Forever Young The Beginning (90 page)

“
Could that happen…the Crown
lose control of the colonies? Surely not!”

“
Ask me that in six months.
By your leave, I’ll be on my way to Scotland.”

“
Yes. Send Thomas to me and
we’ll handle everything.”

“
Can you get me a
microscope?”

“
I have a friend at Oxford
who can do that. I’ll have it and that herd of what, twelve goats
for you when you return? Why do you need it?”

Ian said with a smile “Why Robert,
didn’t you know that I study blood samples as a special favor for a
friend at the London Royal Academy of Science? I keep a detailed
journal about the makeup of blood in animals confined at
sea?”

“
Oho! That is a good one
indeed. No wonder Henri picked you!”

“
Please get me a list of
shippers who can bring correspondence to you. I want to keep
changing the ones we use to help avoid any foul play by agents of
the crown if things turn sour for them over there. It would be wise
to keep our communications private in any event to keep our
competitors in the dark too. I may even send duplicate messages if
it is something vital to insure that you stay informed. I rely on
you to keep Henri informed.”

“
Easily done. Henri will be
kept up to date on everything. There are fourteen shippers who I
backed to start up over there. They will all be happy to help us
this way. That is a good idea too, and I’ll furnish you with a list
of their names and their usual ports of call.”

The two stood up then, smiled, shook
hands and embraced each other. Ian said “Tell Margaret that I said
hello. Be seeing you soon.” He turned and walked out of the
door.

The creature saw familiar landmarks as
it ran. After feeding from a rabbit that it caught effortlessly, it
continued southward and followed the river more frequently. It
turned eastward then for miles, avoiding a large city that looked
familiar. It could see the blue Mediterranean Sea in the distance
to the south from some of the hilltops as it crossed them. As it
came to a road that it knew its anxiety increased with that
knowledge. Memories were returning bit by bit as it ran. They were
like pieces of a puzzle. It hungered for them to all return, but
they returned bit by bit steadily, as a mosaic image being
assembled tile by tile.

It came to a driveway and turned in,
more than ever certain that this was the place as it ran the
distance to a large home. Slowing to a walk then it circled the
place warily. What if this was the wrong place? It sat in the shade
of a large tree then, contemplating the layout of the place. Some
things looked different. It suddenly had another piece of its
memory fall into place and rocketed away to the east for a mile and
stopped, looking at a smaller house of gray stone with a slate
roof. Circling this place warily, it crept to a window and peeked
in. Soon it was apparent that the place was empty. The thing looked
through all of the windows and began to feel as empty as the house
was. That was a new feeling and the thing wondered at it, not
liking it at all.

It ran back to the other larger place
and this time ran to the bushes all around the back yard that grew
in abundance. It stripped foliage and ate it, not knowing why but
knowing that it should do so. Then it ran up to the back door of
the house and peered in. Circling the place it saw no sign of life.
It could see covered furnishing inside, so it knew that it was like
the other smaller one, empty, but not abandoned. How did it know
that? It struggled to grasp that concept, but it felt so very much
alone. Not having felt that way the whole time it had been running
to get here, it hit the creature hard. Trying windows it soon had
found one on the second floor that was unlocked. It entered
silently and glided to the stairs, peering down. Before it ever
went down the stairs, it knew that it was alone in the large
house.

In the parlor, it saw several love
seats and sofas and easy chairs arranged around a huge fireplace.
Every piece was covered with a dust cloth. There was nothing not
covered that way in the whole house. It saw a covered Harpsichord
there and it knew what it was. Ripping the cover off it touched the
keyboard. The sound coming from it amplified the sense of
isolation, of being utterly alone. It pondered that because it had
never remembered feeling like that or even caring about that. The
sense of isolation grew in the silence of the place. It did not
like this sensation.

It went from room to room and peered
at everything it saw, carefully as if looking for something.
Passing a full-length mirror it stopped and peered at itself for a
long time. As it looked at its image it began to remember a bit
more. It decided to go and feed. Even though it was getting dark it
knew that it could feed easily. That part of it was functioning
perfectly. It was the other part that it sensed that was not
functioning yet. It saw no injury on the reflected image as it
contemplated the stolen kitchen knife and bowl tied up in a rag
that it had taken when it had killed the chickens. How did it know
to take the knife and the bowl? It knew how to use them. How did it
know to take the clothing it now was wearing? There was so much it
wanted to know then, but the pieces just kept coming along at a
measurable pace.

It went outside, leaping easily from
the second story window and landing lightly on the ground. It
walked to a building in the back that was a small two story house.
The door wasn’t locked so it went in. Something had happened here
and it was something good. It remembered now that other things that
were good had happened inside of the big house and at the other
smaller gray stone house too. It would stay here and wait for the
pieces to all come back. There were answers here, and it meant to
have them.

It stood and listened as a nightingale
sang. An owl answered and the creature hunted, soon making a kill
nearby in the woods. It rinsed its mouth with water that was in the
watering trough and again stripped foliage from the bushes, but ate
only the blossoms this time. It didn’t know why, but it knew that
it should do that. Later it went back into the big house. It
settled itself on one of the sofas and waited. It knew that more
answers would come. It was nothing if not patient.

***

Ian stood on a hilltop overlooking the
yet distant city of Edinburg. He had actually enjoyed the running,
coming here afoot. As he began to travel the last short distance to
his Aunt and Uncle’s home, he went over the words he would
use.

He stood at the door and knocked
before opening, as always. Aunt Mary saw him and shouted for
everyone to come quickly. He embraced and kissed everyone then. His
mother noticed that he had on rough clothing, not his usual travel
attire. As he embraced her, she knew that there was something wrong
with this visit. She knew her son and his ways. For the first time,
Stu was not being tossed up on Ian’s shoulder and carried about.
That was another indicator to her knowing eyes. After he had hugged
Angus, Mary, and Stu, Elsie said “Ian, you might just as well tell
us what’s wrong. Come in here with us now.” She led the group to
the parlor than and all sat down expectantly, looking at him
questioningly.”

“
Alandra is dead.” There
were several gasps, and both Mary and Elsie began to cry and to
shake their heads. Angus rose up and came over to kneel before Ian,
reaching his arms around him to embrace him. “Ah, Ian. Such sad
news.” he said in a voice husky with emotion. “Can you tell us now
what happened?”

“
She was killed by a runaway
cart in Barcelona. I traveled afoot and came here through London.
It’s been some two weeks now.”

Through her tears Elsie said “Oh son,
this is terrible news! You’ve not yet been to see the
others?”

“
No. They’re in Geneva. I
sent a letter to them from Paris.”

By now, Elsie sat on one side of him
as Angus sat on the other on the large sofa. They both held him.
Ian wept then leaning forward, his head in his hands. Elsie still
wept openly as did Aunt Mary. Angus began to weep as well. Stu was
silent in wide-eyed shock. Elsie said in a husky voice “Son, you
stay here as long as you like.”

“
I thought that I was done
with weeping. I wonder if I’ll ever be done with it now. I’ll only
be here a few days, Mother. I’m sailing for America soon. My ship
is being made ready.”

“
America Ian?” The others
expressed surprise too.

“
Yes. We’ve long wanted to
start a bank over there. Everyone in my family is married or paired
to be married but me. I need the distraction and I’ve always wanted
to go there. It’s the right time for me.”

They all knew which family he referred
to. There was silence then, and Ian became aware of the wind
playing about the windows and gables of the McCloud
home.

He continued “I should tell you that
we plan to leave Europe someday. Our plan now is that we’ll
eventually all move to America. Europe is headed for more warfare
in our opinion. Our aim is to be gone before that happens. We think
that will be years away though. I plan to return when the banks are
established. Others will be sent to operate them.”

“
What about Aimee,
Ian?”

“
I thought of that, and I
know that she’d love to go. But she’s far better off with the
others. I have little idea what awaits me there. It wouldn’t be
fair to her.”

“
But son, you’ll be alone
over there.”

“
No mother. I’m taking one
like me to help. I’ve met him, and I think that you would all like
him. He’s my age, and is very reliable.” He didn’t add that he
would have gone alone otherwise. The visit was warm and loving, but
bittersweet at the same time.

***

On the day of his departure, there was
an air of sadness over the house. He came to them one by one
hugging and kissing each of them. Elsie wept softly as they
embraced, which caused Ian to weep as well. With a final goodbye,
he shrugged his rucksack on and departed into the gathering dusk.
Soon he was running south through the Southern Highlands towards
England. There was no moon, but he needed no moon to guide his
journey or light his path. There were only the sentinel stars in a
black sky and a lone dark figure running faster than the
wind.

Marie stood idly by a window in their
home in Geneva, watching Celeste and Louis walking together. Louis
was carrying their daughter. They were talking and smiling a bit as
they walked toward the house. Marie was glad to see anything
resembling happiness after the devastating news. There had been an
air of sadness and depression at the chalet since the news of
Alandra’s death. She wondered where Ian was now and had expected
him to come or at least to send a letter.

As they neared the veranda Louis said
“So you’ve decided on a name for our girl then?”

“
Yes. I want to call her
Cosette.”

Louis smiled then, and said “You know,
she has Cosette’s eyes.” Celeste smiled dreamily, a pleasant look
on her face. Suddenly she stopped in her tracks. Her big doe-eyes
went wide as her hands flew to her cheeks. Her mouth formed an ‘O’
as she gasped. She began to jump up and down with a big smile on
her face, and began to laugh. ‘Oh Louis come quickly, come quickly
now! Hurry Louis!” she said as she began to run toward the chalet.
“Hurry, hurry!” Their baby began to laugh too.

Marie peered intently at her as she
ran toward the house. “Henri, come here!” she called. “I’ve not
seen Celeste do this since she was a young girl! What has happened
to cause this?” The two ran to meet Celeste, calling out
“Everybody, come here now! Come here now! Hurry” as they both ran
toward the foyer.

She came breathlessly into the
oversized foyer, bursting through the door and laughing. “Oh
everyone come here! Come here!” She could not contain herself then
and threw her hands to her cheeks again and jumped up and down,
laughing and saying “Oh this is wonderful! This is wonderful! Come
here now everybody, hurry now, hurry now!” and she continued to
jump and laugh while holding her hands to her cheeks as everybody
gathered about her.

“
Cosette is alive! Praise
God, Cosette is alive! Oh my God she is alive, and she’s at the
chateau now! She’s there waiting for us!”

***

Robert Milliken stood in the study of
his home and said “Ian, I think you remember James Barrows. James,
I know that you remember Ian McCloud.”

James said as he stepped forward
extending his right hand “Oh sir, indeed I do! I’m pleased to see
you again sir.”

Ian smiled broadly at James then and
said as he grasped his hand “I’m pleased to see you again as well
James, and to you I’m Ian.” He sized up the young man then. James
looked to be twenty years old, was about five foot ten inches tall
and weighed around one hundred seventy pounds. He was fit, athletic
looking with regular features, had curly sandy-colored hair, blue
eyes and a ready smile. Ian remembered liking him the first time
he’d met him.

“
I’m really looking forward
to this, Ian. I’ve wanted to see America from the time I first
heard of it.”

“
So have I. We should make a
good pair then, shouldn’t we? How long has it been since you
crossed over?”