Rebel Magisters (26 page)

“No. We’ll just bring them out discreetly,” Geoffrey agreed. “We’ll need to begin vetting our recent contacts.”

“That’s work for later,” Philip said. “Tonight, we’re celebrating. Henry, do you have a music player in this place? I’m in the mood for a dance.”

Henry waved his hand at a finely carved box sitting on a shelf, and piano music, slightly tinny, began playing. Philip listened for a moment. “Not quite what I had in mind, but it’ll do,” he said with a shrug. “Miss Newton, would you do me the honor?”

He hardly waited for me to agree before he whisked me away in an exaggeratedly stately waltz. He made each move with a gallant flourish, and his expression was a perfect mockery of the nobles I’d seen at balls. Soon, I was laughing so hard I might not have been able to stay on my feet without someone else holding me up, and it took me a moment to notice when my partner had changed.

I stopped laughing long enough to catch my breath and looked up to find that Henry was now the one who held me. “I really can’t allow my staff to be treated in such a way,” he said with a crooked smile and raised eyebrow. “I shall have to give Verity extra pay for subjecting her to the torture of that dance.”

Henry’s waltz was still stately, since that was the only way to dance to that music, but I didn’t get the impression that he was mocking anyone. He was merely dancing, steering me carefully around the furniture. I’d danced with him once before, at the ball at the governor’s house. Then I’d been intensely conscious of our surroundings and the fact that we were planning to warn the Mechanics of an impending raid as soon as we were able to get away from the ball.

Now, though, it was just us and Henry’s two friends, and soon I even forgot about the friends. It felt like we were alone together in a world where we both belonged. When the music ended, it broke the spell. Both of us stood there, blinking. I knew I was coming back to the parlor and the reality of the separate worlds in which we lived. Henry looked equally lost, but I couldn’t read his face to tell what he was thinking.

“I don’t suppose you have a different reel for this thing,” Philip said. “Something more lively.”

Henry blinked again and released me, stepping away as though just then realizing that we’d been standing there in each other’s arms for what had seemed like hours. “Oh, yes, um, in the cabinet there. They were supposed to be sorted, but I have no idea what the children might have done. Flora likes recordings of the works she’s learning to play, so there’s a lot of piano music.”

The reel Philip found was still more piano music, but it was a jaunty polka. He spun around the room with an imaginary partner as the rest of us laughed. Henry glanced at me, raising an eyebrow in invitation, and I smiled as I took his hand and let him lead me. I had little experience with this dance, so I stumbled and trod on his feet far too often, and soon we were both laughing so hard we couldn’t dance any longer. I leaned against his shoulder, making sure it was the uninjured one, to catch my breath, and then I didn’t want to move, but I knew I had to.

Hoping the flush on my cheeks would be attributed to my dancing, I forced myself to back away from him. “Oh my, I haven’t danced like that, ever,” I said, fanning myself with my hand. Geoffrey filled a glass for me, but I shook my head. My wits were already addled enough. Champagne would not help matters. “And it is getting very late for me, so if you gentlemen will excuse me?”

I felt like I barely had to walk up the stairs to my room. I seemed to float upward on a cloud of bliss at the memory of being in Henry’s arms like that. I knew it couldn’t go much beyond that unless we managed to change things, but we’d made some important steps. Maybe there was hope for us.

*

Henry was more social the next couple of days than I’d ever known him to be. He had a constant stream of visitors in the few hours he was home. The rest of the time, he was visiting friends, and he even went out on Saturday night. Sunday, we barely made it out of church, there were so many people wanting to greet him, and he was out again that evening.

He was in high spirits at breakfast Monday morning and agreed to walk Rollo to school, much to Rollo’s glee and Olive’s dismay. “May I come with you?” she asked.

“Not today, I’m afraid,” Henry said. “I have an appointment near Rollo’s school, so I won’t be coming back home until later, and you would find this appointment terribly dull.”

“We will have more time for lessons,” I said. Olive was the rare child for whom that sounded like a treat, and Henry gave me a grateful smile.

He didn’t come home again until late that afternoon, after I’d already retrieved Rollo from school and had turned all the children over to the music teacher. I was on the upstairs landing when he came bursting through the front door and ran up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time.

When he reached the landing, he grabbed me around the waist, picked me up, and spun me around. “We did it!” he exclaimed, keeping his voice too low to carry far, though his enthusiasm was still evident.

“Did what?” I inquired, a trifle dizzy either from the spin or from being in his arms like that.

He pulled me aside into the doorway of the nearest room, an unused bedroom. “It’s not just the young people anymore. There’s an earl who wants to form committees and create a colonial congress. That’s the first step toward having our own government.”

“An earl?”

“Yes! He’s one of the baron’s friends, and he was the one who asked to meet with me. Of course, there are details to be worked out, but this is proof that it’s not just the dream of some crazy kids. If we do form a congress, I want to make sure everyone’s represented. I wonder if there’s anyone among the Mechanics who might be statesman material. Are they all students?”

“I don’t really know. I’ll have to ask next time I see them.”

“Of course, that’s if they’re willing to throw in with us. They might still be leery of us and of any enterprise with an earl in charge.” For a moment, his grin faded, but it was soon back again. “We did it, Verity! That article did exactly what we hoped it would. Now we can start taking definite steps. This may really happen!”

“So it was worth that hole in your shoulder?”

“What’s a revolution without a little bloodshed?”

Only then did he appear to realize how closely he was still holding me, pressed against the door frame. He stepped away, sliding his hands off my waist, but he caught my left hand and held it a moment longer. Our eyes met, and he opened his mouth as though to say something, paused, shook his head slightly, and said, “I should let you get back to work.”

“Yes, I should go check on the children.” I moved to go, but he hadn’t released my hand. I glanced down at it, then up at him.

“Oh, yes, right. Sorry.” He blushed and let go, taking a step away.

I forced myself not to look back at him as I headed toward the stairs, but I could hear him whistling softly. I knew I had to be grinning like an idiot, but as there was no one to see me, I made no effort to school my features.

I was halfway down the stairs when the doorbell rang.  Mr. Chastain opened the door and several police officers came rushing through the doorway.

“May I help you gentlemen?” Mr. Chastain boomed in his deep voice.

“We’re here for Lord Henry Lyndon,” one of the policemen said. “Where is he?”

In Which

I Must Carry On

Ever the consummate butler, Mr. Chastain said, “If you gentlemen would care to wait in the parlor, I will announce you.”

They paid him no mind. Two of them rushed up the stairs, while the other two stood at the front door. I stood frozen to the spot on the stairs, even as they ran past me. I couldn’t have moved if my life had depended on it. Not that I had anywhere to go. I couldn’t escape past the men at the door, and I had no chance of warning Henry. One of the policemen at the door looked right at me. Our eyes met, and I thought his expression softened in something like sympathy, but if he felt sorry for me because I was about to be arrested, he made no move to take me into custody.

“Are you looking for me?” a surprisingly calm voice said from above me, and I turned to see Henry standing on the upper landing. The policemen ran toward him.

By this time, everyone else in the household had come to see what all the commotion was about. Mrs. Talbot and several of the servants came into the hallway on the lower floor, and the children appeared from the upstairs parlor.

One of the policemen grabbed Henry by the arm. It was his injured one, and he gasped in pain as his arm was jerked backwards. “Lord Henry Lyndon, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit treason,” the policeman said. The other officer shackled Henry’s hands behind his back. Henry remained surprisingly calm, but I could see the fear on his face. He looked so young and vulnerable.

“No! You can’t take my uncle!” Olive screamed. She rushed toward him as they hustled him down the stairs, but Rollo caught her and held her back, even as she flailed at him with her little fists and tried to kick his shins to make him release her.

Henry met my eye as he passed me. I wanted to reach out to him, but I restrained myself. I felt so helpless when all I could do was watch him be taken out through the front door.

As soon as the door slammed shut, the household burst into chaos. Olive broke free of Rollo and ran to me. I rushed to meet her and caught her in my arms. “Miss Newton, what are they doing to Uncle?” she sobbed against me.

“I don’t know, darling,” I said, patting her back.

“I wonder what Uncle Henry did,” Rollo said as he came toward us.

“It probably has something to do with his school friends,” Flora said, also coming toward Olive and me. “He ran with a radical set. Someone must have said the wrong thing to the wrong person.”

Rollo reached us and caught both Olive and me in a hug. He gave the appearance of trying to comfort us, but I got the impression from the way he clung to me that he was seeking comfort, himself. “What can we do?” he asked plaintively. “We should help him. And what will become of us?”

Those were very good questions, and I didn’t have the answers at the moment. My first instinct was to run to my rebel friends to tell them and ask for help, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew that would be the wrong course of action. Getting in contact with known rebels at this time would only draw the wrong kind of attention, and it was likely that they would know soon, anyhow. That was what my network of informants was all about. We had scullery maids and laundresses in the barracks and prison, clerks at the police stations. One of these invisible people would surely learn about Henry’s plight and alert the rebels.

Mrs. Talbot was the first to come up with a concrete action. “Mr. Chastain, you should contact Lord Henry’s attorney,” she said.

“Yes, very good idea,” he replied, and he headed down to his office.

That gave me an idea. “Flora, perhaps you should send a message to your grandfather. If anyone can help Lord Henry, he can.” That was, if it hadn’t been the governor who’d had him arrested in the first place.

“I will do so right away.” She flounced off, her shoulders squared and her head held high.

I thought for a moment about suggesting that Flora pay calls on her friends so I could check on Henry’s group, but I realized that paying social calls at a time like this would look decidedly odd. That meant that all I could do was wait and do my job of looking after the children. They’d had a terrible shock, and at the moment they needed a governess more than anyone needed a revolutionary.

Echoing my thoughts, Mrs. Talbot said, “I think we could all do with a cup of tea right now. I’ll have some brought up to the parlor.”

“Thank you,” I said. I managed to herd Olive, who still clung to me, and Rollo into the family parlor. Shock seemed to have settled in on Rollo. He was stunned silent, none of his usual spirit in evidence. Olive wasn’t sobbing quite so hard anymore, but she refused to let go of me. I had a feeling I’d be sleeping in her room that night—that was, if the governor didn’t send for the children right away. He’d always wanted guardianship of them, and I doubted Henry would get them back, regardless of how this came out.

“He isn’t in
serious
trouble, is he?” Rollo asked at last.

I couldn’t answer that honestly and sound at all reassuring. The problem was that Henry was guilty of so very many things. “I don’t know what the charges are or what evidence they have against him,” I said, which was true enough. Which treasonous act had led to his arrest?

Flora swept into the room. “I sent a message to Grandfather, and I waited for a reply, but I got none. He may not be at his office.” She sank onto a chair. “It’s an outrage when someone from such a high-ranking family can be hauled out of his home, just like that. Did they even have a warrant? Henry should have asked for specifics of the charges rather than going meekly along with them.”

I turned to stare at her. “My, you have been doing your reading.”

“Of course I have. The fact that I don’t like talking about boring things doesn’t mean I don’t know anything.”

One of the footmen entered with a tea tray, Mrs. Talbot in his wake. “Mr. Chastain has reached Lord Henry’s attorney, and he’s looking into the situation,” she reported. “I think in the meantime we should go about business as usual, as though Lord Henry is merely away on a trip. I’m sure arrangements for the guardianship of the children will be made, and we can adjust accordingly once we have those details. For tonight, we’ll serve dinner at the usual time.”

The sweet tea and cakes were wonderfully restorative. I was still shaken and afraid, but I was developing a mental plan. I knew I needed to stay at home the rest of the evening, but I could attempt to make contact with some members of my network the next day and see if anyone knew where Henry was.

It was encouraging that the police hadn’t even tried to search the house when they arrested Henry. That suggested to me that the arrest didn’t have anything to do with the stolen letter and might just be about Henry’s talk of revolution. That still wasn’t good for Henry, but I thought it would go better for him if all they could convict him of was talk. He was doomed if the authorities knew about the banditry. I might be in danger, as well, if they learned about the letter and how its contents had become public. I took some comfort in the fact that I’d been right there and the policemen had paid me no notice. If they were going to arrest me, surely they’d have done so at that time.