Quicksilver - Amanda Quick [108]
“No, Alcina,” Welch shouted. Alarmed, he rushed toward her. “You must not destroy her senses. I need her and her talent.”
“Miss Dean,” Mrs. Crofton said urgently. “Are you all right?”
The white-hot energy ceased abruptly.
“Don’t talk to me like that,” Alcina shrieked. “Don’t ever say such a thing again or I will blind you permanently. Do you understand?”
Virginia blinked several times. “I understand.”
Cautiously she heightened her senses. When she perceived the heat in the mirrored walls and the dazzling energy of the artifacts around her, she breathed a small sigh of relief. Her talent still functioned.
“You are right about one thing,” Alcina said, once again unnaturally calm. “My father was quite mad, and so was his ridiculous wife.”
“How did you discover that Hollister was your father?” Virginia asked.
“The orphanage where Jasper and I were sent after our mother died burned down years ago. All of the records were destroyed in the fire. It wasn’t until last year that I was finally able to locate a woman who had been close to our mother when they both worked as maids for Hollister’s parents. Hollister got her pregnant when he was a young man. She was, of course, let go. She could not afford to feed her infant twins. She wound up in the workhouse, where she died of a fever.”
Mrs. Crofton stirred on the bench. “An old and very sad story.”
“True,” Alcina said. “But Jasper and I decided to give our tale a slightly different ending. First, however, we had to find a way to survive in the world. When we left the orphanage, we were sent out to work in a wealthy household. Jasper was a footman. I was a maid. But I was fortunate in my looks. At the age of sixteen I succeeded in catching the eye of an elderly, extremely wealthy gentleman who had become senile. He had no close family to protect him from me. It was no trick at all to persuade him to marry me.”
“Something tells me he did not last long after the wedding,” Virginia said.
“He expired a month later. A great tragedy but one that passed unnoticed in the social world because he had not gone into society for decades. I inherited his fortune and this house. Jasper came here to live with me. We copied the manners and accents of our betters, and now we pass easily among them when we wish, as you do, Miss Dean. Really, we have so much in common.”
Virginia waved a hand to indicate the contents of the mirrored gallery. “This collection is yours, I assume?”
“Yes.” Alcina looked around with satisfaction. “I have spent a great deal of time and money acquiring glass antiquities with a paranormal provenance. Jasper designed this chamber for me. We both inherited our father’s talent, you see.”
Welch looked around the room with a sense of satisfaction. “It was some years before I realized what was happening in this room.”
“Over time the accumulated energy of so many relics imbued with psychical power has saturated the mirrors,” Virginia said. “That explains the fire in the glass.”
Curiosity leaped in Welch’s eyes. “You can sense the power trapped in the mirrors? Yes, I suppose that is only natural, given the strength of your talent. Very good, Miss Dean. You might be interested to know that the process works both ways. As the energy has built up in the mirrors, the currents have been reflected back into the artifacts, enhancing the forces infused into them. Those forces, in turn, are reflected back into the mirrors. The process has gone on for over a decade. The result is that this chamber has stored an astonishing amount of powerful energy.”
Virginia looked at Alcina. “When you discovered the identity of your father you began to plot your vengeance. You found a way into the Hollister household as Lady Hollister’s companion.”
Alcina gave her an approving look. “It was not terribly difficult. None of Lady Hollister’s companions lasted long. I bought an inexpensive, tailor-made