by KT King
Lancelot looked tired and troubled. Miss Huggins passed him a cup of tea, which he gratefully took, although he wished she would offer him more than just a cup of tea. At that moment he would gladly have been drinking in her kisses instead. His mind wandered for a few moments to her soft lips and how he would like to slip open her blouse and run his fingers gently over her…
“Lancelot, didn’t you hear what I said?” India asked him.
“Sorry?” he responded, coming out of his reverie and looking at Adela with slight embarrassment, as if she might have read his mind!
“I said, that I think we must tell the residents about the sale before it ends up on Twitter or in the papers. It only takes one person to say the wrong thing and the press will be round here like flies on sh*t,” India repeated.
“Yes. Yes!” Lancelot agreed. “We should call a residents’ meeting as soon as possible. But, I would rather have something positive to tell them before we do.”
The friends all looked at each other, and not one of them could think of how to put a positive spin on the future.
“I think we can work on Lucas,” Adela volunteered. “His sister, Faberge, says she is willing to help us.”
“If only Robert’s Aunt Elizabeth were still alive,” Lucy sighed. “None of this would be happening. Why can’t Lucas be more like his grandmother? She would never have sold Little Eden - not at any price.”
“What I don’t understand, is why Lucas got his grandmother’s vote?” Adela said.
“She had the right to pass it down through the family and Lucas was the eldest male heir,” Lancelot frowned.
“That’s just sexist rubbish!” India moaned.
“It doesn’t make sense!” Adela said. “I thought Uncle Frith was Elizabeth’s eldest male heir. Frith is Elizabeth’s oldest child, then his sister Sencha. Lucas is Sencha’s son. Surely it should have been Frith or his eldest male child who inherited the vote?”
“Who is Uncle Frith?” Lucy asked.
“I’ve never heard of any Frith Hudson,” India replied, and looked at Lancelot. She could see by the look on his face that he knew something.
“Wait a minute!” Sophie said suddenly, “That’s the name Jimmy said at the séance. He said that a man named Frith could help us!”
“What do you know about this Uncle Frith?” Lucy asked Adela.
“Nothing much,” she replied. “I never met him and no one ever mentions him. Frith disappeared decades ago, on his sixteenth birthday, and he hasn’t been seen since. I know Aunt Elizabeth searched for him for a few years but if she had left the vote to him maybe he could have been found?”
“Is that true?” India quizzed Lancelot.
“All I know about him is that he is legally registered as deceased,” Lancelot replied.
“Oh, that’s just great!” India exclaimed. “Another dead Bartlett-Hart sent to help us from the spirit world! These days I am starting to wonder which world I am living in half the time!”
“But we don’t know for sure that he’s dead,” Adela said. “That means something, right? He might still be alive, and he might have had children of his own.”
Sophie smiled. She had understood the implications. “If we can find Frith, then Lucas has no vote on the Trust!”
“I wouldn’t think you could find him after all these years,” Lancelot sighed.
“And, even if we did find this Uncle Frith, who’s to say he wouldn’t mind a slice of a few billion pounds just as much as his nephew Lucas does?” India suggested.
“There is that!” Lucy admitted.
“But, we could use it - the idea of Uncle Frith!” Adela interjected.
“How so?” Lucy asked.
“Well, if we could say to Robin Shaft that we have a new lead and that it’s a real possibility Uncle Frith might show up alive, well, they would have to wait until they could prove he really was dead, wouldn’t they?”
“Oh, I do like that!” rejoined Lucy.
“But we don’t have a new lead,” Lancelot reminded them.
“We might have a new lead if we used a psychic investigator,” Adela suggested.
“Oh, lordy!” India frowned. “Here we go again.”
“I have an idea,” Adela said. “What if Lucy’s boyfriend Jimmy starts one of his psychic investigations saying that he has a lead on Frith. He could say that Frith came to him in a séance and told him that he was still alive! What do you think?”
“Shaft, Pencill and Push won’t buy that,” Lancelot said.
“They will if Jimmy was making a TV documentary about it and the press got hold of the story,” Lucy suggested.
Sophie nodded. “I don’t expect we would find Frith alive, any more than you do, but the more we can chuck at Shaft, Pencill and Push to derail them till Robert wakes up, the better, I reckon!”
“It’s worth a try!” Adela pleaded with Lancelot.
“Okay, let’s speak to Jimmy and see what’s possible. But I can’t promise anything,” Lancelot conceded.
Adela hugged him and kissed him on the cheek in her excitement!
Chapter 25
~ * ~
A few days later, Sophie awoke from a nightmare in which Robert had been on trial for witchcraft. He had been sentenced to hang on a wooden gallows, whilst men and women, dressed in black and white, shouted hysterically against him. He went silently to his gruesome death without even trying to defend himself, and she could feel herself, like an angel in the sky above him, willing him to speak out against the injustice which had condemned him. But he would not. His neck snapped to the sound of cheering! Although it was just a dream, the emotional residue it left behind swam around in her mind, and she could not shake off the feeling that Robert’s silence and inaction in the face of injustice might carry on lifetime after lifetime.
With Robert still in a coma and under suspicion of manslaughter, Sophie was feeling more than a little depressed. She did not hold out much hope of them ever finding Uncle Frith or his off-spring. And even if they did find someone, the likelihood of them being a philanthropist was slim.
She was a little heartened by Alice’s courage and recovery, but she couldn’t help worrying about Lucy’s health and Linnet’s drinking. She was on tenterhooks, waiting to see if the Little Eden residents would get wind of the plot to sell the town, which would send the whole community into panic and fear.
Sophie knew what it was like to lose everything, and it was not a situation she would wish on her worst enemy, never mind on her best friends! She had not yet healed from her sudden and enforced change of life direction, and still felt angry and alone. Her chronic fatigue meant that every day was a challenge; so, when things went from bad to worse, her ability to deal with stress was low indeed. She had learnt meditation and various healing methods to help her, but nothing short of a miracle could keep her from feeling suicidal sometimes. She felt useless and helpless, and as for guarding the dragon portal, it seemed real one minute and ridiculous the next!
She mustered all her strength and determination in order to get dressed and go over to the chateau. She walked across the park under the last vestiges of a clear blue sky. The oak trees were aglow with golden shafts of sunset and she wondered, with a sense of dread, where Melanie’s spirit was currently hiding out and who else she was trying to convert to the dark side to help her!
Sophie found Dr G and Blue, both sitting in the altar room, meditating. They looked up as Sophie peered in and Dr G beckoned to her to enter. She took off her shoes and walked across the plush carpet, feeling as if this might be the only safe place in the world right now!
Dr G asked about Robert, whilst Blue came and sat on Sophie’s knee, wanting to try on her glasses.
“You have come about the sale?” Dr G asked her.
Sophie nodded.
“We found the bodies of the three murdered m
en in the lake and we helped their spirits over to the other side, but I don’t feel it has made any difference,” Sophie told him. “I don’t think it has put anything to rest. Jennifer has not backed down. She is determined to destroy Little Eden. I still feel Melanie’s spirit is strong and that Aunt Lilly’s is fading.”
Dr G smiled sadly. “Robert’s energy is low,” he replied. “Your aunt is only able to remain as a spirit guide if he chooses to save Little Eden. That is her purpose, and that is his purpose. He has not yet made a choice. He does not understand that the world depends upon him. He does not believe the dragon portal is real.”
Sophie shook her head. “I don’t think anyone believes the dragon portal is real. It seems too fantastical - like something out of a sci-fi novel.”
Dr G frowned. “It is very real, indeed. Oh, yes, it is!”
“Then we really are all in danger?” Sophie asked aghast. She thought of poor Alice and Linnet and what they had gone through these last few weeks. She thought of Robert, fighting for his life in the hospital, and she began to feel the familiar sense of fear and dread creep up inside her. The astral realm was penetrating the human realm, and what seemed like the stuff of fairy stories was starting to have a very real effect. “You are not afraid for any of us, are you?” Sophie asked him. “You do not value human life enough to care if we survive this 2012 world ascension or not, do you?”
Dr G sighed. “It is easy to kill a light-worker by killing their human body. Indeed it is. When we are human we are at our most vulnerable. Incarnation is a fragile and short experience. Human life is always precious, but it is one small part of a much bigger whole. One must not be so attached to life that it makes one afraid of death. Fear of life and death always brings sadness, grief and suffering.”
“I didn’t ask for this guardian job, and neither did Robert or any of the children,” Sophie complained. She looked down at Blue and dreaded to think what might happen to him. “It’s unrealistic to expect us to know what to do. There’s no manual, no plan, no map! What’s going to happen? How long is this ascension of the planet and humankind going to take?”
“With experiments, no one knows the outcome,” Dr G replied.
“Oh, that’s just great!” Sophie groaned. “So, no bugger knows what the hell is going on?”
“There is a broader plan,” Dr G told her calmly. Although, Sophie was sure she could sense a note of doubt in his voice.
“I don’t see the point of ascension,” Sophie said. “What difference will it make to the planet or to humans anyway?”
“You wish to stay trapped in the wheel of karma forever?” Dr G asked her.
Sophie shrugged. “Lots of people are not bothered about that. They are only bothered about themselves in this one lifetime. They are too busy just surviving anyway they can.”
Dr G sighed. “Survival of the animal body makes us forget the importance of our eternal survival. Humans destroy the planet with nuclear bombs and pollution. They kill and hurt each other because of greed and fear over and over again. Any soul incarnating becomes easily trapped in the karmic cycle of fear. Incarnation is dangerous, especially for star children.”
“It’s crazy! How are we supposed to break the karmic cycle if karma makes us think that we don’t need to break free of it in the first place? It’s ridiculous,” Sophie replied.
“Compassion is the answer to all your questions,” Dr G explained. “Compassion destroys the karma of fear and therefore all our attachments to our human life are destroyed also.”
“If no one reincarnated anymore, that would mean no more humans and no more karma,” Sophie suggested. “Wouldn’t that be just another form of Armageddon?”
“To experience the human world we need karma, this is true, but only the karma of compassion,” Dr G said. “In compassionate-karma the star children come, they go, they are free. If they reincarnate, it is a free choice. We must re-build the bridge of compassionate consciousness that has been lost so that humans can be free of the karmic cycle of tribalism, division and war.”
“Why must we mere mortals do it?” Sophie asked. “Why don’t they send someone like Jesus or Buddha to do it instead?”
“The Buddha Shakyamuni and the Messiah, and many holy beings, were sent into human form to help raise the consciousness of mankind, to help them remember their divine source and help them live a compassionate life, this is true,” Dr G agreed.
“It hasn’t been working very well then, has it?” Sophie sighed.
“One must follow their teachings,” Dr G told her.
“How can we follow the teachings when priests, gurus and leaders pedal fear? They twist the original compassionate teachings to make people afraid, so that they can control them and make them do evil things in the name of God. Those who are afraid of being controlled by religions abandon the teachings altogether and mock anyone who is trying to follow the light, and some people get into all sorts of crazy alternative philosophies instead.”
Dr G nodded. “Indeed, there is little left of the pure way, this is true. It is hard to see the compassionate way and even harder to live it. But, do we reject compassion because it is difficult? Do we let fear win because it is easier?”
“I suppose not!” Sophie agreed. “But I still don’t see why the job of sorting out fear-karma is left to ordinary people who don’t even know what they are doing. It seems like a catch-22 to me.”
“Each person must work diligently at their own enlightenment and come to realise compassion within themself,” Dr G replied. “The compassion sent to Earth through the dragon portals will help them awaken to their own understanding.”
“Like getting an injection of compassion and then taking responsibility for our own actions and motivations you mean?” Sophie asked, “Like taking the red pill or the blue pill?*”
“I do not know of any pills you can take,” Dr G laughed. “Each person must choose between fear and compassion, this is the only choice they need to make. This is how the world can change - one person at a time.”
“I don’t think we have the luxury of time, Dr G!” Sophie retorted. “We have sixty days for Robert to wake up or Collins and Lucas can take full control of the Trust. And then, we are all buggered!”
Dr G reassured her, “You must trust that all will unfold as it should.”
Sophie shrugged and pulled a face. She wasn’t so sure!
~ * ~
As the days went by, Robert showed no sign of waking from his coma, and everyone was getting more and more despondent. The snow was completely gone and the weather had turned dull, grey and rainy. There was a lack of joy in Little Eden which was the absolute opposite of normal.
Stella still held her constant vigil over Robert at the hospital. She had read to him, sung to him, chatted to him and made sure he had everything he needed. Sometimes, she could hardly hold back the tears, but she tried not to get emotional, in case he could hear her. Sophie joined her as often as she could, and seeing him lying there, unable to respond, both she and Stella began to fear the worst. Their hope and optimism were waning.
On Valentine’s Day, Sophie visited him again. She tried to stay strong, but she found tears were rolling down her cheeks and she could not stop them. “Oh, Stella,” she said, “I can’t bear it. What will we do without Robert? Little Eden only exists because he exists. If they have killed him, we will all sink even further into the sticky web of fear-karma and never get out.”
Stella tried to comfort Sophie, but had to fight back the tears herself. “Do you remember when Robert was a little boy and he fell off his horse?”
“Yes,” Sophie replied. “The boys were pretending to joust using broomsticks.”
“We all thought he might die but it was just a concussion. And the time he fell off the west wall, pretending that the enemy had breached the gate?” Stella continued. “He was out cold for several minutes, and we
were all so worried about him. He has always been accident prone, my darling. This is just one of those times, just a little accident - nothing to worry about.”
But, Stella began to cry too, she knew this was not the same at all. The pressure of keeping a stiff upper lip had become too much, and floods of tears came pouring out of her heart.
Sophie held onto Robert’s other hand in despair, she felt her heart was breaking for the second time in just a few weeks. “Don’t leave me to do this on my own,” she begged him. “We must defend Little Eden and the dragon portal. I can’t do it without you. How can I do it without you? You must come back Robert, you must! Don’t leave me here alone.”
Suddenly, they heard an unexpected commotion. A rush of paparazzi had congregated at the hospital entrance. Stella went to look out of the window. The journalists had arrived just in time to snap Jennifer, Collins and Robin Shaft, who were coming up the front steps. Jennifer was wearing oversized sunglasses in an attempt to disguise herself, but it only ended up creating the effect of celebrity status and gathered more attention. Flashes were going off nineteen to the dozen, and the reporters were shouting over each other. It wasn’t clear what was happening at first. But then, Robin led Jennifer towards the cameras instead of getting her quickly inside, and gave a statement on her behalf:
“My clients would like to publicly acknowledge that Mr Robert Bartlett-Hart is seriously ill, and they would like to thank all the well-wishers who have been so kind over the last few weeks. My clients feel that the only course of action left open to them is to sell the historic family seat of Little Eden, as soon as possible. This is a regretful and very painful decision for the family who have owned the town for over a thousand years. Anyone who would like information on the purchase should contact Shaft, Pencill and Push, Knightsbridge. There is no further comment at this time.”
With that, the three of them disappeared into the foyer letting the automatic doors slide closed in the faces of the reporters. Hospital security staff arrived and ushered them away.
