Refracted Crystal: Diamonds and Desire (21 page)

“What I don’t get is
why
?”

Maria did not answer immediately, but instead half-gazed out of the window, looking past Kris’s shoulder.

“Do you know why Francis tried to... take you?”

“No, and I don’t care.”

“Well you should.” Now Maria did return Kris’s gaze, and her green eyes were steady, though tears were forming in them. “He was obsessed with Daniel. For a time... for a time Daniel replaced him in his father’s affections. Daniel Stone was everything that Maximilian Roth had ever wanted in a son.”

Kris suppressed an urge to sneer. Instead, she asked: “What of it?”

“I would have thought time would have... healed that old wound, but evidently not. Daniel Stone has you, so in Francis’s twisted mind if he takes you, he can be more like Daniel.”

“Oh, boo hoo.” Now Kris’s disgust could no longer be suppressed. “So if he rapes me, he can sort out his daddy issues, is that it? Well, I don’t care!”

Maria flinched at this sudden outburst.

“That’s not what’s important. I mean, I know what happens matters to you, and what happens to you matters to Daniel, but it’s not what matters. I think Maximilian believes that Daniel has betrayed him, some time in the past. I... I overheard him talking to someone, when he brought me over here. I think that he and Felix have arranged something. For months now, he’s being leading Daniel a merry dance, feeding him false hopes.”

“You mean he arranged his own son’s rape charge, just to get at Daniel?”

Now Maria couldn’t hold her scorn. “Of course not! Francis can’t control himself, but if the son thinks with his dick, don’t make the mistake of believing the father does the same. He’s simply taking advantage of an opportunity.”

She paused and took a deep breath, then stared directly at Kris.

“You can’t win your case. If you keep on going, then Daniel will be buried more quickly than you can possibly imagine.”

Despite herself, Kris was shaken by this, her hands trembling slightly. “Then what do you recommend I do?” she asked. The sarcasm in her voice was forced now.

“Drop the charges, get Daniel out of prison. Do whatever deal you need to do, then get as far away from here as you possibly can.”

The flight from San Francisco had been direct and very long, but she had managed to do little more than lightly doze, her sleep disturbed by dreams. Changing at Heathrow for another flight out to Lisbon was madness, but when she had realised that she would not be able to see Elaine Christiansen for another two days she had pushed herself a little harder: for the past few weeks she had been cut adrift and now she needed to ground herself. She may have been brought up in London, but Lisbon was more her home now and she needed the security that home would bring her.

During the transatlantic flight, her mind had been running over events since she had met Maria Gosselin for the second and, she hoped, the last time. Afterwards, she had immediately contacted Armstrong: although part of her feared to trust anyone anymore, she also knew that what was taking place between Daniel and Maximilian Roth was far too large for her to comprehend. Some plot was afoot to trap him—she knew it—and she lacked the experience to know where the trap lay.

Nathan Armstrong had listened to her seriously, not doubting her word at all. On the contrary, he would sometimes ask her to go back over various details of the conversations with both Roth and Maria. Pushing at the glasses on his nose, he nodded at various points, making notes and comparing various details. When first she had met him, Kris had considered the lawyer to be something of a nervous figure, but she realised now that this had simply been a projection on her part. If anything, he was immensely efficient and, for the first time in several days, she felt herself partially comforted by a meeting with one of the many strangers she had encountered in San Francisco.

He had accompanied her the following day, driving her himself to the jail to visit Daniel. When he had heard about the treachery of Willard and the others, Daniel had cried out in such anger that the guards had threatened to intervene. Although he forced himself into a state approaching calmness, Kris could not ignore the fury in his eyes—and shivered slightly at the animosity that those security personnel had earned for themselves.

By contrast, when she provided an outline of the meetings with Maximilian and Maria, with Nathan offering some context for what he believed this proved for their situation, Daniel had seemed extremely calm. It was almost as though he had been prepared for this.

“Of course, the offer’s bullshit,” he snorted through the phone as both of them listened. “But that’s just the start of negotiations. From what you tell me, Nathan, Felix is already preparing to knife me in the back.”

“I’m afraid it looks that way.”

Daniel shrugged at this. “Well, I saw that one coming. We can work out the details—as well as how threats against you” this directed to Kris “could determine a jury’s reaction if it comes to trial.”

He had not seemed as in control of himself for a long time, thought Kris as she and the lawyer sat listening to him issue instructions. She realised just how badly he had been wearing himself thinner and thinner over the previous months as he travelled the globe, looking for deals that would give him the upper hand. Now that he was finally pushed into a corner—literally hemmed in by the confines of this correctional facility—he appeared better prepared to fight.

“Francis is going to walk free, isn’t he,” Kris had added at one point, dejected at how even this sense of justice would be denied her.

Nathan hesitated. “We will still be pursuing that case, but the defence... they have a lot of effort going into dragging out the process, as well as digging up the dirt on you two.” He paused again, blushing slightly with embarrassment. “I’m afraid... I’m afraid you two have not exactly pursued a conventional lifestyle. That may not go well with a jury—not even in California.”

Daniel nodded. As his eyes glanced towards Kris, she could see his pained expression. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly into the phone, but he shook his head.

“No, don’t apologise. Unfortunately the world doesn’t always work out the right way. I’m more concerned, though, at you being on your own in San Francisco. Roth knew exactly what he was doing when he bought out those slimy bastards. He’s showing me just how vulnerable you are, putting additional pressure on me.”

Kris wanted to tell him that she wasn’t vulnerable, that she would be strong for him, but the look in his eyes stopped her. “I want you—no, I
need
you to go back to London. It’s not safe here for you now. Please, go to Elaine, give her the message I told you, and stay there until Nathan sends for you.”

“I don’t want to go,” she began to remonstrate. “I should be here, with you.”

He shook his head, slowly. “You can’t do anything else for me here. I’m sorry, I know that sounds brutal, but it’s true. And if I spend all my time worrying that something... should happen to you.” His eyes flashed with anger. “It’s no good. I won’t be able to think straight and I need to plan for this.”

And so, much against her will, and somewhat bitterly, she had returned to Europe. Realising that Elaine Christiansen herself was away from London, Kris had immediately booked another ticket onto Lisbon. That flight was much shorter after the many hours spent on a plane from the west coast of America, but it was enough to almost exhaust her.

Thus it was with great relief that the she saw the taxi pulling into the narrow cobbled street in Alfama where she had her apartment. The sun was blazing high in the clear blue sky above them as the driver took her suitcase out of the back of his car and carried it to her door. She thanked him and handed over a generous tip before entering her apartment and stepping onto the cool, tiled floor away from the heat outside.

She had been away almost a month and immediately she felt a sense of relief and security as she walked along the long corridor that led to her bedroom and studio. Only a month, but it felt like an age. At the same time, as she breathed in the scents of home, the permanent undertone of linseed and turps that sparkled with bittersweet freshness in the air, she felt rejuvenated. She needed this.

Dropping her bags, she rubbed at her shoulders and along the line of her bra. Her breasts were aching more and more, and though she knew it wasn’t the case she felt as though she was putting on more weight each and every day. She needed to be still for a while, to remain in one place. Merely thinking this, however, demonstrated to her how futile the thought was and a deep sigh escaped from her lips.

She had often pondered how rootless Daniel appeared. Living with him was, so often, a whirlwind of luxury, but it was also almost completely transient, a motion from one five-star hotel to the next that could become exhausting to her after a while. Everything was fleeting and impermanent, and for a brief moment she wondered if that was why he was responding much better than she had expected to prison: now discipline was enforced upon him—the man who had made such a thing of disciplining her when she first met him.

As soon as this idea occurred to her it left her feeling somewhat sad. Why had it taken prison to bring him the possibility of rest? Why hadn’t marriage to her done that?

Immediately she pushed down the thought. It was part of her paranoia: it was not so much that marriage would change Daniel, as in make him another person. More that the man he had become in the decade since the tragic death of his first wife would eventually be erased by what should have been the consummation of all his hopes with his second. Finally, perhaps, he could leave behind all the ghosts that haunted him, that drove him on mercilessly.

She paused by the bedroom, smiling at the memories of how many times she had lain there with Daniel, their bodies sweating, the scent of each of them clinging to the other as he penetrated her again and again. She also smiled at the thought that for this night at least she would be sleeping in her
own
bed, something so simple that was a greater luxury to her at the moment than all the best hotels in the world.

Letting her fingers slide along the door, she entered her studio. Most of the paintings she had been working on had been included in her exhibition in London, which already seemed an age ago. A few sketches remained on the wall, as well as the various objects she had collected over the months in the flea and street markets. One, however, caught her attention.

The sculpture was polished until it’s wood appeared burnished gold. In the centre was the tear-shaped eyelet that she remembered her father carving carefully into it, working the material with his large, calloused hands, the contrast between his rough digits and the delicate object remarkable to her even when she had been a young girl. The wood was dome-shaped, and a third of the way down, above the opening, a piece of quartz had been set and polished. Touching it, feeling the transitions from warm wood to cooler crystal, brought back a thousand memories, many of her father but also of Daniel who had hunted down this prize when she had thought it all but lost.

With her fingers resting on it, she turned to the light. In many respects, the greatest work of art was framed by the window, the view looking down the high-piled and ancient streets of Alfama towards the river, a darker swathe of blue-green against the purer cerulean of the sky.

For a while at least she was home.

Two days later, she was travelling in a taxi from Heathrow to Daniel’s final school, Lincoln Hall Academy, to make her appointment with Elaine Christiansen. She had sent a message from her phone to let the headmistress know when she would be arriving and as the taxi pulled up at the school gates she could already see Elaine waiting for her.

Smiling nervously as she got out of the car, carrying only a small handbag with her, Kris wondered what Elaine’s reaction would be. The older woman’s face was somewhat stern, lacking the warmth and kindness that she had displayed to Kris when last they had spoken, but that was as much due to the worry she obviously felt towards Daniel and his new wife.

“Terrible, terrible,” Elaine said as she led Kris through the corridors towards her office. About them, teenagers went about their business and Kris had a fantasy for a moment of Daniel as a young boy wandering these same pathways.

“I can’t believe what happened—and Daniel! In prison!” Elaine had opened the door and beckoned for Kris to enter, gesturing not towards the seat near her desk but comfier ones around a small table. “Of course, I’ll do whatever I can to help, though I don’t know what that will be.”

Sitting down, Kris waved away an offer of coffee. “Thank you,” she replied. “Actually, after all that’s taken place, I must admit that I’m glad to be back in Europe. It was getting very scary out there.”

“I’m sure!” replied Elaine taking a seat across from her. “And to think... what that man tried to do to you!” She grimaced at this, then looked at Kris with careful concern. “And the baby?” she asked. “Is it okay?”

Kris nodded, one of her hands moving reflexively to her abdomen. “Yes, it’s fine, though I shall need to settle down myself, take better care of checkups and that sort of thing.”

Elaine nodded slowly. “Yes,” she said at last. “All this travelling around won’t help, either. Do you know if it’s a he or a she yet?”