The Magicians and Mrs. Quent

by Galen Beckett

  That he had seemed to enjoy their conversations, she conceded. That he was altogether agreeable and had gone out of his way to make himself amiable to her and her mother and sisters, she would not impugn. However, the significance of these things must not be overstated. When placed opposite all the weighty evidence of position and fortune, they could not cause the scale of possibility to so much as budge.

  The more she studied these facts, the more Ivy convinced herself of the soundness of her reasoning. Indeed, she concluded one afternoon as she worked on her poor basket, there was no use in wasting another moment’s thought on it; the matter was resolved; she could expect—would expect—nothing from Mr. Rafferdy.

  “I see a black carriage coming down the street!” Lily said from her perch by the parlor window.

  Ivy winced, then sucked her finger; she had pricked it with the needle. Her heart pounded. But it was only from the start that Lily had given her, she told herself. All the same, she did not draw a breath as Lily described the progress of the carriage.

  “Oh, it’s not stopping,” Lily said, and turned from the window with a frown. “I do wonder when Mr. Rafferdy will come. And when he does, he had better bring Mr. Garritt with him, or I shall be very cross.”

  “You must not expect such an event,” Ivy said, resuming both her breathing and her sewing. “And I wish to hear no more about Mr. Rafferdy. I assure you I will speak no more about him this day!”

  Lily sulked from the window and sat at the pianoforte, though she did not play anything. In the time Rose finished one shirt and began another, Ivy succeeded only in tearing out the seam along a sleeve.

  “There!” she announced with grim satisfaction. “How horrified Mr. Rafferdy would be to witness such a poor display of sewing. It is best he is not here. He would cease any association with me at once.”

  And a short while later, when the clatter of a passing carriage sounded outside, she exclaimed, “There is no need to look, I am quite certain by the squeaking of the wheels that is not Mr. Rafferdy. His cabriolet is very quiet, as I remember. Do not even bother going to the window, Lily.”

  That night was an unusually short umbral, a mere four hours according to the almanac. While it was light when they sat down to supper, it was already full dark by the time they finished their soup.

  “We must hurry to bed!” Mrs. Lockwell said, rushing them from the table, “or it will be light before we get a wink of sleep.”

  Despite the brief night, Ivy rose early. Dawn found her in the kitchen, heating a kettle for tea. Though the sky warmed from gray to pink to blue while she drank her cup, the rest of the household had not stirred, having gone to bed only a few hours ago. Even Mrs. Murch, who was usually very early, had not made an appearance; so when the bell rang for the post, Ivy ventured out to retrieve it herself. She waved to the postman across the street, and he cracked a great yawn in reply.

  The day was already sultry, having had little chance to give up yesterday’s heat. She took a bundle of letters from the box, dismayed to note that the topmost was a bill from a fashionable Uphill clothier. She returned inside and without further examination set the stack of letters on the table in the front hall; her mother always insisted on going through them before anyone else and would be upset if she perceived this was not the case.

  The stack slid to one side as she let go, revealing a letter addressed in a cramped, formal hand.

  Ivy stared. She reached for the post, determined only to straighten the stack, then found the letter in her hand. It was addressed to Mr. Lockwell and sealed with red wax, just like the one that had come some months ago.

  It was not hers to open. All the same, her fingers slipped beneath the wax seal, prying it from the paper without cracking it. She trembled and was forced to hold the letter with both hands in order to read it in the morning sun that streamed through the front window.

  Dear Mr. and Mrs. Lockwell,

  I address this to you both, though it is my belief that only one of you will read it, for if things had altered for the better I am sure I would have heard such news. It is my hope they have not altered for the worse. It is also my hope that this missive will win a reply, though my previous letters have gone unanswered. That I have only the best wishes for you and your family, I cannot make more plain than I did when last we met, and the intervening years have not altered my intentions.

  My little cousins, which I previously described to you, are now come to my house at Heathcrest, and I still have great need of someone to see to their care and education. I have only a small staff, and they have little time or ability to see to the shepherding of young souls and young minds. The children need a governess, and I am sure I could do no better than to have one of your three daughters.

  If she is not otherwise occupied, I think the eldest would do the best, being of an age (if I recollect rightly) to carry some weight of authority with my two charges. This would be beneficial. While they are kind children, and clever, since the passing of their mother they have wanted for the benefit of a regular household and the influence of solid governance. I fear this is something I can little provide myself, being so occupied with the duties of my work, which often require me to be away.

  I trust you will present this opportunity to your eldest. While I can offer nothing that compares to the brightness and busy society of the city, there are goodly folk in this part of the country, and it is possible she might make some acquaintances that are both fitting and pleasing to her. I fear there is nothing else I can promise her, save my gratitude and fifty regals a month she may put to her future.

  It is long since I have seen you both, but I hope in honor of our past acquaintance you will treat me to a reply as soon as possible.

  Yours with Respect,

  Alasdare Quent, Esquire

  Heathcrest Hall, Cairnbridge, County Westmorain

  Ivy folded the letter and creased it. She went to the kitchen, warmed a knife on the stove, and held it against the circle of wax. Once softened, she pressed the letter shut and let the seal cool.

  Though she performed these motions calmly, her mind raced. Fifty regals a month! How such a sum would alter their lot. They would have enough to buy all that was needed, as well as a few things that were merely wanted, and still have a good amount to save toward the future.

  Why her mother had not presented her with the proposition expressed in this letter—and the letters prior to it—Ivy could not imagine. There was no reason keeping her in the city, unless it was the reason that her mother imagined, and that was no reason at all. She did not know this Mr. Quent; Mrs. Lockwell had never mentioned him. However, it was clear he had been a friend of the family, or at least a friend of Mr. Lockwell’s.

  So why had Mrs. Lockwell kept these missives a secret?

  Ivy heard heavy footfalls coming down the stairs. She rushed back into the hall and slipped the letter into the stack, turning just in time to see her mother coming down the steps.

  “You are up very early,” Mrs. Lockwell said. “And you have a bright look about you. Have you already been out for a walk? By the saints, I can hardly imagine such a thing! I feel as if I could sleep through a greatnight. What have you been doing?”

  “Nothing,” Ivy said. “The post just came. I will put on water for tea. Mrs. Murch is not yet risen.”

  As her mother took up the letters, Ivy moved down the hall toward the kitchen door.

  “Ivoleyn, wait. This letter here—”

  Ivy halted, her hand on the doorknob, then turned around, a coldness descending in her stomach. Mrs. Lockwell frowned at one of the letters, then held it out toward Ivy.

  “This note is addressed to you. I can see no sign of who sent it. Were you expecting anything?”

  Ivy murmured that she had not. So relieved was she that her mother had not noticed her handiwork with the wax seal that she took the note without looking at it. She tucked it into the pocket of her skirt and went to the kitchen.

  It was not until after breakf
ast, when she sat at the secretary in the parlor to look at the ledger, that she recalled the note in her pocket. She glanced over her shoulder. Rose was sewing contentedly, and Lily stared at the window with a rather less contented air while Miss Mew made a nest in her poor basket. Ivy returned her attention to the note, which had been folded so as to make its own envelope. Miss Ivoleyn Lockwell was written in an elongated hand on the front, but there was nothing to indicate the identity of the sender. Ivy opened the note.

  I believe you will find this of interest was the message in its entirety. It was signed simply Bennick.

  Before she could wonder at the exceeding brevity of the letter—or the fact that Mr. Bennick had sent her a letter of any length at all—a scrap of newsprint fell to the secretary. Ivy unfolded it, seeing that it was an article clipped from one of the broadsheets—The Messenger, perhaps, by its stodgy typeface. She read it but with more confusion than interest.

  The article concerned the new celestial object, the one she had seen the other night. Some men of science were now suggesting it was not a comet after all but rather a planet. This idea seemed remarkable, given that the object had not been observed in the heavens during all the course of recorded history; not even the ancient Tharosians had ever noted it. However, according to some astrographers, it was not beyond the realm of possibility.

  The eleven known planets moved in the heavens as the spheres of aether, on whose surfaces they resided, turned about their axes. Ivy had observed this motion herself when she turned the knobs of her father’s celestial globe. The furthest planets resided on the surfaces of the largest spheres, and these spheres were so great, and turned so slowly, that some of the planets did not complete their grand circuits for a generation. Indeed, it took Loerus a full forty years to make its rounds.

  It was theorized by some, the article went on, that if the celestial sphere that contained the planet was sufficiently large, and its axis was offset from the other spheres to an extreme degree, it might take many thousands of years to complete its circuit. Therefore it was possible that it had been eons since the last time this planet had drawn close enough to be seen, before the ancient precursors of the Tharosians first put stylus to clay.

  Ivy set down the article and could not help frowning. It was fascinating, to be sure. That there could be a thing so great and important as an entire planet that had heretofore remained undiscovered was remarkable. However, that there was much left in creation to discover Ivy did not doubt; after all, it was only a few centuries ago that the New Lands were found across the eastern sea.

  What Ivy found equally—if not more—remarkable was the fact that Mr. Bennick had thought to send her the article. They were acquainted in only the slightest way. At Lady Marsdel’s he had told her about Mr. Rafferdy’s descent from one of the Old Houses, that was all.

  No, that was not all she and Mr. Bennick had spoken of. Ivy reached again for the note. I believe you will find this of interest.

  She set down the note and opened a drawer, taking out the riddle she had found in the old book, the one her father had left for her. Ivy had concealed it under a stack of demands and receipts, confident it would not be disturbed in that location. Again she read the cryptic lines.

  When twelve who wander stand as one

  Through the door the dark will come.

  The key will be revealed in turn—

  Unlock the way and you shall learn.

  Upon reading the riddle, her first thought had been of the planets; her father had been something of an astrographer himself, and he had taught her long ago that the Tharosian word for planet meant wanderer. However, she had dismissed that line of reasoning, for the planets were eleven in number.

  “No,” she murmured, picking up the article Mr. Bennick had sent her and holding it alongside the riddle. “Not eleven anymore.”

  All this time her first guess had been right; the riddle did concern the planets. Mr. Bennick had said he knew of no myths that spoke of twelve wanderers, but what if this planet was more ancient than myth itself? What if it had last appeared before men first looked up at the sky—or before there were men at all? If that was the case, it was no wonder it was unknown in story and legend.

  Yet Mr. Lockwell had known of it, or at least he had seemed to. So, you have returned at last from your wanderings, he had said two nights ago, when she first saw the red glint in the sky.

  How her father had come to be aware of a celestial object whose existence had never been noted in all of recorded history, she could not guess. However, she owed Mr. Bennick thanks for remembering her odd question.

  Again she studied the riddle. She had to believe she was capable of solving it; her father would never have left it for her if he didn’t think it was within her abilities to fathom. But why use a riddle at all? Why not just tell her?

  Because he wanted you to be ready, she thought. And, more darkly, Because he did not want others to know.

  She read the first line, and now that she knew it referred to planets, its meaning was clear. When twelve who wander stand as one. It had to refer to some sort of conjunction—a grand conjunction of all the planets, appearing together in the sky.

  The next line described what would happen when this celestial event took place. It spoke of a door and the dark coming through. Ivy could not help but shudder; the line reminded her of how she felt sometimes when night fell, how the darkness seemed to creep into the house, eating the light. And it also reminded her of the man she had encountered at the old house on Durrow Street.

  The way must not be opened, the man in the mask had said.

  Ivy closed her eyes, recalling that strange meeting. She had thought back to it several times since then, trying to remember everything that had happened, everything he had said. Only it was vague to her, as if from a dream. The fever she had succumbed to that night had dimmed her memories of the day. And it had all been so peculiar: the outlandish and outmoded clothes he wore, the dark mask, the way she had been unable to speak. He had spoken about a door and about a group of people: the Vigilant Order of the Silver Eye. None of it made sense to her. But could it be a coincidence that both Mr. Lockwell and the stranger had spoken of a door?

  You should listen to me, he had said from behind the mask, because that is what your father did.

  She had listened to her father. He had taught her how the planets Vaelus and Cyrenth never stood in conjunction, just as their namesakes were doomed never to meet. Which meant the first line of the riddle made no sense after all. Even if there were twelve planets, they still could never stand as one. She was missing something in the riddle. Her father would not have gone to such trouble to leave her a piece of nonsense. There had to be an answer.

  Her head ached from staring at the papers. With a sigh, she returned the riddle to the drawer, and the article from Mr. Bennick with it.

  THE MONTH DREW on, and still no carriage stopped at their front door.

  Mr. Rafferdy was merely waiting for the right moment, Mrs. Lockwell made a point of declaring every day.

  “It must be that he is making certain all his affairs are in proper order,” Mrs. Lockwell said as they took an early breakfast after a long umbral, “so that when he makes his proposal it will appear as attractive as possible.”

  “No doubt,” Ivy replied solemnly, “for a woman of my position can be compelled by only the strongest of persuasions to accept the proposal of a young, wealthy, and charming man.”

  “I should think not!” Mrs. Lockwell exclaimed. “But I would begin to think you are not interested at all in him, Miss Ivoleyn Lockwell, for the way you talk. You had best not act like that when he comes. You will be sorry if you cause him to take his proposal to some other woman. Don’t think there aren’t plenty who would accept in your stead!”

  Of that, Ivy had no doubt. In fact, she thought as she went into the parlor, she was certain there were any number of young women who would receive such a proposal long before she would. She had not her mother’s unfou
nded hopes nor her sister’s romantic notions. The sound of horses and wheels clattering came from the street. A cart, no doubt. She paid the noise no heed and moved instead to the secretary to look over the ledger.

  “Ivy!” came a cry from downstairs. “Ivy, come down here at once!”

  It was her mother, and such was the shrill sound of her voice that Ivy thought at first some terrible thing must have occurred. She set down her pen and started for the stairs.

  “Ivy, where are you? Come down here this instant! He’s here, oh, bless us, he’s here!”

  Ivy halted, gripping the top of the banister, then hurried to the window and glanced out. A black four-in-hand decorated with gold trim had pulled up in front of their house.

  In that moment, with one gasp of breath, all her arguments and assumptions that this could never be—that it was impossible, that it defied logic in every way—were dismissed. Instead, reason lost out, as it always must no matter how strongly founded, to wonder and delight.

  For so long she had not let herself so much as entertain a hope that, when proven false as it surely must, would cause a pain that could not be borne. To not hope, to expect nothing, to dismiss at every turn—these had been her only protections against certain devastation. Disappointment could not ensue when one failed to gain what one had never wished for.

  But now…She lifted a hand to her mouth but could not contain her smile. Now there was no reason to refuse hope any longer. Her logic had not been wrong; it was impossible. All the same, he was here; he had come. And now that a joy she had previously forbidden from her mind and heart was at last allowed to enter, it could only expand rapidly and quickly filled her. Speech was quite beyond her, but it felt as if a light streamed outward from her, radiating all around.

  “Wonderful,” she managed to murmur at last. And it was so. This would make her life—all of their lives—wonderful indeed.