The Book of Life

by Deborah Harkness

  "Welcome home." I kissed him.

  He kissed me back, then gave me one of his dazzling, slow smiles. "Thank you, mon coeur."

  Returning to Sept-Tours had been the right decision. Hopefully, no mishaps would darken our otherwise pleasant homecoming.

  *

  In the days leading up to the christening, it seemed as though my wishes would be granted.

  Sept-Tours was so busy with the preparations for the twins' christening that I kept expecting Philippe to burst into the room, singing and telling jokes. But it was Marcus who was the life of the household now, roaming all over the place as if he owned it--which I suppose he technically did--and jollying everybody into a more festive mood. For the first time, I could see why Marcus reminded Fernando of Matthew's father.

  When Marcus ordered that all the furniture in the great hall be replaced with long tables and benches capable of seating the expected hordes, I had a dizzying sense of deja vu as Sept-Tours was transformed back to its medieval self. Only Matthew's rooms remained unchanged. Marcus had declared them off-limits, since the guests of honor were sleeping there. I retreated to Matthew's tower at regular intervals to feed, bathe, and change the babies--and to rest from the constant crush of people employed to clean, sort, and move furniture.

  "Thank you, Marthe," I said upon my return from a brisk walk in the garden. She had happily left the crowded kitchen in favor of nanny duty and another of her beloved murder mysteries.

  I gave my sleeping son a gentle pat on the back and picked Rebecca up from the cradle. My lips compressed into a thin line at her low weight relative to her brother's.

  "She is hungry." Marthe's dark eyes met mine.

  "I know." Rebecca was always hungry and never satisfied. My thoughts danced away from the implications. "Matthew said it's too early for concern." I buried my nose in Rebecca's neck and breathed in her sweet baby smell.

  "What does Matthew know?" Marthe snorted. "You are her mother."

  "He wouldn't like it," I warned.

  "Matthew would like it less if she dies," Marthe said bluntly.

  Still I hesitated. If I followed Marthe's broad hints without consulting him, Matthew would be furious. But if I asked Matthew for his input, he would tell me that Rebecca was in no immediate danger. That might be true, but she certainly wasn't brimming over with health and wellness. Her frustrated cries broke my heart.

  "Is Matthew still hunting?" If I were going to do this, it had to be when Matthew wasn't around to fret.

  "So far as I know."

  "Shh, it's all right. Mommy's going to fix it," I murmured, sitting down by the fire and undoing my shirt with one hand. I put Rebecca to my right breast, and she latched on immediately, sucking with all her might. Milk dribbled out of the corner of her mouth, and her whimper turned into an outright wail. She had been easier to feed before my milk came in, as though colostrum were more tolerable to her system.

  That was when I'd first started to worry.

  "Here." Marthe held out a sharp, thin knife.

  "I don't need it." I swung Rebecca onto my shoulder and patted her back. She let out a gassy belch, and a stream of white liquid followed.

  "She cannot digest the milk properly," Marthe said.

  "Let's see how she handles this, then." I rested Rebecca's head on my forearm, flicked my fingertips toward the soft, scarred skin at my left elbow where I'd tempted her father to take my blood, and waited while red, life-giving fluid swelled from the veins.

  Rebecca was instantly alert.

  "Is this what you want?" I curled my arm, pressing her mouth to my skin. I felt the same sense of suction that I did when she nursed at my breast, except that now the child wasn't fussy--she was ravenous.

  Freely flowing venous blood was bound to be noticed in a house full of vampires. Ysabeau was there in moments. Fernando was nearly as quick. Then Matthew appeared like a tornado, his hair disheveled from the wind.

  "Everyone. Out." He pointed to the stairs. Without waiting to see if they obeyed him, he dropped to his knees before me. "What are you doing?"

  "I'm feeding your daughter." Tears stung my eyes.

  Rebecca's contented swallowing was audible in the quiet room.

  "Everybody's been wondering for months what the children would be. Well, here's one mystery solved: Rebecca needs blood to thrive." I inserted my pinkie gently between her mouth and my skin to break the suction and slow the flow of blood.

  "And Philip?" Matthew asked, his face frozen.

  "He seems satisfied with my milk," I said. "Maybe, in time, Rebecca will take to a more varied diet. But for now she needs blood, and she's going to get it."

  "There are good reasons we don't turn children into vampires," Matthew said.

  "We have not turned Rebecca into anything. She came to us this way. And she's not a vampire. She's a vampitch. Or a wimpire." I wasn't trying to be ridiculous, though the names invited laughter.

  "Others will want to know what kind of creature they're dealing with," Matthew said.

  "Well, they're going to have to wait," I snapped. "It's too soon to tell, and I won't have people forcing Rebecca into a narrow box for their own convenience."

  "And when her teeth come in? What then?" Matthew asked, his voice rising. "Have you forgotten Jack?"

  Ah. So it was the blood rage, more than whether they were vampire or witch, that was worrying Matthew. I passed the soundly sleeping Rebecca to him and buttoned my shirt. When I was finished, he had her tucked tightly against his heart, her head cradled between his chin and shoulder. His eyes were closed, as if to block out what he had seen.

  "If Rebecca or Philip has blood rage, then we will deal with it--together, as a family," I said, brushing the hair from where it had tumbled over his forehead. "Try not to worry so much."

  "Deal with it? How? You can't reason with a two-year-old in a killing rage," Matthew said.

  "Then I'll spellbind her." It wasn't something we'd discussed, but I'd do it without hesitation. "Just as I'd spellbind Jack, if that was the only way to protect him."

  "You will not do to our children what your parents did to you, Diana. You would never forgive yourself."

  The arrow resting along my spine pricked my shoulder, and the tenth knot writhed on my wrist as the cords within me snapped to attention. This time there was no hesitation.

  "To save my family, I'll do what I must."

  *

  "It's done," Matthew said, putting down his phone.

  It was the sixth of December, one year and one day since Philippe had marked Diana with his blood vow. On Isola della Stella, a small island in the Venetian lagoon, a sworn testament of her status as a de Clermont sat on the desk of a Congregation functionary waiting to be entered into the family pedigree.

  "So Aunt Verin came through in the end," Marcus said.

  "Perhaps she has been in touch with Gallowglass." Fernando hadn't given up hope that Hugh's son would return in time for the christening.

  "Baldwin did it." Matthew sat back in his chair and wiped his hands over his face.

  Alain appeared with an apology for the interruption, a stack of mail, and a glass of wine. He cast a worried glance at the three vampires huddled around the kitchen fire and left without comment.

  Fernando and Marcus looked at each other, their consternation evident.

  "Baldwin? But if Baldwin did it . . ." Marcus trailed off.

  "He's more worried about Diana's safety than the de Clermonts' reputation," Matthew finished. "The question is, what does he know that we don't?"

  *

  The seventh of December was our anniversary, and Sarah and Ysabeau baby-sat the twins to give Matthew and me a few hours on our own. I prepared bottles of milk for Philip, mixed blood and a bit of milk for Rebecca, and brought the pair down to the family library. There Ysabeau and Sarah had constructed a wonderland of blankets, toys, and mobiles to entertain them and were looking forward to the evening with their grandchildren.

  When I suggested we wo
uld simply have a quiet dinner in Matthew's tower so as to be within calling distance if there was a problem, Ysabeau handed me a set of keys.

  "Dinner is waiting for you at Les Revenants," she said.

  "Les Revenants?" It was not a place I'd heard of before.

  "Philippe built the castle to house Crusaders coming home from the Holy Land," Matthew explained. "It belongs to Maman."

  "It's your house now. I'm giving it to you," Ysabeau said. "Happy anniversary."

  "You can't give us a house. It's too much, Ysabeau," I protested.

  "Les Revenants is better suited to a family than this place is. It is really quite cozy." Ysabeau's expression was touched with wistfulness. "And Philippe and I were happy there."

  "Are you sure?" Matthew asked his mother.

  "Yes. And you will like it, Diana," Ysabeau said with a lift of her eyebrows. "All the rooms have doors."

  "How could anyone describe this as cozy?" I asked when we arrived at the house outside Limousin.

  Les Revenants was smaller than Sept-Tours, but not by much. There were only four towers, Matthew pointed out, one on each corner of the square keep. But the moat that surrounded it was large enough to qualify as a lake, and the splendid stable complex and beautiful interior courtyard rather took away from any claims that this was more modest than the official de Clermont residence. Inside, however, there was an intimate feeling to the place, in spite of its large public rooms on the ground floor. Though the castle had been built in the twelfth century, it had been thoroughly renovated and was now fully updated with modern conveniences such as bathrooms, electricity, and even heat in some of the rooms. Despite all that, I was just winding myself up to reject the gift and any idea that we would ever live here when my clever husband showed me the library.

  The Gothic Revival room with its beamed ceiling, carved woodwork, large fireplace, and decorative heraldic shields was tucked into the southwest corner of the main building. A large bank of windows overlooked the inner courtyard while another, smaller window framed the Limousin countryside. Bookcases lined the only two straight walls, rising to the ceiling. A curved walnut staircase led up to a gallery that gave access to the higher shelves. It reminded me a bit of Duke Humfrey's Reading Room, with its dark woodwork and hushed lighting.

  "What is all this stuff?" The walnut shelves were filled with boxes and books arranged higgledy-piggledy.

  "Philippe's personal papers," Matthew said. "Maman moved them here after the war. Anything having to do with official de Clermont family business or the Knights of Lazarus is still at Sept-Tours, of course."

  This had to be the most extensive personal archive in the world. I sat with a thunk, suddenly sympathetic to Phoebe's plight among all the family's artistic treasures, and I covered my mouth with my hand.

  "I suppose you'll want to sort through them, Dr. Bishop," Matthew said, planting a kiss on my head.

  "Of course I do! They could tell us about the Book of Life and the early days of the Congregation. There may be letters here that refer to Benjamin and to the witch's child in Jerusalem." My mind reeled with the possibilities.

  Matthew looked doubtful. "I think you're more likely to find Philippe's designs for siege engines and instructions about the care and feeding of horses than anything about Benjamin."

  Every historical instinct told me that Matthew was grossly underestimating the significance of what was here. Two hours after he'd shown me into the room, I was still there, poking among the boxes while Matthew drank wine and humored me by translating texts when they were in ciphers or a language I didn't know. Poor Alain and Victoire ended up serving the romantic anniversary dinner they'd prepared for us on the library table rather than down in the dining room.

  We moved into Les Revenants the next morning, along with the children, and with no further complaints from me about its size, heating bills, or the number of stairs I would be required to climb to take a bath. The last worry was moot in any event, since Philippe had installed a screw-drive elevator in the tall tower after a visit to Russia in 1811. Happily, the elevator had been electrified in 1896 and no longer required the strength of a vampire to turn the crank.

  Only Marthe accompanied us to Les Revenants, though Alain and Victoire would have preferred to join us in Limousin and leave Marcus's house party in other, younger, hands. Marthe cooked and helped Matthew and me get used to the logistical demands of caring for two infants. As Sept-Tours filled up with knights, Fernando and Sarah would join us here--Jack, too, if he found the crush of strangers overwhelming--but for now we were on our own.

  Though we rattled around Les Revenants, it gave us a chance to finally be a family. Rebecca was putting on weight now that we knew how to nourish her tiny body properly. And Philip weathered every change of routine and location with his usual thoughtful expression, staring at the light moving against the stone walls or listening with quiet contentment to the sound of me shuffling papers in the library.

  Marthe watched over the children whenever we asked her to, giving Matthew and me a chance to reconnect after our weeks of separation and the stresses and joys of the twins' birth. During those precious moments on our own, we walked hand in hand along the moat and talked about our plans for the house, including where I would plant my witch's garden to take best advantage of the sunshine and the perfect spot for Matthew to build the twins a tree house.

  No matter how wonderful it was to be alone, however, we spent every moment we could with the new lives we had created. We sat before the fire in our bedroom and watched Rebecca and Philip inch and squirm closer, staring at each other with rapt expressions as their hands clasped. The two were always happiest when they were touching, as though the months they'd spent together in my womb had accustomed them to constant contact. They would soon be too large to do so, but for now we put them to sleep in the same cradle. No matter how we arranged them, they always ended up with their tiny arms wrapped tightly around each other and their faces pressed together.

  Every day Matthew and I worked in the library, looking for clues about Benjamin's present whereabouts, the mysterious witch in Jerusalem and her equally mysterious child, and the Book of Life. Philip and Rebecca were soon familiar with the smell of paper and parchment. Their heads turned to follow the sound of Matthew's voice reading aloud from documents written in Greek, Latin, Occitan, Old French, ancient German dialects, Old English, and Philippe's unique patois.

  Philippe's linguistic idiosyncrasy was echoed in whatever organizational scheme he had used for storing his personal files and books. Concerted efforts to locate Crusade-era documents, for example, yielded a remarkable letter from Bishop Adhemar justifying the spiritual motives for the First Crusade, bizarrely accompanied by a 1930s shopping list that enumerated the items Philippe wanted Alain to send from Paris: new shoes from Berluti, a copy of La Cuisine en Dix Minutes, and the third volume of The Science of Life by H. G. Wells, Julian Huxley, and G. P. Wells.

  Our time together as a family felt miraculous. There were opportunities for laughter and song, for marveling in the tiny perfection of our children, for confessing how anxious we had both been about the pregnancy and its possible complications.

  Though our feelings for each other had never faltered, we reaffirmed them in those quiet, perfect days at Les Revenants even as we braced for the challenges the next weeks would bring.

  *

  "These are the knights who have agreed to attend." Marcus handed Matthew the guest list. His father's eyes raced down the page.

  "Giles. Russell. Excellent." Matthew flipped the page over. "Addie. Verin. Miriam." He looked up. "Whenever did you make Chris a knight?"

  "While we were in New Orleans. It seemed right," Marcus said a touch sheepishly.

  "Well done, Marcus. Given who will be in attendance at the children's christening, I wouldn't imagine anyone from the Congregation would dare to cause trouble," Fernando said with a smile. "I think you can relax, Matthew. Diana should be able to enjoy the day as you'd hoped."
<
br />   Matthew didn't feel relaxed, however.

  "I wish we'd found Knox." Matthew gazed out the kitchen window at the snow. Like Benjamin, Knox had disappeared without a trace. What this suggested was too terrifying to put into words.

  "Shall I question Gerbert?" Fernando asked. They had discussed the possible repercussions if they acted in a way to suggest that Gerbert was a traitor. It could bring the vampires in the southern half of France into open conflict for the first time in more than a millennium.

  "Not yet," Matthew said, reluctant to add to their troubles. "I'll keep looking through Philippe's papers. There must be some clue there as to where Benjamin is hiding."

  *

  "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. There cannot be anything more we need to pack for a thirty-minute drive to my mother's house." For the past week, Matthew had been making sacrilegious references to the Holy Family and their December journeys, but it was all the more striking today, when the twins were to be christened. Something was bothering him, but he refused to tell me what it was.

  "I want to be sure Philip and Rebecca are completely comfortable, given the number of strangers they'll be meeting," I said, bouncing Philip up and down in an attempt to get him to burp now rather than spit up halfway through the trip.

  "Maybe the cradle can stay?" Matthew said hopefully.

  "We have plenty of room to take it with us, and they're going to need at least one nap. Besides, I've been reliably informed that this is the largest motorized vehicle in Limousin, with the exception of Claude Raynard's hay wagon." The local populace had bestowed upon Matthew the nickname Gaston Lagaffe after the lovably inept comic book character, and had gently teased him about his grande guimbarde ever since he ran to the store for bread and got the Range Rover wedged between a tiny Citroen and an even more minuscule Renault.

  Matthew slammed the rear hatch shut without comment.

  "Stop glowering, Matthew," Sarah said, joining us in front of the house. "Your children are going to grow up thinking you're a bear."