Friends and Enemies (Gwen Farris Book 5) (15 page)

She nodded, but didn't speak on the topic. Instead she just looked at Heather and tried to smile. It wasn't really working for some reason.

"So, what should we do now? I'm at loose ends. I need to get a hobby or two. Needlepoint, or... Sex. That's a thing people do in the middle of the day, right?"

Heather laughed, but didn't blush, which was probably telling about how different the Westmorlands all were.

"Or, and this is just
me
talking here, but you could contact your fiancé? I know that it may be tempting to avoid him, given the events of the day, and the topics brought up, but I find that keeping information from people seldom helps."

There was truth in that.

"Great point. I'll see if that's a thing. He might be too busy. It's around dinner time in Aubrey right now. A little early, so I should hurry."

Gwen stood there for a bit, already on her feet, left that way by Kate.
Kat
. It was true that she didn't really want to go and put all of this out there for anyone else. Even if it wasn't her problem. Keeping that in mind she went to tell on herself. Christophe would love it, no doubt.

Heather didn't follow her, exactly. It was a bit of a walk to the Telestator room, and she found that one in use, by Beth, so Gwen waved and scurried off to the communications set up that Robert normally used for business. He was out of the house still for the day, having a business office where he ran things from when in town.

It was a nice space, with a lot of wood, brown leather and a soft scent of tobacco. Gwen couldn't get behind smoking as a hobby for herself, knowing it was a killer, but it didn't smell
bad
to her. Warm and rich, the residue nearly tickling her nose.

In the corner of the room was the Telestator she wanted. The array was on a table, and held five lead colored globes, each the size of a large grapefruit, sitting on a polished wooden dowel. She understood what she was looking at now, more or less. Having read up on magic eventually covered a few of the things she saw day to day. The balls were each different radiatives. They each held
part
of the magical programming needed to control the device and let her speak across the land.

Magic, but it was basically a really big, and hard to move, cell phone. No towers though which was handy, but they still used switchboards to patch things through to different places. Touching the center sphere, her right hand on it firmly, she used her other to press the small white button that was on the polished table top in a small box. It happened with very little force. That always threw her off a little bit. It was
too
easy. Like the thing should fall in on itself under its own weight, and be triggered all the time.

After a few seconds, a voice spoke, seeming to come out of the air in front of her. For once it was male, which had her staring at the air, like it had wronged her, being so shocking.

"Telestator Operator, how may I connect you?" The man sounded youthful, but not like a child. Probably in his late teens. Definitely a dude however.

Gwen didn't care, since the idea that only women could turn a dial or two was so silly it wasn't worth mentioning.

"Hello! I need to connect with Aubrey one-one-two please? For Christophe Aubrey. This is Gwen Farris."

There was a pause, and instead of telling her that she
couldn't
be herself, which had happened three times now, or asking if she had a
right
to call a Duke, which had happened nearly every time she called her fiancé, the man just made the connection for her. Like a real professional or something.

"Please hold, ma'am. Connecting now."

It took a while for anyone to come and see what she wanted. When it happened it was the new secretary, who unfortunately enough was a man.

The last person to hold that position had been a woman, had fallen in love with Christophe
and
kind of gone insane. It had gotten people killed. In the end Gwen had ended the issue, killing the woman herself. Helping her to commit suicide.

That was what everyone thought it was at least. More to the point, Gwen was certain that the king and Chris both knew the truth, or suspected it, if nothing else, but neither had mentioned the idea to her. They probably wouldn't, even if they knew it had taken place that way for a fact.

The trouble was that Gwen
would
have shared Chris with her, if she'd just wanted to have sex with him. Even if Laura had wanted to be his lover, with all that meant, it would have been all right. Spend the holidays alone, or even have his children.

This new guy though, was going to be a bigger problem, if he fell in love with the Duke. Apparently people in the Western Kingdom weren't that open minded. The funny part was that she, prude or not, kind of was. To her that actually sounded kind of hot. If in an abstract manner.

Gwen didn't mention the idea, since it was mainly her being weird, or would seem that way to a stranger on the phone.

"Miss Farris? I'm afraid the Duke isn't here right now. I believe he's... Otherwise engaged at the moment?" There was a sound to the man's voice, that Gwen wasn't totally certain of. It carried meaning, but she couldn't tell what was being hinted at. Something different, at any rate.

Shrugging, she just waited for a bit. The man would either tell her all about it, or not.

Nothing came, so she nodded. That meant it was secret. From her.

If she were a jealous person she'd have assumed that meant Chris was off having sex. That, or plotting to break up with her. The fact was, she didn't care about the first one, since
one
of them knowing about that kind of thing would make the honeymoon go a lot more smoothly.

The second one, well, it was coming, she didn't doubt. No matter what, the alien woman from the alternate Earth wasn't good marriage material. If Duke Aubrey ever noticed that, she didn't doubt that her being dumped would take about as long as having this new secretary draft a letter.

Before she could do more than ask the guy to pass a message for her, and break the line by pulling her right hand away, Katherine took over.

"You need to think, before you go on about things like that. Even in your own mind. Why would you even
dream
that Christophe would do that to you? Oh, take a lover, certainly. He
should
do that, since you won't want to be bothered with all of that, all the time, but we're a catch, for someone like him." The words popped out of her mouth, sounding a bit snooty.

Kat was great at that one.

Talking to herself, insane or not, was the order of the day it seemed. She wasn't going to let the voice in her head get away with dissing Chris, however. It was
way
too early in their relationship for that kind of thing. It was bad enough when other people hinted that he wasn't good enough for her.

"His
kind
? What do you mean by that? I wasn't aware that he was that easily tucked into a group." She was ready to fight, since it
was
kind of her thing, but the voice answered with a slight chuckle.

"You know... A
noble
? You may not have noticed it Gwen, but you rather saved the
world
. Everyone knows about it, too. Do you truly think that Christophe Aubrey is the only man of value that would be interested in us? You, but still, it's
my
body. Even if you have kept me too thin. I've heard that I'm decently pretty, you know. So a heroine, good looking, wealthy. You could be a bit pickier, and not be out of turn."

It was true, if not very humble to hear about.

Gwen didn't pick a fight though, even if it wasn't lost on her that the other girl was trying to suggest that Chris was broken, due to once having stuttered, and having low magical ability. It was kind of like he was black, back home. In the nineteen-fifties. Along with everyone being a good Klan member. That was something very different here.

She could have married any man she wanted, and no one would have blinked, as long as he could produce enough energy.

That her fiancé couldn't was considered the single most shocking thing about their getting married, in this warped place. Even the idea that Gwen was a mentality from a different reality, trapped in a girl's body wasn't as big of an issue.

In her mind, back home,
that
part would have been the deal breaker. Come to that, she didn't doubt that the whole thing would have been a good bit different, if it came down to it. She'd have to hide who and what she was, if she didn't want to be committed to an asylum. On the good side, that would have only made a difference if anyone believed it, which they wouldn't have.

"Yeah, well, he's a good guy." If her words were a bit sullen, she couldn't care. He was a nice guy, and was the only person she'd ever met willing to date her, as far as she knew.

There was no answer then, but Gwen decided not to care too much as far as that went. Hopefully Kate didn't hate him or anything, but if she did,
tough
. Gwen had never even had a boyfriend before, and the idea was kind of thrilling. If the other girl did anything to mess this up she'd...

That was a problem.

If the other girl wanted to screw her over, then she was going to be fucked, and that was about
all
that would happen. Gwen could do a lot in the world, but only if Katherine let her do it. Honestly, now that she had a better sense of things, she knew that she couldn't even kill herself.

She'd tried that one, and had failed.

Walking back into the house proper, Gwen just sighed a lot and didn't say anything. Her life was what it was. She could either accept that, and do what she could to fix things, or she could stand back and watch it all take place, but those were the only choices she was likely to get. Then, no one ever had a lot more going for them than that. The thought left her feeling a tiny bit better, if not any more in control of the world.

Thankfully things started to heat up a bit for her after that.

Beth came to find her, meeting up in the hallway outside the sitting room that Gwen had moved toward. Heather might still be in there, after all, which at least would let her sit with another person. Bethany moved in and hugged her with one arm.

"Things have altered a bit. There are some things... I can't go into all of them, but Adam has a mission for us, if you feel up to it? A murder case in the Southern Sector. A man died, stabbed through the throat, and was found in a locked room." Her slightly long faced friend grinned at her, nervously, as if waiting for her to get the
other
part of it.

Gwen
did
, instantly. It was a bit meta, but the fact was, Adam gave all the cases that didn't have magic involved directly to them. Like that was their thing. She was from a world where other means would have been used to do anything, so if there was a question that way, she really would have been the one on tap.

Still, she was hit, almost instantly, by the idea that this was a trick. That the murder, while real, wasn't what she was going to be told. A thing set up to get her out of the way, for some reason. She tapped the right side of her head. It felt like someone was actively pushing on her skull at the moment, even if the whole thing was perfectly clear to her.

Beth got it, her eyes going wide, but Gwen shook her head and spoke anyway.

"Um... He was killed by a person that left after doing it, from a trap door, or sliding panel? Or who used a string to turn the lock, but doubled it over so that it could be pulled free under the door? It wasn't just done with magic, or you wouldn't be smiling like that. I'd still test for that first. Which it already has been, no doubt." It was the first thing anyone would have done, there.

The Detective gave her a knowing look. One that was a bit more intense than she would have expected.

"It
was
. Consev searched for physical factors as well. It was a clever trick with string, they think, as you mentioned. That isn't why you're being asked to go, however."

"Oh? Then why? To get me out of the way?"

"Not
you
, though it is rather a good idea. No, the man murdered was Baron Mathews."

Gwen could see that one being a problem for her. She'd had the man beheaded after all. Right in front of her. She'd bundled him up and helped to drop him in to the ocean, too.

 "The new one?" Being hopeful was a good thing, but her pal shook her head, smiling like an insane woman.

"You would think that, but
no
, this was, according the information I was told to give you, Baron Jeffery Mathews. The man we witnessed die over the ocean. Intact and whole, living in the South."

"Oh. So this grinning you're doing is because you're losing your mind right now? Because I think
I
am. Not that I missed the careful wording there. What you were told to tell me? He was dead. His head was all the way off. How did he come back, if he did? I don't buy it. It wasn't an illusion or... Is that even a thing that
could
have happened?"

Gwen knew the answer to that one too. It hit her hard enough she gasped and grabbed her head. Beth knew what it meant, and took a step back, watching closely.

"Dear? Is there something?"

Gasping, breathing hard, Gwen didn't answer for a long time. Even when she could breathe again, ten minutes or more later, she didn't say anything. How could she? There was nothing in what she'd gotten that was right. It had to be a mistake, or a trick of her own mind. Maybe Katherine pulling a trick?

Finally, sitting there shaking, Gwen turned to her oldest friend in this world, and swallowed hard.

"It's... Beth, what that was..." She paused, not wanting to say it. Even as her friend picked up the idea from her anyway.

That probably wasn't hard, given that she was screaming inside.

The woman in front of her touched her upper arm gently.

"The Elder Gods?"

Gwen nodded. It couldn't be true, but that
was
what she'd picked up. It was prescient, which meant a lot though. It wasn't a thing that had happened yet. Not even if Beth was claiming she had instructions to tell her that Baron Mathews had been there. In the world, alive, when he should have been doing nothing except feeding a few fish. She not only didn't believe that, but it felt wrong still. Like a trick