Free Wild Bells to the Wild Sky by Laurie McBain Page B

returned to his seat, his face mirroring concern for the discomfited Don Pedro.
    "Are you quite sure you are well?" he asked. At Don Pedro's nod, he glanced over at his host. "I am so sorry, Don Rodrigo," he apologized, gesturing at his overturned goblet, the spilt wine leaving a vivid, red stain across the linen tablecloth. "I must have knocked it over when I stood up," he said, although both he and Don Rodrigo knew it had happened moments before.
    "Please, do not concern yourself with that," Don Rodrigo entreated him, for Sir Basil, despite his calm visage, seemed ill at ease.
    "Thank you, Don Rodrigo. Hmm," Sir Basil continued on a thoughtful note. "You say one blue eye and one brown, and he's an Englishman. Sounds familiar, but I cannot quite place the gentleman. He is a gentleman?" Sir Basil asked mockingly, keeping the conversation light.
    "Yes, indeed. I cannot remember his name, but he was a guest at Highcross when Her Majesty and the court came last year for a visit. That is where Lily must have seen him, and now that she is upset with the death of her grandmother, she remembers him. For a child, such a person might be disturbing. It is all very confusing for the child. Time means little. Today, yesterday, last year, it is all the same."
    Sir Basil didn't dare glance over at Don Pedro, for he had heard the deep sigh of relief that the Spaniard had breathed when Magdalena had so convincingly explained away Lily's nightmare about the creature with one blue eye and one brown.
    "Indeed, Doña Magdalena. Why, my son, Simon, who is not more than a year or two older than Lily, has had some bloodcurdling nightmares. Woke up the whole household one night when he claimed that an Awd Goggie was lurking in the corner of his bedchamber. I had to search the whole room before he would settle back down. And then I had to leave a candle, and his nurse, by his bedside before he'd sleep."
    "What is an Awd Goggie?" Catalina asked in fascination.
    "A demon, and not one to be trifled with, Doña Catalina. They say, or at least according to Simon's nursemaid who had told him the story, that the sprite protects orchards from thieves. And it would seem that Simon had raided the apple orchard that very afternoon, and 'twas a stomach ache and a guilty conscience that had him dreaming such nightmares," Sir Basil concluded with a chuckle, successfully dismissing such stories, and among them Lily's, as nonsense.
    Later that evening, Sir Basil, safe in the confines of his room, slumped down on his bed in a cold sweat. And it was Sir Basil who suffered the nightmares that night about a man with one blue eye and one brown. When Sir Basil awoke the next morning, he could not shake the strange feeling of melancholy that hung heavily about him. It was, therefore, with a sense of foreboding that he glanced out his window to see the Arion anchored in the harbor.
     
    " 'Od's heartling!" Geoffrey Christian exclaimed, and not for the first time since hearing of Sir Basil's daring exploits. "I should have stayed in Santo Domingo. There was more adventuring to be found at Casa del Montevares than off the coast of Nombre de Dios!" he said with another deep chuckle. He continued to eye his somber-faced friend, then glanced at the innocent-looking stern of the Estrella D'Alba anchored nearby, and the chuckle gradually turned into a rick laugh that had several busy crew members smiling as they went about their tasks.
    "Ah, Basil, my old friend," he said, the laughter crinkling the corners of his eyes.
    "I am glad that you find the situation so amusing. What, pray tell, would have kept you amused had I met my death that night?" Sir Basil inquired, slightly offended that his friend should find such humor in what had been an emotional experience for him.
    "I do apologize, Basil," Geoffrey said with a grin that should have warned Sir Basil of what was to come. "But I find myself wondering about the scandal it would have caused had you been washed up on shore in your