I said hello to the bartender, and told him, “If you can make a perfect Manhattan as well as your friend at the front bar, I’ll take another when I finish this one.” I laid another twenty-pound note on the bar.
He chuckled. “Will do.”
I used the mirror behind the bar to scan the room, then swiveled my chair around to take a more blatant look. I had attracted the notice of a few men, most notably a table of four wearing Knights’ uniforms. Two were standard-bearers, and two were chevaliers. I let my gaze linger, meeting the eyes of one of the standard-bearers and letting a bit of a smile touch my lips before taking a sip of my drink. I held his eyes over the rim of my glass, then turned back to the bar.
Generally, British pubs don’t provide table service. I waited.
Soon, the younger standard-bearer appeared next to me. The bartender came over, and the Knight said, “Another round,” then casually, “and another of whatever the lady is drinking.” He had a French accent, Parisian was my guess, or somewhere near there.
“Merci,” I said. “Quel plaisir de rencontrer un gentleman en Angleterre.” What a pleasure to meet a gentleman in England.
He lit up like a hundred-watt bulb and switched to French. “Et quel plaisir de rencontrer une si charmante dame.” And what a pleasure to meet such a charming lady.
We chatted briefly until the bartender brought his drinks and set mine down next to my now-empty glass. The Knight took three of the drinks back to his table and came back to sit next to me.
“Are you waiting for someone?” he asked, continuing our conversation in French.
I gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Perhaps. I’m new in Salisbury, and a friend told me I might find like-minded people here. So many of the bars are rather crude, don’t you think? Uncomfortable for a woman alone.”
“I quite agree.” He cocked his head. “New here? Do you come here to work?”
I grinned. “I’m newly stationed here.” I dipped my head. “Sergeant Erin O’Grady, at your service.”
He raised his eyebrows. “And a welcome addition to our force. Where are you assigned?”
“I was out at Stonehenge, but,” I dropped my voice and leaned closer, “I have heard a rumor that I may be promoted and assigned to the main security office here in Salisbury.”
“Really?”
“It’s only rumor, of course, and you never know about such things. I was stationed in America, in Washington, and it was rumored my unit was going to San Francisco. The next thing I knew, I was in Liverpool.”
He laughed.
“Do you have a name, or should I just call you Standard-Bearer Anonymous?”
“Georges Marchand, at your service. I am in command of an assault company stationed in Sarum.”
“Well, Standard-Bearer Georges Marchand, how fortunate that we are at each other’s service.”
He laughed again. “So it seems.”
“What do you think we should do with each other?”
It was naughty of me, but I went back to Sarum with him and let Erin2 play with him. It went much smoother than my first attempt with Muller and gave me practice manipulating the simulacrum with a man who wasn’t subject to Muirgen’s binding spell. Other than a couple of minor slip-ups, I was very proud of the expertise I was developing.
At about three o’clock in the morning, I left him asleep and hiked the two and a half miles back to the flat. The low heels I was wearing weren’t the most comfortable shoes to walk in, but luckily England had few thorns, and I did much of the trip barefoot with my shield protecting my feet.
Chapter 24
Since I didn’t get in until dawn, I slept late and woke up feeling a bit guilty about what I’d done the night before. Even if I hadn’t slept with the man, he thought I had, and mentally it sort of felt like I had. One thing that I had accomplished was getting a copy of the duty rosters for the entire Sarum-Stonehenge command for the next two weeks. I wasn’t sure how useful it would be, but I’d let Ian and Karl decide that.
I had a full English breakfast at a pub, then went shopping for clothes with the rest of the money Muller had given me. I bought fashionable slacks and blouses, dresses and skirts, both for going out at night and more casual ones for daytime wear.
Lingerie was more of a challenge, and Muller had specifically told me to get “something sexy to wear around the house.” Salisbury evidently hadn’t been a hotbed of debauchery prior to the Knights moving in. The closest strip club was in Southampton, twenty-five miles away, and there weren’t any true lingerie shops.
I finally found a place where I could buy a couple of baby dolls with matching thongs and some sexy bras and bralettes. The selection was rather meager, especially in my size. I had hoped to find a bustier, but no luck. The shopgirl confided that she shopped in either Southampton or Bath.
Before I met Oriel, I didn’t have any reason to own fancy lingerie, but the possibility of cracking his jaded façade was intriguing. To that end, when I left, I planned on taking the clothes Muller bought me. No sense letting good fortune go to waste. The Knights’ uniforms I left behind would clear space in my duffel.
From that shop, I went to a copy shop and made a copy of the grimoire Scarpa had loaned me. I would need to return the book before I left Dal Corso’s command. A quick trip to my secret hotel allowed me to stash the copy in my magical lockbox.
The following morning, I awoke thinking about Muller. His plan for the evening was to take me to dinner and then back to the flat for a romp. For my purposes, I needed to know the status of my transfer. I had two days and one night of leave before I might have to report back to Stonehenge.
Hoping to get a jump on things, I put on my Knight’s uniform and skulked in the hall near Muller’s office at the cathedral, hoping to catch him around lunchtime. Luck was with me, and he left the office with a man of standard-bearer rank about ten minutes before noon. I was standing in a place where he couldn’t help but see me. Trying to be discrete, I didn’t approach him.
He said something to his companion, who nodded and walked on down the hall. Glancing around and seeing no one else near, Muller came to where I stood.
“I have a luncheon,” he said.
“I just wanted to know about my transfer. My leave is over tomorrow, and I need to know where to report.”
He briefly smiled. “It’s all taken care of. First, the disruption has been extended for another week. In spite of their lack of success, the infidels have intensified their attacks. Your replacement’s orders have been cut, and she is due to report to Stonehenge on Monday. I’ll be informing Standard-Bearer Dal Corso of the changes tomorrow morning. Satisfied?”
“Thank you. I was just feeling a little anxious. I should have known you would have everything in hand.” I shook my head slightly. “You’re so amazing. I feel so lucky.”
He beamed. “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you.”
I decided to wear my new coral silk-satin wrap bodice evening dress with matching heels and a stole. The dress really needed the stole, since it had a low-cut back, and English evenings were chilly. The swallow-tail hemline hit me mid-calf in the rear and showed my knees in the front. Bright red lipstick and rose eyeshadow complemented the dress, and I thought I looked pretty good.
Muller knocked on the door, and when I opened it, he just stared with his mouth hanging open. I’ve always considered that the ultimate compliment, although I’ve never been sure if it’s because a man considered me beautiful, or they were stunned that I cleaned up fairly well.
In any case, he escorted me down the stairs to his waiting car. It was raining, and his driver held an umbrella for me. Once again, we drove out of town, this time north. But I was confused when we pulled off the main road at Sarum. The driver pulled up between a maintenance shed and a helicopter with the motor running.
“Come along,” Muller said.
“Where are we going?”
“To dinner.” He laughed, probably at my expression.
We
got in the helicopter with four Knights and flew west under the drizzling clouds. Once we leveled off, Muller popped a bottle of champagne and poured two flutes.
“Your transfer is complete,” he said, clinking his glass against mine. “And your promotion will probably go through by the first of July.”
Not bad for a girl who was a bartender the month before. The funny thing was, a chevalier earned less than I did as a bartender, unless you counted free housing, free meals, and free clothes, assuming you were happy wearing a Knight’s uniform all the time.
I had no idea where someone of Muller’s rank got his money. Of course, he wasn’t paying for the helicopter ride, but I doubted French champagne was part of his meal allowance.
I was surprised when we flew past Bath, and then the ocean appeared on the horizon.
“Where are we going?”
He winked. “Dinner at the castle.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. What castle?
We flew over Bristol, then turned north until we passed the city. Five minutes later, we landed on the front lawn of a castle. A real, honest-to-God castle.
“Do you like it?” Muller asked as he escorted me inside.
Like it? I was flabbergasted. Again, we were going to a restaurant in a hotel, and one at least as fancy as any I had ever seen. Even when I was stalking fabulously wealthy mages for the Illuminati, no one had gone that far over a young piece of ass. I couldn’t imagine that Muller blew that kind of money on all his mistresses, so I was forced to wonder about that binding spell Muirgen cooked up.
Once we were inside, I realized it wasn’t truly a castle, if you considered a castle a fortress. It was simply one of the biggest and fanciest sixteenth-century manor houses I’d ever seen.
Dinner was fabulous, each course paired with a wonderful wine. By the time I finished the dark chocolate and coconut desert delivered on a poached pear, my dress was starting to feel a little tight.
It was still raining, so we skipped the walk in the gardens, and he took me up to our room. Stunning, and right out of a period movie. The four-poster bed probably weighed a thousand pounds, and the draperies on it must have cost a fortune. The stone walls were covered with tapestries, the floors with elegant rugs. The ceiling was ornately carved, and a cheerful fire burned in the fireplace.
“Reinhard, we can’t spend the night here. I have to report back to Stonehenge tomorrow.” I looked around frantically for the bathroom, and finally decided it had to be behind the heavy wood-and-iron-braced door on the other side of the bed.
“Don’t worry about it, my pet. I’ve already informed Standard-Bearer Dal Corso that you’ll be there to pick up your things tomorrow afternoon. Until then, we don’t have to worry about anyone else.”
Muller took me in his arms and kissed me. “My love, never have I felt this way about a woman,” he breathed in my ear. He slid my dress down off my shoulders and over my breasts, revealing the lacy red bralette I had chosen. His breath hitched. “I don’t think that is standard issue,” he said as he nibbled down my throat.
When my dress pooled around my ankles revealing the bralette’s matching red thong, I pushed him away. Reaching up to the back of my head, I pulled out the comb and let my hair fall around my shoulders.
“I need to freshen myself for you,” I said with a wink, and strutted toward the bathroom, giving him what I hoped was a good show. When I opened the door, I breathed a sigh of relief that I had correctly identified the bathroom instead of walking into a closet. There’s nothing like blowing a good performance with an awkward screwup.
As I had done the previous two times when I used Muirgen’s charms, I spent a lot of time going back and forth between the bathroom and the bed, but not as much as before. I had better control of the simulacrum, and more confidence in my ability to carry on a conversation through it. Early on, I was afraid I might fall asleep after all the heavy food and wine, but I had so much adrenaline pumping through my system, that I had no problem staying awake.
When Muller fell asleep, I crawled in next to him and finally got a few hours. But in the morning, I was groggy and barely escaped his attentions when he woke up in an amorous mood. I sent Erin2 back to bed to take care of him, and wondered if he would have been able to tell the difference between us.
Chapter 25
Muller dropped me off at the flat around noon. I flew upstairs to take a shower and dress in my Knight’s uniform, grabbed my duffel, and managed to catch the mid-afternoon bus from the train station back to my barracks. After the week I’d had, the military compound seemed slightly surreal when I disembarked.
I first went to Chevalier Scarpa’s office. Her door was open and she looked up and scowled when I knocked.
“Standard-Bearer Dal Corso wants you to report immediately.”
“I figured she would.” I crossed to her desk and held out her grimoire. “I came to return this, and thank you for your trust in loaning it to me.”
Her features softened. “Moving up in the world, eh?”
“An offer I can’t refuse. I mean, what would happen to my career if I said no?”
She shook her head. “You’d probably be a sergeant forever, but I despise the fact that women seem to have no other options. Watch your back and good luck, O’Grady. You’re going to need it. Personally, I’d rather face combat than politics, and make no doubt, you’re walking into a political quagmire. Just make sure you have a place to land when the next pretty face catches his eye.”
Well, that was blunt. It was obvious that Scarpa didn’t think my transfer had anything to do with my magical or martial abilities.
My next stop was at Dal Corso’s office. Her door was also open, and she was intently staring at her computer screen. I knocked on the door jamb.
“Come in,” she said, and then looked up. “Oh, it’s you.”
She kept me standing there in the middle of a salute for a couple of long minutes before she returned my salute.
“So, you’re Reinhard Muller’s new right-hand woman, are you? Silly me, I didn’t recognize your potential. But Under-Marshal Muller is a very perceptive officer. He obviously unearthed your hidden talents very quickly.”
“I guess I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”
“I guess so. I wouldn’t have dreamed you were so talented.” She shook her head. “To be honest, I didn’t think you were savvy enough to pull something like this off.”
“One of my officers early in my career told me that if I wanted to get ahead, to watch those above me and emulate the behaviors they used to get promoted.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Oh?”
“I’m still young, and it will probably take me some time to catch the eye of someone as high as Seneschal Dalviccio, but I have to start someplace. And who knows? Under-Marshal Muller is an ambitious man. If he takes me along with him, I might be able to climb fairly high fairly quickly.”
Dal Corso’s face might have been carved out of stone, but if her eyes had been lasers, I would have had twin holes burned through me.
“It’s never a good idea to burn bridges, O’Grady. Dismissed.”
If I ever get the chance, I’ll burn more than a few bridges, Blood Witch.
I saluted, pivoted, and left. I went straight to my quarters, threw the few personal items I had left there into my duffel, and took off for the bus stop. I was early, so I walked the two and a half miles to the visitor center and waited for the bus there. I had seen the Knights at work in Westport, and I didn’t want to have “an unfortunate accident” before I could escape Dal Corso’s sphere of influence.
Using the flip phone, I called Ian from Stonehenge to ask him if we could get together, and we agreed to meet at the Sojourner for dinner.
“Erin,” he said before we hung up, “take care. You’re staying at a place provided by the enemy, and you can’t just assume that he’s blind. Either Muller, or someone else, could have you under surveillance.”
I didn’t take
any offense. It was a legitimate caution, and mates took care of each other. Whatever I might think about the people I worked and played with, only one of them was trained to think the same way I did.
“Yeah. I’ll be careful.” I hung up and thought about it. I might have Muller wrapped around my finger, but it was important to remember that he was the head of security. Intelligence and counter-intelligence. One of the things I particularly needed to be concerned about was if any of his subordinates decided to investigate me. I remembered Scarpa’s warning about politics.
Spooks tended to be even more paranoid than other people, see subversion under every bed, threats around every corner. I had been trained as an intelligence operative, so I should be even more aware of their tendencies than someone else in my position.
So, note to self, stop running around as though no one was paying attention. Start acting as though I was in a life or death situation with no backup.
I arrived back in Salisbury and went to the flat. It was Friday, and I wasn’t slated to report to work as Muller’s assistant until Monday. He had a church function to attend Friday night, a dinner with some of his colleagues and bosses on Saturday, and of course, Sunday was a day of worship and dinner with the archbishop. But Monday would be my orientation, and he hinted that he planned to orient me until the sun rose on Tuesday, which he was taking off. He hadn’t said if he was giving me Tuesday off.
The first thing I did was conduct a thorough check of the flat. Other than Muller, I hadn’t had any visitors, so I didn’t have anything to cover for. Yet. Except for coming home at dawn one morning.
And a good thing. The cameras I found in the bedroom and bathroom were active. So was the separate microphone in the bedroom. I seriously doubted that they fed back to the Knights’ security monitors, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they fed to a private monitor at Muller’s home.
I wasn’t tech-savvy enough to do anything about them. All I could do was be aware of them and adjust my behavior accordingly.
Knights Magica: An Urban Fantasy (Rosie O'Grady's Paranormal Bar and Grill Book 5) Page 19
