Page 3

Here and now , I told myself. Worry over Felicia and her future had made me think too much about my past. I am not one for looking back, as a rule.

As we walked, I took in the Japanese Friendship Garden. It was very beautiful: trees and plants I didn’t know, streams with rocks arranged in patterns, graceful bridges. It had been constructed to conform to the existing landscape, and included sudden steep hillsides, narrow spaces, and open areas.

Good ambush territory.

This was why Felix, the least sociable of men, was stalking up the path ahead of Felicia. This was why Eli and I, who should have been home working in Segundo Mexia, were instead staying at his mother’s home in San Diego this week.

Since I’d been half expecting her to turn up, when I saw a woman waiting on the path ahead of us, I knew instantly who it was.

“Aunt Isabella!” Felicia called, opening her arms. Isabella flowed into them like water into a ditch.

I knew a prearranged meeting when I saw one. Felicia had been holding back.

Isabella, in her early thirties, was still very attractive. When she embraced Felicia, the family likeness was undeniable.

“See and be seen,” Eli muttered.

“What is she proving?” I said.

“She’s proving that her remaining family stands by her.”

“What’s that worth?”

“A lot to Felicia, apparently.”

While Isabella and Felicia unclenched to begin an apparently happy conversation, and Felix scowled at them both, Isabella glanced past Felix to Eli and me, and her face showed a… I didn’t know what to call it. An awareness. I felt a prickle. I looked up at my husband with a sudden suspicion.

“Eli, didn’t you say once that you went to the last ball, in Paris? Why didn’t you pick one of the girls you met?”

“I did go to one Wizards’ Ball,” my husband said, but not as if he was happy to recall the time. “Not to Paris, though. My father sent me to Denmark, two balls ago. Six years.”

“Tell me what happened.”

He didn’t meet my eyes. “I met a witch from Mexico. I liked her quite a bit, but her father thought I wasn’t good enough. And she thought I was too young.”

“You mean… you mean Isabella.”

Eli gave a short nod.

“And she turned you down.”

“Her father did not approve. He thought the age difference was too much. And he knew I would not live in Mexico, since I was preparing to be in service to the tsar.”

There wasn’t any reason Eli should have told me all this before we married, since it had come to nothing, and neither he nor Isabella had given me any sign they were in any way involved until today.

I was sure the look Isabella had thrown his way was calculated.

“So you and Isabella have not been in contact since then?”

“We have not. I had no idea Felicia had been talking to her aunt after my brother died, and you almost did, in Texoma. I had no idea they’d arranged this. Which, clearly, they did.”

“How… how did you feel, then? In Denmark? When Francisco nixed the engagement?”

“I was cast down, at the time. I was very young.” Then Eli smiled down at me. “But it all worked out for the best. Instead, I met a woman with guns and nerves of steel, and she did not care how much money I had or didn’t have, or that my father was a traitor.”

“I didn’t care then, and I don’t care now.”

“Well, Lizbeth turned down someone, too,” Felix said. He had dropped back to stand by us while the very public aunt-and-niece reunion continued. The Happy Dominguezes, all two of them.

“Felix,” I said, making sure my voice was quiet and even.

“Really? Who was it?” Eli was smiling broadly.

I changed my mind. Felix could tell him, and even embroider on it.

“The baker’s son,” Felix said. “The handsome one. The one who came to see Lizbeth the day of his wedding, hoping that she would throw you over and take him instead.”

Eli wheeled to look at me, his eyebrows all hiked up. I shrugged. It was true. I’d never felt the need to tell Eli about Dan Brick’s visit. Just now, I felt fine about that decision. Especially since I knew about his thing for Isabella Dominguez.

We exchanged very level looks.

“We all need to keep walking,” Felix said, bored with the drama. He set off, saying something pointed to Isabella and Felicia as he passed them. We all trailed behind him.

“Isabella would have eaten you alive,” I muttered.

“Dan Brick would have bored you to tears,” he replied.

The garden was even more crowded now. Many of the magically talented people seemed to know one another.

I heard lots of different languages. This was not for me.

This whole charade of parading around, arranging meetings for picnics and teas and dances, looking at each other, seemed just as odd and stupid to me as it had when Eli and Felix had explained it.

I’d accepted their surety that this was my sister’s best chance to meet the wizard of her dreams, to gain safety, security, and a future family.

Now my doubts had swum to the surface, and this was only the opening event.

I felt my handbag bang into my side again. How had I been suckered into doing this city job? But I wanted Felicia to succeed, however she felt that might be done.

I pressed my lips together and stared at every boy who came near as if I suspected he would try to kill my sister rather than woo her.

I might be right.