I'm out of town for a few days and not sure to be able to get access to the web, so I post early and the next one will perhaps be posted late. Enjoy nevertheless...
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Interludes 25 Daughters and sons
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The journey back from Gandhara had been uneventful even if while passing over Persia they had seen what must have been an army moving westwards.
"It seems the Shahinshah of Persia is a little worried to have the Sultan and his armies at his doors" had said d'Arcy after having studied the marching armies.
"Should he be worried?" had asked Charles.
"Indeed he should because eastwards is the only open way for the Ottomans to make up their losses. And clearly the Shah has an army that needs desperately to be upgraded."
Term which had clearly become the most up to date word in the family's vocabulary.
"I've heard the Sultan is building a real economy, we have sold quite a lot of machines to intermediaries who are more or less discreetly working for the Ottomans…"
"Why are we selling to enemies?" had asked William.
"First they are no longer enemies" answered Charles. "And second we are not selling directly to them but to third persons who sell to the Ottomans…"
"Which is the top of hypocrisy" frowned William.
"Not at all since we would sell directly if they dared ask" replied Charles. "But it seems that the Ottomans prefer using intermediaries." He turned toward d'Arcy. "An idea why?"
"They are probably trying to keep a low profile in order to not worry the Czar who's also diligently buying new factories and whose information net is as clumsy as ever. It could be enough to secure the privacy of said transactions, but I doubt it."
"And we provide said factories for both sides" said Charles with a smile. "With or without intermediaries, you'll just have to ask!"
"That is something that worries me, Uncle," said Geoffrey. "Why sell factories? If tomorrow they produce their own wares, we will no longer be able to sell them our goods, isn't it so?"
Charles' smile increased tenfold. He loved it when the youngsters asked smart questions and he loved it even more when the smart questions were economical ones.
"That's a good question and the answer is: because profit doesn't interest me in the least!"
"That's bullshit, Uncle," protested William –which earned him a fatherly frown he ignored superbly-, "and you know it. You love profit! It is what earns you the money that provides you the funds to invest in ever newer inventions…"
"I love earning money" agreed Charles. "But that doesn't imply that I have shortsighted visions when it comes to making profits." He stopped his explication and went to the blackboard behind him. There were blackboards everywhere on Uncle Bingley's properties and airships. He began sketching.
"I spend my money to fund inventors who build prototypes of new machines, these new machines will, within a few years, replace, after a process to refine the way to build them, the old ones because they are much better than what we have now. So Edward will look at the new machines and, as it happens very often, will decide that with these new machines our production will be easier and provide us with better profits…" He looked at the youngsters. "So what happens next?"
"You change the machines?"
"No short cuts, William! To change machines you…"
"Must have built them" said Geoffrey.
"Indeed, and to build them, what do you need?"
Both teens looked at each other and frowned.
"Machines? Other machines?" risked Geoffrey who had always been the promptest to speak.
"What we call machine tools, boys… You can't just change a factory with a snap of your fingers. It takes time and you need tools to build the tools. And that is what we do at our central London factories: we build the tools that build the tools that build the machines we install in factories all over the world. But since we are those who develop the new machines we have another advantage: we can resell them. All our machines –even our machine tools- are built in order to be easily dismantled, refurbished and sold to others." He pointed at the little factories he had drawn surrounding the big factory he had labeled 'MT London'. "These factories manufacture what we sell in England or Wales or Scotland. What goods we sell abroad we produce abroad. We have a lot of trading ships but we use them to ship precious goods not linen or table wear."
He looked at the boys.
"And what are the most precious goods of all?"
"Machines" said William in a conspirator's tone.
"Indeed, machines" agreed Charles using the same tone. "We use our ships to transport machines and spare parts because we, thanks to my inventions and to Edward's machine tools, are machine sellers and factory builders. That's how we make our money, boys, not by selling cheap products to native populations in some backward country. What we export is worth a lot more to the pound that blankets or trinkets. And, most of the time, what we sell abroad has already been used long enough to already have been profitable. And we send the crews that had just dismantled them to rebuild them and to teach the local workmen. So they know their job to perfection and we won't lose more time than necessary. So we earn money twice." His smile broadened. "Or even thrice since, most of the time, we are partners in business with the buyers of factories. So when they make a profit, we have a share of said profit we can invest in the country that has procured said profit."
"And you install new factories…" said Geoffrey.
"Indeed and doing so we make a profit and we develop the economy of our partners and increase the mass of money we give out to the population who can, now, afford more of the products of our factories..."
"Which increases said factories' profit and…" smiled William.
"So the pump is started and –save a war which is never good for true business- the general well being increases rapidly."
"And well fed people are a lot less prone to discuss the rulers' orders…" added d'Arcy. "And this little advantage makes the Company well liked by most rulers in the world."
"Which makes it a perfect system, isn't it?" said William.
"Nothing's perfect, William" answered d'Arcy. "We have less poor people around the factories but progress is still very slow when we speak about the small towns and the villages. It will take time to get these poor people to get their share of the increasing wealth. We still haven't found a way to do it in England or Wales and it is even rougher outside Great Britain. Your Indian peasants are among the poorest in the world. You'll have a lot to do for a few busy decades to make those economies take off."
"The Company is already busy in India" protested Charles. "We've built more factories there than in any other place in the world!"
"And there's still only one factory worker for ten thousand peasants when in England there's one for ten!"
"One for seven in England, one for ten it's Great Britain" corrected Charles. "We are busy increasing the numbers of workers but we are blocked by the British school jam. We are raiding Scotland's best workers to be able to reach our growth targets but soon we'll have them all. Nowadays there are more Scotsmen in London than in Edinburgh."
"You could raid Ireland when Scotland's empty" smiled d'Arcy who liked to tease Charles for his new found but fiercely lived Irish Patriotism. Since he had found out that his family had deep roots in Ireland he had taken Ireland's welfare as his second most loved task –all knew that nothing would ever be able to quench his love for new machines and tech gadgets- and he was rather protective with his people. "Lots of unproductive people there…"
Charles shot him a suspicious glance and refused to enter the fray.
"The schools are just set" answered he. "When the first educated workers are ready to move on we will have enough factories to give them work on site. And Ireland should be much easier to develop, less hardwired aristocrats to make trouble."
And he was right, even if most of the English Aristocrats had been authorized –thanks also to Charles' great role as a middleman- to come back and had even gotten back part of their estates most of it had stayed confiscated. It could have been a reason for long-lived and bloody feuds had not Charles used all his influence –and his perfect and jovial manners- to smooth everything out. He was Irish by blood and English by education and he had played on that double origin to flatten everything out of existence. Of course his wealth had done marvels to cut corners but it had been his personality who had, finally, brought everybody to make acceptable concessions. So that, even if a great deal of land had been restored to the English families who had developed it, most of the seized land has been placed under royal guardianship and Fitzwilliam was a lot more pliable to the Company's economic demands than other highborn pricks. Charles had used his tremendous wealth to grease the wheels and the Company had been granted the actual business. Roads, Railroads, Bridges and Factories were providing well paid jobs to uneducated workers everywhere in Ireland. And while the dads where working on the land's infrastructure, their lads –and lasses, Elizabeth had been adamant- were busy and enthusiastically learning to be the future Bingleys who would change the world. Even if the workload was tremendous and the costs huge there was no doubt for those who showed interest and studied the figures that Ireland would within the next ten years be as industrialized as Wales with a well-educated and motivated Youth whose only desire would be to show to the world that they could match Charles Bingley's success story. And after years of throwing money into what seemed a bottomless hole, the investment Charles had made would finally pay. Tenfold at least and probably a lot more!
D'Arcy decided that he was done teasing Charles.
"You know you'll succeed in Ireland, Charles, stop doubting. They'll have a better infrastructure than France and the school system Elizabeth and the Jesuit Father General hammered out in only five years will be one of the bests in the world. Ireland will be an example for everybody at how a poor agrarian country can be boosted into a thriving industrial one within ten years and without sprouting an inch of discontent."
Charles acknowledged d'Arcy's compliment with a smile but couldn't help but express his other doubts.
"There is discontent, Geoff. The Church has not accepted the Black Robes' monopole on educational matters. They are wasting funds while trying to build a parallel school system."
"Let them pour their money down the drain, as long as it is on constructive projects, everybody wins! Better too many schools than too less and remember that they could have spent their money into stirring unrest and sabotaging the worksites."
Which, unknown to Charles and Fitzwilliam, they had done for the first two years… Unluckily for their agents a number of d'Arcy's old special agents had chosen to settle on the Island and had stayed in touch with him through Ann's net. When d'Arcy's orders had reached them they were ready to do what was necessary to ensure that Ireland's peace would not be broken by petty religious rivalry. If more than a few of those church agents had survived it was probably because they weren't very active or motivated.
A bell ringed from the upper lookout threw them out of their conversation to put them back into the reality of their arrival in Croatia.
Charles went to the talktube –another of his worlds- and listened to the lookout's report.
"There are seven airships parked over the harbor in Spalatro… That means that we have at least two visitors waiting for us."
"I would have loved to take a few days off" grumbled d'Arcy. "With those idiotic lessons, I haven't seen my wives for more than a few minutes in succession for the last three days. I'm rather upset by those arrangements of theirs."
"That's because you already know Gandharan" smiled William. "You could have come and helped us."
"I could have" grumbled d'Arcy. "But I'm not quite accustomed to my eldest daughter's ways. I'm a progressive man but there are limits…"
"She's sixteen and, in Gandhara, of age…"
"Well, damn if I don't have heard that little part of trivia at least a hundred times. She has a bad influence on the girls, that's all!"
"I believe she likes it to upset you" teased William. "You shouldn't have tried to convince her that while she was with you she was under your authority. I'm not sure she's taken that little set of orders very well."
"She's my daughter and she's only sixteen! Walking naked around is not…"
"She wasn't naked" protested William while Geoffrey took great care not to interfere in what was clearly a family matter. "She was wearing her bathing suit…"
"Which is even more outrageous than being naked" grumbled d'Arcy. "There's more fabric in one of my handkerchiefs than in that bathing suit of hers. I'm not against admiring a perfectly proportioned female body but that's within my bedchamber not in public!"
And not if it is my daughter, added William in his head.
"I quite liked what I saw" whispered Geoffrey to his best friend. "And I'm quite sure that Betty and Lexi where more than interested too…"
"Hush…" answered William. "You want to have him rant like yesterday?"
"It was rather pleasant, that. See the great d'Arcy ridicule himself like that was refreshing. I would never have believed that I would saw him lose his temper."
"And that Loudiv didn't balk did nothing to improve his temper…"
Charles, who was always displeased to see a friend pissed, tried to smooth out the situation.
"I'm quite sure she will be more reasonable once we are in a real town. Here we were practically with family. Even the crew is composed of cousins of mine…"
D'Arcy shot an angry look at his brother.
"You should advise some of said cousins of yours that if one of them makes a pass at my daughter it won't end without consequences…"
"Hey, she began it!" protested Charles who was quite amused by d'Arcy's outbreak. It didn't bode very well for what would happen when Betty and Lexi would begin to look around at the other gender. "She is the one who's flirting with every able bodied non family male!"
D'Arcy shot him a gloomy glance.
"Let those non family males know that they risk their life if they touch her, that's all! I need to be fair with them I wouldn't want them to be taken by surprise!"
"After your two outbreaks these last days, there's nobody who doesn't exactly know what you think and what you are going to do if…"
"Well" said d'Arcy with a humorless smile, "than it will be a fair affair, won't it?"
There was a noise behind them and they all turned around to look at Jane.
"Still angry, love?" asked she while making great efforts not to smile.
"I'm not angry" grumbled d'Arcy. "I'm pissed off…"
"I suppose this scene is all about Loudiv, as it was for the last two days?"
William couldn't help but let a smile invade his eyes. He had been witness to all three of his father's rants and it had been a real surprise for him to see that his so self-controlled dad could lose himself in such an extraordinary fashion.
"She irritates me… And I believe she does it on purpose!"
"Of course she does, love" said Jane. "Look at you, you've lived four months with her mother before disappearing without ever even looking if she existed and here you are giving her orders about the way she should or shouldn't behave. Don't you think you should have, before everything else, asked her about what she did these sixteen years? Ask her how she did without her real father? Or even perhaps asked her for forgiveness?"
"There's nothing to forgive, it was Teela who sent me away. I would have stayed longer. A few more months at least."
"But you had no intention to stay with her…" whispered Jane while embracing her husband.
Charles glanced at the boys and made a hand gesture inviting them to go somewhere else. As soon as they were on their way he winked at Jane and climbed to the upper bridge to supervise the landing.
Jane welcomed his discretion with a glad smile.
"She wouldn't come with me, and I had a lot to do elsewhere."
"So she took the decision out of your hands and granted you your freedom to go" said Jane with a whisper. "She knew she couldn't stop you. And I am very glad that she let you go."
He leaned back and his irritated frown disappeared slowly.
"Sorry, love, but it irks me to see all these studs looking at her with lust in their eyes."
"Daughters are God's curse for all those unfaithful teenaged years men spend improving their seducing skills on helpless females…" said she slowly. "But even if you were sent away you still need to speak with your daughter and ask her for forgiveness, if not for leaving her mother than for never ever having thought of what could have happened between you."
"You think she hates me?"
Jane couldn't help but laugh.
"There is no female alive who can hate you but she needs to have a long conversation with her father. She needs you to ask about what she wants, why she's here with us, what you can do to help her to find what she seeks. Maureen and I we can be a great help to her but in all matters including her father you are the only one who can help her." She forced him to look into her eyes. "And shouting at her will have only bad consequences…" He tried to speak but she didn't let him. "Look, she's no fragile helpless female. I think she's still a virgin but she's rather discreet when it comes to that sort of things, so I believe she's still pure in that silly macho way of speaking. And if it is the case –since it is not a cultural taboo for Gandharan women to play around with a few different partners- I believe it is because she had always idealized you and no boy was ever able to take your place in that imaginary Pantheon all girls build to protect themselves against deceit. So, yes, you really need to speak with her about you. And patronizing as you did until now is not the correct answer at all!"
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"He isn't a bad father…"
Loudiv looked up into Lexi's green eyes.
"I never believed that he was" she said with a smile. "I just believe that he is an idiot."
"That's not true" protested Lexi. "He's the best father ever and if he treats you like a little girl, it is because you don't know how to handle him…"
Loudiv couldn't help but laugh out aloud.
"I don't want to handle him, Lexi. I want him to respect me…"
Lexi made a face.
"Is it too much to ask him to respect me, Lexi?"
Loudiv and Lexi had within the few weeks they had known each other built a very close relationship. Betty was different. With her, Loudiv had her problems because if Lexi was able to listen and to accept Loudiv's leadership and experience, it was no so with Betty. Betty was, deep inside, a leader who would never accept anybody but her father as her leading figure. Lexi, on the other side, was always ready to look at the other's point of view. She wasn't gullible or feeble-minded, she was just… Tolerant and curious.
"Of course not, and I'm sure he will do it when he has fathomed the differences between us."
"You believe he mixes us up?"
"Not what I want to say…" answered Lexi. "Of course he knows that you are not me or Betty but you are almost a grown-up and what is even more difficult for him you are the first woman in his family who doesn't look up at him…"
"You're not very kind with your mammas there!"
"It's the truth" smiled Lexi. "We all love him way too much, we won't confess it but we find it pleasant that he likes his women to worship him. And there you come and you are not awed by his charisma. He's lost there…"
Loudiv came to her sister and embraced her.
"You are full of surprises, little sister" she said in Lexi's ear. "You don't look it but you are much deeper than one could think."
Lexi's smile increased.
"That's because I'm a red-hair. Everybody believes that we are fiery and direct –and beautiful- but they always forget that we are able to use our mind. Mamma's the same, she doesn't look it but she's a real deep thinker. What looks like silence with her is in truth an overthinking of the actual problems. I love mom Jane a lot and she is the most compassionate woman I know but mamma is the woman I admire most in life. Nothing ever makes her not do what she believes necessary. You know that she was mom Jane's bodyguard in Ireland?" Loudiv just shook her head. "And she took a bullet and a knife in her place… She saved hers and Betty's and William's life against idiots who wanted to kill Englishmen. Never hesitated a second my mamma. Did what had to be done. Mom Jane saved her and it was that night that mamma, thinking she was going to die, confessed being in love with papa. And mom Jane did what she believed necessary and decided to share papa with mamma. I'm very lucky with my moms and we are all very lucky with papa even if he's a prize idiot with you."
"There we agree, Lexi!" said her sister with a smile.
"But he's an idiot only because he doesn't know how to react with an almost grown up daughter. We are still children in his eyes and he believes that we are safe from men's attention but we have not yet been able to teach him how to react with a teenage daughter. The answers he knows are efficient with us are not with you but he doesn't know it yet, so he makes mistakes…"
Loudiv sighed.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Just to stay when he comes to speak with you…"
"He won't come…"
"Yes he will" retorted Lexi. "I saw mom Jane walking towards the bridge and she had that little frown which Betty and I know is there when she's not happy with one of us. And since she was going where papa is currently, it is quite clear that she is speaking with him right now."
"About me?"
"Of course about you" said Lexi. "It is only 'us' that has a real importance for mom Jane. She feels for the world and everybody else, that's not what I want to say, but the only reason she has ever argued with papa had always been one of us. And right now she is arguing with him. Not like mamma would but like mom Jane does everything; with calm and steadiness. And love, lots of love…" She smiled at her sister. "And if there's one thing which always brings papa on your side, it is love. He's so convinced that he doesn't deserve to be loved that it drains him of all arguments."
"Do I hear an advice here?"
"Yes and no…" answered Lexi. "You don't yet need to resort to it. Keep it in mind for a moment where you'll need very much to have him forgive you. For now he's the idiot who's made the mistakes. It's you he must convince to forgive him! So just stay demure and be ready for the right moment to embrace him. Usually it's the best way to conclude an argument." She looked her sister in the eyes with all the seriousness an eleven years old girl was able to muster. "And if he cries don't laugh at him, it would hurt him very much."
Loudiv shook her head.
"I never laugh when a man is able to show feelings, love, I know it is the most difficult thing for them to do."
Lexi's smile lit up the cabin.
"That's good that you know because boys are real idiots in that domain."
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"Something else you don't approve with me?" said Loudiv as soon as she had seen her father.
She had known since her early youth that attack was most of the time the best defense.
And having been informed of his imminent arrival had given her the time to prepare a scathing first salvo.
He took the blast with equanimity.
"I suppose I deserve it" he said with a sigh. "I'm here to apologize for my behavior. I had no right to make the demands I made. I'm sorry…"
Loudiv took a few seconds to think. She didn't join him to retaliate for his departure. Her father had been absent but within a matriarchal society it hadn't really been important. There had been other men and they had played their father role almost correctly. She was here because she wanted to know him, to understand him.
"You could have given me advice before ordering me around. I would have listened."
"Indeed I could have and it was even the reason I sought you out but seeing those rascals drooling around you, made me angry. At them to be men, at you to be so beautiful and fragile…"
"I do know how to defend myself and your crew members were no danger for me!"
"Easy to say for you but it was the first time in my life that I was confronted with the fact that I soon would have to let you go to follow one of these rascals. And I hadn't even had the time to know you!"
She let her frown disappear and smiled at him.
"I'm not yet seduced and married and I'm more of the seducing sort than the opposite. In my civilization it's the woman who plucks and discards. You should be worried for their ego, not mine!"
He made a gurgling noise.
"Well if you could, please, wait a few more years before becoming a plucker-discarder I would like that very much."
"I'll see what can be done, luckily there's nobody aboard this airship who's worth to be plucked."
He made a face.
"That doesn't really reassure me because we are just at a few hours from our destination and Spalatro is a city of a few thousand souls."
"Well, I'll try to be reasonable and not to tarnish my late father's reputation. I'll be a good girl."
"That's not why I was bothering you…" whispered d'Arcy.
"I know but I'm sure it won't be a bad thing to behave like a well-born Lady while I'm with you. Care to explain what you want?"
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"I don't know" said Loudiv. "I really don't know. I was just in need to change my surroundings. I had volunteered to go to America but mamma was adamant that I was too young to go alone settling a new land. I'm sure the real reason was that she couldn't accept my going away…"
"Can't blame her for that…" answered d'Arcy. "I'm unable to envision Betty or Lexi leaving me and Jane to live a life where I wouldn't have a say!"
"It won't happen soon but it will happen. They are both headstrong independent girls who do have their own plans for their lives."
"I know, I know, but it is difficult to imagine them as grown-ups." He looked at her and snickered. "Your arrival has shown what they will probably look like in a few years and I just cannot accept what it will mean for them." He shook his head. "They are my little babies and I was lying to myself by picturing them as little girls for years and years to come. With you before my eyes that little lie and illusion just couldn't survive."
"And it angered you…"
"No, it scared me. I'm a man who loves to prepare things years in advance and here I am confronted with the truth of my inanity to really prepare their lives."
"You could still do it" said Loudiv. "You have the mind and the means to steer them in the direction you wish for them."
"I probably do but if I do that I'm going to lose them with certainty! They are not idiots and, someday they will discover my schemes and what I have done to control their life. They won't react kindly. I hadn't when I was young and I escaped my father's clutches when I was fifteen. I can't risk losing their love." He smiled more for himself than for her. "I'm quite the addict, you know. Nothing makes me happier than one of their genuine loving glance at me. I don't know how I am going to live without them…"
"They are not yet gone and if I have clearly understood what is in the family rumor mill both your wives are presently pregnant. You should have replacements when Betty and Lexi begin to try flying with their own wings!"
"They cannot be replaced but I see what you mean, there should be other admiring glances coming from other lovely eyes. But I will still have lost them…"
"You'll lose them even faster if you try to imprison them. Let them make their experiences while not bothering them too much. They'll be grateful and accept your meddling with better grace."
"I'm not meddling…"
"Yes you are" retorted Loudiv. "And I can't fail to see that you are not treating your daughters like you treat your son."
D'Arcy nodded.
"It's difficult with William. Not because of him but because of me. There's mistrust in my heart for him. I look at him and I see myself and at his age my heart was overflowing with hatred for my father. And I can't look at him without being scared that my behavior will push him into hating me."
"And that's why he has so much more freedom than Betty and Lexi."
"Perhaps, but it is also because he is so much more reasonable…"
"Lexi is the most reasonable girl I ever met! She knows what she wants and never does anything foolish on her own."
"But that's not the case for Betty." He shook his head and the proud little smile that angered Jane so much came adorning his lips. "They are always together, we can't make a difference between them or Betty will resent it even more than the current situation. There's nothing she hasn't done since she's able to walk. We are very lucky to still have her. She could have died a thousand times with her foolish stunts. We really don't know how to stop her…"
"She will be a lot more reasonable in the future. Her mother's despair after what she has done with that blood exchange has shattered a lot of her confidence. I do fear that, in order to please her mom, she will smother her true self and wither away…"
"You believe so?" The smile has disappeared to give place to a worried frown. "It is certain that she was a lot quieter these last weeks but we thought that it was the counter effect of her almost dying."
"You were probably right but it is not the root of her behavior. She isn't scared of dying; she's scared of losing her mom's love. And she believes that what her mom wants is her being like Lexi. Being like the perfect daughter is something she's trying very very hard to do right now! And she's hurting a lot because of it because it is not what her true self asks her to be." Loudiv looked at her father. "Betty is an opposite Weaver, which means that she has two talents that are contradictory. Developing one of them will be at the detriment of the other. There is no choice for her. Light and shadow cannot be developed simultaneously. She'll be pulled between both till she had made a conscious choice of what her life will look like."
"Is shadow more dangerous than light?"
"It has nothing to do with being dangerous or not. A talent is a talent. You have it and you develop it, that's all. And by developing it you gain powers which give you better ways to infer with your environment. I can't be more precise because you don't have a talent so you won't feel what it is when a talent is pulling you in its direction." She closed her eyes and sorted her thoughts. "Shadow is the most powerful talent of all. Shadow is, in essence, what the Universes are made of. For one part Light in the Universe there are probably ten parts shadow. And shadow is everywhere because shadow predates everything. Light covers shadow and pushes it aside but it never destroys it. When Light is present, shadow isn't gone, it's just no longer visible…"
"So you mean that shadow has the greatest lure?"
"By an enormous margin. I don't know of any weaver who has a shadow talent who isn't a first and for all shadow weaver."
"Is shadow evil?"
"Shadow is shadow" answered Loudiv. "Shadow is power and might. Shadow brings you everything much more easily than any other talent. Shadow is like an enormous pool of power that whispers in the weavers' ears to use it, embrace it and dive in it!"
"So you say that she'll have no choice but to be a shadow weaver."
"I just said that I don't know of any shadow talent bearer that has resisted to the shadow's lure. I never said it couldn't happen. It had perhaps happened but frankly it is very unlikely. Would you when placed before a choice chose the less powerful of both possibilities?"
She saw in his eyes that he would have done like everybody else.
"But being a shadow weaver is not an evil thing in itself. As for every other talent, what it's used for is the weaver's choice. But a shadow weaver lives each hour of each day at the brink of becoming a monster. Because shadow is a devious lover. Layer by layer the shadow darkens your soul and one day, if you are not very careful, there is only shadow left and no more soul!"
D'Arcy's eyes were covered by a frown of concentration.
"Why do you insist on that?"
"Because if Betty is smothering her real self, her shadow talent will have it so much easier to eat away the light at the core of her soul. And you won't like at all what she will become if that part of shadow reigns over her spirit."
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"Is there something wrong?"
Jane could only feel the hurt in her heart while listening to her daughter's fearful voice.
"Not with you, love, not with you" said Jane while pulling her daughter in her lap. "We need to speak about you and what you are trying to do to please me…"
"I'll do my best, mamma, I swear, it's dif…"
Jane stopped her daughter with a light finger on her lips.
"I know and I want you to stop…"
Betty couldn't help but look at her mom open-mouthed and wide-eyed.
"Stop? But why?"
Jane took her time to sort her thoughts.
"Because I feel that you are unhappy with what I forced you to do." Jane shook her head to signal that she wasn't done. "Please let me speak and explain myself and afterwards you'll ask all the questions you want? Do we agree?"
Betty nodded silently.
"We spoke, your father, me and Maureen and we all agree that we don't like what you try to convert to. We like old rambunctious, overactive, daredevil Betty better than smothered, silent and overcautious Elizabeth. We know that the old Betty was acting without thinking about the costs and therefore was always at the brink of breaking something be it herself or something fragile around her. But all in all we got, when the time to kiss you to sleep was there, a smiling face and brightly lit eyes. Now we have a pout and eyes that are dull or wet with unshed tears."
Jane took her daughter's face between her hands and kissed her softly between the eyes.
"I prefer being scared by what could –perhaps- happen than shattered by what will –with certainty-happen to you if we insist in forcing you to be another person. Betty, I wasn't wrong to blame you for what you did with your brother that evening but I was wrong to use your mistake to make you pay for all the fears you have, since you are able to walk, given rise in my heart. And that was exactly what I was doing, love, and I'm sorry for it. I don't like the fearful and frustrated Elizabeth that is trying to smother wild and happy Betty. I don't like her at all! Please, let Betty come back to me…"
Soon Betty's arms were around her mother's neck and both were sharing tears that weren't –yet- tears of joy.
-°-oOo-°-
"But we are just back. We normally stay till end of October."
The serious colonel who had brought Fitzwilliam's orders did convey his regrets but clearly he wasn't calling the shots here.
William turned around and looked at his mother who was just folding the letter Fitzwilliam had sent to her and her husband. She touched d'Arcy to let him know that it was to him to speak.
"Sorry, son" said d'Arcy. "But it looks like the heir is needed in London. There is a delegation of your new American subjects who's arriving and Fitzwilliam believes –and I think he is right- that since you made that famous speech you should be there to welcome them back into the fold." He looked at Geoffrey and his mother. "You and Lizzie are, if I have fathomed Fitzwilliam's hairsplitting style, conveyed in the same manner. We will entrust William into your competent hands."
"We will change airships and board the Pemberley immediately," said Lizzie. "We will come back, hopefully with Fitzwilliam, as soon as we can. I still need to follow a few lessons in your company."
"I'll join you if you accept," said Loudiv. "I'd like to meet my two last Aunts. Hopefully one of them will be in London. And while there, I'm willing to teach you the languages you need to know."
"Let's do it then" said Lizzie while walking to Jane to embrace her.
"I'll be back as soon as possible…"
"Don't bother" whispered Jane. "Just prepare everything to host us all in Pemberley. I have the clear feeling that we will be there for quite a longer stay than usually."
"Why would you say that?"
"We'll need the pond for Josephine just around January and in late Spring Maureen and I will need it too. So I believe you'll have to prepare Pemberley for a lengthy and populous stay." She smiled at her sister. "Fitzwilliam will love it to have you and us in Pemberley." She shot a glance at the clear Croatian sky. "He's like any other man born in England, he loves his sun and his beaches, but only for so long. For him Pemberley will ever be his favorite place to spend in the company of loved ones."
"You're probably right… So you mean to join us when?"
"Let's not put everything in a mold. If you can come back to profit from the late autumn sun, don't hesitate but if it is too difficult just let us know, we'll join you in London or Pemberley like we do every year."
"Just that this year there will be even more people…"
"Indeed and don't forget to reserve a suite of rooms for Napoleon's staff should he decide to come to be with his wife a few days before the delivery."
"I won't and I'll have the nursery refurbished and prepared."
"That could be a good idea since you're going to be an Aunt at least three times."
"At least?"
"It could be that I'm with twins once more" answered Jane. "There were a few allusions coming from Maureen which were pointing in that direction; but nothing's sure so please don't up your hopes. It could still be only a solitary child."
"I'll prepare for every contingency" said Elizabeth. "Don't worry everything will be alright."
-°-oOo-°-
"Father" said Alexandre after having hugged his father fiercely. Napoleon had never been a snob in all his life and since Joephine's and his son had never played the aristocrat's kid game, they had always been in their more intimate familial relationships as normal as the Darcy/d'Arcy brood. Which was fine with Napoleon whose huge family was more –to his very great frustration for some of them- on the extrovert and outdoing side than normal aristocrats.
Napoleon's mom loved her grandson and she loved even more his unadulterated love for the Mediterranean Sea which was, if one has to believe her a sign that the Buonaparte blood was regenerating after the abysmal failure of Napoleon who –to his mother's never-ending despair- preferred Paris to any other place in the world, Ajaccio included.
"What are you doing in Spalatro?"
"You seem surprised, son, not happy to see your Dad?"
"Of course I am but I know your loathing for the Sea and matters nautical, so I'm quite surprised to see you here when we would have been in Paris the day after tomorrow."
"I hate being on a ship but those cool and quiet airships have changed my opinion about sea travel." He smiled his smuggest daddy smile. "Sea travel five thousand meters above sea level is a wonderful way to go from one point to another. Especially if one, as a Nation, possesses a whole Sea, one can travel a lot more easily to and fro its little private pond."
Alexandre smiled at his father while pouting a little. He loved it when his father was able to climb out of his official persona to become a man with a sense of humor and a real capacity to laugh about himself.
"That explains why you use airships, not why you are here…"
"Officially I'm here to greet Great Britain's heir before his return to London."
"His return to London, but we've just arrived!" protested Alexandre more to the Gods than to his father. Father who didn't fail to understand his son's frustration. Because he was going to London too!
"And you want me to go with him?"
"Of course I want you to go with him, Alexandre. You are friends and you have shared a lot of free time together. Now comes the time when you have to learn your future jobs and I see only advantages to let you learn it together. It will emulate you both and it will give you, to the both of you I mean, an insight on how the other's mind works. And that will give both our empires a tremendous advantage. You will know what to do to obtain the most without upsetting William."
"So will he…"
"Indeed and that will warrant us with a peaceful and prosperous future…"
"And" added Josephine, "there is another thing that will warrant us peace between you: you will never be opponents for the same girl."
Napoleon could only nod to his wife's affirmation. That was indeed another very important point.
"What do you mean?" asked Alexandre while doing quite well hiding his anxiety and surprise.
"We are speaking of that little red haired girl who set her sight on you, your grace" answered his mother. "You are perhaps not aware of it but the both of you are quite the attached pair."
"One could say the same for Betty and Janet, I'm with them as often as with Lexi."
"You are perhaps in the same vicinity as them but there is only one of those girls you are really with most of the time."
"It isn…"
"Why do you protest, son?" asked Napoleon. "I'm quite satisfied with her choice and I'm even more satisfied that you are sharing her attachment. You are the heir and she's the heir's sister. Your sentimental fate could have been one of unhappiness and sorrow. So you both with your liking each other give us, we heartless and scheming rulers, an extraordinary opportunity. We'll seal the pact between both the greatest empires on Earth with a wedding between two level headed smart youngsters who happen to like each other." He looked at his wife and she took the floor.
"Alexandra is the best choice for you, she's smart, she's not half as wild as her sister and, from what I have seen, she's a serious and hardworking pupil always respectful of her teachers. She's no snob or snootish in her behavior when in company of grown-ups. All in all she is well behaved, quiet and you'll find in her your most loyal supporter." She looked at her husband. "Should you, in a few years, consider something more than friendship we would be more than happy to agree to the match."
"You're sure it will pass with the French Aristocracy? Her mother is an Irish farm girl…"
"And her father the most titled member of the nobility, a hero and –your father not included of course- the richest estate owner in Europe" added his mother.
"Which should" interrupted Napoleon, "warrant us, I'm quite sure of it, that her dowry will be royally handsome!"
Alexandre shared a desperate glance with his mother. Being a poor aristocrat who had been able to pay his enrolment as an officer only after having borrowed the money from his brother had been a tremendous blow to Napoleon's self-respect and he never really overcame it.
His mother decides not to point out her husband's failings and went on.
"And, to be honest, if one looks at you, son, you are only the offspring of two very thin blooded aristocratic lines. One of them foreign and the other born out of trade and tainted with mulatto." Her eyes stopped smiling. "But even if I say it, should these words come from anyone outside the direct family I'll rip out the speaker's throat with my own teeth!"
"And there is a last advantage at you being together" added Napoleon while making a face. "At least we are sure she'll survive your first night together."
Both Josephine and Alexandre looked at him more than amazed.
"I'm not an idiot, you know" he pointed out. "And Jane is still, even after all these years spent in the company of one of the best liars I ever met, the worst liar available in whole Europe. I agree that I was still ill and feeble but I still was able to recognize her in full blushing-stammering liar attire. From there on I have thought about it and it came rather easily to me that it was you, my dear wife, who had infected me with that little nasty and interesting disease you probably all caught while in South America." He took a deep breath. "And I'm better than I was in the last twenty years." He tapped at his pouch. "And it seems that that thing has decided that it preferred me slim and athletic." He smiled at his wife. "I will never be the Adonis-Mars sculptural d'Arcy type but you should be satisfied with what your husband is going to look like if what I'm seeing in my mirror goes on for quite a bit of time!"
He couldn't help but see the glance his wife and his son shared.
"And yes I would be very interested to be informed what you know about it and about what you and the other wielders have decided to do to spread or not spread said little nasty interesting disease."
-°-oOo-°-