Page 18 of Of Fate and Phantoms
"Then who is?"
Lincoln hesitated again. "I cannot be certain." Before the queen could ask him more questions, he turned to the prince. "Are we to understand that you believe Leisl's pronouncement after all?"
The prince settled back in the chair and stretched his legs under the table in a rather relaxed manner that had his mother pursing her lips. "I've met her before, and I have reason to believe she speaks the truth."
"What reason?"
"I beg your pardon," the queen snapped.
I sank into my chair, wishing I'd taken charge of the conversation and not left it up to Lincoln. He was as subtle as a bull.
"Private reasons," the prince said. He smiled charmingly. Too charmingly. I didn't quite believe it. "Mr. Fitzroy, I admit to being intrigued by you last night, as much as Leisl's vision. I had asked you how old you are and received no answer, so this morning, I sent my secretary to the General Register Office."
Good lord! I couldn't believe he'd done such a thing. I couldn't believe he'd admit it. I may have done the same thing a few months ago, but I had good reason. I was living with Lincoln yet he'd been something of a stranger to me. I needed to know more about the person under the same roof as me.
"You learned nothing," Lincoln told him. "The record of my birth has been lost, if it ever existed."
The prince confirmed this with a nod. "I find that odd, don't you?"
"Not at all. Perhaps Leisl failed to register me. Perhaps she recorded my birth under a Romany name."
"Why didn't the general do it?" the queen asked.
"I don't know. You would have to ask him that."
"You said yourself that he's dead."
Lincoln didn't tell her that I could summon him. Either he wasn't ready to mention my necromancy or he knew I never wanted to see the general again, even in spirit form.
The prince opened his mouth to speak but the queen lifted her hand and he closed it again. "This meeting is to discuss the gypsy's vision, not Mr. Fitzroy's family."
"Very well," the prince said. "The matter of his family can wait." Wait, but not dropped altogether. "I believe Leisl genuinely saw something in her visions that worried her," he went on. "And I would like you, Mr. Fitzroy, to discover what it is and then disarm the danger. Can you do that?"
"I believe so."
"How?" The queen leaned forward, no mean feat considering her size and the deep sofa. "How can you? What qualifies you?"
"I am the head of an organization that monitors people in possession of supernatural powers."
I lifted my brows, but they didn't rise as high as either the queen's or prince's.
"Is this a joke?" the prince bellowed.
"We're an ancient organization now known as the Ministry of Curiosities, but we've had other titles in the past."
"A ministry?" The queen looked to her son. "Why haven't I been informed of it?"
"Not an official ministry," Lincoln said. "We are not under the parliamentary umbrella. Making us official would make us public, and I don't think the public are ready to hear about the supernatural."
"Oh, I don't know," the queen said idly. "Spiritual matters are all the rage now. One of my ladies claims to have attended a séance several years ago where a real medium spoke to the ghost haunting his widow. Apparently this woman was very convincing."
The prince closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. "Mediums aren't real."
"They are," Lincoln said. "As are a great many people with interesting abilities whom you would dismiss as frauds or tricksters. The ministry catalogs them and their families to insure we know where they are and what their talent is. It's important to trace lines of ancestry, since paranormal traits are inherited. It protects them, as well as the nation."
The queen gave her son a triumphant look, then turned her attention to Lincoln. "Do you have a list of true mediums? Will you send it to me?"
He shook his head. "I won't be releasing that information to anyone. Not even to you. It's far too dangerous—"
