Forever Young The Beginning (29 page)

***

Ian and Cosette had had a leisurely
stay in Calais and they bought passage on an established carriage
service that ran from Calais to Paris. They went by way of
Boulogne, Le Touquet, and Amiens and in a few days they had arrived
in Paris.

They checked into the same hotel as
before on the Champs Elysees. The concierge stopped them as they
were about to go to their suite.

“
Monsieur, you and Madame
have a message.” He handed them a folded note. It was from Henri
and Marie. They were in Paris and were at the home of Caryn
Rochelle today.

Instructing the Concierge to have
their baggage taken to their suite, Ian and Cosette requested a
hansom to take them to the Rochelle home. Within the hour, they
were there, knocking at the door. Celeste answered it, and her
pretty doe eyes widened in joy as she threw herself into Ian’s arms
kissing his cheeks and then stretching out to Cosette to kiss her
repeatedly. They stood like that in the doorway hugging and kissing
each other.

Warm hugs and greetings and kisses
were exchanged all around. The group then sat in Caryn’s ample
parlor. Henri, Marie, and Caryn wanted to hear all about their
trip. Ian related some of it with Cosette filling in here and
there. Ian assured Henri that all documents were safe at the hotel
and that he had drawn up and had extended a partnering proposal to
the Merchant’s Bank of Edinburg as well. Henri was surprised and
impressed.

They parted company for the
afternoon. Henri and Marie wanted to visit their orphanage,
the
Angels’ Care
facility of Paris. They would meet with Ian and Cosette this
evening at their apartment near the Hotel. Henri gave Ian the
address. Ian, Cosette, Caryn, and Celeste decided to visit a park
which had skiffs that could be rented to paddle about on a small
reservoir there.

While they were approaching the vendor
to rent a skiff, Ian’s neck prickled and didn’t stop. He casually
looked about, and suddenly he spied Li and Sophia walking towards
him. They looked great together, her arm linked in his, both of
them smiling.

Greetings and hugs were exchanged.
They passed a pleasant afternoon. Cosette told the two what an
attractive couple they made. Li smiled broadly as Sophia laughed
and blushed prettily. She had truly come out of her hard shell and
had bloomed into all that she could be. She seemed to adore Li, and
for his part, he was most attentive to her and smiled more than Ian
could ever remember. Cosette and Ian both thought that they made a
marvelous couple, and told them so again. Once again, Sophia
laughed and blushed, which was a complete change in her character
from the hardened fatalistic woman of only weeks earlier. She was
giddy with happiness at being included in the trip to Paris and was
overcome with gratitude at not yet having to return to her former
life in Marseille.

They parted company late in the
afternoon and it was agreed to let Celeste spend the night with Ian
and Cosette.

Later they were surprised a bit to see
Li, Henri and Marie waiting for them in the lobby. They looked
strained while Li was deadpan. Celeste said “Something bad happened
two nights ago.”

When they had come together,
Marie said “A child is missing from
Angels’ Care
. We must go there in the
morning. Celeste can come too. We looked around really good and we
couldn’t find a clue. We’ve reported it to the King’s
Gendarmes.”

Ian went to their suite and retrieved
their knives, rucksacks, pistols with powder and shot, and their
excursion clothing. They all took a carriage and went to Henri and
Marie’s suite. It had two guest bedrooms so Celeste could spend the
night in there. Soon Celeste had bathed as had Cosette and after
Celeste kissed everyone good night she and Cosette went to the
guest room. Henri had given a handsome sum to the concierge for
sending someone to a good friend to discreetly get five sabers and
seven pistols. The weapons would be waiting for them when they left
the hotel.

Henri, Marie, and Ian sat up all night
talking over possibilities. Li had gone back to join Sophia in
their room. She was to be given some money and told to either wait
at the hotel, or to take a carriage to Caryn’s place and that Li
would rejoin her when he could. Sophia had been so happy to have
such acceptance with this unusual group, that she never even raised
an eyebrow. She didn’t want to do something to bring her
association with these people to an end, nor could she now stand
the thought of leaving Li.

The family talked only a short time
when Ian said “Is it possible that Francoise has placed a new order
with another kidnapper, and that the orphanage has unknowingly
furnished one of the girls wanted?”

It was dead quiet, and then Henri said
“That’s as plausible as anything we have mentioned so far. They may
not know details, but they’re guilty because from what we learned
from LeClerc, he was the one who was supposed to receive the other
five girls. We know that they paid at least in part for that
delivery.”

Ian said “Let’s get Celeste up early
and go to the orphanage. She may be able to help us.” All agreed
and Henri went to get the weapons. They put them all with Ian and
Cosette’s weapons. Soon they departed, Henri already having placed
an order for a carriage with four horses. They got Li and within
the hour, they were underway. The sun was just coming
up.

It took three quarters of an hour to
get to the orphanage. It was a part of a farm south of Paris, near
to the road to Versailles. The facility grew its own food and the
children were taught agriculture and animal husbandry. They helped
operate it and kept the costs of the orphanage down while learning
practical skills. They made their own clothing as well, being
simple uniforms of white shirts or blouses and dark blue pants or
skirts. It was a well-run place and both Marie and Henri were sure
that there was no laxity on the part of the staff.

Marie went immediately to the
headmaster’s quarters and had him take them all to the dormitory of
the missing girl. The girls were just now sitting down to eat
breakfast, so the dormitory was empty, beds all made. The
headmaster took them to the bed of the missing girl. It was
immediately inside the entrance. Marie thanked him and dismissed
him. Ian took Celeste and led her to the bed, saying “Sit here
please Celeste. Tell us if you think of something.”

Looking at Li and Ian, Henri said
“Let’s take a tour through the place.” They observed that there was
a barred wall at the end of each dormitory hallway. It could only
be opened with a key and the door was not damaged. It was supposed
to be locked after bedtime to keep the children from running around
the facility at night. It was some twelve feet tall, but the
ceiling was nearly eighteen feet above the floor. They all looked
at each other, nodding. The iron bars were no barrier whatsoever to
a vampire. They found stairs going down and took them to see that
they led to the building cellar but they didn’t see anything in
there out of the ordinary.

Going outside, they walked around the
facility looking at all of the windows, especially those which were
high up on the building. They saw nothing out of the ordinary there
either. As they walked, they passed over an iron grating that
covered a cavity surrounded on three sides by a brick retaining
wall and the building foundation wall made up the fourth
side.

Ian peered down and saw a hatch of
sorts. He quickly plucked up the iron grating like it was nothing,
and dropped down some eight feet to look at the window. It was very
dirty and dusty, but where the handles were, it was fairly clean
looking. Henri thought the thing might be for bringing firewood
inside the place. The building was heated by hearths or stoves in
each room. Ian easily opened it and peering in, dropped to the dirt
floor some six feet down.

In under two minutes he found his way
to the central staircase. He quickly went outside and trotted
around the building calling to Henri. Li and Henri put the grating
back and joined him.

“
A vampire could easily have
gotten the girl going this way.”

Henri said “Let’s go see what Celeste
may have to say.”

They came into the dormitory room and
saw Celeste had been walking about. As they walked up to her, she
turned her head to Ian and reached up to him. He took her hands and
she sat up on the bed and reached to Cosette. Holding both of their
hands she looked at Ian with her large doe’s eyes and said. “The
Bad Man took her. He is like the others.”

The Rodriguez family would be coming
to Barcelona before too long. Alandra and Celita took a day and
went to the waterfront marketplace that was such a favorite haunt
of theirs. They stepped down from the carriage and made their way
through the throng. There was to be an afternoon concert today and
they wanted a good seat for it. Seeing that it was so early to
worry about securing seats, they opted to stroll along the various
docks. It wasn’t dangerous at all in the daytime and Alandra liked
the atmosphere there. She supposed that it reminded her of Ian to
be around ships.

Hoping that they wouldn’t
meet that arrogant Carlos Chavez again, Alandra shared with Celita
that she had since heard that he’d killed two men in duels. That
was quite a thing for a man not yet thirty years old. Celita shared
her opinion of the man and said that he scared her when they
stopped to watch a puppet show. Later they stopped to watch a
juggler as they kept working their way towards the dock area.
Celita suddenly exclaimed “Oh look Alandra, it is the
Tico
!

Alandra looked where she was
pointing and sure enough, there was the
Tico
tied up to a large pier. Could
Ian have sailed it here after having it repaired? Her heart racing
she hastened that direction. Within minutes the pair was standing
out on a pier gazing upon
Tico
. Alandra noted the new mast,
sails, and rigging and the extensive cosmetic repairs to the
railing that had been so splintered by musket fire. As she stood
there, her mind was flooded with memories sweet and poignant. She
actually felt flushed recalling their first kiss on
Tico’s
bowsprit.

“
Oh Celita! This is taking
me back to when Ian first kissed me.” She turned and saw a look on
Celitas’ face that gave her pause.

“
Celita, what is
it?”

“
I’m thinking of Tom
McBride.”

“
Oh of course you are!” She
turned and hugged Celita, holding her. Then the two walked slowly
to her bow, peering intently at her as if the objects of their
desire might suddenly appear from behind a mast or step from the
forecastle entrance. They walked arm in arm along the pier
to
Tico’s
stern,
each lost in her own reverie. After several minutes the pair turned
to go see the harbormaster. They saw a gentleman approaching them
with a puzzled look on his face.

“
Good day, senoritas. Is
there something here that I can help you with?”

“
Good day, senor. Perhaps
there is. Do you know who sailed this ship to
Barcelona?”

“
Why yes senorita, it was
me.”

“
Did you have any
passengers, a tall young man, a Scot?”

“
No senorita. I bought my
ship back from a tall Scot by the name of Angus McCloud. He took it
at sea as a prize after pirates who had taken it had attacked his
ship.” His bright demeanor changed a bit when he saw how
crestfallen this beautiful lady suddenly became. Then suddenly he
said “Ah! I recognize you! You’re Senorita Vasquez! I sold passage
on this ship to you and your lovely companion here. Your aunt and
uncle were passengers too. Oh I speak too soon. My apologies
senorita Vasquez. I forgot that they were killed by those pirates.
My apologies.”

“
That’s all right,
Senor.”

“
My ship was at the center
of quite a story. It was big news at Marseille. Oh, I have
newspaper accounts of a lot of it. Please wait here while I go
aboard and get them.” He hustled up the gangplank and disappeared
below the aft deck. Shortly he reappeared carrying a small bundle
of newspapers.

“
Here take these senorita. I
was there getting cargo and getting cosmetic repairs done on
Tico
. That young man you
asked about, that Ian; he oversaw the major repairs on
Tico
and I must admit he
did a good job of that. But anyway, there are lots of newspapers
here for you to go through. I thought I saw a story about a wedding
taking place aboard the McCloud ship, uh, I cannot recall her
name……
Elsie
……?”

“
Elsie’s
Cloud
.” Alandra furrowed her brow, her eyes
looking out to sea.

“
Yes, that is it.
Elsie’s Cloud
. You may
keep these, senorita.”

“
Gracias, senor, gracias.
Good day senor.”

Alandra turned and walked with Celita
back to shore and they turned, walking until they found a bench
near the bazaar and shops. There she sat and read through them one
by one. It took a while for her being as they were French
newspapers. Suddenly she gasped and stiffened. The pile of
newspapers slid unnoticed from her lap as she clutched one. Celita
saw that the color had drained from her face. Tears welled up in
her eyes and she seemed to wilt. Her shoulders began to shake as
she sobbed. Celita held her, rocking her back and forth, trying to
console her.