Chapter 16: More Than Friends

Why this lingering reluctance? I felt almost compelled to turn around and go back for Jack. But Hugh's grip on my hand and my own logical mind kept me moving forward, away from the young man I was certain needed my help, despite what Samuel told me.

"Whatever were you doing wandering around here?" Hugh flushed immediately after speaking when his voice cracked.

"Merely taking a walk," I said, slightly annoyed he thought it was any of his business, my need to guard his tender feelings absent in light of Jack's predicament. "I was distracted, lost track of where I was going." The sounds of the party grew louder. "This is a very large house."

Hugh seemed to swell with pride at that. At least, his shoulders went back and his smile was more self-assured. "Indeed," he said. "Uncle Samuel is a great, great man. Has made a powerful name for himself in London."

"I see." I was unimpressed and growing more concerned for my criminal friend by the moment.

Hugh went on, oblivious. "He is nothing like the coven members. Nothing." There was so much heat in his words he won my attention. "He treats everyone with respect." My heart went out to him, despite Hugh's lack of social grace. Of course. Respect. The only thing the young Brindle craved, as clearly as if he'd written it on his skin. And he had none of it from his parents, his sister, his coven.

It was then I understood Samuel's mastery of manipulation and feared for Hugh. Especially when he leaned close as if he didn't dare allow even the very air around us to hear what he had to say. "And I'm to be his new apprentice."

I refrained from informing him Samuel's last apprentice was now beaten and bloodied, tied to a chair awaiting who knew what fate. Somehow I didn't think he would appreciate the drawn parallel, nor would he listen to me.

"Do you know Jack Bishop?" It seemed a fair question, but made Hugh scowl.

"Barely," he sniffed as if I'd suggested he play with the devil himself. "That no-title scruff isn't worthy of the attention uncle gives him."

Jealousy. And that hideous prejudice against commoners. My temper, as usual, was an issue.

"Forgive us for staining your very great honor with our lack of royal blood." I jerked my hand free of his arm. Hugh immediately fumbled and backpedaled and tried to apologize, but I was past annoyed, my growing, nagging worry more troubling than I expected.

Hugh grabbed my hand again and, though sweating and shaking from his obvious nerves, refused to release me.

"Forgive me," he said. "You are of the most noble blood, titled or not."

I could hardly complain about that apology though I wished I could. I was in a fighting mood and poor Hugh was a captive audience.

"Very well," I snapped, not at all kindly. "Shall we proceed?"

"Before we do..." I was growing to despise the way his Adam's apple bobbed when he was nervous. His cheeks were still flushed and his hands trembled. "I wanted to tell you how very much I admire you, Miss Burdie. How lovely I find you." He cleared his throat around the warble of his cracking voice. While inside I cringed from the train wreck I knew was coming, with no way to stop it from smashing headlong into me, I watched with growing embarrassment and horror as he went on.

"I would like to speak to my mother," he said. "While the friendship our families share is a wonderful thing, something more permanent would go far to cement relations between our two covens and increase our mutual power and reach." His eyes were full of so much hope it was painful to observe. "More than that," he sealed his own doom as his voice grew quiet and he pulled me, unable to resist out of sheer dismay, closer to him, "I find I am thinking of you often, and well, Burdie."

I felt the bubble of near-hysterical laughter rising, but couldn't stop it. This was the last thing I wanted to deal with and exactly what I'd feared from the moment Georgina mentioned it in the hansom. There was no way, under no circumstances. Never. And yet, I knew if I rejected him, Hugh's delicate heart would shatter, no matter how gently I turned him down. While my mind churned, searching for the right thing to say in a very wrong situation, my nerves betrayed me.

His face stiffened when the first giggle emerged. For a heartbeat, his lips lifted, while perhaps his mind thought I was being coquettish. Until my body betrayed me completely and the full bellied laughter erupted. I gasped for breath, hands shaking as I wiped at the tears that wouldn't stop, watching as his hope died, crushed under the weight of my unintentional mirth. He released my hand and stepped back even as I reached for him, struggling for control over the terrible giggles that continued to come despite my best intentions.

Hugh nodded once, sharply, eyes on the floor, before spinning on his heel and marching away in his wide, awkward gate. His shoulders sat stiff, body almost mechanical in his retreat.

"Bloody hell!" I managed to wrangle myself into some form of control and went after him. "Hugh, wait!" But he was far ahead of me, long legs covering a great deal of ground.

I emerged into the main foyer, now packed with people, Hugh nowhere in sight. I took a moment to slide back into my shoes despite the terrible pain of them, and spent the next quarter hour searching for him, with no success. Determined to make amends, but knowing he was most likely either gone or hiding from me, I decided to deal with it when we arrived home.

That decision made, I wandered back to the ballroom. For a hideous moment, I wondered if Hugh's advance had been encouraged by Georgina after all. The very thought made me want to run straight to the dock and take the first steamer back to New York. I was so wrapped up in that worry, I didn't notice Kate until she took my hand and squeezed it.

"I've been searching everywhere for you." She looked flushed and a little excited. It made me wonder if one of the young lords had gone too far. Kate quickly put an end to that line of thinking. "The best part of the evening is about to start!" Her excitement was obvious. "Come, quickly. We don't want to miss a moment."

I allowed her to pull me along, through the ballroom and under an archway into a red upholstered salon. The room was quite full, mostly young lords and ladies, though a few of them were of Georgina's generation.

Kate's disappointment was obvious. The crowd was simply too thick for us to see anything. Determined to not let down this Bridle at least, I tugged her after me as I made my way with some force through the packed room to the front row.

Kate smiled at me and hugged my arm before turning to focus on the evening's entertainment.

Imagine my surprise when I realized I knew this particular performer. Dressed impeccably in his black suit and bow tie, shining vest now buttoned over his lean waist, Vasek the magician raised his arms in a grand gesture.

"Welcome, seekers," he said, velvet voice low and deep, but so well polished it carried. "I am the All Seeing Eye, illusionist extraordinaire, here to thrill you," a small flash of phosphorescent fire drew squeals of excitement from the crowd. "To amaze you," a polished black cane seemed to appear from between his hands, "and, perhaps, to make you wonder." He stepped back, pulling his cloak closed around him only to flutter it open again a heartbeat later. The blonde, Stella, knelt before him, rising smoothly from the ground to a round of applause.

Kate's fingers dug into my arm, eyes fixed on the magician. I rolled my eyes at her. "Really?" I whispered it, unable to contain my amusement at her adoration. "You're a witch. With real power. He's little more than a latent with some skill at slight of hand." I felt his magic, a tiny, glowing thing hovering inside him, just enough to make his tricks seem like the real thing to the untrained eye. But as he continued his act, as the sea of lords and ladies oohed and ahhed over him, I understood what a charlatan he really was.

"You don't think he's amazing?" She didn't take her eyes from him for a moment.

I shrugged. "Handsome," I said. That made her giggle.

"Oh Burdie," she whispered, "you're so lucky to have so much power." She opened herself to me then, let me feel her magic and I was shocked at how weak she seemed. "Not all of us are so fortunate."

I was about to protest when I pushed a little deeper. She had so much more available to her than she knew. "I think you'd be surprised," I said. "Who told you such nonsense?"

She glanced at me at last, concern on her face and no little guilt. "Mother," she said. "We have no need for such power any longer. I'm content with what I have."

I wanted to shake her. And Georgina. Just before I sat Kate down for a lesson in how much magic she actually had to command.

"Lords and ladies," Vasek bowed over a bouquet of roses he'd conjured out of the trunk under the velvet tarp behind him, making me snicker, "I would now call upon you to offer up a pair of volunteers for my next illusion."

I simply couldn't resist.

"We volunteer," I said, raising Kate's hand with mine.

***