interrupted her brother furiously. "So that's your game. Well, it's not mine. And just to remind you, this is my house, and if there's any doubt about that, the entire Cavalier Celebration, musketeers, schmusketeers and what have you, can go and stuff their pikes up their—" Handsome Dan broke off in what he made clear was deference to Jemima alone.
His sister still looked amused rather than abashed. "Oh, haven't you heard? Then let me be the first to tell you, set your mind at rest, as it were." She paused dramatically and gave a half-bow, half-flourish, that included the plumed hat and cloak on her arm.
"There's a very good chance that the Cavalier Celebration is now going to be held at Taynford Grange," said Zena Meredith. "Nothing to do with Lackland Court at all. Relax," she added. Jemima thought that was all, then suddenly Zena brushed Dan's face lightly with the broad plume in her hat. "Relax," she said again, passing the plume once more very lightly across his face.
It would be fair to say that of the two of them standing there, Dan Lackland and Jemima Shore, to whom this news came as a surprise, Jemima actually looked the most shocked. Either the soft tickle of the feather had soothed him - an unlikely thought - or the deliberate provocation of his sister had left Dan Lackland determined to show no emotion whatsoever. In any case, Jemima had no idea whether Dan felt anything like her own personal dismay.
No Cavalier Celebration, an August pageant re-enacting the various stages in the history of Taynford from the battle to the siege, or rather no Celebration at Lackland Court itself! And yet this recreation, a sort of son et lumi - re with tickets sold to the public, was scheduled to play an important part in the Lackland Court episode of the Megalith ghost series. A good deal of the episode had been positively planned round the Cavalier Celebration. Schedules had been drawn up. Furthermore Spike Thompson had been tentatively engaged as cameraman: Spike Thompson, Megalith's most famed and feared employee, famed for the imaginative brilliance of his camerawork, feared for the imaginative brilliance of his expense sheets. (Already cynical members of the Megalith staff such as Cherry and Guthrie Carlyle were laying bets as to whether Spike would, among other things, claim to have purchased his own seventeenth-century outfit for verisimilitude at the Cavalier Celebration.)
Worse than that, it sounded as if the whole Cavalier Celebration had been hijacked by Lady Manfred and would now take place at Taynford Grange. No, to be fair, Jane Manfred had not necessarily instigated the transference; it might be that Zena Meredith had organised the whole thing as part of her cradle-onwards fight with her sibling. All the same, Jemima did not underestimate the magnitude of the disaster (for her) if this news was true.
For behold, here was Taynford Grange, now with its very own ghost, details of which Jemima had by now quite forgotten, but which had been enough to fascinate Cy. More than that, Taynford Grange now had its own highly picturesque—in any terms including televisual—Cavalier Celebration. And Taynford Grange had Lady Manfred. How was she, Jemima, to hold off Cy Fredericks now from cancelling the Lackland Court episode altogether—poetic images of Decimus, manuscripts of the poems and all? Jemima desperately tried to remember where Cy was supposed to be at this precise moment, never an easy act of recollection at the best of times. Zimbabwe, Salzburg, Buenos Aires? What ill luck if he was in fact in England, now of all times when he was definitely not needed, in England and at Megalithic House!
"Taynford Grange indeed! Do you realise we were raising funds for this house from that Celebration?"
Jemima, who had not realised it, suddenly understood that the famous Cavalier Celebration was actually going to support the future Lackland Court Country Club.
Dan went on: "Zena, I could kill you," said
His sister still looked amused rather than abashed. "Oh, haven't you heard? Then let me be the first to tell you, set your mind at rest, as it were." She paused dramatically and gave a half-bow, half-flourish, that included the plumed hat and cloak on her arm.
"There's a very good chance that the Cavalier Celebration is now going to be held at Taynford Grange," said Zena Meredith. "Nothing to do with Lackland Court at all. Relax," she added. Jemima thought that was all, then suddenly Zena brushed Dan's face lightly with the broad plume in her hat. "Relax," she said again, passing the plume once more very lightly across his face.
It would be fair to say that of the two of them standing there, Dan Lackland and Jemima Shore, to whom this news came as a surprise, Jemima actually looked the most shocked. Either the soft tickle of the feather had soothed him - an unlikely thought - or the deliberate provocation of his sister had left Dan Lackland determined to show no emotion whatsoever. In any case, Jemima had no idea whether Dan felt anything like her own personal dismay.
No Cavalier Celebration, an August pageant re-enacting the various stages in the history of Taynford from the battle to the siege, or rather no Celebration at Lackland Court itself! And yet this recreation, a sort of son et lumi - re with tickets sold to the public, was scheduled to play an important part in the Lackland Court episode of the Megalith ghost series. A good deal of the episode had been positively planned round the Cavalier Celebration. Schedules had been drawn up. Furthermore Spike Thompson had been tentatively engaged as cameraman: Spike Thompson, Megalith's most famed and feared employee, famed for the imaginative brilliance of his camerawork, feared for the imaginative brilliance of his expense sheets. (Already cynical members of the Megalith staff such as Cherry and Guthrie Carlyle were laying bets as to whether Spike would, among other things, claim to have purchased his own seventeenth-century outfit for verisimilitude at the Cavalier Celebration.)
Worse than that, it sounded as if the whole Cavalier Celebration had been hijacked by Lady Manfred and would now take place at Taynford Grange. No, to be fair, Jane Manfred had not necessarily instigated the transference; it might be that Zena Meredith had organised the whole thing as part of her cradle-onwards fight with her sibling. All the same, Jemima did not underestimate the magnitude of the disaster (for her) if this news was true.
For behold, here was Taynford Grange, now with its very own ghost, details of which Jemima had by now quite forgotten, but which had been enough to fascinate Cy. More than that, Taynford Grange now had its own highly picturesque—in any terms including televisual—Cavalier Celebration. And Taynford Grange had Lady Manfred. How was she, Jemima, to hold off Cy Fredericks now from cancelling the Lackland Court episode altogether—poetic images of Decimus, manuscripts of the poems and all? Jemima desperately tried to remember where Cy was supposed to be at this precise moment, never an easy act of recollection at the best of times. Zimbabwe, Salzburg, Buenos Aires? What ill luck if he was in fact in England, now of all times when he was definitely not needed, in England and at Megalithic House!
"Taynford Grange indeed! Do you realise we were raising funds for this house from that Celebration?"
Jemima, who had not realised it, suddenly understood that the famous Cavalier Celebration was actually going to support the future Lackland Court Country Club.
Dan went on: "Zena, I could kill you," said
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