His Wicked Charm

by Candace Camp

  “Oh, the devil.” Con leaned in and said, “Promise me you’ll come back up if it looks risky.”

  “Of course. I always follow the rules, remember?” Lilah smiled up at his scowling face. She was beginning to understand why Con enjoyed teasing her.

  She continued down the stairs. The wooden planks were sturdy beneath her feet, but she could see only a few steps ahead of her, even with the lantern, because of the tightly coiled nature of the stairs. It gave her the uneasy sensation that the stairs were endless and she was descending into the void.

  With every step she took, the pull became stronger. The energy inside her had risen from a vibration to a throb. Without Con there to absorb some of the power, it was multiplying. She envisioned it sweeping through her, taking her over as it had long ago at the séance. Her hand trembled, making the light dance, and she thought for a cowardly moment about turning around and fleeing.

  But the sound of Sabrina coming down right behind her steadied her. She had to go forward. This energy belonged to her, and she must deal with it. And suddenly Lilah understood how to control it.

  It wasn’t a battle. She must cease fighting it and make the power her own. Lilah consciously relaxed her will as she continued down the stairs. She imagined opening her mind, dropping all barriers. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, the full force of the Sanctuary’s power rushed into her. For one terrifying moment, she thought she had been wrong, that she had lost herself. But stubbornly she held on, refusing to fight the power and instead accepting it.

  The pressure eased, and suddenly the energy was flowing through her unimpeded, filling her head and singing through her veins, sweeping downward into the earth beneath her feet. A conduit, that was what Con had called her. The power moved through her, not consuming but strengthening. The pull that had been there was no longer a compulsion but an offer, beckoning her home.

  Lilah turned as Sabrina joined her, and they stepped back to allow room for the men, clattering down the stairs at a more rapid pace. In the golden light of the lantern, Sabrina’s face glowed. “Do you feel it?” Sabrina asked, taking Lilah’s hand. “How it got stronger but somehow easier, as well?”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  Sabrina’s eyes widened. “Even more since I touched you. I can—oh, I can feel Alex so clearly—he can’t decide whether to worry or be angry at me.” She grinned and looked over as Alex emerged from the stairs.

  “I wasn’t worried,” he told her, belying his words by pulling Sabrina to his side and kissing her forehead. “I knew you were fine because the whole way down, I could feel your amusement at thwarting me.”

  Con looked over at Lilah, raising his eyebrows in question, and she smiled and nodded in reply. Con edged his way around Alex and Sabrina and took her hand. He glanced at her in surprise, no doubt feeling the change in the energy. Con took the lantern from Lilah and held it up to shine down the tunnel. It illuminated only a few feet in front of them, leaving the rest in uncertain darkness. It was, however, enough light to see that the tunnel was both low ceilinged and narrow, necessitating, as the stairs had, going forward in single file. The two men had to duck their heads to keep from scraping the stones above them.

  “I suppose you are still of the opinion you have to lead the way,” Con said to Lilah, frowning.

  “No.” Lilah suppressed a grin at his startled expression. “I think we are...accepted. And I know you’re dying to explore.” From the look on Con’s face, Lilah knew he would have kissed her if they had been alone.

  They walked into the seeming void, the dark closing in after them. “I have no idea where we are or where we’re headed. Are we under the house or outside?” Lilah asked.

  “Under,” Con said with assurance. “But we’re walking toward the maze. I think that behind that wall—” he gestured to the right “—are the dungeons.”

  “A parallel tunnel?” Alex asked.

  “More or less.” Abruptly the tunnel widened, so that they were able to walk side by side and the men could stand upright. “This must be the newer tunnel. The extension built by Lilah’s ancestor.”

  “We’re very close.” Lilah had felt the power increasing with every step they took. Now it filled the air, almost palpable in its intensity.

  “We’re beyond the house now,” Con said, and a moment later, the edge of the lantern’s light fell on a wooden door. Having read her grandfather’s thoughts on the Sanctuary, Lilah had expected the door to be a grand thing—large, dark and heavy; she would not have been surprised to find it fitted with a handle of gold.

  But there was nothing grand about the sturdy door—except for the large padlock securing it. Shaped like the familiar triskele, each spiral was a separate lock, centered by a keyhole. Con and Alex inspected it closely.

  “I’ve never seen a triple lock.” Con glanced at his brother, and Alex shook his head. “We can try to pick them. I wonder if they have to all be unlocked simultaneously.”

  “Or in a certain succession,” Alex added. He glanced around the edges of the door. “Hinged on the inside, so no hope of taking off the hinges and removing the door.”

  “I’d guess it would take a battering ram to break through this thing.” Con rapped the wood. He turned to Lilah. “Maybe you could put your hands on this and command it to open.”

  Lilah gave him a repressive look. “I don’t have command of it.” Still, she laid her hands against the door. “I feel remarkably foolish.”

  Energy surged beneath her hands, pushing against the door from the other side. Taking a deep breath, she concentrated on the power beyond the door, inviting it in. The power rushed into her, and she turned it back into the door, imagining the door crashing down. The door vibrated beneath her hands but didn’t move.

  Lilah dropped her hands and the energy ebbed. “If I have the ability, I’ve no idea how to use it.” She did, however, feel more certain of her control.

  There was a burst of noise at the other end of the tunnel, and they all swung around. A vague glow became a bobbing light, then a figure holding a lantern.

  “Aunt Vesta!”

  “There goes any hope of keeping this entrance a secret,” Con murmured.

  “I knew!” Aunt Vesta exclaimed as she drew nearer, her breath coming in pants. “As soon as I heard Ruggins talking about the lanterns, I knew you had found the way. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. LeClaire,” Con replied. “But we didn’t want to get your hopes up until we were certain.”

  Aunt Vesta, however, was paying no attention to his words. She scarcely even glanced at Sabrina and Alex. Her gaze was fixed on the door, her eyes shining. “Oh, yes. I can feel the power.” Her voice was filled with wonder. “Can you feel it, Lilah?”

  “Yes.” Looking at her aunt, so eager and hopeful, Lilah felt a long-buried affection wind its way through her chest. Her aunt was selfish; she had abandoned her young niece without a thought to her welfare; but inside Lilah, beneath the hurt and resentment, there was still an ember of the love she had once felt for her capricious aunt. “Yes, I do feel it.”

  “I knew it. I knew it would answer to the Holcutt women.” Vesta put her hands to the door. “Oh, yes, it’s strong. I can feel it feeding me.”

  “Sabrina senses it, as well,” Lilah offered.

  “Really?” Vesta cast a speculative glance at Sabrina. “But not the men?”

  “No,” Con answered.

  Lilah knew that was not entirely true, for she could feel the energy flowing through her into all the others, heightening each one’s abilities. She suspected that Con was too kind to take away any of Aunt Vesta’s elation at the return of her powers. Indeed, her aunt’s expression was so rapturous it was vaguely unsettling.

  Lilah could feel the energy flowing softly from herself into Vesta in the same manner, but she also sensed the tentacles from the other side of the door
that led directly into her aunt and Sabrina. Those separate threads of energy were narrow and mild, her aunt’s no greater than Sabrina’s. Lilah feared Vesta would be greatly disappointed if her connection to the Sanctuary was not the deep link she desired.

  Impulsively, she took a step closer to her aunt. Vesta beamed. “Ah, yes, it’s growing greater.” She turned to Lilah, holding out her hand. “Lilah, come here. You, too, Sabrina.” She reached for the other girl, as well. “Let us see if our bond will affect it.”

  Too late, Lilah saw the danger of magnifying her aunt’s power with her own. It might make Vesta joyous for the moment, but what about when she alone couldn’t raise such power? Lilah hedged. “We don’t know what might happen.”

  Con agreed, “You don’t want to take a chance with such tremendous power.”

  “My niece is turning you cautious, dear boy.” Vesta wagged her finger playfully at Con. “It won’t harm me.” Sabrina had taken Vesta’s hand when she asked, and now Vesta reached out and grabbed Lilah’s hand.

  Immediately the energy swept through Lilah into the other two. Lilah was glad that she was not between the women, for she suspected that would have made the connection even greater.

  Her aunt clenched Lilah’s hand, her face glowing with excitement. “Yes, that increases it tenfold. This is wonderful. Lilah, take Sabrina’s hand to complete the circle.”

  “No,” Lilah said firmly. “That could prove explosive. We need to know more about this.”

  Vesta sighed. “You always were such a timid creature.” Her aunt released Sabrina’s hand, then nodded as if she had proved something. “That lowers it, but it’s still strong.”

  Lilah jerked her hand from Vesta’s and moved back. “This serves no purpose.”

  Vesta blinked in surprise. “It left so quickly.”

  Con stepped in. “It’s no surprise that the link of two Holcutt women would be stronger, so the break stronger.”

  “Oh. I hadn’t thought of it that way. No doubt you’re right.” Vesta’s face brightened.

  “Now, ladies, I think it’s time we find a more comfortable location for this discussion. Mrs. LeClaire, if you will lead the way,” Con said.

  He took Lilah’s aunt by the arm and steered her away, keeping up a steady stream of chatter and flirtation to deflect Aunt Vesta’s thoughts. It was typical of Con, Lilah thought, her chest warming with gratitude. She realized, with some amazement, that the behavior she had once disdained in Con had become a quality she admired.

  And one of the many reasons she had fallen in love with Con Moreland.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  SOMETHING NAGGED CON out of his sleep. For a moment he lay there, enjoying the cozy feel of Lilah’s body curled up against his side. Then he glanced around, and the faint light outlining the windows galvanized him into action. He had awakened late.

  No one could enter Lilah’s locked room, so there was no danger of anyone walking in on them, but the servants were up and about by dawn, and the longer he stayed, the more chance there was of being seen sneaking out of her room. He got out of bed and began to pull on his clothes. Lord, but he hated this. He wanted to sleep one night with Lilah and wake up to her in his arms, with no reason to leave her.

  Con unlocked the door and opened it a crack. Finding the hall empty, he slipped out the door and into his own room. Alex was sitting in the chair by the window, waiting for him.

  “Bloody hell.” Con closed the door behind him. “You’re up early.”

  “Mmm. As are you,” Alex replied mildly. “Sabrina and I plan to ride over early to Carmoor, you remember.”

  The four of them had stayed up late the night before, discussing their problems, and had come to the decision that Sabrina and Alex would check on their estate the following day before returning to join Lilah and Con in their search for the key.

  Alex went on. “One wonders, though, exactly what it is you’re doing.” He glanced pointedly at Con’s undisturbed bed.

  “You have a Reed face on, I see.” Con turned away, needlessly straightening his toiletry set, then sighed and said, “Oh, the devil. Let’s take a walk.” It was Con’s way to meet trouble head-on, and that didn’t change, even when he faced the unusual prospect of being at odds with his twin.

  Shrugging on his jacket, Con led Alex downstairs and out to the maze, where Con turned, crossing his arms over his chest, and said, “Very well. Out with it.”

  “You act as if I’m going to lecture you.” When Con simply raised his eyebrows, Alex let out a low growl of aggravation. “What if someone had seen you? What if it had been a maid who came into your room instead of me?”

  “I am normally not so careless.”

  “That’s not the point. Blast it, Con, I thought you and Miss Holcutt couldn’t be in the same room for five minutes without arguing.”

  “As it turns out, we can.” Con turned and started down the leafy green aisle.

  “What are you thinking?” Alex followed his twin. “Lilah is Sabrina’s dearest friend. What is going to happen when this ends? If you break Lilah’s heart, Sabrina will never forgive you. And then what am I to do?”

  “I don’t know why you assume it will end.”

  “What else would happen?”

  “I intend to marry Lilah.”

  “What?” Alex came to a dead stop. “You’re engaged?” The tightness in his face disappeared, and he began to grin. “Why the devil didn’t you tell me?”

  “I didn’t say we were engaged. I said I intended to marry her. I still have to bring Lilah around to the idea.”

  “You’re joking. She turned you down?” Alex looked even more astonished. “How did you botch that?”

  “I didn’t. Not yet anyway. I haven’t asked her.”

  “Would you stop being so damned irritating and tell me what is going on?”

  Con started forward again, not looking at Alex. “I’m scared.”

  This time he’d rendered his twin speechless. Finally, weakly, Alex said, “Good Lord. You really are in love with her.”

  “Either that, or I am seriously ill.” Con turned to Alex, saying earnestly, “You promise you won’t tell Sabrina any of this?”

  “No! What do you take me for?”

  “A married man.”

  “That doesn’t change the fact that I’m your brother.”

  As if some dam had been breached, the words began to spill out of Con. “I know Lilah and I don’t have the makings of some grand pair of lovers. We didn’t fall in love at first sight. Instead she slapped me. I’ve had to fight her every inch of the way. We don’t have that harmony of mind the other Morelands have with their spouses. We share no connection as you and Sabrina do. We’re complete opposites. But...whenever she comes into the room, I feel as if the sun just broke through the clouds. I can’t think about anything but her. All I want is to be with her. And if she turns me down, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

  “Why would she turn you down? You’re sleeping in her bed, aren’t you? Surely she must care for you.”

  “Yes.” Con looked down at the compass ring and rubbed his thumb over it. “I think she cares for me. But when I brought up marriage, she looked as if she was—well, I’m not sure what she felt, but I can tell you, it was not happy. She turned me down without even thinking about it. You see, Lilah doesn’t do what she wants. She does what is right. And she doesn’t think I’m at all right.”

  “Why? What’s wrong with you?”

  Con gave him a wry smile. “Would you like a list? I am impulsive and rash. I’m not serious. I have a reputation for being absurd. Off-kilter. I am, unfortunately, all the things she’s spent the last ten years trying to get away from.”

  Alex furrowed his brow. “I don’t understand.”

  “Her family is as daft as ours. Her father was obsessed with spiritualism and ghosts. Her grand
father made up this bizarre religion. And, well, you’ve met her aunt.”

  “Her grandfather wasn’t entirely mad, was he? There is something down there. I felt the Sanctuary last night. I know you said it didn’t affect us, but my ability was heightened—holding that lantern told me the gardener had been using it to go poaching. And when Mrs. LeClaire joined us there, I could feel the emotions coming off her in waves.”

  “Technically, it was Lilah giving you the power, not the Sanctuary. She somehow transmits psychic strength. Your ability is stronger around her. Had you taken her arm, you’d have felt it even more. She’s connected to that place. It pours into her. I could feel it absolutely flooding her.”

  “And you were able to ease some of that, weren’t you? Dilute it or consume part of it. How can you say you two don’t have a special connection?”

  “But that’s just our abilities. As you know, she can give that to others, too.”

  “Not, I think, to the same extent.”

  “But, you see, she doesn’t want to be like that. For years she made herself believe it didn’t exist. It had to hit her in the face to make her acknowledge it. She’s damnably stubborn.”

  “Says the man with a head like a rock.”

  Con ignored him. “She knows it now. Even accepts it. But she doesn’t like it. You heard her last night, saying she couldn’t believe she was talking about these matters as if they were real.”

  “I wasn’t fond of getting smacked with a vision whenever I touched something either, but one adjusts. She seems to have done so.”

  “Because she wants this matter resolved.” Con shrugged. “And she’s drawn to the adventure in the same way that she’s drawn to me. But she doesn’t want to be. It’s not the life she’s always dreamed of. When this is over, she’ll return to the life she wants—the peace, the order and simplicity. I don’t fit there.”

  “But she loves you. Sabrina told me last night Lilah was in love with you.”