Summer of the Moon Flower (The de Vargas Family) (11 page)

She shivered and he drew her closer.”Do you
believe in coincidences?” she asked. Pulling away from him, her eyes flared.
“You were less than truthful with me in Vienna and now I want to know the
truth.”

“No, Sofia, I am not following you. I am
here to partake of some mountain air, and look at the cattle breed I spoke of
that night in the
kaffeehäuser.
If you remember back, it was you…you,
yourself… who recommend this inn to me.”

Her shoulders slumped and she pulled away
from him. “I am sorry, Dougal. There is much in my life that makes it
impossible for me to trust. I am not good for you and this… attraction between
us can only lead to trouble.” Her eyes shone in the moonlight as tears threatened
to spill. “I cannot speak of what is between us, but it cannot continue.” He
moved closer to her and he lifted his hand letting his fingers wipe the single
tear on her cheek.” Her sad eyes tugged at his heart and he vowed once more to
protect this woman, not only from the evil men who were plotting her demise,
but from the sadness consuming her. A missive from the Grand Master had been
waiting for him at their lodgings in Salzburg with a warning that the demise of
the target must be sooner rather than later; he had deliberately not told the
leader of their final destination so the automatons could not be sent to
follow.

“We can be friends, Sofia? We will enjoy
our time on the mountain with Edward and your little family. It can be a time
full of laughter and joy and we will ignore those things worrying you.”

She smiled up at him and peace stole over
him despite the contents of the missive he’d received. He would trust in good
triumphing over evil. All would be well.

Two days passed and Edward and Dougal had
hiked to the upper reaches of the mountain to look at the cattle each day.
Sofia had her hands full looking after the boys and keeping them safe and
thanked Mr. Grimoult many times each day for assisting her.

“You are a pair of young devils.” She
laughed as she removed a live frog from her pocket. “To-day, when we hike with
Edward and Dougal, you must do as we say at all times. Is that clear?”

Jory and Jago giggled and nodded. Sofia
knew how much they were looking forward to going up into the snow. She glanced
across at Mr. Grimoult and he nodded.

“I am ready to go as well, Sofia. We are
going to pick some flowers to take back for Indigo.” He turned to the twins.
“Will you strong young men assist me to collect some botanicals for your
mother’s laboratory?”

They both groaned. “More smelly flowers for
our mother to boil in her biome. We won’t see her for a week.” When Mr.
Grimoult raised his bushy eyebrows at them, they agreed, albeit with moans of
displeasure. Sofia smiled at him across the boys’ heads. He was setting up a
good cover for her.

The party set off after lunch. They had set
aside time for the boys to play in the snow and Sofia planned to gather her
moonflowers while they played under Mr. Grimoult’s watchful eye. She would trust
her life to him, as well as the boys. He and his wife had been faithful
retainers to her own father many years ago and had lived with Indigo in
Cornwall since their father had been murdered.

The cover was good; Sofia had told Dougal
about the biome complex and Indigo’s work with pharmaceuticals and
cosmecuticals. Herr Schwandt had advised them not to go too high as the clouds
were building to the west and could bode a change in the weather. The excited
chatter of the boys kept them entertained and the walk had passed quickly.
Sofia’s legs ached and her calf muscles protested as she climbed the final
steep section of the path.

Ahead Dougal and Edward led the way and she
smiled as the cold wind plastered Dougal’s kilt to his brawny thighs. He
certainly looked at home in the outdoors, although he had been withdrawn and
quiet since they had commenced the outing.

For the first time since she had left
Vienna, Sofia was certain she would succeed. Mr. Grimoult carried the
containers for the moonflowers in his rucksack and Dougal and Edward had shown
little interest in their talk of moonflowers. It was strange they were both
preoccupied today. She had attempted to start a conversation with Dougal on two
occasions and he had answered in monosyllables and kept walking.

Now she hurried to catch up to Dougal. “Do
you think the weather will hold out long enough for us to stay for a while?”

He stopped and shaded his eyes with his
hand, looking up to the peak.

“Aye, it will be fine.” He turned away from
her and she shrugged and kept walking along behind him. A sharp squeal came
from Jago and she turned swiftly to him, but he was only expressing his delight
at the snow ahead of them. Both boys raced past her and dived into the snow
drift. Sofia shook her head— they did not see much snow in the Cornish winter,
but they were still children and she took pleasure in their play. She smiled
and spoke to Mr. Grimoult as he caught up to her, puffing and red-faced as a
snowball came whistling toward them. She ducked and shook her finger at her
nephews, laughing as Edward formed a snowball and caught Jory unexpectedly in
the shoulder with a perfect shot. The boys squealed and giggled as Edward
returned snowball for snowball, despite being outnumbered by the twins,

“You watch the boys and I will climb a bit
higher. If there are any moonflowers up there, I will call you. We should be
close by now, surely.”

The old man nodded and sat on a large rock
with his back against the sheer rock wall which edged the mountain pass they
had reached. Sofia looked down past him to the edge of the rock face. Her
stomach dropped and her legs trembled as she looked over the sheer precipice.
The inn and the forest were like toy buildings far below them. They had climbed
higher than she thought.

“Make sure the boys stay well away from the
edge,” she instructed.

“I will guard them with my life.” Mr.
Grimoult smiled at her. “Now go and search for your flowers, Madame.”

The twins were engrossed in building an
igloo by the time she reached them and satisfied they were safe, she climbed
further up the narrow track. Edward had left the boys to catch up to Dougal and
they had both surged ahead, obviously following the cowbells which tinkled down
from higher up the path.

A few hundred yards ahead, a clump of green
foliage peeked out of the sheer rock and Sofia smiled. The patches of white
scattered amongst the green appeared to be the elusive moonflower. Dougal and
Edward had disappeared and she surveyed the path ahead of her. An outcrop of
fallen rocks covered in snow blocked her way and she looked around for an
alternate route. An eerie quiet had fallen over the mountain and she shivered.
The cries of the boys had stopped and the cow bells were silent. For a moment
she debated going back for Mr. Grimoult and the rucksack. She shook her head;
it would be better if she made sure it was the moonflower before she went down.
A cloud passed over the sun and she looked up, the high clouds were scudding;
they would have to return to the inn before the weather changed.

To her right, there was a gap in the rock
face and Sofia stepped toward it and clung to the sharp rock with her fingers
as she tried to see if there was a path around the rock fall. She squeezed through
a narrow slit between two rocks and gasped as a deep precipice yawned in front
of her. Clutching her chest, she stepped back slowly and hit a solid warm wall.
She turned and Dougal’s chest filled her vision. She looked up at him, the
words dying on her lips. Edward stood close to him with a strange brass
contraption in his hands. Dougal grasped her arm with steely fingers and held
her gaze silently. Her head spun and fear crawled into her stomach. She backed
away from them and gasped as her foot flailed in the air searching for a
foothold.

Dougal reached back and held onto Edward’s
arm. She searched their unsmiling faces trying to understand what was
happening.

“I’m sorry, Sofia. It is the only way.”

Dougal pushed her and Sofia screamed as she
plummeted to the rocks below.

Dougal bowed his head and listened to the
sonorous beating of the drum heralding the entrance of the Holy Five. Four of
them moved to the table and sat, but the Grand Master remained standing. The
white-cloaked men seated on the benches in the Great Hall looked up expectantly
as their Leader summonsed Dougal and Edward were to the front of the gathering

A huge smile broke the usually solemn
features of the old man and he bid them kneel in front of him. Reaching out he
placed a hand on each of their heads and gave thanks for their loyalty.

“You may stand.” He pointed to the raised
dais in the centre of the room. Dougal and Edward climbed up the two steps. The
gathering stood and a rousing cheer echoed through the hall as the Leader led
the men in praise.

“Earl of Rothmore and Edward of Kilmarnock,
you have proven your loyalty to the Knights. You shall be rewarded in this life
and the next.”

Dougal glanced across at Edward. The young
man stared ahead; his face devoid of any expression and Dougal directed his own
gaze back to the Leader.

Tonight, the Grand Master did not commence
with the libations but moved straight to the vows of poverty, chastity,
obedience, and piety. Dougal allowed a smile to creep onto his face. The collective
relief of the knights at the shortened ceremony was almost palpable and he knew
his quest to end this chapter would be made easier by the motivations of the
men gathered in this room

The motivations of these knights were known
to him and none were for any spiritual reason. Greed motivated each one of them
and not one could lay claim to a pious life. Soon, he and Edward would embark
on their plan to end the corruption of this order. He had promised his father
he would end the reign of these men and their political and spiritual power,
and the decline had finally begun.

Unknown to them.

The death of Sofia would ensure the
induction of both he and Edward into the inner circle and they would be privy
to information which he could use against the Grand Master. The trip to Austria
would be rewarded greatly.

The chanting ceased and the sonorous voice
interrupted his thoughts. “I will meet with you and Edward of Kilmarnock in the
Solar.”

* * * *

Indigo pulled the black veil over her face
and wiped her eyes. The boys were playing in the garden, but their usual
exuberant cries and whoops had been missing since the twins had returned from
the Alps. Jory and Jago still had trouble sleeping, and she and Zane had taken
turns sitting up with them at night.

Mr. Grimoult was inconsolable and had been
unable to carry out his usual duties, He had aged ten years in the month since
she and Zane had been called urgently to Austria after Sofia’s murder.

They had just returned from a memorial
service for Sofia in London. The staff from
Salon de Vargas
had
travelled over by dirigible and Lucienne had sobbed in Indigo’s arms.

“I knew there was something strange about
that man. His wife was like a dead woman, but Sofia was so taken by him.”
Lucienne’s voice trembled

None of the staff from the university in
Vienna had attended. Indigo had beseeched them to stay away in case of more
danger and they had been unable to contact two of the researchers who were on
some mysterious journey. She did not want to put the boys at further risk.
Until it was discovered who was behind Sofia’s murder, they would take the
utmost care and she had personally supplied funds to place a guard on the
laboratory in Vienna.

Sofia’s body had not been retrieved. Even
though it was summer in the Alps, there were so many crevasses and fissures,
the search teams had been unable to find any sign of her. They knew she had
fallen…or been pushed, as her silver cloak was caught on a protruding rock half
way down the sheer rock face. The two Scottish men had disappeared and Indigo
still held onto a slim hope her sister had been kidnapped. But Mr. Grimoult was
adamant he had heard her scream as she had fallen, and had seen the rocks
tumbling down after her.

But Indigo refused to accept her sister’s
death. A month had passed and she sat by the chronometric receiver at all hours
of the day and night, hoping and praying Sofia would send her a message.
Finally Zane had come to get her one morning and she had looked up into his sad
eyes and broken down. She had finally accepted there was no hope and organized
the memorial service. She had the boys to think of, her biomes to run and Mr.
Grimoult to console.

Sofia was gone.

But she planned one trip once the boys had
settled.

She and Zane would travel to the Isle of
Little Rothmore.

* * * *

A chill wind blew in from the sea and the
fire sputtered in the hearth of the huge fireplace. Any heat disappeared up the
cavernous chimney or up into the high roof of the large room. The solid wooden door
was bolted from the outside and only a glimpse of gray sky was visible through
the high narrow gap at the top of the stone wall.