Arabella of Mars(8)

Beatrice gazed contemplatively out the window for a time before replying. “I am afraid that your father’s recent passing has revived old grudges about the estate.”

“How so?”

“I gather he resents that his father did not receive a share of the inheritance when your grandfather died.”

Arabella placed a hand upon her bosom. “Let me assure you that it was not my father’s choice, nor my grandfather’s, to do so. They both loved my late uncle, Mr. Ashby’s father, dearly, but the estate is entailed.… It must pass entirely and without division to the eldest son.”

“And thus it passes now to your brother Michael, and again we are left with nothing.” Mrs. Ashby’s voice was more resigned than aggrieved.

“If there were any thing I could do…”

“It is the way of the world, I suppose.” Beatrice sighed. “I am sure that he will be much more himself in the morning. We will pick strawberries together, and all will be well.”

By now Sophie had drifted off, burbling contentedly in her sleep, and Beatrice laid her down in her crib. She and Arabella returned to the dining table, where Simon sat staring off into space and drumming his fingers on the table’s edge.

The two women seated themselves, with apologies for the interruption, and without a word Simon began to carve the roast. Arabella received her portion with thanks, but after she had eaten the first few bites she was forced to deposit a large lump of gristle on the side of her plate.

Though she had done it as discreetly as possible, the act did not escape Simon’s notice. “I must beg your pardon for the quality of the roast,” he said, quite testily. “I know that your side of the family is accustomed to finer fare, but this is the best possible under the circumstances.”

Beatrice gave him a withering look, then with a rather forced smile turned to Arabella. “Tell us about your voyage from Mars,” she said. “How did you survive the absence of gravity and atmosphere?”

Arabella sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. The scientific ignorance of English women, and most of the men as well, was appalling, but as her mother had repeatedly cautioned her, expressing her true opinion of her cousin’s lack of knowledge would be a gross breach of etiquette. “It is merely a common misperception,” she explained, “that there is no gravity between planets. The sun’s gravity is quite substantial, even as far out as Mars. But the ship is in orbit, you see, which means that she is circling the sun at exactly the same rate she falls toward it, so that those aboard the ship do not feel any gravitational attraction. We call this a state of free descent.” Beatrice’s vacant smile told Arabella that her words were falling on stony ground, and she resolved to simplify her account still further. “And as to the atmosphere, although the interplanetary atmosphere is … of different composition from that of Earth or Mars, I assure you it is entirely breathable and quite healthful.”

“That is … fascinating,” Beatrice said, blinking rapidly. “But do go on. Did you see wind-whales, or asteroids? Were you attacked by pirates?”

“We were fortunate enough to avoid pirates, as well as the French navy. As to the rest, I am afraid there is little to tell.” She took another careful bite of her roast. “I spent most of the journey in my cabin.”

She did not confess the reason for this, which was that her mother had kept her forcibly confined there for almost the entire voyage—at first to prevent Arabella from attempting to escape the ship and return to Mars, and later, or so she had said, to protect her from the unwelcome attentions of the airmen.

“Surely you cannot have spent the entire time in your cabin? Does the trip not take a year or more?”

“That depends upon the positions of the planets.” Arabella paused, then pointed to her place setting. “Suppose my dinner-plate is the sun, and my bread-plate the Earth. My wine-glass, then, would be Mars; both orbit around the sun, but Mars is further away than Earth, do you see?” She picked up her glass in her right hand and held it above her lap so that the glass and the two plates were all in a line, with the large plate between the small plate and the glass. “Now, when Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the sun, as you see here, the trip does take well over a year, and because of the expense and difficulty very few ships undertake it. We call this ‘conjunction.’” She shifted her wine-glass to her left hand and set it down just beyond her bread-plate, so that the glass and the two plates were again in a line, but this time with the small plate between the glass and the large plate. “But when the two planets are on the same side of the sun—we call this ‘opposition’—they are much closer together, and the voyage from one to the other takes as little as two months. This is our situation at the moment, as it happens.”

Suddenly Simon brightened, taking a keen interest in the conversation for the first time. “Two months, do you say?”

But Beatrice appeared puzzled. “Why is it that when the planets are far apart it is called ‘conjunction,’ but when they are close it is ‘opposition’? This seems contrary.”

“It is because of Mars’s position in Earth’s sky—a rather parochial point of view, in my opinion. Conjunction is so called because Mars and the sun are very close to each other in the sky when seen from Earth; at opposition, they are on opposite sides of the sky.”