Beauty and the Beast (33 page)

Vincent looked at Peter and shook his head. “It isn’t that simple, Peter. You are right that it is psychological trauma, though. My sister, Elisia, has been in contact with me telepathically, and she concurs. Elisia is of the opinion that I need to help Catherine work through all of the fears that have her trapped in this nightmare state, and that as soon as she feels completely safe, she will wake up. Elisia just doesn’t know how long that process may take.”

Peter went on with Catherine’s medical report. “The other concern you need to be aware of is the deteriorating condition of her muscles. People survive lifetimes in comas, so she is not in mortal danger at this point. However, the longer she is unconscious, the longer and the harder it will be for her to regain her former physical condition and mobility. We have her on a daily physical therapy regimen of muscle exercises and massage. Sarah will show you what to do. It is helping to slow down the deterioration, but it can’t arrest it. Only her own physical activity when she wakes up can reverse the loss of strength.”

While Vincent and Peter were talking, the room began filling up with many of those who had been taking care of Catherine for Vincent. They all sat down at the table with the children, to wait for him to finish feeding her, so they could answer his questions. Peter went to the table and sat down with the others. When Vincent was finished feeding Catherine, he held her hand for a moment, and then kissed it, before standing up and going to the table.

Vincent looked at everyone, smiled, and said, “My dear friends and family, words alone can’t express my love for

you and my appreciation for what you have done for Catherine!” Then he looked at Devin. “When did you stop wandering around and come home, Devin?”

Devin stood up and hugged Vincent. “It has only been a couple of weeks, Vincent. I finally received Peter’s letter about what had happened here with you and Catherine.” Vincent looked at Charles. “Charles, is that really you?”

Charles chuckled with delight that Vincent recognized him. “It is, indeed, really me, Vincent. Do you like what Dev did for me?”

Vincent smiled at him. “Oh yes, Charles, you look very handsome, and you look very happy too.”

Charles was beaming. “I am very happy, Vincent. Dev has been showing me the whole world. It doesn’t scare me anymore!”

Vincent looked at Isaac and asked, “Should I know you?”

Isaac smiled and shook his head. “No, Vincent, but I think that Cathy probably told you about me. I’m Isaac Stubbs, Cathy’s self-defense instructor.” Vincent smiled and nodded as Isaac continued. “Father and Diana brought me into this secret to aid as a bodyguard for Cathy. I can’t tell you how happy it made me to know that she was still alive!”

Vincent spoke to Isaac again. “You helped Catherine to find me when the Silks injured me with their pipe bomb, and I was blinded and lost, didn’t you?” Isaac nodded his head. Vincent smiled, “Thank you!”

Vincent walked back over to Catherine’s bed. He gently picked her up from the bed, walked to the loveseat near the table, and sat down with her cradled on his lap. Vincent looked at Father with an expression of pain on his face as he asked, “How could I have left Catherine alone, Father? How could I have not known that she was alive?

I heard her voice calling to me in the tunnels, and I thought it was just my grief speaking to me! I should have known!”

Father responded gently, “Vincent, experts were unable to tell that Catherine was alive. It was David Marx who noticed that she was sweating, but her respiration and heartbeat were so slowed from her coma as to be nearly imperceptible. That was the only reason we were able to hide her and have everyone above believe that she had died, so we could protect her from her assailant, who turned out to be Gabriel. Remember, Vincent, your empathic connection with Catherine was completely severed, and you were not well. You had not fully recovered from that illness that nearly killed you, and you had not taken the time to sleep properly for months. Your senses were as severely impaired as your connection to Catherine was.”

Peter spoke gently to Vincent as well. “Vincent, you saved Cathy’s life by taking her to her warm apartment. Gabriel had that doctor of his shoot Cathy with a nearly fatal dose of morphine right after she gave birth to Little

Jacob. It slowed her body down, so that she never delivered the placenta. That was what was causing the infection that made her sweat. In a way, it also saved her life, because if she hadn’t been sweating, David would not have seen the sweat at her hairline and realized that she was alive. If you hadn’t taken her to her apartment when you did, she would have died of infection and exposure.

We were able to do a D 8s C to clean her uterus out, start her on a round of antibiotics, stimulate her heart and respiration, and stabilize her until she finally pulled out of the coma.”

Father then added, “At first we weren’t sure we could save her, and we knew that it would devastate you to lose her a second time, especially when your own condition was so precarious. I was also afraid that if you knew prematurely that she was alive; your desperation to save her might impede your own full recovery and reconnection to her. The distraction would also surely have led to your own death when you were determined to go after that assassin, Snow, to save us. Then, you would never have been reunited with Catherine.”

Vincent smiled softly at Father and Peter. “It is no wonder Little Jacob’s bottles were evoking visions about Catherine. It was her milk.”

Father nodded at Vincent. “Besides being better for Little Jacob, I was hoping that handling Catherine’s milk might help to restore your connection to her.”

Vincent then looked at Diana and grinned, “Semantics, huh, little Brat?”

Diana tossed her head at him. “Don’t look at me like that, you big Monster! You were not making it easy for me to think on my feet!”

Vincent smiled at Rolley. “Have you been giving piano concerts for Catherine every night, Rolley?” Rolley smiled and nodded his head.

Isaac spoke up and said, “Vincent, this is the best job I’ve ever had in security. I never even knew that I liked classical music until I started staying here, and I was treated to Rolley’s nightly piano recitals. His music is straight out of Heaven!”

Vincent smiled and nodded at Isaac, and then he looked at Jamie and chuckled. “That was some performance you put on with that so-called illness of yours! I should have known something was amiss when Mouse told me he needed to move a table, because he couldn’t think with it where it was!”

Jamie giggled at him. “I really did have cramps, Vincent. I just usually refuse to go to bed with them. Mouse was doing his best to figure out how to delay you, so I could get changed into my nightgown and hop into my bed, after I landed on his bed from his express chute. I had just finished eating supper when you caught Kipper coming out of the kitchen chamber with Catherine’s soup.”

Vincent raised his eyebrows. “How on earth did you manage to eat that whole bowl of soup after eating supper

too, little one?”

Jamie giggled again. “I didn’t. My canteen ate it!”

Vincent laughed at her. “Well, that explains why your floor was strewn with clothes that you vigorously objected to my picking up! OK, so tell me, who was the mastermind behind that elaborate charade?” She pointed at Tony, who was holding Little Jacob at the table, and he grinned sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders at Vincent.

Father spoke up at that point. “You should also know, Vincent, that Tony was the one who was primarily responsible for protecting you from knowing about Catherine until you were reconnected to her. He had stowed away in the coroner’s van when we rescued Catherine, and he insisted that he needed to repay his Gypsy debt to you and Catherine for restoring him to his grandparents. He has kept track of you this entire time for us.”

A look of realization passed over Vincent’s face, and he smiled. “I was that king piece that was all over the tunnels! That was the new code that Pascal was working on, a code to keep track of me, wasn’t it?” They all nodded at Vincent. Vincent chuckled and shook his head as he remembered the message echoing over every pipe as he was running from his chamber the previous evening.

“Tony, you sounded the alarm, The King is awake,’ didn’t you?” Tony smiled and nodded his head. Then Vincent went on with his realizations. “I wondered why the

tunnels were so empty!”

Diana laughed, and the others joined her as she said, “No one wanted to get run over by you when you figured out where Catherine was!”

Vincent shook his head and smiled at all of them. “Well, I can’t argue with the results. That the entire community could protect me from knowledge of this while I healed is truly a miraculous labor of love. Thank you— all of you!” He paused and then asked, “I saw the pictures of Catherine’s funeral on Diana’s crime-work-wall. What did you bury in that cemetery?”

Father laughed as he answered, “That’s exactly what Joe wanted to know too. It was a flour sack loaded with one-hundred-five pounds of sand.”

Vincent laughed as he said, “Well, from what I saw in those pictures of Diana’s, that poor sack-of-sand had a really lovely funeral, and everyone looked truly devastated to have to say good-bye to it!” They were all nearly in stitches laughing with Vincent over that comment.

Everyone got up to leave, and Vincent was filled with additional joy to see Father put his arm around Mary as they left together. Mary had gone to Vincent in distress a couple of months ago. She was heartbroken over nearly losing Father to another woman. Mary had felt that it was somehow selfish to be in love with him, and therefore, she had never told Father how she felt about him. Vincent was glad to see that Mary must have taken steps to fix that mistake.

When Diana got up to leave, Vincent stopped her. “Diana, would you please stay for a few minutes? I need to ask you about something.”

Diana smiled and sat down on the loveseat by Vincent and Catherine. “What did you need to ask me, Vincent?” Vincent looked at Diana and said, “This may sound really strange to you, Diana, but Catherine’s scent is not right. I mean, she smells like herself, but something is missing.”

Diana nodded her head as she remembered Vincent’s dream about the flowers in his grandparents’ solarium. “You mean that she doesn’t smell of honeysuckle vines and roses.”

Vincent was really grateful that Diana understood. “Exactly! Catherine always smelled so wonderful, familiar, like a forgotten happy memory trying to surface which I couldn’t quite grasp. Until I had that dream about the pink rosebush with the honeysuckle vines growing up through it in my grandparents’ solarium, I never knew why that scent made me so very happy, other than the fact that it was also Catherine’s scent. Scents are powerful doorways to memories, just like her scent was for me. Perhaps that scent would help to bring her mind forward to consciousness again. I was hoping that you might have seen what perfume she was using when you were profiling her at her apartment.”

Diana nodded her head and smiled at Vincent. “Vincent, I have just what you need in my bedroom. You

need to take Catherine to the bathroom now anyway. Ill be back in just a few minutes.”

When Diana returned a few minutes later, Vincent had Catherine settled back on her bed. He was seated at the table eating the meal William had sent for him. He looked expectantly at Diana, and she came to him with a small notebook in her hand. “Ever since Father told me that Catherine was alive, and that they were all waiting for you to be reconnected to her, I have kept this notebook with me. It is the notebook that I used to record everything I discovered about Catherine when I was studying her life and profiling her. I actually have a shopping list of sorts of the scented toiletries she used. Do you want to see it?” Vincent was ecstatic. “I do, please show me!”

Diana handed him the notebook, open to the page Vincent needed, and he read her notes:

Catherine Chandler had the following scented toiletries in her bathroom:

Mountain Meadows brand Honeysuckle Creamy Bath & Shower Soap

Aubrey Organics brand Honeysuckle Rose Shampoo & Conditioner

Crabtree & Evelyn of London brand Evelyn Rose Body Lotion

Eco-Beauty Organics brand Organic Rose facial products Farouche Perfume by Nina Ricci (The perfume contains rose and honeysuckle notes which draw all of the others together.)

Vincent shook his head with wonder. “You really are thorough when you profile people, aren’t you?”

Diana nodded and smiled. “People are like puzzles to me. If pieces are missing, I get an incomplete picture. Catherine likes using a signature scent. That, in itself, is a small statement about the type of person she is. It helps to define her as an individual.”

Vincent looked at her as he asked, “Do you know where these things can be found?”

Diana smiled and nodded at him. “Actually, I checked out every cosmetic boutique and health food store she shopped in to find where she bought all of these things. I know right where to get them.”

Vincent shook his head. “Diana, you can’t go shopping for these things yourself. It isn’t safe for you until Joe can arrest Adrian.”

Diana smiled at his concern for her. “I know that, Vincent, but I’m sure that Susan would be thrilled to go shopping for Catherine. Ill give her this list and tell her where to find these toiletries for you. I’m sure that she can have them in time for Catherine’s bath tomorrow.” Vincent smiled happily. “Thank you so much, Diana.” As Diana was leaving to take the list to Susan, Joe was coming into Catherine’s room. Vincent saw Diana color up, and Joe looked completely flustered. Diana scooted quickly out of the room, and Joe just stood there watching her leave. It was all Vincent could do to keep from laughing out loud at them.

Joe finally turned around and faced Vincent, but he seemed to have difficulty remembering what he was there for. Finally, he said, “They told you that they finished translating Gabriel’s notebook, didn’t they?”