Defeat At The Hands Of A Duchess
When I woke I found that the impact of the crash landing had completely destroyed the bus. All the windows had been smashed and the frame looked like it was just about ready to collapse.
Raheam stood by the wreckage with his hands placed on his hips.
“Yeah, it is a right off,” he said sounding strangely calm.
He heard me stirring and smiled. I saw the others scattered about the ground. I looked around quickly checking everyone was okay. Rob was laid to my left, Simon to my right and Madeline just above me. The man bear was now standing and admiring the damaged vehicle with Raheam. We were all there and, apart from looking like we had been dragged through a racecourses worth of hedges backwards, we were fine.
“My books,” Madeline cried collecting the hardbacks from places they had been thrown.
“All these years I have been the bus driver. Now I have no bus to drive,” Raheam said.
“We are really sorry about that,” Simon said slowly reaching his feet.
“It's all right,” Raheam answered and for the first time he sounded more soft spoken. “In fact it was probably about time.”
“What's next?” Rob asked. “Shall we sneak up on the Duchess?”
“I think that opportunity passed when we crashed a bus into the side of her castle,” Raheam answered.
“She will be on her way. So I will wish you all good luck. Chances are you will need it.”
Raheam walked away.
We were not alone for very long. Raheam was right that the commotion of the smashed wall had alerted the Duchess and the woman herself was making her way towards us. The only time I had seen a face like hers was when I trampled over my mother's pansies to get to my football a few years back.
I could not believe what happened next. The man bear finished dusting his top hat off then presented himself to the duchess with what looked like a curtsy.
“Hello Duchess. I have with me the unclassifiable ones you requested,” he said.
Rob was stood by me. I think Ted's conversation had been out of earshot however his face dropped into a frown and his lips were forming an I told you so smile.
“Is he kissing her hand?” He asked me.
“I do believe he is,” I responded.
“Double crossed,” Madeline added.
“So these child things will come with me right now,” the Duchess said sounding like a disgusted nursery teacher. Guard man-bears came out to escort them into the castle.
“I said not to trust him didn't I?” Ron shouted.
The man bear replied with a skip in his walk. Much to the Duchess's horror the man bear placed a paw over her shoulder.
“So I do believe there was talk of a reward. Now would that be paid in gold or perhaps in cash?”-
“I knew it,” Geoff shouted. “What a snake in the grass!”
Mrs Huntington looked a little terrified at her husband's outcry.
“Calm down will you. It does sound a little sneaky though dear.”
Geoff calmed a little then he spoke.
“So now it's come down to your group and the Duchess. How did it turn out?”
So I proceeded straight to the conclusion and told them exactly what happened.
-
This is the point in the book where you are expecting a big confrontation, perhaps a bit of a battle, with good ultimately prevailing over evil. Well I hate to disappoint but the Duchess sat us around a dining table and offered us each a cup of tea. Hardly wicked witch calibre activity I'm sure you'll agree, yet the way she chewed her food, staring at each of us in turn, made me uncomfortable to say the least.
"I have watched you all you know. Seen what you are and who you are. You, Rob, for example."
"I'm sorry lady. I don't know what you have been watching but I do know that I want to go," Rob responded.
The Duchess cleared her throat and looked a little as though she was considering the request. She took a sip of her tea and enjoyed the uncomfortable silence before finally speaking.
"No, no, I don't think that is going to happen just yet. After all you beat my Seagull Army and crashed your bus in to my sandcastle."
"We are very sorry about that," Simon responded.
"Yes I suspect you are. So Rob how about we play a game," the Duchess suggested adjusting her napkin.
"I will have a chat to you and in turn all you have to do is look straight into eyes. When you can meet my gaze no longer the Seagull Guards will take you away from my table. If somehow you manage to hold my gaze you may leave. I will arrange the transport back to London for you myself," the Duchess offered wiping her mouth with the napkin.
Rob grinned
"Sounds easy," he responded.
So they stared at each other and the Duchess spoke. I had a feeling that we would all have no choice but to play the Duchess's game.
"So Rob," she began. "You seem to be the big man of your small group. The one who wants to fight. I see it in the way you dress. The way you act. What about my Bloodsuckers Rob?"
Rob's gaze remained locked with the Duchess although there was a cold, almost cruel, intent on her face.
"You may speak in this game Rob. You can use words. Tell me why do you not go to school like the others Rob?"
Rob's forehead wrinkled as he frowned but he kept his stare focussed.
"Stop it. I think you have upset him," Madeline interfered.
"I should jolly well hope so! Tell me Rob does your failing at school scare you as much as my Bloodsuckers?" the Duchess continued, the repetition of Rob adding menace to her voice.
Rob looked away from Duchess's gaze and before he had chance to protest two guards dressed in bear suits took him away. He put up no fight possibly because he had agreed to the Duchess's terms. She turned her attention to Simon. Like Rob he met her eyes.
"Simon, Simon, Simon. What I liked about you was that you have respected that things here are different to your world. However nonsensical things are you do respect the difference. You also respect my authority."
Simon thought for a moment.
"Yes I do."
"Why don't you join me Simon? We can always do with people like you. People who become prefects, people who follow orders because that is the right and proper thing to do, people who seek power."
"I am not like that," Simon argued still meeting the stare.
"Then tell me Simon why do you continuously deny the things that happen in front of your eyes? You believe what you are told to believe and you hold onto that no matter what."
Hearing the truth in the Duchess's words Simon turned away. The bear guards were back again, although this time the Duchess whispered something about him showing promise to one of the guards. They still took Simon to wherever it was they were taking people. The Duchess turned to Madeline and myself.
"Which one of you wants to go next?" she asked.
Madeline met the Duchess with cold eyes of her own.
"I know what you are," she whispered.
The Duchess raised an eyebrow.
"You are the Queen of Hearts, the wicked stepmother, the evil witch. You are a reflection. Just my fears looking back at me."
Madeline stood up with enough force to push her chair over as she walked up to the Duchess bringing her face in close.
"I am not afraid of you," she said calmly. For a moment the Duchess looked hurt. By the rules the Duchess had made I hoped Madeline had put an end to this game. But I was wrong.
Madeline had began walking away when the Duchess gave her firm and clear reply.
"Of all of them you were the most comfortable. You enjoyed fighting off my Bloodsuckers and hiding from my Seagull Army. You are comfortable in another world."
The Duchess stopped speaking for a moment and corrected herself.
"No, no, you were more comfortable in this world. You spend a lot of time with those books don't you? Living in a different world is not so hard for
you I think. It comes naturally. So it stands to reason that you won't be afraid of me. Me, the wicked guardian of a thousand fairy tales, is that all I am Madeline? Would you like us to talk about wicked parents."
I guessed by the look on Madeline's face she no longer wanted to talk although she still kept the Duchess's cold stare.
"I wonder why they can't stand being around you Madeline, always so busy, I guess they must see you as a bit of a disappointment. Is that why they're getting a divorce."
Madeline lost the staring contest, and as she looked away, a single tear rolled down her cheek.
It was not looking good. If you're keeping score at home not one of us had managed to hold the evil Duchess's gaze. That's Duchess 3, lost children 0, and It was my turn next.
"Tommy," the Duchess said inviting me to play her game. I obliged surprised at my own bravery in meeting her stare.
"There is nothing you can say to me," and as I said the words I knew that I meant them.
"No, Tommy, you are right. You are not scared of me Tommy. You may leave. But I would like to draw your attention to what you did to the others."
"Me?"
"You did after all lead them here. They looked to you for leadership and Tommy you gave them that leadership. You made the decisions that brought them here and look what happened as a result. They are in my dungeon and I hate to point blame but it really is all your fault. "
I did my best not to look away but her gaze was oddly hard to keep. I knew that all she was saying was part of the game but it didn't stop it being true either. Her words hit me like punches. She was not playing a stare down game, she was playing me, this woman was an old battle axe. She deserved to be beaten and one day she would be. Right there though I could not hold on to that cold, evil, judgemental, gaze.
"Isn't that what they all say about you back home Tommy? That you're not good with responsibility? Well now you've gone and proven them right."
I didn't want this guilt. I had not asked to be the one who made the decisions. It had just seemed at the time that I was the only one willing to step up. Guilt ridden I looked away from the old lady’s evil eyes and, just like with the others, I was taken away by the Duchess’s strange man bear guards.