The Lady Astronomer (19 page)

Leibniz was upon her in a trembling tumble
of fur and she hugged him to her so tightly that he squeaked, and squeaked
again when she covered his face with kisses.

“Thank you, Wodehouse. Thank you.”

Leibniz scampered from her arms and over to
Orion.

He picked at the cape, taking it off Orion’s
body, looking at the owl quizzically. He pushed his finger into Orion’s chest,
pulled at his beak and lifted his wing, it fell back.

Leibniz looked to Lucretia for guidance,
and she sat down beside him.

“Come here, little guy, come here.”
She cuddled the lemur as he complied, his bafflement plain to see.

“I’m so sorry, Leibniz.” She
started to cry and Wodehouse knelt beside her, awkwardly patting her head.

The lemur shook his head and jumped off her
lap. He ran to Orion again, disbelieving. He lay down on top of the owl and
threw his arms around him, weeping.

“Wodehouse, help me up.”

The butler stood and took her arm.

“Wodehouse, I need your help. We need
your help.” She motioned to Orion and the sobbing Leibniz.

“I need you to take Leibniz and Orion
and go to my brothers’ home. Al, who fixed you, remember?”

He nodded again.

“Good, very good. Give Orion to Al, he
will know what to do. Please, will you do that for me? But Wodehouse,” she
grabbed his metal hand and squeezed it, unsure that he could even feel it.

“You need to be very fast. Very fast.
As fast as you can. Al may be able to help Orion, just maybe.”

The butler stood impassively, and Lucretia
hoped he would get there in time.

She stood on tip-toe, and kissed Wodehouse’s
cool cheek.

He rubbed at it.

“Thank you, my true friend. Leibniz,
you must come away from Orion. Please, be a brave boy. You are going home to
Slough with Wodehouse to get help for Orion. Find a horse or a carriage, but be
careful not to be caught. We shall of course return it, but it would be
considered another thing to hold against me. Leibniz, come away and come to me.
Good boy.”

Wodehouse traced his finger near her eye.

“They said my monoscope was a luxury. However,
I am the least important thing here. Please go, and quickly.” Not even
what she’d seen from the window held any import now. Wodehouse bent to lift
Orion’s body and Lucretia kissed the owl on the head one more time.

Leibniz, downcast and distraught, suffered
another embrace from her and then scampered onto the butler’s back, piggyback
style.

“Hurry, Wodehouse.”

He strode from the room and started down
the hallway.

“Wodehouse!”

He turned.

“Close the door behind you. Don’t look
at me like that, you have to. I don’t want the other prisoners noticing. I am
in enough trouble.”

With a resigned shrug, he did as he was
bid, and went on his way, Orion in his arms, and Leibniz leaving the silvery
tracks of tears down his armour.

Lucretia was so very cold after they had
gone. She picked her cape up and fastened it around her shoulders again. One of
Orion’s feathers had come off onto it, and she held it in her hand, running her
finger up and down its softness.

She kissed it, stroked her cheek with it
and then put it in the pocket of her skirt.

Exhausted beyond all imagining, she settled
into the straw, too tired and upset to care if all the fleas and rats in the Kingdom
should join her. She was just falling asleep when she heard the purring of the
cat, butting at her pocket where the bread and cheese resided with Orion’s
feather. Lucretia put the cheese on the straw and the cat ate it before
cuddling up and warming her to insensibility.

Princess Twelve
The King
Freedom
Leibniz Runs
Away
A Duel

The little princess knew she shouldn’t
snoop, but Nanny was so boring and her kisses and cuddles so cold. She missed
her mama and her father was still ill. She had tried to gain access to his
sickroom, but had been shooed away by one of his physicians.

Bored, bored, bored and what’s a girl to do
when she feels like that? Why, escape of course! It would take Nanny ages to
find her.

Princess Twelve wondered where Ms. H had
gone. She liked her with her funny head thingy and big eye behind the scope.
Not to mention the sweeties.

She thought she heard someone coming, so she
went on tiptoe, turned the knob on the door nearest to her and darted into the
room. Afraid the person would walk into the very place she was, she wriggled
under the bed, holding her nose and mouth so she wouldn’t sneeze.

Sure enough, she had made it just in time,
as the voices of a man and woman came closer until she could see their shoes
from her hiding place. She breathed softly and willed them to go away.

“It is done, Lady K. All done, and
with the king still out of action, too. That fitted our purpose well, my dear,
did it not? With the amount of laudanum they are pumping into him, he probably
wouldn’t remember his own birthday should it be today.”

The princess gritted her small teeth. She
knew they were not being nice about her father.

“And the owl?”

“Disposed of. It really was a stroke
of genius on your part.”

“Ah, my dear Mr. E, let us not forget
that it was an idea sprung from both of our minds, creative geniuses that we
are. Rapier is a bit of a liability though, I was afraid he would take it too
far with injuring the royal cat.”

“The man is as thick as two short
planks, I agree. But that also suits our purpose, should a reversal of fortune
occur.”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“I am just looking at all
possibilities. But poor Ms. H is very unwell, little lamb. It could be that she
would catch a prison fever or the rat we placed there for her arrival along
with the clockwork fleas did their job.”

“Have you seen her today?”

“Not since we, ah, deposited the owl
with her. We should keep our distance should the king recover sooner than
anticipated.”

“So there is nothing to incriminate
us?”

“Nothing, apart from the monoscope of
course. Where have you put it?”

“Under my bed, hidden in the straw
within the mattress. Nobody will ever find it, I assure you.”

“Marvellous! Well then, shall we go
and toast our success at keeping our places within the court hierarchy?”

“Oh, let’s. And here’s to uppity
strangers getting their comeuppance.”

“You think Ms. H was uppity?”

“No, but she could have been, given
time!”

Princess Twelve stayed quiet, and unhappy,
under Lady K’s bed. She waited until she heard the door close with a loud
click, and then waited for what seemed like ages.

Peeping her head out from under the
voluminous bedcovers, she saw the man and woman were gone. She needed proof. As
number twelve of thirteen children, this had been a lesson she absorbed early
on, so she went back under the dusty bed and lay on the ground. Working in the
gloom, she felt around for the tear in the mattress, put her hand in, felt
around in the straw, and sure enough her hand felt the monoscope.

She pulled it out, dusted the straw off,
and crawled out from under the bed.

Standing in the corridor once more, the princess
was unsure of what to do. She couldn’t get in to see her father, and her mother
had not left his side the whole time he had been poorly.

She had to think, so she took a deep
breath, and ran with the monoscope dangling from her hand.

The princess reached the door that led out
into the walled garden Wodehouse had shown to Lucretia all those days ago. It
was her favourite thinking place in the whole Castle, and few people seemed to
come there.

She walked to her favourite bench and
jumped up on to it, feet dangling above the ground.

“My sweetling, what on earth are you
doing?”

“Mama, why are you here?”

“Well,” remarked the queen, “it
is my favourite thinking place and I needed to get some fresh air.”

“Mine, too,” said the princess. “Mama?”

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“Mama?”

“Yes? Out with it dear heart, we haven’t
got all day.”

The princess burst into noisy tears.

“Sweetling! I am sorry, whatever is
the matter? Are you worried about your father? You mustn’t, he shall be well
again very soon just you wait and see.”

“Oh, Mama,” wailed the small
girl, “look!” She held the monoscope up.

“Ms. H’s monoscope? But where is she? Oh,
my word! I knew the king was in a temper about a necklace that went missing,
and that she was taken away for questioning, but then he collapsed before
anything more could be done. Don’t tell me she is still waiting?” The queen
jumped up, taking the little girl by the hand. “Come, we must see the king,
at once!”

“Mama,” the princess tugged at
her hand, “I must tell you more, and you must not be cross, I went where I
should not have and heard people talking and found this that belongs to Ms. H.”

The queen lifted her into her arms and
dried her tears. “You must not worry, sweetling. Just this once running away
from Nanny and hearing what you should not have is just fine.”

*

The queen dismissed the physicians with a
curt wave of her hand. “Send in some tea for the king, he needs to regain
his wits after you have been drugging him into a stupor!

“Now, sweetling, we wait for the tea
and for your father to wake up properly and then you shall tell your whole
tale.”

Three cups of sugary tea later, the king
was looking more and more awake and more and more aghast as his daughter told
him of what she had heard.

He sank back against his pillows and rubbed
his head with the heel of his hand.

“What a disaster!” The king took
the queen’s hand.

“I am sorry, Father.” The princess
was downcast.

“No, no, not you, my brave little
girl, what what? Those people have done a very bad thing, social climbers the
lot of them. I should have them thrown out of the Castle!”

“That’s the spirit, darling,”
cheered the queen, “and while you’re at it, my dear, I think you need some
new physicians. This keeping you asleep thing is positively medieval.”

“It is obvious to me now that I can’t
sleep, even while I am ill. Look at what has happened! The thing was never
resolved you know, with the owl and Empress and with the necklace, that was to
be next on the list, a fair trial for all.”

“It is never too late to fix it.”

“Thank you, my dear.” He kissed
the queen’s hand. “But now, our Princess Twelve here deserves a treat,
wouldn’t you say?” He winked at his wife.

“A treat!”

“How about becoming Princess in Charge
of the King’s Tea?”

“I know,” said the queen, “Princess
of Checking Under Mattresses!”

Seeing the little girl’s face fall, her
father scooped her into his arms and tickled her. “We were only joking, my
little love. How about we get cook to make you as many sweets and cakes as you
can eat?”

“Until I get a tummy ache?”

“Until you get a tummy ache.”

“Can we do it now?”

“Not quite yet, sweetling. I need you
to stay here with me for some more cuddles, while your mother checks on the
whereabouts of the owl and to speak to the head guard about Ms. H.”

“But, but, father, I heard them say
the owl was with Ms. H.”

“That seems highly unlikely, my
sugared plum. Let us just get Queen to spend but a few moments with some people
while we play cards.”

The cards were laid out on the bed, the king
propped up, and the princess cross-legged at the end of it on a mound of
blankets. The curtains had been opened along with the window, and the queen was
taken aback at how pale her husband still was when she entered the room. Her
news was grim, and she took a deep breath.

“Well, my dear, how did you get on?”
The king smiled at her.

“King dear, Princess Twelve is to go
to the cook and help her. Sweetheart,” she said to her daughter, “Cook
has said that you may stay with her while all of the baking is done, and you
may even lick the bowl out.”

The child scrambled off the bed and made
for the door. “I love licking the bowl!”

“Not so fast! Where is the monoscope?”
Princess Twelve returned to the bed, burrowed under the blankets she had been
sitting on and handed it to her mother, who squeezed her and kissed her head,
before setting the contraption to one side.

“You are the best girl in the whole
wide world, isn’t that so, King?”

“That is so,” he remarked
gravely, and he watched as the princess skipped out of the room.