Forever Young The Beginning (39 page)

“
Tsk-tsk-tsk. Such an
ill-mannered boy.” She stooped and took her knife and cut his belt
in a flash and ripped if off of his trousers. Henri tossed her a
piece of rope left over from tying the girls. She handed the knife
up to Henri and taking the rope she lashed his hands together in a
split second and stretched his arms up by tying the rope to the
frame of the trap door. She then ripped open his trousers and said
to Henri “Mr. Pelleau here is learning how it feels to be helpless
and tormented but his manners are still lax. My knife,
please.”

“
No! No! My God
no!”

She paused and said “Did you say
something, Pelleau?”

“
His name is Julian
Deroche.” He gave her the address and added that she was to go to
the alley and knock at the back door. He said that Deroche was
expecting the girls tonight.

Marie cut him loose and he collapsed,
moaning and trying to hold the stumps of his missing fingers. She
stooped and pulled him to his feet and then picked him up bodily
over her head and threw him up out of the pit. Then she leaped up
out of the pit and stood off to one side, saying “See how easy that
was, Pelleau?”

Henri grabbed him and pulling him
upright said “Can you stand on your own feet?”

“
Y-y-yes, I can
stand.”

“
Good. That makes this
easier.” He drew his saber and struck his head from his body in a
flash.

The wagon with two men in the seat
rolled to a stop in the alley of a posh district of Paris. The hour
was very late. A tarpaulin was pulled back revealing three bundles.
The driver lifted a bundle to his shoulder and carried it to the
service door of the place, and knocked. A servant came to the door
and opened it a crack.

“
Delivery for Monsieur
Deroche.” The door opened and the man carried the bundle inside.
The servant said “Are there not to be two deliveries
tonight?”

“
Yes. I’ll go back for the
other as soon as I carry this one where Monsieur wants
it.”

“
Follow me then.” And he
turned to walk a short distance and opened a door to the cellar. He
carried the bundle down the steps to a cellar that was well lit,
its’ floor was paved with brick. He turned the corner and saw an
overweight man of maybe fifty years sitting on a bed with a glass
of wine. He was wearing a gentleman’s evening jacket and his
heavy-lidded cruel eyes gave away his true nature.

“
Where is
Dassault?”

“
He twisted his ankle
chasing this one. He’s in the coach with the other girl. I have to
go up and get her now. We could take her back if your guest doesn’t
come tonight. We’ll cut the price in half for a good customer like
you Monsieur.”

“
No need. I want two
tonight.”

“
Very well then, Monsieur.”
He took his knife and cut the cords and pulled the wrapping
blankets off, cutting her bonds. A small feminine form lay on the
floor, facing away from Deroche. She had glossy black hair and was
probably a little over five feet tall. Deroche got up and came
around the bed to view her better. The man stepped away as if to go
back upstairs for the other girl.

“
She looks to be cleaner
than the ones I’ve had in the past.” He stooped down and made to
turn the girl over. Like a flash Marie leaped off of the floor and
was behind him before he knew it. Her two small hands gripped his
jowly face and turned his head nearly completely around. There was
an audible snapping sound. “You’ve molested your last little girl
you pig.” Li stepped to the corpse and put it on his shoulder.
Marie looked about the cellar for a way out and found a firewood
opening. She ripped it open and made it look like someone escaped
from it by putting a table near it. Looking about she hoped to find
a journal but failed, although she did find a purse with a goodly
sum of gold coins and took it, tossing it to Li. She nodded to Li
and flashed up the stairs, him behind her with the corpse on his
shoulder. He dropped him about halfway up.

The King’s Gendarmes would say that it
was another case of a man losing his balance on stairs and breaking
his neck. Such a shame. The staff would pretend to know nothing for
fear of being accused of being an accessory for their part in
abducting orphans for the pervert they worked for. They would be
relieved that the death of this Deroche was so neat and
tidy.

Li and Marie looked at each
other and smiled grimly, eyes aglow and glided out to the back
entrance. Shortly Henri joined them, having slipped in when the
servant was showing them to the cellar door. He waved a ledger book
as he came up to them and kissed Marie. “There might be some
information in here to help us track others. We’ve already taken
the girls to
Angel’s Care
so what’s keeping us in Paris? We’ve no more leads
and we have a long way to go to get home. Should we go on foot and
just leave tonight, or go by coach tomorrow towards
Dijon?”

“
Let’s go home and let Li go
see Sophia. They can come home by coach after they see all of Paris
that they want to. I want to see Ian and the boys.”

“
Then home it is for us. Li
you have the key to our place. Stay as long as you and Sophia like
but be sure to dismiss the staff when you leave. They know what to
do when we go away. And do stop to see Celeste at least once while
you’re here.”

“
What about the
carriage?”

“
You need to take this
rental carriage back after you dump those two bodies. Just leave
the blue one that we took from Francoise’s guests where it is.
Someone will steal it eventually and that will be the end of that
loose end. I led the horses to a large field outside of Paris.
Someone now has four matched carriage horses. We’ll see you at the
chateau.”

They said their goodbye’s then and
Marie and Henri were off, rocketing away into the night.

***

At dawn the next day they were
approaching the chateau and shortly they surmised that they had
company Not long after changing into fresh clothing they met Anna
and Jacques, who introduced themselves since Ian was
absent.

The talk turned to politics and
markets. Henri finally said “I know the name Fellman from banking.
I don’t suppose that you’re related to the banking Fellman family
are you?”

Anna said “I am the Fellman banking
family, I and my son Serge. My husband Johannes is dead now seven
years. We still hold all the shares of the banks my husband’s
father founded.” Henri drew her into a conversation about banking,
international drafts, and the problems of them being honored at one
place and refused at another.

“
Henri, I’m returning to
Lausanne after this trip and I’d like to take a proposal to study.
We only have a small piece of the Swiss banking pie, but we do have
partners too. Would you be so kind as to draw up one for me to take
home?”

“
Why yes, Anna. It would be
my pleasure. I’ll send Ian when you’re ready to discuss it if it
meets your approval.” Anna nodded her approval with a smile,
thinking
oh please do send Ian! That meets
with my approval all right!

Anna felt a warming deep
inside of her, a feeling she hadn’t had since Johannes had died.
She thought
Now Anna; you naughty lady.
Don’t think about this young man as a silly school girl would. But
would a school girl think what I’m thinking?
At those thoughts, her internal temperature did start to
rise.
I hope I’m not blushing
now!

That evening Marie played
her harpsichord and Ian got to dance with Anna. He enjoyed himself
more than he thought he would. For her part, Anna felt an
electrical tingling when Ian held her hand at times.
Oh my, Anna. Where is this going? Uncle Jacques
will want to get home and I must go with him and stay there awhile.
Too bad. Anna, you are so very naughty, but it’s such a delicious
thought!

Two days later they
announced that they were leaving for Nice, but they promised to
stop by on their return to Switzerland. Anna was thrilled when Ian
hugged her good bye and kissed her cheek. She thought
oh my! I hope my internal temperature isn’t
showing!

The time passed quickly enough for Ian
what with him spending so much time with the boys. He asked for the
green ledger book that had belonged to Francoise. After studying
it, he came to Henri and Marie late one afternoon and told them he
was traveling on foot to find and kill the men who had furnished
the horses for Francoise.

***

Ian returned seventeen days later and
reported that he had killed seven men and eight drivers who had
furnished horses for the kidnappers and driven the carriages. He
had started with Aristide and had forced him to divulge others that
he knew before killing him and had worked his way back toward Paris
until getting the last one and returning to the chateau. The trip
was punctuated by travel on foot which Ian liked for the
distraction it provided.

While he was gone he had examined his
life now with Cosette gone. What was keeping him from resuming the
life he loved as first mate aboard Elsie’s Cloud?

He pondered this in between the
fifteen killings and he had to admit that he enjoyed delivering
every single death. He found a grim satisfaction in seeing the
horror in the eyes of each man as he realized the supernatural
power of the being who was about to kill them. It never helped the
aching emptiness in his heart though, and he thought more and more
about returning to Scotland after saying a final goodbye to
everyone at the chateau.

So it was that he had returned and
tried to take up his life there until a proper time would present
itself for him to reveal his plans.

Marie came to Henri and voiced her
concern about Ian.

“
What is it?”

“
I fear we’re losing him,
Henri.”

“
Losing Ian?”

“
Yes. I fear he wants to
return to Scotland. Maybe forever.”

He got a sorrowful expression on his
face then, saying “What can we do, really?”

Coming to him she put her arms around
his waist and laid her head on his chest, sighing deeply. “Nothing
but give him love and the time needed to heal. I’m so
depressed!”

The time passed quickly then as Ian
was busy with the boys and with learning three more new languages
from Henri and Marie. He had bought a violin from a traveling
peddler and was trying to learn to play it, wishing that he had
taken it up when he was sailing with Armando. He did get to where
he could play slower pieces and rarely hit a sour note after about
three weeks. The eighth week was when Anna stopped by on her way
back to Lausanne.

That first evening Ian played violin
and Anna was impressed at how soon he had picked it up with no one
to teach him. Marie played the harpsichord while Anna and Ian
danced. The electricity flowed for her each time Ian touched her
hand, even as formal and courtly as the dancing was. She knew that
she was falling in love with Ian and was certain that he had no
idea whatsoever. After she asked he agreed to take her fishing the
next morning. It was a pleasant evening of music and
camaraderie.

The next morning they got two horses
and Ian saddled both of them. In an hour they were at the river and
she asked why he didn’t bring a pole or bait.

“
I don’t use a pole. I hand
fish in places like this.”

“
Hand fish?”

“
Watch.” He waded in,
wearing only his seaman’s shorts and went to a shady part with
several logs and lots of rocks sticking out of the water. She saw
his hand make a darting movement and it came out of the water with
a fish flopping. She laughed delightedly and applauded. He knocked
it on the head with the handle of his knife, killing it. He would
toss each one on the bank after killing it. Within a few minutes he
had six of them. He came out then and taking his knife he neatly
and quickly sliced off their heads and soon had twelve fillets to
wrap in grass and put in his rucksack.

They rode to a remote part of the
Lafayette estate where there was a shady hilltop. To the south the
sparkling Mediterranean dominated the horizon. Ian vaulted from his
mount and assisted Anna down.

“
You learned to ride astride
a horse and not sidesaddle? Or did you change later?”

“
I learned that way in my
country. It’s not such a social issue there as it is
elsewhere.”

Peering off to the south he said “I’ve
not been here before. This would make a fine place to build a home,
wouldn’t it?”

She shaded her lovely eyes and gazed
out to sea. “It would.”

She noticed that he always seemed to
be despondent and distracted, as if some decision was weighing
heavily on him. They began to walk then, leading their mounts. Ian
headed to the stand of trees dominating the hilltop. Anna reached
and linked her hand in his, looking up at him. He turned his head
as they walked, fastening his eyes on hers. They neared the trees
and tied their mounts to a low hanging branch where they could
graze. They then walked slowly among the old trees without speaking
as the wind sang in the treetops. She again took his hand and
twined her fingers in his.