Angelica looked up at him once more and he felt his objectivity melting. He shook his head, he would not allow his emotional attachment to her to cause him to make another mistake.
“You will not tell me?” It almost sounded as if she were pouting.
“No. It is not advisable,” he said apologetically. “You might inquire of your father when you see him. He could tell you if he is so inclined to do so.”
“Then my father commissioned your study as well?” She asked.
“Yes, of course,” he nodded.
“How will you stay out of... trouble when I return to the Center?” She asked him.
It was a wholly human question. Not like Angelica at all. She was making great strides in her development.
“I will,” he said simply. “I will be here when you come back.”
“I have begun to worry about you,” she admitted. “I really don’t think you should take this woman back with you.”
“Could that be a human emotional response speaking, Angelica?” He asked carefully.
“It could be,” she admitted and frowned. “Peregrin, may I ask you something?”
“Of course,” he laughed. She had been bombarding him with questions.
“What does it mean to be married? Exactly what does that entail between... us?”
He froze. This was the same question he had been asking himself. He had no idea. He had thought she would know and had been wondering how he could ask her about it.
He opened his mouth and nothing came out.
Angelica tilted her head to one side and looked at him expectantly, almost innocently.
He closed his mouth. This was ridiculous. They had lived... how long now? And neither of them had ever wondered about this particular topic before. He could understand Angelica never wondering about it. She had been the driest of scientists when he had met her only a few weeks earlier, almost fierce in her dogged determination. She had reminded him of some of the warriors he had known long ago. But he could not understand why it had never occurred to him to wonder about it before.
“Did your father never tell you about it?” He asked evasively.
“No. Why should he?” She asked.
“I believe that it would be his place to tell you. Not mine,” he said and retreated quickly to the back of the store. Now would have been a good time for the alcohol craving to kick in, but he went instead to get a bottle of glacier water from the cooler and drank it down.
Sam Morris sat at his desk in shock at what had happened. He had come to work late. He’d missed an important committee meeting, three calls from his stockbroker and two calls from his mother. He stared across the room at a spot above the sofa on the wall. His back was stiff, his knees ached and he had bruises on his neck. How could he have been so stupid as to follow Aliger to Maureen’s house? Surely the man could have killed him and claimed self defense. Certainly Maureen would have corroborated his story. Now the man had his box and his girl. He called his mother.
“Sammy!” She said when she answered. “I was getting worried. What happened? Why were you late to work? Has something else hap..?”
“Mother, please,” he said wearily and rubbed his neck carefully. His voice was raspy. “I’m fine. I’ve been late before.”
“Linda Hawthorn said you spent the night at Maureen’s house,” his mother chided him.
“Mother, would you stop checking up on me?” He asked. “I’m not a little boy. I keep telling you that. If I want to spend my nights in the ditch in front Harold’s Bar and Grill, you shouldn’t concern yourself.”
“You haven’t been yourself lately,” she said with genuine concern in her voice. “She said that your car stayed at the curb all night and....” she paused. “She said there was another car there, too.”
“Yes, yes.” Sam wanted to hang up. He didn’t need this. “I’m not going to talk about it. If that’s all you wanted, I have to go now. I have some calls to make. In spite of what you might think, I do work here.”
“No, wait...” she sounded hurt. “Mary McDaniels has invited me over to lunch at eleven. I think she’s about to call in that favor.”
“What favor?” He asked somewhat surprised.
“You know. The box,” his mother whispered in the phone.
“Oh, that.”
“Yes. Do you have any idea what she might want?”
“None at all.”
When he had hung up from talking to his mother, he felt even worse. It was bad enough what had happened, but he figured half the town knew by now what had transpired at his house on Saturday night and Sunday morning. He knew that Mike Padgett’s propensity for telling tales was surpassed only by Willy Lambert over at Chilly Willy’s video store.
He picked up the phone and called Magnolia Springs’ only other banking establishment. When the receptionist answered he asked for Dottie McMillan.
“Hey, Dottie,” he said miserably when he heard her perky good morning.
“Hey Sam!” She said and he could hear the smile in her voice. “Long time no see.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said. “I’ve been busy.”
“So I’ve heard,” she laughed.
“Don’t tell me what you’ve heard, Dottie,” he said disgustedly. “I need to talk to you.”
“You sure do,” she said brightly.
“How about lunch?” He asked. “The usual place?”
“I don’t know. We’re pretty short handed here. Cheryl Martin is off. Something about an appointment in Carrollton. I believe she’s hiding something. Have you heard about her and Chris Parker? He’s asked her to marry him!”
“That’s swell,” Sam said tiredly, though he forced himself to sound chipper. “When, then?”
“What’s wrong with tonight?” She asked with a somewhat less chipper quality in her voice. “I hear you’re living alone now.”
“You’re sure right about that.” He sat up straighter. “Dinner, then. My place eight o’clock?”
“I’ll be there,” she said and he could hear the difference in her voice. “Gotta go. Gotta live one.”
Sam felt somehow relieved as he turned to check his calls on his computer. He needed to put some distance between himself and Maureen Fitzgerald. Maybe his mother was right. His feelings for her were beginning to change. He no longer thought about how she had betrayed him, but rather he had begun to connect her with a man that could possibly ruin him personally, financially and perhaps, in even worse ways.
Mildred Morris returned to her office from her lunch with Mary McDaniels in a better frame of mind. It hadn’t been so bad after all. In fact, it had been almost pleasant. Like old times. Mary hadn’t changed a bit. She was a little older now and less quick on her feet than she remembered, but all in all she was still the same old Mary. The request concerning Hannah Lipscomb and Billy Johnson had been a great relief. The Savings and Loan had made bad investments before. It happened all the time. What was one more? And that property down by the river was worth far more than the loan they were requesting. It was a win-win situation. If they couldn’t make the notes, the S & L would own that property lock, stock and barrel. To top it all off, her obligation to Mary would be paid in full and she could stop guilt-tripping. A sudden thought occurred to her. If Billy and Hannah failed to live up to their end of the bargain, she, Mildred Morris, could buy that land. It would make a gorgeous park and on the river, too. She could put in RV stations, camp grounds, boat storage! Why, the income potential was endless. Why hadn’t she thought of it before?
Maureen showed up at the store at noon. Angelica was nowhere in sight. Perry was behind the register drumming his fingers on the back of the machine while a lady fished in the bottom of her huge handbag, pulling out one penny at a time to pay for her purchase. He looked up at her when she came in and smiled indulgently at the woman in front of him. She had piled at least fifty pennies on top of a twenty dollar bill on the counter.
“I think that’s it,” the woman told him and then pi
cked up her bag and her purse to walk out. The wind chimes tinkled softly and they were alone.
Maureen quickly joined him behind the counter. She turned him around as he was about to scrape the pennies from the counter, causing him to scrape them onto the floor. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him before he could protest. He thought there was nothing to do short of being rude other than to participate as best he could as the pennies cascaded around his feet and into his shoes.
“That was for last night,” she whispered and smiled up at him before going around in front of the counter while he retrieved the pennies from the floor and shook them out of his shoes. “It was wonderful! I can’t believe it. I don’t usually talk about such things, but I just can’t believe it.”
“A dream?” He asked from the floor and then stood up to drop the pennies in the register. “I have found such things quite enlightening.”
“Enlightening?” She looked at him dreamily. “That’s a good word. Yes, it was very enlightening.”
“You must tell me about it,” he said and raised one eyebrow. “It could be significant.”
“You want my opinion?” She asked.
“Yes,” he nodded.
“Well, I never knew all this was possible,” she said and frowned. “It’s hard to put into words.”
“I know,” he said closing the drawer. “I have the same problem.”
“I especially liked the trip; I guess you could call it that, the trip to Rome,” she said. “That was wild.”
“Rome?” He asked. “I always found Rome a fascinating place.”
“I do too. Now,” she said. “I want to go there again.”
“I might like that, too,” he agreed. “But there are better places.”
“Better?” She asked in astonishment. “How could it get any better?”
“Well, there is Paris and Scotland and the Himalayas,” he offered. “I have also found some places on this continent well worth exploring. Take the Grand Canyon for instance. I have been meaning to go there. Perhaps as a falcon or an eagle.”
“Oooh, that would be interesting,” she agreed whole-heartedly. “Could you take me?”
“I’d have to go first and then share it with you,” he said. “I don’t think you could make the transformation.”
“OK, I can wait for that,” she said. “I’m going to put my house on the market.”
“OK,” he nodded.
“Are you sure it’s OK what I told you?” She asked hesitantly.
“About what?” He asked.
“About not loving you. About just adoring you,” she said.
“Adoration is just another form of love, I suppose,” he said trying to remember when she had told him that. Perhaps when he had been so very drunk?
“Yes, it is, isn’t it?” She smiled even more broadly. “You always have all the answers.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I drove by the Savings and Loan. Sam is at work. I guess he’s alright.”
“Good,” he said. “Then we are still on for tonight?”
“Oh, God yes,” she sighed. “I’ll be looking forward to it with every breath.”
He nodded and looked at her curiously. Was she turning into a criminal? He shook his head.
“Then what time should we go to Sam’s house?” He asked.
“He should be asleep by ten or ten-thirty. He usually goes to bed early on week nights.” She looked at him closely and he leaned to look back at her.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” He asked.
“More than anything in the world,” she told him and reached up to take his face in her hands and kissed him again. “I really, really do.”
“All right then.” He licked her lipstick off his lips and frowned as she walked to the door. She turned to blow him one more parting kiss.
When Angelica arrived ten minutes later to hand him the keys to the Mercedes, he was still leaning over the counter wondering about Maureen’s behavior. Had she made up her mind so quickly? He had known that she would go with him, but he had thought it would take a bit of convincing on his part after their conversation of the previous day. He wondered what had changed her mind.
“Chris Parker said it was a clogged fuel line,” she told him and then frowned at him. “Are you listening to me?”
“Yes, a chrissed fuel parker,” he nodded. “I thought as much.”
Falco Atrox sat in the Navigator a block away from the Gift Shop and watched as Maureen left a few minutes before Angelica brought the Mercedes home from the shop.
“Peregrin Caelum, you sly old fox, you,” he said aloud. “You should change your name to Veterator Callidus.” He was still disoriented after his night with the insurance agent. He had never in all his existence experienced such a thing. It was no wonder the Primus had been so interested in her. And poor, poor Peregrin had no memory of the event. What a shame. The worst part was the sharp pang of jealousy he had been unable to control at the sight of Maureen tripping happily away from the door of the Gift Shop. He closed his eyes and shook his head trying to clear his thoughts physically. Now, she would attribute their little expedition to Peregrin. He, Falco, may not have come up with the idea, but he was the one who had implemented it. It was not tolerable. He would not allow that illusion to exist long. And the sight of Angelica set off another cascade of emotions he was unfamiliar with. Envy. Jealousy. Lust. Love. Depression. Anger. Rage. Fear. How had the Primus been able to cope with these things? What did Peregrin know that he didn’t?
He glanced at the box on the seat next to him. Inside was the hideous disease that had once belonged to the Police Sergeant’s wife and then to Samuel Morris. He had studied the box and all the implications very carefully. Peregrin had been extremely lucky he had not inadvertently opened one of the boxes containing physical ailments such as this one and the heart attacks of Louis and the Martin woman. It may not have turned out so well for him. Falco knew that Peregrin would want the box back so he could get rid of it. He didn’t know how much he would want it back. That would be the test, wouldn’t it? Now Peregrin had two things he wanted. Angelica and Maureen Fitzgerald.
He wanted Angelica simply because he didn’t want Peregrin to have her. And he wanted Maureen for another reason entirely. His desire to marry Angelica had been fading rapidly. Ever since his very disturbing meeting with her father. The Optimus had been very unhappy to be summoned away from whatever it was he had been doing. Briefly, he wondered exactly what the Optimus did do. The Hawaiian print shirt had really thrown him. Then he returned his thoughts to the present situation. He wanted Peregrin to have to work for what he got. He didn’t want it to be so easy for him. Falco was not used to having his wishes denied. No one had ever opposed him, but his communication with Angelica’s father had left him shaken and humiliated. Another one of those emotions he thought belonged only to these creatures, humiliation. Most unpleasant! He still had no idea what Peregrin was up to. Evolution! Evolution of what? And what had he meant when he’d said he was the future? The future of what? The Optimus had given him nothing. No straight answer. No reason for his sudden change of mind concerning Angelica. But that did not matter any more. What was marriage between two First Order Primes anyway? He had no idea. He had never known such a paired couple. What did they do? Where did they live? What did they look like? He was totally amazed by all these strange questions in his head.
He took a deep breath and turned up the stereo in the Navigator where a Gypsy guitar played a lively dance tune. Closing his eyes, he could see the Gypsies dancing around their campfire. The women were always beautiful in their gold and silver bracelets and flowing skirts. Just like their ancient Egyptian ancestors had been. He had never realized it before. Maureen would like that memory. But Maureen was not a Gypsy. Angelica looked more like them. Her dark hair and eyes and her olive complexion. Just like the Roman slaves from the eastern provinces of the old Empire. Maureen reminded him of the Norse women, though not as rough. Maybe she was more like the
Gaelic Queens or the Gauls. She was an exact opposite of Angelica. Tall, blonde and slender where Angelica was petite, dark and compact. Falco sat musing about the beauty of the two very different women. Something he had never done before. History and the savage hearts of men. Warriors, generals and kings. That had always been his interest. Areas of expertise. He had never had time for women or human emotions whatsoever. And now, too late, he knew why he had avoided them so. They were extremely unsettling. Almost like uncontrollable addictions. Like alcohol and drugs and chocolate. Not only was he unable to control these new found feelings, he did not want to control them. The night before had been the first time in his existence when he had lost control of absolutely everything. He could have been killed. Anyone could have walked right up to him and killed him. The thought of being mortal had never crossed his mind. So this love thing was also dangerous. He supposed that only made it more interesting.
He smiled. He had work to do. At least he had received a consolation prize from the Optimus. Angelica’s father had granted him one wish in recompense for losing the hand of his daughter. That wish should stand him in good stead tonight.
Falco started the Navigator and made a U-turn in the wide street. He drove back out of town to where he had left the red Mercedes. He had several contrived meetings to make before evening fell. He had to choose his gladiators.
Chapter Thirty-Four:.222
Tyler McDaniels sat brooding over his beer at Harold’s. Mike was not there. No one was there at all on Tuesday afternoon. He had not been able to return to work after the weekend’s numerous strenuous exertions. He was still creeping around. Dr. Peterson had sent him for X-rays as well as the test he had requested. The good doctor had not heard about Paula Anne’s positive pregnancy test. It had worked out real well. The X-rays had made a good cover for his trip to the lab in Carrollton. Now all he had to do was wait. He didn’t want to talk to Mike about it and he sure didn’t want to talk to Louis about it. He was glad no one was there to bug him. Just as that thought formed in his head, the front door opened to admit none other than Billy Johnson. Tyler groaned inwardly as the big man headed his way. It amazed him to no end that he had to sit there with broken ribs on the man’s account and 'conflabulate' with him as if nothing had ever happened.
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