The Lady Astronomer (16 page)

“I have an idea,” she remarked
brightly.

Princesses Twelve and Thirteen looked at
her with real interest for the first time since they had started the lesson.

“It involves candied violets.”

“Sweeties!”

Lucretia tried to hide her smile.

“Perhaps Wodehouse would be kind
enough to find some for us? But I must tell you that the sweets are not just
for eating, first we shall build a Cosmos and then, and only then, will you be
allowed to eat them. How does that sound to you, my little astronomy assistants?”

Wodehouse left so quietly that Lucretia
hardly heard him, and smiled again when she saw that he was no longer in the
room.

“Can we really be your assistants?”

“Yes you can, Princess Twelve.”

“Would we have to wear a thingy like
you do?”

“Now, didn’t I say that I could see
the stars with it?”

“You did, but would we?”

“Well, no, you could use a telescope,
a small one, because you both have perfect eyes, don’t you? Oh, hello, Mr. E. I
didn’t hear you come in. Can I help you?”

“Not at all. Hello, Your Highnesses. I
just came to get my gloves. I think I left them in here earlier, do not let me
disturb you.”

“I did not know you were a scholar of astronomy,
Mr. E?”

“Oh, yes, fascinated by stars and
suchlike. Anyway, do continue, I shall be out of your hair momentarily.”

“Ms. Lucretia?”

“Yes, Princess Twelve?”

“You did promise to tell me why your
eye got broken, the time you came to see me and my brothers and my sisters and
my mummy and daddy.”

Lucretia smiled. “I will keep my
promise. When I was your age, I had a terrible illness, two of them actually,
and sadly my eye and my face suffered.”

“Were you very sad?”

“I was, but then my big brother Al
made my monoscope for me and I was able to see properly again.”

“What made you sick?”

“A flea carried the disease.”
Lucretia shuddered. “I hate fleas.”

“Yucky!”

“Ah, Wodehouse, thank you. You are so
much more quiet now. Princesses, the lesson can now begin.”

“Found them!” Mr. E brandished a
pair of kidskin gloves. “And look, there’s Nanny. I think your lesson may
be delayed Ms. H.” He bowed to the princesses as he left the room.

“Aww,” the princesses groaned as
the Nanny approached just as Wodehouse laid the
candied violets on the table.

Nanny was a smaller version of the butler,
with horse hair atop her pointed iron skull, and an apron around her waist.

“Could we have a little more time,
please, Nanny?”

Nanny held up a hand, showing her fingers
to indicate five minutes.

“We can make a short start with that,
thank you Nanny. Now girls. Hang on, I thought Wodehouse just put the sweets on
the table? Why do you both look like squirrels gathering nuts for winter with
bulging cheeks? Oh, Princesses, have you just eaten the planets for our lesson?”

*

Lucretia stood on the grassy knoll,
insignificant in size against the hot-air balloon inflating before her. The
wicker basket looked the size of a small bedroom. A team of men manned the
apparatus for pumping air into an enormous envelope of taffeta and fire-proof
alum. Lucretia stared as the envelope rose into the air above the wicker
basket.

The two Misters M swore at each other in
French, gesturing wildly, coats off in the chilly night air.

Lucretia was awfully unsure about getting
into the balloon, and even more unsure about how she would feel once airborne.
But the ultimatum had come direct from the king’s Sickbed.
Map out a route,
Ms. H. Report back to me, and we shall go and find the Pirate Queen’s treasure,
my treasure, as soon as I am back on my feet, what what. Good lord man, keep
that leech away from me
. She hoped he would get better and forget this
nonsense. However, she also knew how tenuous her position was, and so stuck her
chin out, gritted her teeth and decided to get on with the task in hand.

She was very glad for her monoscope tonight.
She would use the new extending telescope Al had fitted after her accident and
hopefully be able to view the stars in peace from a higher altitude.

“And so, we are ready.” The elder
Mr. M shooed her toward the balloon. She felt like a duckling being pushed on
by its mother to take its first wobbly steps.

Wobbly she was. She turned to him and he
took her under the elbow. “See how fine she is, our queen of the night? See
how the moon favours us and we have sufficient straw for the brazier to make
extra torches. It will not be pitch black up there, I promise you, no need to
worry.”

“Marvellous,” mumbled Lucretia
under her breath, assured not one jot.

“Come, come Ms. H. We know what we are
doing, my brother and I.” He helped her into the basket, which was roomier
that it appeared from a distance.

Ropes held the silken envelope, painted in
vivid blues and gold. Tonight the colours were muted, though the flames cast a
warm red hue over its interior.

Bundles of blankets lay in one corner of
the basket, and bales of hay were equally distributed. The Misters M joined
her, and with a machete they cut the ropes that kept the balloon tethered to the
ground.

It rose, wobbling, and Lucretia let out a
little gasp despite herself. She tightened her grip on the padded edge of the
basket.

“Nothing to worry about,
ma cherie
,
see how high we will go.”

“I feel faint.”

“No you don’t.”

“I do!”

“Exhilarated?”

“Ill.”

“Full of joy?”

“Like I might lose my dinner.”

“Ah, do not look down just yet then.”

Of course Lucretia looked down and saw the
land receding. She screamed and fell back onto her bottom.

“Oh, arse! I hate this!”

“Nonsense, Ms. H. You are perfectly
safe.” The elder Mr. M grinned. Lucretia shuddered as his face was lit by
the fire and reminded her of when she, Al and Freddie made Devil Faces on
All-Hallows-Eve.

She closed her eyes, feeling the unfamiliar
sensation of being weightless and drifting ever-higher.

It didn’t help. She stood, shakily.

“Ms. H?” The slightly calmer of
the two Mister M’s spoke softly. “Why don’t you open your eyes and look
up? Not directly up as your view will be impeded by the envelope, but if you
step out as far as you can go, and hold on to the side of the basket again? I
can tether you, if it would make you feel safer?”

Lucretia kept her eyes closed, and nodded.
Mr. M’s warm hand clasped her icy one. Even though she was wearing gloves and
the many layers of clothing she had been told to, she was still freezing cold.

He led her, gently, to the side of the
basket, and tied a rope loosely around her waist.

“Ms. H, you are cold. If I may?”

She nodded, and he placed something on her
head. It felt like a big hat, and he clucked as he fussed with it to get its
large folds to fit her.

“Better?”

She nodded again.

“Ms. H, might I suggest that you open
your eyes now? You are quite safe, and the night sky is beautiful. I feel like
I could reach out and touch the moon.”

The basket shifted a little and he laughed.

“Please, the stars are magnificent.
Surely you should love this?”

She remained mute.

“Here, I shall hold your hand while
you open your eyes, but then I must help my brother as we would like to go yet
a little higher. Clouds approach and I do not think that a journey over the sea
in the rain and dark would be appropriate. Do not worry, we shall tell the king
it is hardly your fault. Let us, instead, make this a stargazing journey, just
for you.”

How could she refuse? She opened one eye
and then the other, and looked into the Younger Mr. M’s smiling face. He
pointed his finger up, and she followed it until her head was tilted back and
she felt like she was swimming among the stars. Her knees buckled, and Mr. M took
her arm.

“Ms. H? Are you quite alright?”

“Oh, Mr. M. I think this is the most
beautiful thing I have ever seen,” she whispered. “I don’t know how I
will ever sleep tonight. How I can thank you for bringing me so close to that
which I hold so dear?”

He laughed, delighted at her reaction.

“Enjoy my dear, it gets cold and I
have felt the first drop of rain. We shall wait a little longer for you, and
then must descend. Perhaps you shall come with us again.”

But she was not listening, enraptured,
captured by the beauty of the cosmos.

*

Lucretia sat at the small desk in her room,
writing excitable letters to Freddie, Al, and Mr. B about her night in the
skies.

True to her prediction, she hadn’t slept a
wink, but a steely resolve had filled her as she counted the hours until
morning in the large bed. Time felt like it had stalled recently, and she was
desperate to get home and get cataloguing again.

She wore the clothes that she had arrived
in, and felt much more like herself. The dress Lady K had loaned her sat on the
bed, ready to be taken to the Castle’s vast Laundry where it would be cleaned
before she gave it back. The fine silver filigree necklace lay on top of it.

Her foot swung up and down as she wrote her
introduction to Mr. B. She was sure he would like the two balloonists to come
and give a talk to his newly set up Society.

She bit her lip, stuck on a word.

A frantic scrabbling came at the door and
she walked over to it, leaving her quill across the sheet of parchment.

Leibniz burst in, running around in an
agitated manner, knocking over the inkpot. Black ink spilled out, covering the
words she had written.

“Leibniz!” She admonished the
lemur. “Whatever is the matter? Look at my letters!” Lucretia walked
to the desk and started to ineffectively blot at the pages.

“Leibniz?”

She put the blotter aside and knelt in
front of the lemur, who was keening now, rocking back and forth. She had never
seen him like that, and lifted him into her arms.

“Ms. H?” Mr. E strode through the
open door. “Forgive my intrusion, you must come. There has been a terrible
accident.”

“An accident?”

“Yes, yes. Empress has been attacked.”

“Oh, no. I am sorry to hear it.”

“You may feel sorrier before the hour
is out,” he replied ominously. “It looks like the perpetrator was
caught at the scene and I am afraid to say that it is your owl.”

“Orion!” Lucretia pushed past Mr.
E.

*

Orion was on a makeshift perch, a book
stand in the large library that took up much of the first floor of the castle.
His feet were tethered with rope, as were his wings and he screeched, desperate
to be free.

Lucretia pushed her way through the
assembled crowd and made her way to him, distraught at how he was being kept.
She knew now why Leibniz had been so frantic.

“Orion, there is a good boy.” She
stroked his head and he turned to nip her, distressed. She pulled her hand away
and went to stand further from him, so that he could see her more clearly,
soothing him.

“There! See,” a man in the crowd
shouted. “That’s his owner, and he nearly bit her!”

Wodehouse appeared beside Lucretia, and she
handed Leibniz into his metal arms. “I must see to Orion. Please care for
the lemur until I can sort this mistake out. He favours anything sweet as a
treat.”

He nodded and patted Leibniz gently on his
furry head. The lemur shuddered in the butler’s arms.

“That’s no mistake! Call for the king!”

“The king has been unwell, you dolt!
His anger will be fierce!”

“Don’t call me a dolt, you dolt, just
wait til you see what that owl did to Empress if you want to see anger!”

The two arguing men eyed each other warily.
Lucretia looked around the room and saw Lady K, Mr. E, and Rapier enter. Thank
goodness. Now she could get to the bottom of this.

“What happened?”

“Empress was most woefully scratched,
with a great loss of blood, but the king’s own physicians are tending to her,”
Lady K remarked, somewhat coldly. Lucretia furrowed her brow. Why was her
friend acting like this?

“The king comes!” The rumour
spread, was whispered around the room, and every one there quickly fell to
bended knee. Lucretia stayed standing, making eye contact with Orion. The owl
was hissing now. His bonds were too tight and he was in pain. She walked toward
him to loosen them.

“Stop where you are!” She turned at
the king’s bellow. He was wearing a loose robe and his feet were slippered. A
rather ridiculous bedhat shaped like a soft, furry crown fell and covered one
of his eyes. He pushed it back roughly.