The Lady Astronomer by Katy O'Dowd Read Free Book Online Page B

style, most unlike him.
Lucretia scowled. If Freddie was going to act in quite such a moon-struck
manner, she would be off. Quickly.
    “And this is my sister, Ms. H, but I
see you have met. Would you like a tour or are you already acquainted with the
house and its environs? I presume one gets to your home over the fields thusly?”
    Lucretia backed away slowly as Freddie’s
attention was fully taken by their new neighbour, shaking her head as she went.
She really didn’t need his already flaky concentration further distracted what
with the upcoming interviews they would have to conduct if he really wanted her
help full time.
    It was only once she was inside her
lodgings that she realised she still had Mr. Trotters pipe in her hand.
Lucretia sighed as she knew that she would have to reunite pipe and pig before
he exploded.
     
    *
     
    Lucretia awoke with Leibniz pulling at her
bed covers. Orion, who had been asleep on her hair like an overlarge cat,
lifted a large wing that swept the lemur off his feet.
    Leibniz jumped back on to the bed,
snarling.
    “My, my, didn’t somebody get out on
the wrong side of bed this morning. What’s up with you, Leibniz? And Orion,
mind your manners.”
    She shuffled into a sitting position, heaving
Orion’s weight from her tresses with some difficulty. With her head finally against
the board of the bed, she lifted her arms above her head and stretched
mightily, wriggling her toes in bliss. Then she looked at her time-keeper. Her
eyes wide, Lucretia leapt from bed in a single bound.
    “Leibniz, why didn’t you waken me
earlier?” She hopped from foot to foot. “The applicants will be here,
oh, just about now, and look at me! I can’t arrive to interview anyone in my
nightdress. Breathe, Lucretia, breathe. You are going to be the boss, you are
going to be the boss.”
    She expelled a shaky breath and scrambled
into her clothes, attached the leather straps that held her monoscope, focused
its lens, buckled the buckles, and tidied her hair into a messy bun, curls
escaping as they always did no matter how she tried to hold them down.
    Chewing on some mint leaves, she slammed
the door behind her only to return swiftly to
pull her boots on. She left again and returned again as the rain outside forced
her to get her shawl.
    The owl and the lemur followed, eager not
to be left out of proceedings, and hopeful for a spot of brunch, breakfast
being long over. Leibniz’s stomach rumbled and Orion looked at him with pity. At
least he had been late-night hunting and had ferreted out a ferret. Which had
been very tasty if a touch furry and bad humoured.
    Lucretia muttered to herself as she stomped
through several puddles on the way to the main house. She pulled the vast front
door open, shook herself dry, squared her shoulders and walked into the front
parlour where the most motley collection of interviewees she had ever seen
waited to have their abilities questioned.
    No Freddie either. Al had ridden into
Slough to converse with Mr. V on how to improve Mr. Trotters’ valve issues. It
hadn’t seemed like such a task when she had found out late last night she would
be conducting the interviews herself. But now, hungry, wet, and gasping for a
cup of tea, things seemed slightly more difficult.
    “Right,” she declared. “If
you would just wait for one more moment, and apologies for my lateness, I hope
my brother Mr. H was able to show you every kindness before he had to leave.”
So saying, she quit the room and went in search of a nice cup of tea.
     
    *
     
    The steam rose from the beverage, curling
into the cold, damp air and hanging in pale vapours as she questioned the
bedraggled woman who sat before her.
    “So, you have been in the employ of
the king, I gather. Very good. Why did you leave his Majesty’s service?”
    “It were all them animals,” the
unfortunate female responded, unfortunate as Leibniz had delighted in sitting
on her lap, much as a cat will do when it senses that it is