Forever Young The Beginning (19 page)

After supper, they settled in the
parlor. Ian sat next to Cosette on a settee, and Marie sat next to
Henri on a sofa. Henri had been talking about banking and finance
which all but Li thought was interesting.

Ian said “I have something that
affects us all that I need to put before you this evening.” All
looked towards him. Continuing on, he said “Li approached me today
about crossing over to become one of us.”

There was silence in the room as
eyebrows were raised. The grandfather clock in the grand foyer
chimed the hour. Marie and Cosette looked to Henri for his reply.
He stood and paced a bit, looking at Li as if able to read his
thoughts.

Marie asked Li “Are you sure about
this, Li? You know the penalty for feeding on humans. We would
bring to bear all necessary resources if you ever transgressed that
rule.”

Ian spoke then saying “I’ll stand to
answer for anything that Li does, whether good or bad.”

Li said “I would never do
that. I’ve learned much in these days with all of you in this
household. But I learned more about love while here than anything
else. With my time aboard
Elsie’s
Cloud
as a crewman and being here, I would
have to say that this is as close to a family as I will ever
have.”

At this Marie stood and
walked to Li, hugging him, and was joined by Cosette who also put
her arms around him. Li was silent, but he was moved by their
acceptance and affection. He continued “I have loved my life as a
member of
Elsie’s
crew, but I believe that my fate is linked to Ian. You know my
story and how I came to be a crewman?”

Everybody nodded signifying that they
knew his testimony. It was quiet, and the grandfather clock ticking
in the grand foyer made the only sounds. Finally Ian said “Li could
have approached me later on and not shared his desire with anyone
else, but it was his choice to do it this way now.”

As Marie and Cosette returned to their
seats, Henri finally said “We usually only bring someone to cross
over to save their life, and then only if we know the person and
their behavior and reputation. But we’ve considered Alyssa, haven’t
we Marie?”

“
Yes, we have. She’s in
Paris now by the way, Henri. But in my mind, she is still a
candidate should she not marry.”

“
Yes, she is” he said,
taking his seat again next to Marie on the sofa.

Ian then spoke saying “What about you,
Cosette?”

Cosette paused dramatically and stood
up again. She then said very gravely “My only objection is that if
Li crosses over, I would then likely become the worst marksman in
this house.” At that she smiled brilliantly and raucous laughter
erupted in the group. Marie laughed uncontrollably, and simply
buried her head against Henri’s shoulder, her shoulders shaking
with mirth. Even the stoic Li laughed hard at that one. Cosette
hugged him and sat down.

Henri laughingly said “Then I think
we’ve settled the matter. Do we do it now or wait until after the
wedding?” Marie having stopped laughing said “Is there any reason
to delay?” Everyone looked around at each other and there were no
objections.

Henri said “Li, we can do this tonight
or wait and let you have all the time you want to decide. You may
not do as well as Ian did regarding tolerance to sunlight. That’s a
consideration to weigh.”

“
I’ll do it at your
convenience whether tonight or when you want it to
happen.”

Henri did the honors as the family
watched. They resumed talking about the wedding as Li stayed under
Marie’s watchful eye for the first two hours. He had lapsed into
unconsciousness. Ian and Cosette agreed to stay near him all night.
The three of them spent the rest of the night in the room which Ian
had spent his first night at the chateau. Li had awakened during
the night and was nourished with rabbit’s blood. Before dawn, he
had his first seizure and was again given blood.

Inspector Rousseau
dismounted from his horse at the
Angel’s
Care
orphanage. This was the second report
of a missing child from the place in a short span, maybe only days
it seemed. He would consult his notes on that point.

Speaking to the headmistress, he was
conducted to the dormitory where the girl had been assigned to
sleep. Walking about the large room he could see no sign of any
foul play. He stopped then at the end wall, remembering the broken
window up high. Looking up, he saw that the glass had been
replaced. The window was shut, but looking more closely, he did see
that the latch was still missing. The window was closed tight
however. He decided to question the staff however, so he asked the
headmistress to arrange it so that he could interview them one at a
time. She made her own office available and the interviews
commenced soon thereafter.

After some two hours, he had talked to
everyone on staff including the cook and custodian. It was all to
no avail. It seemed that the child had vanished overnight according
to all that he could discern. Supposedly she had been accounted for
at bed time. He wondered at that though, because there were several
members of the staff absent, having bad colds. They were forbidden
to be at work if sick by the charity’s founder, Madame Marie
Lafayette. He speculated that the staff being cut down to a little
above half of their normal strength the past week might have been
tired enough to have missed one child or even forgotten or omitted
the roll call at bed time. He knew the name Lafayette by reputation
as one of the greatest benefactors for children’s causes in all of
France.

It seemed likely that the
child had deliberately run away and that the staff had possibly
covered it up to cover their own laxity. There was no foul play,
just one orphan missing among the hundreds living in Marseille
alone. He had seen children in abysmal conditions passing through
the worst areas of the city, and he pitied them. He would make no
trouble for these overworked people. That would end up making it
worse for all of the children there in the end, wouldn’t it?
That is the nature of government
he thought. Someone would do something to say that
they had acted and as likely as not, it would be the wrong thing.
This orphanage was cleaner and better run than any he was aware of.
Most were dreadful. He resolved to report accordingly so as to
blame no one officially. It would do his career no good to agitate
a family like the Lafayettes either.

The headmistress made a report and
filed it properly as she had for the first girl. She also wrote a
letter to Marie and put it where the outgoing correspondence was
waiting for the weekly courier to take it to Madame
Lafayette.

***

Ian and Li sat in Marie’s kitchen,
sampling the large selection of fruits and other food that she had
prepared. They decided to go out beyond the barn where Ian would
instruct Li in swordsmanship. They worked at that for some three
hours in full sunlight. Neither was affected. Li reminded Ian again
that he needed to spend more time doing his stretching while he was
imprinting. He and Ian both worked diligently with their left hands
while exercising with the wooden sabers. Li had another weak spell
and Ian helped him to drink. In under a half hour he recovered. His
bones had ached and his skin and knees felt inflamed. Henri came
and joined them after sending some dispatches via one of their
couriers. He told them that Marie was going through her neglected
mail now, and that she would join them soon. She and Cosette wanted
to practice some Kung Fu. Henri suggested that they all go
horseback riding that afternoon. They had decided to go get the
pistols and work with them for a while, when Marie came running out
at human speed.

She said “I’m going to
Marseille today. A child is missing from our orphanage, Henri. It
doesn’t seem…right somehow. I can go to see Angus and see the work
being done on
Elsie
while I’m there. Cosette wants to come along and see the ship.
I have sent for the largest carriage in case someone wants to come
with us.” She then went back to the house at a run, Henri with
her.

Ian and Li went to the rabbit pen and
within twenty minutes they had topped up five flasks with fresh
blood.

Within a half hour the five of them
were on their way to Marseille. The ride there was uneventful, and
passed quickly with Marie distracted. Once when Cosette playfully
tousled Ian’s hair and kissed him, Marie stared right at him and
said “Ian, we must do something about your hair. You must have been
hacking at it with a knife. Why did you do that?”

“
I first started to cut it
while in the Far East. It is very humid in that part of the world
in warm weather. I just wanted to have an easier time of keeping it
clean. I hardly wore any clothing while in that part of the world.
It was so humid.”

“
Your hair can’t regrow to a
traditional shoulder length in the remaining time of your
imprinting. We must trim it. Whatever we do to it will be the way
it will look forever. We’ll attend to that at the soonest possible
time. You and Li must attend to your nails too. You want them to be
trimmed short so they will never be a bother for the rest of your
lives, and don’t forget your toenails either.”

Looking at Li, Ian said “I told you
that Marie thinks of everything.”

The time passed quickly.
Marie and Cosette continued on to the orphanage after letting
everyone off at the wharf district. Ian had asked to be let off at
the jeweler’s shop for something he wanted to leave with the man.
He had brought a small package along. Marie promised they would
join them aboard
Elsie
when she finished her business at the orphanage.

At the orphanage, Marie and Cosette
went immediately to the headmistress who took them to the dormitory
where it had happened. Marie looked about the place and then said
“You say that there was no sign of anyone forcing their way
in?”

“
Yes, Madame Lafayette.
Well, there was some broken glass from that window there.” Marie
and Cosette looked up at the window some twenty feet above the
floor.

“
Broken glass?”

“
Yes, Madame. There was a
pane broken out and glass lying there.” she said, pointing to a
place beneath the window. “The window was latched
though.”

“
I see that the glass has
been replaced, yes?”

“
Yes, Madame. But it wasn’t
broken though when the second girl went missing.”

“
What? What second
girl?”

“
It just happened, Madame. I
have the report completed. It’s waiting with the report about the
window repair to be picked up by the courier.”

“
And you say that this
window was not damaged when this second girl was found to be
missing?”

“
No Madame. It was neither
broken nor open.”

Cosette said “Excuse me, but the latch
hasn’t been replaced.”

“
Why is that?”

“
The workmen didn’t have a
latch for it. They thought there had been no latch there for a
while. They said they’d find a latch for it and would bring it the
next time something else needed repairing.” Marie regarded the
window. Cosette was staring at it intently. Then she stepped back
and looked at the nearest oak cross beam intently. “There is a
black thread hanging there.” she said pointing at the beam where a
tiny piece of thread was wedged under a burr in the roughhewn wood.
Marie said “Maybe the workmen were up there to place a walk board
to stand upon?”

“
Yes, that could be it.” The
headmistress wondered how the two could even see the thread they
were talking about. The inspector hadn’t seen it, nor could
she.

“
And this last time when
Mimi was found to be missing, this window was found to be
intact?”

“
Yes, Madame. It was intact
and closed.”

“
What did the inspector have
to say about it?”

“
He thought a bird had done
it. He had seen that happen once before at a church.”

Marie stood and thought a while then
nodding slowly she began to walk toward the door to the central
hall outside of the dormitory. Cosette and the headmistress
followed. Cosette said “Marie, it looks as if that latch hasn’t
been missing for very long.” Marie turned and regarded Cosette,
then looked back at the window as if seeing it for the first time.
She stood like that a bit, and then she said “Very well, I’ll stop
at the King’s Gendarmerie to see if Inspector Rousseau has any
other details.”

About the time they left the dormer a
little girl waiting in the hallway came to Marie and tugged on her
dress.

“
And who might you be?” she
said as she and Cosette paused.

“
Are you here because Mimi
and Juliet are gone?”

Cosette and Marie both knelt and
smiled at the little girl, then Marie spoke saying “I am, and who
might you be?”

“
I am Michelle.”

“
Hello, Michelle. I’m Marie
and this is Cosette.”

“
Hello. You have pretty
eyes. Turning to Cosette she said “You do too.”