Deception of the Magician (Waldgrave Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

at his mother, but he never cried, and the rest of the meal passed without incident.
    Lena took the tray and the garbage out of the room. Mrs. Corbett’s dinner order had been even more complex than her lunch order, and in addition she had asked for more diapers and baby formula. After she cleaned up the dishes in the kitchen, Lena asked Hesper if she would be willing to make a run into town for her to get the requested supplies. As Lena watched the car pull away and down the drive from the front door, the spring season making the rest of the world so vibrant and warm, and with nothing to look forward to but serving Mrs. Corbett’s dinner and processing the RSVPs for the year’s Council, she was again struck by how depressed her life was making her. She needed to get out, and she had no idea how to make it happen.
     
     
     
    *****
     
     
    CHAPTER 2
     
    Summer wore on and eventually wore out; in a perverse kind of way, Lena almost enjoyed watching the lawn turn brown and the flower gardens die. Waldgrave’s exterior was finally starting to match what she felt on the inside. Hesper and Eric had gone back to Australia at the start of August, and though Mrs. Corbett was becoming slightly warmer towards Lena, the best they could hope for was agreeing to disagree. Postcards from Griffin had been arriving all summer, which hadn’t bettered her mood any. He had decided to take his extended beach vacation in Greece. She hadn’t spoken to him since before he left, and he wasn’t answering her calls—Lena suspected that he was as fed up with his mother as she was. He was due back any day, as it was only two and a half weeks until Council was in again; the first families were expected to arrive the following week.
    Her seventeenth birthday had been somewhat anticlimactic after the plane tickets the year before, but it had been nice to have Hesper, Eric, and little Maren there to share it. She had received cards from all of the usual families, one signed by the entire Colburn staff, and one specifically from Devin. He had stuck some dry-pressed flowers into the middle.    
     
    Flowers for my uptown girl.
    Happy Birthday, Dev
     
    It was very nice, and had even raised her spirits for a few days, but in the end she was still living at Waldgrave, scrubbing out Mrs. Corbett’s bathtub because she didn’t trust anyone else in the room, and that thought alone depressed her so much that she began to lose track of time. Every day was the same as the last, and it all blurred together too easily. The year had gone by far too quickly and uneventfully, and Lena knew she had to be going crazy the day she was happy to be spending time with her grandfather.
    “I’ll be requiring new suits this year, Howard.” He said, clearing his throat and staring expectantly.
    Howard carefully folded his hands on the table. “Are you making an announcement of some sort?”
    Lena looked up from her cheese broccoli soup at her grandfather, who was making a face that was all too innocent.
    “No. I merely require new suits; I trust you can make the necessary arrangements?” Master Daray asked.
    Howard’s eyes went slightly squinty; he suspected something. The other Council members would too, and it spoke of trouble. Excitement, Lena reminded herself, but surely a good deal of trouble as well. Anything her grandfather did inherently landed on her at some point in the future.
    Howard spoke again. “You can order them.”
    “I don’t want to order them. Only custom fitted suits will do. If it’s her you’re worried about,” he nodded at Lena, “Then why don’t we make it a household outing of sorts? Surely no one will object if we all go; it will be the exact same as if we were here.”
    Lena wanted to leap across the table and hug him; it was then that she realized she had been cooped up far too long. It was only a clothing run, after all. With her grandfather, of all people. But it was something to do other than sitting around, waiting on