Forever Young The Beginning (27 page)

A group of five men was following
them. They too were only out seeing the sights. They were all young
single men, privileged, from wealthy families. One named Carlos
spoke to the others saying “Amigos, look at those two beautiful
Senoritas just ahead of us.”

“
Ah, I see them. Such
beauty, no?”

“
Perfection, no
doubt.”

“
One may be the maidservant
of the other.”

“
How can you tell,
Carlos?”

“
There is a little
difference in the quality of the clothing it seems. Just a guess
though.”

“
Carlos is usually right
about things to do with women, eh?”

All agreed with that. None knew who
they were at first. One said “Wait. I have seen that one before.
Ah! Such a beauty! Yes, I recall that she is the daughter of our
ambassador to France. Her name is Almerita….. no it is Alandra. She
is Alandra Vasquez.”

Carlos pondered that as they followed
the two. Her father was the Ambassador. Yes, now he recalled that
her family was of a lesser known noble bloodline. However his
father was prosecutor for the Crown, a man feared throughout all of
Spain. The Chavez family was a well-known noble family of Madrid,
with property in many places including Barcelona. They were known
to have far-reaching influence. Carlos Chavez had spent his entire
life as one pampered, spoiled, privileged, and grew to have an ego
to match his upbringing. He was one to enjoy using his family
position to make others squirm or be uncomfortable. Having enormous
pride in himself he had taken lessons in swordsmanship from the
finest instructors in Spain from an early age. Having killed two
men in duels already, he exhibited a cruel and callous disregard
for any life but his own.

“
Amigos, I’ll wager that I
can obtain an invitation for myself and my family to the Vasquez
home before this day is through.”

No one wanted to take the bet because
they held Carlos to be irresistible to women and had seen some
evidence of that before.

“
What will you wager then,
Carlos?”

“
Diego, I’ll wager the gold
inlaid pistol you shot last week at our summer home against your
pistol.”

“
My pistol is a fine one,
but not as fine as that one of yours. Done amigo. I’ll enjoy owning
such a fine piece.”

“
We’ll see amigo, we’ll
see.”

Carlos picked up his pace to overtake
the two women and one asked Diego why he had bet against
Carlos.

“
I know that girl. She is
not turned by a handsome face. She has a keen mind, and is no silly
girl to be easily swayed by even one like Carlos. She looks…..
deeper when she meets someone it seems. Senorita Vasquez will not
succumb to Carlos’ charms. There is something special about her. No
amigos, I’ll win this bet.”

Carlos had overtaken the pair by now
as they stopped to look at flowers. He removed his hat and
introduced himself courteously. Celita and Alandra both answered
courteously. He went into his well-perfected speech which had never
failed him. He used his family name and even that his father was
the prosecutor for the crown, which never seemed to fail to impress
anyone. The two seemed to be quite interested in what he had to
say. Their manners and responses were impeccable. Celita could
easily have been of noble upbringing herself in his opinion, having
now been in her presence. It was soon easy to see that Alandra was
the more observant, more perceptive of the two though.

They chatted for several minutes, and
then Alandra signified that she was done with the conversation and
was intending to resume her walk, but not with him. Her manners and
conversation were beyond any reproach. She never once gave reason
for offense, but clearly was not interested. She and Celita turned
to walk the last little distance to their waiting carriage. She
graciously accepted his hand assisting both her and Celita into the
carriage. Without smiling once she thanked him, and bid him good
day, telling the driver to take them home.

He was left standing with his hat in
hand, watching the carriage depart in a state of shock and
embarrassment. In seconds his embarrassment turned to rage. His
body trembled at the level of anger he felt towards Alandra. But by
the time his friends had rejoined him, he had his raging emotions
under control.

The others surrounded Carlos and began
to question him.

“
I have until tomorrow
amigos.” was all that he would offer. Diego noted the tight-lipped
response and wisely never reminded Carlos of their wager. He would
make good on it. He had made the wager in front of four people
after all. Diego knew that pistol was his, but he also knew not to
anger Carlos. That could be a deadly thing as he well
knew.

Ian took out the pair of loaded
pistols and handed one to Cosette saying “It’s ready. You only have
to cock the hammer. When they ask for our valuables, drop them out
the window, then shoot immediately.” He handed her a wicked curved
dagger some ten inches long. “Celeste, get down on the floor right
now.”

She did and Ian put a blanket on top
of her saying “Don’t get up until this is over.” Ian signaled the
driver quietly and he stopped the team. In only seconds two men
rode out from under a large tree alongside the road. They both
pointed pistols at the driver and ordered him to step down. They
positioned themselves, one on each side of the horses so as to see
both sides of the carriage.

They ordered the driver to kneel on
one side of the carriage. Then they nudged their mounts, easing up
to each side of the coach. A third one then came into Ian’s field
of view on his side.

Damn it all! A third
one
!
Ian pondered
the odds that a shot might hit the driver or penetrate the walls of
the carriage and hit Celeste. The latecomer had a pistol too and
kept it aimed towards the carriage. They demanded all money and
valuables. Ian looked to Cosette who nodded to him. Together they
dropped their purses out of their respective window. No sooner had
they done that than Ian and Cosette fired knocking two of the three
men from their saddles. Before they could even fall to the ground
the two exploded out of the two carriage doors like two
cannonballs. She cut the throat of the one on her side and leaped
over the top of the carriage in a flash. By then Ian had rolled to
his feet and had leaped through the air and hit the third one as he
fired. The shot hit Ian high up on his right shoulder as he
collided with the third highwayman. The man’s neck was broken about
the time Cosette had landed, plunging her knife deep into his chest
as he hit the ground. Cosette ran at vampire speed back around to
her side of the carriage and then saw Celeste peeking out from
under the blanket as she approached the door on her side. Ian went
to the driver and made certain that he was all right. The driver
had seen nothing in the darkness but the flash of a pistol
discharge on his side of the carriage.

Ian then took all three pistols,
powder horns and some balls that two of them had. Giving two of
them to the driver he said “These are both loaded. Keep them with
you from now on.” It was dark by now. Ian took each corpse to the
trees and dropped them into some bushes. He went through their
pockets and took the little money that two had and took three
knives from them. Tying all three horses to the back of their
carriage he went around to the other side to see Cosette and
Celeste.

She threw her arms around him and said
“I knew the bad men couldn’t harm us, but you’ve been shot
Ian.”

“
It’s nothing
Celeste.”
How did she know that? It’s too
dark for her to see it.
“I was lucky that
he aimed too high and just grazed me. She held on to him tightly
saying nothing. Gently he pried her arms off and kissed her
tenderly on her forehead, stroking her hair. Then he lifted her
into the carriage. He turned to Cosette and pulled her close,
kissing her long and tenderly. “Lass, you’re quite skilled with
that thing. Wherever did you learn to shoot like that?”

“
A handsome Scottish sailor
taught me, sir.”

Celeste giggled, and Ian held
Cosette’s arm as she climbed back into the carriage.

“
I’ll ride on top with the
driver until we reach a stopping place.”

They walked the horses for a little
under an hour and came to an inn. There was room only for Cosette
and Celeste, so Ian spent the night on the floor after he and
Cosette took turns taking a hunting trip and bathing in a
stream.

The next morning he sold the horses
and saddles, and told the buyer that he had taken them from three
highwaymen. He gave the money to Celeste who was wide-eyed. She had
never had money of her own in her life. Ian told her that since she
had warned them, the money was hers to keep.

They made Paris in nine more days,
registering at a fine hotel in a posh district. The first thing
Celeste wanted was a hot bath. They had a magnificent room
overlooking the Champs Elysees. Celeste was in wide-eyed wonder
just looking out the window. They spent two days sightseeing and
then readied themselves to depart the next day.

That night they sat and talked with
Celeste. Cosette said “Celeste, you have a unique gift. There are
people in this world, really bad people who would try to lock you
away and use your gift for their own purposes. Tell no one, not
even Caryn. Your gift must remain our secret.’

“
And I will keep your secret
forever.”

“
Our secret?”

“
Yes. I know that
you’re…different. I know that Marie, Henri, Li and you two are
different than other people. I saw what you did to the Bad Men. I
saw you nearly kill one like it was nothing. I saw your eyes glow
the same way as the bad man’s eyes glowed. I saw you tear an iron
door down with your hands, Ian. I know that you are
different.”

Exchanging looks with Cosette, Ian
said “We are different, Celeste. We haven’t lied to you about
ourselves. There aren’t many of our kind. We have to be careful not
to let others know that we live in this world. It could start a big
war and a lot of people could die trying to fight us. They don’t
have to, but they would because they’d be afraid of us. Most of us
don’t want to fight or harm others.”

“
I can see that.”

“
Celeste, when we find those
of us like the Bad Men, we kill them. I killed the ones who took
you, and I would kill any others that would ever try to hurt you.
We love you so much that we wanted to adopt you to be our own
daughter, to live with us near Henri and Marie. We were very sad to
learn that you had an aunt, but we’ve gone through that door now
and closed it. There is no going back. You’ll always be a daughter
to us and will always be welcome to be with us wherever we are at
any time. When you’re grown, you can spend your entire life with us
if you want. We’ll never leave you or send you away. That’s a
promise that we both make to you now.”

“
You thought that others
like you were watching us last night. I could tell. Can you tell
when others like you are watching?”

“
Yes.”

“
How?”

“
Well, my neck gets to
feeling prickly, like this.” He reached around to the back of her
neck and lifted up her hair and pulled gently on the hairs along
the base of her neck.”

“
Really?” She exclaimed,
wide-eyed.

“
Really.”

“
It’s our special
secret?”

“
Yes. We each have one don’t
we?”

She kissed his cheeks and turned to
Cosette and kissed her repeatedly. They talked about all of the
things they would do and see together.

The next day, they all went to the
studio of Caryn Rochelle. She wasn’t in, so they took off
sightseeing once more. After a leisurely lunch, they returned to
Caryn’s studio. She was surprised to see them, but opened her arms
wide and received Celeste warmly, hugging and kissing her. Thirty
five years old, she was a slender pretty woman of medium height,
with auburn colored hair like Celeste and with large brown doe eyes
too. Ian and Cosette exchanged looks of relief. Ian had had fears
of a cold and uncaring aunt. They would have taken Celeste with
them, everyone be damned had that been the case.

It was nearing lunch time when they
said their final good-byes to Celeste. She had seen her room and
was in love with it, but her countenance was sad now. She wept and
Caryn was moved deeply to see the bond of love between the three.
She said her goodbyes with eyes brimming too, as did they all. Ian
whispered “Remember what I told you last night. Be good for Aunt
Caryn. Goodbye sweet Celeste.”

Aldric Moreau walked confidently to
the hall of records. After looking thoroughly through the Red
Dolphin he had come up empty-handed, but he had an idea. He
introduced himself to the records-keeper and made a request which
was refused. Wordlessly he left the place. Within less than an hour
he returned with the Chief of the King’s tax collectors. Soon he
was looking through the tax rolls of Marseille. He spent the day
there and found nothing so he told the supervising director of tax
records that he would return tomorrow. The third day he found what
he was looking for. It was a house belonging to Erin LeBlanc, and
within an hour he was there.