“When your son broke up with me! There for all to see, he sent me away,” she snapped, a faint blush giving away her embarrassment. She picked up her wine glass, taking a long sip as she sat back in her chair. “I wouldn’t have learned the truth of it all if I hadn’t stayed for that invitation,” she added eventually.
“The truth of what?”
“Who your son has been seeing. I was leaving when the Lady Grey announced the wedding. I went back to Kesmere to pack and decided to visit a friend before returning to Prague. She had been at the ball too and saw what happened after I left. The invitation came the next day. She let me have it to bring to you as proof.”
“Proof of what?” David asked, weary of how Danielle drew out the story in an effort to save face, most likely.
“Of how much the Lady Grey disregards you. She is the woman your son has been seeing. You knew?” Danielle asked when she saw the look on David’s face.
“I’ve heard rumors.”
“Oh, this is far more than rumors,” she said.
Danielle stayed the night though would not share a room with him. That part was over between them, which Danielle made clear with a demand for a room with a door she locked as soon as she stepped behind it. Not that David cared. He too had moved on, or at least had prospects. Danielle could nurse her hurt or go back to the young lover she’d left when she ran to England at David’s prompting in a last effort to keep the engagement with Derrick. Not to mention after the information Danielle had related, sex was the last thing on David’s mind. He’d much prefer murder.
Alone in his study, he stared at the wedding invitation. David’s thoughts were as red as the fire he sat before and as hot. He’d learned of the rumors of Derrick and Arinna, but hearing Danielle’s report of the ball incensed him. He paced to his phone, dialing a number he knew well. Renault le Marc answered on the third ring.
“MOTHER needs to meet tomorrow morning,” David said and hung up. He called Miralda next.
There were only six people to notify, but the conversation with Miralda lasted nearly an hour. By the time the meeting was arranged, the evening was late, but David’s anger remained. Tomorrow would bring retribution for Arinna and Captain Vries’ arrogance. But that wasn’t the root of David’s ire. And he didn’t need MOTHER to deal with it.
The last phone call David made was to Guard command. A woman answered the phone.
“I need to speak to the Lady Grey,” David demanded.
“I’m sorry sir, she is unavailable.”
The same answer came to his request for the captain. David snarled when she offered to patch him through to the lieutenant on duty. “I do not want a lieutenant. Do you know who this is?”
“Yes, Secretary Eldridge,” she replied.
“You are to give Arinna Prescot and Captain Vries a message. They are to stay away from my son. If I hear anything about him working with the Guard or even a mention of him enlisting, I will have Ms. Prescot arrested on charges of planning a coup. And trust me when I say the charges will be highly substantiated.” David slammed the phone into the receiver without waiting for an answer. It didn’t help him sleep.
In the morning, he was the last to arrive in the room where MOTHER met. They were not a secret organization, having offices housed amid the European parliamentary building in Prague where they worked alongside its members. To the senators, the seven secretaries of MOTHER were the last advisors of the deceased Prime Minister’s cabinet. They guided a parliament filled with individuals who were not career politicians due to turnover and rules of inheritance created during the war. The secretaries were advisory. They hid the truth of what they were in full view, claiming executive balance, creating the laws they needed, or simply altering votes. There was not an important motion that went through parliament that they didn’t control. The only thing outside their sphere was the Guard.
“Nice of you to join us,” Miralda said when David arrived. Though they had talked the night before, it had been about Miralda’s plans to rid the Guard of Arinna. David had promised his support and an explanation of why at this meeting.
David copied Danielle’s dramatic gesture and dropped the invitation onto the table. “I learned of this yesterday,” he said. “It is a wedding invitation between Captain Vries and his partner,” he added as both Miralda and Gilles reached for the paper. Renault, David noted, barely gave it a glance.
“You knew of this?” David hissed to Renault, wondering if Danielle had really visited him first or had gone home to her father prior.
“You are not the only one who has contacts around the lakes in England,” Renault answered.
“And you did not see fit to tell us?” Sabana demanded. “There are rules against this! As if the Lady Grey and her captain haven’t spited us enough. Now this!”
Ilse laughed, cracking the sour mood of the room. “You are that upset over a wedding? Oh yes, I know the Guard rule we created during the war. No marriage during active duty. Might I remind you, the war officially ended three years ago? I would say the marriage reconfirms that. Honestly, I’m surprised a lack of marriage within the Guard hasn’t been noted.”
“He is still active on defense. He is the captain of our armed forces,” David pointed out with barely restrained anger.
“Is he stepping down?” Miralda asked, tapping the corner of the invitation against the table. “That could work for us. We could request it.” She glanced around the table.
“We, as in MOTHER, who don’t really exist. Or were you thinking of sending notes to all of parliament advising them that the marriage is against the rules and, since the wedding will take place before fall session, the popular captain who helped save Europe a mere three years ago should be punished for disobedience?” Renault asked.
“They’d laugh,” Gilles said. “And then make a retroactive rule change to allow it.”
“And as for taking a request to stop it straight to the Lady Grey or Vries, well we’ve seen how cooperative she can be,” Piero added.
“Exactly,” David replied. “This is just one further example of Ms. Prescot’s disregard. Now we see Captain Vries is as much a part of it as she. This needs to end. They both must be removed, and the Guard brought under our control.”
“Which worked so well the first time we nearly surrendered to the FLF,” Renault snapped though the retort brought a wheeze to his breath.
“We are not currently at war if you have not noticed,” Miralda replied, waving away the retort Renault began. “Oh yes, there are FLF, but even their incursions and threats have diminished. We are not in the position we were before, and we have learned. There are four trained and competent lieutenants that can advise and lead in the absence of the Lady Grey and Captain Vries. The only question is how to remove them.”
“I am not for this,” Renault rasped.
“Do not speak too quickly, apparently there is news that you haven’t heard despite knowing of the wedding. Perhaps your informants were too afraid to tell you,” David said to Renault. “It is not a discussion involving MOTHER,” David added to the rest of the group.
“But one that will change his mind?” Sabana asked. “I’m sure we’ll hear of it eventually,” she added but did not press the issue.
“Well, Renault is not alone in his objection,” Gilles said. “So unless you have blackmail on me as well, that still leaves MOTHER divided.”
“I’m not convinced either,” Ilse said. “We do not know the threats we face beyond our borders well enough to decide we do not need our two most experienced commanders. Even if they do not work well with us.”
“Perhaps it is we who do not work well with them,” Renault said. “We’ve bickered among ourselves for too long. These problems would not exist if we were a functioning cabinet.”
“You mean elect a prime minister?” Miralda asked carefully.
“I mean it is time for parliament to elect a prime minister, and maybe for the people to elect a parliament if we face so few threats that
you would declare real peace. The worst problem from pretending the war outside of Europe doesn’t exist is we don’t know if it is over,” Renault said.
“I concur it would be one way of ending this stalemate,” Sabana said. “Both between ourselves and the Guard.”
“There are other ways of dealing with the Guard ... but I agree the cleanest would be to select a prime minister,” Miralda said.
“Which would come first?” Piero asked. “Electing a prime minister or electing a new parliament?”
The seven looked at each other. David hesitated to speak. He wanted Arinna gone. But to ensure he would be prime minister, he needed an edge he didn’t currently have, especially now that Renault’s backing had faded. Contacting the FLF just became even more important.
“Either decision will not occur overnight,” David said after the silence creaked on too long. “Let’s adjourn and consider which we would prefer, and how to guide parliament to make the decision.”
“Having parliament elect a prime minister could be done this fall. But to elect a new parliament would most likely take until spring,” Gilles said.
“That is a long time to suffer with the Lady Grey and Captain Vries,” Miralda said. “But perhaps we can come to a resolution there too. If we think on it.” She glanced pointedly at Renault, Gilles, and Ilse.
“Shall we meet in a few days?” Ilse asked, ignoring Miralda’s hint.
The others filed out, Renault remaining, wearing a cool glare for David. “And so what is this news that I have not heard?” he asked when the door closed, leaving them alone in the small conference room.
“I heard from Danielle,” David said. “The engagement between her and Derrick is over.”
Renault wilted. He sat with shoulders slumped as he stared at the tabletop. A minute passed before he met David’s eyes. “This is unfortunate, but I do not see why you think this will change my mind? Forcing your son to honor the promise he made is not a feat you can manage.”
“It is because of why he ended it.”
“The woman he is seeing?” Renault hazarded.
“Is the Lady Grey.”
Understanding filled Renault’s cloudy eyes. It made David wonder when his longtime adversary had become an old man. He looked unwell with sagging, pale skin and yellowed eyes.
“Your son cannot stay away from the military, can he?” Renault asked.
David slammed his fist against the table. “I will not lose him to this war.”
“I thought you said the war was over, and that was why we didn’t need the Lady Grey?” Renault sneered. “Perhaps you misspoke.”
“I will not have you complicating or delaying her removal,” David said, voice quavering with threat.
“I do not see how either of us has managed to guide the lives of our children in the way we desired. Let him go before you destroy your relationship with your only son as I have with all three of my children. Trust me, I know I cannot right things with the two who are dead, and I fear I don’t have the time to leave Danielle anything greater than the hate she has of me.”
“But that is the beauty of it, Renault. She will be left with several things when you die. One of which may be to inherit your seat on MOTHER. And though you may have no desire to see Ms. Prescot gone, I can assure you your daughter does not have the same hesitation.”
About the Author
Autumn (also known as Weifarer) is a travel and fiction writer currently based in Maine where she lives in a small cottage lost in the woods, which she built with her husband and with the supervision (and approval) of two Cairn terriers.
With a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bucknell University in Studio Arts and English, Autumn once considered a career in illustration. However, an ecology course at Virginia Tech led to a Master of Science degree in Ecology and Environmental Sciences from the University of Maine in Orono. Since graduating with her M.S., Autumn has worked for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. This is a great job that not only lets her help the environment and protect local agriculture, but also gives her a paycheck big enough to support her writing habit!
You can learn more about Autumn’s books online at her website www.AutumnWriting.comincluding her latest work-in-progress. If you want to get an automatic email when Autumn’s next book is released, sign up here. Your email address will never be shard and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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After the War: Military Dystopian Thriller (Friends of my Enemy Book 2) Page 30