Wrede, Patricia C - Mairelon 02 (17 page)

           
"That
is no excuse," Mrs. Lowe said. "It is highly improper for a young
lady to wander about London unescorted."

           
"I
took my abigail," Kim said. She sneaked a glance at Mairelon.
"And Hunch."

           
"Did
you?" Mairelon's expression was closed; she hadn't ever seen him quite
like this before. Not knowing how to respond, Kim said nothing.

           
"Very
sensible of you," Lady Wendall put in approvingly.

           
"I
must entirely disagree," Mrs. Lowe said. "Running 'errands' at this
hour of the morning is plainly an excuse. I insist that Kim explain--"

           
"Aunt."
Mairelon's voice was quite level and not
very loud, but Mrs. Lowe broke off in mid-sentence and looked at him. In the
same level tone, he continued, "My apprentice and ward will explain
to
me
immediately after breakfast. I trust that is clear?"

           
"As
you wish," Mrs. Lowe replied stiffly.

           
Kim
finished her meal quickly in the uncomfortable silence that followed. "I'm
done," she said.

           
Mairelon
rose. "Then you can explain yourself to me in the library." He waited
only long enough to see Kim nod before he left the room.

           
She
caught up with him on the stairs and followed him into the library. As soon as
the door closed behind them, he said, "Well?"

           
"I
went to Mannering's office."

           
"
What?
Are you mad? Didn't you think at all? If Mannering is behind this--"

           
"I
thought for most of the night," Kim said, and looked at Mairelon
apologetically. "I saw right off that Mannering was in this somewhere, but
I didn't think you had yet."

           
"Then
why didn't you mention it?"

           
Kim
hesitated. "Because I was worried you'd go off and do something
goose-witted," she owned at last. "You've done it before."

           
Mairelon
stared at her in silence for a moment. "Not after I said I wouldn't,"
he said at last.

           
"When--"
Kim stopped. He'd promised her, when she'd come back from seeing Tom Correy two
weeks before, that he wouldn't go investigating Mannering without talking to
her first. She hadn't remembered . . . but she hadn't remembered because, she
realized, she hadn't really believed that he would hold to his promise now that
the situation had changed so radically. "I forgot," she said lamely,
and then, looking down at her hands, she added, "Nobody ever--I never knew
anybody before that . . . that would do that. Not with something this big, not
when it was only somethin' they said to me."

           
"I
see." Mairelon's voice had lost its coldness; he sounded torn between
amusement and some other emotion she couldn't identify. After a moment, he went
on lightly, "So to keep me from doing something goose-witted, you did it
yourself. Why? And why in heaven's name didn't you at least tell me what you
were planning?"

           
The
bantering tone didn't fool Kim; she could hear the hurt underneath the
lightness. She turned away and said to the monkey cage, "I had to do
something.
You looked . . . you were . . . I just had to do something, that's all. And I
didn't say because I was afraid you'd stop me. I can see now I should
of
trusted you, but--Well, I never had nobody I
could
trust like that before. I'm not used to it."

           
There was
a long silence. Kim wiped at her eyes with the backs of her hands. After a long
time, Mairelon said, "Anybody you could trust. Not '
nobody
.'
" His
voice sounded hoarse.

           
"Anybody,"
Kim repeated. "Anyway, I'm sorry."

           
"I'm
afraid I have to apologize as well," Mairelon said. She turned to find him
looking at her with an expression she could not interpret. "I didn't
mention Mannering for the same reason you didn't--because I didn't want you
haring off after him. I forgot that
you
hadn't promised anyone not
to."

           
"Well,
I won't do it again," Kim said.

           
"Good."
Mairelon hesitated. "I suppose you've thought of the possible connection
to your friend Ma Yanger, as well?"

           
Kim
licked her lips.
"First thing last night,
practically."

           
"Well."
Mairelon looked down, and for a brief moment his expression was grim. Then he
shook his head and said, "Well, then, how
was
your little visit
with Mannering?"

           
"He
wasn't there," Kim said.
"Looks like he took all
his valuables and piked off in the middle of the night."

           
Mairelon
stared at her,
then
sat down very slowly in one of the
reading, chairs. "Gone, is he? Now that
is
interesting. I wonder
why?"

           
"I
been--I
have
been thinking about that," Kim said. "What if he
doesn't know that
you're
the one he caught in that spell? If he thinks
it was me--"

           
"--then
he'd have expected a very angry wizard in his office bright and early in the
morning, and he didn't think he could handle it," Mairelon said. He gave
Kim a rueful grin. "He appears to have been quite right, too, though
perhaps not in exactly the way he'd been thinking."

           
"He
left some notes in his desk," Kim said, and began pulling them out of her
reticule. "They look like bits of spell diagrams and such, but I can't
read half of them."

           
"You're
right," Mairelon said, glancing at the drawings. "Someone was
experimenting." He squinted at one of the scribbled notes and frowned.
"This looks as if it could be part of a spell chant, but--"

           
"But?"

           
"It's
in English."

           
Kim
stared at him. "But if the spell is in English, it won't work right for an
English wizard," she said at last.

           
"Exactly."
Mairelon tapped the note. "Now, if
you don't mind, tell me just what happened during your visit to Mannering's
offices this morning, and then we'll go through these a little more
carefully."

           
It took
Kim some time to give Mairelon the precise account he wanted. He did not
interrupt, but listened with a bemused expression, sorting Mannering's notes
into two neat piles as Kim talked. When she finished, he shook his head.

           
"None
of this adds up properly," he said. "You say Mannering isn't a
wizard, and is certainly English, but he has a drawer full of magical diagrams
and spell bits that no English wizard could use. We have a Russian wizard nice
and handy, but he can't possibly have cast those spells last night--not with
you, me, and Renee standing right next to him. One of us would have noticed. We
have a mystery wizard who is willing to waste power in prodigious amounts in
order to get hold of a useless
livre de memoire
, and a singularly inept
burglar who seems to be, in his better moments, a gentleman of sorts. And we
have a batch of untrained criminal wizards who, for no reason anyone knows,
have suddenly forsaken their independent ways and gone to work for
Mannering--except for one, who first gave up or lost her magic and then
vanished completely under suspicious circumstances. It doesn't fit."

           
And
none of it looks like it's helping to get your magic back.
"I could
have a talk with Jemmy or Wags," Kim offered, but Mairelon was shaking his
head before she even finished speaking.

           
"No.
I'll ask Shoreham to have his people look into it. It's not, strictly speaking,
part of the business of the Ministry, but he owes me a favor or two, and I
think he'll do it." He eyed Mannering's notes thoughtfully. "I'll
take these with me when I visit Shoreham later, if you don't mind. He may have
a few more ideas."

           
"If I don't mind?"
Kim said, astonished.

           
Mairelon
gave her a crooked smile. "You're the one who went and got them."

           
Kim could
only nod her assent.

           
"Meanwhile,
I think it would be advisable to make a copy." Mairelon handed her the
stack of diagrams. "You do these; I'll see what I can make of the
others."

           
They set
to work, side by side at the table. Mindful of the need for accuracy, Kim
worked with painstaking care, duplicating even the lines that looked to be
accidents or scribbles before she turned the paper face down to go on to the
next one. On the third page, she turned the note over and stopped.
"Mairelon.
This one has writing on the back."

           
Mairelon
looked over. "So it does. Let's see--" He stopped abruptly, frowning
at the writing.

           
"What
is it?" Kim said, peering down at it. The writing was, like that of the
other notes, nearly illegible, and there were circles and arrows and check
marks on top of it that made it even harder to puzzle out.

           
"It's
a list of names," Mairelon said.
"French
names."

           
"Not
those wizards Mademoiselle D'Auber was telling us about?" Kim guessed.

           
"Right
the first time," Mairelon said. "But there are only six of them.
Monsieur Laszlo Karolyi, Mademoiselle Jeannette Lepain--that one is
circled--the Comtesse Eustacie de Beauvoix, the Comte Louis du Franchard--he's
circled them, too, and there's a check mark next to the comte's name--Madame
Marie de Cambriol--circled, but no check mark--and the Duchesse Camille
Delagardie."

           
Kim ran
quickly through her memory of their conversation with Renee D'Auber. "It's
missing Henri d'Armand."

           
"Yes."

           
"But
what does it
mean
?" Kim said in frustration.

           
"I
don't know." Mairelon looked down at the
page,
and a muscle by the corner of his mouth spasmed briefly. "But it's the
first real evidence we have that Mannering is connected with our
bits-and-pieces wizard--the one who was after the de Cambriol book."

           
And
the one that set that trap.
Kim scowled at the papers. "Well, it
doesn't help much."

           
"It's
something." Still studying the pages intently, Mairelon said, "Let's
finish this, and then we'll see what Shoreham has to say."

           
"We?"

           
"Yes,
of course." Mairelon did not look at her. "He'll want to hear about
your visit to Mannering's office, and it will be better if you're there to tell
him in person. And there may be . . . other things."

           
Kim's
startled comments died on her lips as she realized belatedly just what
"other things" Mairelon was referring to.
Spells.
If the Earl of Shore-ham had anything to recommend, or needed a second wizard
to help with any test he wanted to run, someone besides Mairelon would have to
be there to do it. And Mairelon would want it to be someone who already knew of
his . . . difficulties, which meant either Lady Wendall or Kim.

           
Feeling
more than a little nervous, Kim nodded and returned to her copying. Edward,
Earl of Shoreham, wasn't just another toff; he was one of the top men at the
government's Ministry of Wizardry, head of a semiclandestine department that
was responsible for a great deal of intelligence gathering by both magical and
nonmagical methods. He was the one who had persuaded Mairelon to do all of his
spying on the French during the last few years of the war. Kim had only met him
twice before: once, when he had turned up during the recovery of the Saltash
Set, and once a few weeks later, after she and Mairelon had returned to London.
Shoreham was, unquestionably, a right knowing one, and though he did not seem
to dislike her, he made her uneasy nonetheless.

           
But when
they finished making their copies and arrived at the Ministry of Wizardry with
Mannering's original notes, they found that Shore-ham was not there. "Gone
down to
Brighton
to meet one of our chaps coming in on
the packet," the secretary, an earnest young man, said. "He should be
back tomorrow."

           
"Tell
him we'll be by at
ten o'clock
,"
Mairelon said.

           
"He's
meeting with the minister then," the secretary replied, checking a book
lying open on the desk.

           
"Eleven, then," Mairelon snapped, and left in more of a
temper than Kim could ever recall seeing him in before.

           
Their
visit to the
Royal
College
was slightly less frustrating--Lord Kerring was there, and though he was deeply
immersed in some magical project that Kim did not quite understand, he set it
aside at once when he heard that Mairelon was in need of help. After hearing
their story, he studied the spell affecting Mairelon from several angles, but
then shook his head.

           
"There's
nothing I can do about this today. I need an analysis, and from what you say,
the standard spell is . . . inadvisable." Lord Kerring scratched his bushy
beard. "I'll have to design something that works less invasively than the
usual methods."

           
"How
long will it take?" Mairelon said.

           
"Hard
to say," Kerring replied. "I know you're in a hurry, and I don't
blame you, but . . . some things, you just can't rush. I'll send you word as
soon as I have something feasible, but don't expect it before next week. And it
might be longer. It depends on how tricky the interlocks turn out to be."

           
Mairelon
nodded; from the quality of his silence on the ride home, Kim concluded that he
had been hoping for a quick solution. When they arrived back at
Grosvenor
Square
, Mrs. Lowe informed them that they had had
several visitors in their absence.

           
"The
Marquis of Harsfeld was among them," she said with a significant look at
Kim.

           
"Lord
Franton?" Kim said. "He did tell me he was going to call, but I
didn't think he meant right away."

           
"When
he discovered that you were from home, he did not stay," Mrs. Lowe said.
"I trust that he will have better fortune on his
next
visit."

           
Mairelon
frowned. "Who else did we miss?" he said abruptly.

           
"Your
French friend, Miss D'Auber," Mrs. Lowe replied. "She said that she
wished to see how you did. I cannot think where she could have gotten the
impression that you were unwell."

           
"She
may have mistaken something I said last night," Mairelon said.

           
Mrs. Lowe
nodded, satisfied. "I told her it must be some misunderstanding."

           
"Did
she say anything else?" Kim asked, hoping to turn the subject before Mrs.
Lowe accidentally precipitated a crisis.

           
"She
mentioned that she overheard the Marquis of Harsfeld tell Lady Greythorne that
you were even more charming in person than from afar," Mrs. Lowe said.
"I am pleased that you managed to make such a good impression last night,
though it would have been far better had you been here to receive him when he
called today.
Oh,
and there has apparently been
something of a rash of thefts and burglaries lately."

           
"Really?"
Mairelon was suddenly all attention.
"Did Renee say who, or when?"

           
"Someone
stole a painting from Mr. Winton's library last week, and Lord Bancroft and his
wife lost an urn that had been in the family for several generations, though it
was only silver plate. That was Monday. And last night, someone broke in at the
George."

           
"Someone
tried to rob a
hotel
?" Kim said incredulously.

           
"It
does seem a bit unusual," Mairelon said.

           
"It's
a mug's game," Kim told him. "People who're putting up at hotels
don't cart their silver along with them, and if they've got jewels, they're out
wearing them at night. And there's the hotel staff, as well as everybody's
servants, so there's at least three times as many people to avoid. Milling a
gentry
ken is a lot safer, and they're not exactly easy
marks."

           
"Kim,"
Mrs. Lowe said reprovingly, "you really
must
be more careful about
your language. Those . . . cant terms are simply not suitable in polite
company."

           
"I
wonder what the cracksman took," Mairelon said.

           
"Miss
D'Auber didn't say," Mrs. Lowe replied stiffly, frowning at him.

           
"Pity.
Kim, I'll want to see you in the library after
lunch; we've a good deal of work to do if we're to have that illusion ready for
your ball." And with an absent nod, Mairelon escaped up the stairs,
leaving Kim with his aunt.

           
Kim had
expected the rest of the day to be quiet, but she was quickly disabused of that
notion. Mairelon had not been joking when he said they had a lot of work to do
to prepare for the illusion spell, and most of the work was Kim's. Fortunately,
Lady Wendall could take over some of Mairelon's part, but there were limits to
what she could accomplish from the sidelines without letting it become obvious
to everyone that it was she, and not her son, who was assisting Kim with her
come-out illusion. The additional parts fell to Kim, and she burned candles
late into the evening trying to memorize them all.

           
Promptly
at eleven the next morning, she and Mairelon were at the Ministry of Wizardry
once again. The Earl of Shoreham did not keep them waiting long. "I
suppose you're here about those French wizards again," he said to Mairelon
as they found seats in his office.

           
"Not
directly," Mairelon said. "There have been developments."

           
"With
you, there are always developments," Lord Shoreham said, amused.

           
"Someone
seems to have developed themselves right into my
magic,
and me out of it," Mairelon said with an unsuccessful attempt at
lightness.