“What’s wrong, Lieutenant?” Jozsef’s smile faded. “Are you ill?”
“No, Your Grace.” The man lowered his eyes and refused to look at him.
“You would refuse my table?” Jozsef leaned both hands on the desk.
“No, Your Grace.” The lieutenant, a devout follower of the Muslim faith swallowed hard and then looked up at the Prophet, forcing a smile.
“Then I am looking forward to seeing you there.” Jozsef straightened up. “Now go on downstairs and see the sergeant. We have good water, plenty. You will need a bath.”
“Yes, Your Grace.” The lieutenant snapped a perfect salute and executed a sharp about face before quickly walking from the room.
“You will cause an insurrection, my love.” Ruth’s voice drifted across the room to his ears. She stood in the open doors leading onto the balcony, leaning against the door jamb. A household slave stood behind her, providing her breeze with a feathered fan. “These types can be insidious if roused to rebellion. I have heard many tales from the slaves about the old days.”
“I am merely toying with him. He is very arrogant. And I have heard many tales of his exploits.” Jozsef went to take her hands. “He is a hero among his soldiers. A little humility would do him good. He will come to dinner and he will eat our barbecue or he will find himself fanning you in the courtyard as a fat eunuch!” Jozsef laughed. “It is a nasty business keeping up with these treacherous men. Do you know how hard it is to find leaders we can trust not to turn against us?”
“I don’t want to know about your soldiers, I want to know when the air will be fixed.” She took his arm as they walked out into the cooler air of the open courtyard.
“I have several people working on it. Parts are hard to find.” Jozsef assured her. He did not like the heat himself. He did not like perspiration and all the other nasty little things that came with the human form, but he had to admit that some of the things he had inherited were enough to offset the bad. He looked about the courtyard and saw Bari struggling against a man twice his size near the edge of the pool. He stopped long enough to see the man lift the emperor into the air and dump him into the sparkling waters under the fountain.
Bari came up indignantly a few moments later, slinging his wet hair from his face and wiping at the water in his beard. He had grown the beard back in spite of Ruth’s protests. In fact, he was doing a lot of things in spite of her protests.
“How much longer are we going to put up with him?!” Ruth asked Jozsef in a low voice.
Jozsef patted her hand. “We have plenty of time. Do not concern yourself with the emperor. There is another matter I would discuss with you, my love.”
“Oh? Something to do with our porkaphobic friend?” She smiled and then pursed her lips.
“I believe our Templars have made some very unusual allies or perhaps they could yet make some. Our outposts in the Sudan have been abandoned. Due in part to the creatures who now roam the plains, but they have seen some interesting things going on down there. I believe we may have celestial company.”
“How so?” Ruth frowned up at him.
“I’m not sure. I need more information.” Jozsef escorted her to a seat in the shade. “We may need to step up our… process.”
“Hmmm.” Ruth mused as she watched Bari dump his sparring opponent into the pool.
Her dark eyes narrowed as Nicole Ramsay entered the courtyard further along. She wore a pair of white shorts and a blue tank top. Her long blond hair hung in lank curls against her darkly tanned skin. The daughter of Mark Ramsay was a beautiful woman, appearing no more than thirty years old, though Ruth knew she was much older. She wore only the tank top and shorts and the lack of further clothing was quite obvious in the late afternoon light streaming across the southeastern portion of the courtyard. She fanned herself lazily with a white fan made of ostrich feathers.
All eyes turned to watch her as she walked slowly past Bari and his fitness trainer. The trainer was so intent upon watching the blonde saunter past, he allowed Bari to flatten him with a well-placed blow. Nicole looked back briefly as the muscular young man rolled across the tiled surface behind her and then fixed her attention on Jozsef Daniel. Ruth did not like this one at all.
“She should not display herself to the servants in such a manner.” Ruth told him as she approached them. “You should speak to her about it.”
“Certainly.” Jozsef smiled crookedly and went to meet the object of Ruth’s disdain. He took her arm and turned her around, away from Ruth.
“Jozsef!” Nicole spoke behind the fan. “It’s stifling here. Is there no other place we can go to get away from the heat? Surely there must be someplace left in the world? And I’m sick of her! She watches me constantly! Doesn’t she know how you feel about me?”
“Of course not!” He told her through a fake smile and gritted teeth and nodded to Bari as they passed on their way back. “I told you that it would be unwise to let her know about us. It wouldn’t be proper. She’s very picky about appearances and improprieties.”
“That’s bullshit!” Nicole frowned and her face turned dark. “She was never like that before. When did she become Miss Prim and Proper? I know her. I’ve known her for a very long time. And so have you. I’ll bet she said something about my clothes… didn’t she?”
“Well, yes, as a matter of fact, she did.” Jozsef nodded as they stepped inside one of the parlors. “Look, Nicole.” He turned to face her. “We may be traveling soon. There are developments away south that do not sound very healthy. I believe that my grandfather may be planning to attack the city.”
“No! Really?” Her eyes grew round. “When are we leaving? Where are we going? What about Louisiana? I’m sure they survived the war! I’ve heard that George is still in power there. The weather has to be better.” She dropped her fan on the pavement and grabbed his arm in agitation. “My father will kill you, Jozsef… all of us! We have to get out of here!”
Jozsef squeezed her hand and laughed softly.
“I don’t doubt that, but it is a matter of transportation for one thing and we cannot afford to leave Bari here to defend the empire alone. He needs our help.”
“Your help, maybe, not mine! I didn’t come here to fight a war. I came here to be with you.” She smiled at him. “Jozsef! Why not just forget all of this and leave? We can go back to America. I know George Watkins… Emperor George? I know him personally. If we could get to New Orleans, I could make things good for us.”
“Could you?” He leaned forward and kissed her nose. “I’ll bet you could.”
“I can do most anything I set my mind on, Jozsef.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him as he craned his neck to see if Ruth could see them.
He was playing a very dangerous game. Ruth abhorred this creature and the feeling was mutual, but Nicole was still laboring under the illusion that he was Jozsef Daniel, her cousin, and that Ruth was actually Bari’s mother even though he could hardly believe that the daughter of Mark Ramsay could be so naïve. But very strange things were going on in New Babylon unbeknownst to this lovely blonde, who wanted nothing but a comfortable life and plenty of money to spend.
He felt sure that Nicole simply refused to acknowledge half of what she saw with her own eyes. If Ruth learned of their relationship, he had no idea what the Great Hubur would do. He dreaded telling her that many of her latest creations, her hideous beasts, were being banished to the Abyss by a new power. She would be livid. She would demand that he do something about it, and he was unsure if he could or if he even wanted to. It would be a waste of time in his books.
“Listen…” He dragged her further from the door into the dim parlor. “I need your help. Do you have any… connection with your brother?”
“Luke?” Nicole’s face fell again. “I don’t have connections to him of any kind and I don’t want any!”
“I mean….” He dragged her a bit further and kissed her neck and then her face. The heat was oppressive and sweat tr
ickled down her neck. “If you wanted to…” He kissed her again. “If you wanted to make a connection with him… a mental connection. If you wanted to learn something.” He scooped her hair up in his hands behind her head and blew on her sweaty neck. The little hairs stood up and she shivered.
“Dammit, Jozsef.” She pushed him away from her. “I don’t want to do anything in this heat!”
“I can make it cooler for us.” He told her. “I know a trick or two. If we go upstairs…”
“If you can make a cool place for me to sleep tonight, I might consider doing you a favor.” She told him.
“I have every idea that you can do whatever you want.” He took her by the hand and led her toward the inner halls.
“What about Ruth? Won’t she be looking for you?” Nicole asked him.
“She has Bari to keep her company this evening. He misses his mommy.” Jozsef laughed. “We are all going to have bar-be-cue with our lieutenant and then, then I have some official business to take care of. After that, I’m all yours.”
Chapter Ten of Twenty-Two
Relent, LORD! How long will it be?
“Ye shud ’ave told me!” Mark Andrew rushed about the bedroom in a panic.
Sophia sat in the middle of his bed with the sheet pulled up around her neck, smiling at him.
“Why? Besides, you didn’t ask.” She shrugged and the sheet slipped.
“’ere!” He grabbed her blouse from the floor and threw it at her. “’ow wud I ’ave known? Ye didna act th’ part! Besoides, ye tricked me!”
“Tricked you?!” She laughed. “That’s preposterous. Look at the difference in our ages! How could such a child as myself have tricked a man of your years? No one will believe you.”
“No one will…” He spun about and glared at her in astonishment. “And just who d’ ye think I moight be tellin’?”
“Well, look at you!” She frowned at him and pulled the knit shirt over her head. “You act as if everyone already knows.”
“If we dunna get out o’ ’ere they moight.” He told her. He could not believe that he had done this thing. He had only just been speaking to himself about how Meredith would be his only love and how he would hold her memory in his heart forever and how he hoped that she would come home to him and so on and so forth. He had been fooling himself! He would never change.
What was worse, he was one of those fools that could never do such a thing and then just walk away. Oh, noooo. He always became emotionally involved with what Lucio would have simply called a ‘conquest’. Sometimes he thought that this was exactly why he was in the position he was in. Not because he had been a ruthless monster half his life. Not because he had shirked his duties and crawled out of the Abyss to wreak havoc on the world, but because he simply could not keep his damnable pants on. Or his kilt or his robe or whatever had stood between him and this sort of thing at the time! But it was not really the physical part of these relationships that brought him to ground. It was the emotional attachments. Why couldn’t he be more like Luke Andrew? But what was he saying? Luke wanted to marry this girl! If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. And what had made this particular sin even worse was that he had played into her hands like a damned fool. Celtic warrior queen! He stopped and closed his eyes. She had climbed out of the bed and was pulling on her jeans.
“You don’t have to be so upset. You would think that it was you who had been deflowered and not the other way around!” She told him irritably.
“Deflowered?! My God!” He shook his head and then went to the closet. “Do you have to put it that way?”
“How would you put it?” She asked him. “I didn’t say I was complaining.”
“I wouldna say it a’toll. I’d just put yur damned flower bock.” He told her and then shook his head again at the absurdity of the words. It had started out as a joke. He had been quite sure he would frighten her away, that she would never carry through with the ritual bath, but she had gone along with everything. Even the stuff he had just made up off the top of his head. He had almost forgotten who he was and who she was and where they were and everything else for just a while. The bath had become ridiculous, but she had not backed off and then afterwards… well, he could only confess his sin to Simon and be done with it. If she did not tell her father, he would… but her father was dead. Had been dead for years. How could she have kept her virtue for all these years? It was unnatural in this day and age and for such a pretty girl, next to impossible. No wonder his son and Konrad and any number of other members of their little community had been after her.
“I’m not a child.” She told him as he rummaged in the closet for a shirt. “You can stop worrying. I’m almost forty-five years old. I’m sorry that my virginity has upset you, but I have been saving it for you. I thought you would appreciate it a bit more.”
“Of course I appreciate it.” His voice was muffled in the clothes hanging in front of him. “But…” He turned around and looked at her again. “You should have saved it for your husband. That’s how it should be. And what makes matters worse is that my son wants to be your husband!”
“The Celts didn’t feel that way.” She reminded him. “Besides I know all about you and Sister Meredith. You were never married in a church. You claimed her by the old laws. You simply took her as your wife and she consented. No pressure, no worries. It could be the same for us.”
“Please don’t speak to me about Meredith.” He looked about the room and saw Merry everywhere. Even the trim on the wainscoting seemed to accuse him.
Sophia crossed the room and took his hands in hers. She looked into his eyes and then smiled.
“Please stop beating yourself up over it.” She told him. “I won’t tell anyone and I’ll give you time to think about it. There is really nothing you can do about it now anyway. It’s done. Finished and I know you well enough to know that you will do what is right. I have been waiting for you for a long time.”
“Sophia!” He was speechless. “I can’t marry you! I promised myself and besides, you never told me who you are. I see you and I know you and yet I don’t know you. You are one of us and you keep your identity a secret? Who sent you?”
“Who sent me? No one sent me. I came on my own. I told you already. I have been looking for you and waiting for you, but tell me…” she countered with her own questions “what did you promise yourself?”
“I promised myself that I would not do this again. That I would not profane the memory of my wife.” He pulled away from her and went for some socks.
“What about the bath? What about all those pretty words and ceremonies?” She asked him.
“Oh, my God. I made most of that up just to scare you away.” He sat on the bed and began to pull on the socks. “Everyone is scared of me. I’ve always counted on it. All I have to do is look at them and they run.”
Again she was in front of him.
“Mark! Look at me.” She took his face between her hands and kissed him soundly on the lips. “I am not afraid of you. I have never been afraid of you. I will never be afraid of you and you can lie to me until you’re blue in the face and I’ll believe anything you want me to believe. You can do anything, go anywhere, but I will never be angry with you. If you wanted me to go with you, I’d go. If you want me to stay, I’ll stay. For now and forever, you may as well accept it. I love you and you will love me, too.”
“Sophia.” He closed his eyes and then opened them. “You never told me what the message is.”
“Oh, well…” She glanced at the clock beside the bed. “Lucifer said…”
She stopped as someone pounded on his door.
“Wait!” He held up one hand. “In the closet… no, in the bath. Go!”
Sophia hurried into the bathroom and pulled the door almost closed as he went to open the door.
She had to stifle a shriek when Lucifer pushed him back into the room and closed the door.
“Uriel!” The angelic chieftain looked about the room. “Did you not rece
ive my message?”
Mark stood looking at the unexpected guest in shock.
“I’m sorry.” Sophia stepped out of the bathroom and Mark turned his head slowly to look at her. “I didn’t have a chance to tell him.”
“Sophia!” Lucifer’s face lit up noticeably.
“We’ve been busy.” Sophia told the angel.
“I see.” Lucifer nodded.
“Anyway, as I was saying, Mark, Lucifer and his companions are joining us for dinner tonight.” Sophia smiled at him.
“Oh.” Mark nodded.
“You look different, Uriel.” Lucifer caught a handful of Mark’s dark hair. “What have you done to yourself?”
“I’ve done nothing.” Mark jerked his head slightly. “This is how I look.”
“I see. You look much like your son, Luke, the Arrogant.” Lucifer looked back and forth between Sophia and Mark Andrew. “And Michael, the Beloved.”
“Michael, the Beloved.” Mark repeated. “Where is Michael… the Beloved?”
“He is waiting for the signal that all is safe here.” Lucifer continued to look about the room. He moved quickly across the floor and poked at the bed with one finger. “Is this where you…sleep?”
“Yes.” Mark turned about.
Lucifer plucked up the counterpane and sniffed it.
“And you sleep here as well, Sophia? Is that jasmine or roses?” The angel seemed quite proud of his recognition of her smell. “Michael said that you might prefer one of the flowery scents for your anointing oil.”
Lucifer acted as if he had only been gone a few hours or days instead of years.
“She does not sleep there.” Mark Andrew opened the door. “We really should be going downstairs. I need to speak to the others. Let them know that you are here.”
“I am not here yet.” Lucifer told him. “I will be here for dinner. I will dine with you and Nathanael… and Sophia.”
“And your warriors? Will they come?” Sophia asked him.
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