The Duke is Wicked (League of Lords #3) - Tracy Sumner Page 0,26
the one time I was able to read her. Victoria being close usually cancels out my gift. Strange. But separate me from my wife, a distance of 100 yards should do it, and I’ll get in there.”
“Splendid.” Sebastian sounded another musical note across his palm, searching for a solution when none was readily available. He was a soldier without a plan of attack. “She has absolutely no one to watch over her, no one to trust. Except her brother, Case, a rowdy young man with a good heart. He loves her but doesn’t know how to help her, a familiar story. Half the residents on Julian’s estate are families of those with supernatural abilities. As you know, it’s harder to be a caregiver than the person cursed.”
“I haven’t dreamed about her since your mishap with the, um, with the insect.” Finn loosened his impeccably knotted cravat with a smirk. “It’s like you stepped in, and the cosmic world transferred her from me to you.”
Fuck, Sebastian thought, and dropped his chin to his chest.
“Did you find out more about her secret weapon? This room she goes into? I know you wish she didn’t have a magical ability, but experience proves, if I dream, there’s a reason. If you recall, I dreamed about Victoria for months before we met.” Finn caught Sebastian’s sour look and rushed to add, “But that turned out marvelously!”
“I know. I’m the reason you married her, remember? Pushed you over the cusp by allowing the ton to believe she jilted me, while wholly supporting the union. A duke’s endorsement. Because I’m such a good friend.”
“The best,” Finn agreed, his lips curling in to suppress a smile.
Sebastian sighed in exasperation. Finn had been the happiest man alive since securing his wife’s hand, which in turn, made Sebastian queasy and envious. And lonely. “Miss Temple calls it an attic. Any question she has, she steps out of the present and goes in there to look it up. A trance similar to the one Julian puts himself in when he touches things. Like there’s this vast library in her head. She even has a copy of DeBrett’s up there.”
Finn gave the iron loop another punitive tug. “Why in the hell would anyone want that silly book in their head?”
“It’s quite clever. If you moved to a country where titles mattered above all else, and every day you were forced to try and remember them during introductions or when someone cut you on the street, as I imagine is mostly what she’s getting, what book would you choose? Furthermore, I suspect, and I know this sounds ridiculous, although it will light Julian up like magnesium, that she memorized the chronology in—”
“Ten minutes,” Finn finished for him, his voice pained. “When she pleaded a carriage accident and snuck into the chamber where we house it.”
Sebastian’s gaze clashed with Finn’s because they were both thinking the same thing. “How dangerous a weapon would an information attic in someone’s mind be to possess? You could pass messages, reams of documents, without writing anything down. How many sadistic people would love to get their hands on that?” On her, Sebastian realized with a sickening twist in his belly, the stupor Delaney entered when she went there, vulnerable as a babe, traveling his mind.
“A person with this gift would be a treasured partner for the League. Our enemies would find that to be the case, too. Frankly, the British military would probably love a go at her. Wonder if she’d be any good at codebreaking?” Finn tipped his head to stare blankly at the ceiling. “I’m guessing she’s well-guarded? Considering the impromptu jaunt she thought to take through Seven Dials.”
“My men are stationed below her bedchamber window, at each door, at the gatehouse.” He exhaled softly and drew the bow across his wrist. “We’re surrounded, as you are at Brook Cottage, as Julian is at his estate.”
“We must protect those we love.”
“Love presents a dangerous disadvantage. As a man intent on following a sensible scheme, I say thanks, but no.” Sebastian spied Finn’s pitying expression, and his temper flared. “Victoria mitigates your gift. Hell, she mitigates mine. Piper heals, giving us all more control. You and Julian are fortunate that your wives soothe the beast. Delaney Temple makes me want to burn down the bloody city, block by block. She can’t fix me or help me even, and I’m not sure I can help her. We’re not, as they say, a good mix.”