Winged: A Novella (Of Two Girls) (5 page)

She pushed herself away from the board and
headed for the courtyard where Alethia and Thomas waited.

“How did you fare?” Thomas grinned when she
approached. He had passed most of his subjects with good grades and
he loved comparing his performance with Katherine.

“I passed,” Katherine said simply and
shrugged. Alethia laughed at her friend’s sardonic tone. The
fair-haired girl had excellent grades but she did not like to
compete with others and therefore had remained silent.

“Aw,” Thomas pouted like a little boy.
Katherine made a face and they both laughed. It was the End of Term
and the beginning of the Yule holidays.

~*~

London was definitely different from
Dorset.

As the horse-drawn carriage made its way
through the busy London streets, Katherine stared at the bustling
crowds of people and the number of carriages and vehicles. Steam
rose from various vents, swirling together with the light fog and
parting as carriages ferried their passengers around. She could see
people standing around lit fires, taking in the much-needed heat.
Chestnut-sellers were doing brisk business; Katherine’s mouth
watered. She loved roasted chestnuts, oh deliciously hot nuggets,
especially during the chill of winter.

Above her, she knew, were a few leo-fins, no
doubt carrying cargo and passengers. She wondered if Eddington was
up there and she blushed, hiding her face behind her thick scarf.
Alethia, sitting opposite her, did not say anything. She was
dressed in a sober brown coat and her slender hands were snug in
fur.

And there were so many more buildings! They
were all around her, stately buildings, closely packed buildings,
smaller houses in rows. Of course, there was Westminster Abbey with
its gothic grandeur and the Tower of London looking ominous in the
London fog. Not to mention the clock tower Big Ben, a giant in the
midst of giants. She had not forgotten the factories too. They blew
spumes of smoke, visible columns of white and grey issuing forth
from long chimneys. The memory of the London fire was still fresh
in her mind.

When the carriage passed by the Thames, she
marveled at the river barges steaming their way up and down. She
could hear their haunting horns echo in the evening darkness.
Somewhere she knew were the larger ships coming in to unload their
exotic cargo, clad in steel: heralds for a different age of
commerce.

From her warm seat in the carriage, swaying
gently as the horses trotted down cobblestone streets, she watched
the women in their elegant gowns and thick winter muffs as they
stepped daintily on pavements covered with dirty snow. There were
also women who wore breeches, like Captain Sagan – and they were
laughing cheerfully as they strode together down the street,
Yuletide packages in their arms. It was indeed a grand age for
women.

She rested her chin on her fist, watching
London rush past her in a pastiche of sounds and images.

“A penny for your thoughts?” Alethia’s soft
voice broke the silence and Katherine turned to look at the blind
girl.

“Just thinking,” Katherine said quietly.

“London can be quite overwhelming,” Alethia
smiled. “It is called a city for a reason.”

Katherine smiled back, knowing that Alethia
had somehow acknowledged her smile.

“ You will like my father,” the fair-haired
girl said, grimacing slightly as the carriage suffered a jolt as it
dipped into a pothole. They both heard an apologetic “Sorry,
ma’am!” from the coach-driver and they laughed. “He spends a lot of
his time in his workshop. Just be careful not to step on his
inventions.”

Just then, the carriage slowed to a halt.
Alethia’s face instantly broke into a radiant smile. Katherine
could see a plump older woman in prim clothing and an apron
standing outside a mahogany-colored door, carrying a glowing
lamp.

“We are home,” Alethia said. “Mrs
Potts!”

The Forresters’ house struck Katherine as
extremely intriguing. The moment she walked into the warm interior
from the chilly outside, she was met with a study, of sorts,
replete with shelves of books and a plain-looking settee. As she
walked in further, she could see a large brown door marked
“Workshop” with solid black ink on the left. She could hear faint
banging and metallic sounds.

The right side of the house was dimmed, lit
only with an electric lamp. She could see something glittering –
winkwinkwink
– and could hear a soft tinkling when a slight
breeze whispered through the house. She found herself curious but
resisted exploring the house immediately. She was, after all,
Alethia’s guest.

Mrs Potts – Alethia’s nanny – showed her the
guest room, a comfortably appointed chamber with a goose-down bed
and thick warm blankets. There was a table with a Ming porcelain
bowl (“For the washing of hands”, explained Mrs Potts to her
curious young visitor) and a jug of water (“”For drinking”.)

Alethia bid her goodnight and was guided
back to her own room by the older woman. With a sigh, Katherine
closed the door and observed her surroundings. It was definitely
more comfortable than her room in Dorset. She quickly slipped off
her clothing and into a wool shift provided by Mrs Potts for the
night.

The goose-bed bed was magnificent.
Soft
and almost inducing her to sleep immediately. Her mind
was still crowded with images of her travels through the London
streets. She lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling. London was
slowly slipping into slumber.

~*~

She awoke, to the smells of breakfast
wafting into the chamber. She did her morning ablutions, dressed
and found her way down to the kitchen where Mrs Potts shoo-ed her
away good-naturedly and bid her stay in the study room. Grinning,
she wandered around the house. She remembered the faint tinkling
sound she’d heard last night and made her way to the source.

Light from the emerging dawn sun was
glistening off crystals.
Or clear glass of some sort
. She
stopped in her tracks and simply stared. She was looking at row
after rows of crystal shapes, mostly birds and winged shapes,
hanging from the ceiling. They filled the entire area. Like
delicate wind chimes, they gave forth a sweet tinkling sound.

It was a beautiful sight.

“It is my garden of crystals,” Alethia’s
voice startled her and she wondered how the blind girl was able to
locate her. “It is my favorite place.”

“It is beautiful,” Katherine admitted,
lingering for a moment to look at the crystal shapes again.

“Yes, it is,” Alethia said with a soft smile
on her lips. “Come. There is breakfast on the table.”

Breakfast was hearty scrambled eggs, with
freshly baked scones.
All from our own garden
, Mr Forrester
declared proudly. He was a tall man with fair hair and a shocking
bush of a moustache. His eyes twinkled merrily when he spoke, much
to Katherine’s growing sense of curiosity. Alethia edged ever so
closer to her and said that she would elaborate further later in
the day.

~*~

Mister Forrester retreated into his workshop
to work on his new automata after breakfast while Mrs Potts
prepared the Yule dinner in the kitchen, together with Marjorie, a
maid. Alethia drew Katherine aside, to the crystal garden.

“My father believes in growing our own
food,” Alethia began and Katherine blinked, in amazement and total
disbelief.

“
Surely
not in this weather?”

“Come. Let me show you.” Alethia led her
puzzled friend to a door, close to the the kitchen. She opened it.
Katherine expected it to be extremely cold but the air meeting her
face was
warm
.

She stepped out into a summer’s day.

“Basic sun-lamp and strong netting to keep
the cold and garden pests away,” Alethia explained in the
background while Katherine looked around, shocked. There were
vegetables. Wheat. Oats. Clucking informed her that there were
chicken
. Plump white plover hens pecking away at seeds. “Our
neighbors think we are lunatics. But the idea is successful.” A
large flower-like lamp shone down upon the vegetables and assorted
crops.

“The turkey has to be bought,” the blind
girl said ruefully. “That is our annual indulgence. It is Yule
after all. Mrs Potts saves all the feathers and turns them into
decorations.”

Katherine shook her head, almost spinning
with the influx of new ideas and concepts. There was a summer’s
garden right under her nose and flourishing well, even though she
knew it was actually winter beyond the netting and the strange
sun-lamp. It was definitely a marvelous invention.

Throughout the day, she had tiny tin-men
underfoot as well as steel-puppies nuzzling her ankles in strangely
canine affection. Sun-fliers, fragilely made like the hummingbirds
from South America, darted about, their metal wings beating
rapidly. She allowed one to alight on her finger, only to have it
whiz away in a blur of bronze wings. The steel-puppies – metallic
bulldogs – bowed and wanted to play, their cogs whirling away in
excitement while the tin-men marched around, fetching workshop
material for Mr Forrester and causing merriment amongst the
watchers.

She decided she had grown to like the
Forresters.

~*~

Katherine played a game of Fox and Geese
with Mister Forrester before the Yule dinner proper. Alethia sat
quietly on the settee, “listening” to the game-play. All of them
could smell the tantalizing aromas coming from the kitchen and hear
the cheerful voices of Mrs Potts and Marjorie as they worked over
the last-minute preparations. There was an air of anticipation in
the house. Outside the window, they could hear the voices of
carolers making their way down the street. It was the eve of Yule
and Katherine could not help but think about her parents and little
sister in Dorset.
Would they miss her during this time?

Mrs Potts stepped into the study and
announced that the Yule dinner was ready. Katherine led Alethia to
the dining room where Marjorie was placing dinner plates on the
large wooden table. It was a glorious spread with golden-brown
mince pies, a basket of candied fruits and boiled brussel sprouts
with a good dollop of creamy butter. They seated themselves with Mr
Forrester at the head of the table. He laughed with mirth and had
Mrs Potts bring in the turkey.

They joked and laughed as they ate, savoring
the splendidly cooked turkey and sampling the mince pies. Katherine
had some sweet port that streamed down her throat like warm fire.
Soon, Mrs Potts and Marjorie joined them at the table and the humor
grew exponentially with the flow of good food and delectable
wine.

It was a good Yule dinner, complete with
fancifully shaped ices and mints. Mrs Potts made them cups of hot
mulled wine, spiced with cinnamon and anise, and plates of
freshly-baked fruit cake stuffed with orange peel and raisins,
after which they all complained (good-naturedly) that they were
full and could not eat anymore.

As she sat on the settee with a delicious
warm sensation filling her body, Katherine held her cup of mulled
wine close and felt happy. Perhaps it was all the good food and
pleasant company with the Forrester family; she experienced a sense
of contentment, something she had not encountered ever since she
had left Dorset.

She knew that she could not replace her
family with a new one. Yet, the Forresters were pleasant and
diligent folk of grace and good humor, a quality she realized that
dour Dorset sorely lacked

Cadet Katherine Riley of House Sable
struggled to keep the blimp-fin under control; it pitched and
rolled in the prevailing winds, feeling more like a bucking horse
than a functional flier purpose-built for the Academy. She fought
the controls and the controls fought back harder, resisting her
attempts to balance the vessel.

She felt her heart sinking. This training
flight was also a
test
flight, with the Academy’s teachers
acting as official examiners. She knew Pilotmaster Lee and Captain
Karlida Sagan were watching below, on the relative safety of the
Flying Field grounds. Probably jotting down notes and marking her
performance as less than satisfactory. Her thoughts ran dire for a
brief moment, fueling her lack of self-confidence. She breathed in
deeply and tried more once.