The Telepathic Clans Omnibus

by B R Kingsolver

  “It’s huge.” Brenna exclaimed.

  Collin chuckled. “It is impressive. Of course, you can’t see the guest wings from here, they’re in the back. It’s actually almost twice as large as the White House.”

  “Jesus. How many people live there?”

  “About a hundred, on a fulltime basis. There are about thirty rooms set aside for family who don’t live here, and about forty more that are more or less assigned to non-family who visit often. You’ll be given a room to use whenever you’re here. It’ll be yours, and no one else will be put there when you’re gone. You’re family.”

  “And where do you live?”

  “I have a room on the third floor. My mom lives in the village, but she also has a room on the first floor near the kitchen.”

  Brenna felt like the hick country cousin, gaping like a fool, as they pulled up in front of the massive building. Collin grabbed her suitcase, handed her the backpack, and climbed the front stairs. One side of the massive front doors opened, and a Protector reached to take her backpack. “Huh? Oh, no, it’s okay. I can manage it,” she said wide-eyed.

  Callie strode smiling into the huge foyer, her boot heels echoing. “I hope you had a good trip. I’m so glad you’ve finally come out to see our real home. Collin, she’ll be staying in the room at the end of the west wing on the third floor.”

  Brenna couldn’t interpret the look on his face. “The one with the view of the barns and the peak?”

  “Yes, that one. Brenna, take a few minutes to freshen up and unpack, then come back down and I’ll show you around.”

  She followed Collin up the huge staircase, then up a narrower set of stairs to the third floor. They turned left and walked down a hallway that seemed to stretch ahead of them forever, with so many doors on each side that she was reminded of a hotel. They finally reached the door at the end of the hall. He opened it, then stepped back and motioned for her to enter.

  “Oh, my,” she breathed in awe. The wall ahead of her was filled with windows giving her a view of the west end of the valley and the peaks of the mountains beyond. Walking to the windows, she could see the barns, stables and corrals to her left, about two hundred yards away. The entire scene was breathtaking.

  Turning to look at the room itself, a king-sized bed sat against the wall to her right, a sideboard with a wet bar and small refrigerator were to her left under the windows. A round table that would comfortably seat six sat in the middle of the room. The floors were covered with rich, deep Persian rugs. Stretching from the door to the end of the room on her left were wardrobes and a large walk-in closet with its door ajar. Beyond that was a door, and through it she could see a bathroom.

  She walked that way, and upon entering, found a bathroom fit for a queen, larger than her bedroom at home. The enormous soaking tub was rivaled by a vanity larger than her kitchen counter. The walk-in shower was large enough to throw a party in, complete with shower heads on opposite walls. She opened a door to the side and found a walk-in linen closet the size of her freshman dorm room.

  The walls and floor were tiled with a rose-colored marble, the sink and tub were white marble streaked with gold. The fixtures were either gold or gold plated, and considering the rest of it, she’d have bet on the former. Everything was polished to a gleaming finish.

  “My God, this is all for me? It’s damned near as big as my row house.”

  “Yes, and you don’t have to share it with three roommates to make the rent, either,” Collin smiled. “I assume that if Callie put you here, she intends for you to have it. It was her mother’s room. It hasn’t been used in fifteen years.

  “If you need me for anything, send me a spear. I’ll let you freshen up, and don’t forget Callie is waiting for you. I’m told your grandparents came in an hour ago, but they’re resting and you probably won’t see them until dinner. That will be about two hours from now.”

  He left her alone, and she wandered around the room in wonder. The wainscoting was a deep, rich cherry, and at first the pink, patterned wallpaper struck her as a bit too girlie. When she looked closer, she discovered it was hand-painted roses on silk, and her appreciation soared. Ornamental plaster crown molding decorated with roses framed the ceiling. The furniture was also cherry, as were the cedar-lined wardrobes. The closet was also cedar lined and large enough to open a store inside. The shoe racks would hold at least a hundred pair.

  She put away her clothes and the closet still looked pathetically empty. She used one drawer in the dresser for her undergarments and socks.

  Callie, where do I find you?

  I’m in the office complex next door. Take the first hall off the foyer to your left as you’re coming down the stairs and follow the hall until you reach the office building.

  She followed the directions, and walked into Callie’s office. It wasn’t at all like the office Callie maintained at the Baltimore house. Looking around, she saw a bank of computer screens showing markets from all over the world and a sophisticated communications console with three computer monitors. There was an electronic switchboard, and three women with headsets doing things Brenna couldn’t even guess at. Callie sat near a window at the back of the room, also wearing a headset, and talking into the microphone while typing on a computer.

  She took off the headset, looking tired. She cocked her head with a crooked smile, and said, “So, how do you like our little country cottage?”

  Brenna about choked. “Callie, you mentioned that I inherited a cottage from my mother. It’s not like this is it?”

  Callie was raising a cup of coffee to her mouth but pushed it away from her as she snorted out a laugh. “Damn near got me again. No, Maureen’s cottage is only thirty or so rooms, plus a couple of out buildings. Oh, and the stables of course.”

  Brenna gaped at her. “Of course.”

  Callie laughed. “Enough of cottages. I apologize for not warning you, but for dinner tonight Seamus expects everyone to dress. I’m assuming you don’t have anything appropriate.”

  Brenna felt offended. “I just bought a bunch of new clothes.”

  “Uh huh. Let’s go take a look at them.” They walked back to the house and up the stairs to her room.

  “Is this how you stay in shape?” Brenna asked.

  “One of the ways.”

  They went to her room and she showed Callie the clothes she’d brought. “Seamus has this old-fashioned nineteenth century thing about dressing for dinner. Pisses me off, but I stopped fighting it fifty years ago.”

  Callie held up a little black dress. “I was right,” Callie said. Brenna had bought it thinking of Audrey Hepburn, a black velvet sleeveless sheath with a hemline falling about two inches above the knee. Brenna thought it was elegant, tasteful, and conservative.

  “This is nice. If it was floor length, it would be fine.” Callie ran her hand over the fabric. “It’s a really pretty dress.” She sighed. “Let’s go look at your mother’s clothes.”

  They went back down the hall and down to the second floor, the room next to the room below hers.

  Callie opened a large closet full of clothes and walked in. “Here’s one that was always my favorite. What do you think?”

  The dress was blue satin, almost exactly the color of her eyes. It was elegant, low-cut, formfitting, and floor length. “It’s beautiful,” Brenna whispered.

  “Let’s take it and a couple more and let you try them on.”

  “Callie, if this was my mother’s room, why didn’t you give it to me?”

  Callie turned to her. “It was basically your mother’s dressing room and closet. The only time she used it was to, uh, occasionally entertain friends. She almost always slept in your father’s room. And I didn’t give you his room because I thought you’d be more comfortable upstairs. I’ll show you why.”

  They took three evening gowns and matching shoes, pulled lingerie from drawers in the room and then walked to the room next door, the room under hers. When they walked in, the first thing Brenna noticed w
as that in spite of the wall of windows, it was darker than the room upstairs. It had the same cherry wainscoting and cherry furniture, but the wallpaper was a dark Kelly green. The closet was smaller, the bathroom and tub were smaller, and the wardrobes were missing. “It’s a man’s room. You see?”

  Brenna nodded. Her attention went to a painting on the wall, a reclining nude with raven hair and blue eyes, pale skin and an hourglass figure. She walked to the picture. It was rather strange that the first picture she’d seen of her mother was a nude. Considering what she’d been told, it was appropriate.

  “Cindy painted that,” Callie said.

  They went upstairs and Brenna took a quick shower and came back in the room.

  “Callie,” Brenna said, eyeing the dress, “how do you wear a bra with something this low cut?”

  “You don’t,” Callie chuckled. “You probably haven’t gone out in public without a bra since you were fourteen, have you?”

  Brenna shook her head. “No, I haven’t.”

  “I think you’ll find there’s some support built into the dress. Maureen was twenty years older than you are when she bought it.”

  Brenna put on the undergarments and then the dress. Stepping into the three-inch matching pumps, she stood before the floor-length mirror in the corner, stunned. Callie walked over, pulled at it here and there, and asked, “What do you think? It may be a bit out of date, but this whole place is out of date in one way or another. Does it feel okay? I think you look good in it.”

  “Callie, I’ve never worn a dress like this in my life. It’s gorgeous. And yes, it fits like a glove. It’s amazing.”

  “I don’t doubt you’ve never worn anything like it. It cost as much as the yearly budget of a small African country,” Callie said dryly. “Now, we need to find some jewelry to go with it.”

  “I have jewelry.”

  Under Callie’s skeptical eyes, she went to one of the wardrobes, pulled out a bottom drawer, pulled out the false bottom, and retrieved a thick wooden box.

  “What the hell? How did you know that was there?”

  “I found the false bottom when I was looking for a place to hide the box. It was very handy.”

  She took the box to the dresser and opened it. Callie’s eyes grew wide. Gold and silver rings, chains, and bracelets filled the compartments. The next tray under it held diamond rings, earrings, slender bracelets and chokers. Callie recognized a choker collar with five rows of diamonds that she had often admired. The next tray held pearls, white and black, and opals. Brenna pulled up that tray, revealing a gold and ruby necklace, earrings and bracelet, along with an exquisite Topaz necklace and a pendant with a large emerald and matching earrings. She lifted that tray and the prize of the collection was revealed, a short necklace with five sapphires the size of her thumb, set in platinum filigree, each stone ringed with diamonds. Matching earrings and a bracelet sat beside it.

  “They were my mother’s,” Brenna said simply. “I wonder if she wore them with this dress.”

  “Holy Mother and the Goddess,” Callie breathed. “We looked all over for her jewelry. I thought she must have taken it with her.”

  Brenna shook her head. “She left it with me. She always did when they went on a trip. She told me if anything ever happened to them, this was my college fund.” A fierceness crept into her voice. “But I got scholarships, and worked my butt off. I was damned if I’d sell them. My foster parents never knew about them.”

  Callie looked at her, tears in her eyes. “You’re one hell of a young lady, you know that? Yes, she had the dress made to go with the necklace.” She helped Brenna put it all on. “Come with me, I have something to show you.”

  They walked down to Callie’s room at the other end of the hall. On the way, Callie pointed out Rebecca’s and Collin’s rooms. Callie’s was the mirror image of Brenna’s room, decorated a little differently. Callie went to a bureau and picked up a framed picture, turned and handed it to Brenna. She took it, and then almost dropped it in shock. At first she thought she was looking in a mirror. A raven-haired woman wore the same dress, the same jewelry. It took her a moment to realize the woman in the picture was older than she was. “My mother?”

  “Yes.”

  “My God, it’s incredible. How old was she when this was taken?”

  “I took that on her forty-seventh birthday. You were born six months later.”

  Tears streamed down Brenna’s face. She put her hand to the picture, afraid to touch it, but wanting to reach out and touch the woman in the picture. “It’s yours,” Callie said. “I think you should have it.”

  Brenna hugged it to her breast. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” She held it out before her. “I’ll get a copy made for you. I promise.”

  “No need, I have the negative. Brenna,” Callie said while putting in her earrings, “I’d like to take a picture of you, in the same pose and same place as that picture of your mother.”

  “That would be neat.”

  “When we said you look like your mother,” she crossed the room, pulled a manila envelope from a drawer, and handed it to Brenna. Inside were three pictures and some yellowed newspaper clippings. One was her parents together outside in a meadow, one was her father, looking younger than she remembered him, and the third was of her mother, younger than the other picture in the blue dress. It was like looking in a mirror.

  Brenna looked up at Callie, her eyes wide in wonder.

  Callie nodded. “It’s uncanny. I want you to be prepared. Your grandmother may be very emotional when she sees you.”

  Callie took a camera from a cabinet and they went back to her room where she put the picture away with the jewelry box, then went down to the dining room.

  They walked in and Brenna looked around, recognizing some of the people there. Her eyes were drawn to one older couple that looked somewhat familiar. They stood staring at her, and then the woman screamed, “My baby, my baby.” She started crying and rushed forward, enveloping Brenna in a hug and sobbing, kissing her face and stroking her hair. “Oh, my God, you’ve come back to us.”

  The man came forward, and stood behind her, tears in his eyes, holding her and stroking her hair, reaching forward then to touch Brenna’s face. “It’s so good to see you. You have no idea how good it is to see you.”

  Eventually her grandmother calmed down, and they sat together and talked a bit. When dinner was served she sat between them near Seamus at the head of the table. In addition to those she already knew and her grandparents, almost a dozen men and women were introduced to her as cousins, and one elderly woman whom Callie introduced as her aunt, Gertrude’s sister, making her Brenna’s great-aunt.

  Brenna kept looking around at the elegantly dressed diners, thinking the scene looked like something from a movie, a period piece from early in the last century, with the men all wearing waistcoats and white ties, the women in evening gowns. The people serving wore formal serving attire, the men looking very handsome, the women looking very anachronistic in black dresses with white aprons and caps. She was startled to see Rebecca among those serving. It made her feel extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed.

  After dinner, the group retired to a formal parlor where drinks and coffee were served. Before going in with the others, Callie pulled her aside and took her to another room with French doors opening onto a terrace. After positioning her, Callie took several pictures of her, then directed her to change her pose several times while taking more pictures. “You know, you’re a natural model.”

  They went back in the main room and a servant came by offering coffee from a silver tray. With a shock, she looked up into Rebecca’s face, carefully blank. “Coffee ma’am?”

  “Thank you,” Brenna said. Rebecca moved on. Brenna turned to Callie. “Do you do this often?”

  “When we’re in residence here, we dress for dinner almost every Saturday. Father insists. He says some traditions keep us civilized. When I was young, I hated it, but my mother told me it was good training. A
nd it’s true, when I dined with the Queen I didn’t disgrace myself. Tomorrow night, we’ll dine in the large dining room, and more people will be present, but this is family only tonight.”

  “Callie, you have no idea how profoundly uncomfortable it makes me to have Rebecca serve me. I feel like a snotty, elite rich bitch.”

  Callie regarded her for a long moment. “It’s part of her training. All of those serving tonight are Protectors. When we run operations, inserting an agent as a servant is often the easiest way to get someone inside a rival’s security perimeter. I understand what you’re saying, but it’s part of her job. One of the things that she wants to do is become a covert agent, and with her Talents, it’s something we’ve encouraged.”

  “I don’t give a damn. Let her train when I’m not around. I haven’t asked you for very much, I don’t think. But if you’re going to treat me like part of the nobility, tell me I’m family and show me how privileged I am, then I’m going to throw a snit about this and give you my version of snotty rich bitch.” Brenna’s face was set, her body posture rigid, and Callie could feel rage, not anger, radiating from the younger woman. “I am not going to be at the dinner tomorrow night if it makes me feel the way I feel right now.”

  With that, she turned and walked to the sideboard, poured herself a large brandy, and tossed half of it down in one gulp. Then she pasted a smile on her face, and mingled, pleasantly conversing with her family.

  Callie found herself shaking and had to set her coffee on a nearby table. The look in Brenna’s eyes, dilated so that only a thin blue ring showed, was very familiar. It was the look in Seamus’ eyes when he was riding the killing edge.

  After the party broke up, Brenna went upstairs and stopped at Rebecca’s door, knocked and heard, “Come in.”

  Rebecca was in the process of undressing. She smiled, “So how did you like your first formal dinner? Just like Masterpiece Theatre, huh? God, you look fabulous.”