Double Enchantment by Kathryne Kennedy

Author:Kathryne Kennedy
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781428505445
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
Published: 2008-04-29T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“The bog?” asked Aunt Henrietta. “Ugh. That exhibit has been closed for months. Why ever would he want to meet you there?”

“Because it would be deserted.”

Aunt Ettie sniffed. “Of course. Well then, let’s be off. I can always tell Lucy that we began to feel better and tried to rejoin them but couldn’t find—do stop shaking your head at me, Jasmina.”

“I’m going alone.”

Aunt looked torn between alarm and glee. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I need to apologize, and I’d rather do that in private.”

“Naturally.” Aunt Henrietta glanced around. They stood near the entrance to the garden show, the prince’s pavilion just beginning to fill with his courtiers. A dirt path to their right led into a stand of trees sheltering a small gazebo overrun with vines. She grasped Jasmina’s arm and casually sauntered over to the small structure. “I will wait for you here. If you are gone longer than one hour, I will be forced to come fetch you.”

Jasmina stared at her aunt in amazement. An entire hour? It was one thing to allow her charge out on a mission to return one of Mother’s borrowed jewels, but quite another to willingly let Jasmina go meet with a man for such a length of time. Perhaps her parents were right. Perhaps she needed a more responsible chaperone.

Jasmina huffed and lifted her skirts, making her way through the forest path toward the lake. She was the one who wanted to meet Sir Sterling alone. Did she really want Aunt Henrietta to protest, or was she too frightened to take responsibility for her own decisions?

The path ended at a wall of bulrushes and grasses twice her height. An old sign with the words EXHIBIT CLOSED hung crookedly between two posts, marking the entrance to a trail already overgrown with plants. Jasmina ducked under the sign and noticed the ground lay covered in recently cut leaves. She avoided the sticky sap oozing from the sliced plants, her footsteps squelching in the soggy ground. Her best walking shoes soon became saturated, and she hoped they weren’t ruined. Insects buzzed around her face, the growth nearly met above her head, and Jasmina had started to feel panicky from claustrophobia when she stumbled into a clearing.

The grasses gave way to enormous plants that formed a circle around the clearing, a few misshapen trees growing among them. Smaller plants grew on the ground beneath them, their shiny green leaves glittering in the sunshine in a prism of colors. Jasmina bent over to study one, reaching out to touch the tiny hairs that glittered with drops of moisture.

“I wouldn’t do that,” said Sir Sterling from behind her. If he had expected to startle her, he was sorely disappointed. But she did pull her hand away.

“Why not?”

“Those are carnivorous plants. Those shiny drops on the end of the hairs trap insects. Then the leaves curl around their prey and release a substance that allows the plant to digest the insect.”

Jasmina rose and turned, meeting his dark blue eyes. They glittered a hard cobalt, lacking the usual eager warmth she’d become accustomed to.

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