Masters And Lovers 1-4 novel Chapter 68

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James

Carrying a tray with tea all round, I find Michael and Ben in the back ‘garden’. A great swathe has been cut through the tangle of briars. Both are hot and sweaty.

Ben scowls as he sees me, but Michael brightens, taking a mug from the tray. “Ah great, thanks, James.”

Ben nods, barely polite, but takes a mug anyway.

I glance up at the sun, beginning to beat through the last traces of the morning mist. “Perhaps I should have brought something cold.”

“Nah….” Michael waves a beer can at me. “Just had one. Not a good idea to have another while we’re still waving machetes and axes around.”

“Have you seen Charlotte?”

Michael nods back to the house. “In her room, I expect. She said something about revision for her exams.”

So, I go in search of my mermaid.

Not in her study….

She should be working. Exams next week….

Where is she?

She’s nowhere in the house, so I wander back outside, bypassing Michael and his sour-faced brother.

I don't see her at first but hear her voice. So, I follow the sound….

Where the hell is she?

And there, I find her, in the meadow, concealed by a stand of tall, scrubby grass, but sitting cross-legged on short rabbit-clipped turf overlooking the verdant slopes down to the lake. The long grass conceals her to the casual eye, but her own view is open, gloriously so, all the way down the valley to where the water sparkles far below. It’s hot and she’s in jeans and a skimpy tee-shirt, but she’s kicked off her trainers and socks to sit barefoot.

And, as she should be, she’s working, with a text on her lap, notes by her side and speaking quietly to herself in that sing-song way that suggests she's learning something by rote. Intent on her work, she doesn’t notice me until I am almost on top of her.

“Hiding?” I ask, offering a mug of tea.

She startles, but her face lights up. “Master, I didn't see you.”

“Do you want me to go? I didn't mean to disturb you….”

“No. Not at all.” And smiling, she holds her hand up to me. “Come and sit with me.”

The sun is warm on my face as I sit beside her, burning its way through the last wraiths of morning mist.

Down at ground level, the tall grass rustles quietly, whispering its secrets to the breeze, and scented of summer and warm hay. Small life buzzes and skitters through the stalks, tiny beetles, glistening black-green in the sunlight, bees, black and furry, and small blue butterflies flit between meadow flowers. And spider-silk, still strung with pearls of dew, glints where it lies in deadly wait, threaded between the long stems.

She's picked the right place for her studying….

“What a lovely spot,” I say. “How's the work going?”

She glances down at the text by her side. “It’s okay. But I’m trying to memorise the equations for fluid flow, Bernoulli and Euler…. I get half-way through, then I need to check and then it’s gone again.” She taps her forehead. “It’s giving me a headache….”

I chuckle. “I’m not surprised. Would you like me to drill you?”

“Oh, would you? Yes, that would be much easier.”

“Let me see what you have there.” My fingers brush hers as I take the text, quickly scanning the pages to see what she’s working on. “Alright, give me the basic equation for Bernoulli’s Principle.”

She pauses, then, “Pee-one plus…. half rho, vee-one squared….” She falters, pressing fingers to her temple. “Don’t tell me.”

“You’re trying to do it the hard way, I think.”

Her eyes settle on me. “There’s an easy way?”

“You’re trying to simply remember by rote. Instead, think about what the components of the equation mean.” Her brow furrows. “Instead of parroting it at me, tell me what the individual parts are.”

“Um, static pressure of the fluid plus kinetic energy plus potential energy.”

“Exactly. Now think about that and how each parts of the equation is constructed.”