The banker Ricardo signed and become a partner with the Banque de Lafayette. The business part of the trip had been as successful as the entertainment part.
It was decided that the family would sail north to France at Biscay and take land transportation across southern France to the chateau. Ian and Alandra wanted to sail south through Gibraltar to visit with Roberto and Alicia on their way home to Barcelona. They promised to come to the chateau after they had been at Barcelona awhile. Aimee came to Ian and Alandra when it came time to part. She hugged and kissed Alandra over and over again and then climbed into Ian’s arms for a farewell, kissing him repeatedly as he and Alandra told her truthfully how much they would miss her and promised to join her at the chateau. As they walked away Ian said “I love that child so, Alandra. I can’t imagine life now without her. I look back now and count it a blessing the day we found her.”
“It was a blessing. She’s the kind of daughter I’ve dreamt of. I couldn’t love her more.”
They sailed through Gibraltar and on to Almeria where they stayed for a week at the Rodriguez estate in Almeria and then sailed to Barcelona.
***
As their ship plowed north through the Atlantic toward Biscay, the love birds got a lot of time together strolling about its deck. On one occasion, Liri turned to Mustafa and said “Tell me how you came to be with this family.” Mustafa gave her the story from his abduction in Morocco onward through his rescue and adoption. He told her about witnessing the hanging of the pirates, but left out details of the abuse he had suffered.
Liri said “Henri and Marie are heads of the family, but it seems that they defer to Ian a lot too.”
“Yes, Ian’s like an oldest son to both of them, and they’re like a mother and father to him, as they are to Louis and me. When they go to kill rogue vampires, Ian is the leader in all things pertinent to that. They’d never done that sort of thing before he came. It was after he came that a pair of rogue vampires began to steal little girls from one of Marie’s orphanages. That was what prompted the training you saw at the old house near Paris. Ian wanted to train himself as best he could when he was imprinting so he had Li brought to the chateau.
“Why Li?”
He explained the story of Ian’s being forced to become a vampire and of him voluntarily giving up ever seeing the girl he fell in love with when they were all at sea together.
“Did anyone ever learn what became of that girl?”
“That girl was Alandra.”
Her eyes widened. “No! Really? Now that is a love story if there ever was one!”
Laughing at her enthusiasm for the story he continued and related the story of Ian traveling to Spain for Tom’s wedding to Celita and ending up marrying Alandra. He concluded with saying “Cosette’s death made him even more determined to take revenge anytime he encountered a coven of rogue vampires. No one hates them more than he does.”
“That is understandable. He seems so gentle though, that I have a hard time imagining him doing the things you described.”
“The incident at the orphanage in Marseille started the whole thing off, and our family has since earned quite a reputation among their kind for our ability in that regard.”
“I can’t help but notice that even in this regard you include yourself as part of their family, Maurice.”
“They are my family.” He went on to tell her as much as he could of the accounts of their raids on rogue vampire covens. “He seems to take to that sort of thing naturally. Ian and Li are likely two of the deadliest of their kind.”
She looked out to sea a while then and then shaking her head said “Seeing him with Aimee and all of the times I’ve been around him when he came to live with Anna, I could never have guessed that. He’s a man of great contrasts. And I’ve seen Li with Sophia and Aimee. I couldn’t have guessed that the two of them are so deadly.”
“And I could never have guessed that you’d be the woman of my dreams, but you are. Did you know that, Liri? I was taken with you the first time I saw you when you knocked at our door in Paris.” They had been standing, her against the rail near the bow and he standing close behind with his arms about her waist. She turned her head to him and she blushed a bit, smiling sweetly. “I am so happy Maurice…so very happy.” He bent to kiss her then as the ship made its way north through the endless sea. Not more than thirty feet distant Louis was kissing Celeste at the same time.
Chapter 90
Tom and Celita were happy to see Ian and Alandra. Things had gone well at Barcelona House while they were gone, but Alandra got to work right away looking over the books and inspecting everything. The couple had done a superb job of caring for the place while they were away. While they were there, the niece of the daughter of King Charles was brought so Ian had their doctor give her a physical. She had what appeared to be the wasting disease. The doctor was quite frank and told the guardian that the child was dying. He didn’t hold out much hope and left it to the guardian to tell the child if she wanted to. The lady wept openly at the news, being that she loved the child as if she was her own.
Ian and Alandra brought some special soup to the little girl that night. It was just warm, not hot, and was exactly what they gave to little Rosita that cured her. The little girl was encouraged to drink it all. Ian and Alandra both sat with her afterward and told her that they thought she might soon start to get better. She said that she already was feeling warmer inside. They stayed by her bed until she slept.
The very next day, the child said she was feeling better. She and the guardian were both moved to Ian and Alandra’s house to stay. Being given a strict regimen of fruit and vegetable juice from the first, she was made to consume it daily. Within a week she was well and was running about and playing as would any healthy child that age. She had begun to gain back the weight she had lost and her color had improved dramatically. The doctor was summoned and he pronounced it a miracle and didn’t mind admitting he’d thought her to be as good as dead the day he first saw her.
Two days later the guardian tearfully thanked Alandra before she and the little girl departed for Madrid. Ian and Alandra had been spending most of their time with her parents and her brother if not at the hospital. They were ready to leave at any time, so they departed for Marseille.
***
Yvonne Devrie walked into the Cat’s Eye Tavern in Paris, and looked around. Seeing Stefan sitting alone, she moved through the crowded place toward his table. More than a few men tracked her progress as she artfully wove her way through the maze of tables to Stefan’s table. A lovely redhead, she would easily turn the heads of most men. She approached Stefan, who by now had seen her. “Good evening love. Have you learned anything about the whereabouts of Arnaud Moreau yet?”
“No. We’ve come here so much that we’re now considered regulars and I’ve yet to hear where he might be.”
“I heard something interesting not an hour ago.” He looked at her, raising his eyebrows as she went on “It seems that Francoise had a younger brother who lives near Lacoste’. Do you think that this Arnaud might have gone to see him?”
“Why would Moreau go to see Francoises’ younger brother?”
“Would you be interested in knowing that his older brother, Aldric may have worked for him before his death? It might be that Moreau went to see the younger one to see if he could shed any light on the death of his older brother.”
“Where did you hear that?”
“I just tonight learned of it while talking to a woman who used to keep company with Aldric.. It seems he was killed in Austria as the rumor goes.”
“What would that have to do with the fire at Francoises’ place?”
“Oh it gets better, Stefan. It’s rumored that there were kidnappings of children involved in the events at Vienna where Aldric was killed.”
“What?” he said, looking wide-eyed at her. She nodded with a smile and her green eyes began to glow. “It c
ould be that we should go see this Marquis de Sade and learn the whereabouts of Arnaud.”
“This is the first good news I’ve had since I lost my arm” he said as his eyes began to glow.
“He’s quite well known about France and quite wealthy as well. We can’t just go and bully him. We’ll have to have something to offer him.”
“How about an eyewitness report on what really happened the night his brother burned to death?”
***
After sailing from Barcelona to Marseille, Ian and Alandra arrived at the chateau and greeted everyone. Little Aimee jumped into Ian’s arms and was kissing him and Alandra before the others could even get close. She was swung up to sit on his shoulders to her great delight, putting his tricorner hat on her head with a big smile. Everyone hugged and exchanged kisses as always. Celeste walked arm-in-arm between Ian and Alandra as they made their way to the broad veranda of the chateau. Marie was on Ian’s other arm, her head against his shoulder, smiling.
Two idyllic weeks slipped by like a day it seemed. They were filled with outdoor activities by day and with dancing and music every night. Once Aimee had seen Ian and Henri perform the Cossack dance, she wouldn’t rest until she’d learned how to do it too. It was quite a sight to see a little tyke like her performing a masculine dance such as that.
During this time, Ian conferred with the others about Aimee’s performance and asked if she had ever slipped in public. Everyone confirmed that she’d always been a flawless performer, never revealing her true powers in any public place. He asked what the others thought about her learning some basic self-defense practices and no one objected, so he began to teach Aimee some technics of Chi-Na.
He explained to Aimee that these were things that she would now learn because she had shown that she could be trusted. It was stressed that she was never to use these things against children, but only against someone who was going to harm her or someone else. They were quite simple techniques, designed to break a finger or to paralyze an opponent by use of a pressure point. She was also taught how to deliver a powerful snap kick, as well as how to yield and use a bigger opponents’ momentum to throw them to the ground. A surprise blow to the neck to temporarily impair breathing as well as use of the universal ‘sleeper-hold’ was taught and she became skilled at both techniques
For more serious situations she was taught how to gouge out an eye or to crush a larynx in a life-or-death situation. Being that all of this was something completely new, she loved it, and trained faithfully, striving to excel as she always did. As bizarre as all of this was, it was accepted as commonplace at the chateau, where training in fighting techniques had become commonplace since Ian had joined the family.
One evening after dinner, Louis stood up. Ian looked at Alandra and winked about the same time as Marie nudged Henri. Louis said “I have an announcement to make.” Indicating Celeste seated next to him he said “I’ve asked this lovely lady to marry me and she’s accepted.” Celeste beamed a brilliant smile as a slight flush rose to her cheeks.
There was applause all around and then Ian said “Mustafa, have you something to tell us?”
Smiling broadly he stood and said “I do. I have asked Liridona to marry me and she’s agreed to make me the happiest man on earth.” Liri blushed and smiled.
There was applause all around then for the two of them. Ian stood and clinked his fork on his goblet and said “I have an announcement to make and it is this: I’ve asked my Uncle Angus to join us here for a while this summer if he can, so if you lovebirds can wait until he arrives, you might consider a dual wedding aboard Elsie’s Cloud.”
Celeste and Liridona both exclaimed their delight. Marie vanished quickly and reappeared just as quickly holding a bottle of wine. “Let’s toast the brides and grooms to be then.” she said.
Chapter 91
Elsie’s Cloud rode at anchor in the port of Marseille. The watch was set with six left aboard and there were two carriages with the last passengers climbing in for the ride to the Chateau.
Around three hours later, the two carriages approached the large chateau. Liri and Mustafa were sitting on the veranda and saw them coming. Liri went quickly inside to tell Marie. She rang her summoning bell and soon the veranda was crowded with staff and others of the family. Ian, Alandra, Henri, and Marie all came to the carriage along with six of her staff. Angus stepped out, tall and lean as ever. Ian and he hugged each other and grabbed each other’s shoulders and just looked into each other’s eyes for a bit, grinning. As they parted Ian stood looking intently into the carriage.
Angus saw the stupefied look on his face and began to laugh. “Why Ian, you look as if you never saw your mother or your aunt Mary before!” He reached then to assist Elsie and Mary down from the carriage. Ian and Alandra took turns hugging and kissing the two and were still looking and smiling at them when Stuart climbed down from the carriage. Ian turned to his little brother and picked him up in a bear hug and whirled him around. “Stu; look at you! So tall and handsome! I’ll wager that the young ladies in Edinburg know you by name! But you’re not yet too big to get a ride on your big brothers shoulder lad!” He then grabbed Stu and stooping down; he snatched him up and ran all around the two coaches carrying him like he was only a pillow, laughing all the while. Alandra shook her head and said “I honestly believe he’ll do Stuart that way forever!” as they all laughed at the familiar site. Mustafa and Louis really enjoyed it because Ian had finally quit doing it to them after they had announced their intent to marry.
The occupants of the other coach were now out and Ian put Stu down to embrace Armando, Mark, Leon, and Rob MacGregor. “Stay right here, Lads. We’ve some introductions to be made.” Meanwhile Henri, Marie, and Alandra had been following behind him greeting everyone. Ian returned in a moment with Liridona, Celeste, and Aimee. He introduced all of them to everyone which took a good little bit of time. Li took Sophia around to meet everyone.
Ian took Aimee aside for a moment and said “We’ll be having lots of humans here for a while Aimee. You’ll have to be at your very best. I haven’t seen these of my family for a long time and it may seem like I’m ignoring you, but that isn’t so. It’s just that I don’t get to see them that much.”
“I understand.”
“There will be a lot of exciting things happening, but you must remember to keep your eyes looking normal at all times. Can you do that?”
“I can do that.”
“Some of the time you’ll be staying with Alandra and me at our house with Li and Sophia until after the wedding. That will make it easier, sweetheart. I’m so very pleased with you. I love you.”
She put her little arms around his neck and kissed him. “I love you too.”
Dinner was delicious and was a jovial and pleasant time for everyone. The conversations centered on news from Scotland and on the new developments in Ian’s life. There were lots of questions about their travels in Spain and Portugal as well as all to do with the upcoming weddings. Ian’s mother asked later about Aimee and the standard orphan/adoption story was told.
It was announced that there would be a dual wedding aboard Elsie as soon as Marie could arrange for the same crew to prepare the ship. A twin repair dock would be used to put all guests aboard and a large crew hired to tow and row them clear from the dock so that Elsie would be at sea for the ceremony.
Aimee and Celeste sang for the guests that evening and Ian and Alandra sat up late into the night visiting with everyone. It was well after midnight when the last guest retired.
***
One evening at dinner Marie announced that the ship would be ready for a wedding within three more days. All who were there were impressed with the joy and sincerity of the two couples.
The three days passed quickly with all manner of activities. The fourth morning saw them all departing for Marseille. The ship’s officers would stay at the Red Dolphin courtesy of Lorn and Corinne, while the
family would stay at a vacant home in Marseille owned by Henri. Marie had already sent part of the staff there to ready the place. The wedding would be the day after. Today would be a final inspection of the preparations aboard ship by Marie. She had given instructions to her staff concerning their return and the wedding celebration. Her senior staff members were in charge of seeing that everything was ready for that event.
The ship had been prepared to perfection and it was the day of the wedding. As before, a large temporary canopy had been erected and a temporary staircase installed over one of the two access steps to the stern deck. The ship was bedecked with flowers and garlands. The guests were all aboard and the two brides were cloistered in the forecastle with Marie. Eight draft horses pulled Elsie out from between the twin repair docks as the crew rowed and towed her slowly away from them.
Soon she was turned and her sails unfurled. She gracefully made her way out of the harbor to a place around two miles offshore where she was anchored. Only the vampires aboard noticed how Angus skillfully anchored Elsie so that the canopy cast a shadow over the seats in front. The sails were furled then and Armando began to play his wedding tune. Ian came out and assisted the two ladies up the ladder of the forecastle to the main deck. Aimee came out too, in the same gown that she wore when she performed in Spain. The two brides to be had new gowns sent from Paris by Caryn. Celeste had collaborated with Caryn about it, suspecting that Liri would need a wedding dress. Aimee preceded Ian and the two brides with a basket of rose petals that she scattered as they walked. Ian walked the two of them down the aisle. Two little girls from Angel’s Care orphanage followed to keep the bridal trains from dragging on the deck
Ian walked the two women to the staircase smiling broadly. He turned to Celeste and kissed both of her hands, “You’ve come a long way from where I found you, lassie. Who knew that something that started so bad could end so well? Congratulations and welcome to our family.” And then he turned to Liri and kissed both of her hands. “Liri, little did I know that you’d be joining our family when we met. Congratulations and welcome.” To both of them he said “I am so happy this blessed day. May God bless you, your husbands, and your marriage forever more.” Then he assisted them up to the aft deck where Angus, Mustafa, and Louis waited, smiling broadly. Ian scooped up little Aimee and herded the other two little girls to Marie. Then he went to his seat where he kissed and cuddled Aimee as he sat next to Alandra.