Thomas

The doctor's name was Granby. He was the one who had brought Francis and me into the world, had treated our rashes and fevers and broken limbs. But he had also watched over my mother after she contracted typhus when I was twelve. We were kept out of the room, and by the time she recovered, she had shed fifteen pounds.

Now I was watching him examine Emmeline. Initially she was afraid of him, catching hold of my wrist and curling herself into my chest. But I managed to coax her, and persuaded her that he was not going to hurt her. Only here to help, I said. He is a fine doctor. He will treat you well.

"The verdict?" I said when he finally straightened, putting away his instruments.

"You have done well, Thomas," he said, smiling at me. "You say she was suffering from severe dehydration and near-starvation when she arrived, but with much more rest, warmth, and some soft foods, she should be just fine. Which it appears you have already been doing. It seems her vitals are already rallying."

"Yes, Doctor." I glanced at Emmeline. She certainly appeared much better, having gained back some healthy weight already. Her arms, for instance, no longer looked on the verge of snapping in two like twigs. "But it is her mental state I am worried about. She has nightmares. The most I could glean was that she was abducted, deprived of many human comforts, and beaten severely during that time. What is there to be done about that?"

"I can prescribe laudanum," he said, taking out a small dark bottle. "Three drops of this before bed, and she will sleep much better. Nothing more than that, though."

I took it. "Are you certain this will work?"

"Its opiate properties result in a deep sleep. Normally dreamless. If you want her to continue to recover, this should help. But be careful...I have seen powerful addictions to the stuff before."

"Thank you, Doctor."

He snapped his case closed and grasped my elbow. "You're a good boy, Thomas, for doing this. You mustn't pay any attention to those rumours. Charles Ashbury enjoys spreading doubt and discord, just like his father, but others more sensible will see reason."

"That's not what Ray said."

He shook his head. "Oh, Raymond Kingsley is a very nervous boy. Always has been. But this will pass soon, Thomas, I assure you. It always does."

"Do you think it is right, Doctor, to marry her? Ashbury may be petty, but he is no imbecile." I did not know who else to ask. Ray would certainly not give me a straight answer, as dear to me as he was. And I did not trust anyone so much as Dr Granby.

"I believe that if you know in your heart that you want to ensure her safety, and make certain she is as well as she can be, you will do the right thing." His grey eyes were serious. "And if this means the protection and security of marriage, then so be it. You may yet find it in your favour."

"I understand," I said, although I wished someone would tell me directly. I did not love Emmeline, exactly, but I cared very deeply for her. I wished her to recover quickly, so that she would be able to begin her life again. It was clear she was frustrated that she could not do more.

"She is quite pretty, Thomas, but I warn you...her Fire-Elemental abilities are not dormant. And they are not buried very deep."

With that he picked up his case and went out. I glanced over at Emmeline, and her eyes flickered up to me. The past three nights had been difficult. She'd woken screaming and thrashing, so violently I feared she would injure herself. I tightened my hand around the laudanum bottle. I wanted to ease her pain. But I did not believe a drug was the solution.

||

An invitation for Ray's wedding announcement arrived in the post the following evening. Emmeline and I were having our supper in front of the fireplace, absorbing its heat after a day of wet rainy weather. She was crouching so close to the flames I worried a spark leaping out would burn her. I remembered her Fire-Elemental abilities, and perhaps that was what made me lean forward and ask.

"Emmeline, your capture...did it have anything to do with your being Elemental, by any chance?"

Her brow furrowed, and in the firelight both her eyes appeared a bright golden. Then, quietly, she said, "I don't know."

"You never heard it mentioned while you were imprisoned there?" I wished we did not have to revisit this, because I saw what it did to her. Hunched shoulders, white-knuckled grip, an expression of pure undiluted fear.

She shook her head. "Never...used it."

In that way, at least, we were the same. My abilities were latent, and had never once been awoken by any circumstance. If anything, the loss of my family had put out that spark for good.

We were stopped from further conversation when Lucian entered, bearing an envelope. I sat up, my questions forgotten, as he came over and handed it to me.

"What is this?" I glanced down at the seal, but I didn't recognise it.

"From the Eden house, milord." He bowed and went out.

I broke the seal, and the invitation slid out. The gathering was to take place at Stenwick Hall, the Edens' residence, at the end of the week. It formally began at seven in the evening, although Ray was not much for punctuality. That is, he would not care if I was late.

All the fanfare was really quite silly. I preferred evenings like these, sitting with Emmeline in the circle of firelight, just to be in each other's company. Parties and socials like this one, when one had to dress up and smile at everyone even if they were unlikeable and worst of all, dance, neither interested nor intrigued me. It had earned me the reputation of being a recluse.

In fact I was so deep in thought I didn't notice Emmeline standing at my elbow and reading the invitation over my shoulder until she spoke.

"Will you go?"

I startled and looked up, our eyes meeting. "I suppose I should put in an appearance. Ray would be offended if I did not."

"He would know?"

I ran one hand over my face. "He is quite observant, and we are friends. I would think so."

"May I go?"

That surprised me. "You want to? You may not like it...all those stuffy nobility types..."

She bit her lip and rubbed the back of her neck. The firelight played across her high fine cheekbones, but accentuated the hollows underneath. As improved as she was, she still had a distance to go.

"Right then. I'm afraid you may have to wear a dress...and I have none, as you can see." I considered my mother's clothing, but those were out of fashion anyway, and for a rush order I wondered how quickly one could be made. Possibly not very, especially at this late date.

Her eyes dropped, expression crestfallen. It was enough to tell me I had to make something work. Perhaps there was an old dress of my mother's that would fit her.

"Then come with me," I said, setting my plate aside and rising. "Let us look for something, shall we? Perhaps Mrs Shute will help us."

I struck a match and lit a candle, and led the way upstairs. She held onto my arm the entire time, bare feet soundless on the ground. We met Peggy coming down, and I only stopped long enough to ask her to send Mrs Shute in to us.

Once we were in my mother's room, I heaved open the chest that stood along the far wall. It held all her clothes, everything I had packed away after she passed on. Never would I have thought I would look at them again. I moved the black mourning clothes right on top to the bed, and underneath there was a blue silk one, the colour of a robin's egg. That was that one she touched first, holding it up against herself. It tumbled down to the floor in rustling folds.

"That's a beautiful dress, Miss Emmeline," Mrs Shute's voice said from the doorway.

We both jumped in surprise, Emmeline dropping the dress in a heap on the ground as she turned to face her.

She smiled. "What's the occasion, milord?"

"Emmeline wishes to accompany me to the Edens'. We were trying to find something for her to wear on such short notice." I hoped Mother's spirit would not mind. Or Francis's, for that matter.

"Let's see it again then, Miss Emmeline. Perhaps we can adjust it for you." Mrs Shute bustled in, all business. "Would you light the lamp, milord?"

"Of course, Mrs Shute."

Once the room was properly lit, we turned towards the mirror against the wall. Emmeline picked up the dress again at Mrs Shute's direction and shuffled up close to the mirror.

"Won't be able to see it properly, love, until it's on you." Again, Mrs Shute turned to me, eyes apologetic. "If you'll avert your eyes, milord?"

I was about to argue that I had helped the girl dress the night she came here, but this was neither the time nor the place to bring that up. There were some things, I suppose, that women needed to do alone, without the eyes of men on them. I swivelled on my heel to face the opposite wall, pretending to be interested in the pattern on the wallpaper. All the while I heard rustling fabric.

"Now there we are," said Mrs Shute, my cue to turn back around. "About the same size as the Lady Dorchester, aren't you?"

My breath caught in my throat. The dress fit Emmeline almost perfectly, nipped in a bit at the waist and flaring out for the skirts. I could not help but notice how it displayed her pale slim neck and the arcs of her collarbones, not nearly as prominent as the first night. There were faint shadows under a couple of her ribs, but they were hardly noticeable.

"Goodness, look at you." Mrs Shute flitted around her, tugging at the elbow-length sleeves and the folds of the skirt. "A bit long, but that's easily fixed, isn't it?"

"You look beautiful, Emmeline," I said, because she did. She looked like a lady, a proper one.

She blushed, the colour rapidly blooming in her cheeks as she dropped her eyes. She ran a hand over the fabric again, slowly and reverently.

"Will it work, Mrs Shute?" I asked as she turned Emmeline around so she could see the back.

"Once it's altered, milord, I believe she'll fit right into it."

Our eyes met again as Mrs Shute bent down, beginning to work on pinning it to the right length. Emmeline smiled, just barely, but it lit her whole face. My hopes rose. Perhaps the gathering would not be so intolerable after all.

||

Stenwick Hall was an imposing stone manor, built like a castle. The walls were high and entirely smooth, made out of handsome tan blocks. When we arrived in the carriage, the double doors stood open, allowing golden light to spill out. A footman opened the carriage door, allowing me to climb out and help Emmeline down. She didn't resemble the girl that first appeared on my doorstep anymore. Dressed in Mother's best blue silk, her auburn hair pinned back and woven with a blue ribbon, she was every inch a lady.

I gave her my elbow, and she slid her hand through it. There was an uncertainty lingering in her manner, although it was hardly visible at the moment. If others did not know what she had been through, they would have mistaken it for decorum.

The inside of the manor was just as impressive as the outside. The entrance hall was hung with tapestries and velvet curtains in a deep red. Unlike my house, Stenwick Hall boasted a spacious grand ballroom, already crowded with people. High above us, the beams were wound with ribbons, red and gold.

And out of the crowd, appearing as if he had magicked himself there, was Charles Ashbury. His white-blond hair was combed back from his high forehead, and his hard grey eyes were heavily lidded as they landed on us. He tugged at the lapel of his coat as he intercepted us on the way to the table groaning under its loads of food.

"Captain Haywood," he said, radiating cold dislike. "What a pleasant surprise to see you here this evening."

"And the same, Lord Ashbury." I gave him a shallow bow. I knew he felt my own dislike for him as potently as I did.

His eyes flicked to Emmeline. "I must say, we have never met before, Miss...?"

"Emmeline," she said, and when he recoiled, just enough for her to see, she hastily tacked on "Milord."

"Miss Emmeline." Ashbury bowed, but did not offer his hand, an affront she fortunately did not notice. "A pleasure."

I was able to breathe a sigh of relief when I glimpsed Ray coming up behind Ashbury. He had Lady Violet on his arm, and although they were not married yet, they made a fine couple.

"Charles," Ray said, making Ashbury jump in surprise and straighten up. "May I greet my guests?"

Ashbury said nothing, only tugged on his coat again with a hmph before leaving us.

This greeting was far warmer than Ashbury's. I shook Ray's hand and kissed Lady Violet's, and he did the same, bowing and kissing Emmeline's knuckles just barely. She blushed as he did, both flattered and embarrassed.

"I say, Tom, she doesn't even seem like the same girl," Ray said as Lady Violet linked her arm with Emmeline's and whisked her off to the food tables. "What did you do? And how?"

"I? I did nothing. She asked me to bring her here, so I obliged." It was really very heartening to see her now. She'd come so far, and we'd only known each other just shy of eight weeks.

"There is another subject I wanted to discuss," he said, taking my arm and moving us to the fringes of the room. "There are rumours of a smuggling ring in these parts."

"Not that uncommon, is it?" There were smugglers everywhere. My father had often complained about them. Even though there was nothing that could be done. Not even going to the law helped.

"It isn't just any smuggling ring, Tom. Some say it may be Elemental."

At that I turned to face him head-on. "What do you mean? Elementals do not require anything different than those who are not."

"I mean human smuggling. There have been disappearances, completely unexplained. No one knows where they go. The only similarity seems to be that they are Elemental."

I didn't answer right away. My eyes drifted over to Emmeline, still at Lady Violet's side and greeting a portly man with a powdered wig. "How did you find this out?"

"I have a distantly related cousin, Joshua, who works at the docks in Southampton. He tells me he has seen the same group of men, loitering about and carrying strangely shaped bundles on board a ship. Stolen, most likely." Ray shuddered. "Nasty business, that."

"Indeed," I said, without turning back to him. "How many disappearances did you say there were?"

"I never did. Somewhere around thirty now, I would guess. Since you mentioned trade the other day, I began to think there must be a connection."

"You are right to think so." I was beginning to believe there was no end to the ways smugglers managed it. Especially if they were human, and Elemental. Even those who were not Elemental could sense when one was near.

"You say the girl escaped?" Ray was now also watching the women. "Did she ever say from whom?"

I shook my head. "She would not discuss it. Still won't, now you've mention it. And I did not want to push too hard."

"You must try, Tom. That may be the key to tracking down where these missing Elementals are headed." He grasped my shoulder and squeezed, and then was gone.

I drew a deep breath, and then let it out slowly. Ray was right — I would have to keep coaxing Emmeline, being firm but gentle. There was a secret locked inside of her. If only I could find the key.

||

The night wound down somewhere around midnight. Emmeline and I were rarely far apart from one another, but that was more for my peace of mind. Every time I saw her, she seemed to be managing well on her own. But what Ray had said stayed with me, even as we went up to bed. Because of the enormity of the house, and the length of the journey, many guests were staying the night. I hardly minded. It was one less night Emmeline spent alone.

"You did very well this evening," I said, once it was just the two of us again.

She blushed, but said nothing as she attempted to unlace her dress backward.

"Are you all right?" I stopped in the middle of unbuttoning my waistcoat and went to assist her. "I find it taxing, to interact with that many people in a single evening."

"She was kind to me," she said while I worked. "Lady Violet."

"I believe she has a good heart," I answered. "It is only right she takes you under her wing."

"She asked me...about you." Her shoulders moved, hunching inward.

"What about me?" Of course I should have accounted for that one fact, that Lady Violet was not immune to the rumours society churned out. And especially from a family of means, she would be aware of all the latest news anyway.

"If we had..." Her ears turned pink. "Lain together."

It took me a moment to think of a reply. Attending the party together, dressed in elegant clothing, hobnobbing with the members of the peerage. Only Ray knew the truth of why we came together, but it was clear why others jumped to that assumption. We'd seemed perfectly familiar with each other, much more familiar than two unattached people should be.

"What did you tell her?" I asked instead.

"You are a gentleman," she said. "You have never asked for it."

"And that will continue," I said as she turned to face me. We were so close to each other I could see myself in the depths of her eyes. I cupped her cheek, and this time she didn't flinch from my touch. "I promise you, Emmeline, as long as we are together, that I will keep you safe. I will rebuild your trust, brick by brick if I have to. And we will make a life together, if that is all right."

Her eyes searched my face, the gold one shifting restlessly. "Do you mean...?"

"Yes, Emmeline." I took both her hands and kissed them. "We must be married. As soon as possible."