The Deception Dance (16 page)

I stop on a boulder’s edge. “How cold is the water?”

Nicholas says, “Warm.” He shivers. “Hot.”

I shake my head and turn around. Cool water splashes up my leg.

“If you don’t jump in, I’ll climb out and throw you
in.” He swims forward, grinning.

I glance back; Linnie and Stephen are like hopping ants in the
distance.

“Alright,” I grumble. “You’re letting me warm
up on the rocks, afterward.”

I kick off my shorts and pull over my tank top, revealing my green
bikini. I dive in. The water is not
quite
as cold as I feared.

A gooey-looking thing surfaces right next to me, and then they’re
everywhere. “Jellyfish.” I shudder.

We both kick to stay above the surface, as the jellyfish circle us
like underwater dancers in translucent gowns. They’re majestic,
and not toxic. Nicholas told me that. Still, too many nature shows
have ingrained
jellyfish equal poison
into me; I’m
fighting to stay afloat in the middle of their deadly ballet.

I backstroke for the rocks; Nicholas cuts me
off.

“Just wait a second; you’ll get use to them.”
Nicholas gazes down, inches away. His leg bumps mine, as he glides
closer. Blond hair sticks to his forehead in a halo; he’s
intensely, undeniably, angelically beautiful. The cold darkens his
pink, plump lips.

Before I can even figure out if I want him to, he leans in and kisses
me. Slowly, his soft lips caress mine.

I yank back, as a sudden rush of liquid pours out of my nose, filling
my mouth with the metallic taste of blood. My hands push off
Nicholas’s chest and then, cover my face.

The first rule of swimming in the ocean where I
come from: if you’re bleeding, get out of the water. I fight my
way, knocking slimy bodies out of my path, desperately
scurrying
onto the rocks. "Come on, get out of the water," I gurgle,
as I tilt my head up to the sky.

Nicholas’s hand touches my back. “Are
you hurt?”

After I stanch the flow, I wipe the blood off my mouth. “Fine.
I’m sorry.” I keep my head to the sky. “It’s
my curse, the curse of the kiss.”

He laughs. “Sounds terrible.” He caresses my back.

“It is. When I was fourteen, Linnie dared me to kiss a boy and
a bug flew into my eye. Before I left, my friend tried to kiss me and
I got sick. And now today...” I wipe more blood from my face.
“I’m cursed.”

His hand lifts from my skin. “So, you’ve never kissed
anyone?”

Oops! I walked right into that one. I guess I have kissed someone,
recently.

Stephen saves me with a yell: “Nicholas, what did you do to
Raven?”

I call back, “Nosebleed.”

He and Linnie leap across the rocks to us. Stephen lights up a
cigarette and slumps onto a rock.

I lower my head and Linnie examines me. “Nosebleed? Weird, I’ve
never seen you have a nosebleed before. What happened?”

“Nothing,” I say. “Just started bleeding.”

Nicholas yanks on his shirt and shoes, then hops away. His movements
are stiff and jerky, as he bounds down the shore.

Linnie stares after him. “Is he angry or something?”

“Maybe.” I shrug.

Stephen extracts a wet-nap hand towel from his
backpack for me to wipe my face.

I bend down to tie my shoelaces. “So are you two having a good
time?” Happiness spills from both their smiles. I ask more to
diffuse the strange, sudden tension.

“We got married,” Stephen
announces, slinging an arm over Linnie’s shoulders. “But
it didn’t work out, so now we’re divorcing. Our estates
are being divided by our lawyers...”

“And the kids?” Linnie tilts up her head and glares.

“You may keep them. I get the dog.” Stephen tells me,
“Divorce is a bitch.”

I open my mouth to play along, notice Nicholas, turning around, and I
stay silent.

“Everything alright, brother?” Stephen asks, when
Nicholas is a few boulders away.

“Yeah.” He sounds a little out of breath. “Raven,
I’m sorry I got upset, I just realized something; it’s
not your fault.”

I force a smile and return to my laces. What was
that
?

Linnie and Stephen keep bickering about their division of property,
as we continue hopping. I slow my pace and hang back with the
squabbling pair.

We climb over a big boulder and look into a
cove, where several large driftwood towers twist up from the rocky
shore.

“Fantastic,” Linnie whispers as she climbs up. We clamber
down the rock with Stephen close behind and continue hopping to the
structures.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair.” Linnie calls up
to Nicholas, who leans over the top of a spiraling tower, fifty feet
above. Driftwood logs weave and pile together to make several
skeletal, lopsided spires across the little cove on the rocky shore.

Nicholas throws something down to Linnie; she jumps out of the way.
She leans over. “This isn’t your hair, it’s a
granola bar.”

Stephen climbs up after his brother.

I glance at my watch. The second hand ticks around. Twenty minutes to
seven, Friday. My thoughts wander to a restaurant in Hoganas…

“Do you have somewhere you need to be?” Linnie asks.

My gaze tears from my watch. “Definitely not,” my voice
is more emphatic than I intend.

She gives me a ‘what’s up with you?’ look.

I giggle, why do I sound so crazed? I say, “I’m just
hungry.”

She shakes her head and hands me the granola bar, before running to a
tower. We climb around like squirrels until we’re too famished
to continue. Clambering up one of the wood pathways leads us to a
trail away from the beach. Nicholas and I perch on a stone wall to
retrieve our dinner from his backpack. Linnie and Stephen lag behind
somewhere.

Not a trace of anger lingers in Nicholas’s easy smile. His
outburst must have had nothing to do with me.

I say, “So, what does working in ‘security’
entail?”

With concentration, he brings food out and places wrapped bundles on
the mossy wall. “For Stephen and me, long hours and constant
traveling. For Albert and Tobias, just the long hours.”

“Yeah, I was wondering about that, how come Albert and Tobias
work all the time but you and Stephen can run around with us?”

“Our job,” he says glancing over,
“has perks that Tobias and Albert’s doesn’t.”

“Why did they choose their jobs, if they don’t get time
off?”

“They didn’t.” He offers me a sandwich. “Tobias
would have anyway: he loves what he does. But my grandfather ordered
Albert to do his job, against his wishes; he’d rather do my or
Stephen’s work, that’s what he used to do.”

“Why doesn’t he?” I bite into my sandwich. The
lettuce isn’t crispy, but my dinner still tastes delicious.

He uncaps a bottle of water and takes a sip. “When my father
died, I was too young to do his job. And Stephen was the best at what
he does, so Albert got a promotion, against his wishes.”

“Stephen
was
the best?”

“He still is. Well...” he shifts
his head from side to side. “The best besides my grandfather,
in his day.”

“You’re too kind, little brother,” Stephen says, as
he and Linnie emerge from the trail. “So did you tell Raven
about the invitation yet?”

Nicholas turns, “No, I was about to. You ladies are invited to
a party next week on Saturday.”

I swallow my bite, “A party?”

“Yes, a friend of the family throws a big party every summer. I
was hoping you would be my date.”

“I want to go!” Linnie squeals.

Stephen exhales loudly. “I guess I’ll be stuck with my
ex-wife as a date.”

Linnie’s smile swallows half her face; she bounces from foot to
foot. “This is perfect. Chauncey loves parties; she always
tells me about the fabulous ones she attends back home. This is
exactly what she needs!”

I peer down at my watch, fifty-six minutes past seven. I wonder if
Andras...No, I refuse to finish that thought. I refuse to entertain
any thoughts about him.

I look up.

Linnie and Nicholas stare over, expectantly. Did they ask me
something?

I bite and let my lower lip slip from my teeth. A bash, why not?
“Sure, I’ll go.”

Day Sixteen and Seventeen

“I
told you I should have called a car,” Chauncey whispers loudly
to Linnie.

Next to
their Rolls Royce, Albert and Nicholas yell at each other in Swedish,
as Stephen stands back, smoking. As far as I can guess, Albert is
insisting on accompanying us to Copenhagen, and Nicholas doesn’t
want him to go. I’m not exactly sure what Stephen has to do
with the fight. Albert repeatedly shoots him sidelong glances and
then widens his eyelids at Nicholas, which probably means he doesn’t
want Stephen along. Or maybe, I just read too much into their body
language and they’re fighting about something completely
different.

“We’re
missing precious hours of shopping time,” Chauncey whines.

I’m
pretty sure Chauncey has more than one dress fancy enough for the
party. She must realize this, too, because she adds, with a nod my
way, “You don’t want your girlfriend to wear the same
outfit to the party that she’s worn all trip, do you?”

Linnie
glares at Chauncey, and looks as if she might say something, but when
Chauncey starts waving her hands Linnie’s look turns quizzical.

"Hey,"
Chauncey calls to a short guy who's loading up the car, "Hey,
come here."

The guy,
who is probably a couple of years older than we are, turns to
Chauncey, with a look, close to worship, on his acne-scarred face.

She smiles
at him, asking, in a sultry voice, "Do you speak English?"
When he nods, she continues, "If you tell us what those two are
saying, I'll give you a kiss.”

The guy
looks back and forth between the argument and Chauncey, breathes in a
long breath, and then steps closer to us.

He
whispers, “Mr. Albert is saying…" He pauses, and
then translates haltingly, “What makes you think she’s
any different?'

“Then,
Mr. Nicholas says, 'This time is different. Who do you think you are?
I don’t need your approval.'

“Then,
Mr. Albert, 'If you continue in this way, you’re just going to
get your heart broken. If you have any intelligence left, you’ll
listen to grandfather’s orders and find someone else. I am
trying to help you, little brother; you are deluding yourself.'"
The guy translating still stares intently at Chauncey, but Chanucey’s
(and Linnie's) attention has shifted to fix on me.

The guy
continues to translate, “Mr. Nicholas, now, 'No, you’re
the deluded one. You should look at yourself, hiding your...'

“Now,
Mr. Albert interrupts him, 'You said you would never speak of that
here..." The guy trails off, looking around at us. His
expression reveals that he is just now realizing the personal nature
of the conversation that he was translating.

We had
heard enough; I had heard enough.

I step away
from the car, too repulsed to watch Chauncey give that random guy his
‘payment’. I call out, “If it’s a question of
room...” After hearing their conversation, I’m pretty
sure there is no ‘question of room,’ but I’d rather
ride in a car with a rabid raccoon than the Chauncey-Albert ‘Hate
Raven’ team.

Nicholas
turns and stares at me, as if I just popped out of the ground…
as if they’d hadn’t been shouting about me in front of
half the mansion. “Uh,” Nicholas clears his throat, “It’s
a question of Stephen and I having an assignment in Copenhagen, and
Albert insisting on intruding, rather than driving his own vehicle,”
Nicholas says, not taking his narrowed-eyed glower off Albert.

“Look
...” I step back away from the Rolls Royce, in the direction of
the guest house. “I haven’t gotten a chance to drive the
Vespa I won rights to. Why don’t you five take the car and I’ll
meet you in Copenhagen?”

Nicholas
steps toward me and says, “There’s room for two on the
scooter, I could ...”

Albert
silences Nicholas with a glare that could level a building. He barks,
“Stephen should go with her.” If I needed any more
confirmation that I was the vixen Albert was warning Nicholas about,
his stare and comment supplied it.

My gaze
tears away from Albert and I shake my head. “That’s okay;
I don’t want either of you to be late for your assignment. I
won’t get lost, I have an excellent sense of direction and I’ll
ask Stewart to draw me a map.”

Nicholas
takes another step. “I’d rather –”

“No,
it’s better this way. You two have an assignment to get to and
Albert has something he has to do. If I’m late, my money is in
Linnie’s account and she knows what I like. And besides, I like
spending time alone.” I give Linnie a ‘
please
back me up’ widening of my eyes.

“She’s
right.” Linnie nods, then glares at Albert. “She should
meet us there, and we should go.”

Nicholas pinches his eyebrows
together. “Do you know how to drive the scooter?”

“Of
course,” I lie.

Nicholas
opens his mouth, as Stephen steps forward, cutting him off: “Here,
Raven...” and tosses something I catch. “You take my
phone. Hold down the six button for Nicholas.” Stephen pats
Nicholas’s shoulder, saying, “She’ll call if she
needs us.” With a wink and a wave, Stephen ducks into the
passenger seat.