Refracted Crystal: Diamonds and Desire

by M. J. Lawless

  The woman wore a luxurious bracelet, gold intertwined about a series of rich, elegant emeralds that gleamed richly in the light.

  “Emeralds,” she said.

  The woman frowned at this but did not draw away. “Ms Stone, I presume,” she said at last, her voice a soft, east coast American lullaby, very soft and gentle.

  “You’re Emeralds, aren’t you. You were... with Daniel, before.”

  The woman raised an eyebrow. “Yes, I was. Is he here?” She lifted her eyes and scanned the room.

  Suddenly Kris’s sense of protection rose up within her. “No, he isn’t,” she hissed angrily. “He’s gone into the meeting. Why are you here?”

  Drawing back slightly, Kris’s hostility now overtly clear, the other woman paused for a moment and said: “I’m here to vote, of course. If I’d have realised Daniel was here, I wouldn’t have come. I still thought... I still thought he was in San Francisco.”

  “Well he’s not!” Kris could feel her cheeks flushing with anger. “No doubt that’s put paid to your little plans. I daresay you were looking forward to him being thrown off the board.”

  At this, the other woman looked pained and raised her hand to her face. “I was not, Ms Stone. Quite the opposite. I’m here to vote for him to stay.”

  The nearest cafeteria was a ten minute walk away, and Kris accompanied the other woman, Miranda Karstans, there. As Kris had surmised, she was one of Daniel’s former lovers, the one that Maria had called Emerald after the gift he had given her, and she still worked in corporate finance. She was also, somewhat to Kris’s surprise, a minor shareholder in Stone Enterprises.

  “I don’t have much time, I’m afraid,” Miranda told her. “There will be an interminable series of debates, of course, propositions and counter-propositions, and I’m glad Daniel will be there. I’m pretty sure that will put the proverbial cat among the pigeons although,” and here her face looked slightly pained once more, “I wouldn't have come if I knew he was to be here. But if I’m to vote, I better leave soon. I have a suspicion he’ll need all the help he can get.”

  “Why were you at the pre-trial hearings?”

  Miranda sighed and lowered her coffee. “I was working in Los Angeles when I saw Daniel—and you, actually, on television. That was a surprise, your wedding—not an unpleasant one. Whatever was between Daniel and myself... it was a very long time ago, and I wish him as much happiness as I’ve found.” Her eyes shone a little strangely as she spoke, and Kris held her tongue: she knew too much about Daniel’s former lovers.

  “When I heard he had been arrested I was horrified. I still have the shares that Daniel gave me,” Miranda blushed slightly as she said this, “and when it became clear that the executive was going to try and vote him off the board, I decided I had to come here and try to do something, however small.”

  Kris still had no sense of whether this woman was telling the truth. There was one small test that she could try. “Do you know Maria Gosselin,” she asked.

  Miranda grimaced at the name. “Too well, I’m afraid. She... she had a relationship with Daniel. I’m sorry, I don’t want to speak about that woman, if you don’t mind.”

  Kris nodded. “You know that she was willing to testify against me, against Daniel if necessary. Maximilian Roth hired her, apparently.”

  “Even I’m surprised that she would stoop so low,” Miranda said, her mouth twisted in a look of disgust, and a flash of anger flaring deep in her eyes that, for a second, pierced Kris’s own defences. Here was another woman who, for whatever reason, had learned to hate Maria Gosselin. “It doesn’t surprise me about Roth, however. It was always a bad day when Daniel fell in with him. I’d warned him against it, but he refused to listen to me.”

  “You don’t trust Maximilian Roth?”

  “Max Roth is a man no-one trusts, not if they want to keep their head about them.” Miranda looked at her watch. “I’m very sorry,” she said, “but the vote will be soon.” Placing her coffee back on the table, she hesitated for a moment before drawing out an elegant pen from her jacket. Writing on a napkin, she passed a number across to Kris.

  “I don’t really want to speak to Daniel. I owe him a great deal but... well, I’m glad he has the possibility of finding the same happiness that I’ve found, and I’m sure that you will be able to... cope with him better than I ever could. But it does strike me that if things don’t go well today, I have some information about Max Roth and Felix Coltraine that could be useful for him.”

  She looked up at Kris, observed the terse expression on the younger woman’s face.

  “I can see from the look in your eyes that you don’t trust me. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to convince you, Ms Stone—”

  “It’s Avelar,” Kris mumbled. “Kris Avelar. I kept my own name.” She shook her head quickly. “I’m sorry, I interrupted you.”

  Miranda paused for a moment then nodded, resuming her speech. “As I was saying, while I won’t ask you to trust me please do understand that I have no intention of coming between you and Daniel. If my own experience is anything to go by, you will have... encountered someone who will have done their utmost to break you and him apart.” As Kris flashed a look at her, thinking of Maria Gosselin, Miranda smiled somewhat sadly and nodded her head slightly.

  “As I thought. Well, I’m not the same as her. And if you wonder why I should be so willing to intervene, I’ll be honest: it’s for Daniel’s sake, not yours.”

  “Why not speak to him?”

  Miranda shook her head at this, and Kris thought there was a slight look of panic on her face. “No! I won’t... I can’t do that. But if I can help him, I shall—through you, if I have to.” She paused and took hold of her glasses from the table. “No man is an island, Ms Avelar—nor any woman.”

  With that, Miranda Karstans lifted up her coat and placed her sunglasses on her graceful face. Smiling slightly to Kris, she dropped a note upon the table and turned towards the door: within seconds she was in the street outside and had gone.

  Chapter twenty

  When Daniel emerged from the meeting, he was on his own and came striding down the stairs two at a time. The vigour and determination of his motions led her at first to believe that he had been victorious, but on his face was such a grim expression that she was almost scared when she saw him.

  He continued to bear down on her at speed, spreading the bulk of his shoulders in such a way that they almost appeared to be wings cast out to prevent anyone else from seeing her. Kris’s heart leaped into her mouth for a moment, but at the last moment he checked his step, slowing and taking hold of her arm firmly but gently.

  “How did it go?” she just managed to gasp as he turned her and began to propel her to the door.

  “We need to leave, now.” His eyes were fixed on the doorway and he did not allow her to navigate away from him, maintaining complete control over her in a way that was somewhat frightening. Without even glancing at her, he frogmarched her around the corner away from the entrance to Stone Enterprises and, looking both ways up and down the street, hailed a taxi.

  “I’m so sorry about that,” he said, his eyes creasing as he looked at her vulnerable figure after they had climbed into the vehicle. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  Shaking her head, she replied: “What’s going on, Daniel?”

  “It’s worse than I thought. I’m sorry, we need to get out of London. I need some space to think.”

  “What’s worse? Why?”

  For a few seconds he paused, looking at her sternly, then his face softened.

  “I have no intention lying to you—and if I hold anything back, it’s because I still feel the need to protect you, even though you have demonstrated yourself more than capable of protecting me over the past few days.” He sighed and shook his head, looking out of the cab window as it drove along. “As of half an hour ago, I am no longer chair of Stone Enterprises.”

  “Oh, Daniel, I’m so sorry!”

  He returned his gaz
e to hers and smiled, his expression somewhat ambiguous. “I’m not sure that I am. I’ve fought so hard to keep it recently, but I can't completely explain why—or what I’ve been fighting for. It was not entirely unexpected, and I must admit to feeling slightly relieved. But that’s not the worst of it.” Now his face did look angry and he turned his eyes back to the window, watching the London streets as they passed by.

  Kris knew better than to interrupt him: he would tell her what she needed to know when he was ready.

  “Francis was there,” he said at last. “I haven’t seen him since the arraignment. The look of shock on his face when he realised I was in London, as well as that on Felix’s, was almost worth it alone.

  “I tried to explain to shareholders there what was happening, but they weren’t having any of it. I tried to explain just the kind of person that Francis was, but the words stuck in my mouth I’m afraid. None of them would have wanted to hear it, well, all but a very few—they’re too scared of Max to do anything.”

  He paused again, his jaw clenching as he continued to look out of the window. Then he turned slowly back to Kris, his eyes burning fiercely, the strangely asymmetrical pupils like distorted black holes as he watched her.

  “He hates me, you know. He wants to destroy me. I can see it in the way he watches me, though the little fucker doesn’t dare catch my eye directly. I can almost taste it on him. I’m not the majority shareholder any more, but he doesn’t just want to buy me out: he wants to grind me into dust. I don’t know whether Max is behind it or whether it’s more pathetic than that, his attempt to get even because I beat him so thoroughly.” This elicited a low laugh from Daniel. “God, how I’d love to do that again.”

  “Daniel,” Kris reached across and placed a hand on his arm.

  He looked at her and smiled warmly. “Don’t worry, I’m not completely stupid. But I must be honest, I’m not entirely sure what to do.” He reached into his jacket with his free hand and withdrew the drive containing encrypted details of his secret accounts. “Well, they know I’m here now so I may as well draw out some funds. I had the element of surprise, but that didn’t really achieve what I wanted it to.”

  “So what will you do now?”

  He frowned, watching pedestrians standing at the kerb as the driver pulled into a road that led towards Chelsea.

  “I need to think. I need some privacy, where we won’t be disturbed.”

  Reacting subtly to his shift from I to we, Kris responded: “Shall we return to Alfama? It’s safe enough there.”

  He shook his head. “Felix knows about it—even if he doesn’t know the precise address now, he’ll find it easily enough from records when I authorised the sale. There is somewhere that even he doesn’t know about though. Come on, we’ll get some things from the flat, then we need to book another flight.”

  It took them the rest of the afternoon to prepare, but by early evening they were on a flight to Glasgow and the sun had not long set when she and Daniel got out of the cab by a garage where, he told her, he had stored his Land Rover after leaving Comrie.

  “Daniel,” said the owner, a large, overweight figure in his fifties who looked something of a cross between an avuncular uncle and a bouncer from a particularly disreputable nightclub, but who appeared to view Daniel with some warmth. “It was a surprise to get your call today—it’s been a very long time. And who is this lassy?”

  Daniel smiled. “Irvine, allow me to introduce Misses Logan.”

  Staring at her for a moment, Irvine let out a huge, bellowing laugh. “Well, I’m glad you decided to make an honest woman out of her, seeing as you’ve obviously been enjoying yourself since we last met.” He reached into the pockets of the oil-stained, greasy overalls he wore and fished out a set of keys, throwing them to Daniel who caught them automatically.

  “She’s all fixed up and as good as she’ll ever be,” he said.

  “Thanks Irvine,” Daniel replied. “And thanks for staying up for me.”

  “Ah, lad, what else was I going to do?”

  “Nonetheless, it’s much appreciated.” As he began to walk towards the Land Rover, Kris by his side, he paused and looked back towards the other man. “Irvine,” he said quietly. “People might come looking for me.”

  Irvine snorted at this. “Their bad luck, is all I can say.”

  “They might try to be persuasive.”

  Now the older man gave a laugh. “Then me and the lads will treat them to some Glaswegian hospitality.”

  “Thanks,” Daniel replied. “It’s much appreciated.”

  Irvine shrugged. “It’s the least I could do for your mother. Now, go on, be off with you.”

  “He knew your mother?” Kris said as they were driving away.

  Daniel nodded and smiled at her. “I’ve always known him as ‘Uncle Irvine’, though strictly speaking I think he’s a cousin a couple of times removed. Sorry about ‘Misses Logan’, by the way. Irvine is a little old-fashioned and I didn’t really have time to explain.”

  “Uncle Irvine,” Kris said quietly, and then gave a small laugh.

  As he drove along, Daniel raised one eyebrow. Assuming an effective Scottish accent, he said to her: “Well, if you think you’ve married into an illustrious bunch among the Logans, you’ve got another think coming, missy.”

  It was in the early hours of the morning when Kris took her turn, driving the narrow lane over rolling hills towards Comrie. It would still be an hour or so until dawn, but towards the east there was the faintest glimmer of blue against the blackness of the night, and a spectral greyness appeared to haunt the silhouette of the cottage that she remembered so clearly from her time there before.

  Daniel had been dozing slightly beside her, the anger and energy that had carried him on from the meeting with the shareholders now finally dissipating. Kris was surprised that she was not close to exhaustion: for so many weeks now she had been feeling more and more fatigued, but the sense that Daniel was in more danger than he was letting on—perhaps more than he even realised—made her feel increasingly protective towards him.

  His head rolled up alertly as they approached the cottage. “We’ll be safe here,” she heard him say, and when she had stopped the vehicle he opened the door and then came round to her side, reaching up with his arms and taking her into them as he lowered her to the ground.

  With the engine dead and the lights off, everything was utterly silent. There was not even a wind to disturb the night air, and though after several hours of darkness that air was chill still it did not freeze her as she stepped out underneath the stars. There was no moon in the sky, and she had forgotten just how black the dome of night could be: above her, the thin gauze of the milky way stretched across the zenith of heaven, and she instinctively grabbed Daniel’s arm as a meteorite streaked through the sky, then another.

  He nodded. “It’s always a good time to be here,” he said quietly. “You can see the Perseids more clearly than anywhere else. I’ve only been here once in Winter, and then I could see the Aurora Borealis, like great clouds of electric green and blue in the sky.”

  “It’s beautiful,” she said. “So beautiful.” Without thinking, she squeezed her body next to his and he placed an arm around her.

  “As I said, we’ll be safe here.”

  They had fallen into bed together and slept, too tired even to change out of their clothes, and when Kris woke the next morning she felt stiff and awkward. Her body was a lump and though the bed was comfortable enough she felt she had pushed herself too much the previous day. One of her hands groped across the bed, feeling for Daniel, but it was empty. She could, however, hear a familiar sound from outside.

  Easing herself out of bed for a moment, she realised immediately that today she would have to rest. She was now well into her second trimester, and though the bulge in her belly was only really evident when she was naked, nonetheless she tired quickly: so much travelling in so little time had worn her out, and she wanted nothing more than to have a hot
bath and sleep.

  Making her way downstairs, she followed the sounds and came to the front door. Daniel was outside, stripped off to the waist and with his back to her. As such, he had not heard or seen her and continued to chop wood with a vigour and determination that suggested he was thinking of more than blocks of tree as the axe came down.

  For a few minutes she simply stood there, rubbing her back slightly and smiling as she watched him. His shoulders were strong and wide, and a sheen of sweat was beginning to form over his muscles, which rippled and shifted as he lifted up the axe and let it fall. His arms bulged and extended, graceful gestures full of power, and his waist narrowed down towards his jeans, slightly grubby with machine oil and streaks of grass.

  There was a slight breeze in the air, and though she knew it was her imagination she fancied that the wind brought his scent to her as well, the warm musk of his body mingled with the smell of the heather and the far off tang of the sea. A few clouds floated high above them in the cerulean blue, and scanning her eyes away from Daniel’s body for a moment, she observed the purpling greens and dark umbres of the landscape as it rolled away to the west.

  But it was his body that drew her eyes back again and again. In the end, so much of what Daniel was lay here, compact in his strong limbs and his broad back, the curve of his neck as it rose from his shoulders and his spine, the powerful fingers clasped around the shaft of the axe, his face, a faint shadow appearing like a bruised blush along his jawline, so handsome though profaned by past agonies. Unbidden, she felt a warmth down inside her, her secret river flowing once more, and some words sprang into her mind.

  “Age cannot wither him, nor custom stale his infinite variety. Other men cloy the appetites they feed, but he makes hungry where most he satisfies. Vilest things become themselves in him, that the holy priests bless him when he is riggish.”