Forever Young The Beginning (73 page)

“
They
are
my family.” He went on to tell
her as much as he could of the accounts of their raids on rogue
vampire covens. “He seems to take to that sort of thing naturally.
Ian and Li are likely two of the deadliest of their
kind.”

She looked out to sea a while then and
then shaking her head said “Seeing him with Aimee and all of the
times I’ve been around him when he came to live with Anna, I could
never have guessed that. He’s a man of great contrasts. And I’ve
seen Li with Sophia and Aimee. I couldn’t have guessed that the two
of them are so deadly.”

“
And I could never have
guessed that you’d be the woman of my dreams, but you are. Did you
know that, Liri? I was taken with you the first time I saw you when
you knocked at our door in Paris.” They had been standing, her
against the rail near the bow and he standing close behind with his
arms about her waist. She turned her head to him and she blushed a
bit, smiling sweetly. “I am so happy Maurice…so very happy.” He
bent to kiss her then as the ship made its way north through the
endless sea. Not more than thirty feet distant Louis was kissing
Celeste at the same time.

Tom and Celita were happy to
see Ian and Alandra. Things had gone well at
Barcelona House
while they were gone,
but Alandra got to work right away looking over the books and
inspecting everything. The couple had done a superb job of caring
for the place while they were away. While they were there, the
niece of the daughter of King Charles was brought so Ian had their
doctor give her a physical. She had what appeared to be the wasting
disease. The doctor was quite frank and told the guardian that the
child was dying. He didn’t hold out much hope and left it to the
guardian to tell the child if she wanted to. The lady wept openly
at the news, being that she loved the child as if she was her
own.

Ian and Alandra brought some special
soup to the little girl that night. It was just warm, not hot, and
was exactly what they gave to little Rosita that cured her. The
little girl was encouraged to drink it all. Ian and Alandra both
sat with her afterward and told her that they thought she might
soon start to get better. She said that she already was feeling
warmer inside. They stayed by her bed until she slept.

The very next day, the child said she
was feeling better. She and the guardian were both moved to Ian and
Alandra’s house to stay. Being given a strict regimen of fruit and
vegetable juice from the first, she was made to consume it daily.
Within a week she was well and was running about and playing as
would any healthy child that age. She had begun to gain back the
weight she had lost and her color had improved dramatically. The
doctor was summoned and he pronounced it a miracle and didn’t mind
admitting he’d thought her to be as good as dead the day he first
saw her.

Two days later the guardian tearfully
thanked Alandra before she and the little girl departed for Madrid.
Ian and Alandra had been spending most of their time with her
parents and her brother if not at the hospital. They were ready to
leave at any time, so they departed for Marseille.

***

Yvonne Devrie walked into
the
Cat’s Eye Tavern
in Paris, and looked around. Seeing Stefan sitting alone, she
moved through the crowded place toward his table. More than a few
men tracked her progress as she artfully wove her way through the
maze of tables to Stefan’s table. A lovely redhead, she would
easily turn the heads of most men. She approached Stefan, who by
now had seen her. “Good evening love. Have you learned anything
about the whereabouts of Arnaud Moreau yet?”

“
No. We’ve come here so much
that we’re now considered regulars and I’ve yet to hear where he
might be.”

“
I heard something
interesting not an hour ago.” He looked at her, raising his
eyebrows as she went on “It seems that Francoise had a younger
brother who lives near Lacoste’. Do you think that this Arnaud
might have gone to see him?”

“
Why would Moreau go to see
Francoises’ younger brother?”

“
Would you be interested in
knowing that his older brother, Aldric may have worked for him
before his death? It might be that Moreau went to see the younger
one to see if he could shed any light on the death of his older
brother.”

“
Where did you hear
that?”

“
I just tonight learned of
it while talking to a woman who used to keep company with Aldric..
It seems he was killed in Austria as the rumor goes.”

“
What would that have to do
with the fire at Francoises’ place?”

“
Oh it gets better, Stefan.
It’s rumored that there were kidnappings of children involved in
the events at Vienna where Aldric was killed.”

“
What?” he said, looking
wide-eyed at her. She nodded with a smile and her green eyes began
to glow. “It could be that we should go see this Marquis de Sade
and learn the whereabouts of Arnaud.”

“
This is the first good news
I’ve had since I lost my arm” he said as his eyes began to
glow.

“
He’s quite well known about
France and quite wealthy as well. We can’t just go and bully him.
We’ll have to have something to offer him.”

“
How about an eyewitness
report on what really happened the night his brother burned to
death?”

***

After sailing from Barcelona to
Marseille, Ian and Alandra arrived at the chateau and greeted
everyone. Little Aimee jumped into Ian’s arms and was kissing him
and Alandra before the others could even get close. She was swung
up to sit on his shoulders to her great delight, putting his
tricorner hat on her head with a big smile. Everyone hugged and
exchanged kisses as always. Celeste walked arm-in-arm between Ian
and Alandra as they made their way to the broad veranda of the
chateau. Marie was on Ian’s other arm, her head against his
shoulder, smiling.

Two idyllic weeks slipped by like a
day it seemed. They were filled with outdoor activities by day and
with dancing and music every night. Once Aimee had seen Ian and
Henri perform the Cossack dance, she wouldn’t rest until she’d
learned how to do it too. It was quite a sight to see a little tyke
like her performing a masculine dance such as that.

During this time, Ian conferred with
the others about Aimee’s performance and asked if she had ever
slipped in public. Everyone confirmed that she’d always been a
flawless performer, never revealing her true powers in any public
place. He asked what the others thought about her learning some
basic self-defense practices and no one objected, so he began to
teach Aimee some technics of Chi-Na.

He explained to Aimee that these were
things that she would now learn because she had shown that she
could be trusted. It was stressed that she was never to use these
things against children, but only against someone who was going to
harm her or someone else. They were quite simple techniques,
designed to break a finger or to paralyze an opponent by use of a
pressure point. She was also taught how to deliver a powerful snap
kick, as well as how to yield and use a bigger opponents’ momentum
to throw them to the ground. A surprise blow to the neck to
temporarily impair breathing as well as use of the universal
‘sleeper-hold’ was taught and she became skilled at both
techniques

For more serious situations she was
taught how to gouge out an eye or to crush a larynx in a
life-or-death situation. Being that all of this was something
completely new, she loved it, and trained faithfully, striving to
excel as she always did. As bizarre as all of this was, it was
accepted as commonplace at the chateau, where training in fighting
techniques had become commonplace since Ian had joined the
family.

One evening after dinner, Louis stood
up. Ian looked at Alandra and winked about the same time as Marie
nudged Henri. Louis said “I have an announcement to make.”
Indicating Celeste seated next to him he said “I’ve asked this
lovely lady to marry me and she’s accepted.” Celeste beamed a
brilliant smile as a slight flush rose to her cheeks.

There was applause all around and then
Ian said “Mustafa, have you something to tell us?”

Smiling broadly he stood and said “I
do. I have asked Liridona to marry me and she’s agreed to make me
the happiest man on earth.” Liri blushed and smiled.

There was applause all
around then for the two of them. Ian stood and clinked his fork on
his goblet and said “I have an announcement to make and it is this:
I’ve asked my Uncle Angus to join us here for a while this summer
if he can, so if you lovebirds can wait until he arrives, you might
consider a dual wedding aboard
Elsie’s
Cloud
.”

Celeste and Liridona both exclaimed
their delight. Marie vanished quickly and reappeared just as
quickly holding a bottle of wine. “Let’s toast the brides and
grooms to be then.” she said.

Elsie’s Cloud
rode at anchor in the port of Marseille. The watch
was set with six left aboard and there were two carriages with the
last passengers climbing in for the ride to the Chateau.

Around three hours later, the two
carriages approached the large chateau. Liri and Mustafa were
sitting on the veranda and saw them coming. Liri went quickly
inside to tell Marie. She rang her summoning bell and soon the
veranda was crowded with staff and others of the family. Ian,
Alandra, Henri, and Marie all came to the carriage along with six
of her staff. Angus stepped out, tall and lean as ever. Ian and he
hugged each other and grabbed each other’s shoulders and just
looked into each other’s eyes for a bit, grinning. As they parted
Ian stood looking intently into the carriage.

Angus saw the stupefied look on his
face and began to laugh. “Why Ian, you look as if you never saw
your mother or your aunt Mary before!” He reached then to assist
Elsie and Mary down from the carriage. Ian and Alandra took turns
hugging and kissing the two and were still looking and smiling at
them when Stuart climbed down from the carriage. Ian turned to his
little brother and picked him up in a bear hug and whirled him
around. “Stu; look at you! So tall and handsome! I’ll wager that
the young ladies in Edinburg know you by name! But you’re not yet
too big to get a ride on your big brothers shoulder lad!” He then
grabbed Stu and stooping down; he snatched him up and ran all
around the two coaches carrying him like he was only a pillow,
laughing all the while. Alandra shook her head and said “I honestly
believe he’ll do Stuart that way forever!” as they all laughed at
the familiar site. Mustafa and Louis really enjoyed it because Ian
had finally quit doing it to them after they had announced their
intent to marry.

The occupants of the other coach were
now out and Ian put Stu down to embrace Armando, Mark, Leon, and
Rob MacGregor. “Stay right here, Lads. We’ve some introductions to
be made.” Meanwhile Henri, Marie, and Alandra had been following
behind him greeting everyone. Ian returned in a moment with
Liridona, Celeste, and Aimee. He introduced all of them to everyone
which took a good little bit of time. Li took Sophia around to meet
everyone.

Ian took Aimee aside for a moment and
said “We’ll be having lots of humans here for a while Aimee. You’ll
have to be at your very best. I haven’t seen these of my family for
a long time and it may seem like I’m ignoring you, but that isn’t
so. It’s just that I don’t get to see them that much.”

“
I understand.”

“
There will be a lot of
exciting things happening, but you must remember to keep your eyes
looking normal at all times. Can you do that?”

“
I can do that.”

“
Some of the time you’ll be
staying with Alandra and me at our house with Li and Sophia until
after the wedding. That will make it easier, sweetheart. I’m so
very pleased with you. I love you.”

She put her little arms around his
neck and kissed him. “I love you too.”

Dinner was delicious and was a jovial
and pleasant time for everyone. The conversations centered on news
from Scotland and on the new developments in Ian’s life. There were
lots of questions about their travels in Spain and Portugal as well
as all to do with the upcoming weddings. Ian’s mother asked later
about Aimee and the standard orphan/adoption story was
told.

It was announced that there would be a
dual wedding aboard Elsie as soon as Marie could arrange for the
same crew to prepare the ship. A twin repair dock would be used to
put all guests aboard and a large crew hired to tow and row them
clear from the dock so that Elsie would be at sea for the
ceremony.

Aimee and Celeste sang for the guests
that evening and Ian and Alandra sat up late into the night
visiting with everyone. It was well after midnight when the last
guest retired.

***

One evening at dinner Marie announced
that the ship would be ready for a wedding within three more days.
All who were there were impressed with the joy and sincerity of the
two couples.

The three days passed
quickly with all manner of activities. The fourth morning saw them
all departing for Marseille. The ship’s officers would stay at
the
Red Dolphin
courtesy of Lorn and Corinne, while the family would stay at a
vacant home in Marseille owned by Henri. Marie had already sent
part of the staff there to ready the place. The wedding would be
the day after. Today would be a final inspection of the
preparations aboard ship by Marie. She had given instructions to
her staff concerning their return and the wedding celebration. Her
senior staff members were in charge of seeing that everything was
ready for that event.