Damsel Under Stress

by Shanna Swendson

  “That also fits the way he used to work,” Owen added. “He seldom finished projects. He’d dabble in one thing after another instead of sticking to a particular line of thought or research.”

  “But now that he’s apparently got someone interested enough in what he’s doing to bankroll him, he may not be able to get away with that,” I continued. “His boss must have something planned, and he’s not going to want to just move on to the next great idea. So if we could come up with a way to really distract Idris, it might mess him up with his boss or force the boss to show himself.”

  Merlin stroked his beard and nodded. “Yes, I could see how that might be effective. It might not stop the plan entirely, but it could buy us time. We’d still need to find a way to discover who is behind him and what he’s trying to accomplish, but this could make that task somewhat easier. Very good thinking, Miss Chandler. It’s almost a pity you’re not magical, for I’d be interested in seeing how you might innovate in that respect.”

  “I guess we’ll never know. And maybe I have to think outside the box because I don’t have access to any powers. If I had magical powers, I might be a really boring wizard.” I hesitated, then asked a question that weighed heavily on my mind. “How are things going up here? Is there anything you need me to take care of?”

  “No, Kim is quite effective. A trifle overeager, perhaps, but she is getting her work done. You can focus on this project in good conscience.”

  “Good, good.” I hoped my smile didn’t look too obviously fake. I tried to remind myself that Kim getting my work done didn’t mean I was out of a job. It only meant I could concentrate on stopping Idris, which meant far more to the company than typing memos and making sure no one pulled a fast one in meetings.

  She was still there, sitting smugly at Trix’s desk as we left Merlin’s office, which undermined my mental pep talk. There are some people who just bug you, and Kim seemed to be my person of the moment. There was nothing she could do that wouldn’t get under my skin.

  “Next time, it would help if you’d schedule an appointment in advance,” she said.

  And a lot of the things she did seemed designed specifically to push my buttons. Fortunately, Owen had my back and I didn’t have to stoop to her level to respond. “Mr. Mervyn seldom needs anyone to schedule appointments. He’ll know before anything important happens,” he said. “You may notice that there’s never a conflict, even when something comes up unexpectedly.”

  “That does take some getting used to when you’re managing his schedule,” I added, trying very hard to avoid sounding patronizing. The stunned expression on her face was more gratifying than any gift I’d received for Christmas, and I hurried to get out of the office suite before she thought of a clever comeback that would diminish my triumph.

  By the time we got back to Owen’s lab, the short preholiday workday was almost over. “I’ll see you home,” he said. “I feel like I ought to do at least that much with your immunity gone.”

  I was starting to regret having made plans with my roommates. Going home with him would have been really nice. “I’m meeting Marcia down here to go to lunch. She works in the financial district. And then we’re going uptown to meet Gemma for some shopping.” I took his hand and gave it a squeeze. “But I do appreciate the offer. Normally, I’m all in favor of having you keep an eye on me.”

  He squeezed my hand in response, but his expression remained serious. “I don’t like the idea of you being unprotected, especially after what happened this morning. They know we’re onto them.”

  “Have you met Marcia? I’d like to see the magical creature that could take her on. And aren’t there my usual bodyguards? I’ll be fine. But I’d better get going. She’s the punctual type, and I’m more afraid of her than of monsters if I’m ever late meeting her.”

  I decided to walk to meet Marcia at the restaurant she’d chosen rather than ride the subway to the next station. I’d only walked a couple of blocks when I noticed an elderly lady who seemed to be following me. I tried to ignore her and kept going on my way. That was one of the city survival lessons Marcia had taught me when I first moved to New York. I reached the restaurant and stepped inside to find Marcia already waiting in the foyer. “You’re right on time,” she said, greeting me with a hug. “They said our table should be ready in a moment.”

  I opened my mouth to respond, but then a voice at my elbow said, “Well, now, aren’t you being rude today?”

  I turned to see the lady who’d been following me. She stood next to me, looking at me as though she was astonished that I hadn’t recognized her. I mentally ran through every place I might have met someone during my time in New York so I could figure out why I might know her. No bells rang.

  “I know you were angry with me,” she said, “but that’s no reason to snub me entirely.”

  Only then did I notice her facial structure and put it together with her voice to recognize Ethelinda. So, that’s what the rest of the world saw. Without her wings, tiara, and layers of out-of-date evening wear, she looked like an entirely different person. It would have been nice if I could have ignored her, but I was afraid Ethelinda would make a scene. “I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t recognize you right away,” I said, frantically scrambling for an excuse to get rid of her.

  “Who’s your friend?” Marcia asked.

  “Oh, this is Ethel—” I cut myself off because Ethel was a perfectly reasonable, if a little old-fashioned, name, unlike Ethelinda. “She, uh, we…”

  “I’m her fairy godmother,” Ethelinda declared proudly, putting an arm around my shoulders.

  Seventeen

  I froze. This wasn’t how I’d planned to tell my friends about magic. Then I tried to recover. “Ha, ha! Yeah, that’s what we call her at work. She’s like a fairy godmother to all of us in the office. She gives us such great advice on dating, relationships, and stuff like that.”

  Marcia didn’t act like she’d noticed anything odd, which made me relax a little. “It’s nice to meet you, and you must be doing a good job, from what I’ve heard. It seems like Katie has found a good man.”

  “The best,” Ethelinda said, beaming proudly, as though she had anything at all to do with it. “Now, if only we can make sure things work out for those two.”

  “Yeah, well, everyone goes through that,” I said with a forced smile.

  “Why don’t you join us for lunch?” Marcia asked. I groaned inwardly because there was nothing I could say to stop Ethelinda from joining us and it would have been rude to uninvite her.

  The hostess returned to her station and glanced at us, then asked Marcia, “Wasn’t it just two in your party?”

  “Our friend’s going to join us,” Marcia said.

  The hostess then swept us back to our table. She plunked menus down and said, “Enjoy your lunch.”

  Ethelinda grinned gleefully once we were all seated. “I haven’t had lunch with the girls like this in ages. Now, what romantic problems do you want help with?”

  Marcia giggled nervously, then lined her silverware up in precise rows. “Funny you should mention it, but I did want to get some advice about something.”

  “Isn’t that Gemma’s area?” I asked. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea for Marcia to talk about her love life in front of Ethelinda, not if she didn’t want it completely screwed up.

  “I definitely don’t want to talk to Gemma about this right now. Her view of relationships doesn’t always match mine, and you, well, you seem to be pretty level-headed.” She turned to Ethelinda and added with a smile, “And I’d appreciate any wisdom you’ve got, too.”

  “What did you want to talk about?” Ethelinda asked.

  “My boyfriend, Jeff. I thought for a while that he helped balance me. He’s a live-for-the-moment guy, and I’m Ms. Spreadsheet. I’m ambitious and driven. But there’s balance and then there’s functioning in different universes.” She looked at me and said, “You knew him before I met him. What do you know?”

  All I
knew was that he’d been sitting naked in Central Park, thinking he’d been turned into a frog when it was only an illusion because of a practical joke spell, until I’d kissed him and broken the spell. Unfortunately, the next effect of the spell was that he became obsessed with me until he met Marcia and fell for her. “I don’t really know much about him,” I confessed. “I’d just run into him around town a few times.”

  “I don’t think I’m a snob, and it’s not like I’m ashamed to take him with me to work functions, but I’m not sure I can stay with him. I just think we’re fundamentally incompatible on a long-term basis. I’m a grown-up, and he’s like an overgrown frat boy. Do I sound horrible?”

  “No. You sound sensible,” Ethelinda said. “If you’re not happy, then there’s no need to keep at it. It’s not as though you’re married.” Which was pretty much what I’d planned to say. Why could Ethelinda give such sane advice to my friend when she only messed things up for me?

  “Gemma would say I’m avoiding intimacy, that I’m not letting anything into my life that’s not in perfect order.”

  “Then Gemma can go out with him. It’s your life,” I said.

  “I’m not convinced you’re meant to be together,” Ethelinda said.

  Marcia sighed, and I could practically see the tension leaving her body. “I’m glad you see it that way, because I broke up with him last night. I guess that means I’m the fifth wheel for the New Year’s Eve party, since I’ll be going solo. But don’t tell Gemma yet, okay? I know she’d say I should at least have a date for New Year’s Eve.” She chuckled. “It does make me sound like a man, breaking up right before a major holiday.”

  “But it also means you really didn’t want to be with him, if you were willing to go dateless at New Year’s,” I said.

  “True. And did you say that gorgeous friend of yours is going to be at the party?”

  It took me a second to realize who she was talking about, since I normally didn’t think of Rod as gorgeous. “Oh, yeah, he’s the one hosting it.”

  “Is he seeing anyone?”

  “Uh, Manhattan? And maybe even some of the outer boroughs. Oh, and definitely a few foreign airline flight crews. He’s kind of a player. I love him to death as a friend, but I’m not sure I’d encourage anyone I cared about to date him. It would be a recipe for heartbreak if you actually liked him enough to want to go out with him more than once or twice.”

  “He’s going through a phase,” Ethelinda said. “A phase he should have outgrown by now, but I don’t believe it reflects his true personality. Still, he may not be ready yet to move out of that phase.” There she went again with the sane advice.

  Marcia twirled her hair around her finger. “Hmm. Sounds like a challenge.”

  “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I looked up, and wouldn’t you know it, Rod was walking through the door. There had to be some unconscious spell that made the person you were talking about show up, it happened so often. “Speak of the devil,” I muttered.

  “Why, what a coincidence!” Ethelinda said gleefully. “Here that very young man is.”

  Marcia turned to look, and while her back was to the table, Ethelinda waved her hand and a soup-and-salad lunch for four appeared. Rod saw me and came straight to our table. “How are you ladies today?” he said smoothly. Marcia batted her eyelashes at him flirtatiously, and I tried not to gag.

  “Just great. Marcia, you remember Rod, don’t you? And this is Ethel. I was just telling Marcia that she’s like the fairy godmother of the office.” I gave the words “fairy godmother” particular stress and hoped he’d sense her magic and figure it out.

  “Yeah, that’s what we say,” Rod said, giving me a sly wink and the barest hint of a nod.

  “Won’t you join us for lunch?” Ethelinda said. “We already have food for you.”

  “Hey, when did that get there?” Marcia asked.

  I shrugged. “The waitress brought it when you weren’t looking.” At that moment, the waitress came out of the kitchen with a tray, saw our table, frowned, and went back into the kitchen. The sound of raised voices filtered into the dining room as the kitchen door swung in and out.

  “What romantic advice have you been giving?” Rod asked Ethelinda. I wondered if it was my imagination, or if he’d done something to alter his illusion. He was still very handsome, but it didn’t seem quite so over-the-top as it usually was. Maybe I was getting used to it, or maybe the contrast with his usual appearance wasn’t so strong now that he was making an effort.

  “Marcia here has decided to break up with her boyfriend,” Ethelinda said smugly, as though it had been her idea. I was getting the feeling that Cinderella and her prince had already worked things out, and it was in spite of the glass slippers and pumpkin coach rather than because of these things that they got together, while Ethelinda took credit and coasted on that laurel for centuries.

  “Oh, really?” Rod asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning closer to Marcia. If he’d been sitting next to me instead of across from me, I’d have kicked him in the ankle. Then I realized that I still wasn’t getting any sense of his usual attraction spell. The last time I lost my immunity, it had taken all my willpower to keep from throwing myself at him. Now I didn’t feel so much as a nudge. Had he really given that up, or was he just being a lot more focused about it now?

  Marcia gave him a rueful smile. “Yeah, I guess so. Bad timing, huh? It looks like I’ll be flying solo at your party. You don’t mind me coming without a date, do you?”

  “I don’t have a date, either, and it’s my party.” Rod not having a date for New Year’s Eve, when he had a date for just about every night of the other three hundred and sixty-four days of the year, was almost unbelievable. Then again, it probably meant he was hoping to hook up with someone there without an official date to get in the way. “You can keep me company.”

  Marcia blushed and looked flustered in a way I’d never seen with her before. She had to be under a spell, but Owen’s necklace gave off only a low-level hum that was probably accounted for by Rod’s illusion and Ethelinda’s veiling. I hadn’t felt anything stronger or any surges of magic, other than when Ethelinda conjured our lunches.

  The waitress, still looking confused, dropped off our check. “This one’s on me!” Ethelinda declared. Money appeared on the table. I hoped for the sake of the waitress that it was real money. “And I believe my work here is done. It was lovely meeting you. I hope things work out.”

  We thanked her for the lunch, then I held my breath, hoping she’d leave the normal way via the door instead of her usual vanishing act. If she vanished, I told myself I’d let Rod explain it. Fortunately, she did use the door. Rod soon excused himself to go take care of some final party-planning details.

  Marcia and I then went uptown and met Gemma as she got off work in the garment district. “There’s a huge Victoria’s Secret nearby, so we can go over there and get all the accessories we need for our costumes,” she said after greeting us.

  Once we were inside the store, she headed straight for the bra section. She skimmed through the displays, then pulled one off a rack. “This should do the trick. It adds a full cup size. The red satin one would be really sexy and would work under that dress, but you’ll probably get more use out of the nude one because you could wear it under other things. What size do you wear?”

  I was just about to tell her when I looked up and found myself looking straight at Mimi, my evil boss from my last job. Her smirk told me she’d heard everything Gemma had just said. She had to be feeling smugly superior, for she’d never need a padded bra. That was one of the many ways she felt she was better than me. “Why, Katie, imagine seeing you here,” she said, doing a fake air kiss that I didn’t bother returning. “I thought you were too sweet and wholesome for this kind of thing.”

  “Too sweet and wholesome to wear underwear?” I asked with exaggerated innocence. I mentally high-fived myself for having a good comeback. There was something about Mimi that always made me fee
l about an inch tall, even if I was no longer working for her.

  She laughed. “Very funny.” Suddenly, she was acting like Good Mimi. That was part of what was so evil about her. She could change personalities at the drop of a hat. She’d start the day acting like your best friend, lull you into complacency, then pounce with claws bared. “Whatever did you do with that gorgeous guy you were with the last time I saw you?” The last time I’d run into her around town, I’d had Owen with me. He’d jumped valiantly to my defense when she’d gone on the attack.

  “I’m giving him a break today to rest up for New Year’s Eve,” I said, then grabbed something sheer and naughty looking from a nearby display. “And that would be why I’m here.”

  She looked at what I was holding, then glanced over at the heavily padded bra Gemma still held. “Then, word of advice—you don’t want to disappoint him by starting with all that padding and then showing him the sad reality that you can’t hide in that.” She’d made a good, stinging barb and she knew it, so while I was still thinking of a better comeback than “I know you are, but what am I?” she turned and headed to another part of the store.

  As soon as she was gone, Gemma and Marcia said in stunned unison, “What a bitch!” Gemma then asked, “Who was that?”

  “That was the infamous Mimi.”

  Marcia shook her head as she watched Mimi berating a sales clerk on the other side of the store. “And I always thought you were exaggerating when you talked about her. How did you survive that long without killing her?”

  “I needed the job if you wanted me to pay my share of the rent.” I put the sheer thing back on the rack, then said, “Okay, show me this miraculous bra.”

  “You’re not going to get that?” Gemma asked, raising one eyebrow.

  “That? Are you kidding? It would give him heart failure.”

  “That’s the idea.”

  “No, when I’m ready for that kind of thing—and I mean after we’ve been going out for more than a few weeks—I’d need something a little more classy, less calculated and obvious.”