Edward Kyteler, Dux Bellorum (dux_bellorum) wrote in lightning_war, @ 2008-09-17 11:59:00 |
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Current mood: | disappointed |
Early Tuesday afternoon, 15 September 1942, at the War Bureau offices in Londinium...
Once Frank Abbott had finished reporting his findings, which nobody actually thought was the real purpose of his visit to the War Bureau offices in person, Edward Kyteler sent Penelope Davies out of the room. “I do not have much time today, Frank,” he said in a quiet voice. “Nor any day, for which I must apologise; but you are well aware of all the reasons why, I trust.”
“I understand,” said Frank, who knew that Kyteler had to prioritise everything. “I shall keep this brief. You know, of course, that when Lady Dracaena requested that my family and I repudiate Marcus Weasley, I made the mistake of attempting a compromise between her desires and my wife’s feelings for her brother. I based this decision on her input, which was sadly biased in his favour. We have both since come to agree that this was a mistake, but I’m afraid I have given Lady Dracaena the impression that I was making excuses for him, which of course she finds unforgivable.”
“I doubt that is what she thought,” said Kyteler, frowning. Sometimes he wondered if Dracaena had any idea what a nest of vipers had been breeding at the Church near the Old Pond outside of Trevena. At other times he was sure she knew, but had no idea what to do about that. This looked like one of those times. Aristotle Moody had not been the source of the problem; his sermons had been too well-received for that to be so. But he had certainly been a contributing factor.
Frank frowned. “She has taken my lack of response as an indication that I—how did she put it?—‘have fond memories’ of him. Nothing could be further from the truth; I did not know him well enough to make such a judgement, and my wife was blinded by familial loyalty. But in my attempt to avoid making a decision I have let her come to believe that I have made a decision, and not in her favour.”
“Frank,” said Kyteler, “I must confess I’m disappointed. How could you fail to realise that not to make a decision would of course give that exact impression?” He frowned; he was also beginning to wonder how Frank could have been married to Hortensia, and been a Gryffindor close to Dracaena’s age, and not known Weasley rather better than he’d said he did. Sometimes he wondered why Frank had not been a Ravenclaw. “To hesitate to repudiate Weasley, after all he had done, can only be taken to mean you found it a hard decision to make.”
“I know,” said Frank. “You know the work I do; this is exactly the sort of problem I am trained to avoid, and exploit when done by others.”
Yes, thought Kyteler. I do.
Frank shrugged. “Isaac seems to think there is a curse on the Weasley line, but even that is not sufficient to excuse my behaviour. I did not want to upset Hortensia, but I still could have found a better solution.”
“There is no love to be lost between Hortensia and Dracaena,” Kyteler observed. He was not sure that Dracaena would ever accept Hortensia back on her lands again, but he thought a reconciliation with Frank might be possible.
“No,” Frank agreed. “My wife has an irrational fear of the Bois; that is one reason I thought it better that she join me at Bletchley after our house was destroyed. Of course even that decision made me look bad in the eyes of Dracaena.”
“Hortensia ought to be working there,” Kyteler mused, because it was better than surrendering to the impulse to shake Frank and demand to know what he had been thinking, or if he had been thinking at all. He was tempted to blame the curses in play as well, but he refused to blame them for every bad decision anyone related to the Malfoys, the Weasleys that were, or any of their allies had made for the last ten generations; it was sloppy thinking and worse yet, sloppy behaviour. “It would give her something to do instead of fantasising that Dracaena wishes to persecute her, when in fact Dracaena would walk a mile to avoid her.”
Frank nodded. “She would be well-suited to it. I know she dislikes working with other people, but even that wouldn’t be an obstacle; she’d hardly be the only one.”
“Then tell her she has been impressed into service,” said Kyteler. “You and Rosenthal can work out where she ought to be placed. Your children are all at school, and even if the school is soon closed, they are not so young they will require her at home all day long. That woman will only make more and more trouble if she does not have some occupation.”
“All but the youngest, and there is no shortage of facilities available. It would do her good to have other children to play with. Yes,” Frank agreed. “But what am I to say to Dracaena? And more importantly, how? A letter seems far too impersonal for the degree of offence I have given her, but I can hardly show up in the Bois uninvited.”
“Ah, my apologies, I had forgot about the youngest.” Kyteler sighed; now he was indulging in his own wishful thinking, wasn’t he? “Yes, that one would surely benefit from more time around other children.” He leaned back in his chair. “Do you even understand what is going on with Dracaena? Because if you don’t, you will just dig a deeper hole for yourself.”
Frank considered this carefully. “She was betrayed and accused of treason by Marcus Weasley,” he said. “This was the culmination of years of attempts on her life and honour, part of a pattern he kept hidden but which has since become obvious even to his sister, who had hitherto been willing to find excuses for his behaviour even when it affected her. This may have been a part of the generational curse, but that is no excuse for his behaviour or my failure to recognise it.” It was such an obvious pattern, now that he had all the pieces, and he’d never forgive himself for having missed it.
“Do you know what part of your letter she objected to?” Kyteler inquired, frowning.
“My failure to believe her,” Frank said promptly. “She said in her first letter that this was not the first time Marcus had made an attempt on her life. Choosing to ignore anything before he was captured implied…well. It made me practically complicit in his behaviour. It was inexcusable. Even now I cannot understand how I failed to give it sufficient consideration.”
“So what are you going to say to her now?” Kyteler did not want Frank to approach Dracaena if he was going to try to explain himself again. The whole thing could have been avoided if Frank had simply neglected to mention the piece of sophistry he had used to get Hortensia to agree to his request.
“All I can say is that I have no excuse for what I have done, but I deeply regret it and beg her forgiveness, undeserved as it is,” Frank said nervously.
“I wouldn’t try and explain myself if I were you,” said Kyteler. “It seems that’s what got you in trouble before.” He sighed. “You know I have no idea what she will ask you to do to prove that you mean it, but I trust you will do it?”
Frank nodded; in retrospect it was obvious. “Any attempt would look like justification,” he said. “The curse may well be a factor, but saying so would look like I was trying to avoid my own culpability.”
Kyteler nodded. “Just throw yourself on her mercy,” he said with a wry smile. “She has historically had an excess of it, although she’s toughened up a lot since she came back to us. She can’t afford to tolerate disloyalty, and she has a lot of it to deal with. But I trust you not to contribute to the problem. Even if it’s probably better for you and Hortensia to stay at Bletchley.” He sighed. “What is all this about your daughter though?”
“I’m not certain,” Frank said, frowning. “I have heard nothing from her since school started, not that I would expect her to say anything of consequence. She appears to have behaved badly towards Alastor Moody.” He sighed. “I can’t understand what sort of problem she might have with him that would be serious enough to come to Dracaena’s attention, but I have no doubt she has done something.”
“Perhaps you had better find out,” said Kyteler. He didn’t know much about Alastor Moody or his situation, but he knew the girl to be one of the ones who had fallen under Aristotle’s sway, and that she was quite likely a part of the group of people Dracaena had every reason to be concerned about. Dracaena had spent too much time overseas fighting foreign wars for the locals to get a sense of the fact that she was not much like her mother had been, and likely Gabrielle had made things worse for her as well.
Frank nodded. “Yes. I don’t think it would do any good to ask Hortensia; obviously she did not notice a problem over the summer. I doubt either Frances or Alastor would tell me; I wouldn’t have at their age.”
Kyteler frowned. “I have never had that kind of trouble with Addie or Hadrian.” He shrugged. Abbott might or might not have noticed the notable omission of Susie. At any rate he doubted it was simple adolescence. “You might not want to trust Hortensia to tell you these things. Her own problems with Dracaena might blind her to the implications of your daughter’s behaviour.” Or worse; she might agree with whatever it was that the girl had done.
“Well. It’s hardly an insurmountable problem,” Frank replied. “If Dracaena accepts my apology, I can simply ask her.”
Kyteler nodded. Frank’s optimism was charming. Clearly he needed to do some investigation of his own. Or better yet, set Pritchard to do it. “I’ll have Nathaniel look into it.” He needed to get Frank out of his office; Priscilla was coming in, and she hadn’t said why, which meant it was probably not about one of their children. “When you get back where you’re going, tell Rosenthal to stop fretting, because I know he is, and that the reason he hasn’t heard anything is that the younger one has fallen into some girl’s magister’s thesis and has not been seen in the material world since about ten o’clock.”
Frank smiled fondly; he should have known it was something like that. “So that’s what happened. Yes, of course. He’ll understand. And thank you for your advice, I shall write to Dracaena directly.”
Kyteler nodded. “Do that,” he said. “I am afraid I have another meeting now.”
cryptomancer and dux_bellorum