story- Earl Swan (4)

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part 4 of 6
-4-
It came to Brigid as no shock when Desdemona did not dismiss her. Des had always been a woman of more bark than bite. What did shock her was the earl’s notable absence around the mansion. Or anywhere else for that matter.
Bri inquired into the town, going to market for her mistress. She intentionally selected rotten fruit and deformed eggs during the trip, but she also queried every busy-body she could find. No gossip had spread of the earl, and nobody knew where he had gone off to.
She sent a lengthy letter of inquiry to Constance Estate, Orion’s home, asking the staff there and any relatives as to his whereabouts. In a week’s time she had a reply, and it did not make her happy.
Orion was, for lack of a better term, missing.
It began to hurt at the week’s end. Bri felt her chest tighten at the thought. Where would he have gone? Was he hurt?
Of course, she glared at Des whenever their paths crossed. Des’ usual verbal ramblings were no longer Bri’s to hear, of which she was grateful. However, she was left with no clues.
By the eighth day of Orion’s absence, she finally sought her mistress out. She had done her morning errands, commanding all of the household staff on upkeep and the like. Now she had a moment to spare and she was going to use it.
“My lady,” she put her hand on the bow of Des’ violin, stopping the tremulous noise. “I want to know where he is. What will you have me do?”
Juan was in the large room with Des today. He was a tallish man with long, brown hair, easy on the eyes but profoundly shallow. He and Des made a fine match.
He nodded at her as she stared, her eyes narrowed in ill-humor.
“Juan, this is my librarian-assistant- ladies’ maid, Brigid Salud.”
“I have heard of you,” Juan smirked.
“We’ve already met, Sir Juan.”
“We have?”
“At my ex-husband’s wedding,” she said flatly. “You were 13 then.”
“I don’t recall being there.”
“Oh, you were there.”
Des pouted, apparently angry to have the attention stolen from her. She reprimanded Bri, “Let’s not talk about you-know-whom. The engagement is off, I have a lawyer on his way today along with an old acquaintance of Orion’s.”
“A lawyer? An old acquaintance? I thought you said you turned him into a swan, my lady.”
Juan snorted and Des shot him a look.
“Yes, but he can’t tell anyone that, now can he?”
“He can if the lawyer is fluent in Quack,” Bri snipped.
“HaHa,” Des feigned laughter. “You are so clever.”
They argued for a moment more, with Des commanding Bri to leave her presence. But Bri refused, raising her alto higher. Finally, she seized Des’ violin and threw open the room’s windows, running onto the balcony. She held the violin over the edge and put a hand on her hip.
“I have six more,” Des folded her arms, stepping onto the balcony.
“I know where they are,” Bri answered coolly.
“ Oh, look…” Des pointed to the pond where the swans, geese and ducks were lounging. “There is his lordship right now.”
“Cut the humbug, Desdemona!”
“Darling!” came Juan’s voice. “There is a man here!”
Des cocked an eyebrow at Bri and turned slowly. Bri lingered with the violin for a moment. She stared at it and then sent it flying over the edge.
Back in the drawing room, a new figure had entered. A man of distinguished appearance, perhaps handsome in his better days. He had black hair streaked with gray, and dark eyes.
The three seemed already familiar, leaving Bri the odd woman out. At least the newcomer grinned at her cordially.
“Bri, have you met Dr. Madison?”
Bri blinked, looking from each face to the other.
“Why don’t you tell my ladies’ maid what you and Lord Hookwell’s ‘relationship’ was.”
“It happened to be years ago,” the doctor mumbled. “I came to vouch for his infidelity in confidence, my lady.”
“He hasn’t been unfaithful,” Bri defended Orion. “Not until me.”
“His word against ours,” Des reminded the maid.
Bri’s laugh erupted then. Under other circumstances she would have been embarrassed, but today she was too angry.
The doctor stepped over then. He was aggressive, grabbing Bri’s shoulder and looked her over. “That is fascinating.”
Bri pulled away defensively and the doctor mused, “I never would have thought…”
“Can we get onto business now?” Des demanded.
“…he would lay with a woman,” spoke the doctor.
“Well, he did. Why are you helping this woman hurt him, doctor? What wrong has he done you?”
“None, Ms. Salud. But the Lady Parade has money,” he smiled wryly. “I am getting old, I will need to retire soon.”
“Tell her what a raging sodomite he is,” Des grumbled. “Tell her how he disappeared from home when he was 15 and spent a year with you—“
“Business,” the doctor turned around, also apparently tired of Des’ cruelty. “When will the lawyer be here?”
Bri could stand it no longer. Again, she found herself storming out of the room in a rage.
Raiding Des’ library was an easy task. The only use it had was by staff and the employer when she wanted new books to display on the front coffee table. Des recalled the ones that Des had ordered to look at time and again. Certain things that the heiress thought were deviant. The Witch’s Grimoire, for example, which Des seemed to believe contained spells. She was unaware that it was possibly the most misogynistic piece of literature ever written, and little more than a guidebook for hunting down ‘witches.’ She did know of a few books that covered folklore and pagan practices. Those were the ones that Bri checked out. She also rummaged through the writings that Orion had left behind, because he did happen to be an expert in demonology. It was the topic of his thesis in University.
Brigid had needed to force herself to do this research, because it was preposterous.
Then again, a wise Brahman in India had once taught her that a closed mind was the worst handicap.
Hexes to change a human into an animal seemed common enough, though Bri could not find a universal method amongst magicians. Often, in myth, as Orion’s notes told her, the gods would transform themselves into animals to seduce maidens. But sometimes, such as the case of the arrogant spinner Arachne, a mortal would be transformed into some lowly beast as a punishment.
“But how do I know…?” she asked the silence, as she lay in her bed, throwing another book aside.
Finally, thanks again to Orion’s notes, Bri had some form of an answer.
Usually a piece of clothing or a prized possession of the person is presented to the animal in legends. If the animal becomes possessive of this item, it cues the searcher as to whether or not this is that person.
It was the dead of night, but Bri ran to Orion’s chamber anyway. She searched the drawers and turned up empty handed. Des must have emptied the room out. Keeping her anger at bay, Bri then marched to the study. The same study where she had seduced the earl. There on the desk, his reading glasses were left untouched.
She ran with them outside, after seizing a lantern and ventured to the pond.
Most of the animals were asleep, but a few were stirring. Bri’s lantern seemed to bother them greatly.
She felt a great fool shouting it, but she forced herself. “Muffin? Are you there?”
After a moment of silence and soft quacks, Bri peeled into laughter. She had to wipe a tear away from her eyes at the thought of herself calling out to a pond like this. In her momentary hysteria, she put Orion’s glasses on and tried to simmer down.
The glasses were snatched from her face then. “Ow!”
She opened her eyes to behold a swan, the same large one from the other day, clamping the glasses in his jaws.
She stared, unable to hold in her laugh.
“Holy mother of god…Muffin?”
© 2010-2011 Luz Briar.