The Advent of the Yule Queen by John William Houghton

Author:John William Houghton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-9993065-4-3
Publisher: Marmont Press
Published: 2022-03-23T00:00:00+00:00

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This called, naturally, for another family conference, but I had my own supper first: and, as it turned out, Wills actually had homework to do, as PMA kept up the old prep tradition of half-day classes on Wednesdays and Saturdays. So it was 9:30 before we got down to business, by which time I had received, and forwarded, John’s e-mailed translation of the chapter. We adults had briefly considered meeting by Skype, just to underline the terms of Wills’ exile, but as he had a roommate, telepathy seemed to be the more discreet option.

After I had passed along what John had told me that afternoon, Dan was quick to summarize.

You’re right, he cleared up a lot of your questions from last month. But we still don’t know why Baltzer was buying up the bells, other than technical curiosity and his contempt for the Brotherhood. Nor do we know whether someone else later dug them up again. We don’t know how Bertha Bright-King is involved, if she is. And I suppose we technically don’t even know what was causing Wills’ issues, though I’m hoping Potts’ Mill has turned out to be the remedy.

It’s been great so far, Granddad, Wills said. I like my teachers, and Dr. Malone even let me into her AP Humanities class, which is the hardest thing to get into in the school. She told me the General recommended that specifically. My roommate Jesse and I get along fine, and he’s like the geek twin brother the folks always wished I had.

Rhys thought something like “tutt, tutt.”

No, seriously, Dad, he spoke Greek to Mom and Elvish to you. I saw the looks.

Anyway, he continued, the other guys in my dorm are great, and there’s a faculty family on every hall. Ours are the Yingers, and they’re just as cool as the Steinmans. Mr. Yinger was one of the first boys to come to school here once the school became co-ed. His brother and sister-in-law also work here and his cousin, Pastor Confer Martens, is the Associate Chaplain, and I think they're all alumni, too. I know she is, ’cause she mentioned it in a chapel talk.

So, he concluded, bottom line, nobody knows enough about me to expect anything in particular, and I am sleeping just fine.

Which makes for happy parents, Rhys commented.

Much relieved parents, indeed, Caroline added. But, Dad, I’m not sure that we don’t have the answers to a couple of your remaining questions. If Bertha’s giving the gate, and if the gate was having such a malevolent effect on Wills, then it’s a fair guess that Bertha is involved in Wills’ situation, at least. And given her apparent genealogical connection to the Swiss Brotherhood, she’d be my first candidate for the person who has been fiddling with the bells, so to speak.

Mine, too, I said. But we don’t really have enough evidence to completely rule out Bobby Lucy as the root of the gate problem. He’s the one who actually made it, after all.

Fair enough, but .

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