Forever Young The Beginning (59 page)

It was nearly dawn. Birds had begun to
sing in the gray light. A cock crowed somewhere. Ian and Alandra
lay on his cloak with it wrapped around her. She lay with her head
pillowed on his chest, fast asleep.

They had talked until late into the
night after both of them had vented their grief. She had shared her
grief at the things she had experienced after they were separated
at sea. He lay with her head on his chest and stroked her hair
gently, loving the rising and falling rhythm of her breathing. Her
hair gave off an intoxicating scent and the feel of her heartbeat
was a constant lovely reminder of how near she was. Finally he woke
her gently by kissing her forehead, then her nose then her ear and
nuzzling her neck. She stirred and stretched and then clung to him
tightly, snuggling closer.

“
Alandra; we’d best get you
into the house and into your bed before your parents or the staff
sees us. I can come to the door in maybe three hours and pretend
that I just got here.”

“
Mmmmm; if the King himself
stood here I would send him away.” She said as she snuggled
closer.

“
Come Lass, we must be up
and about. There is a wedding to prepare for.” He gently laid her
aside, stood and stooped, slowly picking her up as if she weighed
nothing. Carrying her to the house he set her on her feet at the
door. Opening the door she simply took his hand and pulled him into
the kitchen. She led him through the dining hall into the spacious
parlor and to a large sofa and said “Please sit here and wait.”
Standing close to him she pulled his head down and gave him a soft
kiss. His head swam a bit as he sat down, even as she ran quickly
to her room. It seemed like only minutes when she returned. Her
hair was brushed and in a ponytail and she was wearing tan colored
pantaloons, boots and a loose white top with a high collar and bell
sleeves. She sat down with him and leaned over onto his shoulder,
while twining her fingers in his. Soon her mother came through on
her way to the kitchen.

“
Good morning Mama. We have
company. Forgive me, but I have asked him to come in. I believe
that you and Papa should meet the man I love.”

***

The waves parted
rhythmically for
Elsie’s Cloud
as she passed through the Strait of Gibraltar.
Angus McCloud looked aloft and saw the Scottish Red Ensign next to
the Union Jack and remembered that he had gotten out his Scottish
registry papers and had hidden the Dutch ones away with the Dutch
flag. He still had the letter from the Ambassador Vasquez formally
thanking him, and also a letter from the royal family thanking him
for doing a good deed in the name of the commonwealth of Britain.
He would change over the flag and papers at night when he
approached French waters.
Damn politics
and damn politicians! If these idiotic kings would spend just half
of the money improving their countries that they do fighting each
other how much better would the world be?

He had decided to buy wine again in
Marseille as long as he was going to Barcelona. It would be good to
visit Lorn Barnes again too. He wondered if Lorn had any more
children and if Ian would hear of the wedding and try to make it.
He would send word to the chateau once they got to Marseille. It
would be wonderful to catch up with everyone there

He thought of Ian
then.
Bad turn of events, him losing
Cosette.
He remembered how bad it was for
his entire household to hear of it. They all had really loved
her.
What a fine lady and what a perfect
match for Ian being the same as he and all. So my nephew is a
banker now. Who would ever have thought that would happen? And he’s
a successful one to boot. He sure has had bad luck keeping women
though. Anna was a lovely lady and they had seemed so happy.
Ian had told him about the accidental blood
spilling.
Damned bad turn of events, just
when he was starting to recover from losing Cosette. I had hopes
that they’d marry. I hope he’s in Barcelona for this
wedding.

***

“
Tom, there is someone out
here who wants to see you.” said Alandra. Tom put down his hammer
and came out to the main receiving room and just stared
dumfounded.

“
Hello, Tom. How do you like
that little house up there on the hill?”

“
Ian! By Heaven it is you
after all! Oh this is a bonny fine turn of events! He ran to Ian
and they gave each other bear hugs and slapped each other on their
backs. “Let me find Celita.” And he turned, running through the
place towards the kitchen. Soon he returned with Celita and she ran
to Ian and hugged him and kissed him on both cheeks. “I’m so happy
you came, Ian. Thank you for our house. It’s just what I always
wanted and is so close to our work here.”

“
Why Celita, you now speak
English as well as Alandra does.”

“
Yes, I studied with her
when she took instruction. We learned together.”

Ian turned to Alandra who
smiled sweetly at him.
Dear Lord I could
fall into those eyes and be lost, just like with
Cosette.

“
What is it,
Ian?”

“
Ah Lass, it’s just the
beauty of your eyes. They’ve always captivated me. I can still
recall the first time I laid eyes on you. I thought my heart might
stop at your beauty, and especially your eyes.” He leaned down and
kissed her tenderly.

“
And I thought you looked
like a pirate, but oh, such a handsome one!” Everyone laughed at
that. Alandra took Ian on a tour of the facility. When they were
through he asked her about a little girl who looked especially bad.
Alandra said “She’s getting weaker it seems. Nothing has
worked.”

Ian said “I have an idea, but we’ll
talk of it later. Do you think you could get most of the children
into the dining hall?

“
Yes, we could get all of
them into it and even little Rosita. We can carry her there. Why do
you ask?”

“
I thought that if Tom could
get his mandolin and if I could borrow a violin, we might play some
music for the children this evening after their supper.”

“
Ian, that’s a wonderful
idea. I’ll send Celita. The neighbor who lives next to their new
house has one and I’m sure we can borrow it.”

“
I’m going to need a kettle,
two spoons, and a padded stick. I will make the stick, and you will
find the other things. This will be fun.”

The evening arrived and the children
were all in the main dining hall. Ian merely accompanied Tom as he
played and sung a medley of Spanish favorites.

As they played, Ian
thought
sometimes being a vampire does
have its advantages
realizing that he could
never hope to play like that in his lifetime if he was human. He
also did an instrumental version of ‘
Dance
With Anna’
, the song he composed and even
substituted ‘Alandra’ for ‘Anna’ and sung it in Spanish.

Alandra’s parents walked in the door,
smiling and waving to the children who all smiled and waved
back.

Later when the children were in bed,
Ian and Alandra strolled along the seashore in the moonlight. “Ian
that was wonderful tonight. The children loved it so.”

“
I love children. You know
that now I can never have any. We vampires never age, but we’re all
sterile.”

“
Yes.”

“
There are other things
about me that I should tell you. I’ve killed many vampires. I have
killed men too.”

“
You killed men the day you
saved Celita and me.”

“
Yes, but then I was human.
I have killed some men since then. I want nothing to be between us.
Our kind has a governing body of sorts. They monitor events in
Europe and they send vampires to kill other vampires who do such
things as that.”

“
Isn’t that a good
thing?”

“
Yes. But they also will
kill those who insist on telling others about our existence. I’ve
helped them to kill a coven of vampires in another country. They
sent especially for me and I did it willingly. We saved three
children that night. It wasn’t the first time I’ve killed vampires
to protect their victims.”

“
Ian, did they ask you to
kill humans?”

“
No. I won’t do that for
them either. I’ve killed humans who abused children. They were
disgusting people!” They had circled back to
Barcelona House
by then and he
stopped her, saying “Alandra, I killed Carlos Vasquez. I murdered
him, really.”

She stopped then. “Ian we hear that it
was a drunken bald man who had a golden earring and that it was a
fair fight.”

“
It wasn’t a fair fight,
Alandra. But that cockroach deserved to die. Please come to the
kitchen with me.”

Once there, he took a knife and said
“Now watch closely.” as he cut the inside of his arm. He put the
knife down and met her eyes. “Look, Alandra.” He took a towel and
wiped the blood away and as she looked at it, the wound closed
before her eyes. She gasped and raised her eyes to his.

“
That’s why we’re hard to
kill, Alandra.” My hair grew back overnight. I’d shaved my head
every other day for over a week and walked around in that market
waiting for Carlos to show up. Every other day I would shave it
again before going out wearing these.” He pulled the sun glasses
from his pocket and put them on. She stared at him, still wide-eyed
at all of it, and then oddly she came to him with a serious look,
taking his face between her hands. “I’m glad that serpent died. We
heard that it was most humiliating the way it happened.”

“
It was at that. I wanted
you to know that too. There is another reason for me telling you
this tonight. Rosita is dying. I think I might be able to stop
that.”

“
How can you?”

Ian explained what he did in Lausanne
for Andre.

“
The boy is still alive
after having the wasting disease that many years ago?”

“
Yes.”

She seemed to be thinking about it,
and then she said “Do you want to try that on Rosita?”

“
No. I want to make her a
small amount of soup, and after it cools to close to blood
temperature to add a bit of my blood to it. It can’t hurt her, and
it might just heal her. I’d like to try it tonight.”

She stared at him wordlessly for a
moment. Then she said “Let’s make some soup for Rosita.”

Alyssa looked at the note on the
bouquet and smiled. It was another one from Damien Girard. She
really liked Damien. He was the son of a textiles manufacturer and
would one day run Girard Textiles. Not nobility, but wealthy
merchant class, like Caryn Rochelle and Alyssa herself. She
couldn’t help but think of the great advantage of having access to
a textile plant for her career in fashion design. She could easily
branch out into the actual making of clothing on a broad scale, not
just as custom made items for the wealthy.

She mused
the merchant’s class is what Damien and I are.
We’re emerging now in Europe, and we’ll become buyers of more
mass-produced clothing as opposed to the expensive custom clothing
that I make and sell now to the noble class. The Alyssa name cannot
be associated with that kind of clothing. I must have a new name
for it in order not to offend my wealthy clients. The possibilities
are endless. I wonder if Caryn would be interested in joining in
with me in this new venture. If so, I won’t work for her, but she’d
work for me. That might not be well-received. Maybe she should just
stay where she is as a premiere producer of custom fashions after
all. I’m fortunate indeed to have been born French. Women in
business would be looked down upon in Britain or in Spain in these
times. At least here in France we’re not shunned for having a head
for business and being good at it. I’ve been fortunate indeed and
in no small part due to the Lafayettes. I will owe them for my
success forever.

She looked forward to going
to see Celeste perform with Damien. He had been interested in her
from the first time they had met. He was attentive, courteous, not
pretentious and very focused.
He has such
nice eyes and such a kissable mouth too! Alyssa, you are a naughty
girl! And what of Ian? Last I heard he’s in Spain. Has to travel
more now what with being senior officer of the Lafayettes. I miss
him. Is it getting warmer in here or is it me? Mmmm, I am naughty!
What of me crossing over? No children ever? There is always
adoption though. Do I want to do that? There’s too much I don’t
know about becoming one of the others. If I marry one such as
Damien, that door will forever close. If I stay single as I am now,
I can cross over any time. I wonder if I should have just done it
while I was at the chateau. That could close the door to a life
with Damien. I’m coming to a crossroad it seems. I wish Marie was
in Paris. I could ask her advice. She thinks of
everything.

***

Little Rosita improved daily. The
color was coming back in her cheeks and her appetite became normal
again. She would soon leave Barcelona House being as her
grandfather would take her in. The rest of her family had perished
in a tragic fire.