“I doubt I will have so much time,” said Zacharias grimly.
•••
Ihave left you no very comfortable office, I find,” said Sir Stephen.
He had just appeared by the fireplace, but it was likely he had been present throughout Zacharias’s conversation with Mak Genggang, and had heard the whole.
“At least I begin to trace my troubles to a singular source,” said Zacharias.
“Yes, that sandy-haired Midsomer lad!” said Sir Stephen. “Who would have thought he was capable of such enterprise? It shows how little there is in blood. If his father ever held two thoughts together in his head at the same time, it was the most he ever did.”
“Midsomer is much more beforehand than me,” said Zacharias, with a sigh.
“If you devoted all your time to plotting divers villainies, I am sure you should soon outpace him,” said Sir Stephen. “It is continuing to attend to your duties as Sorcerer Royal that hobbles you. Well, it is never pleasant to play the informer, but it seems to me there is nothing to be done but to report Midsomer to the Presiding Committee. It was one thing when you could only accuse him of seeking to get rid of you one way or another—that I can see Midsomer’s friends and relations would happily ignore—but if he is interfering in foreign affairs, that is something the Society will have to take seriously, no matter how many uncles he has.”
Zacharias had already considered this course, and dismissed it. “At the moment I have no proof of my allegations. Mak Genggang would hardly be deemed a credible witness by the Society. And by making this new accusation, I would implicate others. John Edgeworth must have been involved in this attack on Janda Baik, and he is not easily accused.”
Sir Stephen frowned, standing before the fire with his hands clasped behind his back, rocking on his feet as he thought.
Zacharias experienced an unlooked-for pang. The sight was so familiar, the scene so much like what it had been when Sir Stephen was still alive, that for a moment Zacharias could not credit that the world was so utterly changed. In some respects their relationship was easier, their respective positions more equal. Yet Zacharias mustalways regret the shift that had so transformed the footing on which they each stood.
“You have not informed the Society of the block on our magic?” said Sir Stephen.
“I had almost done so,” said Zacharias, “but I fear the intelligence that Mak Genggang’s vampiresses have been conspiring against Britain is likely to incite another attack on Janda Baik. The situation there is so delicate that anything of the sort must be avoided. We cannot afford to be entangled in a magical conflict—we have not the resource for it, and there is our treaty with the French to consider.”
“I tell you what, Zacharias,” announced Sir Stephen. “What you need is evidence of Geoffrey Midsomer’s wrongdoing—solid evidence, such as even that miserable old Committee could not deny. Who better to supply you with such evidence than me? There is nowhere I cannot go, nothing I cannot see—”
“Nothing you can touch or move,” Zacharias reminded him. “I am obliged to you for your offer, sir, but Damerell and Rollo are already at work investigating Midsomer.”
Sir Stephen waved away both Damerell and Rollo, and the minor matter of his incorporeality. “Paget Damerell is a good enough fellow, but he is not likely to get very far with that addlepated creature to help him. No, it is a task for me, and I shall contrive some way around the inconvenience of my being unfleshed. At worst, Zacharias, we shall have to engage in a spot of necromancy, and I shall appear to give evidence to the Committee in person. It is what I could not wish, of course—Maria would so dislike it—so we must regard it as a last resort. Yet I should very much enjoy the looks on their faces!”
Zacharias did not continue to argue. If Sir Stephen could discover some means of overcoming his inability to interact with the material world, he would be the ideal investigator. It remained only to thank him, but Sir Stephen scoffed.
“There will be time enough for thanks when I have foundsomething! Though even then I would only be making amends for the wretched legacy I have left you,” he said. “Do you know, I fancy I shall enjoy myself. I was never a man to hold a grudge, but if it is put in my way to serve Julian Midsomer out for the trouble he has given me and mine, why! I am not an angel yet!”
And Sir Stephen’s blue eyes glinted with a most uncelestial light.
21
PRUNELLAWASINDIGNANTto be roused early the next morning for her lesson.
“Surely you have better things to concern yourself with than my instruction,” she protested.
The same thought had, of course, occurred to Zacharias. Prunella’s education was a demand upon his time and energy that he could ill afford. But the thought had followed quick upon its heels that he ought to make the most of every opportunity he possessed to teach Prunella, if she were to govern her familiars safely. It seemed increasingly likely that very little time remained to him to do it.
Then, too, this lesson had required special preparations. It would not be nearly as convenient to repeat it on any other day; indeed, to seek a postponement might occasion offence. Therefore Zacharias insisted.
“Let us resolve to complete five formulae today,” he said. “They shall culminate in a spell with which I think you will be pleased. It is beyond anything we have done before, and requires us to be outdoors.I have reserved a tolerably large space for us at the Park, but I beg you will have particular regard to my concealment charms. It is early for anyone to be about, but we cannot be too careful to avoid detection.”
“I think it is all silliness, and you ought to be spending your time thinking of ways to defeat Mr. Midsomer, not teaching me tricks,” said Prunella. The mention of a great spell had piqued her interest, however, and she followed this with:
“But since you are set upon it, I suppose I must comply, and the exercise will be good for the familiars.”
Prunella insisted on her familiars attending all her lessons. She vowed she could not learn half as well without them, and since the purpose of her education was to enable her to understand the creatures, Zacharias permitted it, despite the risk of discovery. The familiars made poor students, however—they were discourteous, inattentive and quarrelsome; insisted on exploded theories in the face of Zacharias’s polite reasoning; and often disrupted the lesson with their squabbling.
They arrived so early in the Park that there was not a soul to be seen, but Prunella kept her familiars within her reticule until they had reached the concealed grove where the lesson was to be conducted. She set the reticule upon the ground and opened it so that the tiny heads of the familiars—shrunk for the occasion so that each creature would fit upon the palm of her hand—could peer over the side.
“Now mind you behave yourselves. We shall have time to talk later, but if you are always interrupting I shall never learn all the things Zacharias says I must learn,” said Prunella. “Nidget, I beg you will attend, and not abandon your notes halfway through, as you did before. It is so very useful to have a record of each lesson.”
