Chapter 39
“You’re certain it’s all right for me to be here?
” Edmund couldn’t help glancing over his shoulder toward the door.
And, more importantly, the hallway that led from Ursula’s set of rooms to the stairs and the main house.
It was four o’clock, and he was clear until about six, if he wanted to be on time for hall.
Ursula snorted. “Look, move to this chair, or you’ll harm yourself watching your back.
” She stood smoothly, waiting for Edmund to stand before she took his place and he took the chair she’d been in.
“First, I have every right to invite friends over. Second, I need to go stir something for Uncle Garin every hour, so meeting somewhere else didn’t work.
” She lifted her mug of tea. “Third, he’s out until seven, which is why I need to stir. ”
“And we’re here and not nearer the alchemy lab because...” Edmund let his voice trail off.
“Because I’m quite certain you’d not talk about whatever it was you wanted to talk about so urgently in the public spaces.
Also, while I’ve every right to invite you into my rooms, I do not have the right to invite you into Uncle Garin’s lab.
” Ursula shrugged once. “He will not bite your head off, though. Certainly not from Trellech. He’s in meetings until at least six, probably closer to seven. ”
“It’s not as if I trust that.” Edmund let out a huff of breath.
He got on very well with Ursula, their skills complemented each other.
But her uncle was an entirely different problem.
Lord Fortier had been responsible, at least in part, for Edmund’s uncle’s death, for his Papa becoming Lord, and for everything else that followed from it.
There’d been some steps forward. Papa and Lord Fortier could now have a civil conversation about shared goals. That did not put Edmund at ease. But Ursula was right. This was her space and her rooms, as Garin Fortier’s Heir. “You’ve set a timer?”
“Come on, Edmund, as if I wouldn’t.” She gestured at the clock on a side table, currently showing about twenty minutes to the hour. As Edmund watched, one hand ticked backwards, showing they had about nineteen now. “What brings you out so urgently?”
“You remember I talked about Pen.” Now it came down to it, Edmund did not know how to be subtle or clever about it.
“I do.” Ursula turned to face him more, and now she was entirely focused on him. It was both utterly reassuring and a little terrifying. “And?”
“We did something challenging on Tuesday. She stayed to keep an eye on me. And yesterday evening, we talked through more of it. How I feel about her, at least in part?” Edmund did not actually stammer as he got it out, but it was a near thing twice.
Ursula tilted her head. “Edmund, you’re blushing. That’s not a look I’ve seen on you before. All right. Why did you want to come talk to me?”
“Because you understand. A lot more than most people will. Even if there were other people I trusted to talk about something like this. And I mean, I need to talk to Mama and Papa and Uncle Alexander.”
“Uncle Alexander is going to take one look at you once you say her name and have an excellent idea. Even if he won’t admit it,” Ursula said.
Edmund couldn’t help chuckling, though it had an edge of something to it.
Uncle Alexander might be his apprentice master, but he was Ursula’s godfather.
And she used that particular role to push him more than Edmund generally did.
She was right, though. “He probably already does, except for the most recent parts,” Edmund admitted.
“Even if he’d rather not talk about such things.
” Then he let out a huff of breath. “How do I handle who I am fairly with Pen? What I am.”
“Ah.” Ursula shifted. Analytically, Edmund could detail, if pressed, how she’d changed the angle of her shoulders slightly, taking a breath in a particular way.
But that was only because he’d been trained to watch for that sort of thing.
“All right. That is a good reason to talk to me first. Right. Tell me why you’re so taken with her. ”
Edmund looked down at his mug. “More reasons than I can name.” He put it that way deliberately, glancing up to see Ursula’s mouth twitch, because she had understood the play on words.
“I know where she was during the war, it turns out. Not something she can talk about, not something I can talk about with you. But that’s one thing.
I know from it she was fiercely committed, dedicated to her work, good at it, and clever, besides. ”
Ursula pursed her lips for a moment in there, but did not press him with a question. “And you’ve been sorting out a problem with her. I will allow as how that gives you a sense of how she goes about things.”
“That. I’ll come back to it. I’ve introduced her to Uncle Giles and Aunt Cammie. Uncle Giles has agreed to take her on next term. She’s got one more year. Tutor and apprentice master.”
That got a low whistle out of Ursula. “So, yes, we can take the brains as a given. And also manners. The proper kind, not for show.”
“Yes.” It made Edmund smile a little. “Her grandfather is a vicar, so she’s quite used to that sort of social manners. Making conversation in a variety of circumstances and all that.”
“Which is, to be fair, an advantage with the Great Families or the land magic. We have a certain number of obligatory events. Babies to admire, people to coax, plots to grow.” Ursula leaned back, now more relaxed. “That part is what Jim struggles with. Though he solves it well enough.”
“He stands there, utterly attentive to you, and lets you get on with your plotting,” Edmund agreed. “Without being too obvious about it, he’s actually quite good at asking sensible questions. By which I mean asking you to expand on something.”
Ursula grinned suddenly. “He is also a clever man, though not the way that pleases cryptographers.” She tapped her fingers on her leg. “All right. First, if it’d be a help to talk to me, or have me walk her through things like clothes or what to expect talking to your parents, I’m glad to.”
“That’s a relief, Ursula. I don’t know if she’ll want to, but making the offer matters.
Someone who’s not— well. My parents.” Edmund was fully aware that his parents could be intimidating, even aside from the fact that they were his parents, which rather mattered in context.
They had a habit of privacy that made space around them.
Held space. That was a better way to put it.
“Someone who understands the ebb and flow. And someone near our age.”
“Are you serious about her, then?” Ursula asked.
Edmund had to swallow, but then he looked up, met Ursula’s eyes, and nodded. “Yes.” Just one word, naming what mattered. “We— I don’t want to rush what we do about that. There’s no reason to, and reason not to.”
“You’ve got two more years of university.
All the complexities of being married, the way that would cut you off from the ordinary things as a student,” Ursula agreed.
“I do not have those problems.” She and Jim were planning a winter wedding to match her parents’.
And, as Ursula had pointed out, it was easier to take a trip in the quiet season, agriculturally speaking.
“Like that. But I don’t know how to get from here to whatever that is. Whenever that is.” Edmund spread out his hands. “I suspect you can’t help much with that part.”
“No. But you could talk to Dad about it, if you wanted to. Both parts, actually. He had a great deal of experience with various women before Mum. And experience with the expectations, and then marrying Mum, who was not the right sort of family at all as Uncle Garin and Aunt Livia counted it.” Her shoulder twitched. “Obviously, that’s worked out well.”
“So modest, Ursula.” Edmund laughed at it. “More tea?” He stood, claiming her mug and going to pour more into both mugs. As he did so, the timer ticked up, and she peered at it.
“Proud of my brother, more. Just in general, though he’s stood up to a couple of people usefully recently, bless him.
With purpose. Let me go down and give things a stir.
Read a book, amuse yourself, anything sensitive’s locked up.
” He appreciated that she was careful about that, even in her own rooms. It showed proper respect for the information.
Good habits, as Major Manse would say. Ursula stood, picking up the alarm and carrying it off with her.
It left Edmund with time to think about what he wanted to say next.
Ursula was gone for a hair more than ten minutes, enough for Edmund to have pulled out a book and read a dozen pages.
One of the older mysteries, nothing demanding, and one he’d read a number of times before.
This was not a time in his life, not until the end of term, for anything new or demanding.
She was humming as she came back, loudly enough that he had warning before she turned the corner into the sitting room. “I had an idea. Several ideas.”
“This is why it’s dangerous to leave you unsupervised,” Edmund agreed mock-solemnly.
“Tell. Here, I kept your tea warm for you.” His magic had recovered that far at least, though it was a charm he used often.
Being prone, as many people were, to making a cup and getting distracted, only to find it had cooled.
“First, if you’re intending to introduce her to your parents, are you intending to do that before or after the Faire? During is not kind to anyone.” Ursula set the alarm back down nearby and sat with a twitch of her skirt to smooth it out. She reached for her cup and took a sip. “Ta.”
“I need to ask her that. If she even wants to meet them yet. Only if we’re serious, if we’re walking that direction, better sooner than later.” Edmund grimaced. “It’s not that I haven’t thought about some of this, but I haven’t figured out how to thread it all together.”
“All right.” Ursula sipped her mug. “You don’t finish the term until the nineteenth, do you?”
“No. And how do you keep my schedule in your head?” Edmund managed his own, but he didn’t expect other people to. Well, not other than his parents and Uncle Alexander.
“Because I have a plot, and you are not available for it, of course. I keep track of the resources. No, I’m not telling you what it is.
You can be pleasantly surprised at solstice.
More fun that way.” Edmund knew from experience that Ursula wouldn’t budge.
But she’d also enjoy explaining it later, so he could ask her once they had a moment after solstice and the Faire.
“All right. In that case, what you want is to make sure she has time to talk to Giles and Aunt Cammie before the Faire. And then introduce her to your family— and Ytene— after. When things settle down.”
Edmund knew this was sensible. Though he was amused again at the way their names for people mirrored each other.
Ursula had grown up with Cammie around at odd times, given that her stepfather taught at Schola, and her mother had the village bookshop.
Uncle Giles was someone she’d built a relationship with outside of growing up, and so he was not an uncle to her. “And do I escort her at the Faire?”
“Do you have time to escort her? Or are you going to be busy helping with the stable business? And watching the pavo, obviously.” Ros and Leo— Edmund’s sister and Ursula’s brother— were almost certain to play in the pavo matches this summer again.
Though there was one more school match on Saturday that would determine their placement for that tournament and who’d start on the team.
Edmund grimaced. “I’d like to escort her, but it’d be public and fuss, and I need to lend a hand. Be visible, lending a hand. But it’s not as if Papa and Mama and Master Rufus and Master Benton can’t handle it like they have for decades.”
“So, sort out your schedule with them. If you’d really like to escort her, find a quiet time— a morning, before everything gets going, or an evening, to a concert or performance.
Tell your parents you’ll introduce her after, when it’s quiet.
And keep to that. Or take her to see something in London or .
.. I don’t know. You’re supposed to know about London things. ”
That idea, honestly, appealed. It would be far less about juggling half a dozen faces to the world at once, just one or two. “London’s a good idea. And I’m sure she has people she can go to the Faire with. I’ll talk that through with her. There are other years too. I hope so, anyway.”
Ursula tilted her head, and Edmund was suddenly certain more of his emotions had shown than he’d wanted. On the other hand, Ursula was more observant than most, and she knew what to watch for, besides. “How obvious am I?” He asked it a bit warily.
“Someone who knew you would know that she’d be a lever to move you.
Build your protections with that in mind, mmm?
Ask Dad about it if you need help. He’d understand that problem.
” Her father would. He thought about protections and all the related magics and interconnections day in and day out.
And how a threat somewhere changed the map for everything.
Edmund did not like thinking like that. It was certainly quite new to him to think that about someone in his personal life who wasn’t family. But it was the truth.
Whatever it looked like, he wanted to know Pen was safe. Or at least, not at risk because of something he’d done or failed to do or ignored too long. He nodded once, and Ursula beamed at him. “Also, I would like to meet her when the time is right. After your parents, though. They have dibs.”
“Dibs is not quite the word. After them. Uncle Alexander has met her, though briefly, and not— um. In the stated context.” He wouldn’t assume what Uncle Alexander might or might not have discerned already beyond the Berlioz references. “And yes. I’ll find time after.”
“Good. Now, tell me what you’re doing. Or do you need to get back?” Ursula glanced at the clock. “You’re safe from Uncle Garin for at least another hour.”
“I ought to get back. I’ve an essay to write. A crossword to solve— well, to write to Pen about. There are two clues I can’t budge today. People to nod at and make some suitable comment about the weather, the river, or how much work is piling up.”
“Right. I’ll walk you down.” Ursula picked up the alarm, slipping it into her pocket and muffling the soft ticking. She waited for him to finish the last of his cup before walking him downstairs and out to the portal, amiably chatting about minor things on the estate.