Oracles of Delphi Keep (18 page)

The boys took their seats just as Castle Dover’s kitchen crew were setting out scrambled eggs, ham, toast, and fruit. “Can you believe it?” said Carl as he watched the staff arrange platter after platter of food on the table. “It’s like being on holiday here!”

Ian laughed. “You’d better eat as much as you can, Carl,” he said. “You’ll want to put on some weight before winter.”

“Yeah,” Carl said, dishing a huge portion of eggs onto his plate. “I’m a bit thin these days. Best to fatten up!”

While Carl ate as if his life depended on it, Ian barely managed to get down a few bites before his breakfast turned cold. All the children seated at the table wanted to know what had happened on the hunt. Ian decided it was best if he not panic the rest of the orphans by telling them that there were now at least five beasts to worry about. Instead, he said that the hunting party had determined that the beast was a female and had somehow managed to escape the area.

While Ian recited his story, however, he couldn’t help noticing that Searle—seated at the other end of the table—sneered and rolled his eyes the whole time. “I bet if I’d been
along with that hunting party, I’d have ferreted out that creature,” he boasted, puffing his chest out. “Seems to me all you managed to do was bungle any chance of killing the brute by rooting around its lair,” he added.

Ian ignored Searle and focused on reassuring the other worried children around the table. “There’s no reason to be concerned,” Ian said calmly to his fellow orphans. “The earl’s a jolly good sportsman, and if anyone can hunt that beast down and kill it, it would be him.” He made a mental note to say those exact words to Theo when he saw her. He knew how worried she’d be when she learned that the beast was still on the loose.

As Ian smiled confidently at the children, he noticed that some of them seemed to relax, but one or two still looked anxiously out the windows. Ian sighed as he thought that nothing short of the beast’s pelt would reassure everyone. He decided to leave it at that and finish eating. While his food had indeed gone cold, it was still delicious.

When he had finished his first helping and Carl was just polishing off his third, Madam Dimbleby and Miss Carlyle came into the dining hall. “Children,” Madam Dimbleby said, and Ian and the rest of the orphans looked up, “once you are finished with your breakfasts, please congregate out on the back lawn. We will be meeting there to discuss the plan to get you all back into your own beds at the keep, and the new schoolmaster will talk about the class schedules going forward.”

Ian, who was a very good student, was happily surprised that they would be getting to their schoolwork so quickly
after the attack, but Carl groaned. “That means we’re not getting a holiday from school,” he complained.

“It might not be so bad,” said Ian. “I’m actually looking forward to our new subjects.” Carl gave him a look that said he must be daft, but kept his mouth shut.

As the children gathered by the door to the lawn, Theo made her way through the crowd to Ian and Carl. “There you are!” she said as she neared. “Ian, I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Theo!” he said, bursting with excitement. “I’ve got something important to tell you and something even more important to give you.”

“Is it a present?” she asked him happily.

“As a matter of fact, it is,” he said with a smile, then looked around, feeling like they were being overheard. Carl was standing right next to him, giving him a winning smile, and then he noticed that many of the other children nearby were also looking at him expectantly.

“Er, sorry, but this is private, Theo. Might be best if we moved over there,” Ian said, indicating a small nook away from prying eyes and ears.

Theo gave him a funny look but followed him to the nook, and when they were tucked discreetly away from the rest of the group, he dug around in his pants pocket and retrieved the crystal necklace.

“Oh, my,” said Theo with a bit of awe as she took the necklace. “It’s so beautiful, Ian. Wherever did you get it?”

Ian beamed, happy to give her such a treasure. “I found it in the rubble of Madam Scargill’s room,” he explained. He
was going to tell her about the night she came to the keep and about how Madam Scargill had taken the necklace from the man who’d brought Theo to the orphanage, when she rudely pushed the necklace back into his hand.

“Ian!” she said crossly. “That’s stolen property!”

Ian was startled by her reaction and whispered, “Shhh!”

“I can’t believe you would want to give me something you pinched from Madam Scargill!” she spat, her voice barely hovering at a whisper. She then crossed her arms and began to move past him but he caught her arm.

“Theo!” he said, pushing the necklace firmly back into her hand. “You don’t understand. I didn’t lift this from Madam Scargill; she lifted it from
you!”

Theo scrunched up her brows, obviously confused. “Now you’re not making sense, and stop pushing that thing at me! I want nothing to do with it.”

Ian sighed, trying to think of a way to explain it all to her. “The necklace belonged to your mum.”

Theo frowned skeptically. “Really?” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “And did she tell you that herself before you stole it from Madam Scargill?”

Ian was losing patience. “Will you please just listen to me?” he said, raising his voice a bit and feeling several eyes turn to stare at him. He sighed in exasperation and said, “Oh, forget it. Have a look at this and it’ll sort things out better than I can.” He reached into his blazer and handed her the small framed photograph of her mother.

Theo took one look at the picture and gasped. “I know her!”

“It’s your mum,” said Ian, feeling his shoulders relax now
that she wasn’t making such a fuss. “And that little tot in her lap is you. It must have been taken right before you came to the orphanage, because you looked exactly like that the night you arrived at the keep. And this necklace,” he said, holding it up, “was what Madam Scargill confiscated from the man who brought you. She was probably keeping it until she felt you were old enough to wear it.”

“How do you know it belonged to my mother?” Theo asked, hugging the photo to her chest, her eyes glistening with moisture.

“Look again at the photo,” he suggested. “There, you see? She’s wearing the necklace.”

Theo squinted at the spot Ian was pointing to in the photo. She nodded after a moment and held her hand out to receive the necklace. “Thank you,” she said hoarsely, and Ian placed it into her palm. “Ian, I …” But before she could say another word, Madam Scargill appeared and clapped her hands.

“Children! Children!” she called. “Everyone please stop talking and gather out on the lawn for the meeting. Girls, queue up to the right, and, boys, do the same to the left.”

Theo gave Ian a quick but fierce hug; then she hurried out the door to join the other girls on the lawn.

“Did you give the photograph to Theo?” Carl whispered as he sidled up to Ian.

“Yes,” said Ian with a frown. “But I didn’t have much of a chance to tell her about it.”

“What’s to tell other than you found the photo in the schoolmasters’ cottage?”

Ian sighed. “It’s a bit more complicated than that, I’m afraid,” he said.

“Complicated?” Carl asked with a puzzled expression. “Like how, mate?”

Ian was about to answer him when Madam Scargill appeared at their side. “I said,
no
talking, gentlemen,” she snapped.

“Yes, Madam,” they both said, casting their eyes obediently to the ground.

Silently, the pair followed the line of children out onto the large lawn that surrounded Castle Dover. The boys stood in a line next to the girls and waited for further instruction.

When all the children had found their places, Thatcher stepped forward and addressed the group. “Good morning, children,” he began with a warm smile.

“Good morning, Schoolmaster Goodwyn,” Ian and the other children sang in unison.

“You’ve no doubt heard that we have as yet been unsuccessful in our attempts to kill the beast that attacked the keep. However, I want to assure you that the earl is doing everything in his power to ensure that the vile creature is driven from the land, never to return.” Ian smiled smugly. That was exactly what he’d said to the group round the breakfast table. He hoped that hearing it from Schoolmaster Goodwyn would comfort the few who still looked worried.

“The earl has also advised me,” Thatcher continued, “to inform you that when he can be assured of your safety, he will return all of you to the keep with new beds, furniture, clothing, and a new toy or two. Until then, you are all quite
safe and secure here at Castle Dover, as we have many armed watchmen patrolling the castle grounds both day and night.”

Ian’s thoughts went back to the strange man he’d seen out on the lawn the night before and he wondered if perhaps it was one of the armed watchmen keeping them safe from another beastly attack.

Abruptly, Ian’s thoughts were interrupted as he listened to the nervous murmurs around him. “I heard there’s more than one beast out there!” said a girl named Alexandra.

“Bullets are no good against it! You’d need to get close enough to stab it in the heart to make sure it’s dead,” said Searle, doing his best to stir up the fear again.

“Is that true?” a girl named Rosemary asked as she tapped Ian on the shoulder. “Are there more than one of those awful beasts out there?”

Ian caught Theo staring at him wide-eyed nearby. “Yes,” he said carefully, making sure his voice sounded calm, “but the others aren’t more than four-week-old pups, barely bigger than cats.”

Rosemary let out a breath and looked relieved, but Theo’s expression never changed. Ian tried to reassure her with a smile, but Theo just nodded absently as her eyes held a faraway glimmer. She seemed incredibly troubled and Ian wished he could offer her something more than his reassurance.

All around him the children continued to chatter excitedly until Thatcher held up his hand for quiet. “That will do, children,” he said patiently. He waited until they settled
down again before he continued. “While the keep is being readied for your return, we shall be conducting lessons here at Castle Dover. As my brother, Perry, is off assisting with the hunt today, I shall be instructing those children whom we’ve assigned to secondary classes. We will begin with British history and later we’ll have some instruction on French verbs and their conjugations. Meanwhile, Madam Scargill shall be taking the primary-studies children for lessons in reading and grammar.”

Ian seemed to be the only student in his group who was excited about learning from Schoolmaster Goodwyn. Everyone else nearby was complaining about not being allowed a holiday while the keep was being repaired. “It’s not fair,” groaned Searle. “I can’t think of anything more boring than history.”

“I can,” said Carl. “Latin. Now, there’s a bugger of a subject if ever there was one.”

Ian laughed and leaned out of line to poke Theo good-naturedly She was a whiz at languages and had picked up Latin faster than anyone at the orphanage. But Theo didn’t seem to be paying attention. Instead, she appeared lost in her own thoughts, and Ian noticed her hands wringing her skirt as if she was very nervous about something.

“It’s all right,” he said to her. “I expect the schoolmaster will grade on a curve if you’re worried.” Again, he got nothing more than an absent nod from her, so he decided to leave her be.

“Now, now,” Thatcher was saying as the children continued to complain. “I realize you’d much rather be off exploring the castle grounds, but we can’t ignore our schoolwork,
after all.” Pulling a list out of his pocket, he instructed, “If I call your name, please have a seat here on the lawn; otherwise you are to join Madam Scargill, who will take you into the drawing room for your reading lesson.”

Ian was relieved when he, Carl, and Theo were among those called by their schoolmaster, and they quickly found a place to sit as several younger children stepped out of line and trooped over to Madam Scargill. “At least we’re together,” said Carl, giving Ian a nudge with his elbow.

“All right, then,” said Thatcher. Reaching into a sack at his feet, he pulled out notebooks and pencils that he began to pass around. “I realize you do not have history books to read from,” he said. “So this will be in lecture format and I will expect you to take diligent notes and follow along.

“Now, I was informed that you have been studying the period known as the Wars of the Roses. That time in our history is most fascinating, but I think I’d like to jump ahead, if I may, several hundred years to a different battle, one far more relevant to the turbulent times we find ourselves in today. I’d like to discuss the Great War. Who knows to what I am referring?” the schoolmaster asked, looking around the group. Ian knew the answer immediately and shot his hand quickly into the air. “Yes, Master Wigby?”

“The Great War of 1914, sir,” Ian said confidently.

“Very good,” answered Thatcher with a warm smile. “And whom did we fight against in this Great War?”

Again Ian shot his hand up eagerly and Thatcher gave him a nod to answer. “The Germans, sir,” he said. He glanced sideways at Theo and noticed with relief that she seemed to have shaken her worried mood, as she was now
writing furiously in the notebook Schoolmaster Goodwyn had given her.

“Very good,” said Thatcher with a smile. “Children, the Great War, as Master Wigby has correctly stated, began in 1914 and continued straight through to 1918. It was a massive conflict, involving all the powers of Europe and the United States, and one that, thankfully, we shall never have to see the likes of again—hence it is also known as the War to End All Wars.”

Just then Theo jumped straight to her feet, her eyes large and round, and Ian noticed with alarm that her small frame was shaking. “That’s not true,” she said to the stunned audience.

“Is there something troubling you, Miss … Miss …?” Thatcher said as he struggled to remember her last name.

“Fields,” said Theo. “And yes, sir, I’m terribly sorry, but you’re … well, you’re just wrong.”

Ian and several of the other children collectively gasped. All around him he could hear the furious whispering following Theo’s rude statement.