Aristocratic Thieves

by Richard Dorrance

  Chapter 40: Gwen as the Sun, Slevov as the Moon

  The rest of the day went as planned. Gale and the boys accomplished their errands and came home loaded with foods, accompanied by Slevov. Gale said a Mercedes S550 and an S600 would be delivered the next day. Gwen asked, “What colors?”

  “One black, one white, what other colors are there for Mercedes?”

  Guignard spent time on the phone and on the computer. Gwen went back into the study and opened the middle drawer of the cadenza to see if Jinny had cleaned the guns, and the faint smell of gun oil wafting from the drawer told her he had. She picked up the Glock, removed the magazine, and racked the slide. Out flew a round that landed on the carpet. So, Jinny had left the gun in the ready to fire condition. She would wail on him for that. She picked up the round, loaded it into the magazine, and slapped the mag back into the gun. She checked the Sig Sauer and the Beretta, removed the rounds from the chambers, and put them back in the drawer.

  The smell of another kind of oil came from the kitchen. Gwen and Guignard entered to find Peter and Pater prepping for a dinner of eleven with Gale and Slevov at the stove. Gwen looked to the far side of the room near the pantry and found not only the two Russian blues sitting on the counter watching the goings on, but next to them was the June's mutt cat, which had adopted the regal posture and demeanor of the other two cats. Gwen wondered if its voice had changed as well, and she gave up on the idea of making the cats sit on the floor, like normal cats. She recognized reality when confronted by it.

  Soon Roger and Jinny showed up, saying Salvator would be here from Savannah the next morning. The first shipment of wines was being put together in France, and should arrive in ten days. Roger and Jinny smelled like dust from digging through old things all day, and went to clean up. Gwen asked Guignard for the printout of beachfront properties she had found on the multiple listings website, and saw there were about forty houses located from Kiawah in the south to Awendaw in the north. Gwen shuffled through these quickly to get an idea of what was available, and started planning the hunt.

  The evening went well. The food was fine and the conversation flowed reasonably well. Constantine and Henric were in good humor and seemed to enjoy themselves, saying they were over the jetlag and feeling good. Gwen laid out the schedule for the next few days. There would be the cocktail party tomorrow evening on the Aquarium deck, and dinner at McCradys the following night. She told them they would have cars available to them soon. Roger talked for a while about what he was finding in the warehouse, and about the wines that were on their way to Charleston. Gwen told Helstof she would meet an American writer the next day at the cocktail party, which seemed to intrigue her, and asked Slevov if they could have lunch together tomorrow. Gwen asked Roger if he could spare Jinny for a few hours tomorrow since Salvator would be at the warehouse to help. Gwen then asked Constantine and Henric if they would like to go to the gun range tomorrow for a little target practice. Their eyes lit up, so Gwen told Jinny to take them there for an hour or so after lunch. Pointedly, she told Jinny to work in the warehouse until then.

  That night in bed Gwen told Roger the next day was going to be very important. She said, “I’m not really taking Slevov to lunch, I’m taking her to the beach, and we’re going to walk and talk about the mission. She’s the key to what happens next with these people, with everything. I have to understand her, so I can understand them. Tomorrow I’ll know for sure how this thing is going to turn out.” Roger didn’t say anything, he just kissed her goodnight.

  The next morning at 10am the car dealer delivered two new Mercedes. Guignard called Roger to ask him to tell Jinny to come home after lunch, get the black one, and pickup Constantine and Henric for their outing at the target range. Roger took this opportunity to ask who, exactly had paid for the cars. Guignard said, “Ummm….” Roger understood “Ummm….” and didn’t push it. He hadn’t forgotten the dufflebag with the $6M plus in it, and figured Gwen had this worked out….somehow. Gwen told Gale, who was having a great time with all of these shenanigans going on, to call Jinny and ask him whether the Gromstovs and Rodstras wanted one house to share, or one house each. When Gale got that answer, she was to get the multiple listing printouts, the boys, Guignard, and Helstof into the white Mercedes, and take them to lunch somewhere. Have fun.

  At 11:30am Gwen said goodbye to the three cats and the dog. The dog had not taken to sitting on the kitchen counter, but he had taken to sitting, with a somewhat regal posture, on the floor just below the counter upon which the three cats sat. He never used to hang out in the kitchen, but now he did. Just sitting there, watching, evaluating, judging. Gwen swung by the hotel and picked up Slevov who was dressed all in white, and looked good. Slevov asked where they were going for lunch, and Gwen said they weren’t going to lunch right away, they were going for a walk on the beach.

  Slevov said, “Oh.” During the fifteen minute ride out to the beach at Sullivan’s Island Slevov asked, “Please tell me about this man who is coming to the cocktails this evening.” The way she said this was either very conspiratorial or very knowing, one or the other. Gwen looked at her and smiled. She realized Slevov knew something was up, and this just confirmed in Gwen’s mind her sense that Slevov possessed exceptional intuition.

  Gwen said, “Is it true that Helstof reads French books?"

  Slevov said, “Yes, it’s true, because her mother was French, and she learned to read and speak French as a child, and she can read it now even though she’s never lived in France. She likes stories of men and women together, having fun, stories set in Paris and on the Riviera. Russian writers all try to be like Pushkin and Dostoevsky, very serious, so she reads these French books.”

  Gwen said, “The man coming for cocktails tonight is a writer. It’s time you met some Charleston people, and I think he will be interesting.”

  Slevov looked across the marshland at the rapidly approaching Sullivan’s Island, with its prominent though not exactly beautiful Lighthouse, and asked, “Is this man attractive?”

  “Yes, a little bit,” said Gwen, staring straight ahead at the road.

  “And is he married?” asked Slevov, and the answer was, No.

  Slevov said, “And he writes these romance things, and Helstof likes these romance things, and so maybe Helstof will like this man?”

  Gwen turned to look at her partner, said, “Maybe.”

  As they parked the car and walked down the path to the beach Slevov said, “Tonight Helstof meets a writer, and today Constantine and Henric are shooting guns, and now we are not going to lunch, we are going to walk on the beach. This is very interesting day so far, I like it.”

  Gwen never could go to the beach without thinking about a story Roger had given her on another birthday. She had memorized it, and after telling Slevov about the piece, she recited a section from it:

  I’m a bit hazy at the beach, and she’s a bit crazy at the beach, and together we’re a bit lazy at the beach, and that’s the way we like it, she and I. We like to stop thinking sometimes, or start thinking differently sometimes. She says she’s creative there, that it’s a special place cause things happen inside her, things like intuitive songs and celestial bells and windy thoughts outside relative time. What’s so great is the way we talk there. She talks with her eyes a lot, and it’s her intuition speaking, so I listen, cause it’s the best of all her ways of telling me things. Things like: she loves me, and she loves the day, and she loves the night, and she loves when it’s cold, and she loves when it’s hot; and she loves moving along the water, and she loves looking over the water, and she loves looking at that great place where sand meets sea. And she loves looking at me.

  Slevov stopped walking and said, “Roger wrote that to you?”

  Gwen said, “Yes, as a birthday present. It’s very nice to get a birthday present like that, to have someone write fun things like that to me.” They came out of the
path through the dunes and onto the beach where Slevov stopped again and looked out to the gray distance line of the horizon. If she had magic vision that would let her see for miles and miles, maybe she would have seen, far over the horizon, the harbor of Gustavia, on St. Barths. That was one of Gwen favorite places, because, of course, it was French, and in the Caribbean.

  Slevov turned left and saw big beach houses and she turned right and saw big beach houses, and she said to Gwen, “This is what I thought Sullivan’s Island would be like.”

  Gwen led the way south, heading towards Fort Moultrie, and beyond that across the harbor, to Charleston. She let them get into a comfortable walking rhythm before she spoke again.

  “You know what happened between us in the apartment in Saint Petersburg. In one hour we became friends. We did this because we shared our intuitions, and we saw we have similar spirits. I felt something about you, and you felt something about me.”

  Slevov nodded.

  “Now we are here together, which is a new place for you and an old place for me.” Slevov nodded again. “You know what your husband did for us - he took risks and he helped us. And he is here with you. So, both of you feel something about Charleston, and both want to be here with me and Roger and the others.” Slevov put her arm through Gwen’s arm, and they continued walking. “Constantine and Henric and Guignard and Jinny all took big risks to get us where we are today, all here together in Charleston. You four took the risks in Saint Petersburg, and now it’s our responsibility to produce things here.” Gwen looked at Slevov, and again got a look of assent, so she continued. “The four of you are wealthy in Russia. Here in Charleston, Roger and I are not wealthy, but we have money and nice things. Jinny and Guignard and Peter and Pater have nothing except hope and energy and skills and a willingness to work. We’re a strange family right now, and you and I are the leaders of the family. You know that don’t you? We must bring our intuitions together again, so we understand each other completely, so we can lead our family to good things and a good future.”

  Gwen stopped walking and, using her arm linked in Slevov’s arm, turned Slevov to face her. She looked into Slevov’s eyes and waited for understanding. Slevov looked at Gwen for a minute and then shifted her gaze to a point far out over the water. It rested there and everything was calm. The breeze died down, the sanderlings stopped running from the waves, and the shouts of children down the beach quieted. Gwen felt peaceful.

  It wasn’t long before Slevov embraced Gwen in a hug, and said to her, “We are friends now, and I understand, and we will make a good family with these people. I am with you.”

  Gwen knew Slevov would say this. There never was any doubt. They knew each other, and they knew they could trust each other. They walked towards the children playing in the waves.

  Gwen got a business look to her face, and said, “We all know you and Henric and Helstof and Constantine have money. We told you in Saint Petersburg we can produce a cultural package for you here in Charleston, and you agreed to that. Now it’s time for us to produce these things and time for all of us to understand these things. But, there’s something more, there's one thing more.” Slevov looked at Gwen with curiosity. What?

  “Before we came to Saint Petersburg, Roger and Jinny and I spent two weeks in Paris and the French wine country of Burgundy and Bordeaux. At the beginning we met a woman there….a very special woman. Do you know the actress Catherine Deneuve?” Slevov shook her head, No. Her look of curiosity intensified. “Catherine has been an icon of French culture for forty years. When we get home I will show you photos of her by Richard Avedon. Yves Saint Laurent owes half of everything he has to her. She made film directors great. She’s in her sixties, and she drives men wild. I’ve seen that myself.

  “When we were in Paris we met her. I met her. Roger saved the life of her godchild some time ago, and she wanted to thank us. We became friends very quickly, and she decided to come with us during our tour of the wine country. We spent two weeks together, two of the most incredible and valuable weeks of my life. I love Catherine Deneuve, and she loves me.

  “I saw amazing things during those two weeks. Everywhere we went, Catherine was the center of attention. If the President of France had been in one room and Catherine in the next, the world would have gathered in her room.

  "All the time we were together she was touching me. We walked through the vineyards and she touched me. We sat in restaurant dining rooms and she touched me. We sat in the car for many hours together driving through the countryside, and she was touching me. She talked, and I listened. I talked, and she listened. Roger and Jinny talked, and neither of us listened.”

  A young boy of six ran up to the two women and offered them a shell. Gwen took the shell, and Slevov touched the boy on the cheek. He took off running back to the water.

  “One day we were walking through an estate vineyard while Roger negotiated on the wines, and Jinny ate oysters and drank champagne in the kitchen. Something amazing happened when we came on two men fighting in front of children. Catherine did something. She taught the men something about themselves, and about taking care of the children around them. She hardly said a word. It came from inside her and from how she looked at the men, and from her being and her presence. They understood what they were doing was wrong, and how wrong it was, and that they should act better around children. And the children understood that what the men were doing was wrong. So the adults were affected by her presence, and the children were affected by her, too.

  “I watched this. It was mesmerizing because it was effortless on Catherine’s part. It was something special, but it wasn’t mysterious. It was understandable, and it was learnable. The men learned something important and I learned something important and the children learned something important. When we left them and went back to the house to find Roger and Jinny, I felt different. I felt better. Stronger.

  “I want to learn to do things like that with you. Roger and I do things like that together because we love each other and care for each other. I learned something special from Catherine, and I want more of that in my life. You and I can learn these things together, and practice these things together, and we can help this strange family.”

  Slevov looked at Gwen for a minute, and then tracked a flight of pelicans riding the wavetops. When she turned back to Gwen she gave her a big smile and a double kiss on the cheeks, and said, “I want that.”

  There was no more serious talk there on the beach. Gwen showed Slevov some houses, she showed her Fort Moultrie when they got that far, and pointed across the harbor to the church steeples in Charleston. They turned around and walked back to the car.