Cupid's Treasure - Mystery of the Golden Arrow (22 page)

“I think I may need to get the library squared away first,” Amber said. “Could we go later?” She wasn’t even sure she still needed them. The ones she was wearing were making her vision blurry, and she had to keep looking over the rims to see.

“We can do that,” Charlene said as she noticed the young man seated on the couch. “Well, hello.”

“I’m Ross from Kansas.”

“So you are,” Charlene said.

“He’s Katie’s nephew,” Jacques added.

“He looks more like you,” Charlene said.

“You think so?” Jacques asked proudly.

“Yes,” Charlene said. “You two have the same eyes and coloring.”

“Small world,” Jonathan said.

“Are you just getting up?” she asked, noting Jonathan’s uncombed hair. “Good night?” She winked. “I’ve been up since four this morning. I’m on call.” She looked down at her beeper distastefully.

“Did you hear about the body they found?” Jonathan asked.

“Hear about?” Charlene said. “Sugar, I bagged him.”

Mavis swallowed distastefully.

“This world has some odd ducks in it,” Charlene said. “You know that his body had been drained of blood before it was tossed out in the swamps.” She shivered for effect. “My guess is vampires,” she joked.

“Were there any puncture wounds?” Katie asked seriously.

“All over it.” Charlene nodded. “Gators had used him as a chew toy,” she said as her beeper went off. “I was afraid of that,” she said. “I’ve got to run.” She sighed.

“Would you like a cup of coffee to go?” Gloria asked.

“You read my mind.” She grinned.

“Good morning, everyone,” René said as he passed Gloria and Charlene in the hall and entered the living room.

Everyone watched speculatively with the exception of Mavis and the new boy. “Hello,” he said in greeting to the new face.

“I’m Ross, and I’m from Kansas,” Eros said.

“I’m René, and I am from Transylvania.”

Mavis swallowed again.

“Let’s go and get some breakfast,” Jonathan said to Eros.

“I’ve had breakfast,” Eros said.

“You’re a growing boy,” Jonathan said, unwilling to leave him with his mother alone. “You can eat again.”

Mavis stood up to follow and happened to glance out the front door. She did a double take walking out on the porch. “Jonathan?” Mavis called. She found him at the table in the kitchen. “Do you know what happened to my car?”

“Um—” Jonathan said.

“Do you remember the time that you lobbed a baseball through the front window of the bakery and said it was from a meteor shower?” Charlene asked with a chuckle.

“That wasn’t from a meteor shower?” Mavis asked.

“Thanks, Chucky,” Jonathan said.

“Any time doll,” she said. “I’ll catch you all later.”

“Well?” Mavis asked after Charlene left. “Are you going to tell me there was another meteor shower last night?”

“That was my fault,” Eros said. “We decided to play catch, and I overthrew the ball.”

“At midnight?”

“It’s a male bonding thing,” Jonathan said. “I’ll get it fixed this morning.”

“Well,” Mavis said, “considering my little
oopsie yesterday, I’ll let it go.”

“You call that wreckage an
oopsie?” Jonathan asked. At her look he said, “Yeah, we can let it go.”

“Mavis,” Jessie said. “Are there any records of people who worked and lived here?”

“I should say so,” Mavis said. “I’ve helped record most of it.”

“What about in the year 1863?”

“Oh, no,” Mavis said. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but most of the records around this area from before, during, and a little after the Civil War are pretty sketchy.”

“Why?” Mavis asked. “Who are you interested in?”

“Well that’s just it.” Jessie shrugged. “I don’t know. I was trying to find out who may have lived in the Carriage House out back.”

“I would imagine mostly horses along with the grooms and the gardener,” Katie said.

“Speaking of people living places,” Mavis said, looking at her new grandson. “If not Kansas, where do you come from?”

“Ah—” Jonathan started to answer, but he had to swallow his coffee first.

“I live in a small mountain community,” Eros answered her.

“Could I have ever been there?” she asked.

“Probably not,” Eros said. “No one really mingles with outsiders anymore.”

“Oh, so it’s that kind of community.” Mavis nodded knowingly. “I was wondering why you sound so much different from the other kids your age.”

“You think I sound different? Eros asked. “I did come down once in the sixties.”

Jonathan choked.

“The sixties?” Mavis questioned.

“He means for a concert for the group Sixty Seconds,” Jonathan said.

“Oh,” Mavis said.

“You know, Son, I have some things I wanted to show you in the attic,” Jonathan said. “Do you mind, Mom?”

“Oh, no, dear,” Mavis said. “You go right ahead and bond, but I want him later.”

~*~

Patricia looked at the gold coin, glad that she had taken the time to write the clues in her iPad before Jonathan had stolen it. She was just angry enough to tell all his little secrets.

“Hey, doll.” Patricia looked up and saw Joseph standing in her office door.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Is that any way to greet your lover?” he asked, loudly enough that she came forward to close the door.

There was something different about him. He looked more robust than she remembered him being. His complexion was flushed, and his eyes were clearer. Maybe she just admired the strength he’d shown standing up to Jonathan last night. If there was one thing she did like, it was power. Powerful men were like and aphrodisiac to her.

“I suppose it’s not.” She placed her hand on his chest and kissed his cheek.

“After last night,” he said, “I know you can do a whole lot more than that.”

. . .
And crude,
she sighed. Smiling tightly, she wondered how she could get rid of him.

“Why do you bother with this place?” He picked up a photo of her standing with a news crew and set it back down. “I told you I could get you on at CNN if fame is all you want.” He looked at her. “But I can offer you a lot more.”

“What do you mean?” Patricia asked.

“Fame is fleeting.” Joe picked up a lock of her hair as he stepped closer still and eyed her bosom appreciatively. “I can offer a goddess like you immortality.”

She laughed and stepped away.

“You doubt me?” he asked. “Look at me, how old do you think I am?
Forty? Forty-five?”

She scoffed and stepped away from him, wondering if she’d need to call security. She went to her desk where a call button was located on the phone’s intercom.

“I was over sixty when I first met that little librarian of his.” He smiled as her head snapped back to look at him. Her eyes filled with anger. “That’s good. I like to see a little fire in my women,” Joe said.

“Look here,” he said as he pulled an old newspaper clipping from his pocket and held it out.

“What do you know about her?” Patricia asked, moving her finger away from the phone. She took the paper and looked it over, reading the date.

“I first met her in 1920. That’s over ninety years ago.” He smiled.

“And you say you met her when you were sixty? That would make you a hundred fifty years old,” Patricia said.

“I know their little secret,” he said. “You mean Jonathan never offered you everlasting beauty?” He tsked. “What a shame to not share it with one so lovely.” She remained silent, but her eyes revealed how hurt she was. “I know Jonathan’s secret,” Joseph said. “I can bring him to his knees.”

His words frightened and excited her all at once.

He knew he had her. “I can put him exactly where you want him, kitten.”

She looked at him a little more closely. There was definitely something about him that was different.

“Tell me, what
do you want more than anything?” he asked.

“Redemption for starters,” Patricia said, looking back at the golden coin.

“Tell me,” Joseph insisted.

“I did a report on the ghost that lived in Jonathan’s ancestral home and the treasure associated with it,” Patricia said as she looked out the window. “The town scoffed.” She looked back at him. “Then, I reported on our trip to the Peruvian jungle, but he lied about it and undermined me.  He made me look like a fool, and, then, when I did what I had to do to keep my job, he was . . . bitter towards me.”

“A man like that will never understand you,” Joe said. “I will give you this and more, my princess.”

~*~

“So Athena is the queen,” Jacques said. He sat looking at the ruins of a temple that had been dedicated to her on the computer screen up in the attic.

“No.” Eros shook his head. “She’s a princess. Hera’s the queen, but at times they share the same honors as she is Zeus’s daughter, she will sometimes act as hostess.”

“You have parties?” Jacques asked.

“Elaborate banquets,” Eros said.

“Can we stay on topic?” Jonathan inserted.

“Alright,” Jacques said. “If we take this golden apple, provided that we can find my treasure, to the temple, and bestow it on Athena, then both this Hera and the princess will forgive Amber and let her live happily ever after.”

“Yes,” Eros said.

“What is this little bird on her shoulder?” Jacques asked, looking back at a statue of her.

“An owl,” Eros said. She and my father share that in common. They both have owls.”

Jacques looked at Jonathan who shook his head.

“You see any owls?” Jonathan asked. “No,” he answered is own question. “I think we should take this information with a grain of salt.”

“And this bow,” Jacques said, looking back to the photo.

“She’s a master with the bow,” Eros said proudly. “She taught me how to shoot.”

“And miss, apparently,” Jonathan added.

“I never miss,” Eros boasted.

“You do,” Jonathan reminded him.

“No, I didn’t. I was only trying to get my mother to run toward you,” Eros said. “The arrows were not for her anyway, at least not in that sense.”

“So the arrows were for me,” Jonathan said. “Why?”

“I needed to ensure that you would meet, or I would cease to exist. I already explained this to you,” Eros said.

“And?”

“And I thought it would help ensure she would like you,” Eros explained.

“What is the substance on them?” Jonathan asked.

“Yours was special,” Eros said.

“How special?”
Jonathan asked.

“Not all of my arrows are the same,” Eros said. “Some are for mortals.”

“How was his different?” Harold asked as he sat nearby scribbling into his pad.

“The one I used had to be able to penetrate his skin, and it had to be extremely potent,” Eros said.

“How long will the effects last?” Jonathan asked curiously.

“Your body has probably already processed it,” Eros said.

“So any feeling I have will be real now?” Jonathan clarified.

Eros grinned.

“What?” Jonathan narrowed his eyes on the juvenile delinquent.

“The effect was only for her,” Eros said. “Your feelings or attraction were always real.”

“When will her feelings be real then?” Jonathan asked, feeling like he had just exposed his underbelly.

“What is the arrow made of?” Harold asked. “There are two dissimilar metals, and each has properties that are unlike the known elements.”

“I knew you had my arrow!” Eros said, looking at his father.

“I’m sorry did he not know that?” Harold asked.

“It’s okay,” Jonathan said. “I was going to let him have them back.

“Them?” Harold asked.

“There are seven,” Jonathan said. “I was only interested in the one that hit me.”

“May I see the rest of them before you give them back?” Harold asked.

“Knock yourself out,” Jonathan said as he removed the arrows he had collected that night from the pocket on his thigh.

“There is only one that will knock you out,” Eros said, pointing to one with a red feather. “But I’m missing one.”

“I have it,” Harold said.

“And I’m keeping it,” Jonathan said.

“But it’s mine,” Eros said.

“It’s detrimental to my health,” Jonathan said, “so I’ll be keeping it right here.” Jonathan went over to the table and removed the arrow under the cover Harold had placed over it. He put it in his pocket where the others had been kept, and then crossed his arms over his chest.

“You never change.” Eros sighed. “Even reborn, you are still stubborn as a mule.”