Authors: Catherine Coulter

The Courtship (41 page)

BOOK: The Courtship

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Reverend Older looked as if he would burst into tears. “It isn't fair. It is so very difficult to be a good man, a godly man, a man to be respected through the ages. Ah, it was just one silly brooch and the old cow rained abuse on my poor head. And then there was Reverend Mathers. He refused to have anything to do with my very nicely devised scheme. I had no choice. Oh, I am undone.”

Lord Beecham felt his blood run cold. So many months had passed, and no one had learned anything about who had murdered Reverend Mathers. Lord Hobbs had given up. Reverend Older had done it?

Helen just stared at him in amazement, unwilling to believe what he had said. “You are the one who stuck that stiletto in poor Reverend Mathers's back? You are the one who murdered him?”

But Reverend Older didn't answer immediately. He was staring down at his wet shoes and shaking his head. Then he said, just above a whisper, “I liked Reverend Mathers. He and I were friends once, a very long time ago. But he wouldn't tell me anything. What was I to do?”

T
HERE WAS DEAD SILENCE. Lord Prith simply closed his hands around Reverend Older's neck and lifted him off the ground. “You pathetic little man. And you are, you know. Very little, too little, and just look what you have done. You are a sniveling cretin. Flock, what shall I do with this murdering nitwit?”

“I already told you, my lord. Kill the blighter.”

“No, Father, let me take his gun. Loosen your grip a bit, his face is turning quite blue, although as a discipline, it has produced an excellent result.” Helen removed the gun from Reverend Older's limp hand.

“Flock,” Lord Prith said, “tie the fellow up.”

“What with, my lord?”

“Use your scrawny imagination, Flock.”

It was Lord Beecham who removed his cravat and tied Reverend Older's hands behind his back. He looked down at the man and said, “What shall we do with you, sir?”

“I suppose I must meet the hangman, my lord.”

“You murdered an excellent man,” Helen said. “You stuck a stiletto in his back. You are a vile person.”

“Yes, ma'am. You are right. I now accept your judgment. I am a foul menace.”

“I say kill the blighter.”

“Well, I am the local magistrate,” Lord Prith said as he eased Reverend Older down onto the cave floor. “Stay there or I will kick you off the cliff.”

“I shan't move. Actually, I do not believe that I can move.”

Lord Prith announced, “I will have him locked up in my cellars. We have no local gaol of any kind. Then we will decide what is best to do with him.”

And so it was that Flock gave Reverend Older three blankets, food, water, a large branch of candles, and a chamber pot, and locked him in the wine cellar, with the warning that if he drank more than one bottle of wine Lord Prith would hang him himself, without a trial.

“I shall deport the man to Botany Bay,” Lord Prith said later as he handed his newest champagne concoction to his daughter and to Flock. “I doubt he will survive there long, if he even survives the voyage. Come, won't you give it just a small try, my boy?”

Lord Beecham stared at the strange color in the beautiful crystal champagne glass and actually shuddered. “No, sir, but I shall watch my wife give it an excellent test.”

Helen gave him a look that clearly said she wanted to boot him out the door. But she took the glass handed to her.

Lord Beecham watched her take a tentative sip. He watched her lick her lips, then take a longer drink. Then she smiled and held out her glass for more. He actually heard Flock moan with pleasure. Goodness, what had Lord Prith poured into the champagne?

“Oh, my, Father,” Helen said, once she had downed her entire glass. “This is wonderful. It is the best mixture you have ever discovered. What ever did you mix with the champagne?”

“Something I just hadn't considered before, my dear. Even to me it sounded too dreadful. But it isn't bad, is it?”

“It is ambrosia,” Flock said and poured everyone another glass.

“What did you mix with the champagne, sir?”

“Well, my boy, it is only orange juice, nothing more, nothing less. I am pleased that finally I have achieved greatness with the grape. Yes, orange juice and champagne. Now, what do you think we should call this wondrous new drink?”

Lord Beecham said, “Oranpagne?”

Helen said, “Chamorange?”

“No,” Lord Prith said, frowning as he shook his head. “We need a name that will tease the senses, sound soft and inviting, something not tied directly to the ingredients. Yes, a name that is altogether different.”

Flock was staring outside. “The trees are so very beautiful. Soon they will be full and green again, not a thing like the champagne, my lord, but yet, drinking it makes me feel at once mellow, pleased, and a bit droopy, just the same result as when I look at those trees yon that will be beautiful in but a couple of months. Why do we not name the drink after a tree?”

“You wish to call this drink an oak?” Lord Beecham said, raising an eyebrow.

“Or a pine?” Helen said.

“No,” Flock said, his voice dreamy now. “We must be more poetic. What is a poetic tree?”

“I know,” Lord Prith said. “Why don't we call this drink a willow?”

Lord Beecham thought about that for at least three minutes before he slowly shook his head. “It is close, but still not there. Another tree, Flock.”

Flock looked off into the distant trees and meditated. “I've got the perfect name for this incredible drink, my lord. How about calling it a mimosa?”

“No,” Lord Prith said without hesitation. “That is not a name to stick.”

“We will use it only until a better name comes along,” Helen said and stuck out her glass. “Another mimosa if you please, Flock.”

There was another attempt to steal the lamp that night. It was three local boys.

The next day Helen said, “I simply cannot live life knowing there is a thief around every corner. This time it was just boys. What if one of them had been hurt? We must do something.”

Lord Beecham said, “I thought about hanging it in front of your inn.”

Helen brightened. “That is an idea. My inn is King Edward's Lamp. It would be only fitting to have a lamp hanging out over the front door. Ah, if only everyone didn't know we have the lamp. It's too late now to do that, but it is a wonderful notion.”

“Then, there's just no other choice, Helen.” They looked at the lamp, but the thing just sat there, doing nothing. No pulses of warmth, no soft yellowish light. Had it all been a dream?

How could this dented old lamp have been the basis for Aladdin's tale?

And so they carefully wrapped the lamp in soft, warm clothes and put it into the iron cask. Spenser could not bear to hide the scroll again. It was a historic find. It was meant to be studied by scholars into the future.

They buried the iron cask in a meadow about one mile east of Shugborough Hall. They buried it very deep. They did not mark where they had buried it.

No one would ever find it.

In the years to come, they remembered the lamp only when they received letters from scholars asking to examine the leather scroll. Or when Helen chanced to visit the graveyard and pause at Mrs. Freelady's grave.

Local people made up tales about the lamp to while away the long winter evenings. But even they, after a time, forgot that it had ever sat atop the mantel at Shugborough Hall. It passed into local lore.

Lord Prith ceased experimenting with his fine champagne, saying that the mimosa was perfection itself and he could not hope to outdo it, although he could not like the name.

And, over the years, to no one's surprise, one of the Beecham children's favorite stories was “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp.”

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Stardoc
, the first novel in a science fiction series by Sheila Viehl. You'll meet Cherijo, an Earth doctor, and Kao, a Jorenian, as they deal with each other and with an array of wildly fascinating otherworldly characters. This novel will keep you laughing, and the love story will make you smile.

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Get ready for superb cosmic entertainment.

B
EFORE I REALIZED IT, I was out the door panel and walking, so wrapped up in my thoughts that I didn't notice where my feet were taking me. That had happened a lot to me since Karas had died. Absently, I followed one of the pathways leading to the Cultural Center. A few minutes later I found myself in some type of gallery.

It was the flickering light that finally drew my complete attention. I had wandered into the Hall of Art and Expression, which was filled with works by some of the most talented paint sculptors, and light manipulators in the colony. I'd never found the time to tour it properly. It was beautiful.

I stopped before a particularly fascinating illuminated sequence of deep-space microorganisms. The tiny critters, found in asteroid belts, hosted even smaller parasites. The purity of the blues and greens intermingled with the most astonishing bursts of bioluminescent light.

“Beautiful,” a deep voice said quietly next to my ear. I yelped and nearly jumped out of my skin. Jorenian males had the pesky ability to be absolutely soundless whenever they wanted.

“Don't do that!” I snapped. He smiled at me, and my irritation diminished a few degrees. “Sorry, I didn't hear you.”

“I know,” he said. “I have been following you since you entered the gallery, and twice I have called your name.”

Had I been
that
lost in thought? “I thought you were going to signal me when you got off work,” I said.

“I attempted to. You were not in your quarters.” He studied my face. “You are distressed.”

“Are Jorenians capable of telepathy?” I said.

“Empathy is not uncommon among those who Choose,” Kao said. He gave me a significant look, then folded my hand in his. “Walk with me.”

We made our way down the long hall, and Kao quietly commented on the artworks we passed. I didn't concentrate on the compositions or even what he said. It was soothing just to be with him, to hear the deep music of his voice. At last we stopped at an observation dome, where the entire night sky of K-2 sparkled above us in a glittering display of moons and stars.

Kao turned me to face him and cupped my shoulder with one large hand. “Tell me about what has happened.”

I didn't want to talk about Maggie, or the tense moments with the Binder. Instead I found myself describing the unpleasant encounter with Harold Springfield.

“Cherijo, did he harm you?”

Something in Kao's voice made me look up. My eyes widened. His expression was ominously still.

“Of course not.” Why was he acting like this? I knew Jorenians didn't appreciate someone hurting their relatives, but I wasn't part of the family. “He never laid a hand on me, Kao. Even if he had, I could have handled him.”

He ignored that. “Did he threaten you?”

Evidently I
did
qualify for the same ferocious protection. “No.” As much as I disliked Kyle's father, I didn't want to see him in a lot of small pieces all over the colony. “He didn't do anything to me. Stop it.”

“I know this man,” Kao said, still looking every inch the warrior bent on a rampage. “He has a careless mouth.”

“He was just being Terran.” Which was becoming a universal synonym for “bigoted idiot,” I thought sadly.

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