The Bride of the Immortal (33 page)

“Will you take care of it for me while I’m gone?”

“Oh, I want to – but I don’t know a lot about cats. What if I did something wrong?”

“Don’t worry. I will ask Alfred to assist you, since Hilda won’t be much help.”

“Then I will!” Mairin assured him energetically. “Shall we name it?”

“Well... that might be difficult, not knowing whether it’s a girl or a boy.”

“May I assist you, Sir?” Alfred had entered the kitchen without him noticing.

 “Don’t sneak up on us like that, Alfred!” Adrijan exclaimed truly startled.

 “I’m sorry, Sir. Shall I leave and re-enter?”

Adrijan frowned. “That’s hardly necessary.” As much as he liked the old man he was sometimes confused by his overly proper behaviour.

“Could you assist Miss Muriel with the upbringing of this little fellow?”

Alfred came a step closer to inspect the kitten.

“I shall do my very best, Sir.”

“Thank you, Alfred.”

“Not at all, Sir, but Master Adrijan, I’m here to tell you that it’s time for you to leave. The car that will take you to the bungalow in the forest is already waiting outside.”

For a moment there was silence in the kitchen and Adrijan realised that he would have preferred to say goodbye to Mairin in a different way. Her reaction to his confession had been too good to be true and there was still a lot to clarify. Since he had missed the opportunity to do so, he took the kitten from her, kissed it on its forehead and returned it to its new owner, hoping that she would understand.

With Adrijan gone her energy seemed to have left all at once and everything that remained was a very exhausted young woman with a very lively kitten in her arms.

On Alfred’s suggestion, she allowed the elderly man to take the furry creature from her and having examined it, he dryly stated that it was male. If that was the case, Mairin already had the perfect name for her little fosterling.

“Miss Muriel, I hope you will forgive me for addressing your fatigue. Of course I wouldn’t if the circumstances…”

Mairin nodded from time to time, unable to really follow his words but trying to give the appearance that she was listening.

“Then I will notify Hilda to take you to your rooms at once, Miss Muriel. Of course I will oversee the well-being of the kitten while you are resting and make preparations for his stay in your quarters.”

In certain moments it really paid off to have capable servants. When Hilda arrived to pick her up, Mairin gently petted the tomcat’s head and left, glad to be able to get some rest.

“Sir? We are here, Sir.”

Adrijan tried to shake off the sleepiness that was clouding his mind. He hadn’t thought it possible that he would doze off during the short trip to the bungalow.

“Alright, alright,” he grumbled to silence the driver and got out of the car. Who was this man anyway? Adrijan rubbed his eyes and went past him towards the bungalow, not bothering to stifle a yawn. He couldn’t rid himself of the feeling that he had forgotten something important by being torn out of his dreams. Why was it, that the harder one tried, the more difficult it was to remember? After sharing his past with Mairin, vivid nightmares had to be expected, but it had definitely been something more than that.

Adrijan swallowed to get rid of the bad taste in his mouth. Luckily there was still enough time to brush his teeth and take a shower before heading on to
Traumstadt
. Only faintly he perceived the sound of the trunk compartment being closed behind him as he operated the opening mechanism of the door. How long had it been since he had come here with Mairin? Even though so much had happened, it felt to him like he had never left. His eyes were dry and gazing through sticky lids Adrijan almost expected to find the bed sheets ruffled the way he had seen them last. He blinked a few times. Of course the room had been tidied up long ago.

Remembering what the precarious situation had made him do, Adrijan ended up with a smirk on his face. The memories triggered a series of complicated thoughts and desires he tried to repress immediately once he was conscious of them.

“I put down your suitcase near the entrance. Is there anything else you need, Sir?”

Adrijan turned around and almost bumped into the edge of a casket.

“Careful, Sir.”

“Thanks… you can head back,” Adrijan told the man, slightly annoyed. Sleep deprived and worn out after such a taxing night he was involuntarily moody. Mairin’s magic spell hadn’t lasted long enough.

The driver took his leave but Adrijan had already stopped paying heed to him.

Careful.
He had told him to be
careful
.

Adrijan sank down on the bed, trying to understand why such a simple matter refused to leave his head.

Then it hit him. In the dream that had very much resembled his memories, Magdala had not only asked him to take care of Vivian. She had warned him about a certain person as well.

“Winther! Stop that, you naughty boy!”

Mairin weakly pushed him away, but he was persistent and almost without delay started another attempt at crawling under her blanket.

“Won’t you let me sleep a little longer, my love?” she gently tried to persuade him, turned around and felt for his head with her eyes closed. Soon her fingers touched his soft hair and still more asleep than awake she started to caress him. Winther rewarded her skills with loud purring and pressed his head against her hand.

“Aren’t you my sweet little boy?”

The tomcat answered her question by wandering upwards and drilling his head into her armpit.

“And obviously a silly boy as well,” she remarked.

They had merely spent two weeks together and she was already so accustomed to her new companion that she had started talking to him when nobody else was around. Those were also the only times when she allowed herself to call him by the name she had chosen for him. Whenever someone was near, she used the abbreviated version ‘Therry’, fearing that she wasn’t the sole person to know Adrijan’s prior name.

Therry had finally given up on trying to extract milk from her and moved on to her head where he began to nibble on her hair.

“I-di-ot,” Mairin murmured mildly annoyed and picked him up before climbing out of bed. She had been lazing around a lot for the past three days after Vivian had left for what Hilda had called a ‘business trip’. Without Winther she would have been lonely but together they had found ways to keep themselves occupied.

“Bon appétit,” she said and put a spoonful of cat food into Winther’s bowl.

Alfred had adjusted her quarters to the kitten’s needs and even though it was still a little unfamiliar to her she was glad to be able to keep him close.

Mairin squatted next to the tomcat, enjoying the opportunity to watch him devour the chicken meat.

Was Adrijan eating properly as well?

She softly petted Therry’s forehead, where he had received the priest’s kiss. Were preparations continuing smoothly? He hadn’t tried to get in contact with her and the more time passed, the more insecure she became.

Vivian groaned. He was still suffering from the headache that had slowly gotten worse during the flight. Helen’s hands were wandering over his back but her massage only slowly helped his muscles to relax.

“Should I stop?”

Vivian declined with a grunt and her fingers skilfully continued to loosen him up.

“I’m already starting to feel better. You must be an ange-” The last word ended in a moan and her light giggling gave away that he wasn’t the only one enjoying the procedure.

Cathy and Isabel however were sitting on the couch pouting and disapprovingly watching them. Vivian reckoned that they would have loved to substitute their companion. Later, he would gladly make it up to them.

The immortal stretched. It was probably best to drain a few years soon. After all, the pain in his shoulders had made him feel old again and he regretted not having taken the hour glass with him. At least there was no reason to complain about his accommodation. He had chosen one of his newest luxury hotels – one he hadn’t stayed at before.

The door opened and Himeko returned to the room, adding more variety to his company. With satisfaction he noticed that he was most likely the first person to reside in the honeymoon suite with four young women instead of only one.

Vivian’s phone drew attention to itself by vibrating on the surface of the table, producing a painful rattling. Cathy wanted to fetch it for him but Isabel beat her to it and handed him the device with the sweetest smile. Women surely were formidable creatures when they chose to be.

“Moshi-moshi,” he murmured, answering the call.

“Don’t tell me you’ve gone to Japan…” Even if he hadn’t heard Adrijan’s voice, the content of what he had said would have been enough to identify him.

“From your grumpiness I can tell that you miss a certain someone.”

Adrijan didn’t reply. Obviously he had hit the bull’s eye. Teasing his brother always did wonders to his own mood.

“How is she?”

“I don’t know.”

“Haven’t you called her?”

“No.”

“Moron.”

“Yes.”

Vivian chuckled.

“Why are you calling anyway? Are you done with the preparations in
Traumstadt
already?”

“Not quite. I’ve set the date for tomorrow in a fortnight.”

“Hmm… Christmas? Good choice.”

“Will you make it back in time?”

“Mhm, probably. There isn’t much to take care of here.”

His female company bristled loudly at that statement and smirking, he quickly gestured the women to be silent.

“Five?”

Adrijan had almost guessed right.

“Only four.”

“Ah. Well, close enough.”

“Does that call for a reward? Let’s say a young woman, who has been residing at
Mondstein
castle for a little less than half a year?”

“You really don’t care for her, do you?”

“No, I like her. I think you have chosen well. But maybe, just once in a while, it should be about what you want, dear brother.”

“In reality it’s about what she decides to do.”