation. She put the violin and bow back into her case. “It was very obvious it was me. I didn’t cover my tracks at all. Or did you think it was nothing but good luck that all the animals were set loose and that all the trees had moved back about twenty feet? How many people around here could have talked them into that?”

“One of the poor stable lads got his arm quite badly burnt,” he judged.

“Well, good thing you could fix those little things. Now he knows to keep his elbows in,” she replied without concern. Of course, she and the staff never did get along to
o
well. He didn’t get on with them, either. Most of the staff were weary of wizards and would do
almost
nothing but complain about working for them. Naomi and Moriarty were the only two on staff that would look either of them in the eye. “And I’m still waiting for Moriarty to come and thank me. Can you tell him that I’m up here when he’s ready?” she said as pompously as possible.

“Charlotte, damn it!”
He
couldn’t believe how remorseless she was. “What’s gotten into you? Do you want me to be the monster?”

“What are you going to do, Ash?” she asked him, rolling her eyes dramatically. “Punish me for saving Alice from a year of sleep and pain? Not to mention the fact that Moriarty will now be freer to be at your personal beck
and
call.”

He pursed his lips. “So,” he seethed. “After all your deliberate disobedience, you can possibly believe that I won’t punish you for any of it? You haven’t acknowledged any of my express orders!”

“I don’t deserve to be punished for being nice,” she replied. “Besides, why are you still making orders at me? Who put you in charge?” she demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

He glared darkly at her, trying to choose his words carefully so that he didn’t say something he would later regret. “We will be married soon, Charlotte. I have always been in charge. And I will always be after we’re married. Learn that right now. When I make rules, it’s for your own damn good. And
Alice’s
.
You know full well that something could have happened that you didn’t mean to. Could you imagine how distraught Moriarty would have been if you’d accidentally killed her? He might have never forgiven
you for it
.”

“Fine attitude to take towards progress
—to fear stepping on some toes!
” she snipped. “Besides, COULD have. I didn’t. Alice is fine, no thanks to you.”

Ashcroft took a deep breath. He felt his hands ball into fists, but consciously released them, remembering she was a teenager who was testing her boundaries… Testing the HELL out of them. “You haven’t seen the smallest fraction of what I have. Honey nymphs are stronger and faster than they look, and if she had enough strength, she would have done anything to get back to her Queen. It’s what they do
.
I have seen a honey nymph crawl on her belly across the burning sand for three days with both legs broken to get back to her hive. If she was putting on some sort of show, she could have used you as a hostage to return as soon as the opportunity presented itself.”

“She was in pain, Ashcroft. She couldn’t have possibly, I grew up in California, alright? I can spot a two-faced bitch from a mile away!”

He ground his teeth. “Remove your skirts, Charlotte. You
ha
ve been foolish, disobedient, and—”

“And better than you at magic!” she snapped. “Admit it! That’s why you’re really upset!”

Ashcroft blinked, amazed at her gall. “You’re not better than me at magic,” he assured.

“I am, too! You couldn’t think up a cure for Alice, could you? You’re just jealous.”

No, he wasn’t jealous at all. It was his greatest hope that she would eventually work Byndian magic better than himself. Because if she knew everything there was to know about Byndian magic, she could still not stand up to him. No member of one faction could. Only Archivists could use magic from every magic faction! “I’m not jealous, I AM concerned.”

“Concerned,” she echoed skeptically. “Why?”

“Why you seemed to learn so much overnight,” he growled.

There was a major part of him that thought he was just being paranoid. But there was now something in her expression that made him repel all paranoia. There was something wrong. She had done something. Nobody’s eyes light up with fear with a statement like that. Nobody’s countenance would immediately wilt with guilt.

No. Charlotte had done something. Something that she certainly didn’t want to tell him about, and something that she had been trying to hide from him.

“D-Doesn’t it occur to you that I might just be intelligent?” she asked, seeming to try to hide her nervousness by squaring her shoulders with a queenly air.

He walked closer to her, looming in. “I know you’re intelligent. But I also know that, except for your novels, I haven’t seen you read one goddamned book since you got here unless I stood
watching
over you like a hawk. You’re the laziest student imaginable. How can somebody so undisciplined have obtained so much knowledge? You’ve done something. I don’t know what, but we both know that something’s happened.” He reached out and grabbed her arm. “What’s happened, Charlotte? What have you done?”