Chapter 40 #2
“Also, not terribly much in the way of codes, though there is a certain amount of other craft. Mostly polyalphabetic work, possible to crack if you had an idea of how to sort things out. At any rate, I did the work. He disappeared for six months. When he came back, he invited me round the Explorer’s Club for a chat about what it had meant, and where he’d been.
” Giles tapped a finger on the arm of his chair.
“I did not have his wandering feet, even then. I rather prefer my study and desk and everything where I expect it. But the stories were compelling. And I went with him a time or two to Paris, to Munich, to Amsterdam, quick trips with specific goals.”
There were, Pen thought, more stories there, but now was perhaps not the right time to ask about them. “May I ask what his father was like then? Or when you met his mother?”
“Geoffrey, mm. Curious, always. The sort of person who wants to listen to other people tell stories, so he can figure out how what he wants might fit into them. A lover of pleasure, in a wide range of forms— good food, excellent drink, being outside. You’ll have gathered about the stables, I suspect, but Geoffrey’s as skilled a falconer as he is a rider.
Which is to say, very. Kind, which is absolutely not a given among that sort of family.
Deliberate about his choices, and loyal as the day is long to the people he commits to. That includes me, by the by.”
Giles glanced downward, toward his feet and the dog.
“I didn’t hear from him much between when I was blinded and when he came back to Albion in 1922.
A letter here and there. He’s said since he didn’t know what to say to me when someone else had to read it to me.
That’s fair, especially given how private he is about himself. ”
Giles did not seem to bear any grudges, at least, and Pen would be thinking about that for a while. Not so many people would be as fond of someone who’d disappeared for years, at a time they might have especially needed a friend. “And then?” She wasn’t sure about how to ask about Edmund’s mother.
“Then Geoffrey came back, at his brother’s death.
Someone should tell you more about that, but it should probably be Edmund.
Or Geoffrey or Lizzie. I’d taken up with the Edgartons— Lord Richard and Lady Alysoun— and they brought me to Temple’s funeral.
A trifle difficult to manage a crowd on my own.
Geoffrey was delighted, and we picked up again quite quickly.
” Giles tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair, and the dog put her head up inquisitively, then settled again.
“When he and Lizzie met, it was in solving a particular problem, an addictive magical drink. My wife was part of the investigation that came out of that, and we went on from there. Lizzie’s charming, but she’s got a ferociously analytical mind.
She’s spent most of her marriage applying it to social information and connections, both blatant and subtle.
She and Alysoun get on fabulously, as well as Thesan Wain.
” Giles ended it amiably. “A knot of people, you might as well get used to that, too.”
Cammie grinned. “You had Thesan at school, of course. Her daughter Ursula is good friends with Edmund, I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of her sometime.”
“He admitted he’d talked to her about me.” Pen wasn’t entirely sure what to make of that. But she’d been clear, even reading his note about it yesterday, that it was a matter of trust and friendship, not any hint of something romantic.
“Ursula has quite a few plots of her own, and Edmund will lend a hand, as needed. And vice versa. Ursula’s getting married sometime during Michaelmas term.
” Cammie waved a hand. “I’m sure Edmund will be on the invite list, so if you’re visibly together, you should plan on that.
If you need frocks for that sort of thing, people have things in their closets to lend.
Benton’s wife is—” She tilted her head, as if trying to figure out how to explain.
“I’ve already met Mistress Castalia, thank you.
She sorted this glorious frock for one of the dances.
I suppose I should see if there’s something for the balls.
If that’s something we’re doing.” They probably should.
It would make absolutely the right statement about her current status and Edmund’s.
They had a week or ten days yet to figure something out, so she’d check with him tonight. Probably he’d already thought of it.
“There, you are already in excellent hands. Right. We’ve got about an hour before we should send you off.
Cammie, a round of tea, please. Pen, would you lay out what you’ve been discussing in tutorial, what you feel you need more time with before you take your exams next Trinity term, and so on?
I want to start thinking about an expanded reading list, and figuring out how much time we can devote to cryptography. ”
Pen had at least expected this bit. It was frankly a much easier conversation to have. She knew where she was with maths.