S2.7: Reflections
It is a little darker outside the den by the time that Lottie has finished her tale and they realise they will be eating a late supper in an empty breakfast area once they get back to the Potting Shed. (Breakfast being the only communal meal, and even that is more a matter of partially overlapping with others than a formal sitting, what might have been called a ‘dining’ area is not.)
“So” pTravis begins, “You say that Alcock met Fabian before he came here - a fact that Lois confirmed - when they were fighting each other in Africa in the mid 1970s! That’s quite a thought! And that rule-loving Alcock implicitly disobeyed military orders so that Fabian would be merely extradited to Britain and then let go for lack of evidence, evidence that Alcock could have provided? And that is probably why he left the army and then formed this commune.”
“Yep!”
“And the reason that looking in back issues of the Racing Post, as both ’Gillo and I did when we thought he was an agent of the Disorder of Catastrophe yields no long racing career for Fabian is that he was actually a gun-eschewing, sword-wielding mercenary who then went native and turned the local mountain dwellers into a vicious merciless fighting force?”
“More or less!”
pTravis looks at Masongill, quizzically, and continues.
“I mean: both ’Gill and I can see the Heart of Darkness reference!”
“The what?” - Lottie.
“Apocalypse Now, if you prefer.”
“Ah!”
“But the Montagnards aren’t to be found in Africa which is where you wanted this tale to be set.”
“I didn’t want it to be set anywhere! This is what I heard.”
Now, Masongill has a thought. “You agree that you returned to the Potting Shed in a lady-like swoon the night before, having, let me quickly add, seen some horrific sights. We don’t deny that. Although no one said what, something unpleasant had clearly happened. And afterwards you slept deeply. And, for you, you went a long time without eating. Are you sure this isn’t just a dream?”
“That’s why a paused a bit when you asked me whether it is true. I think it’s all true. But even I can see that it seems wild!”
“And how about the sword? Not yours from last summer but the one you described Fabian as having in Africa. Didn’t that your description of that sound just like, or almost make it look very much the same as, Anduril?”
“The Flame of the West? Yes. But that’s the only sword I know. I wasn’t in Africa! Idiot!”
Masongill offers one last thought. “You said earlier that you told Alcock what you’d heard and you’ve just told us more or less the same. And you said that he told you not to say that to other people. Well he might have meant: don’t tell that because it isn’t what Fabian and I actually said, rather than it was but he didn’t want that known.”
Lottie concedes: “I agree that that makes sense. I don’t believe it. But it makes sense. Also, I never said that I thought Alcock was being sneaky in asking me not to say anything. He might be protecting Fabian as much as himself. The fact that the now pacifist Alcock disobeyed an order and thus resigned from the army on principle doesn’t sound bad to me. But except for the fact that it enabled him to save my life, I can imagine Fabian might not want his violent ninja - ‘poet serpent of the Kikyuyu’ - assassin past known about.”
Sensing the time is right, pTravis snuffs out the light, though it isn’t really dark outside even now.
“One thing this would imply if true: Fabian is the only real chevalier round here. We wear the insignia of the Chevaliers de l’Ordre de l’Éponge but even though Lottie owns a supposedly famous sword, Fabian is the only one with a real right to that title.”
After supper, in the gloaming, Lottie goes outside with some of last year’s rejected turnips to practice with Anduril (Flame of the West) and is silently joined by her new sword-master tutor.
“I may call you Gurney!” she says.
Neither of them will say anything about this to the Potting Shed bigwigs.
