"Why?" he managed to say.
Two more tears chased the path left by the earlier one, down her swollen
cheeks.
"I'm afeared 'tis bad luck for me to keep it.Th-thanking you anyway, m'Lord."
"Nonsense!" snapped Jim, suddenly determined that hell, high water, and the
whole population of the fourteenth century on this world was not going to stop
him from making a gift of that coin to May now. "How can it be anything like
bad luck? I tell you, as a magician, it isn't bad luck!"
"Oh, m'Lord!Then you'renot never going to leave us after all?You and m'Lady!"
"Of course we " Jim broke off, suddenly floundering at the change of topic.
"That is, we haven't any plans "
"Wehas to know, m'Lord. Not just me and Tom. All the Castle peoplehas to
know!"
"But why?"
"Because it's you weloves , m'Lord, you and m'Lady. Never could any of us
settle to another Lord and Lady, here at Malencontri. Everyone says so. It'd
be the end of everything if you left. So you never will, will you, m'Lord?"
He stared at her. She blinked hard, for the tears were starting again.
"No!" he said gruffly, after a moment.
Angie would never leave young Robert behind here. That was certain. Taking
him from his native world, where he would be rich and lead as good a life
aspossible, was somehow also unthinkable.
"No, we won't be leaving," he said. "What gave all of you that idea in the
first place, anyhow?"
"All thatme and Tom planned" she was looking at him with desperate
earnestness "it was with you and m'Lady and wouldn't never be with no other
Lord and Lady! It's the same with everyone else here at the Castle; and
they've all been trying and trying to make things so you like it here, but you
don't seem to pay them no mind. So all been sure you were going. Not no other
Castle people inEngland has such a Lord and Lady like the two o' you."
"Well& " said Jim.
"We'sCastle people, m'Lord; and we has to think of our childer, too.Tom and
me why, ours might all live to grow up; and some might come to be anybody, if
you and m'Lady stay. Please, m'Lord, take the leopard back, and then I'll be
sure everything'll be all right!"
Jim's throat was tight.
"No," he said strongly, putting his hand around hers and closing her fingers
on it. "You keep it. I give you my word we'll stay. But if anything unexpected
should happen to us, you've got my word the word of a knight and
magician you'll all be taken care of as if we were here for the rest of your
lives. Now, are you through worrying?"
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May stared at him for a long moment,then really burst into tears.
"Oh yes, m'Lord!" she managed to say, clutching the coin.
"Good!" he said; and all but ran out of the room toward the stairs and the
Hall below.
Chapter Forty-Two
He went down feeling a strange division of his spirits. The greater part of
them was filled with happiness and relief, like a lighter-than-air gas within
him, so that he fairly floated down the long spiral of stone steps. But a very
much lesser part was concerned with giving his "word." He had never thought he
would take it so seriously, or find it so hard to do.
There was a special seriousness to that word, however, in this time, and now
that he was beginning to take this era itself seriously& but the happiness in
him overwhelmed the concern for the moment. He could hardly wait to tell Angie
everything.
He had been so used to thinking of each of the Castle's people as
individuals, he had forgotten they were also a community; a village bounded by
stone walls in which he and Angie were the monarchs. Like any community they
had their own group feelings and aims.
He had even been aware of their continuity in time. He had known there were
servants' children being born within these walls, quietly, well out of his and
Angie's hearing. There was even a secret nursery for the youngest called the
"baby-room"; though, officially, the two of them pretended not to know of it.
The children's chances of survival an improved diet, the availability of
extra caretakers, and the like were indeed better in the Castle. Also,
servants and their children shone in a reflection of the light from the higher
ranks they served. They were generally thought to be more capable and of
improved stock. No wonder May had dreams for the progeny she hoped to have.
He passed rapidly through the Serving Room. Nobody met his eye this time,
either, but this was because they were all very busy. He passed on into the
Hall and reached the High Table, with Angie at the end closest to him.
"Look who's here!" she said, leaning back so that he could see further along
the table. Just beyond her sat Kineteté, and beyond Kineteté,
Carolinus looking thin and somewhat fragile, but otherwise as good as ever.
Jim felt a sudden coldness inside him. Kineteté's eyes under her dark brows
were fixed upon him.
"Ah& Kineteté.Mage." It was difficult to meet the unblinking eyes under those
eyebrows. "I called you a little while ago may I talk to you privily?" He
could not let his servants,nor even Sir John, know that he had no right to the
red robe.
"I know," said Kineteté. "And that's the last I want to hear of it. I take it
you're going to join us at table, now? Take the chair on the other side of
Carolinus; and don't let him get excited."
Sir John's three young knights, Jim noticed as he moved toward Carolinus,
were seated at the table's far end. They were silent, eyes on the others
there not surprising, thought Jim. They were sitting at table with two of the
world's three top magicians& it didn't seem to have affected their appetites,
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however. He sat down and greeted Carolinus, bone-thin, but looking unusually
genial.
" I must say," Carolinus was saying, a few moments later, in answer to a
query from Angie, "I look forward to getting back to my cottage. It, and the
Tinkling Water both the way I made them.Restful, with everything in its proper
place."
"I can understand " Angie began, but broke off as a servant came up to
whisper in her ear. "Crave pardon, all my guests, but I must leave you for a
few moments."
She got upend hurried toward the Serving Room.
But Jim only heard her with half his attention. Everything else had been
knocked out by a memory, exploding into life in his mind. One thing of
Carolinus' was not back in its proper place. Jim cleared his throat and looked
at Carolinus uncomfortably.
"There's something I meant to tell you," Jim said. "I was at Court and needed
a scrying glass, and I'd seen a magician in theHoly Land using a bowl of water
for scrying. There wasn't any proper bowl available, so I borrowed one from
your cottage "
Carolinus' white eyebrows waggled up and down.
"A bowl of mine?You borrowed it? What bowl?"
"Oh, it was just a bowl that didn't seem to have any particular use. Just a
bowl you happened to have lying there. I was sure you wouldn't mind "
"What bowl?"
Carolinus' voice had risen. Kineteté was looking around.
"A sort of green crockery bowl, its top edge bent for a lip and four little
orange fishes "
"NOT MY LUNG CH'UAN BOWL, FROM THE SUNG DYNASTY?My nearly
three-thousand-year-old celadon bowl? Where is it?"
Jim stared at him, aghast.
"Well, that's the thing," he said. "At the moment I don't remember, exactly "
"DONT REMEMBER?"
"You see with everything going on Hob!" called Jim desperately. "If you're
listening, do you know what happened to that bowl?"
"I'm sorry, m'Lord. Pray pardon, m'Lord." said Hob, immediately appearing in
the mouth of the nearest fireplace and soaring across to land on the High
Table in front of Carolinus. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]