With many thanks to my beta readers An and Amber. Hopefully I used you're comments and suggestions wise fully. If there are still mistakes in it's my fault.
So dear reader if you find faults and or mistakes please let me know !
I'm here to learn.
Chapter 2 De summoning.
When she arrived at her apartment that afternoon she already new what to expect when she looked in the large beautifully decorated bowl on the sidetable in her foyer. There lies a small envelope with no text on it and when she open's it she reads 3 words.
'I'm expecting you.' With a sigh she drops the envelope back in the bowl and it disappears.
"Darn, now he knows I've read it."
On the way home she did some shopping and now quickly picking up her groceries, she walks to her kitchen to put them away. A swift visit to the loo and then a change of clothes. Her mentor would not appreciate it if she arrived in her normal clothes. Looking through her cupboard she selects a complete black outfit. Pants, blouse, jacket and a wide cloak with a hood. To top it of she puts on a pare of beautiful black suede pumps. With a quick look on her surroundings to be certain nobody's seeing her disapparate, she departs.
Samuel Smith sits in his pompous library looking in a heavy book, intensely studying its content. Next to the book lies the small envelope Grace just read.
"You took your time Grace." He looks up from his book wile Grace approaches his desk and sits down in one of the large leader chairs in front of it. She new her mentor hated to wait, and in the past she wouldn't think twice to let him wait any longer than necessary.
"I didn't want to be appearing disrespectful arriving in my casual cloths. Obviously you would have made it clear if this was an urgent matter." A long moment he looks at her then stands, starting to walk through his library as if he was looking for a certain book.
"Not so long ago you would stay standing until I allowed you to sit down. How much respect are you showing me now Grace?" Al color drains from her face. She was so tired from shopping and work that she sat down without thinking. What was she to do? She racks her brain. Be submissive? No, bad idea! She saw time and again how he pounded on those ho did. Her feeling urged her to say something! Humor, that could be her savior.
"I know, I'm depressed and suicidal so I thought this would be a quick way to end it."
He raised his eyebrows and turned around on his axis and looks at the small figure in the big chair. She was still sitting? Making jokes? What if he was in a bad mood? He could give her lots of grief in reaction to her insolents. Looking in her indifferent ice blue eyes he knew for sure that she was prepared for his violent outburst. But instead of rage he feels pride.
Damn it, he was proud of her!
Grace looked in his eyes and sees something she seldom saw. Mainly when she performed a certain skill or when she impressed someone in his company but never when she was cheeky.
The next moment her chair was gone and with a loud thump she comes in contact with the floor. Her eyes get big with surprise and slowly something starts creeping up her lungs.
She starts laughing uncontrollably and her tears flow richly down her cheeks meanwhile furiously trying to stop, with no success. She sneaks a peek at her mentor and sees only a smile on his face with little sparks of suppressed laughter in his eyes.
That didn't help at all! He should be mad or disgruntled. In her despair she looks at the floor now trying to regulate her breathing. After a minute or so she finally stops laughing still afraid to look up at her mentor.
On the ground in front of his desk with her legs crossed sits one of his best pupils. Something just changed in their relationship. Despite the fact she is only 22 years of age she finally is turning into the mature young woman he was waiting for. He had pupils much older than that not showing any personality of some sort.
He took it upon him to educate her from the age of two. Her father couldn't accept that there was such a thing as magic and that he had to relinquish his little girl to a total stranger for the most part of the year. But with his magical abilities her father had no choice.
Samuels 6th sense provided him with a number of potentially powerful youngsters. The moment some of these children accidentally use their powers he could feel it and retrieve them easily to be educated.
Like this afternoon his attention was drawn by her use of magic at her workplace. He wanted to know more. Normally she wouldn't think twice to use magic in a place like that so it had to be necessary.
Grace didn't dare to look up afraid of starting laughing again and she had a feeling that he would not tolerate another outburst of that kind.
A large slender hand with long fingers with on one of them a ring with a big black diamond appeared in front of her face.
"Let me help you up Grace so we can talk about what happened this afternoon."
Her eyes got big and she looks surprised at his hand. He never touched her or anybody she new for that matter. And now she has to take his hand? What changed? Was he going to punish her now? She could not ignore him and with apprehension she touches his hand expecting the worst. Nothing happens.
She looks up and that moment he pulls her on her feet and let her go. No pain. Only a dwindling feeling of a very soft but strong hand. Puzzled she looks at her own hand. Nothing, completely normal.
"Sit down Grace." The black chair was back and with wobbly knees she sits down.
Samuel also sat down behind his desk leaning his chin on his folded hands meanwhile looking at Grace. He new the moment he offered his hand what would go through her mind. He wanted to test her courage and again he feels pride. She would think that he would hurt her gnawed at the back of his mind. Of course! He hardly ever touched anybody, and this must have given her a feeling of doom. He thinks back over the past years skimming his excellent memory and he can't find one moment that he ever touched her. Remarkable!
"You know I'm not interested in you're daily routine concerning work or private things for that matter. But this afternoon I felt you used you're magic at a place I would rather you didn't."
Her nerves were as tide as strings. He felt that? And from that distance? He never told her he could do that.
"Tell me what made it necessary?" Was he angry? He didn't sound angry. With apprehension she look's in his eye's but there was no irritation. More like a calm anticipation.
She starts telling him in detail the events of that afternoon and he listens without interrupting. When she's finished he looks at her with his piercing eye's.
"And what happened afterwards?" She didn't understand what he meant and pulled up her perfectly formed eyebrows.
"I mean afterwards, when you almost lost control in the presence of normal mortals?"
That rang a bell. The incident with her chef. He felt even that?
"Nothing happened of any consequence in my humble opinion Master."
For the first time he felt how submissive her tone was when she said 'Master'. There relationship evolved beyond that.
"Would you call me Samuel from now on Grace?" Her surprise was clearly visible on her face. All these years she had to call him Master. And now she had to call him Samuel all of a sudden?
"I'm not sure I am able to Master." Her hands trembled and to hide it she hid them in her lap and squeezed them franticly.
"Just try it Grace. I would appreciate it if you did." He would appreciate it? Was this her Master? Maybe he is an imposter? Yes, that explained everything. The hand. The laughs. The first name.
Samuel was surprised about the mistrust that she radiated al of a sudden.
"I shall try Master." She looks in his eye's and sees his irritation. The hairs on her cheeks stood on end. She almost couldn't breath from the anger she felt from him. With the little breath she had left she says.
"S….amuel…" The next moment she could breathe again and his expression was neutral again.
"Thank you Grace. Don't let me have to do that again."
This was her Master and he proofed it to her. Dark, persuasive and dangerous. She smiles and a feeling of relieve passes trough her body. She never expected to be happy with his darkness but she was. He always had ulterior motives for the things he did or manipulated people in to doing. Certainly this was one of these moment.
"You didn't use you're wand, why?" Again his eye's pier's in to hers.
"Did you think you could keep this a secret from me by not using it?" The truth was that she didn't have it on her at the time. She never took her wand with her to work. And now she had to confess this to him.
"I didn't have it with me." With a trembling voice and shaking hands she continues.
"I hardly ever take it with me, S…Samuel." His irritation about her laches was somewhat subdued by hearing her use his name.
"What are you trying to tell me Grace, that you're forgetting your wand at a regular basis?"
"Of course not! I leave it at home on purpose in a save place of course." Samuel gets up out of his chair and looks intensively at a place behind Grace void of anything interesting.