Read The Sword and the Plough for Free Online

of tete-a-tetes . Not
about you , of
course,” she added with a snicker. “But you sure manage to come
into the conversation a lot.”
    Two bright blue eyes sparked mischief at him,
and she began to wring her hands and speak in a plaintive tone, her
voice quavering.
    “ Oh sir, are you going to get married and
leave me a poor orphan? Or worse – make me live with some cruel
sister-in-law?” She hung her head and pretended to sob, wiping away
imaginary tears. “Oh, unkind sir!” she wailed. “Oh, wretched
me!”
    Lars stifled his laughter and assumed his
most stony-faced look.
    “Young lady,” he began, in the deepest tone
he could muster.
    “ Oh, sir speaks – I swoon…”
    Lars endeavoured to frown sternly as his part
of the act, but his sister was at her thespian best, and he could
not.
    “ Young lady,” he began again with a grin.
“I have been thinking seriously about your future and I have made
my decision. When I get married, you will be enrolled in Miss
Higginbottom’s Finishing School for Young
Gentlewomen . There you will
be instructed in all the womanly arts, such as scrubbing floors,
washing dishes, darning socks, et cetera, until you be forty-two,
whereupon, if you fail the domestic duties exam, you will need to
repeat the course again.”
    “ Oh, sir!” Helen cried, taking one of his
hands in both of hers. “You are too kind. A true gentleman, from
the soles of your feet to the top of your head – the latter of
which I am about to knock right off your shoulders.”
    Suddenly, her look was dangerous. “Lars,
if you ever expect to survive your nuptials, you will kindly inform your new
wife or wives, if that be your fancy, that I, Helen the First, hold
number one place in the Kelmutt household.”
    They both laughed then, carefree and at ease,
satisfied with the moment.
     
    * * *
     
    The afternoon sun beat down on the black
soil of the new fields . Beyond the green shade of the trailer’s awning the
landscape shimmered in the burning heat, the thin line between
earth and sky dissolving into silvery waves.
    Lars let his gaze wander. To the east, he
saw the green splinters of young grass burgeoning in a field of
black soil, which had been solid rock two months before. He was
feeling again that satisfaction of a job well done, the pride in
another new field in growth. Then, even as he saw it, he heard Helen’s
startled cry as she witnessed it too. To the north, billowing pall
upon pall, thick black smoke was forming into a tall dark column
above where they knew the town of Vegar lay. And even as they
watched, two more columns began roiling angrily, ascending thick
and ominous into the cloudless sky.

Chapter 6
     
    Planet TRION – ‘The Garden Party’
Governor’s Mansion – North of
Vegar
     
    Greenwich date: January 30,
2175 – 12:47
hours
     
     
    Meanwhile, while Lars and Helen had been
toiling at their rock ploughs in the heat, others had been
suffering no less in their own way a few kilometres to the
north.
    “Another garden party, eh? An afternoon of
fun and games for them, and an afternoon of bleeding boredom for
us,” a gravelly voice grizzled. “And this bloody heat ain’t helping
things none.”
    A gruff grunt acknowledged this
complaint.
    The remark was from one of two sentries clad
in the queen’s red. The men were both in their early twenties,
spruce and clean-shaven. The burnished silver of their helmets and
buttons glinted brightly, reflecting the intense light of Trion’s
binary sun.
    They were standing guard on the white marble
terrace overlooking the gardens at the governor’s mansion. Below
them, the garden party was in full swing; a painter’s palette of
bright coloured dresses and scarlet uniforms. The tangled sounds of
music, voices and laughter floated up to the two young sentries,
along with the delicious aromas of the food-laden tables.
    “There must be over two hundred people down
there,” the first speaker continued. “My Earth, but my