Chapter 36 #2
‘And now,’ said Doctor Travers, moving around the group with long strides, ‘I will wind this little machine, and I am certain that I can shock all of you ladies at once, what do you think?’
‘Ladies are not so easily shocked, Doctor Travers,’ said the queen kindly. ‘We have all seen worse than a grey rock with a handle, believe me.’
‘Your Majesty I am certain of it,’ he said with a bow, ‘but I beg your patience while we entertain the more sheltered men.’
All the women grinned, and the queen bid him continue.
He began to wind the machine and then indicated that Cecily should take over. Thea wondered how he was planning to get the electricity from it to the queen. There was no chain on his simple, transportable piece of machinery. Then he handed a strip of copper to the queen.
‘Your Majesty, I wonder if I could trouble you to hold this on the surface of the rotating sphere. She did so, and it chinked along the surface. ‘Excellent,’ he said, ‘you are quite the natural philosopher, Your Majesty.’ The queen beamed, enjoying herself.
‘Your Majesty, can I beg your leave to ask if you feel anything yet?’ said Doctor Travers, pacing around the display of people and machinery he had created. ‘Anything at all?’
‘Nothing at all, I am afraid, Doctor,’ said the queen.
‘I see,’ said Doctor Travers, looking thoughtful. ‘Perhaps if you could join hands with Mrs Fairclough?’
The queen did so.
‘Anything for you, Mrs Fairclough?’ asked Doctor Travers.
‘Nothing, Doctor,’ said Emma, starting to look a little smug, Thea thought. But she could see that the hair of the queen and Emma was starting to frizz a little with the static.
Doctor Travers stood in front of them and stroked his chin.
‘Well, this is highly irregular,’ he said. Thea was in awe of his showmanship. Everyone in the crowd was muttering as if his experiment – the experiment that he had brought to the queen’s birthday nonetheless – was going wrong. ‘Mrs Knatchbull, if you could perhaps wind a little faster?’
Cecily did so, but still the ladies reported nothing.
‘Perhaps if you all join hands?’ he said to the remaining ladies. Harriet took Emma’s hand on the right, and the other ladies on her left. Then they were a string of people, still being charged with electricity.
‘Surely you must all feel something now?’ he asked, ‘or I will be taking this blasted machine back for a refund.’ The crowd tittered and shifted.
‘I am afraid you do deserve your money back,’ said Emma haughtily. ‘I feel nothing at all.’
‘By my word, I think you are right Mrs Fairclough,’ he said. ‘Perhaps we will have to conclude the experiment for this evening.’
‘Worry not,’ piped up the king. ‘My experiments go wrong all the time, it has been quite diverting, Travers.’
‘You are very generous, Your Majesty,’ said Doctor Travers. And then he turned to Thea. ‘Your Grace, I wonder if you would mind awfully helping the ladies down off the stool?’
Thea understood and knew that he meant the lady furthest from the machine. She bobbed her assent and reached up to take the lady’s hand. A lady who looked decidedly unimpressed with the whole endeavour. Thea was going to enjoy this.
She took the lady’s hand. Immediately she felt a jolt and heard the shrieks of the ladies on the stools. All of their arms had risen as the electricity passed through them and earthed itself through Thea. The looks of utter shock on their faces were golden.
‘What did I tell you ladies?’ announced Doctor Travers, striding around the spectacle with his arms in the air and a smile on his face. ‘Eminently shocking, I think you will agree.’
The queen started to laugh, and then Harriet joined in.
Before long the whole room was applauding the Doctor, who soaked up the praise with a huge beam on his face.
Then he cleared up his things, let the volunteers go, and bowed deeply to the king and queen.
The room watched him go with awe. As he passed Thea, he gave a broad smile, a relieved puff of air and a satisfied raise of a brow.
Delighted for him, Thea watched as the crowd flowed around him at the back, trying to speak to him as he wheeled his table.
Against his critics he had chosen what he knew the crowd would love, and he was right.
What a difference, what a transformation for them both.
The next part of the evening was the gift giving.
Truth was, she was excited for this achievement and to present the Proteas in public, but as time had gone on, she had begun to feel a little anxious.
What if someone else had done it too? Or what if the queen had moved on in her interests and was unimpressed?
But nevertheless, she was determined to present these plants, even if only for the look on Neville’s face.
As the crowd mingled once more, she felt a hand on her arm.
When she turned, it was Emma Fairclough.
She sighed internally. Her nerves were already on edge.
She didn’t need another discussion about how awful Doctor Travers had been, or how science wasn’t a useful diversion for a lady, or to hear about all the meetings she hadn’t been invited to where the ladies drank tea and discussed art.
It bored her, but also it rankled that she was left out.
‘Emma,’ she began, wondering how to head off the inevitable. ‘Wasn’t Doctor Travers–’
‘Fascinating.’ Interrupted Emma.
Thea stuttered. ‘He was?’
‘He was,’ said Emma. ‘Everyone is saying it. The ladies, the queen. She said that the king is having an observatory built to track the transit of Venus and the queen is quite into botany for study and physics for sport. But also, it was extremely interesting, Doctor Travers was a good choice.’ She gave Thea a look that seemed genuinely contrite – so much so that Thea lost any of the snarky comments she had thought she might make.
‘That is extremely generous of you,’ she said.
‘Not at all,’ said Emma. ‘A lady should be generous, even when presented with challenging circumstances.’
‘Like his last lecture,’ suggested Thea.
‘Exactly,’ said Emma. ‘I was a terrible snob and I apologise. Everyone–’ she paused. ‘–everyone has their cross to bear. Mine is in trying to be everything that was expected of me.’
Thea nodded in acceptance, not wanting to embarrass Emma further by dwelling on the subject. ‘I am delighted you were able to bring Harriet with you.’
Emma looked across the room at her old friend. ‘As am I. I hope that we will be able to regain a friendship. We were once close.’ Thea saw her throat work as she swallowed.
‘I do hope you can,’ said Thea. ‘She values your company so incredibly highly.’ What an understatement.
‘I know,’ said Emma gently. ‘And I value hers.’
‘There is enough difficulty for women without us fighting amongst ourselves.’
‘Indeed,’ said Emma. ‘The ladies and I have been chatting, and we wondered if you would be interested in bringing some of your machines to the group. Or rocks, or whatever. Talk to us about how they work.’ It was clumsy, but Thea understood the sentiment.
‘I would be delighted,’ she confirmed, ‘and to offer Foxmore Square, or Hawkdean as venues for meetings where required.’
Emma smiled in relief. ‘I am very pleased,’ she said. ‘But now I must go and see Helena, you know how it is.’
‘I do,’ said Thea, as Emma bobbed a farewell and took her leave. Her absence revealed another form behind her.
‘Doctor Travers,’ said Thea, delighted to see him. ‘What a wonderful display.’
‘Thanks to you,’ he said. ‘At least partly.’
She stared at him blankly. ‘That is very generous of you, Doctor, but even your generosity cannot generate a part for me in that display.’
‘I beg to differ,’ he said. ‘I am informed by the queen – or at least, by her staff, that you were generous enough to recommend me when she visited Hawkdean.’
The conversation slowly returned to Thea. ‘So I did,’ she said smiling. ‘And yet, you created the most diverting entertainment I have ever seen in this room. Such audience participation!’
‘You were right,’ he said, ‘I needed to have the courage of my convictions. I wasn’t sure that I should electrocute the queen.’
‘Bold and successful.’
‘Thank heavens, or I should be in the tower, I think.’
‘I was actually going to find you, Doctor Travers,’ she said, suddenly excited about the thought that had occurred to her right at the moment he almost shocked her off her feet. ‘I noticed that your generating machine was a little old?’
‘Yes.’ He looked towards it where interested party goers were trying to peer under the cloth. ‘But I am building up my repertoire as I make more money, and the second-hand ones work fine.’
‘Well,’ said Thea. ‘I have a collection of some of the finest machines. Not my own, but they were left to me by a very dear friend who was one of the finest, and bravest, physicists I know. There are generating machines and air pumps and optical glasses and even a little thing he called a storage jar or something. I believe most of them are made by Benjamin Cole and George Adams. You would be very welcome to take and use whichever you wish.’
Doctor Travers gaped at her. ‘Benjamin Cole is one of the best there is, and George Adams makes for the king, Your Grace.’
‘I believe so,’ said Thea.
‘I couldn’t possibly accept it,’ said Doctor Travers. ‘It would be too great a gift.’
‘Doctor Travers,’ she said, stepping around him to look him straight in the eye. ‘Not all beneficial transactions are monetary or commodity. I believe we were beneficial to one another on the night of the party at Upper Plumbthorne?’
He nodded.