The Digger's Rest (46 page)

Simon bowed his head, making his big black
curls move. “Me, too.”

Sandrine reached out, touching his hair. “If
there’s anything I can do…” Simon could only blush. Some things
never change.

***

When Sean Donnelly opened his eyes in the
hospital that morning the first thing he saw was the old man
standing in front of him. “What are you doing here?” Sean asked him
before he realized that he could both see and speak.

“
Thy curse is lifted, Irishman, but I
have a burdensome gift I must give thee,” and he touched Sean’s
forehead with his thumb.
“Thou shalt not
forget and more, I give thee my memory, so what hast happened here
shalt not be forgotten.”

Sean blinked, then looked at the old man, the
dawning of knowledge in his eyes. “Dear God,” Sean mumbled as the
realization of millennia ran around his brain.

“
Yes, Irishman and now ‘tis thee who
must be vigilant for thy race,” the old man said wearily then
disappeared behind the curtain.

***

On the other side of the county, a
tall, black-haired woman walked through the doors of the hospital,
stylishly dressed in all black. No one saw her, or remembered that
they did. She entered Malcolm Farthing’s room and waved her hand in
front of his face.
“Awake and
forget,”
she said.

His eyes opened. “Gayle? Where am I? What the
hell is going on?”

“
You got hit on the head by a falling
rock at the dig, but you’ll be alright now. I just stopped by to
see how you’ve been getting on,” she said, smiling
slyly.

“
I did? I guess that explains this
bloody awful headache,” he said reaching back to touch the back of
his head, smiling weakly at her. “How long have I been
here?”

Chapter XXIII

The Devon Dragon, Madonna & Child

I look at you, your whole life stands before
you I look at me and I'm running out of time Time has brought us
here to share these moments To look for something we may never find
Until we find the bridge across forever Until this grand illusion
brings us home You and I will always be together From this day on,
you'll never walk alone You're a part of me, I'm a part of you
Wherever we may travel Whatever we go through Whatever time may
take away It cannot change the way we feel today So hold me close
and say you feel it too You're a part of me and I'm a part of
you.

Part of me, Part of You,

……
..As performed by Glenn
Frey

for the film Thelma & Louise

“
Jack! Jack!” a woman’s voice called
from across the crowded room, a hand waving above all of the taller
heads around her. Jack Edgeworth looked toward the voice and
cringed. “Jack!” He heard one more time before Evelyn Lenox made
her way over to him. “Jeeze, Jack what’s it been, twenty years?”
she said loudly over the din of the crowd around them.

“
Evie,” Jack said giving her air kisses
on each cheek. “You look wonderful. You’ve hardly changed a bit,”
he said amazed by the amount of Botox it must have taken to keep
that being a true statement.

“
So do you, like a million. You haven’t
aged a day. Have you had work done?” she asked, examining his face
closely. Jack just smiled, then looked down, deep in thought as
Evie looked around at all the glitz, glam, money and names that
were roaming around the room. “This is so exciting, but I was sorry
to hear about your…friend. I remember all the terrible things
Annette used to say and, I’m just so sorry,” she said
honestly.

“
Thank you, Evie. I appreciate that,”
Jack said, taking a good swallow of his drink. He felt an arm come
around his from behind. He looked over, then back to Evie. “Evelyn
Lenox, I’d like you to meet my fiancé, Alida Ruales.”

Evie’s eyes shifted over to the striking
black-haired, black-eyed Cuban woman. She put out her hand. “Lovely
to meet you, Miss Ruales,” she said, pinched but pleasant.

“
Very nice to meet you too, Mrs.
Lenox,” Alida said, nodding and smiling brightly at the blonde
woman with the tight face.

“
Well, I really should be moving along.
So many people to see…” Evie said and took Jack by the hand,
leaning in close to whisper. “At least I’m glad to see your taste
in jewels hasn’t changed,” referring to Alida’s large Baroque pearl
necklace and matching earrings with diamond clips.

“
Nope,” Jack said. “Only in who wears
them,” and gave her his best boyishly sexy grin.

“
You old devil,” she laughed, then
sighed, “Always at the wrong place at the wrong time,” as she
walked away. Jack and Alida turned in the other direction and saw
Simon coming toward them.

“
It’s almost time, Dr. Edgeworth. We’d
better go.” Jack kissed Alida lightly on the cheek and went with
Simon toward the platform with chairs and microphones in front of
the long blue velvet curtain that hung from the ceiling.

Just as they were approaching the platform,
Jack saw the young blonde man who’d come to see him a few weeks
before. He’d come in without appointment just as Jack was on his
way out to lunch. “Dr. Edgeworth? I’m Alexander Bramson. Would you
mind if we spoke briefly?” More than surprised, Jack just waved him
into his office and shut the door.

“
What can I do for you, Mr. Bramson?”
The young man looked earnestly at Jack. He had Mitch’s chin and
nose.

“
I didn’t know,” was all he said at
first, shaking his head, looking down and taking a deep breath. “I
swear I didn’t know. I’d have loved to have known him,” the young
man said on the verge of tears, “my brother…I only found out when
the circumstances of my father’s death hit the papers.”

“
I’m sure he would have loved to know
you, too,” Jack said, putting his hand on the young man’s shoulder
and guiding him into the room to a chair. This kid wasn’t at all
like his father or his older Congressman brother. He seemed
genuine; sincerely coming to Jack to be able to talk to him about a
subject no one in Boston had anything good to say about.

Jack believed him when he said he didn’t know
about Mitch, but the newspapers had had a field day with it, from
the top down to the tabloids. “Boston Steel Scion, Julian Bramson,
the Third, Meets Abandoned Son; Both die tragically.” No one ever
questioned the coroner’s diagnosis that a massive heart attack
killed old man Bramson. But they certainly played up the abandoned
first son angle. Even Jack couldn’t do anything about that. After
all, Mitch’s death certificate was public record, and two famous
American men named Bramson both dying in the same small English
village was the only lead anyone needed. The AP and UPI were on it
like vultures.

Alexander Bramson handed Jack a check, one
million dollars. “From my trust, it should’ve been his anyway,” he
shrugged, uncomfortable with the emotions that were stirring behind
his pale blue eyes. “I learned as much about him as I could before
I came. I know he loved the Museum, and his work. I was hoping that
you might fund a foundation with that, or do something you think he
might like. I don’t know what else I can do for him.” Jack took out
a piece of paper and wrote something down, handing it to the young
man.

“
You can go see him and tell him,” Jack
said. It was the address of a cemetery. The young man took it and
nodded. “I will. I’ll do that,” the young man said and got up to
go.

When he got to the door where his father had
stood only months before, and his brother only weeks before that,
Jack stopped him. “Come to the opening of his new exhibit,” Jack
said. “Be our guest. I know he’d like that. It would show that
you’re not ashamed of him and would’ve liked to have been part of
his life. I think he’d like that very much,” Jack said, getting up
to hand the young man an envelope with tickets and shake his hand.
“And thank you for coming today. I do appreciate it.”

The young man leaned into him, speaking
quietly. “I’m not like my father or my brother, Dr. Edgeworth. Now
that I know what I do, I’d like to think maybe I’m more like him.
I’m a legal aid lawyer who writes American military biographies,”
he said. Smiling at the irony of it, Jack laughed out loud shaking
his head.

“
Yes. Knowing him the way I did, I
think he would have found that fascinating, and you’re right. I
think you probably are like him in a lot of ways, Alexander. Please
come and be with us,” Jack said.

The young man nodded, smiling sadly. “Thank
you for that, Dr. Edgeworth.”

***

When they were all seated on the platform,
the president of the Museum got up to speak. He made a brief
presentation about the gravity of the exhibit, what it meant not
only to science but to art, culture and human understanding. He
spoke of the sacrifice of life that brought the exhibit to them and
the grief it brought to everyone at the Museum, then he introduced
Jack as the one person he thought was most affected.

Jack stood up and walked to the podium. “This
exhibit,” he said. “…will stand in the annals of human history as
one of the most important finds of this or any other century.
Nothing has ever been found to rival it. It’s not for the faint of
heart, so may I recommend caution. It will make you rethink your
entire life, of whom you are and where you come from. It will
challenge your thoughts and beliefs about everything you have ever
though you knew.

“
But this knowledge comes to us at a
great cost, more than I was personally willing to pay. I was the
one who sent Dr. Mitchell Bramson to England to excavate a thousand
year old castle for the greater glory of knowledge, our careers and
this Museum, not knowing what would come out of it, and because of
that, I have lost my most gifted colleague, friend and…son. I will
not belabor this further as that would not be what Dr. Bramson
would’ve wanted, but I will leave you with two
introductions.

“
First I’d like to introduce the young
man to my right, Mr. Alexander Bramson, Dr. Bramson’s brother, who
came to me with an idea and a check, to fund a foundation that Dr.
Bramson would have done himself, the Impoverished School Arts
Program for New York City. Please,” Jack said motioning for
Alexander to stand and be acknowledged. Alexander stood and took a
small bow while the audience in the great hall applauded, then
retook his seat.

“
Next I’d like to introduce you to the
young man who stood side-by-side with Dr. Bramson during every step
of this expedition, a fine scholar in his own right, and the man I
have the honor of announcing will take over Dr. Bramson’s work and
efforts. Dr. Simon Holly.”

Simon stood up carefully and walked slowly to
the podium to minimize his limp and stood next to Jack. Dressed in
a blue suit, white shirt and the ice blue tie that Alida had picked
out for him, his hair straightened and combed back as Madame
Duvalier had taught him, he stepped up to the podium and opened a
folder in front of him as the audience applauded.

“
Thank you, Dr. Edgeworth, for your
kind words and confidence,” he said, and Jack stepped
back.

“
This exhibit, as you all know by now
is called, “The Devon Dragon, Madonna & Child,” so I’d like to
take a moment to explain what that means and its importance to us
as human beings and the world of knowledge. Dr. Edgeworth and Lord
Neville Cotswold of Great Britain came upon the existence of this
site rather by accident. It had lain unexplored for centuries and
only when threatened by the movement of modern civilization did it
come to our attention. Located in the southwest of England, the
castle ruin was once the ancestral home of a noble family called
Revelstoke and can with certainty be dated to the late 8th century
A.D.

“
As you will see from the exhibit, we
have reproduced the castle ruin as we first found it, here in the
great hall.” Simon then gave a high sign to the ushers standing
near each corner of the great hall. In unison they pulled back the
curtains lining the walls to reveal that all the walls had been
painted with murals depicting scenes from late 10th century noble
life, a kitchen scene, a banquet scene, a front view of the castle
as it had been when built, a bedroom scene and a courtyard scene.
The audience gasped as they turned around to get a full view of the
panorama of life at Revelstoke circa 999 A.D.

After they’d had a chance to absorb it all,
Simon began to speak again. “However, this was no ordinary medieval
castle, as we were to soon learn. It was the site of something that
has frightened and fascinated humankind since the dawn of time
because as Dr. Bramson, Lady Madeline Cotswold and I discovered, it
did not come to its ruined state naturally. The story, as we have
uncovered it, is one of monumental significance for both the people
who lived at the time and everyone who has lived since.

“
The noble family of Revelstoke was one
of many who were either forced or volunteered to marry their sons
to French noble women in order to please the new King, William the
Conqueror, court favor with him and keep their holdings.

“
In this case, it was the young Lord
Eadwyn Revelstoke who was set to marry a young Breton Princess,
Alais. However, while they were away arranging for the marriage,
something astonishing happened. Their castle Revelstoke had been
the subject of another invasion, but of a very different nature,
for when they returned they found their castle had been laid to
ruin by a monster. What we would call today, a dragon.”