Echoes of Aether

by Gail B Williams

  She nodded and switched off DMAC. “Jade said as much.” She shrugged. “I suppose, in this area, I’ll just have to be guided by those older and wiser than me. And accept that I need some time before I make a fool of myself again.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” He stood and offered his arm. “Shall we go to dinner?”

  “Yes please – I’m starving.”

  Chapter 51

  “Well, tough,” Amethyst told Jade. “We have to. Well, I have to. You can stay here tomorrow if you’d rather.”

  When they’d joined the dinner, the first course was still being served. Jenson led Amethyst to a chair at the lower end of the table, the smile Great-Aunt Flora had given her was smug and happy and she had no idea what the older woman was trying to convey. Now she and Jenson sat side by side opposite Jade, while Willimena looked overly proud of herself to be sat beside Montgomery.

  Lady Garrington-Smythe looked down the table then across to Great-Aunt Flora. “Are dinner conversations always this lively in the Forester household?”

  “With seven determined young people around the table, there’s usually at least three sides to every discussion.”

  “There’s only six of us, Great-Aunt Flora,” Amethyst pointed out.

  “It’s eight with both your parents and eleven years between them, I was counting your mother. Besides, you’re all very young to me.”

  Amethyst laughed. “You’re not quite Methuselah yet, Great-Aunt Flora. And this isn’t a lively discussion, Lady Garrington-Smythe, this is simply an example of Jade being wrong.”

  “I am not!”

  “No, he’s not.” Jenson cut across Amethyst’s objection. “Not entirely anyway.”

  “There!”

  “And she’s not wrong either,” Jenson told Jade, who looked rather crestfallen at the rebuke. “We just have to find another way.”

  “Another way to do what?” Bobbie asked

  “The reason I went out before dinner was that I had an idea as to how to improve our chances of getting Stephen back, so I ran some calculations and I was right,” Amethyst explained. “The best way to do it involves using a focusing crystal of prismatic glass.”

  “Can’t you use some from the lampshade that was broken?”

  Amethyst shook her head. “The lampshade is only one eighth of an inch thick, the crystal I need is half an inch thick, and two inches long. Even if I were to melt the shade down and reform it, I’d still need Jade’s forge to get it to the right temperatures because Stephen doesn’t have the necessary equipment here.”

  “Couldn’t you move the equipment?”

  “The forge is built into the walls and supports of the building,” Jade supplied. “It can never move.”

  “Exactly, so I have to go to it. Besides, this would be better with a brand new crystal rather than reformed glass.”

  “Can’t you give Jade the recipe and he can make the glass?” Lady Garrington-Smythe asked.

  “No, not really. Aside from the fact that I’d be in breach of contract with Sanderson’s Glass by giving that recipe out, it’s not just about the recipe, it’s also about the process and that’s not something I can teach in the time we have. That’s why I was in Swansea for so long, passing on that knowledge even to professional glassmakers wasn’t quick, and quick-witted though Jade is, he doesn’t have time to learn the process.”

  “Did you just pay me a compliment?”

  “Oh, I would never be that careless.” She tried to keep a straight face, but she just couldn’t do it and ended up grinning at her grinning brother.

  “How long does the process take?”

  “Well, only about 15 minutes to make the glass, but it takes a lot longer to get the forge up to the eighteen hundred degrees I need to melt the sand. Then it takes about an hour for the glass to cool, possibly more with this because I need a thick chunk for the crystal from, and then of course I’ll have to polish the surface and that could take another hour.”

  “Then it’s settled, we’ll all go.” Lady Garrington-Smythe announced.

  Various voices were raised in surprise and objection.

  “Wait!”

  Maker’s call to halt surprised a lot of people.

  “We’re all due to go tomorrow anyway,” Amethyst said.

  “What do you mean, deary?”

  Amethyst swallowed. “Well, tomorrow is Friday. The day we’re all due to head back to London.”

  “Nonsense, we’ll stay as long as necessary,” Lady Garrington-Smythe announced. “Won’t we, Lord Montgomery?”

  He wasn’t quite so comfortable as he might have been, but he smiled. “Of course.”

  His eyes flicked nervously to Amethyst and Jenson then back to Lady Garrington-Smythe. He offered a smile, then his attention was drawn back to the young woman at his side.

  “Eugenie,” Maker said. “Explanation?”

  Lady Garrington-Smythe inclined her head in acknowledgement. “Mr Forester knows the forge, he can go down early on the morrow, to set the fire and raise the temperature so that when the rest of us visit the town, at say, eleven in the morning, it will be ready for Amethyst to do her work. During the two hours that the work is being undertaken, the rest of us can amuse ourselves around the village; there was a very pleasant milliner I wouldn’t mind revisiting. Then we can lunch together at the public house at one o’clock and return as one party. Is that agreeable on a security front, Mr Jenson?”

  “It is, Lady Garrington-Smythe, thank you.”

  There would be lots more to discuss, Amethyst was sure, but Jenson seemed happy to leave it there for the moment, so she felt she should too. They could sort out details after the meal.

  Servants removed the second course and served the third. Though each course was small, there was always more than enough by the end of the meal. The conversation slowly rose around the table, and one large laugh drew Amethyst’s attention up to the top of the table where Willimena sat, laughing with Monty, her hand on his arm, her glance coy, and yet so obvious. As she looked, Amethyst noticed Charlotte watching her with triumph.

  “My sister looks better at the head of this table than you did.”

  Without hesitation or reservation, Amethyst offered a genuine smile. “And so much more deserving of that position too.”

  She turned quickly to Jenson as he choked on his food.

    

  The feeling of nausea rumbled up through Amethyst time and again. The heat was getting to her. All her previous experiences of making glass were in enclosed furnaces; this open forge was boiling her alive. Suddenly Jade’s preference for being shirtless made perfect sense. Of course, most people wouldn’t care why he took his shirt off, as long as he did. She wondered if he even knew how much female attention that got him, or even how many admiring male eyes turned his way as men went past.

  He’d never been oblivious, and he understood people better than she did. While she’d been here, he’d thrown a few harmlessly flirty remarks at the young girls, to cover his true preferences.

  Between the oppressive heat and the tightness of her corset, she could barely see straight, let alone breathe.

  “Come on, sit down.” Jade took her by the waist and guided her onto a stack of sacks she didn’t know the contents of.

  “I need to pour…” She pointed at the crucible but hadn’t the strength to argue with him.

  Instead, she sat and watched as he moved up and poured the molten liquid into the mould.

  “Slowly. Don’t want air bubbles.”

  “Believe it or not, I’ve done this before.”

  “Not with my glass you haven’t.”

  “Typical, you look close to passing out and you still have enough breath to criticise.” He tapped the side of the mould with a rod of something he had to hand, then topped it up again. “You’re spending too much time with Great-Aunt Flora.”

  “Amethyst?” Jenson walked in from the front of the building where he’d been keeping an eye on the people passing by
. He moved directly up to her, his eyes hooded with worry. “Are you quite well?”

  “Nah, she’s always a sick bunny.”

  She smiled but poked her tongue out at Jade before turning to Jenson. “An open forge is a very different prospect to the enclosed furnaces I’m used to using. And trying to breathe in a corset is never an easy prospect. Don’t know why we women wear them.”

  “Because you appear to your best advantage when you do?”

  She rolled her eyes at Jenson, then pulled the sleeve protectors from her arms and undid the back tie of the apron. Putting them aside, she reached out for Jenson to help her stand. She looked at Jade, warmed by the concern in his eyes. “Since there’s nothing to do but wait for that to cool, are you happy to stay with it and wait while I go get some fresh air?”

  Jade nodded. “Of course, I’ve plenty to do here.”

  Of course he had, this was his business and he had to make a living. She was imposing on his time. She took Jenson’s offered arm, and they walked out through the side door, from there Blanchard followed them a discrete distance behind as they headed towards the green.

  Fresh cool air embraced her, and she breathed it in gratefully, expelling the blistering heat from her lungs and instantly starting to recover. A dab of her kerchief on her forehead came away damp.

  “I am…” She couldn’t say the first description that came to mind.

  “Glowing,” Jenson offered. “Positively glowing.”

  She laughed at that. “Embers glow, I was on fire. Still, it’s much better out here.”

  The agreeing murmur wasn’t exactly the most comforting sound she’d ever heard. “Dean, please don’t tell me we have to go straight inside again.”

  His expression was a little overly serious as he looked down at her. “We should, for safety’s sake.”

  “But you’re here, Blanchard is behind us. Jade’s within screaming distance and we’re in full view of the green, which has a number of occupants besides the Montgomery party, so it’s unlikely anyone would attack here.”

  Again, that unconvinced murmur of agreement.

  “Just once around the green, at least. Please. Then we’ll go inside and you can hide me in any corner you want.”

  “I don’t want to hide you in any corner, I just want to keep you safe.”

  And she appreciated that, was glad that he kept on walking as they followed the perimeter of the green. Just a couple out walking on a glorious summer day.

  “You are very red.”

  Bobbie’s greeting as the trouser-suited woman stepped from a shop made Amethyst smile. “Standing in front of a forge can do that. I’m cooling down now though.”

  “Perhaps a glass of something cold would help?” Bobbie suggested as she fell into step with them.

  “Later, I just want to enjoy the day a moment.” As they walked in friendly harmony, Amethyst spotted Maker standing outside the milliners, and Violet through the many panes of glass, trying on a hat so unfashionable Amethyst could hardly credit it. Whatever she believed, she should stop thinking about Maker. She must. Seeing him didn’t help that determination, so she closed her eyes and tipped her face to the sun.

  The sudden yelp and pull to the side surprised Amethyst. She fell to the grass. Jenson was being pulled in the opposite direction. Thick arms grabbed her about the waist, pulled her off her feet. Bobbie twisted from the grip of one dark-clad man and kicked his knee out from under him. Jenson threw a punch that connected with such resounding force that he might have broken a tooth. Or a jaw. She bucked and twisted to get away from her captor, swinging her head suddenly backward. The reverberation of the hit and his grunt of pain sent shockwaves through her skull. He tripped and she went down, free. She rolled away, saw Blanchard throwing another man on top of the one who had grabbed her. Shouts and cries surrounded them. Hands yanked her to her feet. The A-Gun snagged on her skirt pocket. Then another impact had her on her knees. She was free, but Maker was rolling with the man he had pulled off her.

  Shaking her head to clear it, Amethyst pulled the gun free of her skirt, not caring that she heard material ripping. She turned, aimed at the man fighting Bobbie, the most uneven match. One squeeze of the trigger, aether light bolted from the gun and the attacker cried out, tremors cascading through his body as he fell twitching to the ground. Seeing Bobbie grin at her and enter the fray with Jenson, the closest knot, Amethyst found her feet and stood. This time she aimed at the large man fighting Blanchard and losing - truth be told, he’d be out in a minute anyway, but Maker needed help now and she couldn’t see past him to the man he was fighting.

  Another bolt and another man down. Blanchard moved towards Maker. The two trios were too tight for Amethyst to risk another shot. She looked up to see Jade running towards her, a thick twisted length of iron in his hand. More hands grabbed at her, knocked the gun away. She wriggled and tried the backward head butt again, but it didn’t work. She was off her feet, so she kicked out behind her. She connected, but made little impact. Her heart beat in her ears, fear blinding her as effectively as the heat had. One arm free, she flailed behind her, found hair and forcibly yanked to one side. The man faltered in his step but continued, they were away from the green and in an alley. She prayed the pounding was footfalls coming after her, but feared it was just her pulse. She tried again, if she found his head, she would find an eye. A sickening thud – she went sailing through the air, crashing hard to the cobbles and skidding into the stone wall. With the breath knocked from her, movement was far from easy as she tried to right herself and fight the hands that reached for her.

  “It’s me.”

  Relief flooded every part of her. Jade. His strong hands lifted her, standing her up, then pulling her to him, holding her close. She sagged into his comfort.

  “Not yet.”

  This time he pushed her away, taking her hand and leading her out of the alley. Bobbie appeared, Maker and Blanchard a step behind, and they all moved together back to the green. Two men were still on the ground and a crowd was gathering around. Jenson had one man on his knees, hands behind his back, bound by the tie Jenson had been wearing.

  “What happened to the other one?” Jade asked.

  “Ran off when he realised they were losing,” Blanchard said. “Yours?”

  “Out cold up there.”

  Blanchard nodded and went to see to the thug. Bobbie moved to pick up the A-Gun. Somehow it had survived the fall to the grass without breaking. Emerald eyes caught Amethyst’s attention and she wondered if her heart might actually explode with the green fire she saw in those depths.

  “Maker!” Violet’s screech drew all attention to her. The crowd parted, allowing the elegant woman in eggshell blue to thunder through. “What were you thinking? Leaving me alone? I could have been attacked, killed even.”

  Oh, if only. Feeling bad for the evil thought, Amethyst took the A-Gun Bobbie offered and hid it in her pocket, noticing the large tear in the top skirt. She did what she could to cover the exposed pocket and petticoat.

  “You were quite safe, Lady Fotheringham,” Jenson assured her. “This was a directed attack and it wasn’t directed at you.”

  A high-pitched whistle rent the air, the crowd of locals again parted to allow the black-uniformed police constable to move through them.

  “What’s happ‒” He paled as he looked at the men unconscious on the ground and the one Jenson was holding.

  “We need to get these men into the village lockup.”

  “I’m not sure there’s room for three.”

  “That’s a shame,” Blanchard said, striding towards them with another man, who, bleeding badly, was caught with his arm twisted up his back. “Because there are four of them.”

  “Miss Forester,” Lady Garrington-Smythe stepped out from the crowd and held her hand out to Amethyst. “Let us remove to somewhere a little less public.”

  With no idea what else she should be doing, Amethyst told Jade to take care of the crystal, then took the o
utstretched hand and moved with Lady Garrington-Smythe and the rest of the party, away from the fray.

  Chapter 52

  “I should go back to the forge.” Amethyst said quietly to Lady Garrington-Smythe as they sat in the private room of the public house.

  They had had cool drinks and a buffet lunch, the men had joined them, except Jade and Jenson; and Blanchard who, as a servant, wasn’t expected to join them in any case. Though Amethyst had eaten little, she felt much refreshed. The threat to her person was now more real than ever and she had the grazes and bruises to prove it. She couldn’t wait to get away from this place where danger seemed to lurk in broad daylight, let alone the shadows.

  “Nonsense,” Lady Garrington-Smythe leaned in to say softly. “Jade can sort it all out, he seems a very capable young man.”

  “He is. I trust my brother, but I feel it’s my responsibility to ensure that everything is perfect.”

  The older lady patted her hand. “And I admire you for that, but at this moment, it’s my responsibility to make sure that you are perfectly safe before we carry on, or risk you going out in public again. Now eat up, young lady, you need to keep your strength up.”

  “You’d best do as you’re told,” Bobbie leaned in from the other side. “Mother is notorious for getting her own way.”

  Yes, like decreeing that that they should all stay longer than originally intended, in a house that was, it seemed, penniless. She picked a little of the cold meat from her plate. “But there is still so much to do.”

  “And you’ll have time to do it. I’ve seen to that.”

  She chewed on the meat, tasting very little. “Yes, but‒”

  “Don’t worry, Amethyst.”

  “Eugenie, what have you done?”

  The older woman looked to her daughter, then to the heavens. “I know the situation, but we are staying as long as we need to, our host wasn’t given a choice in that. To set your mind at rest, dear, the next few days of hospitality are on me.” She spoke in whispers, not that the chattering Chalmers girls gave two hoots, they and Violet were too busy cooing over their purchases. “You shouldn’t worry about Monty, he’s really not worthy of your concern.”