The Mermaid in the Basement Read Free Page B

to the stream and see if we caught anything on the line.”
    “Righto.” Danny reached out and took the boy’s hand, and the two started across the emerald yard. April had brought a brilliant green to the grass, and the flowers were exploding in riotous colours. They passed through some of the garden, and the big dog took his place protectively beside the boy, who reached up and put his hand on the mastiff ’s neck. “If we don’t catch any in our stream, Danny, we can go over to catch some in Squire Watkins’s pond.”
    “Why, that’d be poachin’. It’s agin’ the law.We’d both go to jail.”
    “Not me.”
    “Yes, you. If you get caught poaching.”
    “Nobody can put a viscount in jail.”
    Danny laughed, reached out with his free hand, and tousled the boy’s hair. “That’s right, but I ain’t no bloody viscount—and neither are you. Not yet anyways.”
    By the time they reached the stream, David had thought the matter over. He pulled his hand free and stared up at Danny, saying, “My mum wouldn’t let them put me in jail. If they did, she’d get me out.”
    Danny was an astute young fellow. He had a great fondness for the boy and spent much of his time watching him. He had, in effect, become a playmate for the youngster. “You got that right. That’s about wot she’d do, the viscountess. She’d blow the whole bloody jail up!”
    The two laughed and then turned to pulling the lines out, checking the bait.

    Septimus Isaac Newton had received his name in a logical fashion.He was the seventh son of his parents, thus the name Septimus. He was also a descendant of a close relative of the famous scientist Isaac Newton, thus the name Isaac. Septimus was a tall, gangling man of sixty-two. All of his movements seemed awkward, and it never ceased to amaze those who watched how delicate his touch was in a laboratory or when performing a surgery. He excelled in those two areas, having been a surgeon for a time, but he’d given it up for his experiments in science.He was a pathologist of world reputation and had written the definitive book on human anatomy. Right now he was sprawled on a couch, his white hair in no order whatsoever, except it fell, at times, over his broad forehead.He had forgotten to shave for several days, as the grey stubble on his face indicated. “What are you looking at, Alberta?”
    Alberta Rose Stockard Newton, wife of Septimus, was ten years younger than her husband. For all her expensive clothes, she had a peasant’s stocky figure.Her hands revealed the hard work she had done when she was a young girl, and even for a time after she had married Septimus. She tried to cover up this part of her past, since her husband had become rich and famous due to an experiment that produced something to do with coal mining that she never understood. She could buy any clothes she liked, although none of them ever concealed her background.
    Alberta always looked as if she were a washerwoman in a rather ridiculous disguise. Now as she stood at the window, she had several ropes of pearls around her neck that complemented the rest of her costume. The dress was the latest cut, but it was made for a more slender woman, full-sleeved at the shoulder, flaring at the knees and onto the ground. “I was just watching David. He’s playing some game with Napoleon.”
    “Fine dog, that. I’d like to see the man that could harm David with him around.”
    Alberta watched silently and then said,“Danny’s taking him down to the stream, I suppose.”
    “Danny’s a good boy. Knows horses well as any young fellow alive.”
    Alberta turned and came over to sit beside her husband. She took a look around the room, and as she did, a memory surfaced from her subconscious. She thought of the room she and Septimus had shared when they were first married—small, crowded, and almost bare of furniture. But things had changed since then.
    The parlor of the Trent house was large, the furniture of heavy dark wood.