Little Lord Tenchi...
Author: Daferge
The characters in this story and the events of all the Tenchi Muyo shows are property of AIC and Pioneer. I have neither created them, nor do I own them.
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chapter -08 ... New day...
( Near Nottingham, the Jurai Manor... )
The library was crowded at the moment and not every one in the manor was awake yet...
It seem that some Guest had shown up on their door steps at sun rise and were now being 'entertained' by the "new" young lord Tenchi, his sister Tennyo and his mother's older sister, Minaho...
It would appear that his grandmother, Lady Jurai, Minaho's mother, had dropped by to meet him...
And she had brought the Earl's two sisters alone as well...
( Wild horses couldn't have kept them away... )
All were sipping from cups of tea and nibbling on crackers, as breakfast was still being prepared...
While the Earl's three ladies were all seated, young Tenchi was also sitting at the moment...
His sister and aunt had insisted that he sit, while they stood on ether side of him...
Sitting on a small foot stool before his chair was his young cousin, Sasami...
Also in the room were a number of female servants, serving tea and offering crackers...
Lady Washu, the head of the household, was there, over seeing every thing...
She wanted this first meeting of the families to go well for the new young lord...
She had taken a liking to him, especially after his meeting with the Masaki Ladies...
There were High Lords that started sweating when Lady Seto even looked their way...
Great military officers who do their best to avoid her...
Even the Earl himself was nervous around them...
But she had watched, with a smile, as Tenchi had welcoming them to Jurai Manor, his new home, in his grandfather's absence...
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Sasami had shown up just after every one else and had greeted the three visitors in her own special way, by giving them each a big hug...
She had then sat on the stool before Tenchi and proceeded to act as a sort of hostess for him, getting no objections from ether Minaho or Tennyo...
For his part, Tenchi knew better than to question female decisions...
And so every one had spent the time watching her offer him tea and even hold his cup as he nibbled on the crackers she had also offered him...
ALL the females very quietly enjoyed the expression on Tenchi's face...
Tennyo didn't recall ever seeing his face so red before...
Thou there was that time he got sun burn, having spent too much time on the beach one summer, some years before...
As for Tenchi, he wondered if this was how General George Armstrong Custer had felt when HE found himself surrounded by all those native American Indians several years before...
He sighed, quietly...
At least none of these female's wished him harm...
But Sasami did wonder what Ayeka and Ryoko's reactions would be when THEY found out about all this...
She couldn't help smiling...
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( Jurai townhouse, London... )
The Earl looked up at the knock on the door...
" Yes?... "
A servant opened the door and entered holding a small silver tray with an envelope on it...
Stepping to the desk he presented it to the Earl...
Taking the envelope, the Earl dismissed the servant...
Then taking a knife like letter opener from his desk, he slit one edge of the sealed envelope...
He then pressed the sides, causing the envelope's open end to pop open...
Turning the open side down, he allowed a folded piece of paper to fall out...
He noted that it was a standard telegraph message form and was addressed to him...
The 'return address' or it's 'point of origin' seem to be East Sumatra, if he was reading the words scribbled in pencil correctly...
This caused him to smile, as there was only one person out that way who would go to all the expense of sending him such a message...
Which seem to consist of one word, in capital letters...
EUREKA...
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He had to smile...
It seem that his good friend, Zijlke, had succeeded in his recent little venture...
The Earl had put up some funds and written an introductory letter to the Sultan to help get him started...
But even thou it was known to be a proven area, success wasn't always guaranteed...
He'd seen many a well come up 'dry', even when surrounded by working wells...
But the chance to quietly 'stick it' to the Kagato clan had been the real deciding factor in his decision to back his old friend...
And just as a precaution, by legal agreement, ALL the "rights" to the 'well', 'wet' or 'dry', had been put in the Earl's name...
This was so there would be no profit or reason for any thing happening to his friend...
They were both well aware of who it was they were up against and their reputation for getting even...
They had agreed on this, so his family - his wife and daughters, would be assured of being taken care of, no matter what happen...
Which was the whole reason he was taking the risk...
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Perhaps he would drop by the 'club' later and watch for any reactions...
The Adventurer's club was where all the upper crust Lords 'met', to relax, to brag about their latest 'adventure' and to see who could come up with the tallest 'Tale'...
There was always the older lords, more than willing to recount past glories to whatever new, young lord happen to be passing by...
He recalled one lord's tale of being mugged in a Bombay growing over time to a chase across India to not only recover his stolen money, but to rescue a fair maiden...
At least in the special room set aside for that thing, for in the rest of the club speaking was strictly forbidden...
For others the club was a bastion of peace, away from family life, as FEMALES were strictly forbidden within it's walls...
And in it's long history only three had ever managed to get in...
Her majesty Queen Victoria, his wife Lady Jurai ( looking for him ) and his younger sister, Lady Seto Kamiki Jurai, just because she had been told she couldn't enter...
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When they were very young, some boys were picking on her and he had stepped in to chase them away...
To which she later beat on him, telling him he should mind his own business...
Their mother's reaction was to have her nurse him back to health the next couple of days...
It was then that he learned that she was quite able to take care of herself...
And she began to learn to restrain her first impulses...
Since then he would just stand back and watched her take on the world...
But also ready to step in, if need be...
And on the bright side, word had it a famous Paris chef was visiting London and might be checking out the Club's kitchen...
They did tend to brag about having the best set table, out side of Buckingham Palace...
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And it was always interesting to see who happen to know what, at such times...
It could give hints as to who might be talking to whom at the moment...
And THAT knowledge was always very helpful...
He wondered if her majesty had gotten word about the strike yet...
But then he smiled...
She had surrounded herself with the best...
People who knew what they were talking about and how to get things done...
And they had people around the world, keeping their eyes open...
Reporting back, to London...
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His friend, Lord Fisher, better known as Admiral of the Fleet John Fisher, had recently spent some time asking his opinion of a few things...
As Third Naval Lord and Controller, he tended to look to the future and all the new innovations that were appearing...
Engines that worked much better than the ones the navy was now using were on the drawing boards, as well as were some much more efficient 12 inch guns...
There were going to be a great deal of changes within the next decade or two...
He knew that there were some within the navy who had even suggestions a switch from a solid fuel navy to a liquid fuel one...
The move from coal to oil had many advantages, like a quicker refueling time, as well as safer handling...
The dangers of 'coal dust' was a fact of life in the navy, while oil seem to be safer...
Besides, the German Kaiser, Wilhelm the 1st, had recently given his Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz a free hand to expand and modernize their fleet...
Which would lead to a future confrontation with the Royal Navy for command of the Seas...
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( A dimly lite room... )
As Kagato paced back and forth, several servants lifted the body of the person who had just delivered a telegraph message and then made the mistake of awaited a reply...
He got one, a pistol ball between the eyes...
Better him than us...
Kagato had been expecting the message, but it had caught him in a bad mood...
Her majesty had turn down his kind invite to a large event he was giving in about a week...
He had hoped to be able to see her in favorable surrounding so that he could present a number of possible profitable projects directly to her...
The projects were based in areas that he knew her Majesty was interested...
Pleasant surroundings, his usual charming personality and he was sure he could have convinced her to provide backing for one or more of them...
He just needed to get her away from all those 'advisers' she surrounded herself with...
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The message that the well in the Far East had come in had not been welcome news...
After all, there was about a 45% chance of it being dry...
Or better yet, a blow out of some sort that wrecked all the rented digging equipment...
Leaning on his desk, he took a deep breath...
And then another, very slowly...
Sitting back in his chair he put the tips of his fingers together and considered his options...
There were still those upstarts causing unrest in India...
The colonies were always a place to cause problems for Whitehall...
And with enough problems opportunities tended to appear...
Perhaps he should keep an eye on that new Jurai brat after all...
Now there was a possible opportunity!...
All he had to do was work out how to keep any of it from being connected back to him...
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( The Club... )
There are many males in London who have no wish for the company of their fellow males, yet they were not averse to a comfortable chair, the latest periodical or a very tasty tidbit.
It is commonly believed that it is for the convenience of these males, usually of the upper class, that the Diogenes Club was started...
Especially since no member is permitted to take the least notice of any other male within it's walls...
So it wasn't surprise that word had gotten around that it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town.
( Quite likely very true... )
But it was also just one of a number of such 'clubs' that were located in the greater London area...
In fact, some males were members of more than one 'club', allowing for more hideouts for themselves...
More often than not to hide from their own family as well as complete strangers...
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However, the Earl was one of the few to know the true history of the Diogenes Club...
In 1874 William Pitt the Younger (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806), son of William Pitt the Older, became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24...
In 1790, with king George the III's support, he and a few trusted lords founded the Diogenes Club as the foundation for an information collection organization for making better Foreign affairs and policy decisions...
( The forerunner of MI6, the British intelligence agency which would supply future British Governments with foreign intelligence... )
The 14th Earl had not only been a founding member, but both his sons had been agents in their early years...
However, these days there were far more members to the club than true agents...
But because the members tended to travel the world too, they were also a very good source of information...
These days, the "club" was more of a gathering house for information, rumors and such...
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While most of the members were there for the privacy, talking was only allowed in the special, the Stranger's Room...
In the rest of the club, no talking, under any circumstances, was allowed and offenders were fined...
It was said that one member had to be carried from the building before it was discovered that he was choking...
He was still fined, for disturbing the others...
Another time a robber had gained entrance to try and steal money, but when no one payed him any attention, he ended up screaming...
He was then thrown out, into the street...
A passing bobby ( law officer ) noticed him and helped him stand...
However when a pistol fell out of his pocket, the male was arrested...
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( London Docks... )
The latest steamer from America had just finished docking and with the gangplank in place the doors could be opened to disembark passengers...
Above, at the bridge railing, a good number of ships officers were lined up at the railing...
They were hoping to get a final glimpse of their mysterious passenger...
After the doors below opened, a figure dressed in black slowly stepped out, onto the gangplank...
The elderly captain smiled, their exotic female passenger was dresses exactly as she had since coming aboard in New York...
A long black dress that seem to float just off the ground, up to the collar that covered her neck...
A small black hat sat on her head and with that black veil, that not only hid her face, but the very color of her hair as well...
Her arms were covered with long black groves the disappeared at her elbows, under the dress's sleeve ends...
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Throughout his years in the military, before retiring to captain this steamer, he had been to his share of funerals and seen many mourning dresses, but none to match this one...
The thin waist and long slender arms only made their passenger even more mysterious...
She had spent most of the trip in her cabin, meals sent there by cabin boy...
The tray would be place on the small table just inside the door and retrieved just outside later...
The only times she left her cabin was after dark, late at night and the last night of the voyage when she accepted the captain's offer to join him at his table for dinner...
The two had sat at his small table at the end of the steamer's small dining room...
The captain had even held her chair for her when she sat and helped her get up afterwards...
His officers were amazed and jealous of him...
Only he was able to hear her very low, but firm voice...
But it was enough...
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During the war, he had met some one...
A most unusual person and for some reason, their passenger reminder him of them...
When the war ended he had lost contact with them, as he had with many other and time moved on...
But he had never forgotten them...
He had just recently been reunited with another face from that time, a man who had been just a boy at the time...
Seem that his son had inherited a title or something and they had traveled across the ocean to get a better idea of what it meant...
The boy had been pleasant, quite well mannered, from his mother's side of the family his father had joked...
Knowing the father's family, he thought it quite likely...
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As he recalled, with a smile, it had been at this very dock that he had last seen his friend disbark...
Before they left the father had turned to face the steamer, look up at him and smiled...
Then he came to attention and raised his right hand to his forehead...
There he touched the middle three fingers to his brow and saluted...
He had smiled and returned the salute, then watched as they disappeared into the crowd...
A motion below caught his attention as the figure in black reached the foot of the gangplank...
Slowly turning around, they looked up at the bridge...
Then they raised their right hand and place their inner three fingers at the brim of their hat...
Smiling, the captain returned the gesture...
As the figure turned, bag in hand and a porter pulling a trunk with wheels behind her, the captain had only one thought...
I wonder what brings HER over here?...
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( Masaki manor... )
Washu smiled, every thing was going well...
She was glad she had fixed that big sandwich for Mihoshi before checking to see who their guest were...
She just hoped that the 2nd one would keep her in the kitchen...
The last thing they needed was her to show up...
She didn't want to even guess at what might happen...
So no one in the library notice the door open until a low, firm voice spoke up...
" And exactly what is going on here?... "
Every one looked towards the open door...
There stood Ayeka and Ryoka, little Ryo-Oko behind them...
Both of the older girl didn't seem to be too happy at the moment...
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To be continued...
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Please feel free to comment and review for any errors...
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