Arabella of Mars (5 page)

“I am afraid so, dearest.” He swallowed. “Only the family silver remains. And if nothing intervenes, before the year is out I shall be lodged in the sponging-house, and you and Sophie … you shall, I suppose, be cast upon the mercy of your parents.” Beatrice's expression left little doubt as to how little mercy she expected from that quarter. “But now it seems an opportunity has presented itself.” He straightened, firming his jaw and his grip upon his pistol. “And so, my dear cousin, I must ask you to retire to the pantry.” He gestured curtly to the door.

Warily, keeping her eyes upon her cousins and watching for any opportunity of escape, Arabella sidestepped in the indicated direction. “I do not understand what you hope to accomplish by this.”

Simon gave a grim smile. “I suppose I should thank you, Cousin. Until this afternoon I had thought all hope lost. But your presence here—a living reminder of the entailment which has stolen my rightful inheritance from me—together with your very helpful explanation of our current astrological situation with respect to Mars…”

“Astronomical,” Arabella corrected automatically.

“The
point
is,” he fumed, “that with a mere two hundred pounds—which can be obtained as a loan, with the silver as collateral—two months' time, one dueling-pistol, and an entailed estate … I can very shortly correct my financial circumstances for good and all.” Then, quite improperly, he grasped Arabella's arm and propelled her out of the room, pressing the pistol's muzzle to her side.

Simon marched Arabella to the kitchen, silencing the maid Jane's enquiries with a stern expression, and shoved Arabella roughly into the dark and noisome pantry, slamming the door behind her. She immediately pressed her shoulder against it, but with his greater strength and weight he held it shut. Simon shouted something to Beatrice, and a moment later Arabella heard a scrape and thud as something heavy was thrust against the door, followed by a clatter as of chains.

“Cousin, you cannot!” Arabella shouted through the door while impotently rattling its handle. “This is
murder
you are contemplating!” For she was now certain exactly what Simon planned. As the only remaining male in the line of succession, in the event of Michael's death the entire Ashby estate would pass to him.

“I am sorry,” he replied, “but I have no alternative. Goodbye.” And then, after a brief whispered colloquy with Beatrice, his footsteps beat a hasty retreat.

 

3

ESCAPE

Arabella tried the door again and again, but no matter how hard she pressed against it, it would not shift even half an inch.

“Pray do not continue in your efforts, Cousin,” came Beatrice's voice from without. “The door is securely shut, and even if you should succeed in opening it, I remain here with the pistol. And I
will
use it, if necessary. Please do not require this of me.”

“This mad scheme cannot succeed!” Arabella cried. “To put an end to one's own relatives for personal gain would surely render the inheritance invalid!”

“You underestimate my husband, Cousin. Despite his occasional follies, he
is
a barrister, and very clever. He will find some way to avoid suspicion.”

“Murder will out,” Arabella said, but even as she spoke she realized that platitude was not always true. Mars was but thinly peopled; many had met their end there in lonely circumstances, with no witnesses and no evidence. If a cousin from Earth were to pay a visit, a convenient hunting accident could easily be arranged, and accusations of foul play would be difficult or impossible to support. “If nothing else,
I
will not let him escape blame.”

“And who are
you
?” Beatrice gave a nervous little laugh. “A seventeen-year-old girl—a wild child known for headstrong, intemperate actions—a jealous cousin deprived of her inheritance and ten thousand miles away from the court where the issue would be tried. Even if you could make your opinion known, who would listen to you?”

Arabella leaned against the door, breathing hard.

Though she did not want to believe what Beatrice said, she feared her cousin might be correct.

*   *   *

Hours passed. The light in the tiny window near the ceiling faded and dimmed as the sun sank toward the horizon. From time to time Arabella tried the door, but on each attempt Beatrice's voice dissuaded her from further effort.

Simon had said that he would be on the last coach to London. She
must
find some way to stop him. But how? Her reticule contained nothing but minor toilette articles and a bit more than nineteen shillings—not nearly enough to bribe her way past Beatrice or even the maid. The tiny pantry had but a single window, quite high up, and the shelves held nothing more than a paltry selection of bread, potatoes, and other foodstuffs. Not even a butter-knife could be found.

Whatever could she do?

Arabella removed the silver locket which hung on a chain around her neck—the locket which had never once left her person since her exile from Mars—and opened it. Up from her trembling palm smiled a miniature portrait of her brother, painted by an itinerant artist when he had been fifteen years of age. The companion portrait, of herself at age twelve, rested in Michael's watch-fob.

The youthful face in the portrait seemed so gay, so happy, so unconcerned. Arabella was the only one in all the worlds who knew how much danger he was in, and she seemed helpless to prevent it.

Even if she could somehow manage to make her way home before Simon reached London, she could not imagine Mother doing any thing to prevent him from carrying out his plan. So mired in propriety was she that she would never make an accusation, much less take action, against him until it was far too late.

No. It was up to Arabella, and Arabella alone, to prevent Simon from carrying out his dreadful scheme.

Decisively, she snapped the locket shut and looked around, seeking a fresh perspective upon the situation. What, she asked herself, would Khema do if similarly trapped?

The door was blocked and guarded. The rough plaster walls and wooden floor seemed too strong to be defeated without tools. The single window was far too small for escape.

Or was it?

As quietly as she could, Arabella climbed up to it, stepping up the shelves from one side of the tiny pantry to the other. The window was no more than a foot and a half wide and nine inches high; it was not made to open, and its cracked and bubbled glass was too filthy for a clear view to the outside.

But the frame … the frame was old, the paint cracked and peeling. And under the paint … the black of dry-rot.

Bracing herself awkwardly across the topmost shelves, Arabella pried at the splintered, rotted wood with her cuticle-knife. Though splinters abraded her skin and lodged painfully beneath her fingernails, a few bits and slivers came away, revealing still more rot beneath.

With grim determination she kept at her task, sending a shower of wood chips sifting down toward the floor. She worried that Beatrice might hear her, but no protests came from without. Her toes and calves began to ache from holding herself pressed against the ceiling, and the shelf pressed painfully against the backs of her thighs.

And then, suddenly, a large sliver came free all at once and the frame collapsed!

Arabella gasped and pressed the cracked glass, now free, into place before it could fall and shatter, nearly losing her footing on the shelves beneath her in the process.

Once she had caught her breath and stilled her beating heart, she gingerly picked the three large pieces of glass from the ruined frame and set them down upon the top shelf.

The cool air of a summer's evening came through the opening, its blessed breath drying the perspiration which her efforts had brought to her cheeks and forehead, and for a moment she relaxed. But she was still a long way from escape.

She was, she knew, quite tall and exceptionally straight and slender for a girl of seventeen. How her mother had despaired of her daughter's figure! “It is all on account of this planet's inadequate gravity,” she had complained to Father. “It makes children grow up weak and spindly.” But in this case her shape might prove her salvation, for she estimated that she might just be able to squeeze herself through the opening.

But what would she find beyond it?

Cautiously she put her head through the window and looked about. The sun had fully set, but the light of Earth's enormous moon revealed clearly that the window was only ten feet above the ground. And a large bush lay directly beneath, which would break her fall. She thought she might chance it.

But could she trust her instincts?

The force of Earth's gravity was greater than that of Mars, as had already been demonstrated to her on numerous painful occasions. A leap which seemed entirely reasonable to her might here be sufficient to break her leg, or her neck.

“For Michael,” she whispered, and touched the locket.

She squirmed about, seeking to maneuver herself into a position whereby she would not plunge headfirst from the window as she exited, but very quickly realized that, while her hips might be able to pass through the opening, her black bombazine mourning dress would not.

She paused, breathing heavily, and considered her options.

Her mother would be appalled. But the night was dark, and her brother's life was at stake.

How she wished she had her
thukhong
!

Quickly, but as quietly as possible, she descended to the pantry floor. Removing her dress without assistance in the confined space was maddeningly difficult, but she finally managed it. The shift, petticoat, and stays beneath she left on, to protect her skin from the shattered window frame as well as for modesty; the reticule she tucked securely beneath the stays at the small of her back.

Then, staring up at the moonlight that stole through the window opening, she had an idea. She balled up the dress and tossed it onto the top shelf. Then, hitching her shift and petticoat up to her hips, she climbed back up to the top.

Straightening the dress to its maximum length, she removed one of the upper shelves from its brackets and tied the sleeves firmly about it. The remaining fabric extended less than a yard and a half, but she hoped it would make a difference.

Twisting about until she lay face-down across the remaining shelves, she maneuvered her feet out the window, then her legs, then her hips … her hands clinging to the shelf brackets with desperate strength. Once her hips were clear of the opening—with her knees against the outside wall's rough plaster, and the cool night air caressing her thighs—she hauled on the black dress, drawing the wooden shelf up to her collarbone.

This was as far as she could go without committing herself to the drop.

“Now or never,” she breathed, and with her knees she pushed her stomach through the window. Her weight took her the rest of the way.

The splintered window-sill rasped painfully against her bosom.

She felt herself falling.

And then the shelf slammed into the window opening, halting her progress so rapidly her teeth clacked together.

The noise was tremendous. Immediately she heard Beatrice call her name, and chains rattling against the pantry door.

Quickly Arabella lowered herself as far as she could, her feet scrabbling against the wall, hands gripping the black dress. Soon she hung from the dress's end, arms fully extended, gasping from the effort. Her feet swung in the air, feeling nothing beneath no matter how she stretched her toes.

From the window above came the sound of the pantry door opening, a light from the kitchen, and a gasp from Beatrice.

Arabella closed her eyes tight and released her hold on the dress.

With a shriek and a crash she fell into the bush, its branches tearing at her legs and arms, then tumbled out of it and onto the hard ground.

From within the house came the sound of Beatrice's voice: crying out alarms, calling for Jane, and casting imprecations on Arabella even as she rushed through the Ashbys' little house.

Arabella pulled herself to her feet—panting hard, heart hammering. Her dress hung from the window above, far out of reach.

At least she still retained her reticule.

She gathered up her petticoats, turned, and ran.

She was a hundred yards or so down the lane when Beatrice rounded the corner of the house, shouting, “Stop! Stop! Stop or I shall shoot!”

Arabella did not stop. Surely Beatrice would not—

A loud
crack
came from behind. But though the sound nearly stopped Arabella's racing heart, a
zing
and crash from the shrubbery to her left showed that, though Beatrice might be willing to pull the trigger, she had aimed wide—or else her skill as a marksman did not match her intent.

Arabella risked a glance over her shoulder. Beatrice stood panting, winded, the smoking pistol still in her hand, her eyes desperate. “Please, Cousin!” she cried. “Come back! Simon will regain his senses, I am certain of it!”

“I am not!” Arabella called back. “You must help me to stop him before he commits murder!”

Though the expression on Beatrice's face held nothing but misery, she shook her head. “For the sake of my child,” she replied, “I cannot.” She then cried out, surprisingly loud, “Help! Oh, help me! Madwoman! Madwoman!”

Lights flickered to life all around, and voices were raised in alarm.

Arabella turned and ran.

*   *   *

Dodging through copses of trees smelling of loam and leaf-mould, scrambling over stone fences damp with moss, stumbling across plowed fields stubbled with wheat-stalks, Arabella fled headlong, caring for nothing other than to evade pursuit. Though the moon was setting and only half-full, it was so very much larger than Phobos that its light was still sufficient to keep her feet from roots and other obstacles. Strange chirruping noises—from birds or frogs or insects, she knew not what—came from the shadows, reminding her just how unfamiliar this landscape was to her; her desert skills availed her not at all.