As he ran off, Melaleuca moved her cousins toward the hedgerow that separated the field from Pembrooke’s garden. Nearing it she heard voices calling out their names.
Ari returned.
‘The maids and Pembrooke are looking for us.’
‘Fine. Let’s just wait until they stop searching then.’
Uncle Bear-Nard shouted out from somewhere high up, ‘Go round the back, search the fields, be quick.’
Making an instant decision, Melaleuca said, ‘Okay, now we have to sneak in. Costumes off. We can hide them in the hedge.’
‘Oh,’ Lexington said. ‘We have no undergarments on.’
Quixote started pulling his costume off.
‘So?’
‘So what if Aunty sees us naked?’
He snickered at the thought of running naked past her.
‘Highly improper,’ Ari said imitating her.
Melaleuca held her hand up to silence them.
‘If we are caught with the costumes on, someone will eventually work out it was us that attacked that place. If we get caught naked, well, they will think us...well...who knows...and who cares.’
Naked, costumes hidden, bracelets in hand, they peered through a gap in the Hedgerow. Pembrooke and the maids fanned out through the garden.
Ari sized up the terrain. ‘We have to be careful not to be spotted from upstairs. I think we can out manoeuvre ─ ’
Quixote up and thrust his skinny, naked, body through the gap, laughing. His scrawny head bobbed up and down as he zigzagged along the garden paths, and then dashed across the lawn to the base of the Cathedral-Mansion. He waved at his cousins, and ducked down behind a small bush, though it provided little cover for him.
Lexington scowled, while Ari looked impressed.
‘Change of plans,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Run for it.’
With Ari leading, they thrashed through the garden.
Pembrooke wandered into sight and stared slack-jawed at them. Ari skidded to a halt, and the girls banged into him, pushing him forward.
‘Bracelets on,’ Melaleuca whispered, fearing their discovery.
‘Little blighters,’ Pembrooke said with anger, and then in a caring tone added, ‘Theys won’t tell yous, but yous are really needed. They ain’t got any heirs, and can’t show much love. Not allowed really.’ He smiled showing his missing teeth.
‘Quite,’ Lexington said.
‘Ere where’s ya clothes. And where’s the other little one?’
‘Um…errr…we often run naked,’ Melaleuca said offering a lame explanation. ‘It’s….it’s good for the skin.’
‘Getja inside befores ya spotted,’ he whispered, trying to herd them with stealth.
With little dignity, Jeeves half walked and half sprinted towards them from the back of the Cathedral-Mansion. He looked worried and elated.
‘My goodness, I, we thought you had been lost or kidnapped...I mean were....’ He spluttered, and then as if remembering who he was, stood taut. ‘Miss and Masters. Your absence has caused great concern, least of all to us staff.’
He bent down on one knee, looking at them square on instead of down his nose, and dropped the whole butler act.
‘No one will show you around here that they care. We just cannot show it. Not yet. All of this will be yours one day. This is your inheritance. Don’t wander off again, not until you are ready. There are those who would rob you of your birthright.’
‘Are you leaving the notes?’ Lexington asked.
‘Notes?’ Jeeves looked puzzled at her, and then suddenly said alarmed, ‘Where are your accoutrements? Has some ill befallen you?’
Uncle Bear-Nard burst out from the house, huffing and puffing, his round face, red.
‘Where have you been? Your Aunt is killing herself with worry.’
‘Worry? We thought no one would miss us,’ Melaleuca said.
‘Nor cared,’ Lexington added.
‘M..m...m...missed? Not cared? Let’s get you out of sight. Before your Aunt vents her wrath at you.’
Like a trapped dinosaur roaring from its cage, Aunty Gertrude shrieked out their names from somewhere inside the Cathedral-Mansion. A great commotion, pots and pans banging with the words ‘Get out of the way silly women,’ boomed from inside.
Uncle Bear-Nard cowered and Jeeves became as stiff as a plank.
Aunty Gertrude emerged a fuming fit of ire, rolling out her vexatious stride with measured determination.
‘You little brats. You have done it this time. When I think of the extent of my gratitude. Having to waste the time of my staff and...and...’
She advanced until she stood, towering over them with her gaunt head. Her face pitted itself with red splotches, and tiny blood vessels burst like spider webs on her cheeks.
‘Where are your clothes? I hope for your sake a wild animal tore them off. Disgusting! Cover yourself with your hands, instantly.’
Not understanding her, the cousins covered everywhere except where she meant.
‘We are all naked under our clothes, Aunty,’ Lexington said.
‘Really. Oh I see, really.’ She stepped around the cousins inspecting their bodies. ‘Tut tut. Pathetic. Call those bodies. Lilly-white puffs of soft flesh laid over bones of weak-willed, frail soppiness.’
She pulled her sleeves up, exposing the underside of her toughened leathered forearms. Something in the past had melted her flesh, and it now appeared as a mass of solidified scars. Horrified they could not stop ogling her arms.
Aunty Gertrude noted their mute reaction. ‘Good. Now maybe you might glimpse what it is to have discipline.’
Quixote emerged from his hiding place, yelling, ‘Let me see.’ He bounded across the lawn, his penis slapping on his body as he ran, shocking his Aunt and the maids. He poked her forearms and cried out, ‘Ewww!’
Instant rage flooded her face.
‘Prepare for discipline, moral rectitude, sacrifice, duty and above all pain!’
Uncle Bear-Nard raised his hand in feeble protest.
‘NO BEAR-NARD! IT IS TOO LATE!......There can only be one course of action, one course of action. I just won’t have this wonton, willy-nilly care free behaviour, this dissolute flaunting of rules. That is it. Final.’
Uncle Bear-Nard’s face soured and beads of perspiration frosted his bald head. Even Jeeves dry-swallowed and his fingers twitched.
Quixote held out his hand, palm up, as if asking for something, and dropped his head, though the girls could see him smirking. As his arm rose higher, all the fingers on his hand closed into an awkward fist. Melaleuca moved toward Quixote, though too late. He yanked his head up revealing a grin that a leprechaun would be jealous of, and blurted out, ‘This wrist says, I don’t think so!’
Aunty Gertrude rushed at Quixote drawing her hand back to strike him. Ari leapt forward blocking her way, while Quixote ducked. Pembrooke, Uncle Bear-Nard, and Jeeves all gasped in surprise and yelled out, ‘Quixote!’
With his body shielding a sniggering Quixote, Ari said, ‘You’ll have to come through me first.’
Aunty Gertrude halted, composed herself and backed away, still glaring at them; her face poker-hot red with great distaste.
Melaleuca stepped up beside Ari.
‘We decide what’s best for us.’
Aunty Gertrude mocked her words with a sneer, giving her a dirty look. She pondered the moment.
‘Have this round if you must,’ and one by one she looked them up and down.
She froze her eyes on Lexington and said, ‘When the full flock of your cascading hair has become matted with the mud of Disciple Park...,’ and then glared at Ari, saying, ‘...and when your strength has failed you in the Unforbidden Forest...,’ and then to Melaleuca, ‘...when your forthrightness has been tucked away as a distant memory...And...’ She saved the most disdainful look for Quixote, glaring at him with great repugnance, ‘...when your stupidity has been smashed from your bony frame by the deep reaches of the southern hills
, then we will see who laughs, who plays, who comes, who stays.’
Quixote played with his bracelet. Pembrooke reached down and grabbed Quixote’s wrist with the invisible bracelet on, steadied him, and said, ‘Choose your battles carefully with this one.’
Aunty Gertrude took a step back. All emotion left her face and she said, ‘Bear-Nard, these children will fall under our ways, or go to the borstal, or to the southern reaches.’
Unfazed Melaleuca shot back at her, ‘Perhaps we should like to leave, in that case.’
Aunty Gertrude smiled as if she had caught Melaleuca in a trap.
‘How unfortunate. Those few that come to New Wakefield never leave. Sorry, I guess someone forgot to tell you.’
She walked away happy at the displeasure she thought she had created.
‘Please children,’ Uncle Bear-Nard said in a beaten down voice, ‘Go to your rooms and rest. Some food shall be sent up. Please, we will talk soon.’
None of them wanted to hurt him anymore and so they wandered to their rooms.
***
The cousins gathered in the girls’ bedroom, discovering that both their clothes and their costumes they had hidden sat on the floor. A note sat next to them.
Quixote grabbed it, reading it out loud.
‘By all means keep your identities secret. Let no one know that you have the costumes. For the time being keep away from other people. Learn to use the costumes. By the time your parents get here you should be skilful enough for the next stage.’
‘See,’ Melaleuca said, ‘as I said. First learn to use the costumes.’
Lexington put her detective costume on, letting its deductive powers augment her need to know why. As she flitted through the facts, thinking about Iam, the Borstal, the statues, the bracelets, and the costumes - one overriding conclusion occurred to her.
‘I bet our parent’s were attacked for the bracelets!’
The looks of her cousins demanded an explanation.
‘The Captain guy said we, or the Marauders had been here 30 years ago. We know our parents lived here, or at least one of our mothers; makes sense our fathers did as well, but I bet our parents used the bracelets, and...’
Quixote leapt in and said, ‘Yeah. That explains Dad’s powers eh!’
‘...er...no. They did not have the bracelets.’
Ari pulled his toga on.
‘I’m not sure that makes sense, Lex. The bracelets were here, not in our valley. Surely if they had used them once, they would have kept them on.’
‘Or the bracelets only work here, or with the costumes,’ Lexington said.
‘Or,’ Melaleuca said, ‘it could be one of many reasons. These we will discover as we move forward, playing.’
Lexington placed her hands on her hips.
‘And I suppose you already knew this?’
‘It had occurred to me, yes.’
‘I won’t play. I will pretend instead.’
‘Good,’ Melaleuca said ignoring her dig. ‘One more thing though. We make contact with people only when I say so. Quixote? Is that clear?’
He nodded.
‘Rest and clear ourselves. We start tomorrow morning.’
‘But why not start now,’ Lexington said. ‘The note said to give regard to no others.’
‘I feel it,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Besides I think it wise to make our Aunt think we have calmed down.’
‘You know that whatever it is we have to do,’ Ari said, ‘will probably involve taking her on.’
Aunty Gertrude burst into the room, throwing the door open. A little freaked at the timing, they waited for the inevitable scolding. She shooed the boys out of the room, while Pemily gave the girls bowls of gruel. Petruce escorted the boys to their rooms, serving them with similar muck. Within minutes of her leaving, the boys climbed into the secret passage and wound their way to the girls’ room, finding them staring at the disgusting slop.
‘She said it would make us hard from the inside,’ Lexington said. ‘It smells like vomit.’
The door creaked open again, and Uncle Bear-Nard’s nervous head appeared around the edge checking who occupied the room. He beckoned them to follow him. Trundling behind, the cousins followed him through the wall-door and down the back stairs. Just before the bottom of the stairs he pushed on the wall and it flipped outwards, hinged on an angle.
‘Come through,’ he said.
They squeezed through into another staircase.
Before they could ask, Uncle Bear-Nard explained, ‘Some of the interior staircases have flip sides to them.’
‘Why?’ Lexington asked.
‘Not really sure.’
After walking up two flights of stairs, they came to a narrow corridor leading left and right.
‘Not all the floors have them,’ Uncle Bear-Nard further explained. ‘M..m..most puzzling. Corridors l..l..leading nowhere, but some rooms. Follow.’
They trotted off down the narrow corridor to a small door. Inside, a small table had been spread with a cloth, and dishes containing hot food, and sweet looking ale sat. Around it four, old, rickety chairs sat. Plain walls faced them with four small candles hanging off the wall, burning away and emitting a weak yellow light.
‘I do a..a.a.apologise. Your Aunt has a good heart, a strong heart though. I had Mrs Whibberry chuck t..t.t.this together.’
‘Yum,’ Quixote said
Both he and Ari tucked in without question.
‘Who is Mrs Whibberry?’ Lexington asked.
‘Our cook,’ Uncle Bear-Nard said back. ‘Best not m..m..mention this feast to anyone.’
He scurried out the door before any more questions could be asked.
The cousins did not hold back. They engorged themselves, stuffing food into their mouths and tasting its delectable sumptuousness; chomping and chewing until their bellies could fit no more. They ate so much that weariness came over them. Once finished, they clomped back to their respective rooms, a need to lie down befalling all of them.
***
Quixote flopped around on his bed feeling frustrated. After all he had a bracelet that could bring his imagination to life. He jumped up and looked out the smeary window. Like small dots, the rooftops of the town could be seen down on the valley floor. Maybe there were some children like him down there.
Ari lay on his bed, too full to worry about Quixote’s restlessness, though he too felt restless. Now that he lay still, the silent sensation he had dubbed the “Ethmare” called to him again, though every time he moved or focused on it, it disappeared. Only stillness of his mind and body brought it back. What was it? What around here could command such a feeling inside him?
Lexington’s mind felt too crammed with questions and possibilities to even contemplate trying to sort them out. Stuffed from eating too much, she lay on her bed. Without letting Melaleuca know, she took her advice; relaxed and tried to think of something fun and enjoyable.
As the food gurgled through her intestines, demanding more energy from her body to help digest it, her thoughts slowed down, helping her to relax. Smiling, she pictured herself in an archaeologist’s costume examining the statues in Hirad’s Forest. She thought of Argus videotaping them, the photaic wall, silverquick and Antavahni, and of course the odd creature Iam. She thought of the words that Aunty Gertrude spoke a few days before, about them being descended from Throughnight nobility and wondered if it was connected to what Jeeves said about them inheriting the Cathedral-Mansion. If it were true, then Aunty Gertrude would probably want to stop them. Was the end of age Antavahni spoke of, and the end Iam mentioned, one and the same thing?
As sleep tugged at her, she felt a pang of excitement, realising she would need many different costumes to solve all of these mysteries.
Melaleuca lay on her bed, looking up at the ceiling. In her grew two gardens of thoughts. One was heavily fertilized by the exhilaration of the bracelets and costumes. They had separated her from the earth’s gravity, giving her a great sense of lightness an
d freedom. Even now as she lay down, her body could still feel the sensation, like stepping off a boat on to flat land and still feeling it swaying.
Yet in the other garden of her thoughts, grew a sinking feeling; a feeling that what they had seen and experienced so far, was only a taste of events to come. She felt the edges of seriousness way off in the distance, held back for the time being. Shapeless and making little sense, she knew eventually they would have to face this thing, whatever it was. On her own instructions she tried not to think about it, but needed to find something to laugh about.
Keep moving forward and play.
As ever she resolved to steel herself to follow these instructions no matter what.
***
‘You have two weeks,’ Aunty Gertrude said in another rant. ‘Two weeks to prove to me I should let those brats stay. Or I will alert the high council that my plan to bring outside children to New Wakefield is starting.’
Uncle Bear-Nard looked as defiant as his meek, round face could muster. ‘They need more time to adjust. Children from the outside world are different.’
‘They are weak!’
‘They could be strong.’
‘They should be sent to the Southern Wasteland. I do not want them leaving here until they can act like they should. I forbid it. Hence forth they are house bound.’
‘But ─ ’
‘No BUTS! Do you realise how precarious this is? Do you? With the sighting of the Marauders and your sisters association with them last time, we will be lucky if these children do not finish this great house off.’
He went to speak, but she hushed him, and stormed out through the bedroom door, her hard soled shoes clattering down the corridor.
‘Two weeks,’ she yelled back.
Lost, Uncle Bear-Nard sat on the edge of the bed; the large castle-like room swallowing up his thoughts.
The small creature with changing skin colour appeared in the corridor, morphing into a dirty urchin boy, before stepping into the doorway.
‘What’s wrong?’ Scout asked.
‘That I should be the last of my forebears to witness how empty and forlorn this house has become.’
‘Every great civilisation falls,’ Scout said, offering cold comfort.
‘Perhaps, but if we fall, history shall never know us and any of our past greatness.’
The Omega Children - The Return of the Marauders - Book 1 Page 28
