The Chocolatier's Wife (42 page)

“Nuts?” William
said slowly, thinking.

“When
did
you
see
him
again?” Tasmin asked,
and
then
felt
badly because
she
thought
that
indelicate.
“Please,
forgive
me.
I
know it’s
a terrible memory for
you.”

“I
was
in
bed
for
the
night,”
Mrs.
Hobbs
said,
with
the
quiet
fortitude of
someone
who
was
used
to
loss.
“When
I
heard
the
most
awful
hallooing and
howling
outside.
I
went
to
see
Himself,
but
he
wasn’t
abed,
so
I
went
to the
study.
He
was
laying
on
the
floor.”
She
visibly
shut
away
that
memory, and
continued,
“I
forgot
to
find out
what
the
noise
was
about;
I
was
more concerned with other matters.”

“May I
see his study?” William
asked.

“You know where it is; go ahead,” she said dully, staring into the fire.

Tasmin
leaned forward.
“I
shall stay.
We
can
speak of better things.” The
old
woman
shook
her
head.

“You
go
with
him,
Miss.
This
old
woman
needs time to gather herself.”

She
smiled
at
Mrs.
Hobbs,
wishing
she
knew
something
better
to
do
for her,
and
followed
William down
a
long
hall
to
the
study,
which
was
much as
she
expected.
Wi
l
liam went
around, lighting
the
lamps,
throwing
into view
books,
and
furniture,
and
trinkets.
She
frowned
at
a
space
on
the
tight packed shelves, but ignored it.

“How
did
you
meet
the
Bishop?”
she
asked
idly,
looking
at
a
globe. It
was
more beautiful
than
any
she’d
ever
seen,
the
continents
a
brightly colored
stone,
the
water
a
pale
brown
granite.
She
wondered
why
the
water was
brownish, instead
of
blue,
and
then
saw
the
other
globe,
which
was
a deep,
appealing
blue,
but
instead
of
the
land
it
marked
the
stars.
She
went over
to it,
looking
at the constellations with more
interest than
she should, for
this
was
not
what
she
was
here
for.
This thought
forced
her
a
t
tention back
to
William,
to
see
if
he
was
avoiding
the
question,
but
he
was
kneeling under the desk,
looking
for
clues. She decided to join
him.

“I
met
him”
—William
paused
to
pick
up
a piece
of
paper—
“during
the
Pandora
Campaign.” He
sat
up
and
looked
at
the
paper
in
the
light,
then sighed and
put it on
the desk.

She
knelt
on
the
carpet
and
began
looking
around
the
edges
of
the
room. “The
Pa
n
dora
Campaign?
Is
that
what
they
call
it
now?”
She
remembered it
well.
When
she
had
heard
that
the
MS
Tregaurde
,
of
which
William
had been
the
Captain
at
the
time, had
been
one
of
the
ships
to
engage
in
the battle
,
she’d not been able to concentrate pro
p
erly until she’d received his next letter, days after.
Not that she would inform
him
of that.

“More
like
a
chase
than
a
campaign,”
he
said
with
a
soft
laugh.
“In
fact, that’s
what
we
all
called
it,
the
Pandora
Chase.
We
rescued
the
Bishop
and some
of
his
men
from
a
ship
that
had
tried
to
engage
the
Pandora
,
but
had failed.
All
that
was
left
of
the
poor
thing
was
a
few
boards.
Blasted
shame, the
captain
of
that
ship,
the
Nymphe
,
was
as
fine
a
man
as
you
could
wish to
meet.
So
then,
we
took chase,
when
we
heard
what
the
Pandora’s
cargo was.”

“I
never did
understand
the
point. Our
forces
and
the
forces
of
King Veroz-Krom racing each other to capture a pirate ship; what did it all signify?”
What
was
it,
she
wondered,
about a
pirate
ship
that
could
unite Berengaria
and
Pandroth
in
a
cause,
when
the
two
countries
have
hated each
other
for generations?

He
was
silent
for
a
long
time,
and
then
said,
“I
don’t
rightly
know. In any
case,
there
is
nothing
under
this
desk
but
some
broken
quills.
Poor Mrs.
Hobbs
must
be
getting
tired,
I’d
have thought
she
would
keep
better house.”
It
also
proved,
Tasmin
thought,
that
perhaps
the
authorities
had
not been
as
thorough
searching
as
they
should
be. Her
thoughts
were
quickly confirmed.

“Perhaps
it
is
good
that
she
doesn’t,”
Tasmin
said,
his
answers,
or
lack thereof, completely forgotten. “I
think
I
found some chocolate.”

“Don’t
touch
it,”
he
said,
pleased,
“you
wonderful
woman. Let
me
get something to put it in.”

He
took
two
sheets
of
parchment
and
folded
them,
making
a
sort
of
box on
one
end
before
he
got
down
on
the
floor
next
to
her.
She
pointed
to
the piece,
which
was
hi
d
den
behind
the
leg
of
a
chair. He
nodded
and
moved the furniture aside, then used the box to scoop it up. He carefully wrapped the rest of the paper around
it.

“We’ll
take a
closer look
at that when we get to the shop.”

He
went
over
to
the
fire
grate
and
she
continued
her
search.
“No
papers in
the
fire, and
it
doesn’t
look
like
the
ash-boy
has
been
to
clean
up
the ashes, so unless Mrs. Hobbs came in here and started a fire
...”