MICHAEL
“I don’t think I can add much to this,” I say. “I’ll go for a walk down by the river while you’re all in the university. Give me a call when you’re done, and I’ll meet up with you.”
When I re-join them, a couple of hours later, James and Richard are sitting at a table, each nursing a beer.
“Where’s Charlotte?”
“Gone shopping,” says James.
“Shopping? When did Charlotte ever go shopping? She hates shopping.”
“It’s a university town,” says James wryly. “She’s just discovered the street with all the second-hand bookshops….”
“Ahhh... Right…. Might as well get a beer then.”
“Several beers I should think.”
I order myself a drink. “How did it go? Got her course details sorted out?”
“Yes, and we’re both quite pleased with the result,” says Richard. “James said, and I suspect you agree, that, for her own safety, he’d be happier having Charlotte close at hand, rather than away for long periods….”
“Yes, I am happier with that….”
“Good. So, we’ve arranged with the university, that she can cover a lot of the material by distance learning and online training. So long as she can pass the exams, that covers all the academic material. And the practical experience presents no difficulties. I’ll make sure she works her way around everything that’s available in the industry within fifty miles. James here can handle that. He has a better grip on that side of things than I do.”
“Sounds ideal. And the university is okay with that?”
“I’m making sure they’re okay with it. They lean on the Haswell Corporation for a lot of favours. I’ve called some of them in this time.” He looks smug, sips his beer.
“You like getting your own way, don’t you?” I comment.
“Privileges of wealth.” he smiles. “I can recommend it.”
“I imagine you can. And by the way, you’ve not pulled the wool over my eyes, about at least one of your reasons for wanting Charlotte close by….”
He eyes me. “Meaning?”
“Charlotte is not Beth’s bodyguard.”
“Mmmm…. She’s done a better job of it than Ross. On his watch, Beth has been kidnapped twice, and Charlotte herself escaped when he was supposed to be guarding her.”
“That still doesn’t make it Charlotte’s responsibility to look after your wife….”
narrowed eyed
his beer. “Are you going to explain that to her? Or would you like me to
He has a point.
Let it go….
satisfied with your arrangements
seems to be, yes,”
James. “You’re unusually quiet. Do you think
this, she’s going to do as she’s damn well told. She’ll get what she wants this way, so she has no good reason for arguing about
drink as they discuss future plans, the re-timed plans for
The
good man, my friend…. even if
what if you
marriage and it didn’t turn
because of what
was already a trafficker…. He turned her
and
My thoughts are interrupted.
James eyes the bags she carries, weighing her
against her pale skin. “Oh, yes.
I look at what
her book stack, raising eyebrows at some of her choices, muttering to himself as he does so. “’Modern Cosmology and Philosophy’, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, ‘The Mythology of the Ancient Greeks’, Asimov’s ‘The Gods Themselves’, ‘Fundamentals of Physics: Mechanics, Relativity, and Thermodynamics’, ‘The Complete Sherlock Holmes’, Lovelock’s ‘Gaia’,
for
brow furrows. “That’s a quote,
to his, “Yes Master, it
know the reference,
stares at him. “It’s from ‘The Notebooks of Lazarus Long.’ taken from Heinlein’s ‘Time Enough for
looks puzzled. “That’s an old nineteen-seventies science fiction novel, isn’t it? I don’t think I’ve ever read it. Why would I know the
have read it Master, but you’ve had it
“While I was unconscious?”
was talking to you, hoping you could hear me. And when I couldn’t think
*****
CHARLOTTE
emotional, and I’m on the edge of tears. Richard, I think deliberately,
and Beauty’ was it? That’s what you’re calling it? Plans
at
part, yes,” he says. “Just the usual snags and hitches
“Such as?”
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