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Mistress Christia ran past, tittering with glee, pursued by four Lat, including Captain Mubbers who grunted happily: "Get your balloons down, you beautiful bit of bone, you!"
She had already allowed her knee-balloons to slip enticingly half-way towards her calves.
"Cor!" retorted Lieutenant Rokfrug. "What a lovely pair!"
"Save a bit for us!" begged the Lat furthest in the rear. "Don't worry," panted the second furthest, "there's enough for everyone!"
They all rushed into the cathedral and did not emerge again.
Now, in small groups, the brides, the grooms and the guests were begi
"What do you say, Amelia?" softly asked Lord Jagged. "Will you accept my invitation?"
She shrugged at him. "This is the last time I intend to trust you, Lord Jagged."
"It could he the last time you will have to, my dear."
The Iron Orchid mounted the swan first, with Amelia behind her, then Jherek and lastly Jagged. They began to rise. Below them, near the cathedral and amongst the tents and booths, a few determined revellers continued to dance. Their voices, thin and high, carried up to the four who circled above. Amelia Carnelian began to quote from Wheldrake's longest and most ambitious poem, unfinished at his death, The Flagellants . Her choice seemed inappropriate to Jherek, but she was looking directly at Lord Jagged and seemed to he addressing him, as if only he would understand the significance of the words.
So shall they dance, till the end of time,
Each face a mask, each mark a sign
Of pride disguised as pain.
Yet pity him who must remain,
His flesh unflayed, his soul untried:
His pain disguised as pride.
Lord Jagged's face was impassive, yet he gave a great shrug and looked away from her, seemingly in a
I knew him when he offered all,
To God, and Woman, too,
His faith in life was strong,
His trust in Christ was pure…
Jagged's interruption was, for him, quite abrupt. "They can be delightfully sentimental, those Victorian versifiers, can they not? Are you familiar with Swinburne, Amelia?"
"Swinburne? Certainly not, sir!"
"A shame. He was once a particular favourite of mine. Was he ever Laureate?"
"There was some talk — but the scandal. Mr. Kipling refused, I heard. Mr. Alfred Austin is — was — our new Poet Laureate. I believe I read a book of his about gardens." She chatted easily, but there remained an edge to her voice, as if she knew he changed the subject and she refused to be diverted. "I am not familiar with his poetry."
"Oh, but you should look some out." And in turn, Lord Jagged quoted:
"Very rousing," said Amelia. The swan dipped and seemed to fly faster, so that her hair was blown about her face. "Though it is scarcely Wheldrake. A different sort of verse altogether. Wheldrake writes of the spirit, Austin, it seems, of the world. Sometimes, however, it is good for those who are much in the world to spend a few quiet moments with a poet who can offer an insight or two as to the reasons why men act and think as they do…"
"You do not and Wheldrake's preoccupations morbid, then?"
"In excess, yes. You mentioned Swinburne…"
"Aha! Goes too far?"
"I believe so. We are told so. The fleshly school, you know…"
Lord Jagged pretended (there was no other word) to notice the bemused, even bored, expressions of the Iron Orchid and Jherek Carnelian. "Look how we distress our companions, our very loved ones, with this dull talk of forgotten writers."
"Forgive me. I began it — with a quotation from Wheldrake I found apt."
"Those we have left are not penitents of any sort, Amelia."
"Perhaps so. Perhaps the penitents are elsewhere."
"Now I lose your drift entirely."
"I speak without thinking. I am a little tired."
"Look. The sea."
"It is a lovely sea, Jagged!" complimented the Iron Orchid. "Have you only just made it?"
"Not long since. On my way back. He turned to Jherek. "Nurse sends her regards, by the way. She says she is glad to hear that you are making a sensible life for yourself and settling down and that it is often the wild ones who make the best citizens in the end."
"I hope to see her soon. I hold her in great esteem and affection. She re-united me with Amelia."
"So she did."
The swan had settled; they disembarked onto a pale yellow beach that was lapped by white foam, a blue sea. Forming a kind of miniature cove was a semi-circle of white rocks, most of them just a little taller than Jherek, apparently worn almost to spikes by the elements. The smell of brine was strong. White gulls flapped here and there in the sky, occasionally swooping to catch black and grey fish. The pale yellow beach, of fine sand, with a few white pebbles, was spread with a dark brown cloth. On pale yellow plates was a variety of brown food — buns, biscuits, beef, bacon, bread, baked potatoes, pork pies, pickles, pemmican, peppercorns, pattercakes and much more — and there was brown beer or sarsaparilla or tea or coffee to drink.
As they stretched out, one at each station of the cloth, Amelia sighed, evidently glad to relax, as was Jherek.
"Now, Lord Jagged," Amelia began, ignoring the food, "you said there was an alternative…"
"Let us eat quietly for a moment," he said. "You will admit the common sense of becoming as calm as possible after today's events, I know."
"Very well." She selected a prune from a nearby dish. He chose a chestnut.
Conscious that the encounter was between Jagged and Amelia, Jherek and the Iron Orchid said little. Instead they munched and watched the seabirds wheeling while listening to the whisper of the waves on the shore.
Of the four, the Iron Orchid, in her orchids, supplied the only brilliant colour to the scene; Jherek, Amelia and Lord Jagged were still in grey. Jherek thought that his father had chosen an ideal location for the picnic and smiled drowsily when his mother remarked that it was like old times. It was as if the world had never been threatened, as if his adventures had never taken place, yet now he had gained an entire family. It would be pleasant, he thought, to make a regular habit of these picnics; surely even Amelia must be enjoying the simplicity, the sunshine, the relative solitude. He glanced at her. She was thoughtful and did not notice him. As always, he was warmed by feelings of the utmost tenderness as he contemplated her grave beauty, a beauty which showed itself at its best when she was unaware of attention, as now, or when she slept. He smiled, wondering if she would agree to a ceremony, not public or grandiose as the ones they had recently witnessed but private and plain, in which they should be properly married. He was sure that she yearned for it.