Flare, p.5
Flare, page 5
part #3 of Peril Series
‘Miss Marlowe to see Mrs Lake,’ said Miss Brook-Walker, announcing their arrival in clarion tones.
‘She’s asked me to show her in directly. Please follow me.’ The receptionist led the way down the corridor, somehow managing to walk elegantly in icepick heels. ‘Miss Marlowe and party,’ she declared, opening the door to the corner office.
The lady sitting behind the big desk rose. She was in her forties, if Meri had to guess her age, black hair caught up in a neat twist, skin tone an even caramel as if she’d just got back from holiday somewhere sunny. Her expression was anything but relaxed though; her dark-eyed gaze latched on to Meri’s face and stayed there. Her trouser suit was white and showed not a wrinkle or speck of dirt. Meri would’ve preferred a few crumbs or a loose button – something to make her less than perfect.
‘Meredith, delighted to meet you, especially when I had long since given up any hope that you survived your family’s tragic death.’ She held out a hand.
Meri went forward and shook it, remembering that for a Tean to offer to take her hand was a sign of trust as they all knew that she could kill with her touch if she so wished. ‘Mrs Lake.’
‘Please, sit down. Can I offer you refreshments?’
‘No, we’re fine, thanks. This is my lawyer, Miss Brook-Walker, my partner, Kel, and my executive assistant, Valerie.’ There were only two seats facing the desk. Kel stood behind hers and Valerie pulled up an upright chair from the other side of the room, not caring that she was reorganizing the head honcho’s office without permission.
‘I’ve heard of your firm, Miss Brook-Walker,’ acknowledged Mrs Lake with a gracious nod.
‘That’s good as it will save us time now proving my credentials. We’re here to claim this property for Miss Marlowe.’
‘But of course. There is no need to launch a claim, as we have no intention of disputing her ownership. It has always been hers, not that we knew for sure that she was alive until she reemerged a few months ago.’
Meri was shocked by how unsurprised the woman sounded. ‘You’re not going to stand in my way?’
‘Why would I? Atlantic Holdings is part of the Tean Crown possessions. You represent the Crown. I understand there is some dispute about your legitimacy to rule but I for one will recognize the claims of blood rather than the ambition of a certain regent.’
‘Thank you.’ That was all Meri could think of to say.
‘No need to thank me. I’ve been running it faithfully now for over a decade. Naturally, I would be distressed to find you were thinking of making changes to my position or that of senior managers, but I hope you’ll look at what we’ve done first, before taking any decisions. Would you like to look at the accounts?’
Meri glanced up at Kel. This was too easy. ‘Yes, yes I would. But perhaps first you could tell me a little about it all.’ She gestured to the office.
‘I’d be delighted to.’ Mrs Lake’s smile chilled rather than warmed Meri. ‘But I wondered if you would first like to meet your brother and sister?’
‘My what?’ Meri felt she had just been knocked off her chair. Kel’s hands were warm on her shoulders, squeezing lightly.
Mrs Lake leant back, hands steepled together. ‘Ah, I see you don’t know the family history. Allow me to introduce myself again. Since my second marriage, I’m known as Veronica Lake, but I was once Veronica Marlowe, as I was married to your father, Blake Marlowe, for eight years. We divorced when duty called and he decided, as one of the last pureblooded Tean, he had to marry your mother. I was given this position partly in recognition of the sacrifice of my own happiness for the Tean good. The aim of his second marriage was to have you – the last known fully Tean child in your generation. Your parents had hoped to have others but fate – or should I say the Perilous – intervened.’
Meri couldn’t absorb this quick enough to keep up. Her ideas about her parents were spinning into a new and unfamiliar shape. ‘You were my father’s wife?’
Mrs Lake nodded and got up to walk to the window. Lightning flickered in the distance, still too far from New York to trip a storm alert. ‘We met at college in a student Tean society and married on graduation – so young, now when I look back at it. I must show you the photographs sometime.’ She turned to smile over her shoulder at Meri. ‘That makes me a kind of stepmother to you, I suppose.’
‘And my brother and sister?’ Had her father abandoned an earlier family just to fulfill some kind of duty, as Mrs Lake called it?
‘Stepbrother and sister. My children from my second marriage. But I hope you will feel like one of our extended family. I remained on good terms with Blake after our divorce. I know he would be pleased if I offered you a place among us here as you’ve been left so alone all these years. I informed them you were in the building and they’re coming over to see you. They’re both at college here and eager to meet you, as you might imagine.’
Meri felt a mixture of disappointment and relief that the relationship was not a blood one. As much as she would like more relatives, to discover that her father had dropped the children so casually with no attempt to keep in contact would have been devastating to her memories of him as involved and loving towards her. ‘I wasn’t really alone, you know. I had a place in England. I was fortunate in my guardian.’
‘I would love to hear all about that. Ah, here they are. Hudson and Delaware. They’re my twins, not that you’d tell from looking at them. Come in, children.’
Two young adults entered, neither looking that pleased to be there. Hudson was tall and broad-shouldered with close-cut dark hair. He had the big hands and swaggering demeanour of an American football player, an impression confirmed by his NYU sports kit. Meri guessed he’d come straight from the playing field as he looked a little sweaty and he carried a fair amount of mud on his elbows and knees. Delaware was shorter than her twin, with highlighted brown hair that hung loose around her shoulders. Her features were thin, almost elfin. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a violin on the front and carrying the same instrument in a black case.
‘I hope this is worth it, Mom. I cut practice to be here and we have a concert next week,’ Delaware said, somewhat rudely considering there were strangers in the room.
‘It is, Dela. I’ve a surprise for you. Your stepsister is visiting us. Isn’t that nice?’ Mrs Lake gestured to Meri.
Dela’s gaze swept over Meri, not lingering, but came to rest on Kel. ‘Oh hi. Nice to meet you.’
‘Stepsister? As in…?’ asked Hudson.
‘Exactly.’
‘Awesome. The Queen Bee. Good to meet you.’ Hudson gave Meri a salute. ‘Do you want us to bow or something?’
Meri smiled shyly. ‘Nothing like that. I’m not into ceremonial stuff. It’s all pretty ridiculous.’
‘Good, because neither are we. Too American for that. I wouldn’t advise shaking my hand just now. I need to hit the showers.’ He sniffed at the front of his shirt then perched on the edge of his mother’s desk. ‘So what’s it like being our leader?’
‘Not sure I’ve had time to find out. It was…complicated in Spain.’
‘Yeah, we heard. Rio didn’t take to you. Nice guy but he can be a jerk. He said you’d taken up with a Perilous.’ He picked up a stapler and fiddled with it. ‘That him?’
‘I’m Kel Douglas,’ said Kel. ‘It’s good to meet some new members of Meri’s extended family.’
‘Is that what Mom called us? I suppose we are.’ Hudson stood up. ‘Is it OK for me to go now, Mom? I’ve done the meet and greet. I guess you’ll make a date with Meri for a time when I can be a more presentable? I’m not coming over my best right now.’
‘Indeed, when I sent you a message to drop everything and hurry over I hadn’t meant to bypass the shower.’ Veronica wrinkled her perfectly shaped nose.
‘Yeah, well, you get what you ask for.’
‘Go wash up, darling. I’m hoping she’ll agree to come to ours for a cook out this Saturday.’
‘Isn’t what’s ours really hers?’ said Delaware slyly, picking up her violin. ‘She owns this place, our house in the Hamptons, pretty much everything.’
Meri gripped her hands together in her lap. ‘I’m not here to make things difficult for you and your family, Mrs Lake.’
Delaware shot her a sharp look, strengthening her resemblance to her mother. ‘You might not mean to, but you will, your highness.’
4
Today, it sucked to be him, Ade decided. He watched from a first storey window as his formidable great-aunt from South Africa got out of her car and was escorted swiftly into the house by Kel’s dad and her team of Zulu nation guards. The Perilous leadership were gathering in their London HQ to hear Ade’s report and he didn’t expect them to like what he had to say.
He didn’t like what he had to say either.
Crossing the room, Ade flopped on his double bed, back of one hand pressed to his forehead. The blue satin counterpane billowed beneath him, briefly cocooning him. He was comfortable in his own room out of the way but downstairs he was facing the equivalent of a bed of nails. It was tempting not to come out. There were going to be penalties, he was sure of that. He just wasn’t certain how serious.
Lee knocked on the door. ‘Are you OK, sir? You’ve been very quiet.’
‘Fine.’ He wasn’t fine. Hadn’t been fine since Meri had been found.
Lee came in and closed the door behind him. ‘Are you going to tell them about what she did to you?’
‘I don’t think she did anything – it was Kel.’
‘But she infected him. More I think about it, the more certain I am that we can’t hold him responsible for his actions.’ Lee picked up and tossed a cricket ball from hand to hand. ‘He’s been brainwashed. That power of hers, probably messes with the brain. How else would he let her do that to him?’
So that was how Lee was playing it: regarding the defection of their best friend as something Kel didn’t so much choose as was manipulated into by biology. But Ade knew better.
‘It’s not like that, Lee. I felt her when we connected – felt them both. She didn’t damage me – she gave, and went on giving even though it was costing her.’
‘That’s what she wanted you to think.’
‘Can’t you even for a moment consider that she might not be at fault here? That she genuinely believes she’s found something new out about the connection between Perilous and Tean? Didn’t you see her skin patterns? What does that mean? Don’t you want to know?’
Putting the ball down, Lee went to the window and looked out, arms folded. Jeez: his friend was so stubborn. Kel had joked that Lee had a spine of steel; Ade wished at times it were a little more flexible.
‘You aren’t going to say that downstairs, are you? I’ll be really pissed off if you do,’ said Lee.
They both knew Ade’s position was at risk. By Perilous tradition, he was only the heir as long as Osun named him as such. Other, more orthodox, members of his family could be promoted over Ade if the current king so wished. Lee had been in damage limitation mode ever since the rumours that Ade was going to be censured had started to circulate. Ade was gaining the reputation as a wild card and in the conservative circles of the Perilous that was the kiss of death to his standing.
‘I don’t see how I can fail to mention it, Lee. Commander Rill was there too, as well as you. None of us should lie about what we saw – or what we did. It could be vital information.’
‘And what did we see? A Tean who can control her power so she doesn’t kill – great. Just proves that she’s even more dangerous as she can be subtle in her attacks.’
‘And why would she attack us unless we attack her first? Even when some cretins on the other ship did open fire, what did she do? She left the battlefield.’
‘Ade, please, it’s suicidal for you to argue that. That’s the kind of crap Kel tried on us.’ Lee sat down the armchair by the window, looking exhausted. He normally never took a seat unless asked to by Ade. ‘I wish we’d never met her.’
‘I expect she feels the same – with the exception of meeting Kel.’
A spark of anger flickered, making Lee forget his usual deference. He groaned. ‘I can’t believe this. It’s a nightmare. Ade, you’ve got to stop taking her side. You’ve got to protect your position. You know what they’re going to do with you, don’t you?’
Ade sat up and shrugged. ‘I can’t prevent that. I can’t control any of this. I can only tell them what I see to be the truth.’ He knew, of course, what was brewing. It was unprecedented for the royal family all to be in one place but such was the gravity of the situation they had broken their centuries’ old rule. They would only do that if there was a serious decision to be taken and he guessed he was the focus of their attention. As a result of so many key players being in one place, security at Ade’s home was extra tight. No one was allowed in or out of the mansion apart from the team of guards. He wondered what the neighbours made of the sudden influx of limos with tinted windows and armed men pacing the perimeter, not to mention the Zulu guards with their spears and shields that came with his great-aunt. It was interesting to imagine that interview at customs. Knowing his great-aunt, she would’ve crushed any opposition with a raised brow. All in all, the house now felt to Ade rather like a prison in which he was awaiting his sentence, Osun the judge and his extended family the jury.
‘Lee, I’ll admit I’m confused about the encounter if you like.’
‘Do that. It’ll help. Don’t argue on behalf of a Tean.’
‘But what if she’s not one anymore – what if she and Kel are something new as they claim? Wouldn’t that be good?’
‘Don’t kid yourself – she is the most Tean of all Teans. Her one aberration from their usual ways is falling for Kel. We’ve got the Teans on the ropes because she’s the only full blood left. We can’t back off now. We could take them out permanently if we get to her.’
‘Maybe that would be OK if she’d done something to deserve it.’
‘She’s messed Kel up: isn’t that enough?’
‘And the Spanish boy, Daro? He looked happy enough.’
‘Another dupe.’
Ade rubbed his face. ‘I wish I were you sometimes, Lee. You see things in such black and white terms.’
‘I just remember my training. It’s never let me down. It gives me a kind of certainty.’
Or a kind of fanaticism. Ade had to admit he wasn’t comfortable with many of Lee’s attitudes and methods. Ade had liked Meri – still did. Lee by contrast started off his acquaintance with Meri with an exchange of insults so had never had to deal with feelings of friendship towards her. That’s probably why he found it easier to be harsh. For all Lee’s talk of ultimate measures, though, Ade couldn’t believe Lee would actually harm Meri. Lock her away, yes; kill her, no – not unless under attack. He had a basic decency for all his fighting talk.
A door slammed downstairs – more voices in the hall. Lee went to the window to check on the arrivals.
It also sucked, decided Ade as he watched his bodyguard’s back, to feel responsible for what his decisions would do to Lee’s status. A bodyguard tended to catch the reflected glory or shame of his or her employer. He should cut Lee loose. ‘You know, Lee, if they do demote me, I’ll make sure I put in a good word with my uncle, make sure you get an assignment worthy of your loyalty.’
Lee turned, his expression one of hurt. ‘You’re my assignment, Ade. I’m not like Kel. I won’t abandon you just because you’re in trouble with your uncle. That’ll pass.’ Lee waved it away. ‘You might have to earn back your place but you’re well-liked and people are used to thinking of you as his successor. They won’t want to change.’
‘I guess we’ll see about that.’ OK, time to get ready. Ade went to his wardrobe to choose a suitable outfit to wear for the meeting.
Lee came over to help him, shaking his head at a couple of selections. ‘Go with the dark blue. Just don’t say too much about your doubts, OK? Why don’t you let me describe what I saw, save you the trouble?’
And allow Lee to slant the account so the blame fell on Meri rather than Kel and Ade? ‘Thanks, my friend, but I was in charge so I take responsibility for what happened. No need for you to cover for me.’
Lee gave a wry smile. ‘I thought that was my job.’
Ade had a flashback to the trial he had staged for Meri as he entered the conference room. Usually it was the space where he and his friends hung out together, equipped with a big screen and comfy sofas; now it had been converted into an audience chamber, sofas relegated to the basement. Osun sat at the head of the table and all the other members of the royal family seated according to rank. Ade was relieved to see his own chair at Osun’s right was still vacant. They hadn’t decided in his absence to boot him out.
‘What have you been up to, boy?’ asked Aunt Umfula. Reaching her late seventies she had hearing problems and always spoke as if on megaphone. Her cup and saucer rattled in her hand as she stood by the breakfast buffet. ‘What did you do that requires me to be dragged from Cape Town to this damp, cold place? It’s not good for my rheumatism.’
‘I apologize for the inconvenience,’ said Ade, a little surprised that Osun hadn’t briefed everyone in advance.
‘I don’t like the sound of what I’ve been hearing about you.’
‘I’m sorry. I’ve just done my best.’
‘And maybe that’s not been enough, eh?’
The king clapped his hands together. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, please bring your coffee to the table.’
