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Elizabeth was getting ready to go and put on a load of laundry. She sighed a little.
Of all the appliances she missed, all the cell phones and microwaves and the Bluetooth and remote controls…she wouldn’t have thought first of her fancy washing machine and tumble dryer! And they were the lucky ones! Mozzie apparently had as many strange warehouses and storage units full of what were the ‘junk and recyclables’ of the old world, mostly in working order or good for parts, as he had of (allegedly) stolen art-work, priceless artefacts, jewels - and instruments for making copies of the same.
Peter had explained that the thankfully paranoid conspiracy-expert (as opposed to the previous designation of paranoid-survivalist crazy-person!) had spent a great deal of money shielding the entire structure of many of his storage facilities against electromagnetic pulses and solar storms and therefore nothing had been damaged.
He had provided his friends with things such as pre-electronic washing machines, irons and fridges. Also, fortunately, not all the people who had worked on the older technologies had died off before the war, but had been old enough not to be drafted or enslaved!
So Elizabeth tried not to grumble when she had to hang up the washing to dry and iron some of it. Some people who had no strange, paranoid, well-off survivalist friends, were washing their sheets and towels in the bath by hand, often with limited water supplies! And she had to grin, remembering how put-out Peter had been when it was Mozzie who had supplied his LEO team with a spare CB radio they could use!
The main grid was working, creakily and with many black-outs due to over-loads, ongoing work and upgrades, and phone land-lines had been restored to most of the country other than remote areas. At present all the intersections were four-way stops, and some even had traffic-police in rush hours. Everyone just got used to the changes and were very thankful that the whole world hadn’t been shoved back into the middle ages!
Just as she was about to make her way into the basement, she heard a soft tapping on the back door. She opened it and smiled. Neal stood there, looking strangely uncomfortable.
“Hallo, Neal!” she exclaimed, and stepped back. “Come in.” Then she turned and called, “Peter! Neal’s here!”
Neal wiped his feet and Elizabeth wondered how on earth they’d got to this place! He used to break in regularly, bright and unashamed, and there had been something…friendship, fun, love. Now it seemed that he wished to be almost anywhere else.
“You’ve finished the Goya?” she asked.
“Um, yes…and I’ll be in a mad-house if I have to do more of that period of his works in the near future …but that’s not why I came. I – er – oh, hey, Peter,” as the man came down the stairs.
“Hey, Neal.”
“Neal was just about to tell me why he came all the way over,” Elizabeth said, and hated that her voice sounded encouraging.
“Yeah, well, not far when he doesn’t need a cab,” Peter grinned, and the unspoken question of why they didn’t get together more often hung in the air.
Neal cleared his throat and went on, “I don’t know if you’d be interested, but Steel’s having a sort of party-thing at the Keep. You are, of course, invited.”
“Another Military search?” Peter smiled. “That was fun. I enjoyed that con!”
“Everyone was splendid in that!” Elizabeth agreed.
“No, no it’s nothing like that. Um…you know my Lord adopted Moz and me as his sons? Well, this is the first good weather they are sure of, so he’s throwing a celebratory dinner and dance, I think it is.”
Elizabeth and Peter stepped closer together and both smiled broadly at him. “Oh, Neal, of course we’d like to be there!” Peter said. “I think it’s wonderful! Do we bring gifts?”
Neal looked startled. “I don’t think so! I don’t need anything, so rather not!”
“What you need is a girl,” Elizabeth told him. “Someone who will give you a good reason to turn your back on your easel!”
“Well, don’t go baking anyone into a cake, Elizabeth,” Neal smiled. “I have no wish to engage in any romantic liaisons and for that matter, you would not be happy if I started neglecting the art. I haven’t nearly finished the first tier artists’ works, yet!”
Elizabeth was suddenly silent. Then she said, “You know, there was a time when Peter was with the Bureau and I was working all hours trying to get my business going and we hardly spoke! It seriously isn’t healthy.”
“…for a relationship,” Neal finished. “Hence, solitary artists in garrets. Including this one.”
“I’m making some coffee or getting something – beer, Neal? El?” Peter asked, moving in the direction of the kitchen
“Um, tea, probably, thanks,” he said.
“We have some wine opened from dinner,” El suggested. “And I can tell you’ve been at Steel!”
“Yes, I have. Not that our tea tastes the same! Yeah, glass of wine would be fine, Peter.” When Peter could be heard clinking glasses in the kitchen, Neal turned to Elizabeth and said, “Please don’t bring up relationships for me.”
“Why, Neal? Heavens, even Tamlin brought it up, Peter told me.”
“Yeah, no. Punch drunk, thank you. Once bitten, twice shy, four times bitten…completely craven. And don’t remind Peter, either. He’s every right to tell me I become intellectually moribund when I’m in love, he’s right, but I don’t particularly enjoy being told so. And for all those very good reasons.…”
“Oh, Neal…” Elizabeth said, sadly. “You deserve- ”
“Oh, thank you, Peter!” Neal went over and helped Peter, who was laden with glasses, two bottles and a plate of savoury snacks.
“What does Neal deserve?” Peter chuckled.
“This honour Steel’s giving him.”
They sat in the living room and Peter sat back and said, “I honestly would have thought you’d run from such responsibility, Neal!”
“I would have, and perhaps would still if Steel hadn’t made it clear that it is mostly just so Mozzie and I have a place there. He’s likely to live to an age where I would be something like 200 years old, I think Moz calculated. It is an insurance policy until he has grown children, but the chance of Moz and I being Keepers is extremely small, and since it would mean that my Lord was gone, I would hate it!”
“I wonder how it would work, if it happened. How well you would fit,” Elizabeth mused.
“I think he’d be fantastic,” Neal said. “Not me, but Mozzie would. He has very clear ideas of right and wrong, and if he could put those into effect in a government, I think it would be a very positive thing.”
There was a silence, then Peter said, “You’re right. I just called him a crook because he broke our laws, but that’s not who Mozzie is at all.”
“No, it isn’t.” Neal smiled, surprised at Peter.
“So when is this do?” Elizabeth asked. “We have our lovely alien clothes from back then…or are they now out of fashion?”
“No, no such thing, there. Just wear something that brings out your beauty, Elizabeth, and make Peter wear one of his alien suits. I think he looks great in all of them!
“And you may have to take some time off, it’s on Tuesday week, we should get there at about 2 in the afternoon. That’s our 2 in the afternoon.”
“That’ll give us time to change?”
“Yes. Or you can just jump all ready, an hour later.”
“Um…”
“Oh, sure, one of us can come by and take you.”
As it happened, Tamlin, who had visited there with Diana, popped in, all dressed up and bubbling with excitement, to transport Elizabeth and Peter. She gave them each their ear-bugs and then said,
“Neal and Mozzie have been busy all day and were still talking to some of Lord Steel’s Lord-Keeper guests,” she told them. “The Lord has been trying to shield them from this ‘interrogation’, but his concern was unnecessary. Mozzie started asking them questions about the Constitution, the Land Act, the Judiciary…Steel just sat back, with Neal, nudging each other secretly in the side, and watched! It was truly funny.”
With a hand on each shoulder, Tamlin jumped and they felt the hard stone of the Keep under their feet.
“Thank you, Tamlin,” Elizabeth said, wondering how old Tamlin was, since Steel looked all of eighteen and was much older than Neal!
Diana was waiting for her love to appear and came up, wearing her favourite deep ruby-red dress, with ruby-coloured flowers in her intricately coiled, shiny hair. Tamlin kissed her cheek and said, “I should just check if my Lord needs anything, Diana! I will be with you soon.”
“You’d better, Tammy!” Diana told her, and turned to watch her go. Tammy was dressed as gorgeously as Diana, in the palest of yellows and greens, a light, floating cloth.
“You look exquisite!” Elizabeth told Di. “What have you done with your hair?”
“Tammy did it. It looks nice, doesn’t it?”
“It makes you look like a queen!” Peter said. “But rather alien!”
“Yes, that was the idea, Boss! Tamlin and I are taking this opportunity – as are a few other couples - of declaring our union.”
“You’re getting married!” Elizabeth squealed. “And that nit-wit of a man, Neal, didn’t tell me! Oh, we haven’t got you anything, Sweetie!”
“What is the position on gay marriage, now?” Peter asked, a little dismayed that he didn’t know. “With all the changes…”
“Oh, we don’t care at all, to be honest! Mozzie sat me down and explained a few things…we wanted recognition from the authorities, so I could claim Tammy as next of kin at a hospital bed, for example, and put her on my insurance for another. And then there’d be the lovely situation of combined assets in a divorce…none of those apply.
“We don’t need recognition from any body other than the two of us, my God and hers. Obviously, if Lord Steel objected it might be a problem, we want his blessing, but we could always keep it a secret. No-one’s going to keep us apart, ever, we can both jump. So nyah to anyone that tries!
“Hospitals and insurance and stuff are really out of the picture because of Lira, and we’ve got plenty of money, always have a place here, we’re set. If we ever split up – and I doubt we will, but I guess all couples say that! - Steel can adjudicate anything that needs adjudicating. We don’t need any official recognition anywhere. And then Mozzie said he’d cover any losses we might incur. Can you believe that?”
“The queenly Diana just said, ‘Nyah!’ ” Elizabeth giggled with Di.
“Come, I want to show you what they’ve done with the place!” Diana said, excitedly. “We thought we’d made a splash when the Military came to try and arrest me! Shh! Don’t talk about that too loudly, there are lots of non-Steel-Keepers here tonight!”
El realised that Diana was wearing her slave-collar, her dress was designed to show it off, whereas she and Peter hadn’t given theirs a thought! How different people were!
“Oh!” Elizabeth exclaimed as they came through into the Greatroom, once again opened up to the ballroom. The huge rooms were softly lit with small lights in little glass bubbles, all different colours of the rainbow as well as white. They hung suspended from the ceiling, the threads holding them invisible. Between them floated what looked like highly-polished crystals, fracturing the light and flashing reflections so that the room seemed filled with multi-coloured light.
Around the walls were huge arrangements of flowers of all colours, and their fragrance filled the room. Green leaves from some herbs were strewn on the floor, and their more spicy smell drifted upwards as people walked across them.
The two great dogs came gambolling over, recognising their hunting partner, and Peter went down on one knee to pet them, which made Des and Damn about as tall as he was! The band was playing some soft melody, but no-one was listening, everyone was talking to each other, laughing, hugging. It seemed as though the crowd was three times as large as at the fool-the-Military dance!
Elizabeth tore her eyes from the gorgeous lights when she heard her name called, and June drifted across looking even more regal and elegant than usual, wearing a wonderfully embroidered gown, gloves and her slave-collar.
“Welcome, Elizabeth and Peter!” she said, and Elizabeth had to fight an urge to curtsey.
“June! You look wonderful!”
“I feel it, my dear! I am acting as hostess, since there is no lady of the Keep at present. And because in some rather strange way, I am related to Lord Caerrovon Steel: he and I share two of the most interesting sons!”
June grinned impishly. “The normal procedure is for the prospective heir, if he is full grown, to answer a variety of questions to prove he is fit to govern. Now Neal is, by their standards, a little young for that, but Mozzie is a young adult, and I was there when they started asking him what he knew about the Keep, the laws, all that boring stuff…he answered one question, and that in great detail, about how Steel Keep came into the family’s possession, and then turned the tables and started quizzing all the Keepers – all much older than Lord Steel – about details of the law, and things that seemed to be ignored about the laws.
“He didn’t mention the slavery laws once, it was all about what we would call a quorum, about land titles, who held the allodial…oh, he went on, and Caerrovon and Neal sat together and tried not to snigger at the faces of these more, shall we say pompous Lord-Keepers! Because from their expressions, they had never understood the laws in the detail Mozzie does now…and couldn’t answer his questions very well, though some of them tried.
“I left quietly…it has to be a public hearing, but no-one is forced to stay through it all!...because I really didn’t understand all that Mozzie was asking about, and because I was afraid that I would be very undignified and laugh at times!”
“Oh, Mozzie! Are they still calling him ‘Sir’?” Peter grinned.
“They are. I doubt any one of them will question him about his roots!” June grinned again. “They just looked as though they wanted to go home!”
At that moment there was a disturbance in the crowd and Neal, Lord Steel and Mozzie came together through the ballroom, saw June and headed in their direction. She turned and went to them and they all hugged each other. She turned and included Peter and El, and Neal came over and hugged Elizabeth and shook Peter’s hand and thanked them for coming. His smile was so broad it made everyone who saw it want to smile, too.
Steel nodded to them, and Mozzie said, making sure the other Lord-Keepers were not within hearing, “That went well.”
Neal and Lord Steel laughed, and Steel agreed, “You have ensured that every Lord-Keeper in the House does his best to keep me alive for my total expected life-span, Mozzie! They will not want you asking those questions as a full Keeper. They are dismayed just to think you will now be my advisor!”
“Or they will try and kill Moz off!” Neal grinned. Steel looked at him with sudden horror, and Neal shook his head and laughed, “Oh, no, worry not, my Lord! Some of the best – or worst – have tried to remove Mozzie from life before. He has been shot in the heart and poisoned by two very efficient assassins, as well as having the entire very powerful gang from the one of the most violent cities on our planet trying to wreak revenge upon him. And he survived all that without Lira!”
“You make him sound like Rasputin!” Peter said, shaking Mozzie’s hand. “I hear you did very well. So you are both accepted as heirs?”
“Yes,” Neal nodded. “After they tried to question Mozzie, I offered to be questioned, too, even though I am considered too young to rule, but I pointed out that since we were all gathered, we might as well get it over with…and anyway, I had some questions about the Mining Laws and the creation of money that had not yet been covered. They all looked at each other and said they were quite sure it was unnecessary, and affirmed us both!”
“That is what you get for choosing two conmen for your heirs!” Peter told Steel, laughing. “They could talk circles around most of the intelligentsia on Earth, I can’t think why they couldn’t here!”
“And in a language not their own! I expected a different atmosphere today, I will admit!” Steel nodded. “I expected these two to at least show a small amount of deference to the entire Senior Governing Council! I was truly nervous when it was my turn, when I was about Mozzie’s age, and then, today, when Mozzie started asking questions, I was terrified!”
Mozzie laughed. “I was supposed to be scared of a bunch of politicians, my Lord?”
“I did think you both might pretend a little awe!”
“Never show fear to any animal,” Mozzie pointed out. “And I think I was not disrespectful, just earnest. I truly want to know the answers.” Steel grinned at him.
“So now what happens?” Neal asked. “And when do we get to eat and dance with the pretty girls? That is why we are all here, after all!”
“The Keepers who are my friends will stay, and of course they have brought their families. They will see the public declaration, though in truth, the private covenant we made between each of you and myself is lawful and binding, the rest is more of a formality, and to ensure that a Keeper is not claiming a mental incompetent as his heir for some nefarious reason. I think we have established beyond all doubt that this is not the case!
“Now we will change into our formal dress for the occasion, and by the time we return, the party will be ready to begin! I shall announce your acceptance, introduce you as my sons, - there are one or two more announcements to make - and we shall dance and eat, Neal! I wish to introduce you both to all my friends during the evening, so do not become too absorbed by the ladies, nor absorb too much of the strong drink!”
“Good! I hate long speeches!”
“I agree with the convention. You are far too young, Neal!”
“For what, my Lord?” Neal asked, cheekily, and ducked behind Peter, who made a nice shield. Peter turned, grabbed him and hugged him and said, “Do as your Lord and father tells you, and dress! We want the food and dancing, too!”
“Always ordering me about, Peter! I shall go – but only because I am very hungry and if you saw the food that has been prepared…!”
Diana and Tamlin reappeared as the three men left and Elizabeth said, “I’m still not sure I quite believe that our Neal is heir to Steel Keep!”
“And Mozzie? Joining the ruling caste? You could have seen that coming?” Peter demanded comically.
“Joining and irritating, simultaneously, the ruling class!” Diana laughed. “I think, Boss, that to them it is just another alias, another con!”
Tamlin was usually a little quiet in the presence of the other Earthlings, letting Diana speak for her, but she said, softly and assuredly, “I think you did not know our heirs as well as you thought. They can be the heirs easily because of their other masquerades, I agree, but I think they are very serious about making a difference and helping our Lord.”
Peter looked down at the pretty girl and said, “I have seen Neal come back to Earth and labour with little rest at the destroyed art work. I knew he could do it, I was not sure he would, not for an extended time.”
Elizabeth nodded. “He pushes himself harder than anyone else would. I am glad he is getting this little break, I hope he has some fun! He has been far too serious!”
Tammy smiled and said, “They often come and make our Lord laugh. They are good for him!”
Peter shook his head. He had been fond of Neal for many years, and respected Mozzie, but hadn’t experienced them as lightening the atmosphere, and he had only laughed at Mozzie for his oddities and strange sayings!
“Is Clinton coming, Di?” Peter asked.
“No, he wanted to, but there’s something happening at his girlfriend’s…I’m not sure what – perhaps someone is ill?
“He should have brought her here,” Elizabeth said. She had met the girl and thought her very good-natured and sensible, but the experience of being on a foreign world had been illuminating and exciting as well as scary at times! She acted as though this was a story they’d invented – oh, like a high-school play they’d all been in, long ago!
Steel, Brak, Mozzie and Neal walked down the corridor and Steel stopped outside their suite and said, “You two will have to obey my orders and choose a special helper, as I have Brak! I know you will not be involved in many ceremonies, but it is very pleasant to have a friend to help with all the little details, to find your ceremonial dagger when you lose it, to help take off your boots when your feet are tired and swollen!”
Brak smiled a little, but didn’t rise to Steel’s comments. He and his wife had been very involved in this whole production, and he wanted it all to go off without a hitch!
Mozzie and Neal found their own special formalwear laid out on their beds. “Wow!” Neal said. “Look at all this work, Moz!”
“And the scabbard for a ceremonial sword? I assume we are to wear this?”
“Yes! And my Lord is right – it would be nice to have some help! But – but - ?”
“Yeah, we’re both too private, aren’t we? Our valets, butlers, squires, whatever, would have to be very special to us!”
“Sir Mozzie,” Neal bowed a low, courtly bow, “would you allow me to assist you?”
Mozzie responded with an even lower bow. “Only on the condition that you will allow me to help you, Sir Ellington-Steel!”
There were times during their dressing that Neal muttered, “The blind dressing the blind!” Obviously this dress was designed on more archaic styles than the usual Keep dress, but they finally felt they’d got everything where it should be.
“Wow!” Neal repeated, standing back and looking at the intricate and dramatic outfit sitting perfectly on Mozzie’s shoulders. “You certainly look like the heir to the Keep – or St. Petersburg at the height of its magnificence!”
“And you could walk into Versailles and be taken as the new King!” Mozzie returned the compliment. “They really know how to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse,” he went on, studying himself in the mirror.
Neal sat carefully on the edge of the bed, waiting for Steel to arrive. “Can you believe all that has happened in the last couple of years?”
“We always did dream big dreams, mon frère!”
“It always seemed that we were of the verge of getting them, and they’d be snatched away.”
“Neal, why did you invite Peter and El? Won’t you feel a little uncomfortable with them here?”
“I couldn’t not invite them, Moz. They’d be devastated. They’re good people. We were all here together, fooling the soldiers and blowing things up! They helped me...And I still…I still…”
“You still wish they’d loved you.”
“I think they loved me, or they loved who they hoped I would become. I wish they'd loved me more, yes. Then there were terrible misunderstandings, quarrels. I have tried so hard to forget them, to ignore them, to put that all behind me and remember that Peter helped me and Elizabeth accepted me, and at this I am the worst conman ever! If you saw me, you'd disown me! The more I try, the more stiff and stilted I become! I hope that time will heal those wounds, if I keep trying."
“You have our Lord, now.”
“Yes, my Lord, June and you, Diana and Tamlin, all the children. And I don’t need anyone else. But I can't give up on my relationship with Peter and Elizabeth. Not yet. And I can’t be cruel.”
“You didn’t even kill Fowler.”
“Glad I didn’t.”
“Not worth the lead.”
“True!” Then, as they heard the knock on the door, “Aha! Our Lord, Master and Father!”
They went to the door and Steel smiled proudly at them while Brak pulled this cord here and straightened that cuff there, and then nodded that he was satisfied.
“Obviously, you are going to share Brak till you each find your own man,” Steel grinned.
“Master Caerrovon, they represent Steel now, and yourself. They must look perfect!”
“Thank you, Brak, for your help,” Neal said, meekly.
When they entered the Greatroom, Neal was startled when a kind of trumpet-sound was played and everyone turned and watched as they made their way to the three high seats set ready for them. June was already in her place to one side of Neal, smiling as they approached. Neal felt totally uncomfortable till Mozzie peeked under Steel’s elbow and winked, and then the ceremony became just another act, another con with his mentor, the best in the business!
They all stood before the chairs, Brak went behind them and Steel introduced them formally, “Assembled gathering and honoured guests, I give you my two sons and heirs, Sir Amadeus Mozart Liberty and Neal George Caffrey-Ellington. From now on, you will please observe their status and treat them as you treat me, with respect and good-will.”
He reached back and Joster and Brak handed him first Mozzie’s ceremonial blade, and then Neal’s, their hilts encrusted with gems and the blade intricately engraved. Neal glanced over the crowd, caught Diana’s eye and winked. She immediately winked back. Steel indicated they should sheath their blades and took and handed to them their signet rings.
Mozzie scowled darkly at Neal, who was slipping it on his finger and happily and quietly humming, “You’ll give to me the key of your chest, all the money you possess…”, and, with a fine lack of pomp and circumstance, Steel stood discreetly but hard on Neal’s foot. Not that he knew the song, of course, but this was the formal, ceremonial part, not for humming!
Mozzie stood forward and said, simply, “I will do the best I can by my Lord Steel and by this Keep and her people,” and stepped back.
Neal stepped forward and smiled round, and everyone smiled back. Peter thought that no-one could resist a happy Neal. He hadn’t been able to, perhaps that had been the trouble!
Neal started, “I came here as an alien, a weak and damaged slave, with a criminal past and at the time no potential for a happy future. My Lord took me and my friends in and you all welcomed us. It was strange, but I felt more free than I had in my lifetime, and none of you will ever know how much your support and friendship meant to me.
“When I thought I had to choose between my birth planet and this one, I stayed here, and I know many of you must have thought that was an odd decision. I love my planet, and would love to show some of you the beauty of Earth, but even though I was more or less living within the walls of the Keep at that time, there was so much here for me, not the least of which was the love of my Lord Steel.” He turned and his smile softened and Steel smiled back into those blue eyes and for a second or two the whole room was silent. Then Neal turned back and went on, “Therefore, if I can help this Keep, or her Lord, or any of her people, it is my privilege and pleasure. Thank you, my Lord – and thank you all!”
He stepped back, and Steel put his arms round his sons’ shoulders and hugged them and moved them both forward. Then he stepped back, leaving them standing together, and the Earthlings started to clap and it spread and soon the whole room was clapping and calling out good wishes.
“About those big dreams, mon frère, if you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story,” Mozzie whispered to Neal.
The End
Comments, criticisms and notification of typos always welcomed!