“For letting me go so I could find Randy …” He hugged her tighter then, as he heard her sob softly. “Night … you have Rick now …”
“I know, I just hate all this goodbye shit … it scares me …”
“Two weeks …two weeks … then you’re in my town.” He grinned down at her and she laughed.
“Oh shit, then I’m really in trouble, huh?”
Joe nodded, nodding to Rick, as he released Midnight, as if handing her back to Rick. “You take care of her, okay?”
“I promise,” Rick said, grinning at Joe. He pulled Midnight back against him, crossing his arms in front of her, his hands holding her shoulders. He kissed the side of her head, as Joe and Randy went to board the plane.
“You okay?” he asked, his lips still in her hair.
“Yeah,” she said, watching as Randy and Joe disappeared around the gangway. She turned to him then, looking up at him, her eyes searching his.
“What?” he said, not sure what she was looking for.
After a long moment, she shrugged and said, “Nothing.” She had been searching for any sign of anger or jealousy over her and Joe’s goodbye, but she didn’t see any. What she didn’t know was that Rick was very good at hiding what he was feeling.
****
Once on the plane, Randy knew she was going to go crazy. She was on her way to another country, with the man she loved, and was going there to get married. Things in her life were changing so fast, she could barely keep track of them. But she loved it all. Most of all she loved Joe. They were flying first class, so the stewardesses were especially nice to them, but Randy knew that they were being very attentive of Joe because he was so good looking, never mind the little blond girl sitting with him. That was Randy’s first taste of the jealousy she would endure being engaged to Joseph Michael Sinclair.
The flight was very long, almost ten hours, and Randy couldn’t sleep since they had taken off at nine o’clock in the morning. Joe did sleep, however. He was still on mild painkillers because of his shoulder. There had been a couple of further complications, requiring two more minor surgeries. Randy watched him sleep, thinking how lucky she was. He was handsome, kind, fun to be with, incredibly sexy, and just all around wonderful. She still couldn’t believe that he loved her, it was just too unreal … but he did, and they were on their way to his homeland to make it official.
When they arrived at Heathrow Airport, it was raining and cold.
“It’s always like this,” Joe said, smiling despite himself.
He looked out the windows as the plane rolled into the gate, feeling a little strange being back. When they deplaned, Joe put his arm around Randy as they walked up the gangway. Randy stopped by one of the windows in the passenger area, taking her first long look at England. Joe stood next to her, looking out too.
“Master Sinclair?” a clipped English voice inquired behind them.
Joe turned around, looking down at the small man dressed in black with a white starched shirt, and a black cap.
“Yes?” Joe answered. Randy was staring up at him, eyes wide, mouth agape at the title he had attached to him name.
“The car is this way, sir,” the man replied, bowing just slightly.
“Thank you,” Joe said as the man led the way to, “the car.”
“What?” he asked, smiling down at her having seen the odd look on her face.
“Master Sinclair?” she said, her eyes still wide.
Joe laughed. “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about that, it’s … I don’t know, an old time English thing.”
“I see,” Randy said, once again impressed with a new aspect of her fiancé’s life.
They reached the car, a limousine. The driver stood holding the door open for them. Randy looked around her eyes taking everything in. “Wow … I’ve never been in a real limousine before … well, okay once, but it was this rental one, and it was awful … this one’s …”
“Not a rental,” Joe finished, and her eyes grew wider.
“Oh my …” Randy said then, sitting back against the soft leather seats.
She noticed that Joe was looking at her with an odd smile on his face.
“What?” she said, having picked up from him the habit of asking that whenever someone stared at her.
Joe shook his head, his smile growing wider. “It’s just nice to see your reaction to things like this … I’ve always taken them for granted. It’s interesting to see it through your eyes.”
She smiled up at him then, and pulled his face down to hers and kissed him. They were still kissing when the driver returned from getting their luggage. Randy blushed furiously when he got in the car and waited patiently for Joe’s orders. Joe instructed the driver to take them to his parents’ home. The driver nodded, and put the car in gear.
Joe sat back, his arm still around Randy. The drive to Joe’s home took forty-five minutes. As they got closer Joe got quieter, and his face took on a closed look. Randy held his hand, stroking it with her other hand. She took in the beautiful countryside as it slid past, but she couldn’t enjoy it, knowing what Joe was going through. Her heart ached for him.
It had been nearly eight years since Joe had left England. Being back was bringing everything back and making him feel the weight of guilt and anguish pressing in on him again.
When they turned into the long driveway that would take them to the Sinclair home, Randy sat up, looking out the window. She felt her heart almost stop at her first glimpse of Joe’s childhood home. It was absolutely incredible. It was a Tudor-style mansion, white with brown trim. She had seen homes like this in magazines and books, but she never even dreamed that she’d be staying in one like it.
She didn’t realize she was squeezing Joe’s hand convulsively until he laughed. She bit her lip, realizing she was being a bit overexcited. Joe couldn’t help but be warmed by her reaction to his parents’ home. He thought for a moment he was going to have to resuscitate her.
His eyes went to the front door, he dreaded walking through it. All the way home he had relived his parents last days … and there were moments when he wanted to tell the driver to turn around. He wanted to go back to America, where he could be far from all these memories. But he had swallowed down on those impulses, knowing that he needed to do this.
Now looking at the house again, he found his courage failing. Randy turned to him, seeing the almost scared look in his eyes. “Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked then, her voice concerned. The driver opened the door, and she glanced over her shoulder at the open door, then back at Joe. “Maybe it’s too soon …”
“No …” Joe said, taking a deep breath. “I’m okay.” He looked at Randy seeing the skepticism on her face. He grinned at her lopsidedly. “So maybe okay isn’t a good word for how I am but I can do this, as long as you’re by my side.”
Randy stared up at him for a long moment, then she kissed him softly and turned to get out of the car.
A man in a butler’s uniform opened the front door for them. Randy was assailed with the scents of wood, flowers, and lemon. She looked around the entryway of the house in complete awe. The floors were hardwood. The sweeping staircase in front of her was built completely out of mahogany. She looked up and saw the cathedral ceiling of the entryway, detailed in intricate gold scrollwork. She couldn’t believe her eyes.
“Randy …” Joe said, smiling down at her again.
She looked at him, and suddenly realized that there was a small line of people standing in front of them. They all wore uniforms of some sort. As the butler began introducing the others to her, she realized they were servants. Oh my God, was all she could think.
“Miss Curtis, this is Annie, she is the downstairs maid, and this is Joy, she is the upstairs maid. This is Frederick, the cook, and Sandra Bender, the overseer of the Sinclair home. I am Mason, at your service.” The older gentleman bowed, and Randy was sure she was going to faint.
“Nice to meet all of you,” she managed to say, her eyes goin
g to each of them.
Annie was a small woman with brown hair, and glasses. To Randy she looked like she was in her early thirties. Joy was taller, with lighter hair, and brown eyes. She looked about thirty. Frederick was heavyset with long gray hair pulled back in a ponytail, and looked about fifty. Sandra Bender was blond haired with blue eyes. Randy thought she was perhaps in her late forties and found out later she was actually fifty-five. Mason was the epitome of the classic butler. He had hawk like features, very sharp. He had brown hair that was graying at the temples and thinning at the crown. He looked about sixty.
Joe started to show her around the house, but it was obvious to Randy that he was not handling being home very well. She gently suggested that they save the tour for later, and that they rest up a little. They were both exhausted from the last few weeks at work. They had been frantic wrapping up everything that could be wrapped up before Joe left. Neither of them had slept enough, plus Joe’s extra surgeries had set him back a little. Joe nodded to Randy’s suggestion of resting, and led her upstairs to what was apparently his room, before he left.
Randy didn’t realize until later that he had not been in this room since the night his parents had been killed. The servants that tended the house had kept it dusted, and straightened up, but they had not presumed to move or remove anything. Randy tried not to look around too much, knowing her curiosity would get the better of her. She knew that Joe needed to rest now, and she would wait until she had gotten him to sleep before she took the time to properly look around. Her first impression of his bedroom was that it was imposing, not just in the surprisingly large size of the room itself, but also due to the large, heavy antique furniture. The colors of the room were dark, navy blue and greens, and there was a definite masculine look to everything, and to Randy it very much felt like a rebellion of sorts. While the furniture seemed expensive, the room itself had a different feel from the rest of the house. It wasn’t elegant or aristocratic, rather it seemed an antonym to the rest of the house. It gave Randy a little bit of insight into the younger, more rebellious Joe.
Joe, like Randy, didn’t look around, but because he didn’t want to remember at that point. He lay down on the bed on his stomach, breathing in the familiar scent of his room, and feeling sick to his stomach.
Randy sat down next to him on the bed, stroking his hair. “This is really rough on you, isn’t it?”
Joe nodded, his face buried in a pillow.
“What can I do, Joe?” she asked, concern filling her voice.
Joe turned over looking devastated. “Just be here, babe … be here with me …”
Joe sat up and Randy reached out, taking him into her arms. He leaned against her for a long time, drawing strength from her warmth. After a while, Randy moved to lean against the headboard, pulling Joe with her. Joe eventually fell asleep, his head resting against Randy’s stomach. Randy stroked his hair, watching him sleep.
When she was sure he was asleep, she let her eyes wander around the room. First, she noticed the pictures on the bureau; there was a picture of what was obviously Joe and Rick. They both looked very young, and both wore leather jackets and jeans. Randy noticed that even then Joe was very handsome. In the picture, his face seemed set in stone and his eyes were very cold. Rick looked like his usual self, only younger.
The next picture was obviously Joe and his parents. Randy saw how beautiful Joe’s mother had been. She glanced down at him, seeing the resemblance immediately, but he looked like his father too. He was definitely the best of both parents. She saw a picture with Rick in it, and four girls. At first, she thought it was his harem of girls that Joe had told her he always had in England, but then she started to see the resemblance between them, and realized she was looking at Rick’s sisters. There was also a picture of a dark-haired woman who Randy didn’t recognize, nor could she figure it out. Shrugging, she looked at the next picture.
She got up off the bed carefully so as not to disturb Joe. She moved closer to the picture. It was a group photo. She could see now, that almost everyone in the picture wore a leather jacket. They were standing on what looked like the edge of a cliff, overlooking a dark stormy sea. Joe stood in front of the group, his head tilted down, but his eyes looking up at the camera, menacingly. Rick stood just to his right and slightly behind Joe. He was looking at the camera, but he had the sardonic grin on his face that Randy had come to know. The rest of the group ranged out behind them. As Randy looked at the different faces, she heard Joe’s voice behind her.
“That’s the Knights …” His voice sounded a little strange, and Randy turned her head to look at him. His eyes looked very haunted.
“Big gang …” she said, turning back at the picture.
“Fair sized, yeah,” Joe responded, his voice sounding a little more normal.
“And you were their leader …” Randy said, sitting back next to him on the bed.
“Yeah,” he replied simply. Then his eyes moved past her, and fell on the chair next to his bed.
Randy followed his gaze and saw the leather jacket lying on the chair. She looked at him again, his gaze was fixed on the jacket. Randy stood and picked up the jacket. It had what was obviously the Black Knights logo of crossed black and silver swords and the words Black Knights written in silver in calligraphy script on the back. Randy could smell the mixture of the cologne Joe still wore, and leather. It smelled like Joe. “Try it on,” he said then, surprising her.
Randy shrugged into the jacket. The sleeves hung well past her fingertips, and the bottom of the jacket came down to her mid-thigh. She laughed, knowing how silly she must look, and surprisingly Joe laughed too. Randy put her hands in the pockets, and to her surprise found things in the pockets. Out of one pocket, she pulled out a pack of cigarettes, a silver lighter, and what Randy assumed to be money.
“How much would this be in American dollars?” she asked curiously.
“Well that’s about a hundred and fifty pounds …” he said, looking up at the ceiling calculating the exchange. “Today it’d be worth about one hundred and ninety-five … back then it was more like a three hundred and forty.”
“Two hundred to three hundred dollars?” Randy repeated, totally shocked.
Joe chuckled. “That was nothin’ … I’d drop that at the pub in one night.”
“You were bad, weren’t you?” Randy said then, smiling down at him.
She reached into the other pocket and her hand touched something hard and cold. She pulled it out of the pocket and stared down at an ivory handled switchblade. She looked at Joe then, not sure why she was surprised.
“Never left home without it,” Joe said, his voice low, his eyes on the knife. “You look surprised.”
“I am. I guess … I mean I know that you were different back then but …”
“I didn’t use it much,” Joe said, taking if from her hand.
He depressed the switch and the blade snapped out.
“I like to fight with my hands. But one never knew …” He shrugged then, closing the blade as his eyes looked up at her. He could see she was taken back by this revelation. “There’s a lot about me you don’t know …”
“That’s true,” she said sitting down next to him, still wearing his old gang jacket. Her hand reached up to touch his cheek, her eyes looking directly into his. “But there’s nothing you can tell me about yourself that can change the way I feel about you.”
Joe looked at her for a long moment, then he slowly pulled her to him and kissed her, feeling the need to be close to her. As they kissed, he removed his jacket from her. She entwined a hand in his hair while the other unbuttoned his shirt, and touched his bare skin. Joe groaned softly, against her lips. His hands were at the small of her back, holding her close to him. He moved one to the base of her neck, caressing her.
They had just got themselves settled on the bed when they heard a voice say, “Master Sinclair?” It was Mason.
Randy was instantly red from embarrassment. Mason had not actual
ly entered the room. He stood on the threshold. The door was still open, but his eyes were averted from them politely.
“Yes?” Joe answered, grinning at Randy.
“Taylor is here to see you, sir.”
“Already? Damn!” Joe said, then he sat up. “Okay, Mason, escort her to the sitting room, we’ll be down in a few minutes.”
“Yes, sir,” Mason answered, and then turned and left.
“Is he always going to do that?” Randy asked still embarrassed at having been caught making out, even if it was with her own fiancé.
“If we forget to tell him not to disturb us, he will … Very proper household here … I forgot to warn you.” Joe was grinning at her, and she swatted at his arm.
“You, cad!” she said. She looked at Joe, worry starting in her eyes. “Taylor, huh?”
“Yeah … you ready for this?” Joe said, eyeing her.
“No!” she said. Then she sighed. “But will I ever be?”
“Probably not,” he said, touching her under the chin then, and looking her straight in the eye, “just remember that I love you.”
She smiled at him. They both went into his bathroom and straightened up. Joe watched Randy, a slight smile playing at his lips.
“What?”
“Nothin’” he said, still looking at her.
A few minutes later they sat on an antique couch with Taylor sat across from the in a Louis the IX chair. After a couple of minutes, Annie came in bearing a tray with silver tea service on it. Joe nodded to her, and she left the room without a word. Taylor made show of preparing tea for herself, asking Joe if he was having any.
“No … I’m kind of on coffee now,” Joe replied.
Taylor made a face. “Can’t abide by the substance myself. Too bitter.” Then she looked at Randy, who was sitting right next to Joe, her hand in his. “What about you, Randy … or are you a coffee person too?” She made the question sound more like a jab, and Randy felt Joe squeeze her hand slightly, indicating he had heard it too.
“I don’t really drink coffee either …” Randy said quietly, her eyes staring down at the Persian rug. The rug was very beautiful, and she was dying to concentrate on something other than Taylor’s cold blue eyes. She leaned back, and Joe moved to give her a little more room. She heard him suck in his breath, and she knew he had moved wrong and hurt his shoulder again. He hadn’t taken a painkiller again since they had boarded the plane in California. She looked up at him her eyes showing her concern, but he shook his head at her.
Empires Fall (MidKnight Blue Book 2) Page 12
