Memory of Morning (27 page)

"If someone sent me a dried arrangement, I'd certainly remember that token," Abethe said. "Perhaps he is trying to get your attention."

I sighed, and shook my head. "None of you know Lord North. He is just what a great noble should be - arrogant, high-handed, sarcastic." He'd walked away with one of his own without a backward glance or thought. "I expected no token from him, but I certainly accept the insult."

With that, I had a coughing fit, and went back up to my bed.

I spent the next three days in that bed. It was the most debilitating and miserable of colds. I even felt bad enough to turn tending Star over to a footman. I slept and drank soup and herb tea and chased Tennit and Dr. Heron out when they tried to look in on me. I did let Rassi bring me the tea and soup, fluff my pillows, and provide fresh handkerchiefs. As a doctor myself I knew better than to try to stop the force of nature that is a very good nurse.

On the fourth morning I dragged myself down to the bathing suite for a long soak and hair wash. I dressed, walked the dog, then joined the family for breakfast. The cold was still stuffing my head, but the symptoms were no longer as misery making as they had been.

I was happy to see stacks of mail waiting on a sideboard. I found several envelopes addressed to me and sat down to enjoy communication with my tea and toast. I took a seat next to Mother, who was engrossed in a letter.

I sipped tea and watched as her expression went from serious to unhappy. "What is it?"

"This is from Alix," she said. "He is well, but we will not be seeing him any time soon." She sighed. "I had so hoped to have all my birds back in the nest for a while."

"He can't get leave?"

"He's not even at Scarpflow anymore. He posted this letter just before his ship sailed. He didn't say where he was headed, but he thinks it has something to do with a large meteorite having struck an island - if the navigator's calculations of its trajectory is correct. It looks like your sailor brother is off to mine for iron ore."

"We all do that when we can, Mother." Battles are fought over the possession of iron meteorites, but I didn't mention this.

"Well, I find it very inconvenient."

"No doubt."

She went back to Alix's letter. I picked up one of mine. The first missive was notification from the Imperial College Home that I was wanted there for a bleeding. It seemed a bit soon since the last one, in my opinion, but I reasoned that the local Red Fever outbreak was straining the vaccine supply. And I had missed quite a few draws while off on my nautical adventures. I didn't mention this summons to anyone, especially not the two other doctors sharing the breakfast table. Either or both would surely volunteer to come along to help. I certainly would. I put this message aside.

When I picked up the next in the stack I was quite surprised to find an envelope addressed to me with the return postal identification of Commander Gate of the
Moonrunner
. I was very intrigued when I opened this letter.

It turned out not to be from the ship's second officer. My correspondent was the helmsman, Mr. Waterman, the man who could speak to octopi.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

I read:

Dear Dr. Cliff,

Mr. Cage kindly let me use his number so I could write to you. Please pardon me for this presumption. I mean no disrespect and hope you will forgive me. The thing is, I want to thank you for two things. The subscription to the Seyemouth lending library you arranged for me has done me a world of good. I thank you for this every time I open a new book. Recently I found a book at the library written by you - and I remember you asking me and the other sailors questions about our lives and what we thought and watching us as we went about our work and your telling us you wanted to put the things you learned from us into a story. I read your story, Doctor, and I've read it to crewmen who like to listen to stories and we all want to thank you for getting it right. Not just that, but for writing a novel about the likes of us at all. We hear that novels are about kings and nobles and gods and such folk that have nothing to do with us. Your novel told about a sailor like us, though smarter and braver and luckier. It was a good tale. Thank you for it. I hope you write another book like it. I hope you are well. The God of Waters bless you. Oh, one thing more, though I mean no disrespect - I wished you'd put an octopus into the story.

With Respect,

Able Seaman First Class Tham Waterman

I sat back in my chair, stunned. Pleased. Embarrassed. Pleased. Someone had read my novel. And liked it well enough to tell me so. I was gratified - and a bit shocked at just how proud I was of myself. For a moment I basked in this totally self-absorbed warm feeling of accomplishment.

Then the surprised annoyance set in. "My book is in the Seyemouth library!"

I never meant this to happen. I meant my story for myself, perhaps family and a few friends. I did not mean to send this child of mine out into the world to make its own fortune.

He read the letter then looked at me, a gleam of pride in his eyes. "I am glad to see that you have succeeded in what you set out to do. However, my friend Diamond and I will have what will likely be a loud and acrimonious discussion about his methods of spreading his radical ideas when I return to Avan in the autumn."

"I do not like his using Meggie this way," Mother said. "Even if it is a very good book. I will have a discussion with Miss Apple about her collusion in this."

I smiled, beaming upon my supportive parents. Though it seemed to me that we had had this conversation when Professor Diamond first took over the fate of my manuscript and it had done no good. I had come to believe that my former teacher was engaged in a private campaign to speed up the acceptance of fiction throughout the Empire rather than continuing the slow, steady spread of it out from the academic bastions of Avan and Cambre.

"If you show Professor Diamond that letter, he will use it as proof that he is successfully passing on the love of words to all the people of the Empire, just as education should be spread," I said.

"He is pushing," Mother said. "I fear some force will push back. I do not believe he has had to face questioning by the Committees of Grace yet, being so well-connected, but it may come."

A chill ran down my spine. "I want nothing more to do with controversy."

"Fortunately your novel is only a light adventure tale," Belladem said. "It is nothing like the radical meritocrat stories Professor Diamond writes. Not that they are not good books."

"Ah, but Meggie's--" Father began.

But he was interrupted by Mr. Butler stepping through the doorway. "A visitor for you, Dr. Cliff. Miss Dr. Cliff," he added when both Tennit and I looked at him inquiringly. "The gentleman says he has already had breakfast and has but a few minutes to stay. He is in the front hall parlor."

He held out his arms and I ran into his embrace. "Kissing might not be healthy for you," I said. We kissed anyway. "I missed you," I told him when our lips parted.

"I thought you might forget me among all your fancy suitors."

I touched my forehead to his. "I forgot you not, my dear." We drew back a little to look into each other's eyes. His hands lingered warmly on my waist. "Thank you for the flowers."

I ignored this bluntness. "Who would send me a basket of forget-me-nots? I wondered, and puzzled. Then I woke up in the middle of the night--"

"To blow your nose."

"To cough up phlegm, if you must know. At any rate, when I woke up, it was with the thought that Jame Field had sent those flowers." I kissed the rather wide tip of his nose. "Thank you. They were the best."

The parlor door banged open, and we jumped and turned toward it. Seeli came rushing in. "Uncle Eadum says you must come to the front hall immediately. We all must!" She was grinning maniacally. "An Imperial Herald has come!"

"My uncle is about to be awarded a knighthood," I said. "Or so he hopes." I took his hand. "Let us go watch."

He tried to pull away. Surgeons have strong hands. "I need to get to work."

"I am sure the herald is standing in front of the door. There will be no escaping for any of us until the announcement has been made."

He came with me, but he did not look enthusiastic. "A knight," he said softly before we reached the gathering in the wide front hall. "Your family is going noble?"

He seemed most unhappy at this news.

"My uncle's immediate family will be affected," I said. "More respect in society will accrue to the rest of us Cliffs, but I'm far from being a noble."

"Well, that's all right then," he said.

We joined the crowd, held hands, and stared along with everyone else at the magnificent creature standing with her straight back to the door. The herald's gold-encrusted robe was of scarlet velvet, with long wide sleeves which nearly swept the floor. She wore a gold tissue headdress which added nearly a foot to her height. A jeweled gold collar of office weighed down her neck. This uniform had not changed for at least three hundred generations, as the heralds had strictly documented, and we had all been taught in school. The Imperial College of Heralds was the oldest institution in Ang, and their headquarters was the largest building in Loudon. The information stored there affected the lives of every citizen of Ang. I suppose the keepers of all this power had every right to their elaborate dress and rituals.

Once we were all assembled, including the household staff, Uncle Eadum stepped before the woman in scarlet. He bowed. "We attend to you, Herald of the Empire."

She gave a regal nod.

I wondered if the Dowager gave the heralds lessons in haughtiness or if the heralds instructed the Imperial family?

An assistant, in blue velvet, who I had not noticed before, stepped forward. He slipped a rolled parchment from an embossed copper tube, and handed it to the Herald. She made a show of lifting and slowly unrolling the document. Once she'd done with this, she said, "Emperor Marqs the Fourth of the House of Shield commands me to stand before the House of Cliff today."

She lifted the parchment to eye level. It was a long-winded, formal, florid document. The gist of it was that Mr. Eadum Cliff, head of the gentry family of Cliff, was being elevated to the rank of Knight of the Empire for services to the Empire. The rank was to be held by his heir, and all heirs of the House of Cliff to follow.

It was what we had hoped for. What the corporate family had worked toward for seven generations. This was not only what we'd hoped for, but expected when the Herald arrived.

It was what she read next that was a surprise.

"Alixand Cliff and Edime Cliff, siblings of the generation of Eadum Cliff, of the gentry House of Cliff, for services rendered to the Empire, are awarded elevation to the rank of Esquire of the Empire. Rank to be held by heirs of the households of Alixand and Edime and all heirs of their households to follow."

It took me a few moments to understand. Alixand Cliff was my father. Professor Alixand Cliff was now Squire Alixand Cliff. Or would be once the investiture ceremony took place. Professor Alixand Cliff, Esq.

Then the realization that my personal family and not just my uncle had just been ennobled sank to the pit of my stomach, and I found I did not like the weight of it there at all. This wasn't the way I had ever imagined the world to go. I - we Avan Cliffs - were committed meritocrats...

I suppose things had been going on around me while all this rolled around my head, but it took me a while to focus. When I did, I looked at Jame. I don't know when we had stopped holding hands. There was no pleasure in his guarded expression. He was a committed meritocrat, as well.

"I--" I began.

"We'll talk about this later," he said, voice flat. "I really do have to get to work, right now."

Chapter Thirty-Eight