Cupid's Arrow (29 page)

There's no big hurry, for us. And though back then when it was all happening it would have made me impatient, upset even, to have to wait to live together permanently, now I know it's the right thing. We have time to get to really know and discover each other. Because we love each other so much. And we're going to be together. Always. And that's just about the most exciting and wonderful thing in the world, and worth waiting for.

Okay. Remy and Mum and Nicolas and Wayne will be back from the station any minute, with all the important guests. I've got to finish this quickly, before they arrive and we have to go to Bellerive. So I'll end that way, I think. On the reason for why we're here, and what's happening at Bellerive today.

See, when Oscar left that letter to Nicolas about his suspicions of Christine, it wasn't the only thing the envelope contained. As well, there was a will, properly signed and witnessed, which said that on his death, Oscar wanted Bellerive and all the Dulac money to go to Remy. The will was dated just a day before. Poor Oscar may have had a premonition of his own end.

Remy was stunned. He knew Oscar had meant well. He was very grateful. But he was sure it wasn't what Raymond would have wanted. It certainly wasn't what
he
wanted. He wanted to give it all away. In the end, Nicolas persuaded him to keep most of the money (and he put some of that money in the bookshop, by the way, for renovations and extensions. Mum didn't want to accept, at first. But then she'd thought about it and said okay, if he'd agree to become part-owner. He accepted). But he most certainly did not want to own
Bellerive Manor.
If it wasn't going to the Dulac family, Remy said, then it should go to the cause Raymond believed in and loved most of all. And so he had looked up the right names and addresses, and with Nicolas' advice, sent off a letter, which must have been received with enormous surprise.

So you see, Bellerive is passing today into the hands of its brand new owner: the International Arthurian Society, which specialises in research and study on everything to do with King Arthur. Today was the ceremony of the opening of Bellerive as a new Arthurian centre. The Dulac Centre, as it was to be called, would be the headquarters of a huge research project, to find out as much as possible about Riothamus and his times, with the eventual aim of proving he was the original inspiration for King Arthur. It would be well funded, because as well as the rest of Raymond's money, a very large donation had been given for its running and maintenance – by none other than good old Wayne Morgan himself. Yep, I do say good old Wayne Morgan, and I mean it – I still don't like his smarmy New Age ways much, and I hope he's not the one Mum's going to pick, if she picks anyone, but hey, he's shown he's a good guy, really. I had seriously misjudged him, like I had misjudged just about everyone. Except Remy.

Anyway, scholars will come to The Dulac Centre from everywhere in the world. There will be archaeological investigations. There will be intensive study of documents in the revamped, well stocked library. There would be conferences and seminars. And a painstaking search for a certain ancient coin depicted in a battered notebook: a coin which shows the portrait in profile of a long-haired man, and, around it, the words: RIOTHAMUS. ABALLO.

We don't know if the 'Arthur coin', as the media calls it, will be found. There was nothing more on Raymond's recovered computer hard drive about it, or on the USB key and disks. Just those enigmatic clues in the dream book. He'd really kept his cards very close to his chest. It will be a long investigative process. Possibly even a
very
long one. I'm not even sure that if the coin is found, it will prove that Riothamus was King Arthur. You probably need much more than that, they tell me. But still, it would be a start. A very big start.

The old stories tell of how Arthur didn't really die, but was taken to Avalon to be nursed of his wounds. They say that he sleeps and dreams there still. They say that when a suffering world needs him again, when in the midst of death and destruction and sorrow, it is crying out for the healing magic of hope, then he will awake and come from Avalon. They call him the once and future king for that reason.

Maybe, just maybe, that prophecy will come true, in a way, in the real Avallon, and I'll look back on this day as the one when it all began, when a great king moved from the dreams of centuries into the light of history, and we will know him again.

I've just seen the cars drawing up outside. There is Remy jumping out, taking the steps two at a time to come and fetch me. His face, as he sees me at the window, is alight with joy and excitement and love. And that, it seems to me, is as good a place to end as any.

A fire in the maximum-security wing of a prison in eastern France, which claimed the life of one inmate and caused thousands of euros worth of damage, began in the cell of the deceased, it was confirmed yesterday. The dead prisoner's identity was confirmed as one Laurence Jeanne Ferrier, also known as Christine Jane Foy, who was convicted of four murders and two attempted murders in France and was suspected of involvement in two other murders in Canada. A year ago, at the end of a dramatic trial that transfixed the French public, 34-year-old Ferrier, dubbed 'Madame la Mort', or 'Lady Death' by the media, had been sentenced to life imprisonment without remission. Investigators are yet to determine the exact cause of the blaze.

......................................................................................
Note to readers:
You can look up the actual Casebook of Dreaming
Holmes website on the internet:
http://dreamingholmes.googlepages.com
The Burgundy Today site, which Fleur also visits, has
information about Riothamus and Avallon:
www.burgundytoday.com

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