Notorious in Nice

by Jianne Carlo

  Crossing her fingers under the thin sheet, she studied his face, praying for a positive answer, hoping against hope the magical moment hadn’t been a figment of her imagination.

  The taut line of his mouth softened. “Yes, we waltzed. Anything else?”

  Su-Lin held her breath, and she pinched the bridge of her nose. Her mother’s bewildered face curtained the room and faded into Terrence’s features. She frowned, and the action made the veins at her temples throb.

  “What happened next, darlin’?”

  He caged her fingers and thumbs between his warm palms. She stared at their joined hands and wondered if the insanity that had dogged her mother’s life would now control hers. Forcing back the thought, Su-Lin concentrated on his last few words.

  “I’m not sure.” She licked dry lips. “The masked ball. Was it last night?”

  “Yes. Are you okay?”

  “Last night seems so far away.”

  “The anesthesia will muddle your mind, darlin’. Things will get clearer.”

  Shaking her head, her eyes widened as she realized she didn’t have a clue. “I can’t remember.”

  “After we waltzed, Harry dragged me out onto the balcony. You were supposed to wait for me where I’d left you. Any of this sound familiar?”

  “Not really.”

  “Think carefully. Did you eat anything before we danced?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “I checked with the caterers. The chicken bouches were topped with macadamia nuts. The miniquiches had bacon in them.”

  She lifted a shoulder. “I can’t remember.”

  “Don’t look like that, darlin’.” He rubbed the space between her eyebrows. “It’ll come back to you.”

  “Why did they pump my stomach?”

  “Around one this morning, I found you in your hotel room passed out cold. There was a near-empty bottle of absinthe lying next to you.”

  “I drank a whole bottle of absinthe?” Under the thin cotton cover sheet, her fingers twisted together. At the beginning, after her father had died, her mother had drank. A lot. Most of the time, she didn’t remember what she’d said or done before she passed out.

  “They’re analyzing the contents of your stomach.”

  She tried to think back to the ball and remembered sipping champagne from a crystal flute after their magical waltz. A vague picture formed in her head of her in full skirts stumbling down a narrow, shadowed corridor.

  After a thirteen-second delay, his words penetrated. “Why would they do that?”

  “I asked them to. Su-Lin, you were ill yesterday morning. Last night you had to have your stomach pumped. Maybe your allergic reactions are worsening. I’m speaking to the doctors about ordering you one of those MedicAlert pendants for you.”

  “I had to have my stomach pumped once before, in high school, because of macadamias.” She shuttered her eyes, not wanting to see his reaction. “But I didn’t pass out.” She had no intention of telling him she’d been curious about absinthe after Thomas had told her about the liquor over lunch. A blurred memory of a glowing greenish liquid in an odd-shaped bottle niggled at the corners of her mind. Please, please, let it not be true. Su-Lin crossed her fingers.

  “Let’s take this one step at a time. First, let’s get a clean bill of health for you. You need to get some rest and eat, and get your strength back.”

  “I really don’t feel so good. I think cobwebs have taken over my brain.” She made a futile attempt to smile, but her lips slugged behind her words, and she burrowed into the pillows. She didn’t want him to notice her mind unhinging.

  He tucked the covers under her shoulders, and she murmured thank you, not realizing until after her eyes closed she’d spoken in Mandarin.

  Terry returned just as she finished eating a surprisingly tasty lunch; even the baby potatoes tasted wonderful, all garlicky and spicy. Su-Lin dabbed the cotton napkin to the corners of her mouth and said, “Hi.”

  He took the tray from her lap and placed it on a stainless steel table. Then he sat on the bed, framed her face, and brushed his lips over hers. She rested one hand on his jaw, feeling the day’s stubble on his square chin. He’d had a cigar recently, and she inhaled the smoky aroma.

  “You’re looking better, darlin’. There’s some color in your cheeks, and your eyes are bright again.” His hooded gaze studied her features one by one.

  “I had a shower and washed my hair. I feel human again. Terrence, I want to get out of here. Can we go back to the Glory?”

  “Yes, we can.”

  Hearing the “but” in his voice, she sank into the pillow.

  “This is the analysis of your stomach’s contents.” He handed her a folded, letter-sized sheet of paper. She opened it, smoothing the crease, and read the printed listing aloud. “Chocolate, absinthe, and I don’t know what the next one is. I can’t even pronounce it.”

  “It’s a prescription sleeping pill. According to this, you took more than a triple dosage. The doctor said we were lucky I got you here so soon.”

  Her jaw dropped open. She clamped her mouth shut. Her mother had attempted suicide. More than once. Usually after she drank a lot.

  “I didn’t take any pills, Terrence. I’d remember doing that. I know I would. Where would I get prescription sleeping pills? I haven’t been to a doctor in months.”

  “I’d understand if you had trouble sleeping after your mother died, darlin’.”

  “I’ve never, ever taken a sleeping pill. If I can’t sleep, I do this routine Coach taught us. I did it yesterday after you chased me out of your cabin. I burned a lavender candle. I’m sure you could still smell it.”

  “If you didn’t take the pills, then someone had to have slipped them into your food or, more likely, your drink.”

  “I didn’t take any pills. I swear on my mother’s grave.”

  “I’ll check with Suresh and see if anyone else suffered a similar fate.”

  “You don’t believe me. Why would I lie?” Su-Lin kept her eyes focused on the sheet of paper crumpling beneath her flexing fingers and prayed Terrence was right. That her mind hadn’t fractured.

  “I had chocolates,” she said, sitting up straight, her pulse pounding in her eardrums. “There was a welcome basket in the room, with fruit, wine -- red, I think -- and a box of chocolates. I nibbled on a couple while getting dressed.”

  He winced with his eyes, narrowing them halfway through her excited blurt.

  “What?”

  “I cleared out your room. There was no welcome basket, darlin’.”

  She rubbed her eyes and clamped her quivering lips together. “The chocolates were in my stomach contents, so I ate them, right?” When he nodded, she continued, “Where else would I have gotten them?”

  “Last night, I noticed your bed had been turned down, and there were three individual foil-wrapped chocolates on your pillow.”

  “I didn’t imagine that basket. I didn’t. Maybe the hotel staff took it away?”

  “I’ll phone Suresh while you dress and get him to question the hotel’s employees.”

  He checked his chrome watch. “Let’s make a move. I want to get into Nice before rush hour. I’ll get the hospital paperwork filled. I brought your carry-on from the château while you were sleeping. It’s in the bathroom.”

  While getting dressed, Su-Lin replayed the last six weeks in her brain. Everyone had been kind. Treated like a princess by her aunt and uncle, like a beauty by Terrence, with kindness and affection by Thomas and Harrison.

  Except the Gypsy boy, the leader. He’d spat at her.

  Shaking her head, she muttered, “It makes no sense. Why would he want to hurt me?”

  Terrence walked back into the room at that instant, and her cheeks flamed. He shot her an odd look, but they didn’t converse; instead, they headed to the car.

  Even after they’d been driving for over ten minutes, she never noticed the rural rolling hills of emerald grass, the graceful curves as the narrow road hu
gged gentle slopes. Cracking her window at the top, she welcomed the sudden chill as manure-scented country air rolled around her shoulders and neck.

  “Have you remembered anything else?”

  Sorely tempted to lie, Su-Lin replied, “No, nothing definite.”

  “There’s something else Suresh discovered.”

  “I’m almost afraid to hear it,” she said, closed her eyes, and slumped down in the seat.

  “It seems a few of the ladies are missing jewelry, six rings, a few bracelets. Almost all of them admitted to being a little tipsier than expected.”

  “So it wasn’t just me. Thank God, I thought I was going insane. Why don’t you look as relieved as I feel?”

  “You wore no jewelry except for the earrings, and you’re still wearing them.” Shifting gears, he shook his head. “Earrings are not the easiest item to steal. You shouldn’t have been a target.”

  “I don’t care. At least there’s a logical explanation. Oh, before I forget, Aunt Emma called before I went down to the ball, to say that she and Uncle James are going back to the Glory late tomorrow. I guess that means today.”

  “Great,” Terry muttered, and she caught the rasp of dislike in his voice.

  Uncle James would be even more protective and overwhelming if he found out what had happened. Over the last couple of weeks, his paranoia about her safety had grown a little unnerving. Su-Lin traced a pattern on the leather armrest, trying to shed the nagging unease bunching her neck muscles. The Range Rover crested a hilltop, and she glimpsed an ivory mansion through rain-greened pine trees.

  Glancing at the building, she asked, “Are we taking a different way back?”

  “We’re making a slight detour. Thomas left the party in a rush last night, or so Suresh said. He said he had an emergency to take care of at the Fragonard estate.”

  Su-Lin recognized the name from the map shop in Nice.

  “I’m probably overreacting, but Thomas acted a little out of character last night. My twin intuition is pinging like crazy.”

  “Is that château part of the estate?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you know the owners?”

  “Yes and no. My mother and Madame Fragonard were friends. As young boys, Thom and I visited the estate with her on a couple of occasions. We’re distantly related through some fourteenth-century ancestor.”

  “You think Thomas is here?”

  “Yes, and he’s not answering his cell.”

  “This is lovely scenery,” she remarked, changing the subject.

  “Hmm. Darlin’, did you inherit anything when your mother died?”

  “The house. It wasn’t worth much. Wrong side of town. Why?”

  “How did you hook up with your relatives?”

  “My mother’s lawyer had instructions to contact him. Funny, Annika never mentioned Uncle James. After the lawyer called, I went through our old albums to see if I could find a photograph. I didn’t find any.”

  “When did you meet them?”

  “Aunt Emma and Uncle James? About four weeks after my mother died. The lawyer had gotten in touch with them, and they telephoned me. They came to Mayo for my graduation.”

  He broke into a guffaw, and the car jerked. “Mayo? You lived in a town called Mayo?”

  “You have no idea how much ribbing we took when we traveled for gym meets. Yes, I lived in a town called Mayo.” Her mouth curved, and the tension she’d shouldered since awakening in the hospital seeped away. “This trip was my graduation present from Uncle James and Aunt Emma. They’ve really been kind to me, Terrence. I know you don’t like them, but if it hadn’t been for them, I wouldn’t be here.”

  “I’ll be eternally grateful to them for bringing you to me.”

  “But,” she prompted.

  “Did your lawyer do a background check on the Lockheeds?”

  “I guess so.” She nibbled on her fingertip. “I wish I felt some sort of connection with them, but I don’t. I know that’s rotten of me when they’ve been so generous, setting up a trust fund and all.” Her headache, which had receded, crept forward, and she applied her thumb to a pressure point under her eyebrow.

  “Let’s keep your staying on between us for now, Su-Lin. It’s no sense getting James riled when we can avoid it.”

  “Especially with his heart problems. I couldn’t live with myself if I cause him to have another heart attack.”

  “It wasn’t a heart attack, remember? With his inactive lifestyle and the extra eighty pounds he carries, a heart attack’s inevitable. He overreacted to the thought of you and me.”

  “He’s just being protective of me, Terrence. He wants me to be happy.”

  “That’s the only point in his favor. You’re so damned young. Any man worth his salt would be overprotective.”

  They rounded a hairpin bend and drove onto a tree-lined, sanded road. Autumn colors met and danced over their heads, leaves of every shade from black to rust to gold and rich greens, bobbing in a faint gust. Afternoon sunlight broke through the arched canopy splashing pools of light on the clay dirt.

  “Does our age difference bother you?”

  “What?” He snarled his fingers into his hair.

  “You keep referring to how young I am.”

  Terry’s expression didn’t change. She might have well been discussing the weather report.

  “It’s not a matter of age, Su-Lin. It’s more about life experiences.” He reached for her hand and held it. “There are things about me that you don’t know as yet. Things that may make you run for the hills.”

  “Then why did you ask me to stay with you?”

  “The truth, darlin’? I couldn’t stand the thought of you leaving.”

  He braked the car to a halt.

  They both admired the view in silence for a minute. In front of them, a symmetrical wide balcony with circular stone stairs on either end led to double doors the size of a small barn.

  “Should you phone Thomas?”

  He shot her a cutting glance, flipped open his mobile, and pressed zero . The phone went straight to voice mail; she heard Thomas’s voice through the speakers.

  “He’s not picking up.”

  Movement at the edge of her vision caught her gaze, and she lifted one eyebrow.

  “And I can see why,” she said, her eyes focused over his shoulder. “Look.”

  Terry followed the direction of Su-Lin’s gaze.

  A fountain centered the ring of emerald lawn fronting the château. So engrossed in their earlier conversation, neither Terry nor Su-Lin had noticed the two men standing under the soft cascading arcs of an elegant waterfall. Shirtless, breeches slickened to his skin, Thomas cradled his palms around the face of a tanned youth with sooty ringlets, his mouth fused to the slender man’s.

  Terry’s face blanched and his knuckles whitened on the leather-encased steering wheel. He stabbed the window control on the driver’s side.

  “Terrence, he loves this man,” she said, stroking his forearm, her heart leaping up to her throat. “Take a minute. Don’t be angry.”

  “It’s one thing to accept in theory,” he muttered and slashed his hand through locks tangled by the breeze blowing through the SUV’s open windows.

  “You’ve kissed me like that many times, and think of the pleasure it brings both of us. Shouldn’t Thomas have that too?” She touched his chin, urging him to meet her eyes. “He’s facing so many devils. Can’t you be happy he’s found someone?”

  “I made a promise to myself, to make things work between us. This is going to take some getting used to.” His mouth curled at one corner, and he brushed his thumb across her lips. “But I’m not going off half-cocked on him. If Thom feels an iota of what I do for you, then more power to him.”

  Her chest did a kind of Ferris-wheel sheer plunge. She stared right into slate eyes flaring charcoal as twin rings of black lashes did a double dip and shadowed his bronzed flesh.

  She wanted to shout the words out but knew the timing wasn�
�t right. She loved this man, loved him with her whole heart.

  His eyes hooded and he shook his head. “I’m getting maudlin in my dotage.”

  She cuffed his shoulder. “That’s it, no more reference to youth or old age. Got it?”

  “Getting feisty are you, darlin’? Maybe we’ll find a nice hotel for the night.”

  “Thomas?” she asked. “Don’t you need to speak to him?”

  “Right. Let’s to it, darlin’.”

  “Look.” She darted a hand in the direction of the fountain.

  The two men had noticed their arrival and stood immobile watching them.

  Terry opened the vehicle door and hopped out. Su-Lin followed suit, and she loped alongside him, taking a skip to keep up with his stride. Dusk approached, and the sun cast a rose-tinged golden glow on the glistening spray floating on a circling gust, which made the droplets look like prisms.

  Their shadows preceded them, elongated, blurring as pea green blades of grass waved and waltzed beneath their shoes. Terry’s fingers stroked her knuckles, and she glanced at his face. Worry combed her skin at his reluctance to get nearer than four feet away.

  Thomas topped his lover by about six inches. The young man had a lean rock-star body, and a sculpted abdomen that would cause Marky Mark to foam at the mouth. Heat scalded her face when her gaze strayed to Thomas’s obvious arousal, and she cut a surreptitious glance at the Frenchman’s groin.

  Her eyes widened and she understood part of the Frenchman’s appeal, a gigantic part.

  Su-Lin sniffed, certain she smelled jasmine, and located the source of the scent, a curved arbor on the other side of driveway. Garlands of tiny white flowers interwove the verdant leaves like an airy spray of baby’s breath.

  Thomas’s lover shot her a crooked grin and shrugged. Su-Lin surveyed the two wet men.

  Hair slathered to his forehead, Thomas’s mouth mirrored the grim line of Terry’s. Shoulders squaring, he draped an arm around the young man, who looked to be in his early twenties. Chin jutting, jaw flexing, Thomas’s wide-legged stance dared disapproval.

  “Jean-Michel, meet my brother, Terry.”