Page 23 of Unexpected Magic

He tried sending a sheet of paper to his boyhood hometown, which was in England’s far south. No luck. Another sheet to a friend of his in Canada. Still no success. Scotland? No. Spain? No. In all, they made a dozen attempts, and in each case, the barrier was in the way.

This time, Jasper had been more cautious, and the lingering remnants of the headache had grown no worse.

“Can we walk past the barrier?” Harewood wondered next. “If birds can fly through, why not people?”

“Shall we go for a walk?” Jasper suggested. “I daresay there must be something out in the village or the camps that we need to inspect.”

“Spot inspection,” said Harewood promptly. “Have people noticed a change in their magic? Or have they noticed any magic if they didn’t have a mage-gift before?”

“It’s a good idea,” Jasper acknowledged. “I should be doing that, shouldn’t I? Let’s call it the first weekly inspection, then.”

Nobody batted an eyelash when they announced their intention to the guards on the gate and then the sentries at the village and finally to those standing watch at the camp. Indeed, at each place, at least one person had something to report—a glimmer of magic where there had been none before, or a mage-gift that was stronger, broader, or easier to control.

In between interviews, both Jasper and Harewood surreptitiously tested the barrier. It was still there, and it was strong.

“Is it personal, Mr. Thornton?” asked Harewood, as they walked from the village to the camp. “I mean, the barrier. Is it around you, and not the castle?”

Jasper’s step faltered. He hadn’t thought of that, but it made sense. He was, after all, Miss Nettleford’s assigned protector.Take him out of the way, and—or so it might be reasoned—Miss Nettleford would be easier to abduct or control.

No. There was a flaw in that motive. “A barrier around me won’t prevent me from protecting Miss Nettleford. As long as she and I are in the same location, anyone trying to get to her will face me and all the magic I can muster.”

“The barrier is preventing you from reaching London for help or information,” Harewood pointed out. “And if they can lure you away from the vicinity, it will prevent you from receiving any message that Miss Nettleford is in danger.”

“Then I shall not be lured,” Jasper declared. “Miss Nettleford’s safety is my primary duty. Harewood, I’m going to leave my satchel behind in the camp. When we get back to the castle, I shall send you down to get it.”

The satchel was made of leather and contained a small desk and everything he needed to take notes during their interviews.

“I can do that, sir,” Harewood replied. “Am I permitted to know why?”

“I want to find out whether the barrier is around me, but I don’t want to bring anyone else into the secret. I trust you, the nuns, and Miss Nettleford, but no-one else. Come back down, pick up the satchel, then stop between the camp and the village. I’ll give you the letters, already set up with the translocation spell. All you’ll need to do is speak the trigger word, and they’ll be on their way.”

At least, Jasper hoped that they were right about the barrier being linked to him, and that Harewood’s gift was strong enough to activate Jasper’s translocation spell.

Chapter Ten

Mr. Thornton wasworried about something and trying to hide it. Delia knew him well enough by now to pick up the signs of his tension, his hesitations as he reported on what was happening with the hex investigation, occasional subtle hints that he was thinking about something other than whatever they happened to be talking about.

Perhaps he resented his visits to keep her informed, but if so, why did he not go back to visiting only once a week, as he had before the assault on the castle?

With three babies to feed, Mr. Thornton had arranged to add another milk goat to the herd. Mind you, Delia’s two older charges had expanded their diet.

Sapphire was eating grass and hay, with the occasional handful of grain. Just as well. At four months of age, he was now more than twice as heavy as Delia, and even two milk goats would not have been able to keep up.

Mary’s digestion must have been human, for she still took most of her meals from the bottle. But they were also giving her small quantities of porridge, mashed vegetables, and other food. She, too, had grown alarmingly, and was now too heavy for Polly to lift. Fortunately, while the human torso was that of a baby, the snake body kept a different chronology, and she was capable of gliding quickly along beside Polly, the human parts of her sitting serenely above seven feet of undulating snake.

As for little Theodosia, the sphinx, who was even cuter now that the egg tooth had fallen out, she was growing so quickly she was half as heavy again after just over a week, and if she kept on at the same pace, the output of the extra goat would certainly be needed to keep her satisfied.

Each day, Delia met Mr. Thornton. She told him what her charges had done since last they spoke, always conscious that he had important affairs he needed to be about and could not possibly be interested in the minutiae of raising three magical creatures, two of them human.

Her life was immeasurably better than it had been at Nettleford Manor, but it was still remarkably boring.

However, she had to contribute to the conversation somehow, and what else did she have to talk about?

“Mary has learned how to climb,” she said one morning, “and now nothing is safe from her. Now that she is growing so long, she needs only to take the top two thirds of herself off the ground, and she is tall enough to place the middle part of her snake body on almost any piece of furniture, and then lift her tail end up. This morning, she managed to reach the top of the wardrobe. We think she started on the sofa, and from there went to the chest of drawers.”

She and Mr. Thornton were effectively alone. Sister Agatha was their chaperone, but she was deaf in one ear—the one currently turned toward them—and was sitting in the far corner saying her rosary.

“Mary sounds like a little minx,” Mr. Thornton said.