Cecilia considered shooting at the windows to destabilize the magic but decided the risk to the innocent pirates within would be too great. She could do nothing but stand helplessly in the street, laden with guns and regret, as the hijacked teahouse was maneuvered up and away from Ottery St. Mary.

The entire Wisteria Society had been kidnapped over tea and scones!

“Bother,” Cecilia muttered. It appeared that she’d have no chance of getting to the Chanters House library anytime soon.

“Arrrghh!” screamed someone furiously behind her. Turning, she shot the sword-wielding woman who was attempting once again to rush at her. The bullet struck the woman’s leg and sent her sprawling in the dusty street. Cecilia watched her for a moment as she cried and writhed in pain, then went to knock at the butchery door.

“Go away!” the butcher shouted from within. “I have knives and I’m not afraid to use them!”

“That is exactly what I need,” Cecilia replied. “May I beg your service? There are two people bearing gunshot wounds out here. Neither is fatally hurt but they require medical treatment. Would you be so kind as to assist them? I must hurry away myself.”

“What? You want me to what?”

“I believe butchers have surgical skills? Thank you, sir, for helping, it is very neighborly of you.”

“But that’s just a myth about butchers! I can’t even saw the cow bones neatly!”

“And yet I notice you have fine premises here, so you must be intelligent and industrious. I’ll leave the injured in your capable hands.”

“You want me to save the lives of two pirates that you shot?”

“Yes. I’m terribly grateful.” She stepped away, then, upon further thought, returned to the door. “Just perhaps don’t wear any valuables while helping them. Good day, sir, and my regards to your wife—er, if you have one, that is.”

Holstering her guns and gathering up her skirts, she hastened back through the village and along the hedge-rimmed lanes toward that distant field where the Wisteria Society battlehouses stood waiting for mistresses who would now be long in returning—if they ever did.

8

grand theft domicile—manna from heaven—captain morvath defines captaincy to captain lightbourne—a sniveling jellyfish—ghosts of cecilia’s past—more manna—hot-air balloons—they meet again—captain lightbourne is unmasked (twice)—a duel ending in an explosion—cecilia quits the field

Gentleness! How far more potent is it than force! Captain Morvath knew this to be so and calculated that, while the Wisteria Society could resist his wrath if he went into the field with all guns blazing, they would grow pliant under his surreptitious breaking and entering. Therefore, while The Ancient Mariner was being hijacked in swift and dramatic fashion, back at the strawberry field the gentlemen, servants, and tiger, on alert for frontal attack, were unaware that Morvath’s henchmen were picking their door and window locks, slipping in unobserved, and whispering the flight incantation beneath stairs and behind drapes. By the time the households realized they had been abducted, there was little they could do.