The Lady Astronomer (10 page)

Freddie coaxed them onward while Lucretia
tried to keep Mrs. V with her offers of tea and cake at bay.

“Honestly, Mrs. V, we need to get this
home.” She spread her hands wide. “Freddie won’t rest until it is in
the grounds that we have earmarked for the telescope. And I won’t rest until I
am clean again. I can still smell the river on myself.” She sniffed her
sleeve and cast her eyes heavenward.

“Look, there’s Orion!” Lucretia
shielded her eyes and held out her arm for the owl.

He came to rest there and snuggled in to
her. She kissed his head. “I’ve missed you. So what’s the news?” He
hopped onto the nearest horse’s rump.

Mrs. V gave up and fell back. Usually the
most tenacious of people, she had nevertheless sickened entirely of the
exercise. She could honestly say that she hadn’t walked so far, or rather
rushed to keep up, since she was a child.

“I’ll be off then! You remember me to
anyone who comes to visit your telescope. Nice clean rooms and good food at my
Inn!”

Lucretia looked back and waved. Mrs. V
sighed as she realised she would have to walk all the way back home.

She had done her best, really she had,
stalling the brother and sister for as long as she could, and keeping up for as
long as her breath would let her. Poor Mr. V had forgotten to tell his wife
that there was no need for a deception any more as lemur had been found long
ago.

“Thank goodness for that, the woman
was driving me batty.”

“Lucretia, she was just being nice.”

“If that’s nice show me nasty. Come on,
Freddie. It has been a long, tedious journey. I am desperate to get clean.”

“Well then, look, we are nearly back.”

“Oh, I could cry, how marvellous.”

Leibniz raced up as soon as he caught sight
of the returning party. He climbed up her dress and clung to her, chattering
wildly.

She soothed him and clucked to him,
wondering what on earth he was trying to tell her.

“Freddie! Lucretia! And the mirror!
Welcome home.” Al strode toward them. Leibniz increased his volume and
pointed accusingly at him.

“What on earth has possessed him, Al?”

“Ah. He was, how can I put this,
rather bad tempered after you had gone. We discovered his tooth was so bad it
had to come out. I should think he’s been sneaking sugar for longer than any of
us realised.”

“Leibniz, that was naughty of you. And
silly.”

The lemur hid his face in her shoulder and
she laughed over his head. He jumped out of her arms, cross with her lack of
understanding.

At Freddie’s urging, the horses stopped in
the middle of the garden.

“Is this going to be the best place
for it?”

“There’s nowhere else really big
enough, and we need to leave it in place if possible. Could we build an awning
to keep it dry? And let’s get Mr. O. We could use his strength to get this on
to the ground.”

“I’ll get him,” offered Lucretia.
She walked away and had just reached the house when a shout made her turn
around.

“Freddie! The mirror! It’s slipping! I
had it but the rose bush stabbed me!”

“Hang on! Rose bushes don’t just stab
people, but it will have to go if costs us another mirror!” Freddie rushed
to his side, and both of them struggled to hold the precious disk in place.

“Lucretia, hurry!” Freddie’s face
was turning purple with the exertion of pushing the mirror, while Al looked
like he was about to pass out.

She was turning away from the scene when
she caught a glimpse of a black and white tail. Leibniz had chosen the very
worst moment to seek his revenge, pushing the thorns on the rosebush toward Al.
He aimed so well that her brother lost his concentration and bent down to see
where he was hurt.

Oh, Leibniz.
If the mirror was lost, it wouldn’t be the rosebush
that would be facing Freddie’s wrath. She hurried inside, shouting as she went.

In Which The Work Starts In Earnest
And Is Then
Delayed
Moonlight Becomes Her
The Chemist Pays A Visit
A Letter

The huge man crossed the yard in what
seemed like no more than a few steps.

He pushed Freddie and Al aside, bent under
the mirror and hefted it on to his impossibly wide shoulders, not even exerting
himself as he stood to his full height and pushed it back on to the cart.

“Ah, thank you, Mr.?”

“Rammstein. Just Rammstein. I am come
from the king,” the man answered in German.

“Battering ram?” Al was awestruck.

“That is so.” The man flexed his
biceps and towered over the inventor. Al took a step back.

“We prefer to speak English here,”
remarked Freddie.

“Is that so?” Rammstein turned
his full glare on the astronomer.

“Yes.” Freddie gulped and then
said it again, more strongly this time. “Yes, we do.”

Rammstein looked him up and down and nodded
his head, switching to perfect English. “We have no time for squabbles. His
Majesty expects this work to be finished on time. Or there will be
consequences.”

There would be no arguing with this man,
dressed head to foot in black, from his boots to his belt and arm straps.

On closer inspection, Al saw that he had a
black metal arm which ended in a very realistic hand and looked down at his own
meshed glove before hiding it behind his back. He had a serious case of want.
Maybe he could befriend the man mountain and ask him where he got his arm from.

He looked Rammstein up and down again, and
on doing so saw that he also had a bronze eye behind his ocular device, which looked
like a half-set of goggles.

Rammstein saw him looking. “You like
my demigoggs? I lost an eye in a fight with a black bear. He lost his life.”

Al shivered.

“But what’s that wriggling in your
pocket?” Freddie was intrigued, imagining all sorts of exotic pets that
such a man would have.

“Ah, yes.” Rammstein put a meaty
fist into his pocket and pulled a very sorry looking lemur out by the tail. “I
caught this one fleeing from certain mischief. I was going to teach him a
lesson.”

Leibniz whimpered.

“Just who was going to teach my lemur
a lesson?” Lucretia rushed up, with Mr. O following.

“Ah, little girl. Who are you?”

“I, sir, am not a little girl. Now,
unhand Leibniz, or I shall give him the command to bite you!”

Rammstein let the lemur drop and roared
with laughter, slapping his thighs and wiping a tear from his eye.

“Not many women would stand up to one
like myself,
liebling
. There is no harm intended.” He raised his
hands in mock surrender.

Mr. O walked toward Rammstein, hands
bunched into fists.

“And what do you think you are doing? We
have work to do, other than defending girls who look up to that particular job
themselves. You are not as strong as me, but between you, me, and the crew of
workmen who will be arriving shortly, we shall get this built in no time.”

Almost on cue, as soon as Rammstein had
finished his sentence, the sound of whistling came through the trees.

“Whistling?” Mr. O let his hands
fall by his side and turned with the others to look at the approaching
newcomers.

“The king’s
Zwerge
,”
announced Rammstein. “What they lack in stature, they make up for in
brawn, great climbing skill, nimble carpentry, and lack of need for sleep.”

The seven small men approached the
clearing, and the leader raised his hand. The whistling stopped and they stood
to attention, tools in belts around their waists.

“I shall now take charge. You,”
said Rammstein, pointing at Al, Lucretia, and Leibniz. “Go inside and make
sure to get the tea brewing. Also, bratwurst and black bread. But no apples.
And you,” Freddie was summoned, “must show me the plans for this
contraption, while your not-quite-as-strong-as-me man shall assist me and mine.
Take me to the timber, lead on!”

*

Lucretia poured as Al and the O family,
minus Mr. O, sat across the scarred kitchen table waiting for their tea.

“We came across ones such as them in
the forests in Germany,” the usually quiet Mrs. O spoke up. “It was
quite pitiful really. All sorts of people were against them for cutting down
trees. The most spiteful of whom was an old woman–some said a witch–who gave a
young girl that was staying with them a poisoned apple.”

“I think it was more than that, am I
right mother?” O the Younger took his mother’s hand.

She got up from the table and placed her
hand on her son’s shoulder to quiet him. Snakes slithered among roses on her
skin. “Time to get the water boiling, and a lot of food made. Those little
men are going to be hungry.”

“By my calculations, the work will
take at least fourteen days.” Al looked up from the paper he had covered
with numbers.

“You’d better take me into Slough
then, and we can stock up on supplies.” Lucretia gave her brother a wry
smile.

*

The giant wooden structure which was going
to hold the telescope resembled a large, thick capital A. Lucretia, Al, and
Freddie stood at the foot of it and stared in wonder.

“Those little fellows did a marvellous
job. You should have seen them, scampering up like monkeys.”

“Hmm, I’m not sure this is going to be
strong enough to hold the telescope, Freddie.” Al scratched his head.

“And what about an observation
platform? You hardly expect me to tuck my skirts up and climb to the middle of
it every time you want some help,” Lucretia added.

“Well, of course not. The platform is
there for me to manoeuvre the telescope with ropes and pulleys, while you, dear
sister, will sit warm and snug inside a shack underneath it.”

“A ‘shack’, Freddie?”

“Quite. Can’t have the instruments
getting wet, can we?”

“I’m a bit worried about the weather,
actually, speaking of getting wet.”

“What are you, Al? A weather vane?”

“Don’t be smart with me, I’m serious.
If a strong wind should come, I think we’ll be in trouble. The structure isn’t
finished.”

“Quit worrying, you fusspot. It’s
nearly ready, surely nothing will happen. Now, everyone deserves an evening
off, and I have invited the
Zwerge
to join us this evening.”

“Don’t tell me Rammstein will be there,
too?”

“Of course he will. But I have also
invited Mr. and Mrs. V and Mrs. P, so that the talk is not all of telescopes.”

“Marvellous.”

“I’ve already spoken to Mrs. O who
will have quite the variation of tastes to deal with.”

“Yes, I’m sure Rammstein eats nothing
but bronze filings.”

“Lucretia, you should really give him
a chance you know.”

“We’ll see, Freddie. We’ll see.”

*

True to his prediction, Mrs. O had to cook
up meals from all over Europe to suit the guests that evening. They ate in the
Astronomy room, which had the largest table. All of the papers had been tidied
away, and the extra candles that had been lit cast weird shapes through the
orrery, astrolabe and other instruments scattered around the room.

Orion decided on a music stand for his
pedestal and viewed the proceedings rather regally.

Lucretia looked up and down the heaving
table at the assorted guests. Tiny Mrs. O, with her skin telling a hundred
different stories through symbols arcane, spiritual, and mundane. Her huge
husband sat beside her, with their son now wearing the wig that Lucretia had
finally found time to make him.

He looked magnificent, she thought, and he
saw her looking and bowed his head in acknowledgement. His smile was so sweet
that it nearly took her breath away.

Leibniz had made friends with Rammstein,
and the giant fed the primate morsels from the flowing platters in front of
him. The candles cast no reflection on his dark clothing and she shuddered,
still not feeling comfortable in his company.

The
Zwerge
sat in a row, studiously
eating and looking around the room in wonder. She had her own wonder in what
they thought of the job that they were working on.

Al, fidgeting with his mesh glove, sat
beside Mr. V, deep in conversation, while the usually vocal Mrs. V seemed
overly quiet this evening. Rammstein seemed to have that impression on everyone
who came into contact with him. He reminded Lucretia of tales that her dearly
departed father had told her of giants living in the woods with eyes and
clothes black as night so they could come and go without anyone seeing them
under cover of darkness.

Freddie sat next to Mrs. P, who was
relishing his attention, and her hand went to her chest often to laugh at some
little aside that he might have happened to make.