Page 40 of Unexpected Magic

Lady Margate waswaiting for Jasper when he emerged from yet another meeting with the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Findlater, and Lady Hardcastle, Dean of the Council of Mages.

“Baradine,” she said. “We must talk.”

“I wish to return to Lady Cordelia,” he protested.

“She is awake and eating a hearty breakfast, Baradine. There is no urgent need for you, and our discussion concerns her. Come. This discussion should be held in private.”

With that, she glided off at a fast pace, her long gown hiding her feet and her stately carriage so completely that Jasper imagined a set of wheels beneath her petticoats. He had to lengthen his stride to catch up.

What was she after? Was she going to lecture him about marrying Delia? That he must? That he mustn’t? Did she imagine she had discovered something to Delia’s disadvantage? The dragon part of his nature bristled at the thought of any criticism of his lady.

A door some nine or ten along from the salon he had just left proved to open into a small parlor. He followed Lady Margate inside.

“Shut the door, Baradine,” she commanded. She had already seated herself on the far side of the room.

“Is this appropriate?” Jasper asked.

Lady Margate made a noise that he would not dare to call a snort. “I am old enough to be grandmother to your children. Sit down, boy, and tell me what you have done to make the catalyst so averse to a marriage.”

Delia had told her that? Jasper’s heart sank even while he felt his cheeks heat. He jockeyed for time. “Is that what she said, my lady?”

The lady’s voice was dry. “She told me she will do her duty, but she does not think that marriage is part of that obligation.”

Jasper winced. Duty. Obligation. His words, but not his meaning, or not all of it. Perhaps, after all, Lady Margate could help. If she was minded to do so. On the other hand, she was a matchmaker and a gossip. What might she do with the news that Jasper was in love with Cordelia Nettleford?

What could she do? Jasper had not yet become accustomed to being of first importance to the survival of the realm, but he was. Delia mattered just as much. Whatever else might be said about Lady Margate, she was a loyal daughter of the United Kingdom. Also, Jasper had heard people, especially women, mention her kindness, though usually linked with the word “surprisingly.”

I’ll risk it. “It is my fault,” he said. “In my defense, I had had two weeks to think about the ramifications of me being a dragon lord and her a catalyst. What I said was stupid, though. I make no excuse for it, and if you can tell me how to make it up to Lady Cordelia, I would be very grateful.”

“You are quick to defend yourself,” said Lady Margate, “but as yet have not described the crime you’re trying to explain away.”

She was right. Jasper took a deep breath as he wondered where to begin. “My heart has been hers for months,” he said. “Then, when the Welsh mage tried to abduct her and my power broke out, my only thought was to protect her—to rescue her from her attackers and take her away. Which I did.”

“Evidence of devotion, I would have thought,” Lady Margate observed.

I wish Delia saw that. “I was stuck in dragon form, but we managed to communicate after a fashion once I had calmed. And I started to think. I couldn’t miss the implication I was a dragon lord, though currently more dragon than lord. And Delia is undoubtedly a catalyst—the only one in England in one thousand years. Dragon lords and catalysts belong together, and they marry if they are not already related.”

“Exactly,” said Lady Margate.

“When I finally figured out how to change back into human form, I blurted out a proposal. Well, not really a proposal. More an assumption. She mentioned going back to her unicorn, and I said she couldn’t be unicorn maiden after we were married.”

“Oh dear. She was upset of course.”

“I made it worse,” Jasper admitted. “I told her it was our duty to marry, and that, in any case, I needed her. I think I mentioned something about stabilizing my magic. And I pointed out she would be a duchess one day.”

“Let me see,” said Lady Margate. “You told her she is a duty, an obligation, and a convenience, and that you are willing to purchase her compliance at the price of a title you do not yet have. Do I have that right? And then, I suppose, she gave you a well-deserved flea in your ear, and you have been moping ever since.”

Ouch. It sounded even worse in Lady Margate’s summary. There was no doubt about where her sympathies lay. What could Jasper do but grimace? “What can I do to fix it?” he begged.

“What was Lady Cordelia’s reaction to this flattering proposal?” the lady asked, putting sarcastic emphasis on the wordflattering.

“She told me that marriage was not necessary,” Jasper said. “I know I misspoke. It was not what I meant. It is not how I feel.”

“I should hope not. What, in fact, do you mean? What do youfeel, Lord Baradine?”

Jasper had never been particularly good at naming his feelings. All he knew was that Delia was as necessary to him as food and air. She was the sun at the center of his universe. And he knew one truth as a hard rock certainty: She was his, and he was hers.

“Hmm,” said Lady Margate after a moment or two. “Nothing to say. You had better figure it out, young man. Think about it as you go on about your business.”