The Lightning Bolt by Kate Forsyth Read Free Book Online

looking into the hive,’ Fairnette said dreamily. ‘All is in order, everyone knows their job, they all work together for the good of the whole hive.’
    â€˜If only people could be like that,’ Emilia said passionately.
    Fairnette sighed. ‘I used to think so too. But they can be cruel, the bees. When there are toomany new queens, the first born kills them all. She stings them to death. She is the only bee that does not die when she uses her stinger. She’ll kill her own mother too if she has to. And the male bees die once they mate with the queen, and if they do not mate with her, the worker bees drive them away from the hive and they die from hunger. Which is, I suppose, better than the fate of the poor drudges, who simply work themselves to death.’
    Emilia and Luka stared into the hive. It suddenly seemed sinister. There was a long silence, then Fairnette gave herself a little shake and said, smiling, ‘Yet they make honey, the best and sweetest food in the world, and they make wax, which brings us light, and any one of them would die to protect their hive. So it’s beautiful as well.’
    â€˜Sweetness and light,’ Emilia said. ‘And yet . . .’
    â€˜Not all is sweetness and light in the honeybee’s world,’ Luka said, in a deep, dramatic voice. Allthree of them laughed, and then, since their laughter disturbed the bees, backed away from the hive as quickly as they dared.
    They headed back to the cottage, talking and laughing. It was sad to see how Fairnette’s glow faded as they approached the forge. Her father was asleep, his chin sunk down into his beard. His pipe had fallen from his hand, and lay smouldering on the bench.
    Fairnette picked it up and tapped it out. ‘He’ll burn the house down one day,’ she said sadly, and straightened his collar with a gentle hand. He did not stir.
    â€˜Come back to the house,’ Fairnette said to Emilia and Luka. ‘I have much to do, I’m afraid. I have not yet done the washing, and soon I will need to start cooking dinner. You will stay for dinner, won’t you? Father may feel better after a little sleep. I’m sure he will help you make copies of those keys, if we ask him right.’
    â€˜That’d be lovely, thank you,’ Emilia said gratefully.
    â€˜I’ll make us a feast, in honour of you coming,’ Fairnette cried. ‘We have plenty of food, for most people roundabouts here tend to barter their goods for my honey and my candles. They give me eggs, or some bacon, or a sack of flour, and Mrs Browne brought me a hen yesterday. They use a lot of candles up at the big house, and she knows I’d rather not be paid too often in gold, for it only means I have to go to town to spend it. I don’t like having to go to town.’
    â€˜So you make a living out of your candles and honey?’ Luka asked curiously.
    â€˜We live well enough,’ Fairnette said. ‘Candles are expensive, you know. I could sell a lot more, if only I had the time to make them. But I already have so much to do around here, for I need to tend the garden as well as the house, and make sure my bees have plenty to eat.’
    â€˜It’s a lovely garden,’ Luka said. ‘That must be why your honey is so delicious.’
    Emilia shot him a suspicious glance. She did not really like this new gallantry of Luka’s. Fairnette liked it, though. She smiled and blushed and murmured thanks.
    â€˜I have to make sure the bees have nectar all the time, else they’ll not have enough honey for the winter,’ she said. ‘So this means we have flowers from early spring to autumn. I do like that.’
    â€˜No one grows flowers any more,’ Emilia said. ‘The Puritans think a garden should only be useful, not beautiful.’
    â€˜Flowers are useful,’ Fairnette said. ‘How could bees make honey without them?’
    â€˜My bet is the blue-noses