185. Dreamboat

 185. Dreamboat

Suddenly Uncle Gentlerain began to move slowly towards a  ball of green  light that seemed to be beckoning him beyond the booths and  the kobolds and all the fairy people.  The ball was swaying  slightly, bouncing a very little,  glowing large and then less large at the edge of the fairy ring.

“What is he seeing?” Heather asked me fearfully.

I shook my head. Thistle was already following Uncle Gen cautiously.

And then I saw what the ball of green fire was. It was Miss Aislene’s aura.  And there she was, within in, dressed in green, not the usual lacy, bridal white she always wears. And her eyes…those emerald eyes had me following them too, though it was on Uncle Gen they were fiercely fixed. He got to where the light was. He was about to touch her. We saw him reach out and then paff!  Mum hit him hard on the elbow with her fan and turned and struck me, and turned again on Uncle Gen and rained blows on him.

“What do you think you are doing to my brother, Aislene?” cried Mum, recriminating Aislene all the while she was swatting Uncle Gen.  “Leave him be! You know he’s more scared of you than of anyone or anything else.”

I looked at Uncle Gen and he was looking a trifle embarased. But relieved too, I think. And knocked out of the fascination, I suppose.

Mrs. Dullahan stopped shimmering. She was now almost her usual lovely, sweet-looking self, except for an apple  green silk dress that did nothing to hide her charms. 

“I only wanted to ask him to change Alpin back into my baby,” pouted the Demon Bride.

“A fine way to be asking!” protested Mum. “Shame on you, Aislene! What would Ernest think?”

“Ernest would understand,” said Mrs. Dullahan. “He knows how strongly I feel about my children.”

Uncle Gen seemed to have regained some of his aplomb, for he said, though never stepping from behind Mum, “I was going to see Darcy tomorrow to negotiate about Alpin.”

“What negotiate, what?” cried Aislene angrily. And then she burst into tears. “I want my baby back! Only you can help him.”

“Will do,” said Uncle Gen. “I’ll speak to Darcy now if you promise to stay away from me, Aislene,” said Uncle Gen. “Please don’t hound me. You know I can’t keep away from you if you are in my sight making eyes at me.”

Mum hit Uncle Gen again with her fan. She murmurred very low, “Why are you promising her anything? Even tomorrow is too soon.”

“I want something in exchange,” said Uncle Gen to Mum. And then, shielding himself from Mum’s fan  he added “It´s not what you think!”

“Darcy is at the fourth fairy ring,” said Mrs. Dullahan seizing the oppportunity offered her. “But if he acts mulish and won’t help his brother, don’t even hope I will let you get off my hook. I  mean to haunt you till you cede or die.”

“Is this possible?” snorted Mum.  

“One of us will die if you don’t heed me, Genti,” insisted Miss Aislene. “You or I will waste away. Consumed.”

“Oh, for the love of Og!” cried Mum. “Let´s go to the fourth ring. I have to drop by there anyway. Are you alright, Gen? Can you deal with this tonight?”

Uncle Gen nodded.

“Thanks to your girls´ rose petals,” he said.

He was still looking very good, so he was probably feeling ok, I thought.

There were horse races going on in the fourth fairy ring, which had been prepared to do as a hippodrome. Handsome Darcy was up at the podium, claiming a prize. They gave him a  carved gold cup. He must have quite a collection of those. They poured a Methuselah bottle of cava into it, and, though most of it spilled out,  he was able to toast the public. Everyone cheered including all the other contenders, though everyone knows that if Darcy is in a race no one else can be winner. In fact, it is the first runner up that everyone later congratulates, and winning a silver cup in these races is considered a very great honour, especially if one almost won first place. Miss Aislene  made desperate signals at Darcy, who squinted at her and made a few funny faces but finally the dark man  strolled over to us, the cup in one hand, letting leftover cava drip on the grass  and the bridle of his horse in the other. I recognized  Dreamboat, one of Darcy’s white steeds, now with a large horseshoe-shaped and very fragrant  wreath of honeysuckle round its neck. I have ridden this horse,  back when Darcy taught me to ride almost as well as he does, to reward me for answering yes when he asked me to be Alpin’s friend.

Mrs. Dullahan took her son by the arm, and repeated her threat of wasting Gen or dying herself if she didn’t get what she wanted. She said this so explicitly this time to Darcy  that I don’t know how Uncle Gen could remain calm. But that was what he looked, very calm. Mum later said to me that Gen was probably thinking there were worse ways of dying than in Miss Aislene’s arms. She said he was nothing but a dummy when he saw a woman who liked him. But Darcy… Darcy didn’t look too happy to have to miss a race because of his mother’s hysterics.

Darcy had been able to resist for years his mother’s pestering him to ask the puca to turn Alpin back into himself, but it was clear he didn’t want to have her pestering him to get Gen to unhex Alpin. “Let’s get this over with,” he said to my uncle, “before my father finds out what is going on here.” That, indeed was all we needed, for Death’s Coachman to appear out of nowhere and burst into a jealous rage.

I felt very sorry for Uncle Gen when he moved away to parley with Darcy. What kind of a chance does one stand negotiating with someone nobody can say no to? It did not take them long, and at first I thought Uncle Gen must have just given in, but no. It seems he, too, had gotten something he wanted.

“You’re free,” said Darcy to me. “I release you. You needn’t be Alpin’s friend any longer.”

“What?” I said. “But…then who will be?”

“Your Uncle Gen. He has promised to look after Alpin.”

“What?”

I couldn’t see Uncle Gen visiting the Dullahan home and accompanying Alpin to have misadventures in Minced Forest.  And if the Demon Bride had me fascinated, what sort of effect might she not have on Uncle Gen if he saw her daily?

“No way!” I said. “Gen will be near your mother. What will your dad say?”

Darcy shrugged.

“We can’t think of anyone else who would allow himself to be asked to be Alpin’s friend,” said Darcy.

“But why would Uncle Gen want that?” I didn’t want to think Gen might want to have an excuse to see Miss Aislene. And it was not just jealousy on my part either. I really felt concerned for him.

“So you can be free,” said Darcy. “That’s why he’ll do this.”

I admit I was touched.

“That´s not fair,” I said. “I just…I only want some time off. I want to be able to go places where Alpin can’t come  because he eats everything up. Look, Uncle Gen, you don’t have to do this for me.”

“It´s what I came for,” said Uncle Gen.

“Don’t worry about Ernest,” said Darcy. “Your uncle  will probably be taking Alpin away from here and I don’t think Dad would even mind never seeing him again. Mum will, of course, but I’ll ask her not to, or something.”

“I…I don’t want you to do this,” I said to Uncle Gen. “And now that I am free to choose, I think I don’t mind being Alpin’s friend. At least not as long as I have time for myself. Like vaccations from this friendship.”

“What counts is for you to be able to break away whenever you like,” said Uncle Gen. “like anyone else. And not to be hanging around despondent as a soul in torment with nothing to do when Alpin is not up to something, like these past years.”

Darcy seemed very relieved when he heard me say I didn’t mind being friends with Alpin.

“Gen, he is saying he doesn’t mind being Alpin’s friend. Are you going to stand in the way of that?”

“No,” said Uncle Gen. “We can try for a year.  How about that, eh? You get to have dinner with your brothers on Friday evenings. What the pesky mannekens! You get the weekends off. Like a job.If you aren’t happy, we renegotiate in a year. Same place, same time.”

Darcy was nodding.

“I’ll even get you paid,” said Uncle Gen. “Gold, fairy favors, whatever. You’ll be working for us. And if you have any problems, you call me,” said Uncle Gen.

“Or me,” added Darcy. “If this is settled, I  have to go now,” he said. “I have to win the next race. We´re holding up the show.”

I turned to see the horsepeople prepare for the next race. I saw Darcy was now riding one of his black stallions, Night Fears. Something nudged my back and I turned again to see what that was. And it was Dreamboat.

“I’m yours now,” said Dreamboat.

“Did I hear right? You are mine? Why?”

“A gift from Darcy to make up for the sad times of these last years.”

“Ohhh. But I can’t accept.”

“What you can’t do is say no to Darcy. Accept, and next year we’ll be the first runners up in all the races. Is that enough for you?”

“More than. But would it be enough for you?”

“I’d be so proud. Especially if we almost came in first. I would know I really won, and not just that I am with a man who always wins.”