Chapter 7 Love’s Dreams
With a mixed drink at his side, bulky, gray-headed Mr. Power clicked on a camera icon on a giant wall screen and leaned back in an easy chair in his study. A live, streaming video appeared of the front of a large house in a quiet City neighborhood. No one was visible, so he clicked through other camera angles, gradually viewing the place from all sides, including one shot from high up, angled down into the backyard. This was Grace House, the home of some deserters from the City. Also living within, he knew, were the Orchards, who had come to the City many years ago as the first Heavenite immigrants to settle in a City house. When Humility Orchard and his wife Faith had come with their nine children, they had been admitted, treasonably admitted, into what had then been called Pride House, for a City man named Dignity had then gone by his original name of Pride. The execrable Ambassador Grace had entered the house with the Orchards that same night and had renamed it Grace House.
Lately, Power had brooded a good deal over what had happened long ago and most of all over the spread of Heavenite influence in what he thought of as his City. Though he had made early efforts to halt the infection, he realized now that he had not taken the God-lovers seriously enough. The infection still had not spread much, but the few families that had converted had been enough to gain the support of Heaven’s forces and presumably of the mysterious monarch who directed them. So three years earlier the Gloria Dothan had arrived to stay and on a terrible night had demonstrated her power by lobbing shells into a City neighborhood. Power had been there and remembered it vividly. The City was weak, broke, without a military; no meaningful resistance could be offered to the fantastically huge battleship, bristling with thousands of big guns.
The answer, if there was any, was to eradicate what had brought the ship here to begin with. If traitors to the City, such as Dignity, could be either brought back to patriotism or eliminated, then the Heavenite King would lose interest, the Gloria Dothan would sail away, and the threat would be over.
So in recent years Mr. Power had taken to—well, actually he had taken to drink, he had to admit—but he had also taken to the intense study of every detail he could obtain about the Heavenite foothold in the City, particularly two houses on Sandhill Street, Grace House and Hope House, for they were where the treason had begun. Thus the surveillance cameras. In better days nothing would have kept him away from an event such as this morning’s Land Opportunity Picnic, but he had come to view such things as small matters compared to the overriding priority of somehow or other staving off a Heavenite invasion; yes, even if that meant merely delaying the inevitable.
So far he had focused his hopes on a relative of Dignity’s, his cousin Guiles Leasing, who might be capable of drawing Dignity and other City traitors back into the fold. The City lawyers, very astute people, had told Power that this Leasing fellow and his family should be allowed to follow their natural bent of malicious and criminal behaviors, and that by doing so, they would goad Dignity, Reason, and the rest into agonies of murderous resentment. Get them steamed enough, twist their souls with it, and Heaven would find them repulsive and throw them over. Simple as that. But the Heavenite immigrants, these Orchards, had again and again thrown a wrench in the works; not to mention another immigrant, the crazy street preacher named Truth, who had married Reason.
He stiffened in his chair. Someone had come out of Grace House’s back door. His eyes narrowed as he strained to see which of them it was. The Orchards were meddlers every one, for the children had grown up now and were as bad as their parents. That boy Gentleness had once upset the whole police department and had spoiled some fine opportunities. He was presently dating the Hope’s daughter Wittily. Another Orchard son named Patience was said to be out of the country serving as a Heavenite intelligence agent. This one in the backyard was their sister Love, the oldest Orchard daughter, and the one who had married none other than Captain Mercy of the Gloria Dothan.
An attractive woman in her early thirties, she strolled slowly back and forth in the back garden. Since the wedding, she had lived mostly on shipboard but had also spent much time at Grace House, sometimes staying overnight. That merited close watching. Married to the captain of all the big guns! Passing back and forth from the ship to the very house Dignity and Reason lived in! Yes, if anyone ought to be watched—for that matter, if anyone ought to be shot, hanged, or strangled—it was this prissy little she-rat. But he knew he could not do a thing about her. The Mayor himself had put his foot down about any direct operations against the Heavenites. The City simply could not risk any more shellings. But something must be done soon, for the invasion might come at any time! He, Power, might soon be looking desperately for a way to escape the City past cordons of Heavenite marines or, if he took to the air, through a blaze of bullets and missiles from enemy fighter planes. If he could not run, then where would he hide?
His thoughts had been running in this circle for too long, for years now. The threat was not going away, so to ease the stress he had taken to drinking more. He lifted his glass now, found it empty, and bellowed to a servant to bring him another.
Love Orchard had spent the night before the Land Opportunity Picnic at Grace House and in the morning had reported to her mother Faith that she had slept little. No, it was not nightmares exactly, she had said, but disturbing nevertheless. Was Ambassador Grace at home today and at leisure for a visit? Yes, Mom, it was that important.
As often happened, Grace anticipated her. Only a few minutes later, he sent her younger brother Self-Control to her with a message to meet with him in the late morning. So she whiled away the time as calmly as she could by helping her mother with housework and by taking a stroll in the backyard. When the time came, the Ambassador opened the door of his suite to her knock and welcomed her in, asking her to sit down with him and, to her surprise, with Dignity and Reason, who were already in two of the chairs gathered before the hearth. Reason smiled at her and poured her some coffee from an urn on a low table.
The old man waited for her to be seated before seating himself.
“You all have concerns, and as it happens your concerns overlap,” he said to them, “so I thought it best to bring you together. Reason, I think you are the most anxious, so please ask me what you wish.”
“Sir,” Reason said, after carefully placing her cup in its saucer, “Dignity and I do have a deep concern.” She paused as if to steady herself. “It turns out that, as Marshal of Founders Grove, Dig is legally liable for any accidents that might happen there. But the Grove was unsafe before the fire and is worse now, and neither the City nor the Grove committee has any insurance on it. If there’s a lawsuit, Dig could be ruined. But worse yet is the thought that, unless something is done fast about all those half burned trees, one of them is liable to fall on someone at any time. An elementary school is located just a block away, and you know how kids love to play around and in trees. Could you help? Can’t something be done?”
“My dear,” Grace said, “try to be calm. I take it that nothing has yet happened?”
“No, not yet,” put in Dignity. “But I’m worried every day.”
“What would you like for me to do?”
“Sir, I would like for no one to be injured.”
“Yes, of course. No one will be.”
Dignity opened his mouth but said nothing for a moment. “I mean as long as I’m legally liable—the whole time. It might be years.”
“Quite understood,” Grace said, nodding. “No injuries at all during that time. And what else can I help you with?”
Though Dignity had been unready for this answer and looked comically surprised, Love managed not to laugh.
“That’s wonderful, sir,” Reason said hesitantly. “We just can’t see—I mean, of course you’ll do what you say, but it’s just—well, thank you! I guess we were ready to talk mending fences and tree trimming and maybe insurance companies, and you’re just saying that it’s already taken c
are of. So that means it is. Somehow. Even though there are hundreds of people in and around the Grove every day. I don’t mean to be intrusive, but how are you going to do it? No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t ask. But had you already decided to protect the Grove even before we brought it up?”
“Truthfully, I’d given it little or no thought,” Grace said, “but your request is reasonable, so…. Dignity, I know you have something else on your mind.”
“Yes, and thank you. Uh, the other thing is that my position as Marshal has no end date to it short of the day of my death.” He grinned unhappily. “I would really like to be rid of the ‘honor.’”
The old man made a mild dismissing gesture. “Well, you know these matters that are said to have no end often have a way of resolving themselves long before a man’s funeral. I’ll look into it if it becomes necessary. But right now, and far more importantly, I’m plotting out a little adventure for you and Reason on the Friday before Easter. It’s too early to give you the details, but you should know that you can do a good service then.”
Dignity, though looking disappointed about the response to his second request, straightened his back and said, “Anything for you, sir. Can you tell us about it in a general way?”
“Only that it will be the only life preserver thrown to some who are in terrible misery and danger.” He paused, and Love was surprised to see a rare look of dismay on his face. “No, I really ought to say no more at this time. Only this, that I’m deeply concerned because there are two enemies to this plan and they’re in a position to wreck it completely. And it’s an odd thing how this seemingly small matter relates to big ones. This may seem strange to you, but our King’s long range plans are affected. His hopes to renew this city have never been on so questionable a foundation.”
Reason’s eyes widened. “Surely you don’t mean the Invasion is threatened?”
Grace nodded. “We at the embassy had been hearing of a great claim from the other side, the claim that our King has made some sort of promise that makes the Invasion conditional. When we made inquiries, the Crown replied that indeed some declaration of that sort has been made. It’s nothing, I trust, to wring our hands over, but it appears the Invasion always has been in some sense conditional. For the moment I can say no more. But Love is here and has her story to tell. My dear, tell us about your dreams.”
Love blinked. “How did you know I…? But then you would know. All right, here it is. Last night I had several disturbing dreams. I know how boring it is to hear details of dreams, so I won’t put you through that, but I will say that they were extra vivid and that in every one of them I was about to break my heart because Patience isn’t here.”
“You’re worried about his safety,” Dignity said understandingly.
“No, ours! Again and again, I was here in the house, and awful things were happening or about to happen, and we were all here but Patience, and oh, how we needed him! Sometimes I was yelling for him, and once I even woke myself up making those weird sounds you make when your dream voice works its way out into real sounds. I guess I was more or less whimpering.” She paused to smile and found that she was sniffling. “I’m sorry,” she said, noting Reason’s look of mild astonishment. “I know it was just a dream.” Then something unexpectedly firmed within her. “No, wait, it wasn’t just a dream,” she said.
“Certainly not,” put in Grace approvingly.
“No, this was from the Lord. I tell you, we have got to have Patience or the whole thing, everything we’ve worked for here for so many years, will just collapse. Do I sound crazy?”
Dignity and Reason’s lack of an answer spoke for itself, but she was relieved to find that Grace was still with her on this.
“This is every bit as important as you think,” he said. “Your brother is in a far country on assignment with the Heavenly Intelligence Agency and is not presently in a position to communicate with us by phone or email. However, I will make inquiries about recalling him from his field work.”
“But what if he doesn’t come?” she said, now openly crying. “What if he doesn’t understand how important it is and just, just stays away and, and does spy things?”
“You may word the message yourself.”
“Oh, thank you Ambassador.”
Reason had watched this dry-eyed. “Sir, you said that our concerns overlapped, didn’t you? Of course I can see how Patience might come home and help us deal with the threat to the Invasion that you spoke of, but what’s the connection between Love’s dreams and Dignity’s problem of being Marshal?”
Grace began to answer, stopped himself, and looked at her with a tender but disconcerted expression. Once again, this was odd, for the old man was never unsure of himself. “Yes, I did say that,” he said at last. “Will you and Dignity trust me that it will gradually become clear to you? You will? You have my thanks. And I see by the wall clock that it is time for us to go down to lunch.”