“Feel better now?” the man growled.
“From when you were trying to kill me a moment ago?” Jeremy demanded. “Not much.”
“Quit whining. That’s all you’ve been doing for days and I’m tired of it.”
“Whatever you think of me you’ve got to help me now,” he said with an effort. “It’s important I tell you!”
“Shut up, Jeremy!”
He sprung up in a rage and then, clenching his fists, controlled himself.
“It’s Ffip,” he got out. “Ffip’s in trouble, all right? I went to her house and it was a shamble. I need you to help me find her!”
Mars blinked.
“What trouble have you put the girl into?” he snarled.
“Argh! You say I’m stubborn, Mars, but I don’t come near to you! I didn’t put her into trouble, you idiot! I discovered the trouble coming her way, and you want to know how? By searching through that precious bag you didn’t want me to take! They’re after her, so get up off that chair and get busy!”
“What is it you think I can do?”
“Where is Kannikey,” he hissed. “Where did the girls go after you dragged them away from me? Were they together?”
At last Mars seemed to catch a hold of the seriousness of the situation. His eyes grew large and he reared up with an in-sucking of breath.
“Hurry up!” he shouted, as if Jeremy had been the one holding back.
They went outside and worked as a team but expended no more words than necessary. Mars had an old wagon given to him by his father for use in moving product for his shop. They pulled off the saddle from Jeremy’s horse and hitched the animal up to it. They climbed aboard and Mars clicked the reins with such a snap the horse startled forward in obedience. They trotted down the street and turned several corners.
There were several residential sections surrounding the market circle of Tonturin, but the most pleasant was just outside the crescent, dotting in garden-like splendor up the nearby hillside. Mars had the wagon rattling and bumping up the smoothed pavement, startling a neighboring dog into barking. Other dogs caught the excitement and they arrived at one of the finest homes in Tonturin under the echoes of their barks.
Mars pulled into the elegant drive and stopped the old wagon out of sight and to the side of the carriage house. They climbed down and made their way to the pillared front porch of the house. Jeremy at least had left his pack in Mars’ house so he didn’t feel he looked like a beggar. He straightened his coat and waited beside Mars as he knocked.
A servant opened the door, an important little man of middle age and stiff demeanor. Jeremy stepped forward.
“Please,” he said, giving the fellow a small bow. “We’d like to speak to … uh, Kannikey…”
He realized he didn’t know the girl’s last name. The butler wasn’t impressed.
“Miss Kannikey is not to be disturbed by persons of unknown antecedents,” the man said.
“I know perfectly well who my ‘antecedents’ are,” said Jeremy in return. “It’s important, or I wouldn’t bother the girl.”
“Oh, you say it’s important.”
The man didn’t move. Jeremy looked behind him and saw that the house was larger inside than it had appeared from the front entrance. There was a huge gallery with winding staircase up a distant wall, and there were many closed and elegant-looking doors to be seen. Jeremy considered his options. He supposed the man was ordered to protect the girl from scruffy looking fellows who appeared off the street in the darkness. Being well paid to remain loyal he didn’t think it was possible to bribe him. Jeremy sighed.
“Mars,” he said.
“What?”
“Do your job.”
“I may be willing to throttle you, Jeremy, but that doesn’t mean that I…”
“Shut up and get us in this house.”
“Now listen here,” the butler sputtered, seeing their intention.
“We just want to speak to the girl,” Mars growled. “Not cause trouble. How about you call her down here and if she’s not interested in seeing us, then you can send us away?”
“I’ll send you away right now,” the butler blustered, “after I send for the authorities!”
“Mars, quit wasting time!”
“Oh fine then!” Mars spouted, and pounced.
In a second he had the butler in a headlock.
“Now the girl’s home isn’t she?” he demanded of the man, pressing the words into his ear.
The butler nodded reluctantly.
“And you’re not going to pretend you care about her, are you?” Mars went on, his hold tightening. “You’ve stood by and let all sorts of difficulties come her way in this house, right?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Your master’s not home I’ll bet,” put in Jeremy. “If he was you’d have called to him by now.”
The butler shook his head.
“We won’t tell him you let us in to see Kannikey if you won’t,” Jeremy said.
“Then tell this oaf to release me!” responded the man, brushing down his waistcoat when he was free. His chin came up and Mars glared. “If you’ll follow me,” the butler said, and they stepped after him as he took them across the marble floor and over to the winding staircase. At the top there was a series of double doors and then a line of three doors down a hallway. He marched them up to the one in the middle and tapped.
When the door opened Jeremy felt a bit of relief. There were the sounds of two women talking, and Kannikey’s face was turned to the side and bright with laughter. At least she was safe.
“Yes, Holter, what is it,” she said, and then froze when she saw who her visitors were.
“These… persons,” the man frowned, “insisted upon seeing you.”
She blinked and then smiled easily. Jeremy glanced to the side and saw that Mars was staring. Her face in laughter was even more beautiful than when she was serious. She waved the butler away.
“Yes, yes, I know them!” she told the man. “You can go on!”
The man narrowed his eyes with venom.
It felt good to walk past the man and into her room. It was big, square and filled with fine furniture. On the windows were costly velvet curtains and on the puffy large bed were draped a layer of girl’s clothes. There was a dressing table, two dressers, a writing desk and large paintings of pleasant landscapes. But Jeremy didn’t notice any of those things. He was too busy staring, just like Mars had done a moment ago.
The other occupant in Kannikey’s room turned around to see them as they cleared the doorway. She was wearing a fitted dress of pink and flowered embroidery, which clung well enough at the shoulders and around her tiny waist, but was a bit too long. Nevertheless her bare feet and slender ankles could be seen. Her hair was pinned back and it’s thick, honey accents were pronounced in the comfortable light that was lit golden in the corners of the room. Her thin arms seemed long yet in right proportion, since she wasn’t very tall. Her warm skin, her dimpled grin, and those eyes…
He remembered to swallow and then to breathe.
“Fillipi,” he said at last. “How long have you been here?”
Chapter Twenty (In Which Jeremy Gives up Some of a Secret)
“Quick and tell us what you want,” said Kannikey.
“It’s Ffip,” Jeremy said. He turned and gave the girl a look. “I stopped by her house and it was ransacked. She hasn’t told us everything!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Fillipi here is a clever inventor from Tetoross,” he went on. “I found the plans of one of her designs in that bag I stole from the roof, minus a critical component that these villains must have in order to move forward with their plans. They figured she must’ve taken the missing component with her when she disappeared from Tetoross and moved here. I also found a notebook which details the fact that her true identity has been found out and they intend to take her and question her until she gives them what they want.
We all know what it’s like when they question people. I’ve got the stitches to prove it.”
He watched as Ffip’s face went white and her small hands curled up into her chest. He was upset she’d held back the information— which had nearly cost her to be taken, forced to forgive her when she looked so vulnerable and then angry all over again; this time at the wretches who wanted to question her.
“Ffip, you can’t go back home!” said Kannikey.
“I haven’t been able to really go home— back to see my parents, I mean, for almost a year,” Ffip said.
“You should’ve told us why you’ve been hiding here,” Jeremy stressed.
Ffip’s chin came up.
“According to Mars there are a few things you haven’t told us,” she replied.
“The secrets he’s hanging onto like a leech don’t concern our mission!”
“Well I didn’t know my secrets had anything to do with your precious mission!”
“Now you do and if we don’t help you then your life is in danger!”
“Go away then and forget me! I got along fine before you came and stirred everything up!”
“Don’t you see that a Time Mechanic arises because circumstances are dire? I didn’t cause the trouble you’re in!”
“Excuse me,” put in Kannikey, “but speaking of being in trouble…”
“What?”
“I’m about to be in trouble too if we’re not careful. Holter will tell on me; he always does. You and Mars shouldn’t stay here very long.”
“Why will it bring trouble to you if we do?” asked Mars.
She looked down at her feet and then away.
“It might make my… stepfather angry if he heard about it,” she said, biting her lip.
“I take it you want to avoid making your stepfather angry at all costs,” Mars said.
“What do you know about it?” she demanded.
“Enough. I come from a family of hard workers. A stubborn child wasn’t an asset to that kind of home.”
“So your parents were cruel?”
“They thought life could be cruel. If it took a beating or two to teach me to follow the straight line my father felt my life would be better in the long run.”
Jeremy gave Mars a swift glance of surprise. This was something he never knew.
“Oh, so I suppose your father really loves you then,” Kannikey said, the old sneer back in her voice.
“He loves me in his way.”
“That’s wonderful, but it’s not what you think is going on here. My stepfather has never beaten me. I haven’t driven him that far.”
Mars stepped forward.
“Kannikey,” he stated.
“What?”
“Are you trying to get him to beat you?”
“Not anymore. Like I said, Holter will report you two visiting us tonight to my stepfather. We should be gone by the time he does.”
“Gone, where?” said Ffip.
“For now, there’s only one place we all can go; to Mars’ house so we can figure out what needs to happen next. The best choice for us right now is to follow the Time Mechanic. We’re being compelled again, to stay by his side.”
While she’d been talking she’d gotten into the closet and pulled out several bags like the one that Jeremy had taken from her on the roof. They were roomy and practical and yet he could tell made from one of the finest tailors in town. He was relieved to see that she had such a supply. She hurried to her dressers and started stuffing the bags with clothes, with hosiery and underthings, camisoles and laces. On top of her dresser she filled a purse with creams, brushes, tooth cleansers and a perfume or two. Into the closet again and she packed the bags full with dresses.
“We need enough clothes for Ffip too,” she said to them. “She can’t go back to her house and get more!”
“Oh, Kannikey, all those nice things are too pretty for me!” gasped Ffip.
“Nonsense, you’re lovely!” Kannikey said, a bit absent-minded as she paused near the neat little writing desk that sat under the window. “I should write my mother a letter so she won’t worry,” she said with a small frown. She sat down and began scribbling very fast on a piece of fine stationary, and then folded and put the letter into a matching envelope. “I just told her that Ffip’s brother and cousin stopped by with a message for her from her uncle, and that I went to stay with her family for a few days,” Kannikey told them. Then she grinned. “Close enough to the truth right? At least it’s a better story than my telling her I’m the thief on the new Time Mechanic’s team. There. My stepfather will just have to bellow at the wall for once.”
Kannikey paused and picked up another jacket from the pile on the bed and handed it to Ffip, and watched with a sad shake as Ffip put on her old shapeless boots since none of her shoes would fit the smaller girl. The old boots didn’t go with the dress she had on. Jeremy glanced at Mars who was standing with his eyebrows raised during all of this activity. Kannikey stood up.
“All right, let’s get going,” she said to him.
“I never said I was following Jeremy anymore,” Mars grumbled. “Don’t see why you three get to take over my house.”
“Quit complaining and try to be quiet as we leave my room,” Kannikey commanded. “If we can get down the hall I know a way out through the window in the study.
Jeremy smiled as Mars subsided.
The trip down the hall and out the window in her stepfather’s study was uneventful until they had to climb down the tree to reach the yard. Mars went first, and caught the three bags when Jeremy tossed down to him. Jeremy came second. Then Kannikey descended, her shapely form moving quickly and sure as if she’d made the escape many times before. Last was left Ffip at the top. She stared down at them biting her lip until Mars gestured for her to hurry up.
She put out a hesitant foot and crept down a branch and then managed to reach a second level down. But then she misplaced her descent. She slipped, landing sideways onto a branch and slithered right out of the tree.
“Eep!” she gasped. Mars stepped into place to catch her but Jeremy was already there. She fell into the pocket of his arms and he held her close for a moment.
“All right?” he asked, looking into her beautiful yet startled eyes.
“Yes,” she whispered.
He put her down and glancing over, saw that Kannikey had a sarcastic grin on her face.
“Well, if I’m to have so many guests we’d better get going then,” grunted Mars. “I left the wagon parked over there on that side of the house.”
An hour later after they’d put away the wagon and settled the horse Mars had invited them in, explained the mess of the broken furniture in his front room as being from Jeremy’s tantrum earlier, showed the two girls into his own room which had the biggest bed, and then made up his guest room for himself. The girls were cheerful as they got ready for bed and soon could be heard chatting and laughing through the closed door. Jeremy stretched his shoulders and pulled off his boots. He’d already brought in his backpack and hung his coat in Mars’ closet.
“Comfortable?” said Mars as Jeremy situated himself on the sofa.
“It’s fine.”
“Well, don’t get too comfortable,” Mars growled. “You three may be here in my house for tonight, but that doesn’t mean I intend to follow you tomorrow, Jeremy.”
“So you still hate me then? You’ll never forgive me, is that it?”
“It’s not a question of forgiveness really, and I don’t hate you. It’s a matter of trust; in other words, I no longer trust you.”
“I made a mistake a year and a half ago, Mars. It was a big one, I own. I can’t take it back now, and I’ve regretted it from the day you left. But all the same, I’ve apologized and short of saving your life at the expense of mine I can’t prove I’m trustworthy.”
“You made two big mistakes during the course of our friendship,” Mars pointed out. “You’ve apologized for Fiasca, but you never did for closing me out when w
e were teenagers. You were the one who didn’t trust me, back then, so you may as well admit it.”
Jeremy felt the old rage boil up in him, followed by the wash of helplessness that always dominated the memory of that day. He wondered again if what had happened was somehow his fault. He sat up stiff and for the first time; felt righteous dislike for his old friend, Mars. Perhaps the fellow deserved to hear some about it, after all.
“Fine then,” he growled, his voice coming out in a hiss. “Do you want to know what happened to me when I was a teenager? I told my Uncle Tov and the authorities that I couldn’t remember who’d attacked me but I lied. I remember every detail!”
He shoved the nearby coffee table away and stood up. He went over to stare out of Mars’ living room window but he could see nothing in the outside darkness.
“Uncle Tov’s wife…” he began, and then paused for a moment. “She came back to him that summer, if you’ll remember. There was a lot of work to do on the farm, because Uncle Tov wanted to buy her many new things and so he’d decided to clear and put a fast-yielding produce in his extra field. I told him I’d help keep up on the other chores. He’d done so much for me since I lost my parents and he’d been so patient all the years that she’d been gone, so I wanted to help him then. I figured I’d be grown up soon and then he’d be alone if she left him again.”
He paused as he realized that he was talking very fast. He knew Mars was behind him sitting in his easy chair and felt fresh fury that the man was making him explain. He clenched his fists and went on.
“It was hot that summer,” he got out in a guttural voice. “Uncle Tov’s wife, she…”
His face flamed in shame and rage.
“She what?” asked Mars. “Did she find some other fellow and bring him around? Did you catch them at it? Was he the one who struck you?”
Jeremy chuckled in derision.
“There was another fellow she wanted besides my uncle,” he agreed. “I sensed that she wanted to talk to me about something important to her as the days went by. Every time I chopped wood she’d be there, watching me. Or when I carried in the feed bags and hoed the garden plot for kitchen vegetables. And then one day I decided to wash off the sweat from working hard on the fence in the far field. Uncle Tov had journeyed away to Tetoross the day before and was to be gone till that afternoon, visiting the market there to make some sales. I jumped in the creek at my favorite spot. I used to call it my secret spot.”
The Time Mechanic Page 14
