tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82922518625394512172023-11-15T15:25:38.494+00:00Blood of the WindMummy Bearhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15534084698107609150noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8292251862539451217.post-86640817546632493542012-07-06T18:21:00.000+01:002012-07-12T16:49:54.102+01:00Chapter One, Part Four<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now deep into the tunnel Poppy, Geoffrey and Thomas were happily oblivious to the drama that was occurring back in the house. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Look!" Thomas exclaimed as they walked around a corner. "Up there! Light!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy was more than a little relieved to see that Thomas was right and it was all Geoffrey could do to stop himself running towards it. He had never been afraid of the dark before but after walking for nearly half an hour what was nearly pitch black he knew that he would never be truly comfortable in it again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">All three picked up their pace; they were all eager to reach the end. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy gasped as she stepped through the end of the tunnel. She had been expecting the tunnel to lead them to the coast; instead they had emerged in a massive cave. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"What in the world-" Thomas asked. He looked as shocked as Poppy felt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the middle of the cave was a boat. It was being supported by wooden struts which held it upright and apart from a little dust she looked ready to sail.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"I don't understand, how did it get here?" Thomas asked, confusion written large on his face.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy was not listening. She thrust her torch at Geoffrey and ran to the boat. There was a ladder propped up next to it, inviting her to board. It was an invitation that she could not turn down. Quickly she scrabbled on board and started examining her.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Geoffrey was more cautious. He was looking around the cave, wondering how the boat could have got in the cave in the first place. He became aware that there was a draft coming from above them and looked up. There was a light shining through the roof of the cave! It was very dim but there. His mind raced as he thought about what that implied.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas was mystified. He had come to here expecting treasure and instead had found another mystery. He could not even begin to think about how the ship had gotten into a completely dry cave. Slowly he walked around her, looking at the details, trying to figure out the answer. He walked to her front and saw for the the first time her name <i>Anna Maria</i>. He gasped and raced around to join Poppy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Mr Green!" Poppy exclaimed when she saw him clambering on board. "This is amazing!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Do you know what this is?" Thomas asked, wondering if she'd figured it out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"It's a ship. Spanish probably from the way she's been constructed. I wonder what condition her sails are in, we have to find someway to get her out of here, she's too fine a ship to be left in some cave, she-"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"She's the <i>Anna Maria</i>," Thomas told her, growing impatient of waiting for her to draw breath.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy was stunned. "But my grandfather told me that she was destroyed," she said confused. "This can't be the <i>Anna Maria</i>, there must be some mistake." </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"That's what the name on the front says. And while I did not know your grandfather I did know your uncle and as good a man as he was he did not always tell the truth."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy nodded. "<i>The Anna Maria</i>," she said almost reverently. "I grew up hearing the stories you know. </span><span style="background-color: white;">Being told about how my Grandfather stole her from the Spanish and then flew away in here when they invaded. They spent years making live as difficult as they could for the crown."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas nodded; he'd heard the stories as well, every child born after the rebellion had. "In the stories I heard your grandfather was a black hearted murderer who fought against the rightful royal family and against bringing back the holy church."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"One mans rebel is another mans murderer," Poppy said philosophically.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"True. So what do we do now?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"My dear Mr Green, I have no idea."</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca ran into the house; seconds after the English had started searching the grounds she remembered about the tunnel and knew that the first thing the soldiers would do after finding it would be to follow it. There was no way that she was going to let a group of heavily armed men go in there after her daughter.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Unfortunately she was too late. As she rounded the corner she heard one of the soldiers call out "Sir Henry! We have something!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Damn you all," Rebecca muttered. She turned around, intending to head to the front of the house and ask </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Sir Michaels to help. But she found her way blocked by the soliders leader, Sir Henry. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Oh no you don't," he said to her, grabbing her arm. "Jones, keep hold of her," he manhandled her towards another soldier who held her firmly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"You have no right to do this!" Rebecca practically shouted at him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"You are suspected of harbouring a traitor and told me that there was nothing going on here. You looked me in the eye and lied to me."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"I may be a liar but you sir are a trespasser. You have no authority to hold me or to search my house," </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Rebecca hoped that by keeping him talking she would give Poppy valuable seconds to get further down the tunnel. "Trust me when I say that when people hear of how you came in here and treated my people and I you will pay."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sir Henry smiled cruelly. "Oh I only need to worry about that if there's anyone left to tell the story."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca's blood ran cold at the threat implicit in his words. "You wouldn't," she told him hoarsely.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">"Try me. Now, what's down there? Remember, the more you co-operate the more likely it is that this will all end peacefully."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca thought for a second then answered "I don't know." She was fully aware of the fact that this was not a answer that would please Sir Henry but she had no idea what else to tell him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">From Sir Henry's expression her assumption was correct. "Come on," he scoffed. "You really expect me to believe that?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"It's true," she told him, her mind racing. "The traitor, Mr Green, didn't tell us why he came here," she told him hastily. "He burst in here last night and demanded to see us."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"He did?" Sir Henry questioned, arching his eyebrow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Yes! Yes," Rebecca told him rapidly. Now that she had said that she had an idea forming as to how she might get out of this situation. "He was saying something about their being treasure in the house, that it was something to do with my uncle."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"The heretic John Dee?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"That's right," Rebecca replied, forcing herself not to respond to his slight on her uncle. "We were terrified, a strange man breaking into the house in the middle of the night! He forced us to help him. He made the hole in the wall."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"He made a tunnel this big over night?" Sir Henry asked sceptically.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"No, no, he found the tunnel. I don't know who built it."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sir Henry nodded. Rebecca could not tell if he believed her lies but she was too far gone to recant them now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"So where is he now?" Sir Henry wanted to know.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca hesitated before answering "He went down there. He took my daughter with him."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"I see."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"When you and your men arrived here I thought that if you went in after him then he might hurt her."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sir Henry nodded. He had to admit that her story was fairly believable for one made up on the spur of the moment. "We'll try our hardest not to let that happen," he assured her.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"What do you mean?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"When we go in we'll do our best to make sure that she isn't hurt."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"You mean you're going down there? You can't."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"On the contrary I think you'll find that we must. We are chasing a traitor and is it not my duty as a knight to find the man who's kidnapped your daughter? Even if she is a Welsh pirate."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca swore under her breath. "Really Lady Hawkins, I'm shocked by such language," Henry told her. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Know you're quite clearly becoming overly distresses by what is happening. Jones, take the good lady outside. Make sure you stay with her to see if she needs anything."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Yes Sir Henry," Mr Jones replied and guided her out of the house by the arm.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the cave Poppy and Thomas were occupied exploring the ship. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"She really is beautiful," Poppy said more than once. She lovingly stroked her rail, still not quite able to believe her luck in re-discovering this lost legend.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"How are we going to get her out of here?" Thomas wanted to know.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"To tell you the truth I have no idea," Poppy replied. "I don't even know how they got her down here."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Shouldn't this thing fly?" Thomas querered.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Shhh, don't call her that!" Poppy chided. "And yes, she's one of the Spanish flying ships. The only one ever to be captured."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"In that case you're the captain, make her fly," Thomas said, only half joking. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy merely looked at him. "If I knew how then we'd already be in the air."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas walked over to the centre of the deck towards a wooden plinth. On it sat a large stone. "So that's the famous blood of the wind," he said. "It doesn't look very impressive."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"My grandfather told me that when the aether worked it used to glow red. He said it was not so much like a rock as it was a living thing."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Do you have any idea how this all worked?" Thomas asked, waving his hand at the complicated looking ropes and sails overhead.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Vaguely, my grandfather told me the basics. The stone would give off an aether that could be collected up there," she pointed at a sail that was tied horizontally between the masts. "It would life the ship of the ground and then they would use the currents of the wind to take them were they wanted to go."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas nodded. "So what makes the aether?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy shrugged. "I don't know. In fact no one this side of the Atlantic knows, not even the Spanish."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"No?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"No. The natives in the New World keep a very firm grip on the secrets of the stone - where it comes from, how they're activated. The Spanish aren't allowed to know the location of the mine, hell, they're barely allowed out the city they've founded there. There have to stay in their little enclave and the Natives bring to them what they want to trade."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas nodded. "You seem to know a lot about the Spanish," he observed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"I should do I've spent enough time trying to steal from them."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"You seem quite open about the fact that you're a pirate," Thomas observed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Privateer," Poppy corrected. "We might not officially still be at war with Spain but they're still our enemy."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"And is that true of the English as well?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"That depends."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"On?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"On whether or not they attack us first."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Miss Poppy!" Geoffrey called out from his place near the entrance to the tunnel. "Miss Poppy! I can hear people coming!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Already? I wasn't expecting mother to send someone to follow us quite this soon," she replied, unconcerned by his words.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">"This doesn't sound like anyone your mother would have sent," he told her.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Oh?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"There's quite a few of them, I can tell from the footsteps - they're not exactly making an effort to keep quiet. And they sound English."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy swore colourfully while Thomas looked terrified. "What the hell's going on up there?" Poppy wondered. "Geoffrey, come up here. If they're going to attack us I want us to be together and up high."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Geoffrey nodded and hurried over to join them. "I don't like this," he said, the effort of climbing up the ladder having left him breathless. "I don't like fighting."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Hopefully it won't come to that Geoffrey," Poppy attempted to reassure him. "We'll probably be able to sort out any misunderstanding just by talking to them."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Do you really believe that?" Thomas whispered in her ear.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"No," Poppy hissed, trying to ignore the slight tingling sensation that his close proximity was causing. "But the last thing I want is for Geoffrey to panic."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas nodded and reached for the sword that Poppy had lent him earlier. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Mummy Bearhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15534084698107609150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8292251862539451217.post-65296844705092156182012-06-29T17:45:00.001+01:002012-07-06T18:22:18.291+01:00Chapter One, Part Three<br />
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“How far do you think it goes?” Rebecca asked, standing next to her daughter.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“No idea. I guess we’d best find out,” Poppy replied moving towards the tunnel.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Oh no you don’t Miss Poppy,” Geoffrey said grabbing her arm. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Geoffrey, you know better than to think that you can stop me,” Poppy told him, looking at him sharply.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I know I can’t stop you Miss Poppy, but I can make sure that you do it right.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Oh?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“How dark do you think it’s going to be down there? And who knows what’s at the end? If you’re going to insist on going down there then you need torches. And I’m going with you.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Geoffrey! This isn’t your business to interfere with!” Poppy told him.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I’ve been working in this house longer than you’ve been alive. Your grandfather would turn in his grave if he knew that I was letting his little one into danger.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy had the urge to tell Geoffrey that she had faced things far worse than an unknown tunnel but seeing the earnest expression on his face she bit back the words. He was right when he said that he’d been with the family for years and she supposed that he had earned the right to be protective of her.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Alright,” she said begrudgingly. “You’re right about the lights, go and find some torches that we can take with us.” </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Looking a little surprised - and relieved - that she had given in so readily Geoffrey hurried off to find what he needed.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Mr Green, have you ever handled a sword?” Poppy asked turning to Thomas.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Umm, yes, once or twice,” he said. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Good enough I suppose,” she strode off to her office and returned with a sheathed sword. “Fighting in the dark really isn’t ideal but there might come a point when we have no choice. Just try not to stab yourself with it.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas nodded and took it off her. “I’ll do my hardest not to,” he reassured her with a smile. He noticed that she had her sword once more.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Before too long Geoffrey was back with the torches. Poppy could tell from the grim look on his face that he was not looking forward to stepping into the tunnel but knew better than to try and dissuade him.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Mother, you’re staying here,” Poppy said. “No, don’t argue with me,” she said as Rebecca opened her mouth to protest. “We don’t know what’s down there or how long it’s going to take us to get whether it leads to. If we’re not back by nightfall send someone in after us, understand?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca nodded. “I don’t like this,” she said unhappily. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I know. But remember Grandfather and Uncle John set this up; do you really think that they’d do anything that would hurt us?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Of course not!”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Then we’ll be safe,” Poppy reassured her mother. She gave her a kiss on the cheek and said “Try not to worry too much.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I’ll do my best. Be safe and don’t do anything stupid.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“When would I do anything stupid?” Poppy asked, full of bravado. “No, on second thoughts, don’t answer that.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hoping that she had her mother fairly well reassured she took the torch Geoffrey offered and lead them into the tunnel.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
</div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was not too far down the tunnel that Thomas became very glad that they had waited for Geoffrey to bring the torches; it took only a few minutes for the light from the house to dim and then fade to nothingness. The darkness was oppressive around them and it seemed like every sound was amplified. Their steps echoed in the darkness and Thomas thought it best not to think about the faint squeaking sound that he occasionally heard.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the front of the group Poppy was grim faced. She had never been overly fond of the dark; she hated not knowing where she was and the thought of not knowing what was 2 feet in front of her made her nervous. The only thing that stopped her from being completely terrified was the knowledge that if she did not know about the cave that they assumed was at the end of the tunnel then neither did anyone else; Poppy prided herself on knowing every inch of the coast around her estate.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“How long have we been walking?” Thomas eventually asked, the silence finally getting to him.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I’m not sure, Geoffrey?” Poppy replied.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Geoffrey glanced at his torch and said “About 20 minutes I reckon.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas did a quick calculation and said “We’ve come about a mile then.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Aye, I reckon so.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Let’s take a break,” Poppy said. “Here Geoffrey, take my torch, I want to check something.” Once he had done as she asked Poppy pulled out her compass. She was glad that she had had the fore thought to grab it when she went to pick up swords for both her and Thomas. She held it under the lights and tried to make out what it said. “Just as I thought,” she said eventually. “We’ve been going north west.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Towards the coast,” Geoffrey stated flatly.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Towards the coast,” she confirmed.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Any idea how much further we have to go?” Thomas asked. “Assuming the tunnel ends at the coast that is.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy thought for a couple of second then said “Assuming we are heading there and that the tunnel takes us in a straight line then we should be there in 10 minutes or so.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Shall we get going again then?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy nodded, took the torch from Geoffrey and started off once more.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
</div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Back at the house Rebecca was trying her hardest not to worry. She knew that Poppy could take care of herself, had been doing so while away at sea for many years, but that did not stop her from doing what any mother would do. She was about to retire to her drawing room in the hope of finding something to distract herself with when she heard a commotion coming from the front door.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“What’s going on?” she demanded to know. She noticed that one of the boys from the village was standing by the front door, desperately trying to get into the house. He was being held back by one of the household staff.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Lady Hawkins! They’re coming!”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Who are?” Rebecca asked. “Claim down, Andrew isn’t it?” the boy nodded. “Take a deep breath and tell me what’s happening.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The English! We just saw them pass the village! They looked like they were heading this way and my mother sent me to warn you cause she knows that I’m the fastest.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“How do you know they were English?” Rebecca asked, trying to keep her voice even.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“They had uniforms on. Mother recognised them.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca thought quickly. “You’re a good lad coming here,” she told Andrew. “Now run back to the village and tell the people there to stay in their homes. Hopefully once they’ve done their business here they’ll go back over the border.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Andrew nodded and sped off. The maid who had been holding him back turned to Rebecca and said “My Lady! What shall we do?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Go and find Sir Michaels, tell him what the boy said.” The maid nodded and ran off as fast as she could. Rebecca knew that there while there were not many men in the house that could fight her man-at-arms Sir Michaels kept them well trained and well equipped. She could only hope that the soldiers who were heading their way were few in number.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca hurried over the the stairs of the tallest tower and quickly began to ascend. It had been years since she had had to climb these stairs and she had forgotten how steep they were but she knew the importance of doing so. Before too long she had reached the battlements. She rushed over the the telescope that her father had insisted on installing up there and searched for the soldiers.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca gasped when she found them; there must have been at least a hundred of them, all heavily armed. “Why have they come here?” she muttered but she feared that she already knew the answer - Mr Green.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Decades before her father had been instrumental in establishing an early warning system for the houses and fortifications near the border. If the enemy was sighted then the nearest person would raise a flag, or if it were night time, light a fire, high up to let those around that they were at risk from attack. The message would be passed along the front and eventually it would reach the nearest garrison. It had been years since the English had dared to cross the border but Rebecca had insisted that the flag be maintained. As she hoisted it she prayed that there was someone who would see her signal and more importantly knew what it meant.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From her vantage point she could see the troops nearing the house. Despite having been built 50 years ago the house had yet to see battle; they were too far away from the border to be worth the bother of most English attackers. But her father had built the house knowing that one day the attack might come and had insisted on it being fortified. It was a foresight that Rebecca was now thankful for. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As she watched she saw Sir Michaels and his men head out of the house to meet the troops. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Halt!” Sir Michaels called out. “By what right to do intrude up this land?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the soldiers stepped forward. From his bearing Rebecca guessed that he was in command. “We followed a known criminal. He is wanted for heresy and crimes against the royal family.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“You have no authority here,” Michaels replied. “Your royal family is meaningless in Wales, you know that as well as I do.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Under the terms of the truce between our countries any fugitive who claims refuge here must do so formally in front of a magistrate and a clergy man. Has Mr Green done this.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Who?” Michaels replied, confused. He had never heard of Mr Green. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca had heard enough. She hurried down the stairs and towards the courtyard, hoping that she got there before things got too dramatic.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“What’s going on here?” she said as she stepped out of the house. She was glad to see that the situation had not further degenerated. The English troops were on their guard but none had drawn a weapon. Her own men looked nervous; Sir Michaels had trained them to fight against each other to she supposed that not one among them had seen action other than a bar room brawl.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“And you are?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Lady Rebecca Hawkins, owner of this house.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Ah, then you are the person I should be dealing with,” he replied.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sir Michaels bristled at the dismissive tone in his voice but Rebecca looked at him a shook her head slightly. Now was not the time. “Is there a problem?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“We have reason to believe that you a harbouring a heretic.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“A heretic? I did not know that you had the Inquisition in England now.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“His Royal Highness King Phillip the Second is an extremely pious man. He is following the example of his Spanish forefathers and bringing the one true faith back to England.” It sounded to Rebecca as if he was quoting something that he had learnt by rote.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I’m sure he is. That does not alter the fact that we do not have the man you are looking for.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The man blinked. “But I’m sure he is here, our trackers-”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Spies! I’m not sure off all the ins and outs of the peace agreement but I’m sure that spies would be frowned upon.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The man was looking increasingly uncomfortable. Rebecca imagined that this was not going the way he thought it would. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“You, men, search the grounds,” the leader said turning to a small group of his men.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“No! You have no authority to do this.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I have greater numbers, that gives me authority,” he had clearly tired of feeling like Rebecca might have the upper hand and decided to take it back from her. By force if necessary.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca looked at Michaels. His men were out numbered ten to one but she knew that if she gave the signal they would fight to the death. She looked at their innocent, frighteningly young faces and knew that it was not an order that she was willing to give.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Fine, search the place if you must. You won’t find anything,” Rebecca told him, hoping that she was telling the truth.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As the men began searching through the grounds and through the houses she caught site of the flag on the roof and prayed that help would not be slow in coming.</span></span></div>
<br />
<br />Mummy Bearhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15534084698107609150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8292251862539451217.post-54700554965871052922012-06-25T18:08:00.002+01:002012-07-06T18:22:40.753+01:00Chapter One, Part Two<br />
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The next morning Poppy and her mother were breaking their fast together when Poppy casually mentioned that she was thinking of hiring a new member of staff.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Really?” her mother replied with an arched eyebrow. “And would this new staff member happen to be the young man that was found sleeping in the stables this morning.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy swore and said “I should have known better than to try to hide something from you I suppose.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Yes dear, you should have done. Now, are you going to tell me what his story is or do I have to make up the sordid details for myself?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“There are no sordid details,” Poppy attempted to reassure her.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Oh there are in my head. And I’m sure there are in heads of those who found him today.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy winced; she could imagine the gossip that was flying around between the staff. It was a good job that she did not give a damn about her reputation as the rumours would no doubt be hitting the village before the day was out.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“He knew Uncle John, he was a pupil of his back in Mortlake.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“You mean he’s come all the way from Surrey and you made him sleep in the stable? And a student of your Uncle no less! Really Poppy, I am beginning to wish that there were sordid details."</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Abashed Poppy looked down at her food. She was vaguely aware of her mother giving instruction to one of the men servants to bring Mr Green up from the kitchen and set a place for him at the table.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s not what it seems,” Poppy told her mother, desperately trying to explain before Mr Green joined them.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Oh?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hastily Poppy relayed the basics of the story that Mr Green had told her the night before. “I was hoping to sort this out without involving you,” she told her mother.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“You should have known better than to think that I would not have found out what was happening. Really Poppy, I thought you gave me credit with more intelligence than that.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Yes mother,” Poppy replied abashed. She didn’t know why it was but despite facing down men twice her size and being captain of her own ship she still could not stand to displease her mother. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas was more than a little surprised by the sudden summoning he had received. He had been rudely awoken early in the morning by two of the stable lads - luckily Poppy had told them to expect to find him there or else he might have been run through without them even pausing for breath. He was sent to the servants quarters to break his fast and had been busily filling his belly when the message came that Mistress Hawkins and her mother desired his presence upstairs. A page quickly showed him the way and before too long he was nervously stood before them.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Please, sit,” an older woman that he assumed to be Rebecca Hawkins said. “It is a pleasure to have someone who worked so closely with my uncle visiting.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Th-thank you my lady,” Thomas stuttered, shocked by the warm welcome he was receiving. He had assumed that he had been summoned for some awful reason but instead found himself being warmly greeted by the woman he had heard so much about.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“My daughter tells me that you are looking for something,” Rebecca said to him, picking at her breakfast one again.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Yes,” Thomas replied nervously, wondering how much he should confide in her. Some instinct told him that it would be a bad idea to lie to her. “He told me that there was treasure hidden in the house.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“And the two of you figured out that he meant some sort of information, how clever of you,” she said more than a little patronisingly.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Mother,” Poppy muttered. “Play nice.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I always play nicely,” Rebecca told her sweetly. “I do believe that you are rather holding my daughter and I ransom with your demands for help though. How are we to know that the books that you claim to have in your possession are worth anything? They could be nothing more important than everyday prayer books.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I knew your uncle better than to pick just any old books to save,” Thomas said slightly reproachfully. “The manuscripts that I saved were far more personal than prayer books.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca's eyes widened. “You mean…”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Yes,” Thomas replied with a nod, “I saved his diaries.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“What! You never mentioned that last night!” Poppy exclaimed.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“You never asked.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy swore but reluctantly had to admit that Thomas had a point. She looked over at her mother who had the biggest smile on her face that she had seen for a long time. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I thought they were lost,” Rebecca said wonderingly. “How far back do they go?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“All the way,” Thomas said with a smile. “They’re all there, his time in prison, his time in the service of Princess Elizabeth-”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“His trip to the New World?” Rebecca asked.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Of course.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca could not believe what she was hearing. No matter how many times she begged Uncle John would not tell her what happened in the New World. He said that it was not something that he cared to remember and that he would tell her when the time was right. But too much time passed and they ended up on different sides of the border when Wales finally seceded from England. When that happened it became harder and harder to get messages across; it had taken months for news of Uncle Johns death to reach them. Now she finally had the chance to answer the thousands of questions that she had about his life.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Poppy, we have to have those books,” she said turning to her daughter.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I know mother, I know,” Poppy replied some what resigned. As soon as Green told them what the books were she knew that her mother would be desperate to find them.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“So we’ll help each other?” Thomas asked.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Any help that we can give you is given freely,” Rebecca told him. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Thank you. It means a lot to me that I will be able to give Professor Dee’s diary’s to the woman that he spoke of so often.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“And that you’ll be able to get your hands on the treasure no doubt,” Poppy felt the need to point out.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Naturally.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“So tell me everything that you know about this treasure,” Rebecca told them, settling back into her chair. She listened with interest as they filled her in on what they have learnt. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“So Father and Uncle John must have planned this together,” she mused thoughtfully. “They always were thick as thieves those two, used to drive mother insane sometimes.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy nodded; she could barely remember her grandparents both of them having died when she was little. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“So, shall we go an examine this mysterious panel in the other room?” Rebecca suggested, pushing her chair away from the table and standing. “Maybe a fresh pair of eyes will help bring light to the subject.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy and Thomas both obediently followed Rebecca to the old study. Poppy hoped that her mother was right; she had been racking her brains over night to try and figure out how to get the panel off without risking destroying whatever it was that was behind it.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca examined the panel closely. “Hmmm, knowing father and Uncle John we can’t force it,” she mused aloud.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Yes, that’s what we thought,” Poppy replied standing next to her mother. “Uncle John wasn’t the brute force type.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Too true. I have the feeling that we’re missing something, some tiny detail…”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas stared at the panel. Seeing it in the day bought to light details on it that he had missed the night before. “Maybe not,” he said slowly.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Oh?” Poppy queried, tilting her head to one side questioningly.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Maybe the problem is that we’re trying to find something small when we should be concentrating on the big picture.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“How do you mean Mr Green?” Rebecca questioned.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I thought the panel was plain last night but it’s not. Come over here, if you stand in just the right light then you can see very faintly that there’s a pattern on it.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca peered at it closely and noticed that he was right. “I can’t make out what it is,” she said, straining to see it. She hated to admit it, even if only to herself, but the older she got the harder it became for her to see small details.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy thought for a moment. “Hmm, there might be a way. Mother, do you have any spare cloth that I can use?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Probably, why?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s a trick Uncle John showed me once, a way to make an image of something.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca snapped her fingers and said “The cloth and charcoal trick!”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Yep,” Poppy replied with a grin.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca hurried out of the room and headed towards her sewing room. She could have called one the maids to go for her but she wanted to keep this as private as possible. Quickly she found a length of thin white clothe that she had intended to use to make clothes for Poppy.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Found it!” she exclaimed triumphantly when she re-entered the old study. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas watched as Rebecca and Poppy took an old piece of white cloth and a stick of charcoal from the fire. “What are you doing?” he asked, mystified by what they were trying to achieve.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“My Uncle was brilliant,” Rebecca told him as she held the piece of cloth over the panel. “But I’m sure that you knew that.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Yes…”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“One of the many, many things that he was interested in was botany. He used to study plants and use them in his alchemical work.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Yes, there was many a muddy afternoon spent scrabbling around in woods looking for plants.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“One thing that he used to do was try to identify as many different plants as he could and try to find out what their properties were. He went through a phase of taking rubbings of tree barks, thinking that the pattern on them might some how be significant.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Were they?” Thomas asked, intrigued by the thought.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I have no idea. Uncle John was some times not very forth coming on his work. All I know was that he did it for a while and then moved on to something else. Uncle John could be very easily distracted sometimes.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy made a start on taking the rubbing. “Hold the cloth at the bottom,” she told Thomas. “Make sure that the clothes taut.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas nodded and did as she bid him. He could see the concentration written large on the faces of both Rebecca and Poppy. He was pleased to see that they were taking his observation of the pattern seriously but failed to see how this could help in anyway. His scepticisms soon waned when he watched as the pattern emerged on the cloth.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After several minutes they were done. Carefully they took down the cloth and moved it over to the desk where they could examine it more comfortably.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s a map,” Rebecca said in wonder.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy nodded. She could clearly make out the house and the grounds around it. “What’s that?” she said pointing to a circle on the cliff face.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I’m not sure,” Rebecca said. “It looks…could it be a cave?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“But there aren’t any caves there,” Poppy reminded her. “I’ve been sailing these coasts since I was tiny and I can’t remember ever seeing a cave in the cliff.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Maybe you weren’t meant to see it,” Thomas said excitedly. “Think about it, we’re looking for treasure, yes? We have a map that might lead us to it, do you really think that it would have been placed in plain sight?”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“No, no you’re right Mr Green!” Rebecca exclaimed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“But how do we get there?” Poppy asked. “Like I said I’ve never seen it from the sea.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Maybe you don’t have to get there from the sea,” Thomas said, his mind racing. “Your grandfather built this place, he and your uncle must have hidden this thing together, what if there’s a way to get there from here.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All three of them looked at the panel. “We have to get that thing off,” Poppy said flatly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca was torn; on the one hand she did not want to destroy the panel - it was part of the house and part of her Uncles work - but on the other she was just as eager as the two youngsters to see what lay behind it.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Do it,” she said eventually. “Just try not to damage it.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy nodded and said “I’ll ask the gardener if he has any tools that I can borrow,” before leaving the room.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas turned to Rebecca and said “Won’t the staff think that it’s odd one of the lady’s of the house asking for tools?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca snorted in a most unladylike way and said “Hardly, they’ve been with the family forever and most of them have known Poppy since she was born. We’ve never been what you could call a ‘normal’ household.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poppy was back within a few minutes, now armed with a spade and a gardener.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I’m really not sure about this Lady Hawkins,” Geoffrey said somewhat nervously. “I mean, defacing your grandfathers property…”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s fine Geoffrey,” Rebecca reassured him with a smile. “My father really wouldn’t have minded.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Maybe not, but it’s still not right,” Geoffrey grumbled. He did not try to stop them though, merely stood back and watched as Poppy and Mr Green worked together. They placed the edge of the spade underneath the bottom of the panel, between it and the wall. Together they pressed down, attempting to leaver the panel out of place.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s moving!” Poppy said and it started pulling away from the wall.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebecca exhaled a breath that she had not even realised she was holding. She could see the panel lifting, it seemed to be moving away far easier than she had expected. This confirmed for her that they were doing the right thing; there was no way that the panel would be moving as easily if it was if her father and uncle had not meant for them to do what they were doing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Grab the top!” Poppy called out to Geoffrey who quickly moved to do as instructed. The panel was moving freely now; the three of them were able to pick it up and move it to one side.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Well, that’s not what I was expecting,” Poppy said, hands on hips as she starred into the blackness of the tunnel they had just revealed.</span></span></div>Mummy Bearhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15534084698107609150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8292251862539451217.post-83640208686572649302012-06-21T17:13:00.001+01:002012-06-25T18:12:03.965+01:00Chapter One, 1608 - Part One<br />
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy Hawkins was thinking about turning in for the night when she became acutely aware of the sounds of someone moving about in her home. Given that she had dismissed her servants for the night hours before she knew that this could not be called an innocuous turn of events. Grim faced she reached for the sword that she habitually kept strapped to her waist and moved as quietly as possible towards the study’s door. She was up late studying the reports of her fellow captains and her desk was a mess of paper and maps. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy bent to look through the doors lock; the rooms position at the end of a long corridor meant that she had an uninterrupted view of the hall down to the front door of the manor. As she suspected there was a man standing in her hall - a man she did not recognise. Swearing profusely she watched as the man pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and stare at if frowning. He turned it around a few times before seeming to make up his mind and head into a room on the left.</span></div>
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<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“What’s he up to?” Poppy wondered out loud. She thought for a minute, trying to figure out what he could want in that room; as far as she knew there was nothing of any importance in there. But then she remembered - until she had taken over the house that had been the study. When she had moved in permanently after her grandfathers death she had made the room she was currently standing in her study; it over looked the sea and Poppy could never truly be comfortable unless she could see the crashing waves of the ocean.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Gently, trying to be a quiet as possible, Poppy opened the study door and on bare feet she walked down the hall. The man was stood in the rooms doorway and Poppy could tell from the way he was standing that he was puzzled. Slowly she raised her sword and pressed its tip against the small of his back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“For your sake I hope you have a good reason to be here,” she hissed into his ear.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">The man spun around in shock. “What the hell,” he said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing,” Poppy replied, pressing harder with her sword “You have a minute to explain to me what you are doing here and you’d best make it convincing.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Your uncle! Or rather your great uncle! He sent me.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“He’d have a job, he’s dead,” Poppy replied flatly. She lowered her gun slightly; she’d always had a bit of a soft spot for her Uncle John.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I know, I was with him when he died. No!” he cried out when she pushed just a little bit harder on the hilt of her sword. “No, I didn’t mean it the way it sounded!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“How did you mean it? Oh and you’re running out of time,” Poppy pulled her watch out of her pocket.</span></div>
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<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I worked for him, with him,” he stammered. “I was his last student. Look, he gave me this,” he offered her the piece of paper that was in his hand. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy took it from him. On it was a crude drawing of the ground floor of the manor; the room they were standing in was clearly marked with a ‘X’. The writing on it was clearly that of her Uncle John; he had written enough letters to her over the years that she could recognise his hand writing.</span></div>
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<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Why did he send you here?” Poppy asked. “And why did you feel the need to break in rather than simply come to my door in the day?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">The man looked guilty. “He told me that he hid a treasure here.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“And you didn’t want to share it,” Poppy said. The man man nodded even though it was a statement rather than a question.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy lowered her sword. If there was one thing she could understand it was greed - she was a pirate after all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“What’s your name?” she asked the man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Thomas, Thomas Green,” he stammered, looking more than a little surprised by the question.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">The name sounded vaguely familiar to Poppy; she supposed that she must have read it in one of her uncles letters. “Well Thomas Green I don’t suppose my uncle said where he stashed this treasure?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No, he just left me this map. I swear I didn’t know that you were here, I was told in the village that you were still away from home.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“So you planned to rob me while the house was empty. How…honorable,” Poppy spat out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I never wanted to disturb anyone, I promise. I just wanted to get what Professor Dee promised I could have.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Well, you know if you’d come to me in the morning and told me this I probably would have let you walk out with it without demanding any part of it. Because you broke into my home I do believe you have forfeited any right you have to any of my uncles property. Be grateful that I’m allowing you your life.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Thomas nodded; he knew Poppy’s reputation and realised how serious she was. “I am Miss Hawkins, believe me, I am.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Good. Now, shall we get looking?” Poppy re sheathed her sword and took a closer look at the map that her uncle had drawn for her. “You took a risk you know, crossing the border,” she said casually.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Thomas shrugged. “It wasn’t so bad. This time of year there aren’t that many people about.”</span></div>
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<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“True, most are too sensible to go out in weather like this.” The winter so far had been a harsh one and looked set to carry on. Poppy had heard from her staff that more than one family had lost people and she knew that there were likely to be more deaths before the weather broke.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“How are things in England? We don’t hear much out here.”</span></div>
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<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Thomas hesitated for a moment, trying to decide what to tell her. Strictly speaking even talking with someone from the Welsh side of the border was a criminal offence; crossing the border as he had was likely to earn him a spell in prison if he was caught. “Harsh. The Spanish rule things with an iron fist and any hints of rebellion are firmly put down. People thought that the first Queen Mary was hard on protestants but she had nothing on the second.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy nodded. “I’d heard as much. You made quite a risk coming here you know.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Oh I know. But after your uncle died I had little left there. He told me how important it was to find this treasure and I figured I’ve got nothing to lose.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Really?” Poppy arched her eyebrow. “You’ve no family, no friends?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No. My family was killed in during one of the purges. Luckily I was away at university or else I would have been murdered as well. It was there that I met Professor Dee.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy nodded. She did not know whether or not she should offer her condolences; she had never had much time for the social graces and had never really understood why a stranger saying ‘sorry’ at the death of a lost one should make one feel better. She settled instead for “It was then that he took you in?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“That’s right. I have been - sorry I mean I had been working with him the past five years.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“So what had your family done to incur the wrath of the queen?” Poppy asked.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Thomas shrugged. “Nothing as far as I can tell. They lived in a small, quiet village. My father was a teacher, nothing more. He made a living teaching the local children their letters. Apparently someone passing through the village objected to some of the books my father used and reported him to the local magistrate. When they searched his house they found books that the King and Queen have banned; damned fool always did value books more highly than he did most people. He said that it was wrong that knowledge should just disappear because those in power at the moment disliked it.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Sounds like he would have had a lot in common with Uncle John,” Poppy observed with a smile.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Yes, I often think that it was a pity they didn’t get chance to meet. Any way my father, mother and brothers were all arrested. Like I said I was at university when news came to me of their deaths. They had all been burned for heresy.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy winced; she had heard that such things still happened in England but to hear it confirmed like that was still shocking.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“A couple of days after I got the news a messenger arrived with some books for me. Some of my fathers students had been able to rescue them before they had been burnt. I knew of John Dee of course but hadn’t had chance to meet him. I knew that he was interested in preserving knowledge so went to him with the manuscripts. We got talking and he mentioned that he needed some help translating some books that he had; I told him that I was good at languages and he hired me to help him. I’ve been working for him ever since.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“He must have meant a lot to you if you were willing to risk your life to see his last wishes met,” Poppy observed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“He did.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Silence descended between them while Poppy thought. She turned her attention back to the map and pondered it for a few moments. The drawing was crude, done in a shakey hand from what were probably hazy memories. But it was clearly a drawing of the the room they were in. She could make out the window on the north wall and could see the ‘X’ marked along the length of the East wall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Over there,” Poppy said, gesturing towards the wall with her arm. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Thomas nodded and followed her over to the wall. As far as he could see it looked exactly the same as the other walls - the lower half was covered in wood panelling while the other was plaster. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Where is it?” Poppy muttered to herself. She had no idea what it was she was looking for. A thought occurred to her and she put her ear against the wall and started knocking on the panelling.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">At first Thomas was puzzled but he quickly gathered what she was doing and followed suit, this time starting from the opposite end of the wall. Working in silence apart from the tapping of their fists against wood they made their way along the length of the wall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">It took them several minutes but eventually Poppy heard it - the sound one piece of panelling made when she hit it was different to that made by all the rest. This piece sounded hollow.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Mr Green!” she called out to Thomas. “I do believe that I might have found it.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Thomas looked over and smiled. “Finally,” he said. “I was beginning to think that your uncle might have sent me on a wild goose chase.” </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy nodded and began looking closer at the panel in question, hoping to find some way to open in. Thomas went over to join her but after several frustrated minutes they were forced to admit that maybe there was nothing to be found.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Uncle John never said how you were supposed to get to the treasure?” Poppy asked Thomas hopefully.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No, I’m afraid not.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I thought that might be the case,” Poppy said with a nod. She turned away from the panel, pondering what to do next.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“You’re not going to give up are you?” Thomas asked in surprise.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Hell no! I’m just wondering if there’s anything around here that we can use to force the panel off.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“You’re going to ruin your wall for this?” Thomas asked in amazement.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Why not, it’s only a wall.” Poppy thought for a second. “I suppose a hammer might go through the wood,” she mused aloud.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Why don’t we try having another look before we do anything that drastic?” Thomas hastily said. “If we start attacking the walls with a hammer then we’ll wake the whole house up.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“True.” Poppy pondered. “There must be something we’re not thinking of. I might not have known my uncle well but I know one thing - brute force was never his style.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Thomas nodded in agreement. “He must have left a clue somewhere. He would never have told me to come here for his greatest treasure and then left me no way to find it.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Something stirred in Poppy’s memory. “What exactly did my Uncle say he was sending you here for?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Treasure…”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“He never told you what it was, just that it was something precious?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Yes.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy smiled ruefully. “Mr Green, I do believe that we have been idiots.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Oh?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I’ve just remembered something my mother told me once. She said to me that for her uncle the greatest treasure wasn’t something you could own, something you could put a price on.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No. For him the greatest treasure was knowledge.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Realisation dawned for Thomas and he was forced to admit “I do believe you are right. We’re idiots.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Silence descended between them as they considered their next move. “So what do we do now?” Thomas asked. </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“We look at the knowledge that we have and work from there. We know that this panel is important. We know that there is a space behind it. We know that it is something that my uncle thought was important for you to have.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Thomas nodded. A thought occurred to him. “Who built the this house?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Erm, my grandfather,” Poppy replied, confused by the sudden change of subject.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“John Hawkins?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Yes, why?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“And has this room been changed at all since the house was built?” Thomas asked, ignoring her question as he followed his train of thought.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No…not as far as I know. Why do you want to know so much about the house?” Poppy demanded to know. </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“This panel must have been here since the room was first decorated, which means-”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Which means my grandfather must have known about it!” Poppy filled in.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Exactly! Did he ever talk to you about the house, about how he built it, its history, anything like that?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy racked her brains. “If I’m honest I don’t know that much about it. The person who could probably best answer your questions is my mother.” </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Where is she? I have to admit that it would be interesting to meet her; Professor Dee talked about her with a lot of affection.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy searched Mr Greens face. He seemed harmless, had an artlessness about him which made her want to trust him despite her better judgement. But for all that she was not about to get him any more mixed up with her family than he already was.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“She’s away visiting friends,” Poppy told him, having no qualms about lying to him.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Oh,” his shoulder visibly slumped. “Do you know when she’ll be back?” he asked hopefully.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No, in a couple of days I think.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I see. So what do we do now?” he asked.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“We?” Poppy replied with an arched eyebrow. “As far as I’m concerned ‘we’ do nothing. I thank you for telling me of this treasure but that is all. Your part in this is done.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Thomas was stunned. “Just like that, I’m dismissed?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Yes, you may leave now. Just remember this - I had many, many chances to kill you but I didn’t.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No, but you might as well have done,” Thomas told her gloomily.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Oh?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I’m an Englishman in Wales without permission. I have no papers proving who I am and no where to go now. The first person I talk to is likely to shoot me without asking any questions.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy felt a pang of guilt but covered it quickly saying “And? You must have realised this when you crossed the border.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Not really, I wasn’t thinking all that much. I mostly wanted to get away from Mortlake quickly.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Why? What was happening that you had to leave my uncles house so swiftly?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“With Professor Dee dead there was nothing to stop the King and Queen sending Inquisitors to the house to examine his books. They’ve been trying to get their hands on his library for years but his position in the university meant that he had a reason to keep his library from them. With him dead there was no stopping them.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy considered his words. “And you didn’t want to be there when they arrived?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“After what happened to my family do you blame me?” Poppy shook her head. “I packed up what I could of the library and fled.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“What happened to the books?” Poppy asked, attempting to be casual. She knew that her mother would love nothing more than to re-claim the library of her beloved uncle and that she would never forgive Poppy if she realised that Poppy had had the chance to do so and failed.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Thomas looked at Poppy and sensed an opportunity. “They’re safe, with friends of mine. How about we make a deal?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Oh?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I have something you want - the books, and you can help me get something I want - the treasure your uncle promised me. If we work together then we can both come out ahead.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy was not happy. She felt as if she had been backed into a corner but had no choice to agree. “So be it.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“And,” Thomas added hastily, “you let me stay here until we both find what we’re looking for.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Poppy was about to protest but thought about it for a second. If he was close by then she would at least be able to keep an eye on him.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Agreed. But, you’re staying in the servants quarters. We can pretend you’re a new gardener or something.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Agreed,” Thomas said, knowing better than to push his luck.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“You can stay in the stable for tonight, we’ll introduce you to the rest of the staff in the morning.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Thomas nodded and allowed himself to be lead to his new accommodation. As he drifted off to sleep he wondered what the morning would bring.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>Mummy Bearhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15534084698107609150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8292251862539451217.post-37137305060166312482012-06-18T12:37:00.001+01:002012-06-23T10:11:30.475+01:00Prologue - Part Two<br />
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Dee swept Rebecca up into his arms and began forcing his way through the crowds. People tried to push back but when they noticed the fine cut of his clothes and the beauty of the dress Anna wore they thought that maybe it would not be such a good idea to push a man of his standing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Still it seemed to take Dee an agonising amount of time to reach the pier where the galleon was tethered. “Hawkins!” Dee shouted out seeing his fellow explorer standing on the pier.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Dee! Glad to see you could make it!” Hawkins grinned. “And who’s this beautiful young woman that you’ve bought with you?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“My niece Rebecca,” Dee replied carefully placing her on the floor.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Rebecca blushed furiously but remembering the carefully taught manners that her grandmother had drilled into her said “I am very pleased to meet you Sir Hawkins,” and gave a small curtsy. To her pleasure Hawkins bowed deeply in return.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Hawkins grin faded when he saw the woman standing behind Dee. “Anna,” he said.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Captain Hawkins,” she replied. “I see you’ve met my daughter.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Your daughter,” Hawkins stammered. He looked from Anna to Rebecca and visibly swallowed.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I can’t believe that you did it Hawkins,” Dee said, he face turned up to the galleon, a look of wonder etched on his features, seemingly oblivious to the tension between Hawkins and Anna.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“You wound me Professor Dee. If not I then who could be trusted to bring in a Spanish Galleon?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Who indeed?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Isn’t she beautiful Dee?” Hawkins said, a tone of wonder in his voice. </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Uncle, how does it fly?” Rebecca asked. She had heard tales of the terrifying Spanish flying ships that sailed the seas of the Americas but Mistress White had always told her that they were just stories told to frighten young children. </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“She,” Dee told her with a smile. “Ships are always called ‘she’”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Rebecca nodded and said “Alright, how does she fly? Mistress White told me that such things were not possible. That God means that the only things that should fly are those animals that have wings and that for man to do so would be challenging his wisdom.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Dee bent down so that he was at his niece's level. “I am afraid dearest that your Mistress White does not always know what she thinks she knows. A flying ship is indeed a possible thing. Look, it’s right here,” he told her waving his arm towards the galleon.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“She,” Rebecca corrected him with a smile.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Cheeky,” replied her uncle, ruffling her hair.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“You want to go up?” Hawkins asked Dee.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Oh can we father?” Rebecca said, practically bouncing with excitement at the idea.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Dee hesitated for a moment; on the one hand he knew that the only way he would learn anything about the ship would be to see it close up for himself but on the other he could not help but wonder how dangerous it would be to take his only niece up into the sky. He looked down at her hopeful expression and then glanced over to her mother. With a smile she nodded her agreement - John knew that she was just as curious about the ship as he. John turned to Hawkins and said “More than anything.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Joseph, throw down the ladder,” Hawkins called up to an unseen man on the ship. A rope ladder was lowered over the side. </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“John!” Anna exclaimed a note of horror in her voice. “You can’t possibly be expecting us to climb up a rope?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Why not?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Anna gave him a look and waved down at her long skirts.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“What? Oh, yes. Maybe this was not such a good idea after all,” he told Hawkins as the realisation of what his sister meant sank in. His shoulders slumped slightly with disappointment.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“What do you mean… Oh I see,” Hawkins realised after a couple of moments. “Hmm, yes.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Rebecca looked at the ladder and said “I’m sure that I could climb that,” in what she thought was her bravest voice.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I have no doubt that you could climb it,” John Dee reassured her. “However your mother would kill me and I value both your life and mine too much to allow it. It’s far too dangerous. I will just have to be content with hearing Hawkins tale and come back another day to see the ship myself.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Hawkins thought fast; he could see the disappointment written all over Dee’s nieces face and he knew her uncle well enough to know that he would mirror that disappointment. “There may be another way,” he told them quickly. He risked a glance over to Anna who met his gaze blandly.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Oh?” Dee asked, hope rising within him.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“There’s a platform that the Spanish crew used to take supplies onto the boat. It won’t be a comfortable ride but we could use that.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Dee nodded and told him “Of course! I had forgotten about that! That would do splendidly.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Hawkins called up to the men on the ship “Lower the platform.” Slowly a wooden platform was lowered from the ship. Dee looked at it in dismay; Hawkins had not been exaggerating when he said that it probably would not be comfortable. But he knew that Rebecca was determined to see the ship and so was he. </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Before too long Rebecca, Anna and John were settled on the platform. They were both sitting one the 6 foot by 6 foot wooden platform and Rebecca found herself clinging on to one of the corner ropes. </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Next to her John Dee could tell that she was more than a little bit scared and attempted to distract her. “The flying ships aren’t just built to fly,” he began. “Most of them are normal galleons that have been given the ability to fly and because of this they are able to sail as well. When the Spanish need to take on supplies they usually just visit the nearest dock, mooring there as normal. But there are on occasions time that they must take on food and water in places where there isn’t a dock and that is why they have these platforms.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Rebecca listened, fascinated by her uncles words. “I didn’t know that you knew so much about them,” she told him, her fears about dangling up in the air gone.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I saw lots of them when I was on the expedition Princess Elizabeth sent me on,” Dee told her.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Rebecca nodded. She wanted more than anything to quiz her uncle about his expedition but her grandmother and Mistress White had always told her that to question her elders was bad manners.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">It did not take very long for them to the lifted up to the galleons deck. With Hawkins help Rebecca, Anna and Dee stepped off the platform and onto her deck for the first time. The girls momentarily forgotten Dee could not help himself rushing around the ship; he wanted to look at everything, examine every nook and cranny of her fascinating design. He reached into his pocket and drew out his ever ready note book and started scribbling down his thoughts and making hasty sketches of the ship.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Well Miss Dee, what do you think?” Hawkins said to Anna.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“It’s very big,” she replied. She watched as her brother rushed around the ship and she knew that he was completely absorbed in her work; she had seen him like this before and knew that right at this moment there was little else in the world for him other than trying to figure out how the ship worked.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Rebecca wandered over to the side of the ship and looked over the railing. All of the dock was spread in front of her and it was a beautiful sight.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“They look so small don’t they?” Hawkins said from beside her.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Who?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“The people down there. You’re very lucky you know, the number of people who get to stand on a galleon like this is tiny; most of the people down there cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to fly.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Fly? We’re not going anywhere are we?” Rebecca asked. She was more than a little terrified at the thought but at the same time she had to admit that the thought intrigued her.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No, probably not today. We have little enough of the the rock and it would not do to waste it.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“The rock?” Rebecca asked confused. “What rock?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Has your uncle told you nothing of his expedition?” Hawkins asked in surprise.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Rebecca shook her head sadly. “We see very little of Uncle John, he’s often away in London and I’ve always been told that I should not ask too many questions. Men do not like nosey women. Or at least that is what my nurse has always told me.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“And has your nurse much experience in the way of men?” Hawkins asked with an arched eyebrow. Behind him he could hear Anna choke down a laugh.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No!” Rebecca exclaimed, shocked at the thought of Mistress White having anything to do with men. “Mistress White has never been married.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Ah I see. Well personally I like my women to be curious about the world but then I am only one man and I cannot hope to rival an unmarried spinster in her knowledge of my sex in general.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Anna shot Hawkins a sharp look but he blandly ignored her.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Hawkins!” Dee exclaimed, practically running over to them, brimming over with excitement. “This ship is incredible! When do you take her to London?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Tomorrow hopefully, if not then then the day after. I sent word to the queen a couple of days before I wrote to you and I hope to hear from her or her court soon.” </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“She has not replied?” Dee asked in surprise. “That’s odd, she should have received your letter by know and I’m surprised that she did not reply at once. This is a matter of the utmost urgency after all.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Hawkins nodded in agreement. “Yes, I’d have thought that the capture of a ship like this would be bought to her attention at once.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Rebecca listened to their words in puzzlement. “I thought the queen was ill,” she told them.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“What! Who told you that?” Dee exclaimed.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“It’s common knowledge at home, Lady Mercer told us when she visited last week. She heard it from a cousin who has a friend at court.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Womens gossip,” Dee said dismissively.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">But Hawkins looked worried. “I wouldn’t be so quick to disbelieve my friend. There’s been many times that womens gossip has been proven right; gossip tends to travel quicker and further than real news and women who have nothing better to do than write letters tend to write a lot.” </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Stop this, stop this now,” Dee hissed. He looked around them furtively and said in a low voice “Do you not realise how dangerous what your saying is? To even think it is treason.” Dee tried to keep the panic out of his voice; the time that he spent in prison suspected of plotting against the Queen was still fresh in his mind and the last thing he wanted was niece to face the same fate.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Hawkins understood Dee's nervousness at once. He nodded and said “You’re right Dee, such things should remain unsaid.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Somewhat placated Dee changed the subject to one that was more comfortable. “Rebecca do you want to see how she flys?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Oh yes Uncle!” Rebecca exclaimed, letting him change the subject unchallenged. </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Hawkins lead them to the middle of the deck and to what Rebecca had assumed was a small stove.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“What is it?” she questioned, curious about how the ship was able to do the impossible.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">In reply Hawkins opened the side of the stove. “Look,” he said waving towards it with his hand.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Rebecca bent over and peered inside. She had expected to be met with heat but there was none; instead there was a faint smell, not unpleasant but it had a slightly coppery tinge to it. In the middle of the stove was a large reddish coloured stone.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“The Blood of the Wind,” her father said in an almost reverent tone.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“The what?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“It’s what the natives call it. The Blood of the Wind, it comes from a mine hidden in the rain forests of the New World. It what makes her fly.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“How?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Dee hesitated and said “We don’t know. It needs an extra element to make it work; the stone by itself is just a stone but together with the catalyst it gives off an aether that lets her fly.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“What’s the extra element?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“The natives won’t tell us,” Hawkins told Rebecca. “Or rather they won’t tell the Spanish. They sell them the stone already active.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“How long does it give off the gas for?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Hawkins shrugged, “Five, six, ten years. Maybe more.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“What happens when the gas runs out?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Hawkins smiled ruefully, “well, you’d best hope that you’re close to land.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“You mean the ship crashes?” Rebecca asked shocked.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I’m not sure I’d call it a crash. It more falls out of the sky.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Hawkins!” Anna said sharply. “I’d rather you didn’t tell my daughter things like that.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Sorry Miss Dee,” Hawkins said abashed.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Annoyed Anna wandered over to the the side of the ship and leaned against the railing. She listened vaguely while Dee and Hawkins explained to her daughter more about how the ship worked but could not make herself concentrate on their words. Instead she brooded. As she had told her brother it had been years since she had seen Hawkins and she was surprised by just how much he still affected her. After all that had happened, after all that they had been through you would think… No, she thought, pushing such musings aside. What was in the past could stay there. She looked over at Hawkins standing next to her darling little girl and thought If only…</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Turning away from the pair of them and back towards the port her attention was caught by the sight of a group of men pushing their way through the crowd. That in itself was not unusual; however what was was the fact that they were obviously, and heavily armed. </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“John,” Anna called out, trying to get her brothers attention. She turned around to see that he was so absorbed in examining the ship that he paid her no attention. “John!” she called out again, louder this time.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Yes Anna, what is it?” John questioned, irritation evident in his voice.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“There’s something happening down there,” Anna told him, her eyes fixed on the group of men who were drawing closer to the ship.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Yes, I think you’ll find that there’s always something happening somewhere,” John replied facetiously.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“John, stop being such a pain and listen to me. This is important. There’s a group of armed men coming towards the us.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Soldiers?” Hawkins asked rushing over to join Anna.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No, I don’t think so. They’re not in any uniform that I recognise.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No, I don’t know them either. Alright men,” Hawkins said turning to address the small compliment of men who were aboard the moored ship. “I’m not expecting trouble but I also won’t be surprised if it comes. Joe, I want you to be prepared to cut that tether if need be.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Hawkins, you can’t seriously be planning to leave,” Anna hissed at him, grabbing his arm.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I’m not; I just don’t like it when heavily armed men come my way. I just like to be know that if someone chooses to attack us that we can choose to leave.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Anna nodded only vaguely reassured. She knew that if fighting were to start that she wanted both her and Rebecca to be as far away from it as possible. But she had little faith in the reliability of this Spanish built abomination; it was not often that she agreed with Mistress White but in this one instance she was right - man was not meant to fly.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">As the men drew closer Hawkins called out “Ho friends. What can I do for you?”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“We are here to reclaim this vessel in the name of King Phillip,” one of the men called out in heavily accented English. Now that they were closer Hawkins could tell that they wore clothes of the Spanish style.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Your King has no authority to claim anything,” Hawkins replied easily. “This ship belongs to Queen Mary and not to the husband who abandoned her.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Anna gasped in surprise; for a man who did not want trouble Hawkins seemed to be inviting it.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No longer. Your Queen is dead and all that belonged to her now belongs to King Phillip.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Uproar.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">The words of the Spanish men clearly carried to the crowd who responded with shouts of denial. There may have been little love for Queen Mary but there was even less for the foreign King that she had married and then been abandoned by. </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“No,” John shook his head. “No, she could not have been that ill, we would have heard…”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“It looks like some of us did,” Hawkins said nodding over to Rebecca who was sat by the ‘stove’ oblivious to the chaos beneath them.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“We demand that you disembark from that vessel at once,” the man who appeared to be in charge was saying. “You are hereby charged with piracy and will be sentenced immediately without trial.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Joe, now!” Hawkins barked. Without hesitation Joe cut the one thing that was holding them to the ground.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Anna watched terrified as the Spaniards lifted their muskets and started firing at the ship. Hawkins grabbed her arm and pulled her down towards the deck as a bullet whizzed past her head.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“What do we do now?” Anna asked Hawkins.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Grim faced Hawkins watched the ground beneath them growing smaller and smaller. It looked as if there were a full scale riot going on in the dock and he knew that they would not be able to turn there anytime soon.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“I don’t know,” he was forced to admit. “Anna, I just don’t know.”</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 36px;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>Mummy Bearhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15534084698107609150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8292251862539451217.post-30328082092288853162012-06-14T09:19:00.002+01:002012-06-18T12:38:12.751+01:00Prologue - Part One<br />
In later years Rebecca Taylor was to look back at the summer of 1558 as both the best and the worst of her childhood. Her uncle had recently returned home from a long voyage on behalf of the queen, her mother was happier than she had seen her in years and she was able to watch her grandmothers attempts to make betrothals for her elder cousins with amused detachment, smug in the knowledge that at 7 she was far too young to be caught up in that sort of thing just yet. Little did she know that in a few short months her entire world would come crashing around her.<br />
<br />
One morning Rebecca was sat with her sewing, her forehead creased in concentration as she struggled to follow her grandmothers complicated instructions. She was vaguely aware of the chattering of her elder cousins and the ladies in waiting but was intensely focused on her work. So focused that she did not even hear the door open or her nurse maid exclaiming in surprise "Mr Dee! How unusual it is to see you in here."<br />
<br />
Mr John Dee was happy to see the head of his youngest niece shoot up at the mention of his name. "I know Mistress White and I hope that you do not mind the interruption but I am at a lose end today and am wondering if Rebecca would like to join me on a journey."<br />
<br />
Rebecca shot to her feet, her sewing falling to the floor immediately forgotten. "Oh can I Mistress White? Please?" she beseeched.<br />
<br />
Mistress White's mouth narrowed into a thin line. "This is most irregular Mr Dee. Lady Taylor does not like her granddaughters education to be interrupted in such a way."<br />
<br />
John chuckled slightly and said "I assure you that Rebecca education will not suffer in the slightest, in fact it will be immeasurably added to."<br />
<br />
"I don't know..." Mistress White said, her voice wavering. She knew from experience that attempting to dissuade Mr Dee of anything once his mind was set was neigh on impossible.<br />
<br />
"Mistress White we both know what's going to happen - I am going to keep on asking you until you eventually give in and I get my way regardless of your protestations. We both know that if I really desire to take my niece away for the day that there is little you could do to stop me." As soon as he said those words John regretted them - Mistress White went pale and he knew that she had taken them completely the wrong way.<br />
<br />
"You threaten me with witchcraft then?" Mistress White managed to stutter, trying to keep her voice strong for the sake of the girls, all of whom were now watching them intently.<br />
<br />
"No! No. I merely meant that if I want to I could simply carry her away. Really Mistress White, I thought you were too intelligent a lady to be taken in by the rumours about my so called 'magical powers.'" John hoped that a little flattery would help defuse the situation; he was very much aware of the eyes of the young women - including his beloved niece - were on him and the last thing he wanted was for his own family to be<br />
scared of him.<br />
<br />
"Take her, take her for as long as you want," Mistress White told him, practically pushing the young girl in his direction. All she wanted right know was this man, this devil in sheep's clothing as far away from her precious charges as possible. Why Lady Jones allowed him back in her house she would never know.<br />
<br />
John sighed; he knew that he had handled the situation badly and that he would suffer for it later on when he and Rebecca returned home but he would think about that later. For now all he wanted was to spend a pleasant day with niece.<br />
<br />
Rebecca ran over to join her uncle. "Where are we going?" she demanded to know as they walked out of the sewing room and towards the stables.<br />
<br />
"You'll see," John told her.<br />
<br />
"Is it a surprise?"<br />
<br />
"Yes, as much for me as it is to you."<br />
<br />
"Really?"<br />
<br />
"Really. I received a letter earlier on from a friend which gave me some wonderful news."<br />
<br />
"What? What is it?" Rebecca demanded to know. John was pleased to see that she had the same curiosity that fired his mind and lead him across the world.<br />
<br />
"John Hawkins is back from sea and he's bought with him a prize."<br />
<br />
"A prize? What is it? Is it treasure? Is it gems? Or gold? I think it's gold, is it gold?" Rebecca bubbled. She had heard about Hawkins from her uncle; she knew that like her Uncle John he had been sent to sea by Princess Elizabeth but both their missions were a mystery to her and the rest of her family.<br />
<br />
"Oh it's nothing so ordinary as treasure dearest," John Dee told her with an indulgent smile. They had now reached the stables and John was pleased to see that his instructions had been followed and there was a carriage waiting for them there. If he had been going alone he would have ridden but he wanted to make good time to the meeting and knew that there was no way that Rebecca would be able to keep up on her fat little pony.<br />
<br />
"Hold it right there," Dee heard a voice behind him saying.<br />
<br />
He winced and looked around. Striding towards them was the formidable figure of his younger sister, Anna.<br />
<br />
"Where do you think you're taking my daughter?" she asked, hands on her hips and her eyes filled with rage.<br />
<br />
"I thought that she had been cooped up for long enough and deserved a day out. It's not good for children to be stuck inside on a beautiful day like this."<br />
<br />
"I see. And the real reason is...?"<br />
<br />
Dee knew from experience that his sister was not likely to be fobbed of with lies. "I got a letter this morning from John Hawkins. He's back from his expedition and has something that he wants me to see."<br />
<br />
Anna nodded. "Why didn't you just say so? I haven't seen Hawkins in years," she told him stepping towards the carriage.<br />
<br />
"You mean you're coming with us?"<br />
<br />
"Of course. Did you really think that I'd let you go off without me? Rebecca's not the only one who's been cooped up."<br />
<br />
Soon the three were settled in the carriage. Anna seemed content to watch the world go by. Rebecca on the other hand was brimming with questions.<br />
<br />
"How can treasure be ordinary?" Rebecca demanded to know once they were settled in the carriage.<br />
<br />
For a moment Dee was confused but then he remembered what they had been discussing before Anna had interrupted. "All treasure will do is buy you more things. But there is something far more important than treasure in this world."<br />
<br />
"What is it?" Rebecca asked, alive with curiosity.<br />
<br />
"Information. With the right information you can rule the world."<br />
<br />
"That sounds boring," Rebecca told him with a pout. "Information couldn't buy me a new dress or some pretty ribbons."<br />
<br />
"No, but knowing who to buy them from, how to get the best deal, who has the best merchandise, that is all valuable information."<br />
<br />
"I guess..." Rebecca replied. She did not sound convinced.<br />
<br />
"But perhaps the most important information you can have is 'who will give me what I want in exchange for my knowledge?'"<br />
<br />
Rebecca looked puzzled. "You mean there's people who will pay for knowledge?"<br />
<br />
"We pay Mistress White to pass on what she knows to you and your cousins do we not?"<br />
<br />
"But Mistress White doesn't know very much," Rebecca said bluntly.<br />
<br />
Anna snorted with laughter and said "I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees that!"<br />
<br />
"I tried to get her to help me with the Latin that you gave me to translate," Rebecca continued "but she could not! She doesn't even know the simplest of phrases and her maths is just as bad. She told me that 'young ladies do not need to know such things and too much education will stop me getting a husband.'"<br />
<br />
"Really? And what did you say to that?" John asked. He was not surprised by Mistress White's lack of education. She had been with is deceased brother in laws family for years and had taught generations of young women. He knew that Anna had objected to her taking over the teaching of Rebecca but that had been the price she had had to pay for Lady Taylor allowing John into her home.<br />
<br />
"I told her that if that was the case then I do not want a husband," Rebecca informed him.<br />
<br />
John hid a smile. "We'll see dearest, there's still some time before you have to start worrying about getting married."<br />
<br />
"I guess. So where are we going?" Rebecca demanded to know, her attention swinging away from Mistress White and back towards the adventure they were on.<br />
<br />
"Look out the window and tell me what you see." Dee told his niece.<br />
<br />
Rebecca sighed; they had played this game before. "I see birds," she told him looking up at the sky.<br />
<br />
"What type of birds?"<br />
<br />
"Gulls I think."<br />
<br />
"What else? Remember don't just look with your eyes, use all the senses that God in his infinite wisdom saw fit to give you."<br />
<br />
Rebecca nodded and turned to the window again. She loved spending time with her uncle; she always seemed to learn more with him than she ever did with Mistress White and in a far more interesting way. She thought back to the times when they had played this game before and briefly closed her eyes. She let the sounds around her wash over her and taking a deep breath filled her lungs with the fresh sea air.<br />
<br />
"The sea!" Rebecca called out, her eyes snapping open. "We're going to the sea."<br />
<br />
"Close dearest, but not quite. What is at the sea?"<br />
<br />
"A port?"<br />
<br />
"That's right! You my dearest are by far the cleverest of all your cousins."<br />
<br />
Rebecca glowed under her uncles praise. She thought about Uncle Johns earlier words and about their destination. "Uncle, I think I know what the treasure might be," she said slightly hesitantly.<br />
<br />
"Oh yes?" John said with an arched eyebrow.<br />
<br />
"I think that it might be a boat."<br />
<br />
John was a little surprised. "What makes you think that?" he asked.<br />
<br />
"You got a letter from a sailor who has something more valuable than treasure and we're going to a port. I think therefore that John Hawkins has captured a boat."<br />
<br />
"Dearest, you are right. Is there anything else you could tell me about this ship?"<br />
<br />
Rebecca thought hard. "Well the only sort of boat I can think of that could be called more valuable than treasure is a Spanish one."<br />
<br />
John smiled proudly at his niece. "Again you are right. Anna your daughter is brilliant."<br />
<br />
"I never doubted that," Anna said, an indulgent smile on her face.<br />
<br />
Rebecca basked in her uncles pride. She delighted in making him happy and knew that the surest way to do that was to impress him with her intellect. If there was one thing that the famous John Dee prized above all else in people it was their ability to think.<br />
<br />
"Will the journey take much longer?" Rebecca asked, eager to find out what was so special about this particular ship that her uncle was called away from home to learn about it.<br />
<br />
"Not much, we are almost there dearest."<br />
<br />
"Good," Rebecca settled back in her seat to watch the world unfold in front of her.<br />
<br />
John was soon absorbed in his own thoughts; the letter he had received told him little about what to expect at the port. Its urgent tone told him that he needed to make haste and they had set out as soon as they had been able. He could not help but wonder what it was that caused such excitement.<br />
<br />
As they approached the port the amount of people on the road grew. Rebecca's eyes widened as she saw the mass of people in front of them; she had spent almost all of her life at her grandmother house and had been allowed to visit the local village on only a handful of occasions. The only other time she had seen this many people was when she and the rest of her family had gone to mass in London once.<br />
<br />
Soon the press of people in front of the carriage was so bad that the driver was forced to tell John Dee "No way to get through my lord. There's too many of them."<br />
<br />
A lesser man than Dee might have told his driver to carry on regardless; if people did not get out of his way then they were fools who deserved the injuries they would no doubt receive. But Dee was proud of his reputation not just as a gentleman but as a gentle man and so told his driver "Do not worry. We can walk from here."<br />
<br />
"But my lord-"<br />
<br />
"No buts. We are needed at the port and so to the port we must go. It is most unexpected though to see so many people," Dee mused. "I wonder what it is that has bought them all here."<br />
<br />
Michael the driver knew that he was useless to protest further; he had been with the Dee family for many years and knew from the set of his masters mouth that there would be no dissuading him. "Very good my Lord. Where shall I meet you later?"<br />
<br />
Dee thought about it for a second before naming a local inn. "Although," he cautioned Michael "I hope that I can trust you not to drink too much of the local specialty while I am gone."<br />
<br />
Michael laughed and said "Don't you worry my Lord, I'll be able to get you and the good ladies home safely."<br />
<br />
"Good, good. We'll see you when we are finished then."<br />
<br />
Dee opened the door and lead his sister and niece out on to the street.<br />
<br />
"Yes my Lord." Michael said before cracking the whip and turning the horse around so that he could find the inn.<br />
<br />
Rebecca was more than a little afraid at what was happening. While the crowd of people around her had been interesting when she was separated from them by the sides of the carriage; when they were so close to her they were terrifying.<br />
<br />
"Mother?" Rebecca said, seeking out her mothers hand for reassurance.<br />
<br />
Seeing Rebecca's unease Anna smiled down at her daughter and took her hand in her own. "Don't worry," she told her. "We'll be at the port soon, we're not far now. Keep holding my hand and you'll be safe."<br />
<br />
Rebecca nodded and clung on to her tightly as John forced his way through the crowd. All around her were sights and smells that she had never experienced before; the sounds of rough voices with accents that she struggled to understand, the smell of baking and of the fish that was being sold by the road side. It was just beginning to dawn on her that her grandmother would not be pleased to hear that her uncle had taken her away from the safe refugee of their home and into the port. <br />
<br />
Dee was more than a little revealed when they reached the port; he had done his best not to show it to Rebecca but he was as worried about losing her as she was about being lost.<br />
<br />
"Uncle..." Rebecca said from his side. When he did not immediately answer she reached over and tugged on his coat saying again "Uncle!"<br />
<br />
"What? Oh yes Rebecca what is it?" Dee asked her. He had been so intent on getting them to the port that he had been paying little attention to her words.<br />
<br />
"Uncle, what's that?"<br />
<br />
"What's what?" he asked confused, looking around him to try and see what she was seeing.<br />
<br />
"That." She pointed up at the sky.<br />
<br />
Dee looked up. A smile tugged at his lips. "He did it," he said breaking into a huge grin. "By God he did it!"<br />
<br />
Floating over their heads was a galleon.Mummy Bearhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15534084698107609150noreply@blogger.com0