“I must admit,” Eleanor said quietly, “I assumed she had been sent to the chambers along with the other unfortunates.”
Tomyris laid one of the Salukis across her feet. “I assumed she was caught by the Gestapo.”
“The Gestapo?” Abbey asked the Frisian.
“Yes, they were a special police force who worked for Hitler.”
“I know.”
“You remember the Gestapo, but you don’t remember yourself?” The horse turned its long head to her and glared with its huge eyeball at her face.
“We have many books at The Meadows,” Abbey explained. “And television. And old men who survived the war.”
The horse nodded and continued. “I see. Television. What a wonderful invention. I watch the daytime soap operas with Ruth and long to join her on the couch. Have you ever seen Days of Our Lives?”
“The Gestapo,” Abbey redirected Merlin and the horse shook its huge head.
“Yes, I do digress, don’t I?” The horse sounded as if he chuckled. “I do that often.”
“I feared that she wasn’t up to the task,” Boo said and helped herself to another huge glass of lemonade. “She never handled the sword well enough.”
“Boo, dear, she was trying to murder Hitler in Germany in the year 1941. A sword would have been a bit…obvious…don’t you think?” Livia said with a smirk. “Here, Eleanor darling, help me fold these VIP passes.” Eleanor sighed and began to fold.
“Her husband was killed in the gas chambers,” Merlin said, poking his nose at a finely embroidered picture of a handsome man in his mid-twenties. Next to the smiling face stood a curvy young brunette in an evening gown. “She wanted Hitler dead more than anything else in the world.”
“Surely she knew she would die,” Abbey whispered, fingering the golden threads of the embroidered picture. “Infiltrating the Gestapo would be suicide.”
“Yes, but, you see, she was a direct descendant of Ruth’s line,” Merlin said. “Although she was not Immortal herself, she did possess some of the recuperative powers of an Immortal. In addition, she also had the ability to tolerate extreme temperatures, was faster than a normal human, and had an acute sense of balance. She counted on these heightened physical traits to assist her in her task.”
“So she set out on a mission to murder a murderer.”
“Revenge is the oldest of motivators.” Merlin thought for a minute and added, “along with sex, but I sincerely doubt sex with Hitler was on her mind.”
“As do I,” Abbey said.
“She had the best training we could provide,” Ruth said, picking up her knitting. “We can rest assured of that.” The women nodded in agreement.
“She maintained excellent control of her powers,” Boo agreed. “They rivaled those of an Immortal.”
“There is nothing we could have done,” Eleanor said, stapling a program and laying it on top of the growing stack. “The girl was determined to try the assassination and nothing could stop her. We trained her to our best ability, we funded her mission and we provided her with transportation, contacts and as much protection as we could.
What’s done is done.”
“Amen, sister,” Livia responded.
“Why are we discussing Elfi anyway?” Tomyris asked, stroking one Saluki with her hand and another with her foot. “I thought we were worried about Robert.”
“Oh, that’s right!” Ruth laughed and placed the knitting in her lap. “We started talking about poor Elfi and her quest to kill Hitler and, by gosh, we got sidetracked.” She paused and cleared her throat. “I must admit. I’m confused about how she went to Germany and wound up on our yard. Do we need more Lemon cake? Tea? Anyone?”
“That’s the point, dear,” Eleanor struggled against frustration, “how did she?”
“Robert! He must have something to do with it!” Ruth shouted excitedly, as if discovering this fact for the first time.
Boo glared at her. “Yes, Ruth. Yes. Now you are back with us.”
“I have a theory,” Merlin said as he pushed Abbey farther down the hallway. “You see, one comes out of the Tapestry at the exact moment that they went in. Surely you have noticed that yourself?” Abbey nodded. “Regardless of the time spent in the past, no time at all has passed on this side of the Tapestry.”
“I understand. But the question remains…”
“I’m getting there,” Merlin sounded irritated. “As far as we at the Bastille know, Elfi had no interest in going into the Tapestry at all. She had no reason to believe she could survive the trip back, you see.” “Trip back?” Abbey asked.
“Immortals flit in and out of the Tapestry at will. Mortals can make the trip into the past with no problem, but when they return to our time, they age. Ten years for every century.”
“So the bodies that were found… the detective said one looked to be eighty. If the woman was twenty or so in the present time…?” “It would be sixty years of present time, or six centuries.”
“That would mean…”
“Approximately 1408.” Merlin sounded proud of himself. “I already did the math.”
“So somehow, Elfi went to Germany to kill Hitler and wound up going to the year 1408?”
“Approximately.”
“Approximately. Why would she do that?” Abbey asked.
Merlin stared at her. “That, my dear Abbey, is the question of the moment.”
“Robert was the only one who could do this!” Boo insisted.
“No, dear, he is not. However, the odds are in his favor.”
“It could be the Doctor,” Livia said as she finished with the programs.
“Impossible,” Tomyris yawned. “He couldn’t go back to the fifteenth century. He was born in the nineteenth.”
“Fifteenth century?” Eleanor’s head jerked up.
“I did the math,” Tomyris said, unbraiding her hair and taking the feathers out. “iPhone app.”
“Ridiculous! Why would Robert want to go back to the fifteenth century?” Zen said quickly.
“Don’t defend him’” Eleanor said sharply.
Zen sat back and shook her head. “I’m not defending him.”
“We all know why he would want to go back to that time,” Eleanor said.
“So you think he has something to do with me?” Abbey stopped abruptly.
Merlin nodded. “The Tapestry was not in Europe. It had been moved to the United States many years prior. Elfi had no way of getting into the Tapestry from Germany. Nor could she have done so on her own.” Merlin stopped in front of another section of Tapestry and continued.
“I hypothesize that Robert tricked her into the past from the United States. She never made it to Germany. He wanted her here in America for some reason.”
“I have heard so much about him. Who is he?”
“Oh, you have met him. You will meet him again soon enough,” Merlin sounded serious. He nudged another embroidered pattern and Abbey looked closely at it. This picture depicted a dark London street, covered in fog and illuminated by a dim light. A man, face and body covered in a long cape stood hidden in a doorway. Under the streetlight, a scantily clad, buxom woman stood.
“Robert is here because of him. The Doctor.”
Abbey examined it closer, but saw no face. “Who is he?”
“An evil man who used…dear, how do I say this? Women of the night…is that the expression? To experiment upon.”
“Why?”
“His theory is that the blood, or DNA, of the Immortal can be controlled in the laboratory, converting any human into an Immortal. He and Robert became fast friends. Both sought the same thing.” He glared at Abbey before continuing. “An heir.”
“I wouldn’t mate with that man in exchange for the return of Rome’s glory days,” Livia spat.
“We speak hypothetically, Livia, not realistically,” Eleanor groaned.
“I didn’t know there was any man you’d refuse to mate with, dear,” Tomyris sneered.
“All we�
�re saying,” Eleanor continued, holding up her hands, “is that Robert and the Doctor have both tried to sire a male heir with mortal women before.”
“Because they know not a single Immortal female will bear their child,” Boudicca said.
“Regardless of the reason,” Eleanor continued, “the only sure way of siring an Immortal child is when both Immortals are the biological parents. Males as well as females know that. This is most likely the reason Robert is after Abbey.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Zen laughed. “Abbey would never mate with him.”
“Not willingly,” Eleanor’s voice carried no emotion.
NNN
“Since he cannot convince an Immortal female to carry his child, he was hoping to create his own,” Merlin said.
“In the laboratory,” said Abbey. Merlin nodded.
“With this man.” Merlin nodded again.
“The only other option is to convince an Immortal woman to… dear….how to say…agree to become impregnated.”
NNN
“What did I tell you?” Boo exploded, descending on Eleanor and pounding the desk. “If you had let me kill him last week…”
“You’d have been a murderer,” Eleanor said calmly. “How many police detectives were hovering about last week? How many mysterious deaths can the Bastille survive, Boudicca? Two? Then we have hit our quota.”
“You suggest Robert hopes to kidnap Abbey for the purposes of impregnating her?” Zen laughed. “That’s absurd!”
“I see nothing absurd about it,” Boo turned on Zen. “Men have been forcing pregnancies on women for a thousand years.”
“Yes, in extreme circumstances.”
“Oh? The mere fact that a woman is married means she wants to be pregnant?” Boo asked. Zen shook her head in disgust.
“Let us assume Robert is here, he has followed Abbey, and is stalking the Bastille,” Eleanor said, turning to Zen. “This means he must strike during the Ritual. We need appropriate security.”
“I have stated a hundred times I can handle it.”
“Let us hope so,” Eleanor said, “for all our sake.”
“Once a year, there is a…dear, how to say it? A changing of the guard.” Merlin nosed another of the finely embroidered scenes, this one showing a circle of women sewing. “The guardians of the Tapestry—that’s you, Abbey—gather into a circle and sing the ancient chants. It is during the Ritual that Immortals wishing a respite go into the Tapestry and those wishing to start a new life with a new persona return from their respite, all the while ensuring that those serving penance stay inside the Tapestry.” Abbey nodded and pointed to the scene. “That’s the reason behind these scenes!” she said excitedly. “These memories are where the respites occur.”
“Has nobody explained this part?” said Merlin. Abbey shook her head. “Each lifetime, the Immortal chooses one memory they wish to take respite in. They embroider it during the Ritual and here it remains as a safe haven in which one can relax for a lifetime. Sometimes two lifetimes.”
Abbey gasped and turned to Merlin. “So these are where one takes their vacations?”
“But be careful,” Merlin warned, “you become another physical being in that time. You must never—repeat never—allow your past self to see your current self. You also must not change anything.”
“But my point is this,” she said, waving him aside, “why did Aunt Eleanor embroider a scene of my burning? Why would she want to use that as a respite?”
Merlin shook his head. “Ask her.”
“Here,” Zen said, placing a list of names on Eleanor’s desk. “These are the names of those being released from detention.” Eleanor gazed at the names and nodded. “Fine.” “Ladies, I bid you goodnight,” Zen said.
“Are we done here?” Tomyris asked, sitting up. The dogs jumped to their feet, tails wagging.
Eleanor nodded. “I’m exhausted. Let’s all remember that we have less than forty-eight hours before the Ritual. Be on guard.” “I am,” Boo said, grabbing her sword and heading out.
“She always is,” Tomyris said, following the woman.
“I’ll meet with reporters and have a cover story ready regarding the bodies,” Livia said, picking up her papers.
“I think I’ll make crêpes for breakfast,” Ruth chimed in, still knitting. “Fresh strawberries, blueberries, and some whipped cream.” “That sounds delicious,” Eleanor agreed.
59
“I TOLD YOU I’M THE BAKER’S WIFE, YOU STUPID WHORE, ARE YOU DEAF?” Edna snatched the dress, apron and hand towel from Heather and disappeared down the hallway.
Just as she grabbed the doorknob, Lynn turned the corner.
“Edna, can I speak with you?”
“Oh! Good morning, dear. You look nice today,” Edna said, brushing lint off Lynn’s blouse. “Is that new? Red looks so good on you, why don’t you wear it more often? Or is this a … special occasion?”
Lynn felt her face go flush. It had nothing to do with the fact that Robert casually mentioned his fondness for red. Nothing. It was a coincidence. “No, I don’t know…just felt good.”
“When I said that about swallowing a handful of Valium, you told me I was full of shit,” Edna smirked.
“Ah, well…” Lynn stuttered. “Well, about the party…”
“Faire, dear. The women of the Bastille are very stern about the terminology.”
“Faire,” Lynn corrected herself. “We have all the positions covered except one.” Edna stared at Lynn coldly. “You can still be the baker’s wife…”
Edna broke out into a smile. “Good. I like carrying bread. I ask cute guys to squeeze my buns.”
“That’s great. Clever,” Lynn lied. “But we need a person to help herd the visitors to the quilting demonstration.” Edna’s eyes squinted.
“You know, when the women sit in a circle and chant?”
“That’s so boring! I’ve seen it before!” Edna whined.
“Mr. Graves and Mr. Rix—sorry, Joan of Arc—are on trash duty with me; Mrs. Bailey is monitoring the inside fence with Mr. Stewart.”
“Monitoring the…?”
“If they are struck by the need to strip and dance with Feng Shi, the chances are minimal that they’ll be seen by anyone other than Heather,” Lynn explained.
All I do is get people to watch the sewing circle and then stand there?” Lynn nodded. “Can I bring my buns? I love to say, ‘Want to knead my loaves, sir?’ Last year, some guy did. He was a cutie pie, too.” “Sure. Ask them to touch your buns all you want.”
“Fine! I’ll do it!” She looked at Lynn and lowered her voice. “Want me to find a cute guy for you, too? I’ll share my loaves with you.” Her eyes flitted over Lynn’s shoulder to Heather. “WHAT DO YOU WANT
NOW, YOU TRAMP?”
60
“Dresses?” The Doctor chuckled from behind his paper and sipped more café au lait. “You have quite the fondness for dresses, don’t you?”
Robert modeled his dress for the Doctor. A wig of long, thick blonde hair looked so realistic it could have easily passed for real. A fresh shave erased his normal stubble and a thick scarf hid his predominant Adam’s apple. The loose-fitting peasant’s dress hid the hairy arms and rounding out the façade was a bodice and falsies that formed an enormous cleavage. Robert looked sexy.
“This will enable me to go anywhere and do anything I like during the Faire,” Robert said proudly, petting his own breasts. “Tell me...shall
I dress this way?”
The Doctor nodded, “I’d ravage you.”
“You would ravage anything,” Robert chuckled.
“Like, don’t mean to interrupt the ravaging,” Josh’s voice interrupted, “but there’s a Lynn Swanson on the line?” The boy stared from Doctor to Robert with wide eyes and cocked head. “Um…what do you want me to say, boss?”
“I’ll take her in here.” Robert strode to the phone.
“So, she’s…like…your girlfriend...or something?” Josh asked ho
pefully.
“Or something,” the Doctor answered as he closed the door on the boy.
“Hello, there, my dear.” Robert’s voice sounded smooth and soft. Silk on air. He shot the Doctor a thumbs up. “That time works perfectly for me. I must warn you, however, of my choice of costume. I must attend as a woman. I assure you, the minute we leave the grounds, I will don pants.”
“No,” she said quickly, “you don’t have to do that for me.”
“Not for you, my dear. For me,” he crooned. It shouldn’t be too difficult to reel her in again. She was old and desperate. “I should like to dine with you looking as masculine as I can.”
As soon as Lynn put the phone back into the cradle, Martha stormed into her office, laid a manila folder on her desk, and cleared her throat.
“The Faire’s VIP passes,” Martha’s sandpaper voice ground across the room, “are not to be trifled with.”
Lynn smiled at her. Trifled with? They were badges to a freaking Renaissance Faire, not the Willy Wonka Golden Tickets. “I’m sorry?”
“The Faire passes that Livia Emerson sent over. She wants an information sheet filled out for each of these VIP passes. Name. Contact information. Emergency contact.”
“Yes, I remember.” Lynn barely heard the Nazi. She had to get to Payless Shoes and get a pair of boots for tomorrow. There was no way she was walking around the Faire in her new sneakers. Besides, her new brown cords would look outstanding with those new hiking boots she saw in the window of Payless.
“I don’t have enough forms for the number of VIP passes,” Martha said, crossing her arms and leaning against the door frame.
“Okay, I’ll get right on it.”
“In duplicate!”
“Well,” Lynn laid down her pen and looked at Martha. “How about if I fill out the top information sheets once and copy each one so you’ll have two copies?”
“I need two copies of each form. I don’t care how you get them.” Martha smiled fiendishly and said, “So now you can tell that to Livia Emerson. She’s on line two.” She coughed into her hand and headed out the door. Lynn snatched up line two. “Ms. Emerson?”
“Lynn,” the crisp, efficient voice said, “good to speak with you again. Abbey is doing fine. We are all a bit hectic with this Faire business…”
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