Chapter 21
The Balloon and the attached sedan rose quickly into the
night sky. On the floor Will Cogsworth lay breathing heavily and groaning. Mary
leaned over.
“Are you quite ok Mr. Cogsworth?”
“Better.” Will croaked. “I don’t suppose you have any
hot tea?”
“Something much better young man!” the Colonel boomed. “Some
prime Sherry! That’ll heat you right up.”
The Colonel handed Mary down the bottle that he had been
drinking from. She helped Will take several small sips.
“You need rest now, Liza, is there a spare blanket.”
“Yes, yes, of course” Liza handed Mary a blanket. Will
put his hand up.
“Not yet, need to talk first.”
“You can talk whilst I put the blanket on you!” Mary
said. She busied herself with wrapping as much of Will in the blanket as she
could.
“Where are we?” Will croaked out.
“Leaving the North, back to London” Moto said.
“Good, good, but we cannot tarry. Not London, if you
please. Can we head roughly southwest, and climb to about xx,000 feet?”
“Yes, of course. We’ll hit a stream of fast air that high.”
“Yes, yes.” Will said. “More when it gets light, now, if
I could get some brief rest…”
“Of course.” Mary said and then she propped herself up
and sat down next to Liza.
The five of them looked first at Will, who seemed to
drop off to sleep very quickly, and then at each other.
“Not the cleanest of get-aways…” The General said after
a few minutes.
“No, but almost.” Moto said gravely.
“You should have seen us Grandfather, it was simply
marvelous!”
“Young lady, you just broke into a man’s house and took
one of their guests!”
“Who had been kidnapped, and possibly roughed up as
well! He has two black eyes Grandfather.”
“Still.”
“Well, it is worse than you think” Said Moto.
“How so?” The general said.
“You and the colonel are now accessories.”
Despite Moto’s serious tone Liza and Mary burst in a fit
of giggles, soon joined by the other three.
After a very detailed telling of their adventures in the
Inggelsdin’s house the General suggested they attempt to get a little rest.
Moto took the first shift and soon enough he was surrounded by a sedan full of
sleepers.
As they traveled South dawn came somewhat later thanks
to their westerly drift. Will woke up, startled at first, but then remembered where
he was.
“General sir, how is our heading?”
“Ah young man, good to see you awake. We have held true,
no bumps to mention. Been at quiet a steady clip all night.”
“Do you have any reckoning how long we’ve been in the
stream?”
“About 6 hours, 6 and a quarter to be more precise.”
Will sat up and looked around.
“I say young man, Liza was right, you did get knocked
around down there.”
“Yes, I suppose so. It probably looks worse than it
feels.”
“Will!” Liza was up and nudging Mary. “Mary, wake up.
Wake up girl!”
“Are we there yet” Liza asked.
“Where ?” Mary said sleepily.
“Navassa of course!” Liza said.
“So soon?” Mary yawned.
“No, sorry, not Navassa, not yet anyway. I think we
should be fairly close to the Azores about now.”
“But It thought we were headed to the Caribbean?” Liza
said.
“Well, yes, but that’ll be several days. We need to stop
a get supplies in the Azores I think. If we set down on Sao Miguel, Lagoa
should offer a good variety fo what we need.”
“It sounds as if you have been here before?” The General
said.
“Yes, it is a common place for transatlantic balloons to
set down and refuel.”
“I have always wanted to explore the Azores.” Mary said,
her voice sounding far off. “They have the most fascinating biome it seems,
some very clever endemic plants…”
“I am sorry to say that we shall not be abel to tarry very
long there.” Will said in a serious tone.
“Why not?” Liza asked.
“Inggelsdin, or at least people who work for him, will
be on our tail. But, more importantly, they are also headed to Navassa, ahead
of us.”
“Really?! How on earth do they know where to go…?”
There was an awkward silence, Will stared down at the
basket floor.
“Ohhhh.” Liza said after a moment.
“I am terribly sorry-“Will started, but the General cut
him off.
“Nonsense. The way you look those thugs really alid into
you young man, nothng to be sorry about! Now, I agree, we must make haste.
Will, if you are able, can you take over from me and guide us to this island-“
“Sao Miguel”
“Yes, that one.”
“Certainly sir.”
It was not an hour later that Will set the sedan down on
a large rolling hillside that over looked the port of Lagoa. It was a large but
sleepy town.
The whole descent Mary and Liza had their heads bowed
together in earnest discussion. As the basket landed they both looked up to
find the General looking at them with a bemused expression.
“What?” Liza said, a little too sharply.
“I know a plan beign hatched when I see it young lady…”
“Well, yes, I won’t deny it. Mary and I have a proposal-
since neither ro fus know what supplies we need, exactly, and neither one fo us
hold the purse strong, we propose that we take a short walk about whilst you
and Will go into town.”
The General looked at Will, who shrugged. “I don’t see
why not Sir, the girls can look after themselves. If Moto can come with us to
help carry supplies back…”
“And I can stay here to look after the sedan!” The
colonel said, a little too eagerly.
“Mind you stay out of the sherry…” The general said.
“But of course, I had no intention… not when I have a perfectly
decent bottle of scotch here!”
[tomorrow should click over 30k words, the original NaNoWriMo target... only 8 days late....]
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