Forever Young The Beginning (76 page)

Alyssa definitely noticed and later
when Ian was dancing a minuet with her, she thanked him. “I saw
what you did in asking mine and Caryn’s workers to dance, Ian. I’m
grateful that you thought of them. I just didn’t consider that when
I invited them all here. Thank you again.”

“
Please Alyssa. No thanks
are necessary. I just want this to be a perfect night for you. I’m
truly enjoying myself tonight. Have you noticed little Aimee? It
seems she has stolen the heart of Damien’s little
brother.”

“
It does that, Ian. She is
just a perfect little lady and what a vivacious personality! She
has such poise too, more than most adults. I saw her dancing. What
theater! I am so very impressed by her.”

“
It may be that when the
musicians tire, some of us chateau dancers can play some livelier
music. That will serve as a distraction so that you and Damien may
slip away unseen” he said with a wink as he allowed his eyes to
glow ever so slightly.

Alyssa threw back her head laughing
and said “I already arranged for a horse and carriage to be at the
kitchen door. I only needed a plan for us to get away. What a
delicious idea! Leave it to you to have a perfect plan!”

“
Hah! No doubt Damien knows
nothing about this. I wonder if he knows what he’s gotten himself
into marrying you?” he said jokingly.

Alyssa smiled then and said “I’m
grateful to you. Don’t think that I’ll ever forget that I wouldn’t
be alive to see this night but for you, mon cheri.”

“
Alyssa, other than that one
time, I’ve never failed to be happy when with you. May you always
be this happy.”

Later the musicians did take a break.
Ian approached the violinist and asked if he could borrow his
violin. He handed the man a leather pouch with enough gold in it to
buy the instruments ten times over. “I forfeit this if we so much
as scratch one of your instruments, gentlemen. If not, you may
still keep ten Francs. May we?”

The man and his fellow musicians
agreed. Ian sent Mustafa and Louis for some accessories and played
some lively favorites familiar to people of France.

Soon they returned with the items Ian
asked them to bring and Ian had his rhythm section. Mustafa and
Louis struck up the BOOM-ticky rhythm and he launched into a medley
of lively Gaelic music. The effect was to galvanize the guests who
had been standing on the sidelines and maybe half of them joined in
and filled the floor. Many were taken by the heart-pounding beat of
the music.

In some twenty minutes they
finished and turned the instruments back to the musicians and again
danced to whatever tunes they would play. Ian saw that Alyssa and
Damien were nowhere to be seen. He thought
may God keep you both, Alyssa.

The host and hostess came to the four
and thanked them for their part in making the celebration such a
success. Ian liked the couple and congratulated them on the
marriage of their son. He presented a pair of the sun glasses for
each of them and a pair for the newlyweds as well. The group
departed in three carriages and all agreed that it was a really
fun-filled night. Aimee was riding with Ian, Alandra, Marie, and
Henri. They praised her for her perfect performance before she fell
asleep on the way back to the hotel.

***

The next day saw them departing for
the coast in three carriages. In the carriage ride to Calais, Ian
had begun to review the techniques of Chi Na with Aimee. Alandra
was most interested in this as an effective defense for a woman
against a stronger assailant. She followed the moves and practiced
them with Aimee as the miles wore on in the carriage. There was
little to do on the ride anyway so they whiled away the hours
learning the various hand techniques and practicing them, along
with various pressure points. After some two hours, Aimee asked him
how to defend herself from a vampire.

“
Sweetheart, you can’t
defend yourself against a mature vampire. You should hide yourself
or pretend to be human. That’s your only defense against one of
us.”

The passage across the channel was
uneventful as it was quite smooth that morning. It was quite
overcast too, so everyone left their hats off and strolled around
the deck. They had three hours before the packet ship departed for
London so they rented three carriages and drove to a vantage point
atop the cliffs where they could just make out France in the
distance. The view was spectacular, and it was far windier there
than at sea level. They caught the packet ship then and sailed
south for London.

They arrived late the next day and
went to a fine hotel and booked a suite of rooms all on the same
floor.

Aimee was taught how to fidget as a
part of her training to appear human to vampires, and was given a
short review on things she had been taught about self-defense since
they were in a foreign country.

Ian drew to the end of his counseling
saying “Here is another thing to remember. If you’re ever alone and
around people you don’t know, pretend to know only one
language.”

“
Why?”

“
If you know the language
they’re speaking, pretend that you don’t know it. Ask them a
question in another language. That way they’ll talk openly in your
presence and you’ll know what they don’t want you to know. That is
very important.”

“
I’ll remember.”

Kissing her forehead he said “I know
you will. You may never need it, but it’s good for both of you to
know. That’s enough of this for now. Come sit with us and we’ll
read together until your bedtime.

In a seedy part of London a
young tavern wench finally finished her evening. It had been the
usual night of good-natured but bawdy behavior by the usual crowd
of ship builders, fitters, riggers, fishermen, seamen, and
millwrights. Jennifer Stewart was a favorite at the
Hungry Eye Tavern
. She
was hard-working and had a good sense of humor, knowing how to
charm an obnoxious drunkard so as not to offend him and lose a tip.
Knowing every regular by name she would always greet them and bring
them their favorite drink or food without them waiting to place an
order.

Jennifer was a very pretty girl of
twenty one years, with wavy light sandy-colored hair that had
natural blonde highlights near her forehead. She had bright blue
eyes and a pert little nose that was very slightly turned up at its
tip. A very few tiny freckles might appear on either side of it if
she was in sunlight a lot. Her mouth had the barest hint of a pout
unless she was smiling, which was most often the case. She was very
clean and fastidious in her appearance but had no nice clothing of
any kind save for one dress which she wore only to church. The
owner of the place rated her as his very best tavern wench. He let
her live rent-free above a small general repair shop which he owned
that was around a quarter mile west of the tavern. She’d readily
agreed, being grateful to have a place so close to her
work.

The owner liked her and wanted to keep
her, so he didn’t care that the upstairs part of his repair shop
wasn’t bringing in any income. The place had been abysmal when he’d
given her the key, but it afforded a view of the docks and the
Thames River. It had a small wood-burning stove and she had made
the place cozy by salvaging all manner of articles daily,
scavenging with a borrowed cart in better neighborhoods for what
would be useful when she wasn’t at work. They would be added to the
odd collection of worn out furniture that was there already. She’d
even insulated it and made it wind proof and had taken the time to
wash the one window she had so that it was always clean.

A good customer by the name of Thomas
Lawrence had come over to make the door more secure. He was a kind
middle-aged man who she liked better than any of her customers. A
few times he’d returned with odds and ends for her to use and to
help her to insulate it with old blankets or anything else which
would work. She had worked tirelessly to make it as clean and
cheery as it could be, and never invited anyone to it other than
Tom. He often came over to walk her to the little church she
attended not far from the waterfront area and had often walked her
home after the tavern closed.

She had ample opportunities to take up
with any number of young men, but always politely refused to do so.
Tom thought of her as a daughter and would have taken her in if he
thought that she needed a place. He was the closest thing that
Jennifer had to family in the whole world. She had been an orphan
and had come through the world in a hard way, but her natural
cheerfulness and can-do spirit had always carried her through the
hardest times of her life. She had determined early on not to go
into a life of prostitution and resolved to work hard and to be the
best at whatever honest living she could eke out for
herself.

This evening had been
troublesome for her. There had been two sinister looking characters
coming to the place every night that week. There was something
about them that Jennifer didn’t like. They always tipped her well
and never said a thing that was out of line, which was a lot more
than could be said about some of the customers of the
Hungry Eye
. Nonetheless,
there was something unsettling about them. One was bald and had a
tattoo of a mermaid on his forearm. The other had regular features,
dark eyes, and dark hair pulled to the back and gathered there, a
style quite commonly seen. It was his eyes and the way he could sit
so still in spite of what was going on around him that was
unnatural.

She was still mindful of the time she
had seen him sitting so very still and gazing off across the smoky
room toward the dart board. She was very near to his table at the
time. Someone at an adjacent table had spilled his drink and pushed
himself back from the table to avoid it running in his lap. He had
bumped her so that she had dropped her tray and the tankard of ale
that was on it. She had happened to be looking down at the strange
man when that happened. Even though he was looking away across the
room his hand shot out and caught the tray. It happened so fast
that she couldn’t even see his hand move. Only then did he turn his
gaze away from the dart board across the room and look at her. He
raised the tray so that she could take it back without a word but
he did smile although his smile didn’t seem to include his eyes.
His companion sat there with no expression whatsoever on his face.
She thanked the strange man, but he said nothing, only watching her
as she went on to the next table. She’d never forgotten the
incident and had pointed the man and his companion out to Tom
afterward.

Her feet were hurting as they always
did after her work night ended. Tom had just come in so they set
out for her home. He’d recently gotten a job doing some extensive
repairs to a carriage house in a fashionable part of London so he
hadn’t come as often recently. His new employer owned a bank or
brokerage or some such thing.

“
Jennifer, I have enough
room at my place for you to stay there too. I wouldn’t want rent
and you’d have all of the privacy you want. It wouldn’t be a bother
for me and I wouldn’t trouble you at all.”

“
Oh Tom, thank you for the
offer. But I pay no rent and I’m so close to my work. I’ve worked
hard to make my room as nice as I can and thanks to you, it’s
pretty nice compared to other places I’ve lived. I’ll stay at my
place, thank you. If you need to, you can stay there too, or if you
get sick and need someone you can stay there with me.”

“
Jennifer, you’re a stubborn
and independent one. I worry about you in this place and I mean
that. I worry all of the time.”

“
That’s sweet of you, but I
can manage. Really I can. Did you notice that those same two men
were there tonight again?”

“
I saw them when I came in.
They look off somehow, but I can’t put my finger on what it is
about them.”

They were about three-quarters of the
way to her home when she realized that they were being followed.
She turned and could see a shadowy figure behind them some sixty
feet away walking the same direction. They approached a dim light
at a corner when suddenly she heard Tom exhale violently and she
was snatched off of her feet, her arms pinned to her sides as if in
steel bands. She knew that Tom had been knocked down and was aware
of being carried at an unbelievable rate of speed. Screaming as
loud as she could, she was immediately thrown down and in an
instant was gagged and snatched up and carried onward at the same
unbelievable rate of speed.

The wind roared in her ears. They
darted around corners at a mind-numbing rate and rocketed along so
that every object nearby was a blur. Just as she thought it could
get no more unbelievable, she was flying through the air in a
mighty leap, landing on a roof two stories above the ground and was
whisked through a window into a gloomy building. There she was
taken down some stairs in one leap and then down some more in
another leap and then down a third flight of stairs, ending in a
cellar with several oil lamps burning. She was taken to a cell and
stood on her feet. When the gag was removed she was able to make
out the features of her captor. He was the man who had caught the
tray when she had dropped it. She said “You! I know you. You’re the
man who caught my tray when I dropped it.”