***
As she made her way down the stairs a few hours later, Kate could already hear Edgar and Didi arguing in another part of the mansion. Their voices carried along the corridors, especially Didi's shrill tones, and Kate winced as she realized that the argument seemed to be about dinner the previous night. She'd hoped that the awkwardness had been a one-off episode, but now she was starting to worry that the atmosphere at the mansion was never going to get much better.
Stepping out through the front door, she stopped for a moment and admired the beautiful view, with the descending sun lending stunning pink tones to the early evening sky. With her back to the mansion, Kate surveyed the scene and realized that she was truly in a kind of paradise, even if certain aspects of her new life on Thaxos weren't quite perfect. She could still just about hear Edgar and Didi, and she couldn't help but feel that their pair of them were allowing themselves to be bottled up together in a confined space. If they were like this every night, she figured she was going to be spending an awful lot of evenings out.
As she began to walk along the dirt path that led down to the harbor, the little town's lights seemed to be welcoming her.
VI
“You worry too much,” Alice said as she set a cup of tea down on the table in her parents' kitchen. “I'm fine, Ephram. It was little more than a scratch.”
“It was a bite,” Ephram pointed out, unable to take his eyes off the bandage on the girl's arm, and unable to let go of the guilt in his heart. “You must be in so much pain.”
“Barely any at all.”
“And you have no fever?”
“None at all.”
“And have you checked the -”
“You really must stop fussing,” she added with a smile. “Can't you see that there's nothing wrong with me? Doctor Burns gave me all the treatment that was required, and now I just have to wear a bandage for a week.”
Ephram paused for a moment. Although he had to concede that Alice looked healthy, and that she had her usual countenance of happy modesty, he still couldn't shake the feeling that things could easily have been so much worse. A rat bite could lead to infection, which could lead to a serious illness, perhaps even death. The fact that Alice seemed to have escaped with just some blood loss and a tear in her skin was of some comfort, but he couldn't help thinking about what else might easily have happened.
“You make more of a fuss about me,” Alice continued after a moment, “than my own parents.”
“It just angers me,” he replied, “that a man like Edgar Le Compte can come to this island and cause so much damage, and it ends with innocent people getting hurt. This isn't even the worst of it. How will things be when he has been here for six months? Nine? A whole year?”
“I'm sure Baron Le Compte didn't intend for any of this to happen,” she pointed out, “and he'd probably be terribly upset if he knew. Has anyone actually tried to contact him and tell him about the rats?”
“What good would that do?”
“But has anyone actually gone up there and spoken to him? Perhaps he will do the right thing and aid us in getting rid of the rats?”
“No member of the Le Compte family has done the right thing for centuries,” Ephram replied bitterly. “There is no reason to believe that the latest member will be any different. He sits up there in his house and probably laughs at the thought of us peasants down here in the town. To him, we're just ants scurrying around, busying ourselves with our meaningless lives.”
“Still,”Alice continued, “unless someone actually speaks to the man, how can any of us be sure how he will react? He might be a better man than his ancestors. He certainly couldn't be worse, and it is our God-given duty to at least give him a chance. Why don't you go up to his home and tell him what is happening? Ask him to intervene and give him the opportunity to prove himself.”
“He would never listen to me,” Ephram replied, taking a sip of tea. “Still, you might be right about one thing. After three months, something has to change, and maybe there's one person who can make him listen. After all, the man might have riches and power, but this is the twenty-first century and even Baron Edgar Le Compte is not above the law.”