‘They took good care of me. No lasting damage.’
‘That’s not what we’re talking about, old man,’ George said.
‘Indeed,’ Caroline said. ‘We’re not oblivious, you know. We saw that something happened in that basement.’
‘Something more than cracked ribs.’ George studied Aubrey’s face. ‘You’re looking surprisingly well.’
‘That’s a good way of putting it.’ Aubrey rubbed his chin. ‘I think I’m cured.’
Caroline gasped, then she smiled, tentatively, and Aubrey forgot any lingering pain. She reached out a hand, then seemed to remember herself and withdrew it. Disappointed, Aubrey consoled himself with hoping that she was holding her hands together as the only way of stopping herself from reaching out again.
‘You’re sure?’ she asked, with the slightest catch in her voice. To Aubrey’s delight, she put her hand to her throat and repeated herself. ‘You’re sure?’
‘The Beccaria Cage has disappeared. I think I’ve absorbed it.’
‘What?’ George stared. ‘When did this happen?’
‘Dr Tremaine’s residue. Just before it disappeared it lashed out at me. It broke some ribs, but it also affected the Beccaria Cage.’ He grinned. ‘Random magic sometimes has good outcomes as well as bad.’
‘This cage contraption is still working?’ George said. ‘Protecting you, I mean.’
‘My body and soul are bound together as strongly as ever.’
‘And this is enduring?’ Caroline asked. She looked hesitant, as if unwilling to believe what Aubrey was saying. Not sceptical, but simply unable to trust herself to be pleased.
‘Every indication is that it’s particularly stable. I’m confident.’
George grinned. ‘That’s good enough for me, old man. I’m convinced. At least, until the next disaster.’
Caroline nodded. She was standing straighter, Aubrey noticed, more restrained. ‘That’s excellent,’ she said briskly. ‘Your condition has been a concern for some time.’
‘Your concern?’
Her lips twitched, just a little. ‘ A concern. An issue. Something affecting our tasks. It’s much better that you’ve improved.’
‘Much better? In a completely impersonal, objective sense?’
There, he thought . That was a smile. A knowing smile.
‘Of course.’
Aubrey eased himself into an armchair in a cosy drawing room toward the front of the embassy. George disappeared in search of a late lunch. Caroline took up a chair opposite Aubrey. She frowned at him without saying a word.
Aubrey let this arrangement stretch out for some time. Partly because his ribs were aching a little, but partly because it gave him a chance to gaze at her. He was trying to work out a way to tell her how much he appreciated her company when Lady Rose and Prince Albert rushed in, followed by Quentin Hollows.
‘Aubrey. You’re hurt.’ Lady Rose glared. ‘What happened?’
‘Ribs,’ he said, ‘but that’s not important now.’
George appeared with a large tray in his hands. ‘Ah. Sorry. I’ve only scrounged up enough food for three.’
George disappeared again but was soon back with another tray piled high with sandwiches. In the meantime, Aubrey had sketched out the events of the afternoon, without mentioning his improved condition – the secret he’d only shared with George and Caroline.
Prince Albert sat back in his chair. He studied the ceiling for a moment. ‘Strange times in Fisherberg.’ He pursed his lips before going on. ‘I’ve just come back from seeing the Elektor. Leopold is horrified at the prospect of war, and he thinks many Holmlanders are on his side.’
‘But I thought the Elektor was a warmonger,’ George said. ‘At least, that’s what all the Albion papers say.’ He grinned. ‘I actually just said that I believed what the papers say, didn’t I?’
‘Beating the patriot drum is always a good way to sell more newspapers.’ Aubrey touched his chest. The mark the Beccaria Cage had left had already been fading by the time he’d reached the infirmary, but it still itched a little. ‘How widespread do you think this opposition is, Bertie?’
‘It’s hard to say. Leopold’s probably more than a little out of touch with the man on the street. He actually called them peasants at one stage in our conversation. With affection.’
‘So where is the impetus for war coming from? Apart from Dr Tremaine,’ Lady Rose asked.
‘The Chancellor,’ Aubrey said.
‘And many of the aristocrats,’ Caroline put in. ‘There is a culture of bullyboy bellicosity among them.’
‘Bullyboy bellicosity? Nicely done, Caroline,’ George said. ‘Can I steal that for a headline?’
‘Of course,’ she said, with a solemn tilt of her head.
‘It’s neat, but what does it actually mean?’ Aubrey asked.
‘I remember,’ Caroline said, ‘when we were living here, how both Mother and Father would talk of the way so many of the barons and counts and dukes spent hours poring over battles in Holmland’s glorious past, how they loved inspecting new warships, how they adored a uniform. Even as a young thing, I thought it was frightening.’
‘Frightening?’
Caroline shook her head at the memory. ‘Count Horstein was someone who was working with Father on Indeterminacy Theory. I always thought he was a nice man, but once he told me that he hoped I’d grow up to marry a soldier, as there was nothing more glorious for a young girl.’
The image made Aubrey extremely uncomfortable. ‘So that’s the sort of people we’re dealing with.’
Lady Rose stood and made her way to the door. Prince Albert accompanied her, but before leaving, she stopped and turned. ‘Aubrey. I need some assistance tomorrow preparing for my lecture. If it’s not too much trouble, I’d like you to help me.’
‘Tomorrow?’ Aubrey’s plans to locate the rest of Sylvia looked precarious.
‘I have people to meet, papers to organise. You’ll be well enough, I’m sure. Light duties only.’ She turned her attention away from him. ‘Caroline. You’re free, aren’t you?’
Caroline looked at Aubrey, then George. ‘I...’
‘Excellent. What about you, George?’
George glanced significantly at Aubrey. ‘I’d like to, but I have to find someone here in Fisherberg.’
‘A female person, if I know you,’ Lady Rose said.
‘An acquaintance,’ George said. ‘A friend of a friend, so to speak.’
‘As long as it’s not someone that the lovely Sophie Delroy should be jealous of.’
George coloured and picked up a suddenly fascinating teaspoon. ‘No, I think I can assure you of that.’
‘Tomorrow, then, Aubrey, Caroline.’ Lady Rose tapped Prince Albert on the arm. ‘They think they’re being very mysterious and careful, but it’s obvious that something is afoot.’
The Prince wrinkled his brow. ‘I’m not sure I know what you mean.’
‘Conspiracies, plots, shadowy negotiations.’ She regarded them all with a sceptical eye. ‘You’re probably all set to save the world again. Just don’t mess things up.’
With a warning shake of her finger, she swept out. The Prince shrugged and followed her.
Hollows frowned. ‘Is there anything I need to know?’
Aubrey looked at George and Caroline. They looked back at him, then at each other. ‘I don’t think so,’ Aubrey said.
‘No assistance I can give? No equipment?’
‘Thank you, sir. We’ll ask if we can think of anything.’
Hollows stood. He shook his head. ‘Your father wrote to me, you know, telling me about you. About all of you.’
I’d love to see that letter, Aubrey thought. ‘I hope we’re not disappointing you, sir.’
‘No, that’s not it at all. I’m astonished, to tell you the truth, at some of the things he told me. Strictest confidence and all that.’ He paused. ‘But just as your father wrote, seeing young people like you makes me think that the future is in good
hands.’
The ambassador left.
‘Quite the diplomat,’ George said.
‘Oh?’ Aubrey managed to say.
‘Yes. Very diplomatic of him, not pointing out how much you looked like a codfish, flapping your mouth like that after he told you what your father wrote.’
‘Now,’ Caroline said. ‘Aubrey, you must rest before tomorrow.’
‘Rest? I’m well enough.’
Caroline’s eyes widened as she looked past Aubrey’s shoulder. ‘Why, it’s the Elektor! Your highness!’
Aubrey twisted around to see the unexpected visitor, and let out a yelp as his ribs reminded him that twisting was a bad idea at the moment.
No-one was there.
Carefully, with one hand pressed against his ribs and doing his best not to show any pain, he turned back to his friends.
‘You’re quite well, are you?’ Caroline asked sweetly.
The next morning, before breakfast, George was waiting for Aubrey in the corridor outside his room. He broke off from his studying of an Albion oil painting (a landscape with more haywains than could possibly be good for it) and took Aubrey’s arm.
‘Look, old man, you know that von Stralick isn’t my first choice for adventuring companion.’
‘Hello, George. Didn’t you sleep well?’ Aubrey had. Restful, composed, and the medical treatment – both magical and non-magical – had worked startlingly well. He had no pain from his ribs at all.
‘I volunteered to go with him so you could go with Caroline. You need to spend some time with her.’
Aubrey shook his head. ‘You’re a fine friend, George, and I don’t deserve you. But I’m afraid it’s a hopeless case.’
‘Hopeless case? What’s this? I’ve never heard you give up on anything.’
Aubrey paused, chewed his lip for a moment, looked at his shoes, then answered: ‘If I’ve learned anything in the last year or so, it’s that I’m not infallible. And that I have strengths and weaknesses.’
‘Caroline being one of your weaknesses.’
‘In a sense. In a few senses. In every possible sense of the word.’
‘Listen, Aubrey,’ George said. ‘I’m not going to say that you two are right for each other, destined to be together or any of that twaddle. But I will say that you two seem happiest when you’re getting on – adventuring, bantering, planning outrageous deeds. And when you two are on the out and out, you’re both extremely difficult to be with.’
‘She seems happy enough at the moment.’
‘What? Are you serious?’
‘What do you mean?’
George shook his head. ‘I worry about you sometimes, old man, I really do. And not just when you’re about to do something remarkably foolhardy. I actually have confidence in you then.’
‘Implying that you don’t have confidence in me when...’
‘When you deal with people. Some people.’
‘I see. Any sort of people in particular?’
‘Female people. In general. And one in particular.’
‘Hmm. I thought I was improving on that front.’
‘You were. Lately, though, you’ve gone backward.’
‘I can’t tell you how uncomfortable that makes me feel.’
‘Glad to hear it. What you need is some decent adventuring. Sharpens your mind, it seems.’
‘Little chance of that. I’ll be at the Academy all day with Mother.’
‘And Caroline. Don’t forget her.’
‘Yes. An uninterested Caroline.’
George rubbed his temples with both hands. ‘You can be obtuse, can’t you?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that Caroline isn’t uninterested. She’s doing her best to appear so, but she isn’t.’
‘And you can tell, can you?’
‘I think you might be the only one who can’t.’
‘Not that slide, Aubrey,’ Lady Rose called from the stage of the lecture theatre. ‘That’s a guillemot, not an auk.’
‘Sorry.’ Aubrey moved the brass carriage of the diascope, took out the offending slide, banished it for eternity and substituted another. ‘How’s that?’
‘Well, that’s definitely an auk. But an upside-down auk simply won’t do. Come now, concentrate.’
‘I’m trying,’ he mumbled, but it was easier said than done. Caroline was sitting entirely too close. The other side of the lecture theatre would have been too close, to tell the truth, but that was another matter. Caroline squeezed alongside him in the tiny projection booth was enough to make his head swim.
‘Let me, Aubrey,’ Caroline said. ‘You look flushed. Are your ribs playing up?’
‘No, tip-top. Projector’s just throwing off a bit of heat. Diascopic projectors tend to do that.’
‘Ah.’ Caroline adjusted the focus on the lens tube. Then she peered at the image on the screen behind Lady Rose and made a tsk of disgust. She took out a handkerchief and dabbed at the lens until she was happy. ‘As opposed to episcopic projectors, I take it.’
‘Of course, of course.’ Aubrey was sweating. To cover his awkwardness, he waved a hand and nearly knocked over a box of slides that probably represented hundreds of hours of collation. ‘Not to mention the more complex epidiascopic projectors, which are prone to breaking down.’
‘I see,’ Caroline said. ‘You are so wise in the ways of projectors and in the manner that episcopes work by reflected light and diascopes work by passing light through an object.’
‘They do?’ Aubrey blinked. ‘I thought diascopes were just bigger than episcopes. Or the other way around.’ He concentrated on sliding the carriage smoothly. He squinted at the screen. ‘How’s that?’ he called.
Below, Lady Rose scrutinised the image with her hands on her hips, head back. ‘That’s a fine example of a Little Auk. Well done, Caroline.’
Aubrey turned to his projection comrade. ‘Well done, Caroline?’
‘I took the photograph when Lady Rose and I went to the Arctic last year.’
‘Ah. When I was interdicted.’
‘Because of your appallingly manipulative behaviour.’
‘Which I apologised for, renounced and have been doing my best never to repeat.’
‘With some success.’
‘Really? I thought you hadn’t noticed.’
‘I notice.’ Caroline busied herself with the slides. ‘Here’s the next. A pair of nesting auks.’
Aubrey wasn’t about to let this go. ‘Then you’ve noticed that I’ve been abiding by our compact. The one where we agreed to be good friends of a jolly platonic sort.’
‘I remember. Nothing to get in the way of our studies and the like.’
Aubrey sniffed. ‘What’s that smell?’
‘Your sleeve. It’s starting to burn. Move it away from the projector.’
He did. ‘No time for frivolities of a romantic sort, that’s what you said.’
‘Or words to that effect. New slide. A flock of auks.’
Aubrey took the slide offered and jammed it into the carriage. ‘What about other frivolities?’
‘One must always find time for frivolities.’
‘But any frivolities with a whiff of romance are to be avoided.’
‘Sadly, I fear so.’
Sadly? Aubrey took a sharp breath. She met his gaze evenly, with a cryptic smile. He was lost, all over again.
‘Hello?’ Lady Rose’s voice came from the stage. ‘It’s rather too quiet up there.’
‘Sorry, Mother. Just fixing up a few things that have gone wrong.’
A few hours passed while Aubrey and Caroline helped Lady Rose sort through the slides for her lecture. Aubrey marvelled how elastic time was. A short period of time spent in a boring classroom could seem like days while a few hours in confined space with Caroline Hepworth could pass in an instant.
Lady Rose eventually insisted that they leave her, suggesting that they had better things to do. The thoughtful look she gave both of them gave Aubrey
pause. He knew she felt protective of Caroline, seeing her as almost a protégée, and he was reasonably secure that she cared for him, exasperated though she was on occasion, but he couldn’t come to a conclusion as to how she viewed the two of them. Her attitude oscillated between alarm and approval, with much of this variation due, Aubrey had to admit, to the way he treated Caroline.
At Caroline’s suggestion, they decided to wander around the Academy. The grand, forbidding building with its medieval corridors and gothic architecture was a stonemason’s dream, but it was far from a quiet and studious environment on this day. Too many savants, professors and scholars in diverse fields were fussing about and trying to ensure their display would be perfect, or their lecture theatre well ventilated, or the quality of their chalk firstrate. Aubrey found it easy to tell the Academy staff from the visitors – the Academy staff had long-suffering expressions, a mixture of professional patience and resignation as they listened to complaints and requests.
‘Reminds me of putting on a show,’ Aubrey said when they passed a porter who was attempting to explain to an extravagantly bearded visitor that there were no tigers to be had in the city, for love nor money.
‘Chaos, puffed-up egos and no idea how it’s ever going to be ready before opening?’
‘Exactly.’
‘I was seeing it as like embarking on one of your lunatic adventures.’
‘Lunatic?’
‘In the kindest sense of the word.’
‘Ah. Go on.’
‘Well, just like your adventures, I imagine this place is full of that heart-in-the-mouth feeling, not knowing how it’s going to turn out, but with the anticipatory thrill of doing something important and exciting.’
Aubrey walked on in silence for a moment. They ignored a pair of squabbling academics who looked as if they were about to come to blows outside a lecture theatre.
‘And that’s how you feel about our adventures?’ he said eventually.
‘Mostly.’
He glanced at her. Caroline’s expression was thoughtful. A hint of a frown touched her brow.
‘And you’re willing to endure our misunderstandings?’
Time of Trial Page 29
