“What kind of scandal?”
“Lucy ran off, just a few years out of Watford. She was the Salisburys’ pride and joy, then she ran off with some man. I heard it was a Normal. Maybe even an American. Ruth—Lady Salisbury—broke down at a charity do, a lawn-bowling tournament for stutterers—and confessed to Natalie Braine that she was worried there might be a child involved. An illegitimate child. That’s the last Ruth’s ever spoken of it. And no one’s seen Lucy, not in our realm, since school.”
“Lucy disappeared?” I say.
“Worse,” Mum says. “She ran away. From magic. Can you imagine?”
“Yes,” I say, then, “no.”
My mother brushes nonexistent crumbs from her hands. “Get changed, darling—the guests will be here any minute.”
I start to walk out of the kitchen, and Mum hands me a stack of hand-embroidered napkins to give to Helen on my way through the dining room. I hand them to Helen without saying anything. I’m too busy thinking.…
“I knew Lucy Salisbury,” Helen says. “We went to school together.”
It’s quite like Helen to wait until my mother isn’t in the room to speak to me. My mother prefers a more formal relationship, but Helen has always treated me like family. (Not close family, more like a niece; I think she prefers Simon.)
“Lucy was a few years older,” Helen says. “All the girls in my year went mad when we heard she’d run away. We thought it was so romantic. And terrifying!”
“Did she really run away?”
“That’s what we heard. Met a man and took off—for California.”
“California!”
“I used to think of her,” Helen says, “with that long, blond hair, lying out on the sand.”
*
I climb into bed without changing into my party clothes and pull out the stolen photo, holding it up above me.
Lucy Salisbury ran away from magic.
She was dating the most powerful living Mage, the guy who was about to take over the world—and she just ran away.
Professor Bunce said Lucy was a powerful magician in her own right. She could have been the First Lady of magic. Or maybe she could have ruled beside the Mage. And she walked away.
Was there a baby? Did she take the baby with her?
Maybe she’s raising him in the Normal world. Maybe that’s the gift Lucy Salisbury gave herself and her child—not to have to grow up with all this shit. Not to have the Mage as his dad, and a world at war for its inheritance.
That kid got off.
And Simon got stuck with it instead.
69
LUCY
I was happy.
I loved him.
And he was always more good than bad.
He’s still more good than bad, I think. It just goes to show how much of both a person can hold.
We were together by the time we left Watford. Davy had a cottage he’d inherited from his grandmother, and I followed him there. I lied to my parents—they never liked Davy.
He spent most his time reading in those days, and writing letters and pamphlets that he’d send to magickal scholars.
He never felt like seeing friends or just going out. I remember we went to London once to have dinner with Mitali and Martin, to meet their little boy—I wore a long peasant skirt, and I’d spelled flowers into my hair, and I was so happy to see them. To see Mitali.
At first it was good. We were drinking red wine, and I was curled up in a big Papasan chair. And Davy started talking to Mitali about the Coven—she was campaigning for a seat.
“You won’t change anything,” he said. “Nothing will change.”
“I know you think so,” she said. “I’ve read your papers.”
“Have you?” That perked him up. He leaned forward in his chair, dangling his wineglass between his knees. “Then you know that the only answer is revolution.”
“I know that things will only get better if good people fight for what’s important.”