Phoenix and Ashes

'So she could easily have been on the guest list, and all she had to do was claim she misplaced her invitation. But how did she manipulate my coercive spells?' Alison glared down at the wretched girl. 'That's what I want to know!'

'You have been concentrating on Reggie,' Warrick Locke reminded her. 'And you've been quite careful about working magic anywhere around Lady Virginia since her ladyship arrived. Between the two, your coercive spells may have weakened. It's just a very good thing for all of us that Lauralee spotted her, and that the rest of us were at the ball too.'

'If you hadn't had Warrick along, he wouldn't have been able to shield Lady Virginia from sensing magic,' Lauralee reminded her mother. 'So you were able to redouble your coercions and force her back here. She didn't fight that, so possibly, as Mr. Locke says, it's only that your binding spells were weakening over time because you haven't been renewing them.'

'Or possibly the girl is coming into her powers.' Alison gritted her teeth. That was the one possibility that simply hadn't occurred to her up until this moment. And it was the one possibility that made her the angriest. 'If that's the case, then there's no time to waste. We'll have to take her out to the nearest mine, the one closest to the Hoar Stones, and dump her there now instead of later. If she is becoming a Fire mage—her powers won't do her any good in there. Not underground, and not when my creatures are finished with her.'

Oh, the miserable chit! She was forcing everything—and ruining what she hadn't forced!

'Alison,' Locke said, warningly, pulling out his watch, and showing the face to her, 'It's nearly five in the morning. We can't take her now. Someone will see us.'

For one moment, Alison deeply regretted her rise in social status, because it would have been very relieving of her frustrations to curse like a fishwife right now. Locke was right, of course; none of the motors had anywhere to hide a bundled-up body, and the sun would be up by the time they got everything packed up and into the automobiles. It would have to wait until dark.

'How do you want to keep her unconscious?' Locke continued, now looking nervous. 'I hate to advise against more chloroform, because it is dangerous, and there's an equal chance that I'd kill her or she'd come out of it—and you don't want her dead, that will do you no good at all—'

'I have something,' Alison interrupted him. 'It's a bit more precise.'

She went upstairs to her room, and came back down with the morphia kit in both hands. It amused her slightly to see Locke's eyes bulge a little when he realized what it was. She readied the needle, pleased that she had learned to do all of this a long time ago. One of the few benefits of caring for the aged. . . .

'You surprise me,' Locke said, finally, as she pulled a measured dose of the fluid into the chamber. 'This is not something I would have expected you to possess.' The look of shock still on his face made her raise an eyebrow.

'Don't be an idiot, Warrick,' Lauralee snapped. 'Mother's not an addict. She just believes in being prepared. She got that from our doctor in London ages ago. She told him it was because Eleanor had fits.'

'And I pay him well enough to be incurious,' Alison said, kneeling down at the girl's side, turning her arm over, and probing for a vein. 'He noted it in his records as being for Eleanor, and it cost me a pretty penny, too. But you never know when you're going to need to keep someone quiet.' She injected the fluid, and stood up. 'There. That should keep her for quite some time. And it has the added benefit that, if she is coming into her powers, it will throw her right out of her body for a while, which should thoroughly disorient her.'

She waved at Locke, who was just standing there, gaping at her. 'Take the little wretch and bundle her out of sight somewhere.'

'Where?' he asked, and she turned a furious face towards him.

'I don't care] You know this house well enough to find some place! I don't want anyone coming in here and stumbling over her, that's all!' She suppressed the urge to stamp her foot. Did she have to think of everything?

'The wash-house?' suggested Lauralee sweetly. 'No one would look in there, and it will be handy for taking her out to the autos when we leave tonight.'

They all looked to Alison, who nodded. Carolyn, she noted, was looking more and more calf-like. Stupid and sulky. Well, it was clear which of her daughters was the more useful.

Alison watched, lips pressed tightly together, as Locke picked up the girl, heaved her over his shoulder, and followed Lauralee out the kitchen door and into the dark and shadowy yard. There was a creak as the wash-house door opened, a soft thud, and the creak of the door again. Then a rattle as Lauralee shot home the bolt, locking Eleanor in. Wise little Lauralee, who was also taking no chances.

Lauralee led the way back in through the kitchen door, yawning, and in spite of the tension, Alison found herself yawning as well. 'Mother, I am shattered—'