Newt's Emerald

Chapter Twenty-Two Completely and Thoroughly Compromised

Green light fell from Truthful’s fingers, brighter than the moon. The waves that had threatened to bowl her over quietened, and the sea in front of her grew still. Slowly this spread, till the crash of surf all but disappeared, replaced by the softest lapping of the sea on stones.

“I can’t turn it,” whispered Truthful. “It is too strong.”

Charles’s arms tightened around her, and he kissed the top of her left ear.

“Perhaps it is too much to ask that you save my life three times,” he said softly. “May I say I love you before we drown?”

“I can’t turn it,” said Truthful, ignoring this remark. “But perhaps . . . I have made it smaller . . . what was that?”

“I love you,” said Charles. “I just wanted to say it.”

“I love you too, idiot,” replied Truthful affectionately. She lowered the Emerald, but the green light didn’t fade, and the immediate sea remained calm. “I think I have done all I can. We don’t need to stay here and we certainly don’t need to drown.”

“What?” exclaimed Charles. He looked across the moonlit sea. There was no longer an awful, horizon-spanning darkness. But there was a very large hump upon the water, a hump that was growing closer by the second.

Truthful was looking back up the beach. She vaguely remembered some structure, standing tall, closer than the houses on the Parade. A pump-house for the seawater cure, the guidebook had said . . .

“There!” she shouted, pointing. “Run!”

Running up a pebbly beach was even more difficult than running down it. Both of them fell several times, and each time they got up they could not help but look back. The wave was very close, and the calm and quiet of the sea in front was no longer reassuring but had more the air of a horrified silence before some terrible act of violence.

They reached the pump-house mere moments before the wave hit. Truthful had hoped to climb it somehow, but all they could do was shelter in its lee. Truthful wrapped both arms and legs around Charles, and Charles gripped the iron handle of the door, just as the wave descended with a deafening roar.

Lady Badgery found them there a half hour later, in a puddle of seawater. Charles had his back to the door and Truthful was sitting in his lap. The wave had knocked them about, but not enough to break them free or carry them back into the sea. It had generally failed to destroy much of anything, though there were many houses now with cellars full of dirty, salty water.

“So I suppose you are going to marry my great-niece after all?” said Lady Badgery. “Or so I hope, she being utterly compromised by your lascivious caresses.”

“I am holding on to Lady Truthful in case of further waves,” said Charles with all the dignity he could muster, given that he was completely sodden and his golden tunic was ripped in several places. “And we have agreed that we do love one another and will marry as soon as possible.”

“Yes,” said Truthful. She held up the jewel on its broken silver chain, the soft green light making her own eyes shine. “Look! I have got back the Emerald.”

“So you have,” said Lady Badgery. “I knew you would. Now Ned owes me five pounds. He bet against the marriage too, more fool him. But perhaps you should stand up. Here come your cousins.”

“Oh very well,” grumbled Charles. They both stood up, but even so Truthful nestled at his side.

Stephen was the first to arrive. He saw the Emerald in Truthful’s left hand and laughed, and then laughed again as he saw her right hand was firmly clasped by Charles.

“I knew you could do it, Newt! The Emerald back and a Marquis to wed!”

“He’s not a Marquis,” said Truthful. “He’s only a Viscount.”

Charles coughed and bent his head towards his intended.

“In the interest of ensuring you know everything,” he said. “I am my Uncle’s heir. One day I will be a Marquis.”

“You’d best kiss him,” said Lady Badgery to Truthful. “While it’s still just family. Before Sergeant Ruggins and Major Harnett arrive.”

“I will,” said Truthful, and did exactly as she said.