Part 10 (2/2)

They were directed to wait in a gloomy windowless reception room lit by blue gas flares and furnished with hard chairs and a couple of ottomans covered in grey velvet. The room was stuffy and smelt rather disagreeably; of salt fish, Dido thought. Hanging on the walls, arranged in circles, squares and figure-eight patterns, were a number of objects the size and shape of coconuts; Dido, wandering over to inspect these (she did not like to sit down for fear of creasing her skirts), discovered that they were model heads, grey-brown and s.h.i.+ny, with the hair, on those that had any, braided into little tails, the whites of the eyes painted pink, silver rings set in ears and noses, and the lips sewn together by a kind of blanket st.i.tch. Dido did not care for them at all; the pink-coloured eyes made them look very watchful. After studying them for a few minutes she murmured to Lieutenant Windward: 'I reckon they're real heads! Mr Holy said summat about coves in the forest as shrinks people's heads.'

Lieutenant Windward said distastefully, 'I have certainly heard of such practices, but is it likely the queen would display the objects in her palace? A most uncivilised adornment!'

'Mr Holystone said the lips are sewn up to prevent the ghosts getting out and haunting anybody,' Dido told him.

Lieutenant Windward threw up his eyes at such superst.i.tious folly.

Captain Hughes had time to become exceedingly impatient before they were summoned to the queen's presence; he strode up and down the small room a great many times, irritably kicking his sword aside. At last a grey-clad majordomo came to lead them to the throne-room. They had to ascend a high, wide stair, and walk along a very extensive, curving gallery which appeared to follow the outer circ.u.mference of the circular palace. At last they reached the entrance to a dimly lit, pillared hall, quite fifty yards long.

In the middle of this chamber they were intercepted by a group of white-bearded, white-robed dignitaries, who bowed politely and introduced themselves.

'Manuel Fluellen, at your service, Her Majesty's Vicar General.'

'Daffyd Gomez, Her Majesty's Grand Inquisitor.'

'Jose Glendower, Advocate of Her Majesty's Tribunal.'

'Juan Jones, Her Majesty's Physician and Chirurgeon.'

These men wore chaplets of silver oak-leaves, and carried white wands of office tipped with mistletoe.

'Happy to meet you, gentlemen,' grunted Captain Hughes. 'I trust that Her Majesty is in good health and still prepared to enlighten me as to her wishes?'

'She is so, yes indeed,' said Jones the Physician. 'But I should impress on you, sir, that Her Mercy, being now decidedly elderly, should on no account be thwarted, overset, crossed, distressed, or in any way unduly excited.'

Captain Hughes grunted again. 'Ha! Hm! You need not agitate yourself on that head, sir I know how to deal with elderly females; and persons of high degree.'

'There is a further point, sir -' Now it was the turn of the Grand Inquisitor, whose beard was even longer and whiter than that of the physician. He drew Captain Hughes to one side and talked at some length and earnestly, in a low tone, his mouth very close to the captain's ear. Upon the face of the latter, as he listened, Dido began to observe an obstinate and wary expression, as if Captain Hughes intended to let n.o.body persuade him to do anything against his own judgment; and after a few minutes he said shortly, 'Sir, I am here as the emissary of King James's Government, and must act as I believe His Majesty's Government would require me to. But do not be anxious ' as the other man began to protest or remonstrate 'I will not put Her Majesty into a fidget. I can be diplomatic when it is necessary, I a.s.sure you!'

'It is not precisely that, sir,' the Grand Inquisitor said smoothly, as the captain began to turn away from him, 'It is just that, sometimes, Her Mercy's wishes do not accord with the best interests of the '

'Be easy, man! I will undertake no foolish capers, I promise you!'

But the Grand Inquisitor was evidently by no means easy.

Dido could see that. His face, as he moved after the captain, wore a dark expression of disappointment and calculation that boded little good to the success of the British mission.

Best watch out for him, Dido thought. They all looks to me as if they'd come from a thieves' kitchen; I'd not buy three penn'orth of bra.s.s nails from any of them; but that Inquisitor's the loosest screw in the bunch, or my name ain't Dido Twite.

Captain Hughes, now detaching himself from the court officials, strode hastily on ahead of them towards the end of the hall, so that Dido and the lieutenant had to hurry to keep up with him. Dido, glancing from side to side, observed that grey gauze draperies dangled in the gaps between the pillars all the way down the long room; the chamber appeared to be empty, but any number of persons could be hiding behind the curtains.

At the far end of the throne-room was a day-bed set on a dais approached by three steps.

The day-bed was hung about with more of the grey gauzy draperies, and on it, leaning against a great many cus.h.i.+ons, lolled a lady whose plump and billowy shape was to some extent concealed by her loose white filmy garments.

The four officials bowed almost to the ground.

'Your Mercy may I present Captain Hughes of the Britannic Navy,' said the Vicar General.

The queen impatiently gestured Messrs Glendower, Gomez, Fluellen and Jones to retire out of earshot, which they did, looking disgruntled about it; then she said, 'My dear Captain Hughes! So very kind of you to come all this way. I am delighted to meet you. Pray consider yourself quite at home in my capital.'

Her voice was high, light, and fatigued.

'Ma'am,' said Captain Hughes gruffly. He climbed the three steps, went down on one knee, and kissed the hand she extended. Then, rising, he added, 'I have the honour to present Lieutenant Windward, of His Majesty King James's sloop Thrush; and harrumph this is Miss Dido Twite from er Hattersea?

Dido curtseyed. It was not one of her more successful efforts, but Queen Ginevra appeared to find no fault with it. She turned her protuberant light-grey eyes on Dido. The fixity of her stare made Dido wish to wriggle, but she could feel Captain Hughes's sharp and critical eye on her too, and tried to keep still.

'A child from England!' breathed the queen. 'What a remarkable coincidence!' She did not explain her words, but continued to study Dido until even Captain Hughes became a trifle fidgety.

'Er ahem!' he said. 'Understand there is some way in which I can be of service to Your Majesty. Only too glad to oblige in whatever it is; do my possible, that is to say.'

'. . . Ah . . . yes,' answered Queen Ginevra, on a faint sigh, as if she had dragged her thoughts back from some immense distance, from something that was very pleasantly occupying her attention. 'Yes, you can help me, Captain. Listen, and I will explain.'

She did not invite the captain to be seated; indeed, there was nowhere to sit; so he and Lieutenant Windward continued standing in front of the dais. Dido, unbidden, squatted down on one of the steps, and earned a scowl and a head-shake from the captain, but he did not dare interrupt what the queen was saying.

'You must be aware my dear Captain of the history of New c.u.mbria's settlement; that the Founding Fathers sailed here after the unfortunate outcome of the Battle of Dyrham in A.D. 577?'

Captain Hughes nodded, and the queen went on, 'In the course of that battle, as you will recall, my husband King Arthur received a number of wounds, one very dangerous, and was ferried away over the Water of Arianrod to be healed of his hurts in the Island of Avalon by his aunts, the Cornwall sisters.'

At the queen's words Captain Hughes turned first extremely pale, then bright red. He cast one nerve-racked sideways glance at Lieutenant Windward, who was standing, equally red-faced, staring rigidly ahead.

'Your h-h-husband, Ma'am? King Arthur? I'm afraid I don't quite '

'My husband: King Arthur,' she repeated. Her high, fatigued voice held a hint of irritation. 'To be healed of his wounds in the Isle of Avalon.'

'But but, good gad, Ma'am, that would make you -'

'Thirteen hundred years old,' the queen said coldly. 'You do not think I would be such an undutiful wife as to die before my husband returned to me?'

Captain Hughes did not look as if he had any thoughts on the subject at all. He stared at the queen with glazed eyes.

Dido stared too. Never before had she seen a lady thirteen hundred years old. Queen Ginevra certainly was very fat. She must have been getting fatter and fatter all those hundreds of years, Dido reflected. Don't look as if she walked about much. Or went out in the fresh air.

The queen's skin was pale and soft, like white bread-dough. She lolled back wearily against her pillows.

Lucky she ain't bald, Dido thought.

An abundance of limp, rather greasy yellowish-white hair was swept back from the queen's brow and confined by a diamond-studded snood. Like Queen Victoria she had very little chin, but her eyes, large as poached eggs, made up for that; they were extremely sharp and gave, the impression that they observed all that went on, not only in front of the queen but also to the side and behind her. They observed, but they held no expression; they were like birds' eyes. The short fingers of her small fat hands were loaded with rings.

'The battle of Dyrham was fought in the winter,' Queen Ginevra went on. 'After my husband had been conveyed away by his aunts, the lake, Arianrod, very fortunately froze. So we were able to bring it with us to New c.u.mbria.'

'Bring it with you, Ma'am? the lake?'

'In the form of ice-blocks; as ballast,' she answered rather impatiently. 'Had it been liquid, of course the task would have been by no means so easy.'

<script>