Tremble in the Dark: A Gwen Farris Novel (36 page)

"Well,
not to be crude, but if she hadn't tried to kill me, I would have probably put
her forward as your mistress. She's not that cute, but clearly loves you. Or at
least is obsessed with you, which is the real problem. That's too crazy to have
around, I'm afraid. Even if she's a good secretary. Given that, I guess you
should find her a good job, somewhere out of the way? Someplace nice. Just not
where she can try to kill me again. Not too easily at least. I suppose she
might try again sometime."

That
was true regardless of where she was, naturally. Curses didn't need close
proximity to work all the time, she bet, though the woman hadn't been all that
strong. Still, a thousand curses a day might add up, after a while.

"Oh,
I know, we should try to use some of the new treatments to get her not to feel
like she has been about you, or me." She sighed, but then shook her head.
"Or not. That job I mentioned would be kinder."

"I..."
He actually stopped, and then made a slightly frustrated noise. "Well,
here I'd been getting ready to beg you to
only
place her in prison,
rather than killed. As for a mistress, I wasn't planning on having one. Do you
think I should?"

She
nodded, into the thin air.

"Yeah.
You're rich, powerful and good-looking. You'll end up straying eventually, so
planning that out just makes sense. Of course, I'm new to sex and all that, so
if I like it, I could go a bit crazy that way too, so I get to have my... Is
there a term for a 'boy mistress'?" At home it would have been something
like gigolo, but there was a strange silence from the other side of the unit in
front of her, which ended before she could say anything, with laughter.

"I
was just thinking that we could place our troubled young lady with my Uncle. He
might not thank me for it. He's almost never at home however, so it might suit.
There's someone we should get an invitation to the party. Duke Morten? He's
still next in line to the throne, until we can marry off my cousin and he has
an heir coming, so if the Marduk is going to be there, it might be the proper
thing to do."

Gwen
blinked and then nodded, deciding not to keep things all that secret between
them.

"Lisa
Wendell is a problem. I know that most would figure she should be given a harsh
punishment for this, but really, she's probably going through enough already.
I'm sort of surprised that she hasn't killed herself." Not that much, but
enough. It had been her plan at one point. "I'll see if I can talk the
Duke into getting her a place. We might have to pay her salary. It wouldn't be
fair to burden him, and
also
make him pay for it."

That
got an actual, and slightly pleased laugh from Chris. "People don't just
contact my Uncle. You have to go through his social secretary, and at this late
of a remove, I doubt that we'll even get a message to him before the party is
already months over. He goes on secret missions and won't tell anyone where.
I'd suspect it was military in nature, but we aren't at war with anyone. That
probably means he's spying, in his own person, to secure Ferdinand's position.
Back those months ago, when the malefactors grabbed Ferdinand, I bet uncle was
near death, with worry about him. I've never known anyone to fight so hard to
stay out of power."

All
that was probably true, and Gwen could vouch for the part about him not wanting
to be in charge first hand. He did it well, and would have made a good King.
Except for the part where he didn't want the job at all. In a way, that meant
he was about the best second in line for the job that could be arranged. If
anyone ever harmed his nephew the King, Groundling would have them killed
before they could say "coup" and then start in one anyone that knew
them, just in case.

She
looked at her watch.

"I
actually have an appointment with him later today, so I can ask then."

There
was dead silence for a bit, and then a chuckle. "Oh, you're joking. I
don't always get your sense of humor, I'm afraid. Still, it's good to know you
have one. I do like a nice joke every now and again, but it's hard when there's
no one else to enjoy it with."

Gwen
agreed, actually.

"That's
true. Really, I need to go and do that now. I'll have him call you, if he says
yes?"

There
was more laughter and the line cut. Which was about the way they did things
like that here, most of the time. Oddly, she suspected it was really the extra
polite way. At first she'd thought that the nobles had all been being snooty
when they did that, but now she was starting to get the idea. It wasn't that at
all, it was caution. They were all extra cautious not to go around cursing
people all the time.

For
once it took a ridiculously short amount of time to get in touch with the Peregrine.
The airship was both there, at the local airfield, and was free for the next
week, not having a job at the moment.

That
meant her spice run was very doable. She actually had to get with a half dozen
people to set up the cargo, all things from the south, and then pay about the
price of three nice lorries to make it all happen, but they'd have the spices
in time, and could carry
out
a load to what in her world would have been
South America. She was just kind of sad she wasn't going to get to go along. It
would be interesting to see after all.

She
had work to do, with Pete, and that came first. So instead she managed to call
Groundling to the device, which meant that she also got Gloria, the engineer.

"Curley!"
The woman, who seemed to be in front of Gwen, as far as the voice went, meaning
she was running the other device, sounded happy to be talking to her. She also
sounded a bit gruff, at the same time. You had to know her to get that wasn't a
bad thing. "Are you finally signing on for a tour again? Too much longer
and you're going to be all soft on us and out of shape. Used to sleeping on
soft fine beds and eating rich food."

She
didn't correct the woman, but there hadn't been too much of that lately, not
for her.

"Soon.
In about three weeks? I actually called to beg a favor from Groundling. Or
really, Duke Morten." She didn't even know if the man had come along,
having not heard him at all yet, but Gloria started talking again instantly.

"Oh?
Found out he was a nobleman and decided to take a chance with him? I'd tease
you about not thinking he was good enough for you before, but you always
treated him alright. Well, I can't say I blame you. At least when you come on
board we won't have to worry about you acting like he's the second Captain on
the damned boat. As it is I nearly had to fire him, because none of the others
will hardly let him do any work now." She actually sounded concerned.
"Except of course, they can't do his job and their own, so he
has
to. What's the plan?"

There
was a rustling from the other side and if it wasn't the Duke, then it was
someone else about his size. He was still carefully not talking. Probably so
that she could walk into the trap, if there was one.

"Well,
that isn't a bad idea, except that I'm already engaged again to his nephew,
Christophe? So that might be a bit awkward to set up. We had a bit of trouble.
Um... Chris has a secretary, named Lisa Wendell, that fell in love with him, in
a less than healthy way, and who accidently sort of cursed me, out of
anger." There was a big intake of breath, and Groundling finally spoke.

His
voice was fierce sounding.

"I
see, so you want me to recommend an executioner? I'll go and do it myself. Is
she in Aubry? I'll have to take leave from here, but I can get there inside a
week." The scary thing was that it was very clear he was serious.

"Oh,
relax. We
aren't
killing her. She... Well, this isn't a healthy thing,
but she needs a place to get her head right, that isn't going to let her get
into too much trouble, and won't force me to kill her before she can calm down
enough to let things go." She nearly mentioned the part where she would
have suggested that the woman be Christophe's mistress, but Gloria was too busy
swearing.

"No
way. You can't let people treat you like that. A curse is a serious matter.
You're nearly a noblewoman yourself, and might outrank a lot of them, given
what you've done for us here. You should at least make her sit in a cell for
ten years for it."

"
Or
I can do something that might let her actually learn from her mistake? She's
not exactly being the brightest lamp on the wall, but she doesn't need me
heaping trash on her either. It was suggested to me that you might have
someplace out of the way that we can keep her, Groundling? Where she'll be
safe? She might be suicidal. I don't know that for certain, but I get the
feeling that she's been being watched pretty closely for the last weeks, while
I was off working. Poor thing. Having all this hanging over her." Gwen
meant it, but got that no one else there would see it her way.

Lisa
wasn't good-looking, though to Gwen she seemed perfect, after a fashion. She
was symmetrical and handsome, rather than cute or alluring, but that worked
pretty well for this world. The standards of what counted as pretty weren't as
high as in her own.

Speaking
over Gloria, the Duke managed to make himself be heard, through force of will
and a good deal of effort on his part.

"I
think I have a place, at the Patmore house. It has a staff of about twenty, and
she won't be useful there, but it will work, I think. There are enough eyes to
watch her and they mainly just take care of the place anyway, which isn't that
hard, since I'm never there. My old place in Worthington is gone."

Along
with his staff there too, which probably explained the dark sound to his voice,
rather than the loss of some material possessions.

"That
would be great. I mentioned to Chris that I'd have you contact him, if you said
yes? That way you can set things up. Try not to scare her, not too much. I
can't say that I'm thrilled with having people cast death curses at me, but I
can live with it."

Groundling
yelled. Sort of at her, too.

"It
was a
death curse
? And she's still alive? Have you sought treatment for
it? I have a man I use for that, he's very good. I'll have him sent over as
soon as possible. I'm so sorry Gwen. I thought it was a lesser curse. I'll see
to that death."

Gwen
managed to laugh.

"I
broke it myself, that night. Beth and a relative of hers put me through the
paces on that until I can pretty much beat any curse thrown at me. It was using
the lower level Westmorland protocols, which
suck
, by the way." She
blushed, knowing that the term "sucked" there meant blowjob. More
than it did back home even.

No
one called her one it, or seemed scandalized. Then, Duke or not, Groundling was
literally part of the loading crew of a commercial freight hauling airship.
That meant he heard, and used, foul language in his normal life.

"Anyway,
that isn't important. She won't try it with anyone else, and if she does it
with me again, I'm going to do some things to her that are probably against the
law here." Aversion therapy, using high levels of pain, for instance.

She'd
make the girl screech in fear on seeing her, and go silent at the very mention
of Gwen's name. Even if she didn't love him, she was willing to bet that Manly
would help her out with that.

"Do
you have details?"

She
did, but they didn't seem to make anyone like what she was planning better.

Still,
it was something to talk about and she thought it might work. At home that kind
of thing had been used in places. It worked pretty well too. Pedophiles, who
were generally thought not to be correctable, managed to give it up after
having a ring put around their junk, that burned them when they got wood.

Then
they were shown naked pictures of kids until they couldn't get it up anymore,
being afraid of the pain, at least on a deep level.

It
was considered cruel and unusual punishment there. She was betting that they
might well be able to get around that kind of rule here, if they tried hard
enough. By
hard
, she meant calling the King up and asking him for
permission.

But
she could also make it work better here, she bet. People were trained to do
what they did, for the most apart. If you wanted to get past that basic social
conditioning, well, she wasn't certain it could be done without a lot of
discomfort, but it would eventually work.

She
could make the woman believe whatever she wanted even. It was, she realized,
about what Erin Debussey had been using on people. Hopefully though, the new
program would work a lot better. She'd get to find out soon, since Manly was
there already, waiting on her, even though she'd been avoiding him too. So it
wasn't just poor Christophe that got treated that way. She was neglectful of
nearly everyone in her life.

Of
course, fair or not, the Westmorland had deserved her hatred. He'd earned that
by causing her all that pain. Not that he'd had a choice in the matter at all,
or anything like that. She was willing to bet that part of his training was in
resisting compassion for others, if that was outside of the protocol. He was
forced to do what he did. One presumed because he was good at his job. He had
whatever it took to put someone through hell, drag them back from the edge, and
do it all with a smile. Or, well, not truly with a smile, but rather with a
hard and slightly disinterested air about him, that was most likely built in.