Magic In The Storm (28 page)

“Oh?” Lord Freeston turned to look at
Morgan.

“Er, yes. I was out riding the other day and
a rather stout gentleman with a wonderful rolling voice, er,”
Morgan thought quickly—something admirable... “The gentleman saved
my dog from getting hit in the street.” Morgan ignored the tickle
of sweat that was making its way down his back. He just wasn’t good
at lying, and yet, he’d needed to do so disturbingly often since
he’d come to London. “I wanted to thank him, but he drove off
before I could do so. Adr... er, Miss Hayden suggested I might find
the gentleman here, this evening.”

Adriana nodded approvingly, and then turned
to Lord Freeston and gave him a most beguiling smile. “Do you think
you might be able to introduce Mr. Vallentyn to a few gentlemen who
fit that description? He so desperately wants to thank the kind
gentleman.”

Lord Freeston gave Adriana a look that made
Morgan’s blood boil. He bit down harder on his tongue. Taking her
hand, Lord Freeston placed a kiss on the back of it, and then
continued to hold it in a most intimate way while he said, “Miss
Hayden, for you, I would be happy to be of service to Mr.
Vallentyn.”

And then Adriana did something that made
Morgan feel he was about to explode with fury—she giggled! And not
only that, she batted her eyelashes at the damned popinjay!

“That is so good of you, my lord. Thank
you.”

Morgan tasted blood in his mouth.

Reluctantly letting go of Adriana’s hand, the
fool then turned to Morgan and asked, “What does the gentleman look
like?”

Morgan unclenched his jaw and said in clipped
tones, “I’m not entirely certain, since I only got a glimpse of
him. But I know that he is quite stout and has dark hair.”

Lord Freeston frowned. “Well, that is not
very helpful. There are quite a number of large dark–haired
gentlemen present here this evening.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Well, perhaps you could introduce Mr.
Vallentyn to a few of them, my lord? And maybe one would remember
the incident.”

Lord Freeston shrugged. “Yes, all right, very
well.” He moved off toward the closest stout gentleman present.

Adriana hung back a bit with Morgan and
whispered, “How are you going to tell?”

“I don’t know. The only other Vallen I know
recognized me by my name, so perhaps this person will too.” Morgan
wished he could call Adriana to task for giggling and batting her
eyelashes at Freeston, but before he could say anything she stepped
ahead of him and walked up to a large man with whom Freeston was
speaking.

Five gentlemen later, they were no closer to
finding the Vallen. None of the men reacted in any way to the
Vallentyn name, and short of asking them straight out, Morgan
really had no idea how to tell if someone was a Vallen or not. His
positive attitude was fading fast. If they didn’t meet someone
soon, he was nearly ready to give up this idea and try something
else.

And he was becoming extremely self–conscious.
Every time he looked around, someone—or at times, quite a few
people at once—were staring at him. He wondered if he had
inadvertently untied his neck cloth or was committing some sort of
faux pas.

They were speaking with a Lord Merseywell, a
portly gentleman with a very high squeaky voice—definitely not
rolling at all—when Morgan had a horrible creeping sensation slowly
walk up his spine.

M
organ knew that
sensation too well. He spun around and found his oldest sister,
Mary, staring at him malevolently from across the room. She was
standing next to two more of his sisters, Elizabeth and Caroline,
although Caroline was turned and looking in another direction. They
blended in so well with the other party–goers, he almost hadn’t
seen them. This was definitely their element, he thought with a
little inward laugh.

“I am terribly sorry, I see someone I must
speak with,” Morgan said, cutting the man off from telling a long
and involved tale of how he once saved a goat from being run over
by a curricle in the middle of Hyde Park. “Please excuse me.”

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen
his sisters—it had to be two years at least. Yes, it must have been
that. It was two years ago that Caroline, the youngest of his five
sisters was married. He had watched the wedding through the chapel
window since his mother hadn’t allowed him to attend. At least
she’d allowed him out of the forest for the day. It was the last
time he’d been out of the Vallentyn forest—until only a week
ago.

“What are
you
doing here?” Mary
hissed, after he had bowed formally to the three of them.

“Does Mama know you are in London?” Elizabeth
asked with enough venom in her voice to kill a horse.

“Oh, Morgan, what a surprise!” Caroline said,
vacantly. Morgan stifled a laugh—his sisters never changed!

“Morgan?” Adriana had joined them, and was
now looking curiously at him. He gave her an apologetic smile.

“Miss Adriana Hayden, may I present three of
my sisters, Mary, Lady Broughtworth; Elizabeth, Lady Fenton; and
Caroline, the Duchess of Stirling.”

Adriana curtsied, her eyes wide with
curiosity. “How do you do?”

His sisters each nodded to her in turn, and
then turned back to him for some explanation. Morgan took a deep
breath. “Yes, our mother is aware I’m here in London,” he said to
Elizabeth. “But I do not believe I need to account to you for my
whereabouts,” he directed to Mary. It was a shame that Mary tried
to be an exact replica of their mother—especially when she didn’t
have the power to back up the arrogance.

“But I thought you couldn’t leave Vallentyn,”
Caroline said airily.

He gave her a little smile, Caro had always
been his favorite sister. “I managed to break through Mother’s
curse.”

Mary and Elizabeth gave Adriana a look, but
she looked more concerned than shocked at the mention of the
curse.

“Really?” Caroline replied, not noticing what
her sisters were doing right away, and giving him a little smile of
encouragement.

Mary shrugged, and turned her scowl back to
Morgan. Elizabeth too, clearly decided to ignore Adriana, and
narrowed her eyes as she turned back toward him. Noticing her
sister’s expressions, Caroline quickly adopted an angry,
disbelieving stance as well. Morgan had to stifle another
laugh.

“I don’t believe you. You are not strong
enough!” Elizabeth said, with a lift of her chin.

“Believe what you will,” Morgan shrugged.

“It was Kat wasn’t it? That little
traitor...” Mary hissed.

Morgan turned on her. “Kat had nothing to do
with it.”

“She is always taking your side, and sticking
her nose in where it doesn’t belong,” Mary said through clenched
teeth. “She had no right to live with us at all. I cannot see why
Mother took her in the way she did.”

Morgan gave a little laugh. “You know very
well why she did so. If any of you had shown the least inclination
you might be harboring magical powers... but none of you did.”
Morgan knew that Kat’s special place in the family’s birth order
had to do with it as well, but he just wanted to goad his sisters.
After a lifetime of dealing with their teasing of him, it was nice
to have an opportunity to do a little teasing of his own.

“I have powers!” Mary said, indignantly.

“As do I,” Elizabeth added. “I’m more
powerful than...”

“Not more powerful than Kat,” Morgan reminded
her.

There was nothing she could say to that, for
they all knew it was the truth.

“So it was she who let you out of the forest.
Does Mother know?” Mary asked, crossing her arms and giving Morgan
a mean little smile.

He looked at her in silent contempt for a
moment. “No. I told you. I broke through Mother’s curse on my
own.”

“But you are the least powerful of any of us.
You couldn’t have,” Elizabeth sneered.

“Morgan’s powers are growing,” Adriana said
with open honesty. Morgan was warmed by her tone, which, of course,
held not a drop of anger or bitterness with which his two oldest
sisters imbued everything they said.

The three women turned to look at her.
Elizabeth pursed her lips together before turning them up into a
sneer. “And what would you know of it?”

Adriana gave a little shrug. “Not much, only
that he was able to protect both himself and me from his mother the
other night.” She gave a little shudder.

“You didn’t!” Mary hissed, her pale blue eyes
going wide with shock and disbelief.

Morgan had not wanted to tell his sisters so
much, but now that it was out, there was nothing he could do but to
confirm what Adriana said. He nodded.

“Where did you get the power, Morgan?”
Caroline asked, innocently.

He gave her a little smile. Her vacantly
pretty face looked up at him so innocently that he couldn’t help
but tell her the truth. “I don’t know. I’ve just suddenly been able
to do things I couldn’t do before. I am trying to find out how and
why this is happening, but so far I haven’t had any luck.”

“Just like that, your powers have increased,”
Mary asked, folding her arms across her narrow chest.

“Yes.”

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at him. He could
tell that she was fighting the urge to copy Mary’s stance. Her arms
twitched, but she held them firmly at her sides. “I don’t believe
you. That can’t happen.”

“You must have done something,” Mary
added.

“No. I assure you...”

“Tell me what you did, Morgan, or
I’ll...”

“What? What are you going to do, Mary? Tell
Mother? She already knows. And you aren’t powerful enough to do
anything to me, I assure you.”

Mary flushed bright red. “Just you wait,
Morgan Vallentyn, I
will
have my revenge on both you and
that usurper, Kat! I’ll find out how you increased your powers and
when I do, you will both be very sorry. I will become the most
powerful...”

“Keep your voice down!” Elizabeth whispered
fiercely to her sister, who clearly had completely forgotten that
they were standing in the middle of a public party.

“Mary, you will do nothing of the sort, and
you know it,” Morgan said softly, willing his sister to calm
herself.

Mary silently raged at him, but slowly she
did calm down.

Morgan gave a nod of approval. “I do hope you
enjoy the rest of your evening.” He then turned and, taking
Adriana’s elbow, led her away.

He needed a break. He felt like a cat with
its fur ruffled the wrong way. He just wanted to shake the image of
his three sisters out of his mind.

But Adriana wasn’t going to let him. “So
those are three of your sisters” she said, thoughtfully as they
walked away.

“I actually have five.”

“Yes, Kat told me that once. Well, she told
me Lord Vallentyn had five sisters, but as you are his brother, I
assumed the same of you. Do you have more brothers?”

Morgan sighed. “No, there are just the seven
of us. I am the youngest,” he said, anticipating her next
question.

“I’m surprised you weren’t doted upon.”

Morgan had to laugh at that. “Quite the
opposite.”

“Yes, I could see that,” she said
quietly.

They found the dining room where refreshments
were laid out for guests to help themselves.

“Having been an only child, I always envied
children who came from large families,” she said, helping herself
to some sort of savory cakes. “But now that I’ve seen you with your
sisters, I almost wonder if I didn’t have an easier time without
any siblings.”

Morgan laughed, and helped himself to some
food as well. “I did my best to avoid my brother and sisters when I
was growing up, so in a way I was an only child as well.”

“How could you not meet them? Did you grow up
living in your little cottage in the woods?”

“No, but I had my own room which was apart
from the rest of the family’s rooms. I didn’t move out of the abbey
until I was sixteen.”

“Why did you move out?” Adriana asked,
picking up a glass of lemonade, and moving toward a table in order
to sit down.

“My mother insisted upon it,” Morgan said,
following her. “It was more comfortable for everyone once I was
living in the woods.” He deliberately did not mention the
unpleasant incident with his mother and second youngest sister,
Susan, which led to his being banished from the abbey.

A rather stout gentleman with a booming voice
sat down at the table next to where they were seated. Immediately,
Morgan’s attention was caught. Could this be his Vallen? He
certainly had what could be classified as a rolling voice.

Morgan looked at Adriana, who was also
looking at the gentleman—in fact, he was so loud that he had caught
the attention of many of the other guests in the room.

“Excuse me for a moment,” Morgan said.
Adriana nodded and gave him a hopeful smile.

Morgan’s excitement level rose as he
approached this gentleman. For the first time all evening, he
thought he might actually have a hope of finding out where his
powers came from, and where his destiny might lie. Surely, this
must be the man he’d been looking for. He was a large man, with an
equally large voice who moved and spoke with great self–assurance
as if he were someone very important.

“I beg your pardon,” Morgan said, as he
approached the other table. The man had just taken a large bite of
his fish cake, but he looked up enquiringly at Morgan.

“My name is Vallentyn, Morgan Vallentyn,”
Morgan said with great meaning.

The man looked at him blankly.

“Have you, possibly, heard of my family?”
Morgan asked a little hesitantly.

The man finished swallowing, wiped the
corners of his mouth delicately with a napkin, and then shook his
head, sending his many chins wobbling. “No. Should I?”