Bee And Foxglove

Bee Considers A Proposal

"Teddybee, you've been sleeping all morning," said Foxglove.

Bee smiled to see Foxglove leaning over her. She felt Foxglove's warm hand in hers. She squeezed it. "Just a little longer."

An hour later, Foxglove brought Bee a coffee.

Groggily, Bee made herself sit up. "Don't say anything," she said. "I know I overdid it yesterday."

Foxglove sighed. "I am a bit scared. I'm sorry, Bee."

"'S'okay," said Bee. The coffee had the good honey in it. "Mmm," she sounded, drinking. "Love you, Foxglove."

"And I love you."

"What time is it?"

"One o'clock."

"Oh my Tree. I really have been sleeping like the dead."

"Don't say that," said Foxglove earnestly.

"I have been sleeping like a... a... sick... capybara... who stayed up too late... umm... partying with her friends... the sloth and the... uh... tortoise."

"Better."

There was the sound of the doorknocker.

"Huh. Are you expecting someone, honey?" asked Bee.

"No," said Foxglove. She went to the door.

"Hello," said the stranger. "I'm Francis de Welltoudere. I sent you a letter?"

"Oh, um, hi! I'm Foxglove." Foxglove was surprised: Francis looked and sounded rather more normal than she would have expected of him – though he was rather smartly dressed.

"So nice to meet you, Foxglove. May I come in?"

"Of course," said Foxglove. "We have coffee if you want some."

Bee got up slowly, groaning from various aches and pains. She saluted Francis with her coffee cup. "Hi," she said.

"Hello Bee. Take your time, don't worry about me."

"Thanks..."

*

A little while later Bee had freshened up somewhat and was sitting in the living room with Francis and Foxglove.

"I could come back later, if you prefer," said Francis.

"But you rode three hours to come here!" cried Foxglove.

"I could still go do some shopping in town while Bee wakes up a bit."

"It's okay," said Bee. "What did you want to tell us?"

Francis sighed and looked Bee in the groggy eyes. "It's my son. I don't want to pressure you, but I really wanted to talk face to face.

"Vincent... he doesn't get out much. Doesn't really have any friends. Mostly just reads these old books on magic and practices with the pinwheel."

"Sorry about breaking your pinwheel," said Bee reflexively.

"It's fine, it's fine," said Francis, waving his hand in the air as if he was batting away a fly. "Look, I don't really know how to bring this up... but Vincent... he has a... medical condition. You know, we have records of our family going back almost a thousand years, and five of our ancestors had this same condition. Same symptoms, starting at the age of about six or seven. It comes and goes, but what we know from the records is that it will get worse. As in... a lot worse."

Foxglove was already starting to cry. "Isn't there anything that can be done?"

"We go to the medicine woman in the next village. But she's not optimistic. You see... none of our ancestors who had this condition reached the age of eighteen."

"That can't be!" cried Foxglove.

Francis looked away, seeming affected himself.

"I'm sorry," said Bee.

Francis continued to look away. "I... don't mean to just tug on your heartstrings unnecessarily. I just... it's my wish that what years Vincent has left... he can spend them actually living, if that makes sense."

"Of course it does," said Foxglove, taking Francis' hand.

Bee looked to Francis. "I don't mind having him here. But I genuinely don't know how I do magic. It just... started, some weeks ago. It's intuition, through and through. You are the ones with the theory."

"Right. And I was thinking... maybe that's exactly what you need. We've got a whole library of books on magic in our cellar. Some of them are old, back from back when magic was stronger. Vincent could quote many of them by heart to you. He can be useful to you."

Bee nodded slowly.

"You don't really have to teach him anything, Teddybee," said Foxglove. "Just let him watch while you blow stuff up. He'll love every minute."

Foxglove suddenly realised what she'd said, and, looking to Francis, stammered, "I mean... we won't do anything dangerous while he's around..."

Francis laughed. "I get it. You seem like sensible enough people. Winston recommended you highly."

Bee nodded slowly. "Okay. We can do it."

Foxglove threw her arms around Bee. "Thank you, Bee! Thank you!"

Laughing, Francis gave a deep bow of gratitude. "I can't express how much this means to us," he said. "Truly."