Clockwork Blue (7 page)

"
I remember when I was very small that you came to me. You tried to entice me to throw a snowball at Mary Turpin.
"

"
If only you would have. It would have
delayed
her for ten minutes while she chased after you, and she wouldn
'
t have run over old Dr. Wilcox with her steamcar.
"

"
What? Oh no. You can
'
t lay blame on my door. Shame o
n you. I was quite young
at the time. Why couldn
'
t you have gotten somebody
older
to delay
the woman, if that
'
s
the truth? No, I
'
m not buying
it
.
"

"
We didn
'
t approach anybody else b
ecause
you were the only
Diderot
around at the time
. We made a pact with the Diderots a long time ago
, and not all Diderots have the ability to see us. However, you do
.
"

"
Lucky me. You didn
'
t have a pact
with
this
Diderot.
Besides, I
'
m a Moore.
"

Allegro shook his wee head.
"
You cannot eschew your Diderot roots.
"

"
Don
'
t fret so, lass,
"
Glissando cooed.
"
You really
were
too young to understand. And everything turned out all right in the end. Dr. Wilcox was old and I suppose it was his time anyway. Besides, I was able to find a good doctor to take his place.
"

"
You
'
re talking about Dr. Potter? You
'
re claiming to have influenced his coming to Nottingham? I don
'
t believe this.
"

"'
Tis the truth.
Face it, lass. And now we are here to demand this one task from you.
"

"
Forget it. I will not follow in my
grandmother
'
s
footsteps and
wed
on a pixie
'
s say so.
"

"
Come now, her marriage wasn
'
t so bad. Besides she sacrificed herself for an honorable purpose. She ended the war.
"

"
Whatever.
"

Allegro piped in.
"
Why do you say that,
Miss Diderot-Moore
?
"

Although she answered Allegro, all of her attention and ire remained on Glissando.
"
You told her the Seven
Ye
ars
'
War would end if she married
.
She thought she would help her country, and she gladly did as you instructed. But y
ou
didn
'
t have her best interest at heart because you
paired her up with
a husband who was cruel
. All
because of some
cockamamie story that the marriage would help end what we now call the Seven
Ye
ars
'
War.
She gave up her freedom for nothing because
the war
lasted five more
ye
ars after the wedding. 
Ye
t
her sacrifice lasted nearly twenty-five
ye
ars.
"

Glissand
o stood and leaned forward to give Nicola an earnest expression.
"
You can
'
t say that, lass. The war could have lasted a hundred
ye
ars if I hadn
'
t interfered
, and if your grandmother hadn
'
t done what she did
.
"

The fine hairs on the back of her neck tingled from indignation.
"
But neither can you claim the war wouldn
'
t have ended in seven
ye
ars no matter what Granddear did.
"

Allegro hadn
'
t said anything for a while, and Nicola thought the pixie had
abandoned their calling
. But suddenly he perked up, lights flashing within the pastel colors of his wings, his chest puffed out with pride.
"
Ah, but we can. We take our orders from Maestro.
"

"
Well, s
orry, but
that doesn't make me feel any better
.

"But Maestro is the epitome of goodness. He is the king of kings, above all creatures and it's to Maestro that we must all answer to in the end."

"You can exalt him all you want.
I don
'
t approve of his tactics,
especially since
obviously it was Maestro
who evidently led Glissando to do what he did to my grandmother
.
"

"
Glissando is…
complicated. He isn
'
t always honest.
Not that he
'
s necessarily bad,
"
he rushed to clarify.
"
But I
'
m certain he completed his calling to the best of his ability.
"

"
And you can call yourselves agents of Maestro?
"

Allegro flew to land on the sconce that Glissando had deserted earlier.
"
Maestro works in mysterious ways, and even I don
'
t always know His reasons.
"

"
But I would wager you question Him sometimes.
"

The pixie blushed…
again.
"
An
d you would win. Because I have.
I do.
But that doesn
'
t mean I don
'
t believe in Him.
"

Nicola glanced in the looking glass, straightened her hat as best she could, and then opened her reticule to dump the crumbled remains of her starfish inside. Then she gave the pixie a final bow of her head.
"
This has all been interesting, but I must be on my way. I bid you a nice journey back to your bank of clouds.
"

He soared from the sconce to flutter in front of her.
"
It
'
s called Jubilant.
"

At her puzzled look, he clarified.
"
Our country. It
'
s called Jubilant. I
'
m from the city of Overture.
"

"
Oh, well, whatever. Safe travels.
"

"
You
cannot be rid of us so easily.
"
Allegro
'
s wings were a blur as he tracked her movements toward the door
.

"
I can and will.
Now, go follow your fri
end. At least he knows when he has
lost.
"

"
What?
"
Allegro glanced around the ladies
'
chamber, only now realizing his accomplice was gone.
"
Blast that note-slider
! Where did he go?
"

"
Back to…
Jubilant, Overture,
wherever.
"
Nicola
crossed her arms.
"
You might as well join him, because as of this moment, I am going to ret
ire from this social gathering.
"
She reached for the copper handle
.

Glissando
suddenly darted through the doorwa
y,
causing Nicola to stumble backward.
He panted from his exertion, his
thin cheeks glowing.
"
H-hold!
"

With an audible sigh, Allegro positioned himself next to his p
artner.
"
What a relief you are back, Glissando.
He focused on
Nicola
.
"
We haven
'
t even gotten to the purpose of our mission and she is already planning to leave. But we can
'
t let her
go
because she hasn
'
t even met her spouse-to-be.
"