Forever Young The Beginning (74 page)

The ship had been prepared to
perfection and it was the day of the wedding. As before, a large
temporary canopy had been erected and a temporary staircase
installed over one of the two access steps to the stern deck. The
ship was bedecked with flowers and garlands. The guests were all
aboard and the two brides were cloistered in the forecastle with
Marie. Eight draft horses pulled Elsie out from between the twin
repair docks as the crew rowed and towed her slowly away from
them.

Soon she was turned and her
sails unfurled. She gracefully made her way out of the harbor to a
place around two miles offshore where she was anchored. Only the
vampires aboard noticed how Angus skillfully anchored Elsie so that
the canopy cast a shadow over the seats in front. The sails were
furled then and Armando began to play his wedding tune. Ian came
out and assisted the two ladies up the ladder of the forecastle to
the main deck. Aimee came out too, in the same gown that she wore
when she performed in Spain. The two brides to be had new gowns
sent from Paris by Caryn. Celeste had collaborated with Caryn about
it, suspecting that Liri would need a wedding dress. Aimee preceded
Ian and the two brides with a basket of rose petals that she
scattered as they walked. Ian walked the two of them down the
aisle. Two little girls from
Angel’s
Care
orphanage followed to keep the bridal
trains from dragging on the deck

Ian walked the two women to the
staircase smiling broadly. He turned to Celeste and kissed both of
her hands, “You’ve come a long way from where I found you, lassie.
Who knew that something that started so bad could end so well?
Congratulations and welcome to our family.” And then he turned to
Liri and kissed both of her hands. “Liri, little did I know that
you’d be joining our family when we met. Congratulations and
welcome.” To both of them he said “I am so happy this blessed day.
May God bless you, your husbands, and your marriage forever more.”
Then he assisted them up to the aft deck where Angus, Mustafa, and
Louis waited, smiling broadly. Ian scooped up little Aimee and
herded the other two little girls to Marie. Then he went to his
seat where he kissed and cuddled Aimee as he sat next to
Alandra.

Whispering to Aimee, he said “I’m so
pleased with you. You’ve done very well this whole time. Tonight
you’ll be in your own room at the chateau because I’ve given our
home for the love birds to stay in. Alandra and I will stay at the
chateau also.”

Louis and Celeste’s vows
were spoken first, and then Mustafa and Liridona’s vows were next.
Angus pronounced them man and wife and presented them to the guests
then after they kissed. The crew gave three cheers for the couple,
and the chairs were moved to the foredeck. Angus called out to
weigh anchor and unfurl sails.
Elsie’s
Cloud
made her way back into the harbor and
to the waiting longboats to be towed back into the twin repair
docks. Armando played the violin as all of the couples aboard
danced until the ship was ready to let the passengers off. Ian put
Aimee on his shoulders while he danced with Alandra, and then with
Celeste and with Liri.

Within a half hour of getting to the
repair docks, the guests were on their way to the chateau. The crew
rowed and towed Elsie back out to her anchorage in the harbor as
the carriages made their way toward the chateau. Marie had arranged
to hire a violinist, cellist, pianist, and flute player for music.
They were waiting in their carriage and departed with all of the
guests. It was a long caravan that made its way to the Chateau that
afternoon.

The grand dining hall was full of
guests. Henri gave thanks to God for the food and for the wedding
that day. The meal was served on Marie’s best dinnerware, which was
saying something. It was spectacular and every dish delicious. Many
commented that they had never experienced finer food in their
lives. Everything went smoothly under Marie’s experienced and
watchful eye and her staff was superb in their service of the
guests. The quartet played Bach, Vivaldi, Handel and other
contemporaries as the guests dined. After many toasts were made,
the guests finally retired to the spacious parlor while the staff
cleared the table and prepared the ballroom. Gifts were presented
to the two couples by everyone and it took well over an hour for
everyone to see everything.

The guests all filed into the
ballroom. Ian came to Louis and Mustafa. “I have one more gift for
you two.” he said as he handed Louis a key. “This is to our home.
All of us will stay here. You four stay there as long as you like.
The pantry is full.”

The two thanked him. Then he said
“I’ll make a diversion of some kind so the four of you can slip
away, and there will be a carriage ready with no driver. It will be
near the front door.” The three then embraced and entered the
ballroom.

Soon the two newlyweds were dancing
the first dance as the guests stood by. In a bit, Henri and Marie
joined in to the minuet followed by Ian and Alandra. Soon the other
couples had joined in.

The evening progressed smoothly and
Ian got to dance with his mother and his aunt for the first time in
a very long time. He noticed that his mother seemed to look
narrowly at him from time to time. It puzzled him and he finally
made mention of it to Alandra. “Ian, I think that your mother has
noticed that you don’t age. Mothers have a really sharp and
discerning eye for such things.”

“
I don’t know that I can do
much about that.”

“
No, you can’t. Did I tell
you that I heard her mention it when we were in Scotland that last
time?” About then the quartet changed tempo for a different,
livelier tune. Ian scooped up Aimee and put her on his shoulders as
he danced with Alandra. Since the two little girls from the
orphanage were at the celebration, Ian also took them one at a time
and put them on his shoulders while he danced too. Soon Henri, Li,
and Andre were doing the same and the two little girls were
included in much of the dancing.

The musicians took a short break to
eat a bit and drink, so Marie had stepped out for a moment. One of
the little girls came to Aimee and whispered in her ear that she
needed to use the necessary room. Aimee knew that there was a
chamber pot beyond the pantry at the back of the house. So rather
than take the little girl all the way upstairs she took her back
through the kitchen.

There was a copper kettle with water
boiling on one of the three large wood-burning stoves. Four of the
servants were still on duty in there at the time. Aimee pointed to
the door that went to where the chamber pot and wash basin were and
decided to wait on the little girl who would have to walk past the
stove to get there. As fate would have it, a mouse suddenly darted
from under a pie safe and passed beneath one of the cooks. She saw
it from the corner of her eyes as it darted under her and flinched,
lunging back away from it. She struck the copper kettle and it
started to tip and spill just as the little girl walked past
it.

The Minister of the King’s Gendarmerie
sat at the desk in his study at his spacious home. He reflected on
his life beginning so many years ago when that older man had
approached him. He’d been a young inspector in Versailles then. The
man had introduced himself as a Monsieur Lefevre. He had made a
proposal that had changed the young inspector’s life by promising
that he’d be promoted regularly in exchange for favors now and
then. True to his word, Lefevre had never been asked him to do
anything seditious, treasonous or fraudulent. It seemed that all
that the Lefevre’s wanted was information for the most part, with
occasional recommendations to another department of government
about some obscure thing or other. He had gladly given them
everything that they’d ever wanted and it had been a good and
lucrative arrangement.

As promised not only had the
promotions been made regularly, but after he achieved a level of
assistant deputy to Chief of King’s Gendarmerie, he had received
proof of a handsome bank account in his name in the Swiss
Confederation at a fairly new bank in those days named Banque de
Fellman. It grew over the years since then. He had never touched
the funds but had no doubt that they would be there when he retired
from public service. It was a handsome addition to his service
pension and would enable him and his wife to live comfortably in
their old age as well as to help his children and grandchildren. He
contemplated retirement and wondered if they should move to
Lausanne. That the Lefevre’s still had powerful connections he had
no doubt. He had been guided by them in bringing along that young
Claude Rousseau. There was little doubt now that Rousseau would
succeed him when he retired; being that he was not yet forty years
old and was second in command in the King’s Gendarmerie in
Paris.

The Lefevre’s had sent a young man to
him when he was an assistant deputy. This man had carried a letter
with a peculiar symbol on it which the minister recognized very
well, and which was duplicated in the wax seal. The letter
requested that the man be given the job of being the carriage
driver for the newly appointed assistant deputy. He had complied of
course, never dreaming of refusing a request from a Lefevre. The
man had been a good one and had driven the minister to his job
daily for decades. He had been given that job in turn by the
minister before him. They’d become friends over the years and now
the current Minister had an inkling about the appointment what with
the similarity of the appointment he’d been asked to make for
Rousseau regarding his new driver. He puzzled about it somewhat,
but in the end, he didn’t care.

Little did the Minister know that the
man reported regularly on the destination of the Minister and who
was with him and anything he might hear. He had no idea that his
driver was once an orphan who was raised in an orphanage in Nantes.
It was sponsored and supported back in those days by the Lefevre
family. The driver had a man who came around once a month and took
the reports from the driver and from the drivers of others and took
them to what was then called Banque de Lefevre. From there they
were to be taken somewhere via bank courier. Later on the bank
became owned by the Leveque family and changed its name. Today it
was the Banque de Lafayette.

The couriers at Banque de Lafayette
were a mixed lot. Some were older and had started when the bank was
Lefevre owned and some had come along later when it was owned by
the Leveque family. All were from orphanages around France, but
each thought that he might be the only such one. All knew that they
couldn’t reveal their origin or they would lose their jobs and
homes. They had good jobs and wished to keep them for their
families sakes. They lived rent-free on farms owned by either the
Lefevre, Leveque, or Lafayette families and were scattered around
France. Some lived near Paris. Some lived near Lyon or Dijon while
others lived near Nantes, Marseille, Versailles, or Strasbourg.
Their wives were domestic staff at various fine homes and were well
paid for that level of French society. Their children had all
learned to read, write, and to do mathematics courtesy of their
employers.

Not a single one of them ever would
have guessed that their employers over all of the decades were the
same two people who were not even human themselves.

***

Aimee saw that the kettle was tipping
over onto the little girl. At vampire speed she lunged and with
both arms outstretched, she pushed the little girl to safety just
as the boiling water cascaded down onto her own arms, barely
missing her face. She screamed so loud that the guests heard it.
Ian recognized the sound and was the first one into the
kitchen.

Little Aimee ran to him crying. He
assessed the situation in less than the blink of an eye and lunged
out the back door with Aimee while shouting “Bring me all of the
honey you can find and two clean towels!” as he raced at vampire
speed for the livestock watering trough. He plunged her arms into
the water and held them there as she cried. “Aimee, remember when I
cut you and how fast you healed?

“
Y…y…yes.”

“
That’s what is happening
right now. The worst is already over. I came out here to keep the
humans from seeing that. Quickly now, before the others get here,
let me help you out of that dress.” At vampire speed he assisted
her out of it without damaging it at all and laid it aside. She now
was clad only in her undergarments, shoes and white hosiery. He put
her arms back into the water. Marie and Henri were first to arrive
and had towels and honey. Ian pulled her away from the water and
even though it was dark their vampire vision confirmed that the
blistered skin was already healed. Ian felt her arms and then said
“See, little one. You’re healed. We only have to fool the humans
now.” He smeared some honey on each of her arms and quickly ripped
the towels into long strips to bandage both of them. Marie handed
him some seamstress pins and he secured the bandages.

“
You’ll have to act as if
your arms hurt now for a short time, Aimee. We’ll have to keep them
covered until then. No swimming either. You’ll stay close to Marie
or me tomorrow.”

By then some of the guests carrying
oil lamps had found their way to the watering trough, including
Angus, Elsie, Alandra, and Mary. Marie explained what happened as
Ian carried her to the chateau then and up to her room. Alandra,
Sophia, and Marie followed. After they were in Aimee’s room Ian
said “You’ll have to remember now to act as if you hurt. What
happened in there?”