Athena's Daughter (10 page)

“No.” He shook his head, his hair brushing
against his neck with each negative shake. “You can’t.”

“I have to.” With a quick, angry swipe, she
brushed the tears from her cheeks. “I knew this thing was going to
expire, but I didn’t remember to go file an extension.”

“Fuck it,” Derek declared. “Stay anyway.”

Athena gulped down a sob. “I told my mom I
was going to do that. But she said they’d find out eventually, and
when they did they’d deport me and ban me from entering the country
again. Derek, they’re going to make me leave one way or
another.”

His gaze flew wildly around the room as
though searching for an answer. When he looked at the fraying end
of the purple and blue plaid bedspread he froze, eyes wide. “Oh,
no, they’re not.” Before Athena could respond, he bent and pulled a
long purple thread from the fabric. Under Athena’s confused gaze,
he wound the string around his little finger several times, and
tied the ends in a double knot. Finished, he looked up at her with
eyes shining.

“They can’t make you leave if you’re my
wife.”

Athena sat back on her heels with a thump.
“What?”

His warm hands slid over hers, and held them
in a firm grasp. “I’ve wanted to marry you since the first morning
I woke up next to you. Look, angel, I’m going to marry you some
day, and this seems like the perfect time to do it. Sit on the
bed.”

“What?” God, she sounded like a parrot
repeating the same word over and over again, but she couldn’t think
of anything else to say. It was like time simultaneously speeded up
and slowed down, leaving her disoriented.

“Sit on the bed. Please,” he added in a voice
strained with urgency.

Like a puppet, she pulled herself onto the
bed and watched in wonder as he rose up on one knee before her. He
rolled the little circlet of purple string up the ring finger of
her left hand, and then looked up at her with that one-sided
smile.

“Athena, will you marry me?”

This was real. This was happening! Her
disorientation and despair fled, replaced by a blazing happiness.
“Yes.” She flung herself off the bed into his arms, knocking him
onto his back. “Yes, I’ll marry you.” Propping herself up on his
chest, she spread swift kisses over his face. “Yes!”

“I’m afraid it’s not that easy.” A gloating
little smirk accompanied the functionary’s smug statement. “The
young lady will have to apply for a fiancée visa, and that will
take some time, and that’s if she has all the correct
documentation. And since her visitor’s visa is set to expire
tomorrow, it means she’ll be in the country illegally.” He
transferred his attention to Athena. “I’m afraid you’ll have to
return to the United States and apply for the fiancée visa
there.”

“Can’t you just switch it?” Derek’s
disbelieving glare was fast turning into one of anger. “Her current
visa’s still good until tomorrow. Just change it to a fiancée visa
and extend it.”

“One does not simply switch from one type of
visa to another,” the man sniffed. “It can’t be done.”

“Then issue her a work visa,” Simon
interjected. He and Paul were recruited as witnesses to the
marriage, and were standing back as Derek and Athena had their
hopes crushed by the rude little man in the Register Office. “She
works for me as a member of my road crew.”

“Do you mean to say she’s already working for
you without having a proper work visa?”

Realizing his mistake, Simon backtracked.
“No, I’ve just hired her since she’s going to marry Derek here. So
she needs a work visa.”

The man hefted a sigh that indicated how much
he disliked dealing with idiots. “Again, that will take some time,
and the young lady will still be in the country illegally.”

“Damn it!” Simon tried to lunge across the
desk, and was held back by Paul who made a lucky grab. “You’re not
doing much to foster good relations between countries, you
know!”

“That’s not my concern.” The little prick’s
eyes narrowed. “I’m also beginning to think there’s something dodgy
here. First the young lady wants a fiancée visa. Then a work
visa.”

“We don’t want any kind of bloody visa,”
Derek gritted out. “We just want to get married. How hard can that
be?”

Folding his hands together on his desk, the
man gave Derek a gimlet eye. “I wouldn’t say it’s hard, but there
are certain rules to be followed. One just doesn’t rush into the
office and marry a foreigner without the proper procedures. I
suppose you could always go to the United States and get married
there. I understand their rules are rather lax about such
things.”

Once again Simon attempted to dive across the
desk, and the interview was over.

“Come home with me then, and we can get
married there.” Athena’s words were muffled against Derek’s chest
as they lay in the bed, dreading the sunrise.

“I don’t have the bread to go to the States.”
His voice was equally muffled since his face was hidden in her
hair. “If I did, I’d have bought my airline ticket yesterday when
you bought yours.”

“I know.” Cold despair flooded Athena at the
knowledge that in a few short hours she wouldn’t be with him.
Tomorrow morning would dawn and she wouldn’t be in his arms. “But
I’m coming back as soon as I can. I’ll apply for that fiancée visa
thing, and be right back here as soon as they’ll let me. As soon as
I find out when that’ll be, I’ll ring you and tell you. It’ll
probably take that long to save up enough money for a transatlantic
phone call anyway. I have a feeling my folks won’t be lending me
the money for it.”

“God, how could I be so stupid?” Derek burst
out.

“You? This isn’t your fault.” She sat up and
scowled. “It’s mine for not paying attention, and letting my visa
expire.”

He sat up next to her. “But if I’d asked you
to marry me the minute I knew I wanted to, we’d have all that rot
taken care of, and might even be married by now.”

“You can’t think that way. You didn’t know
they’d make us jump through hoops like this. No one knew your
country has a stick up its ass about marriage.” She wrapped her
arms around him. “But we’ll take care of it, and I’ll be back
before you know it.”

“I know you will.” His warm hands cupped her
cheeks. “And then we’ll be married.” He stared deep into her eyes.
“Just remember that, Athena. I am going to marry you.”

Memphis, April 7, 1975

Stepping from the cold, gray drizzle of a
Memphis spring morning into the muted, business-like hum of the
lobby of the Holiday Inn was almost surreal, kind of like going
from a single mother working as a record store manager to being the
personal assistant to a rock band. Athena couldn’t think of a more
fitting beginning to her new role, and stumbled into the lobby,
arms weighted down by her two suitcases.

Relief flooded her at the sight of Simon
waiting for her. The whole situation was so unreal that she half
believed it was all a joke, and someone was going to pop out at any
moment and yell, “Gotcha!”

“Good morning, love.” Simon stepped forward
and gathered her into a tight hug. “Welcome aboard.”

The warmth in his brown eyes quelled her
nerves somewhat, and she returned his embrace with feeling. If she
was going to step into Alice’s rabbit hole, at least she was doing
it with people she knew. Kind of.

“I thought we’d sit here to go over things,”
Simon said, gesturing toward a grouping of chairs and tables at one
side of the lobby. “It’s a lot more convenient than having
everything spread out on my bed. You’d think a city of this size
would have a hotel that offered suites, wouldn’t you?”

“You’d think,” Athena murmured, having no
idea what Memphis did or didn’t offer in the way of accommodations
for visitors. “This is fine.” She dropped into one of the chairs,
and tried to stifle a yawn. It had been a long time since she’d
been up before the sun.

“Do you think we might get some coffee over
here for Miss Hill?” Simon called over to the desk clerk. “And
perhaps some hot tea?”

As the clerk cocked an irritated eyebrow and
picked up the phone, Athena tilted her head toward Simon. “And my
last name is Chandler, not Hill.”

“Oh, right. I forgot you’d been married.”

“Well, try to remember. All my identification
says Athena Chandler, and I don’t want to run into any problems or
misunderstandings down the road.”

Simon grinned and leaned back in his chair.
“Noted. I’m so glad you decided to come with us, love. All the lads
are chuffed about it, too.”

“All of them?” She raised a skeptical
brow.

A slight squirm betrayed Simon’s discomfort.
“He was a little taken aback, it’s true. But he’ll come round.
Besides, if anyone can handle Derek, it’s you.”

Athena’s laugh contained no humor. “Maybe
seven years ago. I’m not so sure about now.”

“It’s like I said the other day; no one’s
changed much. You’ll see.”

“Mm-hm.” Athena looked up as a trim, lithe
black woman approached, a mug held in each hand. Athena never had
the audacity to ask for beverages to be served outside a dining
room, and half expected some sort of fancy teacups and saucers. A
nice, sturdy ceramic mug was more her style, and she was glad to
see the thick white ones in the woman’s hands.

“Who gets the tea and who gets the coffee?”
the woman asked, looking expectantly between Simon and Athena.

“Coffee for me, tea for the foreigner over
there,” Athena replied.

“Foreigner?” The woman handed over the
coffee, and then turned to Simon, holding the tea just out of his
reach. “Where you from?”

“England.” Simon grinned, and Athena could
have sworn he thickened his accent on purpose. “London, England to
be precise.”

“Well, we got to be precise.” Smiling, the
woman handed Simon his tea before standing back with hands on hips.
“Lord, honey; I could stand here and listen to you talk all
day.”

“I’ll tell you a secret, love. I could sit
here and listen to you talk all day.”

“Mm-hm.” Laughing, she shook her head. “Y’all
want any more coffee or tea, just come on in the dining room over
there and find me.” She cast a glance at Athena, eyes sparkling.
“He your man?”

“Nope,” Athena grinned. “Just someone I used
to know.”

“Well, then.” The woman winked at Athena
before turning back to Simon. “You want any else besides coffee or
tea, you come on in the dining room and find me.”

As she went chuckling back to the dining
room, Athena looked at Simon over the rim of her coffee cup.

“Look at you charming the prettiest women
this morning.”

“I love this town.” Simon leaned back in his
chair with a lazy smile. “Everyone’s so friendly.”

Athena smiled and took a sip of her coffee.
“Actually, Memphis is a great place to live.”

Using the attached string, Simon dunked his
tea bag up and down in his cup. “And to think you’ve been here the
whole time when Derek was out of his mind wondering what happened
to you.”

A stab of guilt knifed through Athena’s
heart, and she blanched. “I really wasn’t here the whole time. I
lived in New Mexico for a while. But we’re not going to discuss any
of that, got it?”

“Right. Sorry, love.”

“Good.” She sighed, and attempted to get her
emotions back in order. After a few more gulps of coffee, she was
ready to get started. “Okay, the job. Lay it on me.”

“Right.” Simon handed over a black-bound
notebook. “Pretty much everything you’ll need to know is in that
book. Have a quick look, and then you can ask me about anything
that’s not immediately clear.”

She flipped through the pages, pleased to
find that it was broken down into sections, one for luggage, one
for room preferences, one even containing a list of restaurants and
dry cleaning facilities for the cities they’d be visiting.

“Hey, this is really handy.”

Simon blew on his tea. “Yeah, Richie put it
together.”

“Richie? The guy who broke his leg?”

He shrugged. “He might have been clumsy, but
he was also organized. You won’t have to worry so much about the
luggage and such. It’s all loaded on and off the plane, and
delivered to the hotels. If anything goes missing, though, it’s
your place to track it down.”

One word made her forget about the band’s
luggage concerns. “Plane? What plane?”

“We’ve hired a Learjet for the tour, love.
That plane.”

In an instant her palms went clammy. “I
thought you guys had a bus,” she said in a small voice.

Simon snorted. “I shouldn’t think so. We may
not be able to get a jumbo jet like Zeppelin does, but at least we
don’t have to bang around in a bus like some opening act.”

“But at the store the other day I could have
sworn you said something about a bus.”

“Oh, that.” Simon waved an airy hand. “Just a
term. It was more of a large van, really. It brought us from the
airport, that’s all.” He peered at her with a concerned frown. “You
don’t have a problem with flying, do you?”

“No. I’d just prepared myself for a bus, not
a little…airplane.”

“It’s not a propeller plane, Athena. It may
be small, but it’s still a jet. Perfectly comfortable and perfectly
safe, you’ll see.” He patted her knee.

“I’m fine, really.” She hoped she sounded
convincing. It was hard to tell with her heart lodged somewhere in
her throat, pounding like she’d just run from a burning building.
“It just threw me. That’s all.”

“Good, then. The main thing you’ll need to do
when we arrive in a new city is to make sure the lads’ rooms are
stocked with their preferences.”

“Like what?” She flipped through the
notebook, looking for the correct section.

“Well, for example, Paul’s become addicted to
Dr. Pepper and likes to have it in his room so he doesn’t have to
keep calling down for it.” Simon sat back and propped one ankle on
his knee. “Derek likes to have tea available at all times, things
like that.”