Chapter 25
“Welcome!” King George declared. “And pray accept our deepest thanks, both to you and your dragons, for freeing us from the scourge of Lady Catherine.”
Even as Darcy was making his best court bow, still in his valet's clothing, he kept one eye on Jack. His brother was managing to stand upright, but his face was ashen.
Fortunately Frederica did not hesitate to speak for all of them. “It was our honor to do so, Your Majesty.”
Queen Charlotte sat beside him in the receiving room.
Lady Anne was on her other side, having taken up residence at Windsor again in keeping with her duties as the newly re-appointed King's Mage.
King George had wasted no time in convincing Parliament to end the Regency. Now he was the ruling monarch again.
“Mr. Darcy,” the king continued, “we cannot yet reward you as you deserve for saving our life and our kingdom, but you will know our gratitude. For the moment, we can offer one small thing. Instructions have gone to the War Office that you are not to be arrested or harassed in any way. They will know our displeasure at how you have been treated. We would advise continuing to be cautious for a few days until the word has gone out, but everyone will soon know that your family stands high in our favor.”
“I thank Your Majesty.” Not that it would make a great deal of practical difference, since he would still need to keep to the sanctuary of Pemberley while the French assassins were nearby unless he was willing to risk traveling in disguise again.
The king nodded. “It should never have happened. The least we can do is to fix it. Now, Lady Frederica. As you are a dragon companion, we suppose it is too much to hope that you would return to your old position as apprentice to the King's Mage.”
“I am honored that you would wish it, sir, but I must decline. My dragon needs to be close to her Nest, and I should be with her. I am certain Lady Anne will be well served with Miss Mary Bennet,” Frederica said graciously.
“Indeed.” The king frowned. “Is there anything we can do to reward you?”
“Sir, if you could convince my father to stop trying to marry me off to Mr. Mortimer Percy, I would be forever in your debt,” she said.
He laughed. “We will do our best.” He turned to Jack.
“And now, Mr. Jack Darcy. After these events, we are more certain than ever that our plan is the correct one. Once we are done here, we will introduce you to Princess Charlotte, with the intention that you will be her consort.” He beamed at Jack, as if he were offering the greatest prize in all England.
Which, in fact, he was - except that Jack did not want it.
Jack licked his lips. “Your Majesty, I am not worthy.”
“We are the best judge of that. May we count on you to do your duty?”
Jack, if anything, went even paler. Before he could say anything, Frederica stepped up. “Sir, Mr. Jack Darcy has been unwell. Nothing less than the honor of your invitation could have brought him here today, but truly I am surprised he is managing to keep to his feet.”
“No.” It was his mother, now stepping between Jack and the king, as if appointing herself his defender. “Such a marriage cannot take place.”
The king looked down his nose at her. “Lady Anne, we have listened to your reasons against the match, and we know you do not approve. Nevertheless, we must bring mage blood into the royal line, and marriage to a dragon companion will provide our granddaughter with the protection she requires.”
“I more than disapprove!” his mother almost shouted, which was more shocking than the idea of Jack marrying the princess. “I cannot allow it.”
“You have served me well, madam, but this decision is not yours.” The king sounded both impatient and disapproving.
Lady Anne took a ragged breath, and then seemed to come to some sort of resolution. “Lady Frederica, would you be so kind as to leave us?” It was a command, not a request.
Frederica darted a glance at the king, but he had clearly lost interest in her. She curtsied and slipped out of the room.
Lady Anne wrung her hands. “I had hoped it would not come to this. As distasteful as it is, I must now tell you why this match is impossible. Jack, my apologies. I hoped you would never need to learn this.”
Darcy stared at her. Good God, what was she going to say about Jack? Did she know some horrible secret about him?
“Our mind is made up,” the king said coldly.
“Then pray cast your mind back many years. Do you recall when your son, the Prince of Wales, tried to contract an illegal marriage with my sister, Lady Catherine? And that afterwards, she conceived a child who died shortly after birth?”
The king frowned. “I could hardly forget it.”
“She had planned to put that child on the throne. I saw the danger to our country, but I was under a binding to do no harm to her. So I told my sister how happy I was about her news, and I stayed by her side constantly, even though I led everyone to believe I was also with child.”
“And her baby died.”
“No. Once her child was born, I waited until she went out to perform the rites with his afterbirth. Using illusions, I switched her baby for a pauper’s stillborn child.
When she returned, she found the child dead, and I pretended to grieve with my sister.
Two days later, I took the stuffing out of my dress and presented her infant as my own.
I had him christened as Jack Darcy and sent him immediately to Pemberley with a nursemaid, where my sister would never lay eyes on him. ”
Darcy felt the shock as if the earth had quaked beneath him. It could not be true. What could his mother possibly gain from this ridiculous story? Jack was his brother; he knew that as deep in his bones as his own name.
But his mother had always been odd about Jack, protecting him more than she had Darcy, refusing to let him leave Pemberley even to attend family events, not allowing him to go away to school. Her anger when she learned Darcy had purchased a commission for Jack had been immense.
An odd queasiness built in his stomach.
Jack’s knuckles were white. His mouth had fallen open slightly, but nothing came out.
The king said, “Are you saying that this man is Lady Catherine’s child?”
Lady Anne raised her chin. “He is. My nephew, raised as my own, a secret I intended to take to my grave. But I cannot let you marry him to his half-sister.”
His half-sister. Somehow that word broke through the fog in Darcy’s brain. Jack was the illegitimate son of the Prince of Wales and Lady Catherine, from their secret marriage that was not recognized by law. Half-brother to Princess Charlotte. Darcy’s cousin, not his brother.
His mind could not take that in. Just as Georgiana would always be his sister, changeling or no, Jack was his brother, regardless of his birth. Some things were written in stone.
The king’s eyes were fixed on Jack. “You are our grandson, then.”
“Your son’s bastard, one of many,” Lady Anne snapped, with what must have been deliberately crudity. “You should never have met him. I tried to keep him away.”
Finally Jack gathered himself, and his voice was rusty. “The French dragons said I must be the son of a dragon companion, since I was immune to dragonfire. I told them that they were mistaken.”
Darcy caught his breath. The dragons of the Vosges Nest had been mystified by why Darcy could not pass through a Gate on his own, when Jack had done so with no problem. Brothers, they said, should have the same ability.
Except they were cousins, not brothers.
King George’s shoulders sagged. “It was such a good solution,” he said quietly.
“But an impossible one,” Lady Anne said briskly. “The best thing is for Jack to return to Pemberley immediately. He should not be anywhere near the Prince of Wales or his legitimate family.”
Jack’s lips were compressed. “Not Pemberley. Gentiane and I will find a Nest in a remote corner of Scotland and trouble you no more.”
The king shook his head. “Scotland? No. We need your skills, regardless of your parentage.”
“My very existence, as a dragon companion and mage, is a threat to Princess Charlotte, and I will not have it.” Jack’s hands were shaking, and the light seemed to shine more brightly on him. No, it was coming from him.
Darcy grabbed his arm. “Jack, your magic is running out of control,” he said urgently.
“Reach out to Gentiane. Now. I have seen this with Elizabeth.” Except that Elizabeth had years of experience with dragon blood running through her veins and long practice controlling her land Talent. This was all new to Jack.
Jack turned wild eyes on him. “Can you not see? If I had known this, I would never have made the bond.”
“But the bond is made, and you have the power. Take a deep breath and let it settle.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lady Anne hurrying the king and queen out of the room. Of course; defending the royal family from magic had been her sole purpose for years.
Except that Darcy had no idea what to do. Coquelicot! He reached out in desperation, pouring out what was happening to Jack in a confused set of images. What should I do?
Her reassuring voice filled his head. Gentiane is on his way. Calm him as best you can.
As soon as the door closed behind Lady Anne and the king, Jack slammed his fist into marble chimneypiece. Then, with a cry of pain, he cradled it in his other hand, his head lowered. “Sorry, Will,” he said in a choked voice.
“Feel free to take the entire room to pieces if it makes you feel better.” Darcy would happily see Windsor Castle burn to the ground if it could make the last half hour vanish.
“How could she do this to me?” he cried. “My entire life is a lie!”
“Your army service is no lie. Nor are the trees you climbed, the cliffs you scaled, the friends you made. Your bond to Gentiane is yours alone. And you are still my brother, no matter what anyone says. No one can take that away.”
“Do you not understand? Prinny is a worthless excuse for a human being; everyone knows that. And Lady Catherine – she has always been the evil witch in the woods to me. And those are my parents! If the king had given them permission to marry – by God, Will! I would be heir to the throne!” His mouth twisted.
“And instead, I am nothing but a threat to the very stability of England.”
And he was still glowing, perhaps even more so.
Jack bent forwards, his hands on his knees. “If only I did not feel so damned ill. I hate this place! This is even worse than London.”
So ill. Jack had been increasingly uncomfortable and unlike himself as they came closer to London, and now worse since arriving at Windsor. Why?
Then it struck him, and he heard his mother’s voice, only a few minutes before.
She went out to perform the rites with his afterbirth.
If Lady Catherine had wanted her son to be king, there was only one spot she would have done that – at St. George’s Chapel, only a few hundred feet from here, where generations of kings and queens – and their afterbirths – had been interred.
Could it be? There was only one way to know. Elizabeth had taught him how to block land Talent by standing on an iron plate. Darcy scanned the room, but of course everything in this royal palace was silver, not iron. Except – there, at the back of the empty fireplace.
“Jack, I need your help,” he said urgently. “We need to get this fireback out.”
Jack stared at him as if he had lost his mind. “What are you talking about?”
“Trust me. This is important.” Darcy bent into the fireplace, his fingertips scrabbling around the thick fireback. A normal one he might have been able to manage, but this one was palace-sized and must weigh ten stone. “I beg you!”
With an annoyed sigh, Jack lent his weight to it, and the sculpted iron fell to the ground just outside the hearth with a loud clang, sending up a cloud of ashes.
“Now stand on it,” Darcy commanded. “No, truly! I mean it!”
“Has everyone lost their minds?” Jack complained, but he stepped up onto the fireback – and froze. He touched his tongue to his upper lip and bounced from one foot to the other. Then he turned to Darcy. “What is this? How does it work?”
He had been right, then – although he wished he were not. This was a complication they did not need. “The iron blocks magical power from reaching you. I think something here was affecting you.”
Jack frowned. “Something… or someone? A mage?”
He could see where Jack’s thoughts were going. “Not a mage. Iron blocks land Talent. If your afterbirth was buried here, there may be some connection.”
“Can you get me away from here? I cannot spend the rest of my life standing on a piece of iron!”
“But you feel better?”
“Physically, yes – apart from the minor problem of being a royal bastard and learning that I have been lied to my entire life,” he said bitterly.
“That part I cannot fix,” Darcy said. “But the land issue – all I can guess is that it is an incomplete bond. When my land Talent was growing active, I felt the need to visit the spot where my birth rites were performed. It was like a nagging itch in my skin, a strange restlessness calling me there. I can only guess that the land here is seeking you out in the same way.” Though his discomfort had never been this powerful, nor had it extended for many miles, but it was the only idea he had.
“Perhaps if we, so to speak, perform an introduction…”
“Then it would leave me alone!” Jack said. “Worth a try, I suppose, and better than feeling like I am on a ship in a storm.”