Chapter 5 #2
“Owain’s nephew— his sister’s son, Rhys— died in a riding accident in 1913.
I did ask Gabe about this at one point. What the Penelopes knew about it.
Far as they could tell, it really was an accident.
Racing across country, bad footing, falls do happen.
But the entire family was certain it had been made to happen, and they’re still touchy about it, near enough forty years later.
Owain had some business dealings that might have made him some enemies. ”
Orion picked up his water bottle, staring at it. “Can’t say I can blame them for thinking that, given the history. Probably explains why Nonus went into the Guard, too, maybe? Wanting to stop that sort of thing.”
“Likely. He’s an illusionist, too, besides the investigation parts. General enchantments.” Claudio glanced over at Orion now. “That give you enough to go along with?”
“Yeah,” Orion let out a long breath. “Thanks. I’ll avoid poking the sore spot. Won’t get me what I want, for one thing, and it’s just not kind.” Then he glanced at the clock over the door. “Come on, we should go make ourselves presentable. Cammie had something in her teeth to talk about.”
“Cammie always wants to get her teeth into something.” Claudio agreed. “Next week, I want to try that charm set again. I think I can see how to chain it better. I want to see if you can break it if I do.”
“Deal.” Then Orion chuckled. “Date, even.”
From Orion, the teasing was welcome. Claudio wasn’t sure he’d take it from anyone else.
He was lonely, the days when he wasn’t busy enough to avoid acknowledging it.
But it wasn’t like he’d had that sort of easy companionship during his marriage.
It wasn’t like he was missing something he’d had, or had given up.
Just a thing that the world offered some people, and hadn’t given him in that particular form.
Now he clapped his friend on the shoulder, and they both jumped down, taking a minute to set the salle to rights before they went to wash up and change.
Half an hour later, they’d found Cammie and Hypatia in the sitting room.
The two women were in the middle of a lengthy debate, rotating through three languages in the process.
Claudio’s German was good enough these days that he could follow that, and the English.
He’d picked up a fair bit of Arabic from both of them, but it was often still beyond him, especially when they were going at that kind of speed and barely pausing for breath.
The two of them made a fascinating pair. Hypatia was half-Egyptian, with a rather aquiline nose. Cammie was a bit shorter with medium brown skin and riotous curls. Both of them were gesturing broadly and in the same sort of patterns, punctuating particular points for emphasis.
He caught enough that he could manage a couple of signs to get Cammie to realise they’d turned up, and she abruptly came up short, swapping into English. “Claudio. Just the man.”
“That tone, Cammie, makes people who know you wary,” Orion handed Claudio a glass of brandy.
“Also, people who don’t know me!” Cammie agreed brightly. “Claudio, would you have an hour— no, better plan on three— to consult sometime soon? The next fortnight, ideally.”
“Who, where, what about?” He was pretty sure of some of it, but getting Cammie to spell it out was both informative and amusing.
“Giles’ house or the Academy if you want to come up to Oxford. Giles and Pen and me. She’s been refining her ideas about randomisation, but we’re seeing just enough insufficient randomisation to wonder why. We’d like your eyes.”
“And you like having a new puzzle.” Mind, cryptography gave Cammie plenty to work with. Claudio rummaged in his jacket pocket for his diary and pulled it out. “Um. I’m not actually on call next Monday, so there’s a decent chance my afternoon might stay free?”
“Let me know if you’re needed elsewhere, but that should do nicely.
It’s easier to work with Pen’s schedule now she doesn’t need to juggle tutorials and lectures.
And Edmund’s got things he needs to be doing, so he won’t be a distraction.
” Cammie looked pleased. “Giles was asking about you the other day.”
“That, Cammie, is not subtle. Glad to come round; you have only to ask.” Claudio put his diary back after making a note on the Monday.
“Ask, and hope you’ve got a bit of spare time.” She held up both hands. “I know, I’m just as bad.”
“You, Cammie, are juggling your work, helping train Pen, and doing whatever cryptography someone’s asked you to do.
And keeping up with a toddler daughter who has found her feet and could compete in the Olympic dash.
Also a husband who’s constantly bouncing from air field to air field.
You have no room to throw stones from glass houses.
” She laughed, and Claudio let it settle.
“What were you and Hypatia arguing about?”
“Oh, that’s a different problem entirely,” Hypatia picked it up smoothly, twisting a little to lean against Orion where he’d settled on the sofa with her.
“You remember that article from two months ago, the one about varieties of rose?” Claudio nodded.
“We were going through some arguments in the literature about whether you could use rose varieties for encoding. There’s an awful lot of them, and plenty have specific aspects associated with them. ”
It was indeed an interesting question. Claudio settled back in his chair to ask about it, and that occupied them until they went in to supper, a good half hour later.