Forever Young The Beginning (84 page)

It was decided that since they were
now a group of fifteen counting Thomas and his boy, there were too
many to take to Edinburg with any hope of housing all of them. Ian
and Alandra with Marie and Henri would go to Scotland to visit the
McClouds while the rest of the group would stay at the summer home
of Robert and Margaret. Margaret would be teaching Jennifer as well
as Mustafa and Louis several languages. They would be practicing
the adjusting of their hearing and of their heart rate. Louis and
Mustafa would be training both Margaret and Robert and any Adepts
he wanted to include in swordsmanship and marksmanship. Li would
teach fundamentals of hand-to-hand combat.

Jennifer knew that she’d be a
well-trained Adept, able to live or travel comfortably in Europe
before they sailed back to France. Other languages and musical
skills would follow. She was eager to begin her new life. Aimee had
wanted to go with Ian and Alandra to Spain, but she wanted to help
Jennifer assimilate too so she stayed with the group. They said
their goodbyes then one morning and departed in a four-horse
carriage courtesy of the Bank of Edwards and Milliken.

Miles Edwards stood in the grand foyer
of his missing brother’s house. The Constables had been thorough at
his insistence, but had found nothing missing or any evidence of
foul play. All that anyone knew was that no one had seen Clifford
Edwards or his manservant and driver for several days. His junior
partner at the bank had no idea of his whereabouts and could offer
no information beyond that he had last seen him at the firm itself,
in London the previous week.

Robert Milliken had confirmed that he
had spent the entire past week with friends from France at an
estate in northeast London or at his summer home. The Edwards home
was untouched as was its guest house and the servant’s quarters
above the carriage house. In fact the broken window pane in the
door had been repaired perfectly by Thomas.

To the constables, it was a mystery,
and Miles Edwards didn’t like it one bit. He realized that he would
inherit his brother’s estate and his share of the bank of Edwards
& Milliken, but he was disturbed by his brother’s sudden
disappearance nonetheless. Edwards had only been an Adept vampire
for some three weeks, and had only recently told his older
brother.

They were both large men, but his
older brother had been paunchy and flabby whereas Miles was
muscular and fit. He wondered if there was any connection between
his telling his brother that he now was a vampire, and his
disappearance. If so, why did the manservant disappear too? He was
hesitant even to tell Arnaud Moreau, the one who had brought him
over. What if Moreau was the one who had done it? After all, before
he brought him over, Moreau had asked him a lot of questions about
his older brother. He could go to no one with his suspicions. Who
could he accuse?

Reaching into his pocket he
felt a grisly item that he had found in the guest house and had
taken before going to the constables. It was a piece of an ear and
he suspected that it had been bitten from his brother’s ear. The
bite looked small, childlike in size. He well knew his brother’s
penchant for little girls and accepted it. He didn’t care either
way really as long as he wasn’t harmed or as long as he profited
personally. He preferred to forcibly rape teenaged or young adult
women himself, but allowed that his brother had been… different.
Wondering about an abducted child being able to bite a piece out of
his brother’s ear, he thought
now this is
a riddle needing to be solved!
He resolved
to investigate this matter further. With his inheritance ensured,
he eventually would have no shortage of money to spread around to
get answers about who was behind this.

He was still mystified about why his
desire for women had left him. His newfound strength and other
abilities were welcome to be sure. Thinking that it was just a
setback that would resolve itself, he had foregone mentioning it to
Moreau. But now he wondered if his desire for women might not
return at all. He was very distressed about that and resolved that
he’d ask Moreau about it whenever he saw him again. They were close
in size and strength, so he was no longer cowed by Moreau since his
imprinting had been completed. He would press for an answer to his
impotency. What he didn’t know was that Moreau had deliberately
allowed his libido to die, not wanting a vampire with his unbridled
lust causing trouble while Moreau’s investigation into his own
brother’s death was ongoing.

Edwards’ thoughts turned again to the
riddle of the piece of human ear. It occurred to him then that he
might want to investigate his brother’s junior partner, Robert
Milliken. He would start by learning what he could of the man, and
then he might look into his alibi and learn what he could about the
guests from France that he spent time with around the time of his
brother’s disappearance. There would be enough money spread around
to get answers.

***

At Edinburg the four of them
received a warm welcome. Angus was at the shipyard attending to
some maintenance on Elsie. He was pleasantly surprised to see the
foursome that afternoon when he arrived home. They had traveled by
coach but without a driver so that they could run and hunt along
the way. Alandra got to do a fair bit of driving. During the time
they were at Edinburg, Angus and the other officers of the crew
of
Elsie’s Cloud
were all made aware of the investments being held in London in
their names. They were all overwhelmed with gratitude and were
greatly amused at the circumstances behind the sudden good fortune
of Crowe & Barnard Foundry. Ian had shared the story with
Alandra while they were traveling and she could hardly stop
laughing. They were all thoroughly enjoying themselves after the
strain of the kidnapping and the rigorous regimen of the imprinting
that they had to oversee after that.

They stayed at Edinburg two weeks
before reluctantly saying their goodbyes. Sailing to Dover
together, the two couples parted company there. Ian and Alandra
said that they intended to be at the chateau by early autumn before
going to Lausanne for the winter. Henri and Marie sailed for
Calais, France that same afternoon. The following morning, Ian and
Alandra sailed for London. Three days later they sailed for Lisbon,
Portugal.

***

Robert and Margaret sat in their study
one evening. Robert said “I have an observation to share with you.
I had to kill both Clifford Edwards and his driver you
know.”

“
Yes. They deserved to
die.”

“
Yes. Clifford told me some
things about Aimee that were quite disturbing. I don’t think he was
lying either. Margaret, I think that Aimee may be a
vampire.”

There was only the sound of a
grandfather clock in the foyer keeping time then for a brief
interval, and then Margaret said “My! That’s quite an observation!
How sure are you about that? I saw her knock over a glass of milk
at the dinner table.”

“
I remember that but like I
said, I don’t think the man was lying. He didn’t know that I was
about to kill him. He thought he’d been rescued.”

“
Surely you don’t intend
doing anything about this!”

“
Oh no! You saw their
reaction at her being kidnapped. It wasn’t fear, but love and
concern for her that drove them all. There’s no way that I’d ever
do anything to make that family an enemy! Besides, if she is one,
she damned sure can hide it well! I can honestly say that I’d never
have suspected. That bit of clumsiness at the dinner table was the
master’s stroke. They have trained her superbly!”

“
Do you think they actually
brought her over; her, a six-year old child?”

“
No. Likely they rescued her
from one of the raids they’ve done on covens over there. Maybe even
the most recent one involving what, thirteen vampires? Maybe one of
the rogue vampires had done that and they took pity on Aimee and
trained her?”

“
Well if they did, they’ve
done a superb job and have proven to me that such a thing can be
done after all.” She sat then, thinking about all of what Robert
had revealed. Then she spoke “I think that we’d best never bring it
up to any one of them. Such a thing is best forgotten. I suspect
the whole clan would go to war over her. Imagine what a dangerous
mess that could be for one who tried to expose her and order her
death! There would be an unimaginable war between the Lafayettes
and whoever made that attempt. That would attract far more
attention to us than the mistake a child might make in public
somewhere.”

“
You’re right. I have no
intention of ever pursuing it. I like every single one of them and
I value them as friends. They’re a marvelous group. I’d never think
of turning them against us for such a thing.”

“
Good then. It’s best
forgotten. Besides that, I like all of them very much too. And
Aimee is a real sweetheart even if she is a child vampire. She’s a
little angel.”

“
You know, I was puzzled
that Clifford seemed to know what a vampire is. He never said the
word, but he was matter-of-fact about explaining what he saw to me.
I keep going back to that. It nags at me, like there is something I
don’t see here.”

Getting up and walking seductively
toward Robert, Margaret said “I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
You need to save your energy for more pressing needs.” She sat down
in his lap and began to kiss him softly at first, and then with
more urgency and passion, unbuttoning his shirt and sliding her
hand inside to gently rub his chest and stomach. He responded in
kind and shortly he sprang from the sofa with her still in his arms
and in two bounds was at the foot of the stairs, and in one more
bound they were upstairs rocketing towards their bedroom as
Margaret laughed giddily.

***

Henri and Marie rejoined the family at
Paris, staying at the new place leased in the name of Laforge. They
had both taken to wearing wigs when in public in France at times.
Today was one of those times being that they were staying at the
Laforge suites. They’d already begun to reduce their appearance in
public anywhere as the Lafayettes in preparation for the
generational move. Henri was giving that some thought lately,
thinking about doing it earlier because of the anticipated birth of
the two babies the following spring.

Celeste had been asked to sing and
they wanted Aimee to accompany her on the violin so the family all
agreed, providing that Aimee didn’t display all of her talent on
stage. She was instructed to play simply and not with all of the
technique at her command, but she was allowed to not make any
errors. The family had no doubt that vampires other than themselves
might be there that night. The two were warmly received and cries
of ‘Viva La Nightingale’ and ‘Viva Aimee’ were heard
afterward.

Celeste’s Aunt Caryn begged for them
to allow Aimee to model for her while they were there, so that was
arranged. Little Aimee performed flawlessly and was allowed to not
fake fidgeting for the occasion. She rose to the occasion, showing
off for her new big sister, Jennifer.

When Caryn had been introduced to both
Jennifer, Thomas, and his son, she had likened the fresh bubbly
upbeat personality of Jennifer to that of Alyssa. But inexplicably
she was more impressed with the kind eyes and the warm gentle smile
of Thomas. She spoke then to Henri almost in passing about an
equipment malfunction at her facility. Thomas spoke up then and
asked if he could look at it. While the others were out and about,
he repaired and lubricated it. He said no more about it, but Caryn
soon saw that it was working and sought him out to thank
him.

She offered him a job keeping
everything running at the facility and offered to let him and his
son live in the back of the loft which was presently only half
full, being used for storage of fabrics, thread, and sundries
associated with clothing. He accepted the job, being as he’d taken
an instant liking to her, and besides that he thought that she was
most attractive.

The rest of the family departed
without incident for the Chateau, excepting for Louis who had to go
to Luxembourg for banking business. Mustafa was told that he’d be
traveling to Italy before winter on banking business, so his stay
at the chateau would be brief.

Ian and Alandra had caught
up on all necessary business and had visited with Alandra’s parents
for two weeks as well. They left Tom and Celita in charge of
Barcelona House
again and
sailed for Marseille, where they spent a day and night with Lorn
and Corinne at their
Red Dolphin
Tavern
. The remodeling was done and the
place was doing a brisk business. The area around it was not quite
as seedy now thanks to several property purchases by the
Lafayettes, unknown to Lorn and Corinne. They were very happy and
had two happy children. The next day Ian and Alandra departed for
the chateau, arriving in early evening.

They were just in time for music and
dancing, so after warm greetings had been exchanged they all had an
enjoyable evening.

Later Henri announced that they were
going to have a family council, so they all sat and listened to
what he had to say. Aimee came and sat between Ian and Alandra and
held one of their hands in each of hers.