“Well, Sarah’s right about that,” Sebastian said, with a wink for his wife. “Though I must say it’s ruined every one of the arguments we’ve had since she’s been here.”
“Oh? In what way has my presence interfered, pray?” Elizabeth responded, with a toss of her head. “Other than that the sheer weight of my intellect overpowers you light-minded painterly types?”
“Well, when it comes to a division between the sexes, it used to come out a draw, and Margherita and Marina had to compromise,” Sebastian pointed out, sounding for all the world as if it was the two females of the household who were unreasonable when it came to sitting down for negotiations. “Now there’s the three of you, and you run right over the top of us poor befuddled males.”
“If you’d learn to listen to reason, you wouldn’t be befuddled or find yourself in need of making compromises,” Elizabeth retorted. “Seeing as we are the ones who generally propose compromise in the first place, which you gentlemen seem to regard with the same attitude as a bull with a red rag.”
Somehow, within three sentences of that challenge, the conversation managed to come round to a spirited discussion of votes, university degrees, and equal responsibilities for women.
Marina listened, slowly munching her way through her breakfast, and began to see an interesting and quite logical explanation for the dream of last night.
It had to be a dream; none of the others had mentioned any unease at all, and they surely would. Even if they were cautious about speaking of magic in front of Sarah and Jenny, there were ways of saying things without actually saying them that amounted to a second language among the five of them.
No, it must have been a dream, and now Marina had a good idea of where it had come from.
She hadn’t thought about it much, but she had known for the last several days that Elizabeth’s return to her family was coming up shortly. How could she not be anxious about that, even though she knew that Elizabeth was going to come back? Her teacher was going to be gone, and not only was she not going to be getting new lessons in Water Magic, but if anything somehow went seriously wrong in her practicing, there would be no one in the household technically capable of putting it right again. The best they could do would be for Sebastian, the antagonistic Element, to put the whole mess down with sheer, brute force.
That could be very bad over the long run. The Elementals might take offense, and she’d be weeks in placating them.
So, that would explain all the unease, the tension, even the fear. And the feeling of something bad out there watching for her—well, dreams often showed you the opposite of what you were really feeling, and the fear came from the fact that no one would be watching for her with Elizabeth gone.
The anxiety as well—well, that was simply a straight reflection of the fact that with Elizabeth gone, she would be feeling rather lonely. For the first time she could remember, winter had not been a round of day after day, the same, with barely a visit or two to the village to break the monotony. Everyone had tasks that kept them involved except her. Posing might be hard work, but it wasn’t intellectually stimulating. But with Elizabeth here, she’d had a friend and entirely new things to do.
It was all as simple and straightforward as that!
Relieved now that she had found a logical explanation for what must have been a simple bout of night-fears, she joined in the discussion—which, despite Uncle Sebastian claiming it was an argument, never got to the point of raised voices, much less to acrimony. Elizabeth even appealed to Sarah a time or two, though Sarah only replied with “I’m sure I don’t know, ma’am,” or “I couldn’t rightly say, ma’am.” And, essentially, all of the women knew deep down that Sebastian was firmly on their side in the case of the Cause. He was only arguing because one of his greatest joys was in playing devil’s advocate. And another was to get Elizabeth sufficiently annoyed to exercise a talent for rather caustic wit that she rarely displayed.
At least, so long as it didn’t interfere with his meals. The only reason that Elizabeth got in some fairly long speeches without being interrupted was because Uncle Sebastian was enjoying his broiled kidneys. Twice Sarah purloined her plate to rewarm what had gotten cold and unappetizing.
Finally, he cleaned his plate with a bit of toast, popped it in his mouth, and stood up. “You win, Elizabeth, as usual. You’re right, I’m outnumbered, and besides, I am not going to waste this gorgeous light. You’ll have to do without Marina this morning, Elizabeth—I’ve got a buyer for Werther and I mean to have the money in time to finance a really good Christmas. Come along, poppet—”
He gestured at Marina, who quickly rose from the table and followed him. She saw that determined, yet slightly absent look in his eyes and knew it of old. Werther would be finished—in very few days, if the weather held.
And Marina was going to be spending a great deal of time sprawled half on, half off that pallet, nearly upside down.
Oh well, she thought, suppressing a yawn as she fitted her upper torso within the chalk marks on the floor. Uncle Sebastian’s doing my legs this morning, since that’s where the light is falling. So at least I’II get to make up my lost sleep today.
By the time Elizabeth left, Marina had all but forgotten about her disturbed night. The few times she thought about it, she was glad she hadn’t mentioned it; it would have been too, too embarrassing to be comforted and reassured over a nightmare. And in front of Elizabeth too—appalling thought!
She hadn’t seen a sign of a single Sylph or any other Air Elemental since then, but they didn’t much care for the cold, and she was too busy to summon one. The clear weather didn’t hold, either, and they liked rain even less than cold. With Uncle Sebastian claiming her time during the day, feverishly painting his Young Werther, Elizabeth claimed the hours between sunset and bedtime. Which was only right, of course—after all, that was why Elizabeth was here in the first place!
The result was that when the day of departure arrived, Marina was able to build a shield two layers thick, with the outer layer looking just like the sort of aura that any ordinary person might have. What was more, she could shield a workspace, or even a smallish room, and within the room, she could make the shield permanent.
She still hadn’t begun the next phase of her tutelage, which Elizabeth said would be the offensive and defensive uses of her power. That would have to wait; Elizabeth didn’t want her to even think about such a thing until there was another Water Master physically present while she practiced.
The day of departure was gray, but not raining, so they all went to see her off, using both carts, and combining the trip with a Christmas shopping expedition to the village and perhaps beyond. When Elizabeth’s train was safely gone, and the last glimpse of her hand waving a handkerchief out of the window was a memory, Marina and her aunt took one of the carts, and the uncles took the other. Uncle Thomas and Uncle Sebastian were in charge of arranging the Christmas feast.
“Make sure you get a gray goose, and not a white one!” Marina called after them as they set off on a round of the little village shop, the pub, and some of the farms. “The white ones are too fat!”
Uncle Sebastian waved absently; Uncle Thomas ignored them. Margherita sighed. “It’s the same thing every year, isn’t it?” she said to the pony’s back-pointing ears. “Every year, I tell them, ‘get a gray goose.’ And what do they do every year? They get a white one.