Tea Party Conversation

 

When the short-lived company, A British Child, first marketed their Elizabethan doll, Jane deLacey, she came with a book, “Jane deLacey and the Voice in the Tower”, and the promise of a second book, “Jane deLacey and the Spanish Captain.”  The company folded before the second book was offered for sale.  The title suggests that the book took place after the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Because the second book was never published, whatever transpired in it never happened.  Or did it? 

TEA PARTY CONVERSATION

(JANE’S DREAM)

            “I have had that self dream yesternight that I have had oft-times before,” said Jane one afternoon at tea.

            “You have a recurring dream?” Nellie inquired, “Would you like to . . . talk about it.”

 

            “Certainly,” Jane responded, “In my dream I am back home at deLacey Hall, but this has me gemisht - I am the age I was when I left, but it seems as though the Great Armada has just been licked, and that I know happened when I was but three.”

           

“You left in 1594, and the Armada was in 1588?” asked Gila.

            “Aye, it is one of my earliest memories.  I remember seeing Father in armor, hot-footing it from deLacey Hall at the head of a band of soldiers.  All was not hunky-dory, and some of the maid servants were blubbering.  I did not tumble to what was happening until I was much older, but he was lighting out for Tilbury, there to join the Queen.”

           

“What in your dream is about the Armada?” asked Nellie.

            “I am following odd clues that lead me to a Spanish soldier, a captain, holed up in the woods near the Hall.  He is a shipwrecked survivor of the scrap with the Armada.  I am faced with a moral dilemma:  Should I help him, out of pity, or should I hand him over to Father, and so cook his goose?”

           

“What do you do?” asked Gila.

            “Usually the dream does end there, and I awake all geschtern.  But last night, it kept going.  I kept the captain hidden, and brought him food, but he was discovered and taken before Father.  But, moved by my kindness, Father proved to be a mensch, and had him given safe conduct to France, to skedaddle back to Spain from there.”

            “For a dream, that is quite an adventure,” declared Nellie, “That could be a book!”