She glared at me for a long time, then the heat left her eyes and her shoulders slumped. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter anymore. They know I’ve consorted with you.”
She was talking about the Regency. I wanted to press her for details, but my time was limited and I needed to extract everything she knew about the masked woman. Wary of another attack, I gently took her by the arm and led her to the back table. When I had her seated with the dog on her lap, I took the chair across from her.
“There’s a spell in that book for the making of a cream that wipes away age. I know you made it for a woman who at least once appeared to you hooded and wearing a mask, and that you perhaps cast other spells for her as well.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“There is no point in denying it, Catherine. I pulled the memory from your own thoughts.”
I braced myself, expecting my admission to elicit another attack, but no anger flowed into her eyes. Only resignation. “I had no choice but to help her.”
“Who was she?” I asked.
Catherine shook her head. “I don’t know. She always appeared in some sort of disguise, and she took steps to alter her voice so that I couldn’t identify her.”
I swore silently. “Do know anything about her? Any clues to who she might be?”
“No.” The other witch gently stroked her dog’s back. “She approached me the first time nearly ten years ago – had heard I could make creams and lotions that would wipe the years off a woman’s face. She had the money to pay, and there was no harm in it. The spells I was using at the time were harmless combinations of herbs and earth. But they only worked so well. And they most certainly could not stop the passage of time.”
“So you turned to the dark arts?”
“I had no choice.” Her mouth twisted. “She told me that if I did not do what she wanted, she’d arrange for the Regent to discover I was a witch. That she’d see me burn. So I did it.” A single tear ran down her face. “It was difficult procuring the… the sacrifices I needed. And difficult disposing of the bodies. I was terrified I’d be caught, and I could feel myself changing. I felt corrupted, as though some insidious substance had got into my veins and was slowly working its way through my body. I can only imagine what they were doing to her mind with the quantities in which she used them.”
“Did she ask you to make any other potions? Perform other spells?” It was a struggle to keep the anticipation from my voice.
“Only the creams.”
My anticipation burned away leaving disappointment in its wake. I’d been so sure there’d be others – spells to somehow prolong Anushka’s life. Was my theory entirely wrong? Clearing my throat, I said, “So you stopped. Told her you wouldn’t make her potions any longer?”
“I tried.” She scrubbed a hand across her red-rimmed eyes. “But she wouldn’t hear of it, and I was afraid to cross her. Nor could I go to Marie, because she would never have forgiven me for abusing my position.”
“You said before that she knew you were a witch?”
Catherine nodded. “Her son, Aiden, was a sickly child. She approached me and brought me into her household as his nurse at great risk to herself, given the Regent’s views on witchcraft. I involved her in my spells to help him, because the bond of blood between parent and child holds an intense amount of power. No one but Marie knew I was a witch until…” She broke off.
“Until?” I leaned forward in anticipation.
“Some four years ago, the masked woman left me a note asking for me to meet her. Of course I went, but instead of her usual request, she asked for something different.”
“What did she want?”
“A love potion.”
I sat up straight in my chair. If this woman was Anushka, why would she ask for that? The creams and such I understood – she couldn’t affect herself with magic, so she needed another witch’s help. But she was more than capable, and by my reckoning, quite practiced at making love potions herself. “To use on whom?”
“The Regent.”
My jaw dropped. The Regent? But that made no sense at all – if Marie was allied with Anushka, why would she allow such a thing?
“I was loath to do it. Marie had never been anything but kind to me and spelling her husband would be the ultimate betrayal, but the woman did not hesitate to remind me how quickly the flames would lick at my toes if it were discovered I was performing black magic.” She sucked in a deep breath. “And I knew that if she used the potion her identity would be revealed to me and she’d no longer be able to blackmail me so easily. But…” she broke off, hands clawing into fists.
“It didn’t work?” I asked.