Lucien
He had not wanted to stay away from his woman and had hurried home after Schwartz had agreed to stay for a couple of hours more. His friend had given Lucien a lopsided grin and an old-fashioned look as Lucien had strode out of the house, wanting only to be back with his wife, to hold her, yes, to make love to her soft, willing body…
*
Proserpina
I had checked on Tara. Her fever had subsided but she was sleepy. She had clung to my hand and I had sat with her, stroking her forehead for a while as she slept. But a question she asked had left me puzzled.
“Where is Pappa? ‘And then, softly, almost under her breath,
“I need to tell him that I am sorry…’ I kissed her soft cheeks, damp with sweat and said softly,
“Sorry for what, darling?” She blinked and looked into my eyes, her own filling with tears.
“For doubting him…” I opened my mouth to ask her what she meant although I was used to Tara’s theatrics.
She had a flair for drama that tended to leave her family wary of her extreme emotional reactions.
Sometimes I wondered who she had inherited her flair for drama from; she could be extreme in her reactions. Lucky for her, her eldest siblings, the twins, indulged her with a lot of love, while her co-brothers, as Camille called the other two in the set of triplets, Dom and Lou, treated her with a kind of disdain.
Now I held her to my chest, smiling and stroking her head lovingly.
But Beatrice waddled in with her potent hot toddy and I saw Tara shudder. She buried her face in my bosom and moaned,
“No, Bea, no, please…’
‘Drink it up, missy!’ snapped Beatrice and Camille entered behind her, grim-faced. They were about the only two people in the household who could deal with my younger daughter’s melodramatic manoeuvres in a firm manner.
Tara was forced to drink up the bitter-tasting brew and soon drifted off into a deep slumber. I rose and went to my room, feeling hot and sticky. The weather was balmy; rain was approaching, I thought with a sigh and took another quick shower. Pregnancy made me perspire a lot, I thought crossly as I towelled myself. Changing into a comfortable nightshirt and choosing to dispose of my undergarments, I sat down to work.
the guards had already been upstairs to make sure that the area was secure, a nightly ritual, and if at all anyone did come up again, it would only be Camille or my husband. Settling into my chair comfortably, I put my feet up and sighed in pleasure. Beatrice had made sure that my hot cocoa was on the table. With marshmallows.
Ria had left in the morning after telling me that she had some important work to do; Piers had jetted off to Washington for the day because his fiance was begging him to come over. My fair-haired, handsome son had looked annoyed but he left, promising to be back by midnight. His future father-in-law was a politician, and he liked to parade Piers Delano in front of his friends , like some trophy, grumbled Piers in private.
I sometimes wondered in private whether he was happy, my beautiful golden boy.
As for Claude, he had left to practice his moves in the ring, terrified of not doing well because he knew that his father was planning to visit the ring to watch him practice the next day. Paddy had disappeared; Beston told me that he had left at dawn. I sighed. The boy was a law unto himself.
The house was still murmuring with activity, but settling for the night. I knew that the guards were prowling around on the grounds and Beston would be moving about downstairs before retiring to his newly built cottage adjoining our house. Lucien had provided it to make him comfortable after he got married to Camille.
It still made me smile when I saw them together, big, taciturn Beston and cheerful, loud Camille who was head over heels in love with her husband. She was a jewel and I treasured her presence in my household. I trusted her implicitly for she had helped me to deliver my triplets after my ordeal in the kidnapping and almost being sold in the white slave market.
*
Dom and Lou were in bed, I had checked on them, firmly taking away their tablets to prevent them from continuing to play games. The boys had protested, but I had put my foot down. Vaguely wondering where Paddy was, I sent him a text message, as he was not very happy when it came to answering the phone.
*
When I called my son Claude, he had answered the phone and had been very eager to get off the phone. I thought I heard the sound of a woman in the background and I sighed as I replaced the phone on my desk. I needed to talk to the boy. He was getting to be a replica of his father when it came to women; taking every woman in sight to bed.
As for my eldest daughter Ria, she had called to tell me that she was with Melissa Lord, spending the night there. Melissa had come on the line to reassure me that my daughter was safe.
The house was making the usual sounds as it prepared to settle down for the night and I sat down to work just as I heard the sound of cars roaring up the drive.
*
I looked up in surprise as Lucien’s voice thundered over the stairway. He had told me that he would be back late and I was not to wait up for him. But he had come home already…?
Glancing at the wall clock, I noticed that it was only around eleven in the night. Early enough for Lucien whose day usually ended at past one in the night.
Puzzled, I rose and went to the doorway of my study for I had my blog to update and to take care of a few tasks relating to the Centre which was doing excellently under dear Alex Wu. I conducted video conferences every other day because Alex tended to get easily agitated.