Page 68 of Her Scandalous Pursuit

“I shouldn’t worry about that.” Bellard reached out and patted her hand. “I will return your compliment by telling you that you are one of the most intelligent people I know. You also have your feet on the ground more solidly than any of us Morelands—though I do believe Reed is very practical, as well. You see things clearly, your thinking is precise and you’ve never believed in absurdities. No one would say you’re given to flights of fancy, let alone insane.”

“Thank you.” Thisbe smiled back. “But I have trouble believing it myself. It’s so absurd.”

“Many things have been deemed absurd, only to later be proven correct. The universe is limitless but our understanding of it is small. The fact that we cannot explain how something happened doesn’t prove that it did not happen.”

“True.” Thisbe nodded. It was much the same thought she had had the afternoon before.

“Your young man and I had an interesting conversation along those lines one afternoon. Mr. Gordon’s research provokes disdain, but are we being too narrow in our thinking? Shouldn’t we explore such things rather than immediately dismiss them? If so, then mustn’t we admit that the same principle applies to the things Cornelia has been saying all these years? Just because we cannot see the spirits, does it prove that she cannot?”

Thisbe’s heart squeezed in her chest at her uncle’s mention of Desmond, but she ignored it and said, “But Grandmother’s tales are always so...”

“Grandiose and self-serving?” Bellard ventured. “That is true, and I suspect she embellishes her stories. But, again, the fact that one has lied or exaggerated doesn’t mean she isn’t telling the truth about other things.”

“What should I do? I want to stop having these dreams. If I could figure it out, maybe they would stop.”

“I think your answer is to talk to your grandmother,” Bellard replied. “I’d examine this Eye thing. Use it and see what one really sees. I trust your judgment—you should, too. You have to explore the possibility before you can reach any conclusion.”

“You’re right.” However galling it would be, she had to talk to her grandmother.

The dowager duchess proved to be as annoyingly delighted as Thisbe had foreseen. “At last you have seen the light. I have waited so long for one of my granddaughters to recognize their gift. I knew it wouldn’t be my daughter—Patricia was altogether too flighty. I thought it would be Olivia—I wonder if it’s possible that both of you...”

“Grandmother, I don’t have any gift. Surely I would have noticed it before now if ghosts were hovering around me.”

“It may take time to develop, but it will come,” Cornelia said complacently. “Now that you are willing to accept it.”

“What I want is to learn more about Anne Ballew. How do you know she is your ancestor if she changed her name?”

“Sadly, Anne herself is someone I’ve never been fortunate enough to contact. All I know about her is what my grandmother told me. Anne was an alchemist, and she was well-respected, accepted by her peers even though she was a woman. But she had more than brains. She had a gift, more powerful than anyone before her—or since, for that matter.”

“This power—I don’t really understand it. Are you saying it’s magical? That she was a witch?”

“That’s the creation of small minds. There was no magic—she didn’t brew potions or dabble in witchcraft. She had an ability, like one’s ability to think or see or hear. It’s just that very few people possess that sense, and most of those who do dismiss it. It’s an uncomfortable gift.”

“I would think so. What does the Eye do exactly? Have you used it?”

“Yes, from time to time. However, my ability is strong enough that I don’t need it, usually. It makes the spirits in the air easier to see. I used it when I was beginning.”

“Are you really able to see Old Eldric? My grandfather?”

Cornelia nodded emphatically. “Those who are closest to me are the most visible. All that talk about necromancy is nonsense, of course. One cannot raise the dead with it—and, frankly, I don’t know why anyone would wish to do so. Why would anyone want an old moldy corpse walking about?”

“But people believed she could.”

“Oh, yes, the legend persists even to this day.”

“What about her family? She must have had children if we are descended from her. What happened to them?”

“That is one thing we don’t really know. One presumes they moved to the edges of civilization to conceal themselves. Scotland, perhaps.”

“But you know that they changed their name. At least one of them.”

“They must have. Else why would Ballew not be on the family tree?”

“That’s a rather circular argument, don’t you think?”

Her grandmother shrugged. “We know we are descended from her because we have the Eye.”

“Someone could have stolen it.”