The king’s men pulled our trunks from the carriage and dropped them, none too gently, onto the ground. Lady Edith marched over and unlocked the trunks, sending scolding looks in their direction. “One must take care when handling a lady’s things.”
Alaric dismounted, as did the other men that Lady Edith hired to ride with us, and they handed over their weapons to the king’s men. Alaric saw me and gave me a slight smile beforeturning away. Even that smile was more than he should have ventured. It wasn’t proper for groomsmen to show familiarity with those of rank.
“Do be careful with those!” Lady Edith snapped at the man who was rummaging through her gowns. “My clothing is folded in a specific manner to avoid wrinkles. I’ll have to dress for supper in that.”
The only effect of her words was that the men went through her things more slowly, either to demonstrate they were being careful or to annoy her with their power to paw through her wardrobe as thoroughly as they liked.
The wizard tapped his wand against our carriage with the same flourish he used on the Somerton’s. He waved his hands up and down as though trying to draw out some unseen force from the depths of the woodwork. I assumed this act was for our benefit as it was completely unnecessary in working a finding incantation.
When the men opened my trunk, I bit the side of my cheek to remind myself not to stare at them like I feared they’d find anything of interest. Better just to turn my attention to the wizard.
Done exercising the demons from our carriage, Mage Redboot swaggered over to our group. “You’ll excuse our intrusion into your privacy. It’s an unfortunate part of our duties.”
Another command uttered like an apology.
“Yes, yes.” Lady Edith fluttered a hand in his direction, absolving his men of the mistreatment of our underthings.
Redboot nodded to her, then his gaze ran over me. Again, a little too long. I looked away, adopting an air of nonchalance.
“I must now try your patience further,” he said, “by directing my wand over each of you.” Mage Redboot stepped over to Joanne and swished his wand in a circular motion around her.A few moments later, he moved to Gwenyth and did the same thing.
She blinked her blue eyes at him like a child encountering some wonder. “I’ve never seen a real wand so closely before. Does it do other things besides find cutthroats?”
“Many things,” Mage Redboot said with a chuckle.
True. Most wizards put a myriad of charms on their wands. Even if I’d held his wand in my hand, I wouldn’t be able to tell what spells resided within it. Unless a wizard had specifically enchanted an object to work for someone else, it only worked for the original owner.
Gwenyth was still prattling on about the marvels of magic. Probably in an attempt to distract him. No one would have thought her more than an empty-headed maiden who was too uncultured to know she should hold her tongue in the presence of a wizard.
He answered her questions politely yet curtly and moved on to Lady Edith.
My hands smoothed the front of my gown. They needed something to do.
Far too soon, Mage Redboot stood before me. He smelled of the incense smoke that wizards sometimes used in spells—a sweet, sickly smell, like honey put to a flame. He swept his wand in a slow silhouette around me, never taking his eyes from my face. They were a muted gray, like something that had once been bright but had grown dingy with time.
He was staring at me more intently than he had at the others. I dropped my gaze.
“Is this your first time to court?” His voice was smooth, lulling almost.
“Yes, sir.” I forced my eyes to meet his. Those who were highborn weren’t required to avert their eyes when speaking to a wizard. I hoped he counted my mistake as maidenly bashfulness.
“Why have we not had the pleasure of seeing you before?”
“Our estate is quite far away, and my aunt doesn’t like to travel.” He probably knew I was lying. Most noblewomen, especially widowed ones, would make the effort to come to court with an eye to procuring a match for her ward. I could only hope the wizard suspected the least dangerous reason for my untruth. Lady Edith wouldn’t normally have had the funds for such a trip, and anyway, she would be hard-pressed to find a man at court willing to overlook my lack of dowry and questionable parental lineage.
A smile tugged at his weathered lips. “By staying away, you’ve deprived the court of one of its finest blossoms.”
“You’re too kind.” And too thorough. He’d spent enough time tracing my body with his wand that he must surely be done now. Finding charms didn’t take this long to work.
He gave me another smile, this one a little oily. “I trust you’ll no longer make us live with such deprivation.”
Oh.He hadn’t spent more time searching me because he suspected me. He was just the type of man who liked standing close to young women and flirting with them. Saints in heaven. He was old enough to be my grandfather. Was this what court was like?
I smiled back at him in relief. I wasn’t about to be taken in for questioning at sword point. I hadn’t just doomed all those in our party to a painful death.
He nodded at me, ever the gentleman. “You’ve my leave to go.”
I floated back to the carriage. Once inside, I nearly giggled with Gwenyth at the ease of our entrance. Until tonight when I had to do reconnaissance, I could pretend to be like every other visitor to the castle. I could enjoy being a lady in the finest castle in the land.