“Possible,” Elias agreed. “But very unlikely. That is twice now that you have seen something, which means that the first time was not a fluke. You are particularly prone to divinations, Miss Ettings.”
“How preposterous,” Lady Hayworth muttered. “Miss Ettings is not a magician, my lord. We surely would have noticed by now.”
“I agree,” said Elias. “She is not. But the spell on this mirror was my doing, and not hers. Miss Ettings has merely the mindset necessary to reliably divine.” He smiled sharply. “Some itinerant dreamers are capable of divination, given the proper circumstances. Those who stumble into faerie often see fantastic visions as well, while they are on the other side. I surmise that setting even a single foot in faerie might offer such sights... though obviously, as Miss Ettings is sitting with us in this tea room, she is simply an unusually accomplished daydreamer.”
Dora frowned at Elias. He had clearly added the latter part about daydreamers for the benefit of Lady Hayworth. It was Dora’s connection to faerie that concerned the Lord Sorcier. One foot in faerie, she thought. But what did that mean? Both of Dora’s feet were quite firmly settled in England right now, on the floor of the morning room in Lady Hayworth’s townhouse.
“One hopes you did not come here to insult the young lady,” the countess said archly.
“I did not,” Elias replied—and now, he sounded thoughtful. He rose to his feet, and Dora realised that he had left his tea untouched. “In fact,” he said. “I believe that I shall call upon her again.” Elias fixed his strange golden eyes upon Dora, and she found herself tempted for the very first time to look away. Still, she forced herself to hold his gaze. “The lot of you do love to ride in Hyde Park, don’t you? I am busy for today and tomorrow, but I will bring a carriage for you around that time, two days from now.”
Lady Hayworth sniffed. “You seem quite certain you will be received, Lord Sorcier,” she said. “Miss Ettings already has other plans. She cannot be expected to rearrange her schedule for you on a whim.”
Elias frowned at Dora, and she sighed. “I am... busy, Lord Sorcier,” Dora said. It certainly wouldn’t do to call the countess a liar in her own home. “If you leave your card, of course, I will see you when I may.”
Lady Hayworth smiled approvingly at Dora as she said this. Dora’s words came with the clear implication that she would not be seeing the Lord Sorcier again at all.
You cannot be too thick to understand this, Dora thought at Elias, annoyed. The countess is right here next to me. I cannot just accept. She held his eyes, willing him to understand.
Elias shrugged. “I see,” he said. “Clearly, I should know better than to knock at such a well-mannered door.” He nodded towards Dora. “I will see you when you may, then, Miss Ettings.”
Dora closed her eyes with a sigh.
So much for that, she thought glumly. The Lord Sorcier has better things to do than to argue with the countess in order to investigate my curse. Vanessa will be terribly disappointed.
“Lord Sorcier,” Lady Hayworth said. “Your mirror.”
Dora opened her eyes again. Elias had not so much as paused on his way out of the morning room. “I hardly need it,” he replied. “Miss Ettings may keep it, if she so wishes.”
Lady Hayworth made as though to object—it was certainly not proper for the Lord Sorcier to be giving Dora gifts—but he was gone before the countess could make her case.
“You must get rid of that thing immediately,” Lady Hayworth said to Dora with a frown. “You cannot be accepting magical trinkets from that man. The rumours!”
Dora clutched the mirror closer, trying to think quickly. “I should not have insulted the Lord Sorcier by turning him down,” she said. “He has left the mirror on purpose, Lady Hayworth. If I discard it, I will have seven years of terrible luck, I am sure.”
The countess scowled at that, but Dora saw that she had reconsidered. “What a thoroughly unpleasant man,” Lady Hayworth muttered. “Well! Hide it in a dresser somewhere, and do not take it out. We are the only two people who know that you have it, and neither of us shall tell anyone that you accepted it.”
Dora nodded, relaxing slightly. “I will go and put it up now,” she said. “Thank you for your help, Lady Hayworth. I am not certain that I could have handled him on my own.”
This compliment assuaged the countess, such that she waved Dora off to her room.
Upstairs, Dora set herself on the edge of her bed and stared into the mirror. For just a second, she thought she could see those black depths again—but they slipped away from her when she next blinked, and only the silver backing of the mirror remained.
Dora stowed the mirror in her dresser, wondering whether the Lord Sorcier had indeed caught her meaning. Surely, Dora thought, he would not have left the mirror if he had not.
The image of his bloody, agonized face floated back to her as she stood awkwardly in front of the dresser.
Dimly, she noted that her hands were shaking.
That has not happened before, Dora thought. How curious.
In a few more minutes, however, the shaking stopped... and, as was the usual way of things, Dora found her attention diverted once again as she realised that she hadn’t yet had any of the delightful-looking biscuits downstairs.
Chapter 6
Vanessa was desperate to know just what it was the Lord Sorcier had talked about with Dora—in fact, she snuck into Dora’s room that evening after dinner, and refused to leave until she’d been given every small detail.
“One foot in faerie?” Vanessa puzzled afterwards. “But what could he mean by that?”
“I would be only too pleased to ask him, if
