Lady of Magick Read Online Free

of the Battle of the Antonine Wall?” Sophie hazarded, inhaling soup and exhaling suggestions, Joanna-like. “An antidote for wolfsbane poisoning? Another list of books which you must send northward at once, with all possible speed?”
    â€œI said you would never guess,” said Gray, laughing. “No; it is an invitation from Rory MacCrimmon, on behalf of the School of Practical Magick at the University, to lecture there all next year on the practice of shape-shifting.”
    Sophie put down her spoon with a clatter, looking satisfyingly gobsmacked. “An invitation . . . an invitation to
you
?” Then it seemed to occur to her that her astonishment might be taken amiss, and a becoming pink flared in her cheeks. “That is—”
    Gray grinned at her. “I can scarcely credit it, either,” he said, which was entirely true: He had hinted very hard over the course of several months, but until now he had not thought he should succeed in his object. “But it is so, indeed. And look!”
    He passed the letter to her, pointing out the second paragraph on the second page, and watched happily as she read:
    As you have mentioned your wife’s interest in magickal study, I wish to assure you both that she is of course welcome, should she wish it, as a student either in my own School or in the School of Theoretical Magick, whichever may be the most suitable . . .
    Sophie, round-eyed, put the letter down very nearly in her soup-plate, from which Gray rescued it with the ease of long habit.
    â€œAnd it
is
true that there are other women at the University?” she demanded.
    Gray nodded. “Several hundred of the undergraduates are women, MacCrimmon says. He seemed surprised at my asking, though I had told him of the dispute regarding female scholars when Bevan and Ransome first brought it to my attention. You should be entirely unremarkable there, I daresay.”
    â€œYou intend to accept his invitation, I hope?”
    â€œI should very much like to do so, yes,” said Gray. “Of course there will be all manner of administrative and political details to sort out, but if the notion pleases you—”
    But as Sophie was not much interested in administrative orpolitical details, Gray was spared the danger of revealing that one of them consisted in securing her father’s permission to undertake the journey, and another in arranging conveyance and accommodations for some at least of the quartet of Royal Guardsmen (two posing as undergraduates, one as a journeyman baker, and the fourth as a banker’s clerk) presently responsible to His Majesty for Sophie’s safety.
    Sophie looked almost dangerously gleeful. “I should like it of all things,” she said.

CHAPTER II
In Which Joanna Receives a Declaration
    â€œMy dear,” said Sieur Germain de Kergabet to his wife, “have you any objection to my taking Joanna with me today?”
    Joanna sat on her hands in tense and hopeful silence. Though Sieur Germain, in his capacity as Lord President of His Majesty’s Privy Council, seemed truly to value her assistance as a sort of unofficial undersecretary, he deferred always (or nearly always) to Jenny’s wishes in the disposition of Joanna’s time; Jenny having now attained that advanced stage of gravidity at which the slightest exertion fatigued her, who could deny her claim to Joanna’s companionship and support?
    â€œNo, indeed,” said Jenny, cheerfully; “Agatha and I will go on splendidly together, I am sure. Do you dine at home tonight, my dear?”
    Without waiting to hear Sieur Germain’s answer, Joanna excused herself and ran upstairs, lest Jenny should suddenly change her mind.
    When she emerged from her bedroom, with her bonnet-strings dangling and a sheaf of her memoranda from the previous day’s meetings in one gloved hand, she nearly collided with the nursery-maid bringing little Agatha