22 Chapter 22
–oOo–
Reckless and fearless
–oOo–
"Mr. Bennet, Mr. Bennet, we have to move…"
Said Mr. Bennet looked up from his morning newspaper and shot a non-committal glance at his wife.
"We just came home, dear, I'm not interested with another journey for at least a month. Probably two if I want to be frank."
"We've just got a Chapgraph from Lydia. The first in more than two years."
"Well if we already have it why should we move? Is the end missing?"
"Read!" commanded his wife in a tone which showed that she wouldn't be placated.
He took the paper and began to read.
In fact, it was a short two sentences message. Greetings not included.
Tell papa that there is a man at my side who insists that he needs an answer coming from him. We are awaiting him and his answer in Gandhara.
Mr. Bennet sighed.
"Let her know that I agree, and let's be done with it" he said while taking up his newspaper at the page he had been forced to stop.
He saw his wife's hand snapping towards it, and he saved his paper at the last second.
"My daughter has found a man she's ready to marry and you believe I will stay here when I know where to find them? You better be ready to journey tomorrow morning, or you'll come without luggage."
And gone she was shrieking like in old days.
"Kitty, Kitty? Where are you?"
–oOo–
"We won't be able to escape" sighed Charles.
"They are already ordering the servants about the luggage" confirmed Fitzwilliam. "I fear Charles is right."
"We could let them go without us…" said Mr. Bennet.
"Without us" snickered d'Arcy while pointing at Fitzwilliam and Charles, "is probably a possibility. But you, as the father, you won't be able to escape at all. Remember you're summoned to give your assent."
"If I'm forced to go, I'll refuse that's all."
"You're ready to die horribly?" teased d'Arcy. "Because if you refuse the man your wife's favorite daughter has accepted to wed, you're just that: dead!"
"If you want asylum, I'll take you in" proposed Fitzwilliam. "I could commandeer Charles favorite airship and we could escape to London."
"No luck, boys" pointed out Charles. "Said airship is already commandeered by my wife –and all of yours for that matter- and is no longer available. You'll have to ask Gérauld, he can perhaps part with his Aquila."
"The Aquila is an obsolete, dangerous, steam powered half wreck" hammered Mr. Bennet. "I like my other French son in law very much, but I distrust his ship's technology."
"And the contrary isn't possible, they wouldn't be able to get to Gandhara with the Aquila" said d'Arcy. "That airship has not the range to reach India." He shook his head. "If we want to be sure that our wives and kids arrive sound and safe, it must be the Arrow. And I'll go with them."
"You're sure the kids will be going with them?" sighed Fitzwilliam.
"I don't see a way to avoid that" snorted d'Arcy. "They have heard that the journey goes to Gandhara. You remember the famous city of magic floating over its fabulous mountain range?"
"I really can't go on another journey" said Fitzwilliam. "I'm needed at home. God knows what's going to happen while I'm away for another month. That incident between the Irish and the Scotts because of two tiny Islands was enough for this year." He smiled at Charles. "Thanks to have solved the problem by buying them."
"I was only the straw man" pointed out Charles. "The real buyer was d'Arcy. He has plans for those islands and no, I haven't asked what those plans are!"
"I'll take care of your family" reassured him d'Arcy without answering Fitzwilliam implied question. "As I said I'm up for that trip whatever else you decide."
"I hate it, but I won't have a choice. I need to be in London end of next week. I have important political meetings scheduled. No way can I cancel them…"
"If we all move to the East you'd better go back to London immediately" said Charles. "To go to London the Aquila is a good choice."
"No need to borrow Gérauld's airship. I'll chap to London and ask for the Pemberley to come get me." He looked at Charles. "You said she was ready…"
"She is and so is the crew. She could be here within two or three days."
"Let's say three days; I'll have to stay with Gérauld for a couple of days to discuss the situation of Serbia. We are not sure about how we should react to their upraising and demands. Alexander wouldn't like any interference into his inner affairs."
"Helping them is out of the question, Fitzwilliam" insisted d'Arcy. "But you could perhaps serve as a go-between. The Serbs are a prickly bunch who is not at all open to reason, but you are the only one they can't accuse of having committed crimes against them… Even if France did nothing against them, they insist that we are criminals!".
"They consider having been sold to the Russians by Napoleon," said Charles. "And if we look how our dear Russian friend is dealing with them, they are not totally wrong to be unhappy."
"I do agree, but I do also know that Gérauld, on the other side, is very happy not to have them under his authority," added Fitzwilliam. "He would probably only have exiled and not hanged all the captured Serbian leaders like Alexander did but he would have been forced to crush the rebellion in the same manner."
"Well, it seems that the lessons the Russian had in Poland didn't bear fruit or weren't learned very well. The Cossaks are as prompt as ever to smother an uprising in blood and lead," added Mr. Bennet.
"Well, trying to attack Alexander's wife and his only living daughter was not a very smart move," commented Fitzwilliam. "Since Jane saved her daughter, he no longer shuns his wife and has established a real partnership with her and she's now not only his Czarina but his appreciated wife. I do understand his ire very well! Should one try to shoot at Lizzie, whatever his reasons, I would be very very Russian in my answer!"
"Technically they didn't shoot at them" pointed d'Arcy out. "Their plan was to kidnap her and Young Elizabeth and to trade them against Serbia's independence."
"What would they have done if he had refused?" asked Charles who was the most romantic of the four.
"They didn't agree on her precise fate but since all the alternatives included her death, I had no qualm to rat them out to Alexander's protective detail. But as often with Russian leaders who are uncommonly dumb, Colonel Khadov didn't believe my informant. I should have done it myself, but I was reluctant to betray the range of my operations in Russia. Next time I get information I'll keep them to myself and look at what happens," grumbled d'Arcy.
"I had the belief that you were out of the spying business…" smiled Charles. "Retired and lazy…"
"Technically I am" answered d'Arcy with a smile of his own. "But I still have access to the reports Anne's people send to Fitzwilliam, and, from time to time, if I see interesting patterns I follow up."
"Next time, send me the information and I'll call Alexander directly" said Fitzwilliam. "Ruler's courtesy and so on, he will know that it will be Anne's doing –and he insisted on his cousin's name- thus he will take it seriously. A few hundred people would have survived if you had done it that way."
"By God Fitzwilliam, my informant gave them the whole plan, the names of the conspirators and their whereabouts. Khadov hadn't even a need to think, he just had to send his police goons to get them. Never would I have believed that Khadov was such an idiot. Next time I'll send my men to kill them themselves, it will have the same result and will be cleaner in the end effect."
"Geoffrey, it is no longer your responsibility to protect the world," soothed Fitzwilliam. "I'm very glad you do that job for the whole family; it really soothes my worries to know that the best is at work in that domain. But elsewhere there are others who are paid to do the same job…"
"I know, I know, but what should I have done? Just keep it to me and see Alexander's whole family butchered by idiots because other idiots don't know how to do their job?"
Charles frowned at his brother.
"Your words imply that you did not only send your informant to Khadov, brother! What have you done to save Elisabeth Alexeievna?"
"I ordered my inside man to sabotage their approach before Elisabeth was in real danger. Once the protective squad was aware that strangers were present the rest was doable even for perfect idiots like them." D'Arcy looked at Charles. "You wouldn't want to become Czar, Charles? With your reputation in Russia we could arrange it easily…"
"I'm not interested in being the ruler of a Nation, Geoff, you know me better than that. You've seen that I have more influence on world matters with my image as a loyal and independent businessman than you or Fitzwilliam. It was me who stopped the incoming war between Prussia and Russia, nobody else."
D'Arcy pouted.
"And I'm still not sure you did well…"
"I saved thousands of lives and saved hundreds of thousands of pounds of invested money. You know that, unlike what you did in Great Britain, most conquerors destroy more than they build. And in Russia it was my invested money who was threatened."
"How easily greed is hiding behind good…" began d'Arcy when Mr. Bennet interrupted them.
"Boys, I know the kids give you the best of examples but please remember that you are respectable fathers now. Such boisterous behavior is well beneath such exalted personalities like you."
"Why should all the fun be reserved for the kids?" asked Charles who quite liked his bouts of verbal dueling with his eldest of brothers. "We are perhaps fathers but that doesn't mean that we have to behave like old men." He smiled at his brothers. "I don't know for you but I'm feeling like never before." He played with his eyebrows. "And believe me if I say that my wife feels as boisterous as I do!" He took a long strong breath of the cool Mediterranean night breeze. "Never felt better in my life…"
Fitzwilliam saw d'Arcy frown and something rang a bell in his mind.
"Something happened in South America" whispered he. "Or to be more precise something happened to us…"
"Why do you say that" asked Charles whose smile was slowly disappearing.
"Because I feel exactly like you and Lizzie is a lot tougher than a few weeks before. Our nights were never boring but for the last week or so we are quite tireless…"
"Not to speak of the kids who are almost impossible to put to bed" said d'Arcy with a worried frown. "They sleep at best five hours in the night… They are eroding their maids and teachers' stamina like never before."
"But not your wives' if I remember this morning, they were already up with the kids and the sun wasn't even up…" pointed out Mr. Bennet while nodding. "And so was I…" He shook his head. "You are right, boys, something happened to us while we were at Eldorado."
He shot a warning look at Fitzwilliam who was sitting up.
"Don't lose your self-control, son. Jed confessed that they needed us, they wouldn't have done to us or given us things that would destroy us. And if you look at what is happening to us, it is just the opposite. We are clearly tougher or at least we need less sleep while we are at least as efficient as before."
He looked at d'Arcy and his smile was on the ironic side.
"And I remember you complaining about your age and the limits you were feeling in your body these last months. You are the one of us who has been the most athletic; you probably remember what you were capable of twenty years ago. You should make a few tests to see where you are today when compared to your physical peak years."
"It could kill us…" whispered Fitzwilliam.
"I doubt it" said Mr. Bennet. "But even if it does, I don't see what we can do about it, so let's not panic. Geoffrey you should ask Jane to survey the kids to see if they are suffering from anything."
–oOo–
"Not in the least and they are aware that they are different…" answered Jane to her husband's question. "They don't know exactly what it is, but they are trying things they didn't do before."
He frowned at her words.
"What do you mean with 'trying things'?"
Jane made a face half pout half smile.
"Like jumping from the second floor into the garden… Things like that."
"And?"
"And Geoffrey got through it with a roll and without a dent but William, being the more cautious, tried to use a branch to lessen the impact in the garden but the branch snapped and he slid along the great northern citrus tree. Unluckily for him there was a huge thorn in the way, and he was cut from buttocks to heel. Deeply cut!"
"You had to call the surgeon to stich him?"
"I never had the opportunity, dear, when Geoffrey pulled me in the garden to where William was lying in a pool of his own blood there was no cut to be seen."
"What do you mean there was no cut to be seen?"
Jane smiled, took the knife she had brought to exactly that purpose and cut herself into her forearm.
When her husband was at her side to quell the blood, he could just see the skin closing up.
"And there won't be a trace in a few minutes' time, love. The only thing that proves that I just deeply cut myself is the blood I spilled. And the bad news is that the boys now know about it like we do."
Geoffrey closed his eyes and nodded. Indeed, it was bad news.
Until now the kids had been almost careful. They did not take too great risks. Betty had been the major exception but luckily –or unluckily that had to be seen- she hadn't been part of the South American journey. But if the boys began to do foolish things she would follow even if she hadn't been 'improved' like them.
"I'll have to speak with them first thing in the morning," said he with a sigh. "Or we'll soon have a lot of problems to contain them."
"I just hope it isn't too late."
–oOo–
"It's just unfair" cried Betty who was rather angry after having heard her brother's story. "Not only haven't I seen this city of Gold but moreover I was denied that cool improvement you've both got!"
"You can't be sure" said Lexi. "It's perhaps only the boys who got it…"
Betty tried to stay calm. After all, her sister was free of any guilt. No reason to let out her frustration on her.
"I've seen you this morning" said Betty. "I was up with you and tired half the day till I could sleep after lunch. You got through the day without a yawn…"
"Not sure…" tried Lexi. "I was perhaps just in better shape today."
"Same for Deirdre?" countered Betty who, even if tired like never before, was not ready to let it go. It was really too frustrating, because she had accepted to sacrifice herself for the good of the Kingdom she was punished. She felt herself at the brink of another rant when she stopped in her track.
Of course! She had still a chance to get that upgrade.
–oOo–
"Mamma, Jane…"
Lexi's tone woke her immediately.
"What happened?" asked she while standing up and grasping her silk coat to cover her nudity.
"Betty… She's all feverish and sweaty… And she moans in her sleep."
Jane was immediately on her way towards the girls' room, Maureen with Lexi in her arms running just behind her.
–oOo–
"She would have died a few hours ago" whispered Jane to her husband. "I'm sure of it. I had to use all my healing skills and one of Mary's blue potions to save her life. Now she's still feverish but she's sleeping normally. I just hope her extreme fever hadn't impaired her brain cells."
Geoffrey embraced her fiercely.
"She'll come out of it; she's always been in perfect health, since her birth she's never been ill, it will help her to survive."
–oOo–
"She didn't really ask" protested William. "She came with the knife and cut us both. I had no idea what she wanted to do. And she had cut herself first."
Fitzwilliam pulled d'Arcy away from his son and forced him to look him in the eyes.
"Stop it, d'Arcy! You're scaring him. It's not his fault. You know your daughter as well as I. There's nothing that can stop her if she has made up her mind. William couldn't stop her. Not with her being cut before…"
"She could have died" stammered d'Arcy in a voice nobody ever heard him use. "I could have lost her…"
"And it wouldn't have been William's fault. She made everything happen. He's just the vector she chose to get infested blood."
D'Arcy opened his mouth to speak but Fitzwilliam stopped him with a sneer.
"No more, d'Arcy" whispered he. "William is as shaken as we; he needs your help not your reprove. Betty is in our best healers' hands, William is alone and he feels guilty even if it happened without him doing anything. Go to him and help him or quit this room and let us alone."
They looked at each other and it was d'Arcy that finally closed his eyes.
"You're right, Fitzwilliam, I'm w…"
"Just go to William, d'Arcy and show him that you love him. You need each other and should Betty die, Jane will need both of you even more. Go now!"
–oOo–
"I'm sorry, William, I didn't imply that…"
"Yes, you did but it's alright, papa. I'm as worried as you are." D'Arcy took his son in his arms and he made no effort to hide his tears.
"I should have been more alert that she would do something foolish. She was so frustrated when she heard what had happened this afternoon. I would have loved to help her, but I could do nothing to change a thing." He sniffed. "I was feeling so helpless…"
"Your mother and I spoke yesterday about it and we feared that just something like that could happen! But we never imagined that she would react so quickly. We knew that she would be upset by your accident and that she would try something, but never ever would we have thought that she…"
William stopped him with a finger on his lips and he couldn't help but smile when he remembered how his Jane was doing the same gesture to stop him ranting so many years before. It made him a wealth of good to be reminded that he was there, the son his beloved wife has offered him in his arms, sharing a common sorrow.
"Betty will never accept fate, papa, you know that as well as I. She will always try to get what she considers hers to have. She's the most strong-willed and stubborn girl I know."
"That she is, son! That she is…" admitted d'Arcy. "And I really hope she will survive…" He stopped his son's next words. "And you don't have to feel guilty at all, William. You couldn't have done anything to stop her and you couldn't guess that she would be ill because of your blood exchange."
"I should have told you immediately, but she wouldn't accept it and…"
"You didn't want to rat her out, I understand, and I know exactly how she would have reacted had you come forward to tell us." Once more he embraced his son. "We'll get over it, whatever happens, we'll get over it, I swear."
–oOo–
"Could I have a knife?"
Betty knew what everybody in the room was thinking even before seeing her mother's frown.
"Just to peel the apple…" said she quickly. "I don't want to maim myself."
"I'm quite sure, dear daughter" said her mother in an icy tone, "that it will take more than your assertions to make me accept your vicinity with a cutting object for a long long time."
"It worked, didn't it? Had I asked, you would never have accepted my solution! It was the smart thing to do!"
Jane looked at her husband and was very angry to discover a smile in his eyes. Of course, he would find her attempt smart and brilliant. He would probably have done just the same. She sighed and sat on her daughter's bed, took her hand and looked her in the eyes. She was no longer angry just very tired and rather desperate. Would she ever be able to reign in her little impatient and reckless daughter? What if, one day, she wasn't there to pull her out of death's embrace?
"It worked only because I was there to catch your dwindling life flame just before it died out. Your action was utterly reckless and showed a complete absence of consideration for us who would have been destroyed had you died because of your little experiment. It shows us that you are a very selfish little girl who thinks only of herself and who's unable to see beyond what she considers her due. Your impatience is always taking the better of you and it will one day cost you your life. And the day you'll achieve your goal you can be sure that you won't be the only one who dies..."
She saw her daughter's tears but refused to embrace or comfort her. She just couldn't cross the invisible barrier her daughter's recklessness has built between them. She just couldn't.
She stood up, turned around and exited the girls' room.
Lexi was immediately at her sister's side and they both cried each other to sleep.
–oOo–
"Aunt Mary, why is mamma not speaking with me?"
Mary sighed and looked at the desperate little girl who was facing her.
"Because you broke her heart, sweetheart, and she's, quite now, unable to speak with you without tearing her bloody heart out of her chest… Give her a little time, she still loves you, what she can't stand is what you have shown us…"
Tears were immediately in the little girl's eyes and Mary went to her to embrace her.
"But I didn't… Want to… Hurt any… Body. I really… Didn't…"
"We know, sweetheart, we all know. Even she knows it. But your action has also shown us a fact that she can't understand and that hurts her a lot."
Betty's look told her that she had no idea about what she was speaking.
"You don't see it, don't you?"
Betty could just shake her head.
"You have shown your mamma that you don't trust her, sweetheart."
"No that's not true, I do trust her" shouted Betty.
"Don't lie, Betty. Not even to yourself! You know exactly that you have done what you have done because you were sure that she would never accept your experiment. And she would have been right to refuse because nobody had the least idea of what would happen. And since nobody was ready to risk your life to get you what you wanted –and you knew it-, you decided to present them with a fait accompli. Because you believed that you knew better than them. Had you trust them you would have waited on their decision. Because they would have taken a decision. They were already thinking about a way to get you what Charles call the 'upgrade'. But they wanted to be sure that that thing wasn't killing them and their other children. Because, as of now, we have no idea if this upgrade is not eating our life away at great speed. Imagine that your brother's wonder healing had cost him a year of his life? Imagine that because of this upgrade your parents' life expectancy is shortened to only a few more years? Imagine that William and Lexi have only ten more years to live? They would have had the mercy to know that you, at least would have survived. Now, if everything's doomed, you'll die with everybody else."
Betty could only shake her head.
"I didn't…"
"We know, love, we all know that you didn't want to hurt us but that doesn't change a thing at the fact that by doing what you did you've perhaps destroyed the last hope your mamma had to have a child who would finally survive her."
"I… Really…"
"Hush, love, you are what you are, and we all love you very much. Your father is even very proud of what you did because he is certain that these creatures didn't change us to harm us. But you know your mother, don't you?"
Betty Nodded.
"She's always suffering more with what she imagines will be your suffering than from her own. What you did can never be mended but that doesn't mean that your mother loves you less today than yesterday. It's rather like the opposite because now she's scared to death to see you die with everyone else."
"But I want her to trust me, Aunt; I want it more than anything else…"
"Then do what must be done to get it" answered Mary. "You've shown a thousand time that you are able to get everything you want, love, this is not different it is just a lot more difficult. You just must find the right way to do it. Make it your goal and walk straight towards it."
Betty raised her head and a hint of a smile showed on her lips.
"I'll do it, Aunt; I'll earn her trust!"
"I don't doubt it a second, love, and to help you on the way you must never ever doubt that whatever you've done or will do, your mamma will always love you."
She smiled at her young niece.
"We mothers will always be mothers and a mother never stops loving her babies. That's a truth worth remembering. But that doesn't mean that you can't disappoint her or even betray her! And right now your mamma is disappointed and feels betrayed."
"Will papa help me?"
"Of course, he will. In fact, we will all help you, love. Even your mamma will help gladly because even if speaking with you is too painful for her now, she loves you and wants only what's best for you." Mary took the frighten little girl in her arms and hugged her fiercely. "We love you and we love Jane and we will do everything what's in our power to get you in each other's arms with a smile back on both your faces."
–oOo–
"Papa" whispered Betty, "is she still mad at me?"
D'Arcy shook his head and grabbed his daughter to embrace her before placing her in his lap. "She isn't and she never was mad at you. I've never seen you mamma mad at anybody. That's just not her, love. She's just in a very bad phase of her existence because she's scared."
"Because of me…" added Betty and it wasn't a question.
"Because of you, because of me, and Lexi and William and Lizzie and Kitty and all those others who are upgraded and who are perhaps going to die tomorrow. And perhaps also because she doesn't want to die before having seen you walk away to live your life."
"I will never…"
"Of course, you will, my love. Mammas can't hold their daughters back for ever. One day you'll be grown-up –at least legally and physically- and you'll move on to live your own experiences. It will break your mamma's heart, but she will have had a decade more to prepare herself for it and she will survive. But for now, she fears that she will die and lose everything she lives for in a very short time frame and it rattles her. But she will soon be back to being her normal compassionate self. Lizzie's with her right now and Lizzie has always been her best medicine…"
"Better than you?"
"Of course, better than me, love. Lizzie and your mother have shared dreams and hopes and follies for more than thirty years now. They know each other the same way you and Lexi and Janet know each other. Aren't Lexi and Janet the persons in the world you know best?"
"Indeed, they are…" said Betty with a little frown. "Is that why we have a room to share even if we have each our own?"
"Lizzie and Jane insisted that you shared a room as long as you could stand it. You know that you're free to move in your prepared rooms should you decide to move…"
"Of course, we know and we've fitted them out to be like us." She smiled her inner smile. "And we fitted them out together. We stay there from time to time when we want to be alone."
"But you sleep in your shared room nevertheless."
Betty nodded.
"It just seems not right not to sleep together. It feels more secure and safer. When there's a storm over the Adriatic we even share the big bed. It always helps to find sleep."
"And that complicity will go on as long as you live and that's why your mother and Lizzie are together right now and speaking about their fears and hopes… They are both afraid and they are together because it had always helped them…"
–oOo–
"What if you're wrong…" asked Jane in a hushed voice. "What if we all die…"
"Then we die because it has been God's will to give us a very happy but very short life! Who are we to decide that He did not do well?"
Lizzie stopped her sister's next answer with a fiery embrace.
"But I must insist that I really believe they did that to us to improve their chances to get what they wanted not to kill us slowly. I'm quite certain Jed ad Ishalon have their own agenda but killing Mankind is not part of it."
She took her elder sister by her arms and forced her to look into her eyes.
"Just think about what they could have done had they wanted us to die. We were totally at their mercy and we had no mean to warn anybody of their presence. Had they had fears for their safety they would have killed us there in the middle of nowhere with not a witness at less than a hundred miles. We would have disappeared somewhere in the ocean and nobody would have suspected even their presence. And then they had us unconscious with our minds open to all and every of their whims. If they wanted to learn about us before killing us they had the best of all opportunities at that precise moment. They could have snuffed us out without a sweat. But they didn't. Moreover they 'upgraded' us. And it is a real upgrade, Jane. I tried it this morning. I'm stronger than ever before! I can lift Fitzwilliam with only one hand, and it didn't even strain my arm's muscles. Your husband has been tasked to test it and come up with a report we should soon know what they did to us…"
"But it could still burn us out in only a few years…"
"It could and perhaps it will but despairing about it in advance won't solve anything. If we live less time let's just use the time we have even more intensely."
"The only intensity my life will have is my fear for my babies" stammered Jane. "You're lucky Janet is a reasonable little girl."
"That is surely the case but I'm still wondering what to do…"
Jane frowned at her sister.
"How so? At least she's safe!"
"Is she? I'm not so sure, dear. If what I suspect is true, the creatures had us upgraded to serve them better and longer and it could very well be that the difference between our kids is between those who are stronger, healthier and fitter and Janet who's still normal, normal to die of a normal disease, to be killed by a normal bullet shot by a normal lunatic Serbian terrorist or to wither away of normal old age…"
Jane sighed. Indeed, that coin had two very different sides.
"At least if my fears are true, you'll have one of your kids who will survive."
"Not so sure, I'm her mother but I won't be the one to decide about her fate. I'll let her decide what she wants. And, even if it is difficult for you, Betty's decision will facilitate that decision greatly. We will know what happens after a secondary inoculation."
"You don't think that she will…" Jane didn't end her sentence but Lizzie had no difficulty to guess what it would have been.
"She's not the fiery daredevil your Betty is so I'm quite sure she won't do it in a hurry but she's a healthy young lady who has, till now, always been able to follow your daughter on all her risky schemes. I'm not sure she will accept to be let on the side because of her lack in upgrade. Had Betty stayed 'normal' she would probably had accepted her difference but with her cousin and best friend having upgraded herself in such an amazing manner, she will be tempted…"
"She almost died…" whispered Jane.
"And you saved her, dear sister. That will count even more. Betty didn't think and could have died because of it. Now Janet knows the risks but she also knows that Aunt Jane has the means to guarantee her survival."
Lizzie smiled at her sister.
"What would you have done in the same circumstances? With me upgraded and you having the possibility to join me?"
A hint of a smile blossomed on Jane's lips.
"I would have joined you, but it would have been nevertheless a foolish decision."
"Let's for once embrace foolish decisions, sister love! We are on the same boat and Betty has, even if she probably hasn't thought her decision out, decided to join you for the journey! A journey which still could, I insist, be a much longer and more interesting one than you believe."
"We could go back to Eldorado and ask them…"
Lizzie made a face showing her doubts.
"They let us go once because they believed it would help them not because of any kindness of heart. I wouldn't bet on them taking it lightly to see us coming back asking for favors. We have another possibility before going back to ask them… Remember what Gandhara is the home to?"
Jane's eyes lit up while she nodded.
"The home to white witches…" whispered Jane.
"Indeed, sister dear and we were already almost en route to see them. We just have another reason to bother them that's all."
–oOo–
"Why aren't you afraid, mamma?" asked Lexi.
"Because when I was your age and a little older, I have been scared most of my waking hours. Afraid to die, afraid to live, afraid to be captured by the English. Afraid from dawn to sun-set without any reason to believe I would see the next day and even less that I would reach adulthood."
She smiled at her daughter.
"And look where I am now! I'm at the side of the most perfect man God ever created –don't repeat it to him he's already more than full of himself that husband of mine. I'm sister to a woman who should be worshiped by any sane person on this planet. And I'm the mother of a smart beautiful little girl who fears nothing in the world."
She placed her daughter's hands on her belly.
"And inside me two little human beings are growing to join me soon." Maureen shook her head. "No, love, I have forfeited being afraid. Fear was my enemy more than any living man or alien. Fear I have looked into the eyes and fear I have spit into the eye. I don't do fear anymore, love. I do trust, I do love and I do confidence." They smiled at each other. "And one day I'll be able to make Jane understand what fear really is and that day she'll be free again like she was before having kids!"
"Why is that so?"
"That is so because you are so vulnerable, when you are babies, love. There we are, we poor mothers looking at you little things totally unable to defend yourself, to feed yourself or to even walk out of danger's course. We can't do without being afraid for your safety. And fear is always there waiting for us to let it in. And that's why Jane, who has already conquered her fears once, has relapsed. But I believe Betty is just now forcing her to reconsider her fears. She knows what to do and she will do it again. I don't doubt it for a second."
–oOo–
"Shouldn't you be with Jane and help her" asked Mr. Bennet.
"Lizzie's with her. She doesn't need her foolish mamma just yet. She needs her sister's strength. We'll have a mother-daughters talk in a few hours to get everything straight but for now it is Lizzie's job to quench Jane's fear."
"I'm scared for Betty and us just the same…" grumbled Mr. Bennet.
"Which proves that you are an old fool, Mr. Bennet" said Mrs. Bennet with a sarcastic smile.
"You fear not that this thing they gave us will kill us?"
"Not yet and not very soon…" answered Mrs. Bennet. "They wouldn't have served me that fruit eater story if they hadn't wanted to provide us with an explanation about our new improved health."
"So, you no longer believe that fruit and vegetable fairy tale?"
"I don' know, I made my own research and physiologically we are indeed different from a pig which is the only other 'omnivore' science speaks about, but I'm not done with my research and I quite like how I feel since I swapped into an all fruit and green diet. And I wouldn't want to spoil Charles' efforts to surprise me. I like his idea of gathering every fruit tree of the world in his Croatian Orchards. I really want to taste all those fruits he got reports about. I know I'll love to pluck my fruits from those trees. I think I'll go on just to see where it will guide me. You'll have the latest news along with my discoveries."
Mr. Bennet sighed.
"What about your medical studies?"
"I'm going along, I'm going along… It will take a few years but I'm in no hurry and Abdul Hassan has been a very patient teacher. Someday you'll be proud of me."
He stood up and took her in his arms.
"I'm already proud of you, Fanny. These ten last years have shown me how foolish it was of me to judge you for qualities I believed you lacked. What I saw as faults was nothing but images of my own prejudices. I won't make these same mistakes again. You've shown me to look for real qualities in you and my daughters and since I know what to look for I'm every day a little prouder of our family."
Mrs. Bennet nodded her approval to the compliment.
"Thanks Mr. Bennet, I appreciate. Now if you could begin packing I would appreciate it even more, we have to go wed our youngest, have you forgotten?"
–oOo–
"So, girls, what do we do?"
They were all sitting in the Palace's central garden. Mrs. Bennet, all her daughters and Maureen. Janet, Betty and Lexi had been, for once, because of the urgency of the matter, invited and Deirdre and Rupert were present but had been invited to stay, if possible, as quiet as possible.
Jane being the most interested party looked at her sisters and seeing them nod took the floor.
"We go to Gandhara and we ask the council there what they believe it is they have done to us. And if they can't provide an answer, we'll have to go back to South America to ask those who have done that."
"Meanwhile," stated Lizzie, "we must think about the best method to upgrade somebody without risking his life or his health. We have seen that the 'blood sharing' method initiated by Betty is efficient but not without risks since our reckless little tester had almost lost her life in the endeavor."
"I didn't…" began Betty but she stopped when she saw her mother shake her head. But, to her great relief, there was no anger in the gesture, just her usual sympathetic support.
"We'll let you explain yourself, Elisabeth," interrupted her grandma. "For now, we just look at what must be done."
"Are we sure that Betty has been… upgraded?" asked Jane.
"She has the same immediate healing rate as everybody who was in South America," answered Maureen. "A scratch disappears in seconds and a shallow cut in less than a minute. I haven't tried a deep cut but I'm quite sure it wouldn't take longer than the few minutes William needed to heal yesterday. And all this healing occurred without letting a trace on the skin. I'm not sure but at the rate we heal it could even be possible that a lost limb would eventually grow back within hours. I, if necessary, could try on…"
"That won't be necessary, dear" interrupted Mrs. Bennet while looking at Betty. "I'm quite sure that, knowing a certain reckless granddaughter of mine, we should be able to see a lost toe or a lost eye in no time!"
Betty was tempted to protest but she kept silent. Complaining loudly was not the best way to convince her mamma that, in the future, she intended to be reasonable. And if she had learned one thing these last hours it was that the grown-ups valued reason over anything else. She didn't like it, but she understood what was behind their caution. Her night had been horrible, and she still felt some pain in her joints. It hadn't been pleasant at all and she had been aware that she was dying. Which had put a lot of her previous goals in perspective. Now she knew that death was something which made a lot of things impossible. Since she had still a lot to do with her life from now on, she would be careful. Well, at least more careful than before.
–oOo–