Forever Young The Beginning (55 page)

“
I saw him the day he left.
He had some blood on the front of his clothing. He is always so
careful. I promised him I wouldn’t tell, but he didn’t mean to
spill the blood. Three years ago he gave me his blood and cured me
of the wasting disease. I’ve not even had a runny nose since then,
Madame. The doctors had told you that I’d die. Ian thought so too,
but he asked me if I would trust him to try to help me. As soon as
he gave me his blood, my body got warm all over inside. His blood
saved my life Madame.”

The color drained from
Anna’s face as she gasped in disbelief. She demanded to know
exactly what happened and Andre related it all to her. She got up
and paced the floor without comment.
M
y God! Has this boy been infected
now, and if so, with what? And what of that girl, Celeste? She says
that Ian saved her life. Was she infected too?

“
Andre, do you ever want to
eat different things now? Different things than you used to eat
before you were sick?”

Andre thought a bit then said “No
Madame. I eat the same things that I always did. But I do like
vegetables and fruit more than I did. Ian told me to eat more of
them to stay well. He also told me to be sure to get as much
sunshine as possible especially in wintertime.”

Anna stopped her pacing and
sat down, relieved.
What have I done? I
sent away a man who I loved and who loved me without even giving
him a chance to explain. He did try to tell me something that day
we made love for the first time, but I was insistent and cut him
off
she thought.

“
He sat on the ground and
begged me for a chance to explain and I wouldn’t hear
it.”

“
Excuse me,
Madame?”

“
Oh Andre, I am just
thinking out loud, that is all.”

“
Ian did tell me something
before he left, Madame.” She raised her head and fastened her eyes
on his. “What was it?”

“
I ran out the front door
and followed him down the driveway. He heard me coming and I think
he hoped it was you. He said that he’d failed you by trying to
protect you. He said that it was his fault. Then he said that both
Liri and I were always to help you in any way that we could and to
always love you and to be loyal to you for as long as we live,
Madame.”

Her face must have suddenly looked
stricken because Andre said “Oh Madame, what have I said? I am so
sorry Madame. I’m so sorry.”

She had begun to weep then and
couldn’t stop.

Alandra was a little curious as to why
Tom McBride had wanted to see her today. He’d been working
diligently at the Barcelona House since he had appeared there that
day and was happy to stay in the custodian’s quarters

Tom was working as always and she had
to find him. He stopped when she approached and took off his hat as
was his custom whether she or Celita approached him. Alandra had
learned to appreciate Tom McBride even more than she had in the
days that they were on the same ship. He spoke to her then saying
“Alandra, I’m going to ask Celita to marry me.”

“
Oh Tom, that’s wonderful.
The two of you are a wonderful couple. I’m happy for you both. Is
there something I can do for both of you?”

“
Yes.” Pointing up the
hillside to a home he said “I’d like to know who owns that small
empty house there behind Barcelona House and if it could be bought.
Will you help me?”

“
I’ll learn what I can about
it. Do you know when you’ll ask her?”

“
No. I don’t want to ask her
until I know that I have a place for us to live. I won’t try to
take her to Scotland. My family is all gone, and she’s so happy
here with you. I like Barcelona a lot and we’ll make our home here
for the rest of our lives.”

“
Tom that’s wonderful news.
I’ll keep your secret, and I’ll let you know about that
house.”

“
Could I ask you if you can
get this letter sent to Marseille?”

“
I’ll send it for you. Who
is it to go to?”

“
Lorn Barnes at the
Red Dolphin Inn
. He was a
shipmate of mine. He moved to Marseille and married a girl there. I
wanted to tell him my plans. It may be that he and his wife could
come to our wedding. I have no family.

“
I remember him. I’ll get it
sent tomorrow.”

***

Ian had just learned that the share of
that company in Prussia in Essen was worth nine times what it had
been when Willy Hoffmeister had bought it for him. It seemed that a
human named Krupp was a junior associate of Wilhelm. He had come up
with a small but ingenious metal stamping method that took a good
bit of the labor out of small arms manufacturing. Shortly after
that, governments began to learn that they could buy pistols and
muskets of high quality for a lot less than anyone else could
produce them. The Krupp Works couldn’t make enough it seemed. The
Turkish government wanted to place a large order and Romania had
already placed a large order along with Greece.

Henri advised that Ian sell and
directed him where to re-invest in yet another up and coming
ceramics industry in France. Ian was moderately wealthy now. As
long as there was trade, he had a steady commission income from the
fees generated by the draft honoring process. His financial future
looked bright.

It seemed that Celeste and
Louis were falling in love now. It was really hard to miss and he
was happy and content for them. He wistfully thought
Ah, Cosette, if only you were here to see
this!

One day he was in Marseille
on banking business and stopped at the
Red
Dolphin
to visit with Lorn and Corinne.
Lorn told Ian that Corinne was going to have another
baby.

Ian hugged both of them and said “By
Heaven Lorn, that’s wonderful news. I guess it’s a good thing that
the upstairs apartment in this place is a big one.”

“
That’s not all of the news,
Ian. Tom McBride is marrying Celita. He only wants to get a small
house for the two of them before he asks her. He’s been living in
Barcelona for some time now.”

“
Really?”

“
Yes. He wants to buy a
small house behind the
Barcelona
House
children’s hospital. He says that it
has a front porch with a red flowering vine of some sort and that
from it he can see the Mediterranean and the harbor. His letter
reads as if he’s pretty excited.”

“
I remember now that you
told me he’d gone there.”

“
He’d like for us to come
see him get married.”

“
Well, why don’t you do
that? You could delay re-opening this place a while longer. I’ll
buy passage for all three of you. Och! Or is it four of you now?”
he said laughing at his own joke.

“
Ian we couldn’t accept
that.”

“
Well, you’ll accept it
anyway and stay as long as you want. He took a small bag of gold
coins and tossed them on the table. “I insist. Tom has no one to be
there for him. I need to go to the Chateau now. Good
bye.”

At the chateau he told Marie that he
was going to Barcelona and was going to buy a house for Tom
McBride. He said he’d travel to Madrid while he was there to
present a draft-share proposal to a bank there. Henri had told him
he would like to partner with the Rodriguez bank. It was a new
bank, started by a wealthy merchant of Almeria. Henri had learned
of it while talking to a banker in Versailles.

He said good bye to the boys and to
Marie. She expected Henri home within a very few days and would
tell him that he’d gone to Spain. Celeste was now in Paris with her
aunt and would be there for a while. It seemed a perfect time to
go. He decided to buy passage on a ship bound for Barcelona and go
that way. It would be good to sail again.

The next day he embarked for
Barcelona on a Xebet with his own private cabin. The time passed
quickly and they were at Barcelona in a few days. Ian said his
goodbyes to the entire crew before disembarking. He asked for and
got directions to the
Barcelona
House
. Seeing where it was located, he
walked about a while until he found an inn only a mile from it. He
made arrangement to lease a horse drawn carriage for three days. It
was one with a top that folded down which was Ian’s favorite style.
Being a small one, it only needed one horse to draw it. He donned
his broad-brimmed hat, put on his sun glasses and gloves, and went
driving about Barcelona. The view of the Mediterranean from so many
places in the city appealed to him.

***

The
Supreme Council
was ready to
assemble. Heinrich Von Steuben gaveled the meeting to order. There
was no one else in the chamber but the nine judges. They had just
pushed the two large tables together and put the chairs around them
since no one was to testify. Von Steuben turned to Wilhelm and said
“I believe that you have news of the Vienna incidents,
Willy?”

“
Yes, I do. Henri brought
four others, and the situation was resolved quietly. The offenders
are dead and a plausible story has been planted with the newspaper
there. I am on record here in saying that never have I seen such a
skillful handling of a bad problem. The group from France performed
superbly and Ian McCloud is a tactical genius.”

“
There is more too. Aldric
Moreau was involved in this thing.” There were two audible gasps.
“Ian killed Moreau himself face to face.” There were some
murmurings at that. Hoffmeister turned to Henri and said “Once
again, my thanks to you, my esteemed colleague. You’ve helped avert
a bad situation. We were in real dire straits with so many assets
sent to the Balkans. I’m in your debt.”

Henri nodded with a slight smile “We
all need to remember that a problem for one of us may become a
problem for all of us at some time. However we did have one who
escaped.”

“
Do any of you know who it
was?”

“
No. Ian discovered the
outside cellar hatch thrown open when he went down to the cellar.
We never did find a clue.”

Von Steuben said “Too bad you missed
one, but with your numbers and the number that you knew were there,
I can see no way that you could have spared two more to go in
through the cellar hatchway. Likely whoever it was has been scared
enough to hesitate to start up such foolishness again, Henri. I’m
most impressed. To kill Moreau in combat…he was a formidable one. I
couldn’t tell you how many vampires he’s killed. Since we’ve not
had a Chief Inquisitor for around twelve years now is there any
chance that Ian would take the position?”

***

At last Ian came to
Barcelona House
and
quickly spied the white house sitting behind it on a small
hillside. He eventually found a road that led to it and worked his
way up there. There was a carriage there and a man was just coming
out of the house. Ian approached the man and introduced himself as
Adam MacRae. He inquired about the price and the man told him he
had an offer and how much it was. Ian offered him twenty percent
above what his offer was and the barrister told him he was sure
that the other party wouldn’t want to pay any more. He said he’d
come to the inn where Ian was staying either that evening or the
next morning with an answer.

Ian spent the evening driving all
around the city with the top down on the carriage. The more he
drove around, the more he liked the place. He returned his rented
horse and carriage to the stable for the evening and said he would
want it the next day. Walking to the Inn he went to his room and
changed into his running clothes. It was dark by then and he soon
he had removed his boots and was out running the hills in the
countryside a little distance away from the city. It was
exhilarating to be in a new area with different vegetation and
strange new sights behind every hill.

He bathed then, and afterward ran for
the sheer joy of it, coming to a large stone building that he took
to be a monastery. After scouting around the place, he easily
bounded over a wall to see what was on the other side. Some robes
were drying on a line near to a portico with a low roof. He leaped
down to look closer and thought that a hooded monk’s robe would be
an excellent way to walk about and observe without even being
noticed. Choosing one that was his size he took it. He left a flat
stone there and a gold doubloon lying on it that would have paid
for thirty of the robes. Stuffing the robe into his rucksack he
bounded up and out of the courtyard.

Soon he was back in the
city. There he put his boots on and just strolled the streets until
no one at all was out and about. Then he went back to his room and
penned a letter to Tom and Celita telling them that the house was
theirs as a wedding present from him. That way if he was able to
buy it that day, he could just have the message and key delivered
to the
Barcelona House
in care of the director. He then dressed in the best clothing
he had brought, eating a leisurely breakfast and idling around a
bit nearby. The barrister soon arrived with documents and a key.
His offer had been accepted so Ian accompanied him to the
courthouse in his carriage and signed the deed as an agent acting
on behalf of Tom McBride and the house was officially
sold.