Free Dark Mirror 2 - Dark Passage by M.J. Putney Page B

considered what to wear. She was tempted to change slowly just to irritate Jack, but she was hungry, too.
    She didn’t have any choice, actually. Her most fashionable garments needed the assistance of a maid, and all the servants had been given a half day off because it was Christmas.
    After her visit to 1940, Cynthia had reluctantly conceded that Tory was right about having clothes that could be put on without assistance. A letter to her father’s secretary had produced two gowns that were easy to wear, if not very fashionable. The garments had arrived after most students left for the holiday. She was wearing the plainer gown now since none of the other girls would help her dress.
    The second new dress was a little prettier, so it would have to do. She certainly couldn’t ask Jack Rainford to fasten the back of her gown.
    The fabric was a shade of blue that enhanced her eyes and there was a rich band of embroidery on the hem and bodice. Though too simple for a dinner with her own kind, it would do for a farmhouse. She donned it quickly, ran a brush through her hair and pinned it up, then put on her heaviest cloak and a warm bonnet.
    Jack was lounging in the corridor, juggling small mage lights. Like the other members of the weather brigade, his power had increased during their marathon of magical work. “You didn’t take quite as long as I expected.” He tossed her one of the lights. “Most girls need more time to pretty themselves up than you do.”
    “Is that a compliment?” she asked suspiciously as they headed toward the stairs.
    “I guess it is,” he said thoughtfully. “Even when you worked endless hours and looked like something the cat dragged in, you looked like a pretty cat.”
    She was tempted to hiss like a cat, but settled for tossing her head as she led the way downstairs.
    As Jack said, the abbey was so quiet that stealth stones weren’t needed. They used the tunnel in the cellar of the refectory to enter the Labyrinth. It was a relief to move out of the abbey’s suppression spell.
    The Labyrinth felt a lot less empty with Jack at her side. Say what one would about his social status and appalling sense of humor, Cynthia grudgingly admitted that he did have presence. When Jack was around, he was impossible to ignore.
    They crossed through the main hall into the tunnels that connected to the boys’ school. Cynthia had never been on this side of the Labyrinth.
    As they entered a tunnel on the left, Jack touched the small magical patch high on the corner. It flared purple. “This is the route I always use for coming and going from the Labyrinth. The tunnel comes out in a beech wood near the road to the village.”
    “I wonder why none of the tunnels on the girls’ side lead off the abbey grounds.”
    “To protect you frail creatures,” Jack said with a laugh. “Whoever dug these tunnels obviously couldn’t imagine warrior women like you.”
    There was real admiration in his voice. Surprised, Cynthia said, “I’m no warrior woman. If some horrible soldier attacked me, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
    “You’d call lightning down on his head and fry him like an egg,” Jack said promptly. “Even Boadicea couldn’t do that when she fought the Romans.”
    “You know I can’t call lightning unless I have a storm to work with.”
    “You’d come up with something.” His voice turned serious for a change. “We could never have controlled the weather over the channel without you. I have more experience and perhaps more raw ability, but you’re inventive. You came up with some clever ways of shifting winds that I’d never thought of. We were good partners.”
    Stupidly, she felt a warm glow of satisfaction. Why did it have to be Jack Rainford who fully appreciated what she’d done?
    They walked steadily until the tunnel ended in a flight of stairs leading up to a door. “Time to dim our mage lights,” Jack said as he touched the magical patch on the frame at the top. The door swung