The Lady Heiress (The Zero Enigma Book 8)

by Christopher G. Nuttall

  And she doesn’t have a future, I thought, as we eyed each other. I’d checked the books. Penny didn’t have the blood or the accomplishments to reach for true power. She’ll be a pensioner for the rest of her days.

  “Lady Lamplighter,” Penny said. Her voice was hard and cold. “Thank you for inviting me.”

  I reminded myself, sharply, that Penny was three years younger than me. “You’re welcome,” I said, gravely. Behind her, the carriage rattled down the driveway and onto the road. “If you’ll come with me ...”

  Penny huffed as I turned and led her into the hall. I wondered, idly, what she’d expected. A formal parade? A row of footmen or armsmen, holding their spellcasters in salute? Or a formal welcome by the Grande Dames? It didn’t matter. I braced myself as I walked through the field of charms, silently sending orders to the wards. They flared with power. Penny yelped and reached for her magic, too late. The wards froze her in place. Her eyes burned with anger as I turned to face her, my magic scanning for unpleasant surprises. She had nothing, apart from a purse and a pocket compact. I put them both to one side as my allies emerged from the shadows. The first part of the plan had gone well.

  Too well, I thought.

  Gary pointed a spellcaster at Penny, muttering a complex spell. Her eyes went blank. I felt a frisson of alarm as the wards released her, leaving her standing limply in front of us. We’d just crossed the line. We might get away with using minor compulsion spells, in or out of school, but here ...? We were committed now. The spell was too powerful to be considered a practical joke. We’d practically turned her into a slave.

  “She looks so much prettier like that,” Ayesha said, quietly. “Do you not think?”

  “No,” Kate said, sharply.

  I winced, inwardly, as Gary steered Penny down the stairs and into the ironhold. It was hard to tell how aware Penny truly was of her surroundings, how much she realised of what had happened to her. I hoped we’d shut down her mind completely. If a minor compulsion spell could be horrifying, how much more a major spell? She would be seeing her body moving under someone else’s direction ...

  At least we’re not trying to blackmail her, I told myself. It was no consolation. And we’ll try and make it up to her afterwards.

  “I’ll take the blood,” Gary said, once Penny was seated in an iron chair. “You ask the questions.”

  I glanced at Ayesha, then looked at Penny. “Who’s your father?”

  Penny’s voice was dull, dead and dull. “Malachi Rubén.”

  “So we got the right person,” Marlene muttered. “Ask her what she did to get demoted.”

  “Not yet,” I muttered back. I cleared my throat as I looked at Penny. “What happened to your father?”

  “They ordered him out of the hall,” Penny said. “They told him to go.”

  I frowned as I fired question after question at her. Penny didn’t seem to know much of anything. Her father had been kicked out ... she seemed to believe it had something to do with her, although she wasn’t clear on the details. I knew she was telling the truth - she didn’t have the will to lie - but she couldn’t tell us something she didn’t know. Akin had caught her disciplining one of the younger girls, apparently; she didn’t seem to think she’d done anything wrong. I shuddered. There was room for a great many sins in disciplining. I didn’t think I wanted to know. I’d always thought Jude’s was more progressive than that.

  “So she’s not in contact with him,” Marlene said, when we were done. “That’s good, isn’t it?”

  I nodded. Penny didn’t seem to know anything about what her father did for a living, or what he’d done before he’d been kicked out of his home. I had the feeling Malachi had been an indifferent father ... Penny didn’t know it, but she’d been lucky. Very lucky. She was already a brat. I shuddered to think what she might have become if she’d been raised directly by her father. Her sisters probably had the better part of that deal.

  Gary looked up from the table. “I’ve isolated the masculine aspects of the blood,” he said. “It should be enough to fool the wards.”

  “Be very sure,” I said. “We don’t want it thinking we’re in multiple places at once.”

  “It should be fine, as long as we stay close together when we pass the outer wards,” Gary said. He poured half the blood into a vial and sealed it with a spell. The remainder was dumped into the disposal bin. “It should work. If it doesn’t ... we’ll just have to back away and try something else.”

  If the wards let us, I thought, as I stared at Penny. This could still go horribly wrong.

  “We could take her with us,” Kate suggested. “Leaving her here ...”

  “Too great a risk,” Gary said. “We couldn’t trust her.”

  “And the wards might snap her out of her trance, if they mistake her for her father,” Ayesha added. “We have to leave her here.”

  I nodded. “Make sure you collect everything,” I ordered. “We don’t want to leave anything here, just in case.”

  “Of course,” Gary said. He passed me the blood. “Make sure you don’t drop it.”

  Kate, Marlene and Ayesha headed up the stairs. I watched them go, then turned to look at Penny. Her face was blank, but I knew it was just a matter of time before she regained her free will. Probably. I’d thought about using a spellbinder, but they were too expensive to obtain quickly. Instead, I rested my hand on her head and muttered a spell. Her body turned to stone. She’d be aware of nothing, not even time passing, until the spell was lifted. I told myself it was the best possible choice. My conscience disagreed.

  “We could just give her something to wipe her memory, then send her home,” Gary offered, quietly. “We don’t have to keep her prisoner.”

  I shook my head. There were too many variables. Besides, we might need her again. I keyed the spell into the wards, ensuring she’d stay stone long enough for us to go and come back, then headed for the stairs. If things went really wrong, she’d be discovered when the Kingsmen searched the hall. They’d take care of her.

  “The charms on the door are pretty outdated,” Gary said, as I closed the heavy iron door. “I could break them, with a little effort.”

  “I know.” I shook my head. Penny might be a disagreeable sort who made Marlene look like a saint, but she didn’t deserve to be entombed in the ironhold forever. “I’ll worry about making them stronger when I have something to protect.”

  My heart sank as I looked at him. Guilt gnawed at my soul. I’d dragged Gary - and Kate - into a nightmare. Malachi would have us all if things went wrong. Malachi ... or High Society. Ayesha might be sent into exile. Everyone else ... we were looking at prison, or worse, if we were caught. I wanted to go back in time and kick myself, hard. I’d trapped myself. If I’d been a little more careful ... no, if I’d never started at all. But that wasn’t an option.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. The others should be out of earshot, but I wrapped a privacy ward around us anyway. “I should never have gotten you into this.”

  Gary said nothing for a long moment. I wished I knew what he was thinking. He was a practical man. My kisses couldn’t be enough to make him stop thinking. He knew what would happen if we were caught. He’d be disgraced, his master would disown him, his father would disown him ... he was legally an adult, old enough to face the consequences himself, but there was a very real chance his family would face them too. I cursed myself for even thinking of telling him. It would have been so much easier if I hadn’t told him a thing.

  No, I corrected myself. I would just have felt better about it.

  “I made the decision to help you,” Gary said. He glanced up the stairs, then leaned forward and kissed me. I felt my heart start to race. “You don’t get rid of me so easily.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, again. “If it goes wrong ... blame it on me.”

  Gary laughed. “What sort of gentleman would I be if I blamed it on you?”

  “A practical one,” I told him. I tried not to giggle. “I won�
��t blame you for blaming me.”

  “Impractical is my middle name,” Gary said. “I have it on my sister’s good authority.”

  I smiled. “I’m sure she’s a trustworthy source.”

  My heart sank as we turned and headed up the stairs. Gary might be chuckling at his joke, but ... I knew he might come to regret it. I promised myself I’d make it up to him, even though I had no idea how. My family was poor. We might have a little income now, thanks to my ... my heart clenched. I wouldn’t be doing that again. I’d learnt my lesson. But that left me with the problem of figuring out what to do.

  Marry Gary, my thoughts told me. Use his money to rebuild the house.

  The others looked at us as we entered. “You took your time,” Ayesha said. “Should we hold a quick wedding ceremony?”

  I flushed. Was it that obvious? “No,” I said. “We just needed to work on our wards.”

  “You’d better make sure you know the contraceptive wards,” Ayesha said. “I have it on good authority they’re not easy to cast when you’re hot and bothered.”

  “I’ll take your word for it,” I said. It was on the tip of my tongue to point out that everyone knew the spells, even though no one would admit to teaching them. They weren’t formally banned, of course, but the Great Houses wanted the next generation to arrive as quickly as possible. “I think ...”

  “Really?” Marlene smirked, without her old malice. “I’m surprised at you.”

  “Yeah.” I rubbed my forehead. “If I’d thought, we might not be in this mess.”

  Kate cleared her throat, loudly. “Correct me if I’m wrong,” she said, “but you’re not to blame for everything. Are you? You didn’t make Ayesha do whatever Ayesha did and you didn’t make Marlene do whatever Marlene did. And you weren’t even born when Lady Mathews murdered her husband. You made a mistake, true, but you didn’t make every mistake. You’re not to blame for everything.”

  “She has a point,” Marlene said. “I did ... I did what I did without your help.”

  “True,” Ayesha agreed. She shook her head. “I still can’t believe Francis told Malachi, of all people. Why him?”

  “I guess he seemed a good choice,” I mumbled. Malachi could be charming, although I’d seen little of it. I could easily imagine him trying to work his way into Francis’s good books. Hell, he might even be indirectly responsible for Francis’s death. “I confided in my uncle when I was younger too.”

  “Francis had a dad,” Ayesha said. “They even lived in the same house!”

  Kate looked from Ayesha to me and back again. “Do you realise how uncommon it is for a child not to share a house with his father?”

  “The rules are different here,” Ayesha said. “Penny certainly lives alone.”

  “She probably hates it,” Gary said, with excessive sarcasm. “A chance to live on her own, with all her bills paid ... how terrible.”

  I shook my head. “Terrible indeed,” I agreed, dryly. I glanced at my watch. It was nearly night. Poppy was probably already chafing at the bit. “Shall we go?”

  “Yes,” Kate said. “Let’s get it over with.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  We said nothing as we piled into the carriage and drove to Water Shallot. Tension hung in the air, so thick I thought we could cut it with a knife. I tested my spells time and time again, wishing - not for the first time - that we’d had more time to practice. Gary and Kate had argued as much, pointing out that we couldn’t afford to make a mistake. Marlene and Ayesha had disagreed, insisting we had to move at once. There was no time. Someone would notice Penny was missing and start looking for her, even if Malachi didn’t find a new way to torment us. Who knew what other secrets were locked in his ugly head?

  Water Shallot was wrapped in shadow as the evening turned to night. The streets were dark and cold. I saw a pair of pubs glowing with light, men staggering in and out in various stages of drunkenness, but otherwise the entire district appeared dead and cold. Gary had told me that the socialist riots had scared people, and convinced them to stay indoors ... I hadn’t really believed it until now. Water Shallot was nothing like North or South Shallot.

  The carriage rattled to a halt. I braced myself as the door snapped open. Gary had taken the reins, insisting he could drive us to our destination without hiring a coachman. Outside, the air was dark and smelled of something I didn’t want to think about. Gary had parked us in an alley, just down from Malachi’s house. The buildings felt oppressive as we scrambled to the ground and looked around. There was no one in sight, not even a homeless man trying to catch some sleep. The entire district felt utterly lifeless. I shivered. It just didn’t feel right.

  I looked at Poppy. “You remember what you need to do?”

  “Yes, My Lady,” Poppy said. She spoke quietly, but her voice sounded loud in the eerie silence. “Now?”

  I glanced at the others, then nodded. “Now,” I said. “That house over there.”

  My heart started to thud in my chest as Poppy hurried down the street. I’d taken a serious risk in bringing her, not least because the district was far from safe. Malachi might not take the bait. It wasn’t uncommon to give a kid a coin or two to deliver a message - I could easily see aristocrats sending children into Water Shallot without any thought of what could happen - but he might ask more questions than she could answer. I’d drilled her endlessly, going through everything I thought he could ask ...

  We’ve done all we can, I thought, as I wrapped a glamour around myself. All we can do now is wait.

  Poppy knocked at the door. I waited, my eyes tingling as someone opened the door. A figure stood within the light, too tall and thin to be Malachi. A servant? Ayesha was probably right. Malachi would have more than one servant. It struck me, as Poppy passed the figure the note and held out her hand expectantly for the tip, that I might actually be taller than Malachi. He wasn’t a dwarf, but he was quite short for a grown man. He’d probably hated being short when he’d been a kid. No wonder he’d made me kneel.

  I braced myself as Poppy turned and headed back towards me. The door banged closed behind her. Poppy was smiling broadly as she stepped into the alley, clutching a golden crown in one hand. Malachi’s servant had tipped her well. I blinked in surprise - as far as the girl knew, Poppy was a street urchin - and then nodded in understanding. Malachi stood to gain hugely from each and every piece of blackmail material. He could afford to tip handsomely.

  “She took the letter,” Poppy said. “What now?”

  “You get back into the carriage and wait,” I said. “Kate, you take the reins.”

  Kate nodded, her face half-hidden behind a glamour. She and Gary were the only ones who knew how to drive a carriage, although the rest of us knew how to ride. She’d get us out if all hell broke loose. I was silently relieved she was on the outside, able to run for her life if the rest of us were caught. Ayesha, Marlene and I had good reason to do everything in our power to stop Malachi. Kate ... didn’t have to put herself at risk. I wished that was true of Gary too.

  It felt like hours before a carriage emerged from a distant alley and rattled down the street. I glanced at my watch, silently noting the time. Malachi would need at least thirty minutes to reach the meeting point, then another thirty to get back ... assuming, of course, he realised he’d been lured away. He might hang around and wait for a few minutes before the realisation dawned. The note had promised dirt on Alana Aguirre, after all. It would be worth waiting for. I told myself not to count on it. We couldn’t rely on anything.

  “Now?” Gary inched forward. “Shall we go?”

  “Yeah.” I glanced at Marlene and Ayesha, motioning for them to bring up the rear. “Let’s move.”

  Gary took the blood from me, opened the vial and started to use it to ink his face. I shuddered, feeling as if we were crossing the line ... again. Blood magic was rarely innocent. Anything that involved blood taken from someone else without permission was dark by definition. But we had no choice. I felt my skin c
rawl as he drew out lines on my face with Penny’s blood, then did the same to Marlene and Ayesha. They looked about as pleased as myself. I cast a glamour to ensure no one would see us clearly, then headed into the road. The clock had started to tick the moment Malachi had left the house.

  The wards crackled around us as we made our way past the house and into the alleyway. A bigger door, easily large enough to take a carriage, blocked our way. Gary knelt in the gutter and started to go to work, pointing a spellcaster at the spellform and starting to key it open. I felt the magic growing stronger as I inched closer to him, hoping the blood was convincing enough to fool the wards. It might have Malachi’s essence within it, but it was also unmistakably feminine. I told myself it was unlikely to matter. Malachi had allowed me to enter his house. He probably hadn’t keyed the wards to keep women out.