The Glyph of Truth

In the Forcing Shed

Their rest was cut short by the arrival of a servant, who entered without knocking and presented Harcourt with a set of fresh clothes, maroon leather breeches, buckled shoes and a tan coat trimmed with black lace. Dame Ludmilla requested his presence for a walk through the park, he was told.

"You look like a clown," Bowfinger commented when Harcourt had dressed. "All you lack is a silly hat."

Then he added: "Be careful, the lady isn't quite right in the head. I can see it in her eyes."

"The instinctive knowledge of the savage, I presume."

"I have bedded many women," Bowfinger boasted, "and not one of them was like her."

"You're only jealous because I am getting the girl this time."

"We'll see," Bowfinger said ominously.

The servant showed Harcourt to the drawing room, where Dame Ludmilla was already waiting for him, smoking a cigarette. While he looked like a vain fool, she was wearing her familiar ankle-length black dress. She exuded a graveyard perfume of freshly turned earth and lilies. Her mood seemed to have improved.

"There you are, Captain," she said. "My brother's clothes fit you admirably, I see."

"I look like a perfect nincompoop," Harcourt complained.

Dame Ludmilla gestured for the servant to open the double screen doors to the garden. "Shall we take a stroll?"

They stepped out onto the veranda, and surveyed the formal garden that stretched all the way down to the lake shore. A small wooden pier led to a gazebo out on the serene lake. Beyond the vast expanse of Lake Charter, the snow-capped Humpback Mountains filled the horizon.

"Isn't it nice? The air is so clean it hurts my lungs! You can even see the glaciers from here!"

"Very nice," Harcourt agreed.

"Oh, Harry. May I call you Harry?" Without waiting for a reply, she continued: "Why are you always so stuffy? Can't you enjoy yourself for once?"

Harcourt decided to be blunt. "I think I am here because you know exactly who and what I am, and why I have few reasons to be merry."

She blushed slightly. "You are right. After the duel, I made some enquiries about you. I know you joined the army at a young age, and were promoted to captain for your bravery."

"Not quite," Harcourt interrupted her. "I was promoted for bravery twice, but I was promoted to captain because I saved the life of my Colonel when the husband of his mistress tried to poison him."

Dame Ludmilla lowered her voice. "I know about your wife and daughter, too, and I am truly sorry for your loss." She paused. "But you can't spend all your life being miserable. Take this afternoon off and savour some of the finer things in life."

"Such as the formal garden of a house I whould never see from inside under normal circumstances," Harcourt scoffed.

"Exactly. As you may know, my family has disowned and disinherited me. I am destitute. I subsist mainly on generous gifts from my brother Ortolan, who is a cockscomb with a heart of gold. The servants know all this, of course, but they have never been officially informed of these circumstances, so I was able to bluff my way into the house. But it is unlikely to work a second time. And now I am trying to enjoy my last stay in this rather pleasant house."

"Well, when you put it this way, I guess I could try to make the most of a rather unusual situation."

"Brave Harry! Let's take a walk through the park, shall we?"