introducing her to the others. “This is my intrepid assistant, Angelique.”
“Enchanté,” Kieran said gallantly.
Natalie shook Angelique’s hand warmly. “Uncle Julien told us he had a brilliant new assistant. Very pleased to meet you.”
Calvin hung back while introductions were made. He was being unusually shy, and Natalie realized he was a little dumbstruck by the lovely Angelique. She pulled him forward a little roughly and said, “This is Calvin, my brother.”
Angelique looked at him mischievously. “So this is the nephew of Julien! I’ve seen a picture of you and your pretty sister in Julien’s office, and was hoping I’d get to meet you some day!”
“How do you do?” he managed to croak out.
She wagged her finger at him playfully, saying, “You can’t be shy with me! I simply won’t allow it.”
“I’m afraid Angelique is rather too demonstrative with her thoughts and feelings,” Julien explained to them with a look of contrived long-suffering. It was obvious he was very fond of her.
“You know I’m the best assistant you ever had,” she replied, without a trace of humility.
“She’s right,” Julien said with a sigh. “I guess I’ll have to keep her around for now. Ever since I retired from the Bibliothèque, it seems that I’ve had more work than I can possibly manage. Angelique has become invaluable to me. Well, prove yourself so,” he turned to her, “and tell me who is currently in residence.”
“Finley Constance has just left. He thought you were still in town, but I told him you had to leave suddenly for England. And now it seems you have made a liar out of me.”
“Well, invite him for dinner, by all means,” Julien said. “Who else?”
“Lorraine and Becky have just arrived. They’re in the Sarah Bernhardt room, and have brought their obnoxious hound.”
“Excellent,” Julien said. “They will lighten our mood considerably. Please tell them I will see them before dinner, won’t you?” He excused himself to make a few phone calls, and left instructions for Kieran to claim any unoccupied room to which he took a fancy.
When at home, Julien observed cocktail hour religiously. It was his special time to meet with any friends or family who happened to be staying with him. He kept a very lively household, and a variety of people came and went at all hours of the day or night.
Natalie wondered who Becky and Lorraine were, not to mention the “obnoxious hound.” Whenever she or her brother stayed at the house in the Faubourg, they were sure to meet new and interesting characters. As a patron of the arts, her uncle fancied himself a modern-day Gertrude Stein, though of the male variety, and it wasn’t unusual to have musicians, writers and artists occupying rooms in his home for weeks or even months at a time. Julien enjoyed the company and was never satisfied unless there were at least two or three guests in residence at all times.
When Angelique left to ready Kieran’s room, Natalie and her brother trudged up the stairs, grateful to have their own familiar sanctuaries kept at the ready for them.
“It’s good to be back, even under our present unhappy circumstances,” Calvin remarked as they climbed the main staircase. The walls were lined with an odd assortment of paintings. Now that he and his sister knew the truth about their heritage, Calvin realized that his favorite painting seemed to take on a different meaning. He wasn’t sure who the artist was, and Julien couldn’t remember either. It was a picture of a dark forest with a stag peering through the trees. A pretty, dark-eyed girl with bare shoulders, wearing layer upon layer of emerald and gold shawls, spun around in front of a fire. Her dark hair reached to her waist and swirled about her as she danced, heedless of anything around her. Calvin loved the painting and felt happy just looking at it.
Natalie’s favorite depicted an ancient temple covered with twisting vines, enormous white flowers drooping heavily from them. Inside the arched entrance a man and woman stood together in a close embrace, at their feet a long, green snake. Natalie had always admired the painting and felt it symbolized love and spirituality, as well as nature. In light of their remarkable discovery of the manuscript, she now wondered if the snake symbolized Satan, and the couple were Adam and Eve. She parted with her brother and went to her room at the opposite end of the gallery.
Calvin entered his room and looked around; it was just as he’d left it a few months before. As Julien had no children of his own, he spoiled his niece and nephew almost to a fault. Not only did he keep rooms for them, but he also helped Richard pay for their education, sent them lavish gifts and took them on exotic vacations. When they protested his unabashed generosity, as they often did, Julien waved at them dismissively, invariably saying, “What good is having wealth if you can’t share it with the ones you love?”
At the moment, Calvin was glad of his uncle’s largesse. He dropped his duffel bag on the bed and lit the fire in the hearth. He thought about sending an email to his office at National Geographic, but decided against it. The men who tracked them down at Mckella’s house might be able to find him here if he logged into his email account. He decided not to risk it and scowled darkly at his computer, thinking it seemed to be nothing more than a tracking device, so little use was it to him now. He flung himself onto the bed, intent on reading a biography of John Milton, which might distract him from dwelling too much on the beguiling Angelique.
When Natalie got to her room, she immediately took a shower and found her favorite fuzzy slippers under the bed. Her nap in the car had refreshed her and she decided to work on her latest project, but, like Calvin, was careful not to do any online research for the time being.
She worked steadily for a few hours, and finally took a break to stretch. It was starting to get dark out and she realized it must be close to five. She dug through her wardrobe and pulled out a midnight-blue dress made of silk. Uncle Julien would approve, she thought as she looked in the mirror, but after adding combat boots to her ensemble, told herself he might not, after all.
Descending the stairs, she found her brother pacing nervously at the entrance to the drawing room. He looked as if he had put a little more thought into his appearance than he was accustomed to, sporting a black jacket and gray tie. Natalie took his arm and sniffed the air near his ear delicately.
“You look quite dashing, brother,” she said with an innocent smile. “And are you really wearing cologne? That means you’re trying to catch some one’s eye!”
“Maybe,” he answered, noncommitaly. “But she rather scares me.”
“Oh, Angelique seems harmless enough,” Natalie replied. “Although I bet she could eat you for breakfast if she wanted to.”
“Gee, thanks for that boost of confidence,” he said with heavy sarcasm.
When they entered the salon they made a beeline for the wet bar, where Calvin mixed a Campari and soda for his sister and helped himself to a bottle of Peroni.
“Well then! Aren’t you going to mix a drink for me?”Angelique asked, sidling up to him unexpectedly. She had spotted them as they came in and immediately made her way over.
Calvin took in her sparkling eyes and slinky black dress and became hopelessly tongue-tied for the second time that day.
“My brother makes the best champagne cocktails,” Natalie
