Flare, p.8
Flare, page 8
part #3 of Peril Series
‘Do you want me to stay with you?’ asked Kel.
Bring a Perilous to the first confrontation with her dad? Meri suddenly realized how that might appear to a man who ended up in the river because of their enemies. And the fact that Kel’s parents had been part of the execution squad: how was that going to be received? ‘Maybe hang back a little – but stay within call, OK?’
‘I will.’ He brushed her hair behind her ears. ‘This changes nothing between us, remember?’
Meri pursed her lips. Her father had killed Kel’s mother. She hoped Kel was right. ‘OK.’
‘Later, sweetheart.’
She gave him a light kiss and made herself let go of his hand. The walk along the terrace was only a dozen metres but it felt like a marathon. Everyone had left the field clear for father and daughter.
At least now she understood why Mrs Lake had been so unflustered by her arrival. The bombshell Meri had dropped that she owned the building was nothing to the secret that Mrs Lake had tucked in her arsenal.
Reaching Blake’s table, Meri pulled out a chair and sat down next to him. The ironwork was cool against her bare skin, a reminder that she was here, in this moment, not floating away as her brain seemed to want to do.
They remained in silence for a while, both staring at each other. Finally, Blake spoke first.
‘I’m sorry I upset you, Meri. There is no good way to break the news – at least according to Veronica.’
‘No, I don’t suppose there is.’
‘I don’t really know what to say to you.’
Meri noted that his speech was a little slurred. The facial paralysis left by his injuries made speaking a trial. ‘You could start by telling me about my mother. Please.’
‘Naia.’ He nodded. ‘I’m sorry, Meri, but she really did die.’
She closed her eyes briefly. She had to accept that. What else could she do? ‘When?’
‘They only pulled one survivor out of the river. I’d taken three bullets, including one to the head.’ He touched his temple. ‘It’s still in there – too dangerous to remove. They never recovered Naia’s body. The Perilous killed her.’
‘OK.’ Meri told herself that she shouldn’t feel grief. It had been what she had always believed had happened to her mother. No need to reopen the wound. Words were useless though. Tears were sliding disobediently down her cheeks. She brushed them away with the heel of her hand, welcoming the scratchy touch of sand on her skin. You’re here, now, not back in that stuffy barn waiting for someone to find you.
Blake raised his hand as if to reach out to her but she was too far away. She didn’t want to move closer at the moment. ‘I’m sorry for what happened – that I didn’t protect you both.’
‘You tried.’
‘But it wasn’t enough. She would be so proud to see you now, all grown up.’ He smiled lopsidedly but it was a sad expression even so. ‘I thought you might grow a little taller like me but that’s your mom’s genes for you.’
She had to ask. ‘Why, Dad? Why not contact me? I thought you were dead.’
‘I am dead, as far as the world is concerned.’
‘But I’m your daughter!’
‘You were safer without me. We had to keep you safe above all else.’
‘But I grew up without you in my life. Do you know what that feels like now – to know you were alive all along?’
‘No, but I know what it feels like to sit in a wheelchair, powerless, resisting the temptation of reaching out to my little girl even though it was the thing I most wanted to do.’
‘I wish you had. You could’ve found Theo if you’d tried – could’ve found me.’
‘Please, don’t look at this as a four-year-old child might. You’re eighteen – old enough to understand all the things I had to balance. I realize you are hurt but the situation was – and is – much more complicated than that. I thought you’d begin to see that by now.’
‘Aside from the obvious, how is it complicated?’ She tried not to sound bitter.
‘A Gordian knot.’ He sighed. ‘I guess I owe you an explanation.’ He blinked in the sun that had risen to angle awkwardly so the glare hit his face. Meri adjusted the table umbrella. ‘Thank you. OK, OK.’ He cleared his throat, his functioning hand trembling just a little. ‘When they rescued me unconscious from the river, I was put down as a John Doe, that’s the name they give to unidentified patients. I was treated in a local hospital for a day or two – my life saved by a very gifted surgeon. Veronica launched a search once news reached her that there’d been an attack and, fortunately, she found me before the Perilous, who were also looking. I was still unconscious when I was transferred across state lines to a facility in New York state.’
‘Rayne Caspian, the prime minister, told me she also looked for you but didn’t find you.’
‘Yes, I am aware from Veronica that Rayne was asking questions but she was too high profile to be in on the secret of my survival. She would’ve played politics with it so Veronica didn’t dare tell her.’
Remembering how Rayne had juggled all sides when Meri was at the palace in Jerez, Meri could well believe that. Rayne’s loyalty was to her idea of the Tean state rather than an individual.
‘When I came to, I was told you and your mother had both vanished, and were presumed dead. I was the only one to know that you might’ve survived, though at the beginning I wasn’t sure if I’d just dreamed that. I didn’t know who to turn to, how to find out, not stuck in my hospital bed with no movement except a few eyelid flickers.’ He raised his good arm. ‘This came much later after intense rehabilitation. I tried to ask Veronica but communication was clumsy. She thought I was confused. I probably was – much is a blur. I remember, though, that it was torture, lying there in my grief not knowing.’
It sounded like a nightmarish experience. Meri moved closer so that she could lay her hand over the back of his. He turned his hand so they could link fingers. He was trembling. His skin didn’t feel like how she remembered her father’s touch; it was cold and dry – that was something else to which she had to get used.
‘Theo got you out, didn’t he?’ Blake murmured.
‘Yes.’
‘He’s a good boy.’
She smiled through tears. ‘He’d laugh to be called that. He gave up everything to look after me.’
‘I owe him. Not a debt I can repay.’
‘He’s in New York with me. He’d love to know you survived. May I tell him?’
Blake turned his head to look out to sea. ‘Only Veronica, Hudson and Delaware know. Even the staff and my doctors think I’m whom Veronica says – her second husband, injured in a car accident. It was the only way we could keep me safe. I can no longer defend myself as I once did.’
‘Theo wouldn’t betray you.’
‘Let me think about it. You being here is going to mean changes, but secrecy has grown to be a habit. That decision also risks the safety of others. I have to choose my time and can’t shoot my bolt too early by telling Theo, no matter how much I owe him.’
Meri wondered if part of the reluctance was that her father didn’t want to be seen like this. Theo would remember her father as the leading light in his university, Dr Blake Marlowe, not this damaged man relying on others. ‘Dad, you should’ve let me know you were alive.’
‘And what use would that have been? I couldn’t offer you sanctuary at that time. It wasn’t that I never thought about it, tried to plan for it, but it was hard enough hiding one of us. Bringing you here would’ve doubled the risk. Our enemies would take a hard look at any of the Tean communities they could detect, just in case, and you weren’t very good then at keeping secrets. Theo was the least likely person the Perilous would seek. I had to wait until you were old enough to look after yourself. You’ll understand when you have children of your own that sometimes you have to express your love by letting go and allow others the privilege of protecting them.’
‘But did you know where I was? Did you even know I was OK?’
‘I knew who you were with and enough to know that you were safe. I had to be content with that. I couldn’t risk contacting him directly. Veronica found out that Theo had returned to the UK but he did a good job of going underground. I was afraid to ask too many questions. That changed recently, once you’d had your childhood in peace, sheltered by Theo. I knew you had duties waiting for you – an inheritance. As your eighteenth birthday approached, I instructed the lawyers via the Atlantic Holdings to locate and keep discreet tabs on you but to tell no one else. You can’t trust all Teans to keep things quiet.’
So that was why the letter from the lawyers arrived out of the blue: Blake had nudged them to send it but even they hadn’t known he was still alive. ‘But I grew up without a father. I didn’t even know what I was. I thought I was a kind of freak.’
A look of distress passed across Blake’s pain-worn face. Meri didn’t like hurting him like this but it was the truth. He needed to know. ‘I was always here, Meri, praying for you, wishing you well, loving you, but I suppose you’re right: your father died in that river with your mother. We failed to prepare you. We lost the best of us when Naia died. You are left with me.’ He gestured contemptuously to himself. ‘This husk.’
‘Don’t talk like that.’
‘But it’s true. I don’t expect forgiveness for failing you but I am determined that I’m going to make up for it now. This is our new start and I won’t let you down this time, I promise.’
She wasn’t sure what that meant but there was so much else that she needed to know. ‘I feel like I’m reading a book with key chapters ripped out. Delaware and Hudson, are they my brother and sister? Is it true you were married to Mrs Lake before my mother?’
‘Veronica told me what she said to you. I’m no longer her husband, though we pretend otherwise for my protection. I was married to her once, yes, when we were both very young, not much older than you are now.’
‘You divorced? Why?’
‘This is for your ears only, you understand?’ He glanced towards the house but there was no sign of anyone within hearing distance.
She nodded.
‘Look, we were only twenty-nine. Things weren’t going that well between us – we hurried into marriage when we were too immature, I guess. We were infatuated rather than truly in love. We got a divorce when the Tean council approached Naia and me and suggested a dynastic union to have a fully Tean child – an heir. My parting from Veronica was amicable. I think she was relieved she could step away with the excuse of serving the greater good.’
Meri wasn’t so sure of that. ‘Did you love my mother?’
‘Oh yes, very much. Not at first maybe, because we both entered into our marriage as more of a contract than a love match. That changed even before we had you.’ He smiled wistfully. ‘Naia was very lovable – I hope you can remember that.’
‘Yes I do. I remember her laugh. And her long hair. She smiled a lot.’
‘Funny when you think about it: with the two women to whom I’ve been married, I went from whirlwind romance to divorce and friendship, then a match arranged by others to finding she was the love of my life. Love can deceive us.’
Meri hoped he didn’t say that to Veronica. In her shoes, Meri would feel extremely hurt to be cast aside, worse if the replacement was judged more lovable. A more flattering story was the one Veronica appeared to tell herself that she had been the noble sacrifice. ‘And the twins?’
‘They aren’t mine.’ Meri felt relieved – a feeling she’d have to examine later. ‘Veronica had them soon after we parted. There’s no father in the picture. She had enough money to go to a top fertility clinic and use an anonymous donor. I think she was…lonely when we divorced and wanted children while she was still young.’ His gaze went to the house. ‘I’m grateful to the twins – and Veronica. They’ve put up with me being part of their life and never betrayed me. I’ve tried to be a father figure to Hudson and Delaware but I’m not much use to them. I’m more of a tolerated uncle. They don’t spend much time here. They have their own lives.’
‘Why didn’t you remarry? Veronica would probably have liked that.’
‘I don’t want her to be a martyr a second time. She deserves love.’
‘I don’t know her at all really but she doesn’t look to me like she’d see it that way.’
‘I’m not inflicting myself on anyone!’ He thumped his unresponsive legs, temper bright in his eyes. ‘I’ve got things I can do, but being a husband isn’t one of them.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Meri hadn’t remembered that he had a temper – but maybe the accident had changed him? But then at four, had she known him at all?
‘Oh Meri, you have no reason to be sorry.’ His grip tightened on her fingers, and not pleasantly so; she could sense his desperation. ‘Being a father to you though, that’s something I have been planning for – dreaming about. I can’t tell you how I’ve longed for this day and wondered how I could bring you here and then you went and did it yourself! Such a clever girl!’
‘Dad…’ The word felt so strange in her mouth. Would she get used to saying it again?
‘So strange – to have missed so much.’ He smiled at her. ‘But we Marlowes are back together now. With two of us, you grown up, we can be strong enough if any Perilous come calling.’
She cleared her throat. ‘A Perilous has come calling.’
‘I don’t count him.’ He gestured towards the direction in which Kel had gone. ‘I wish you hadn’t chosen such a challenging partner but he seems devoted to you – broken with his own people to be with you.’
‘He has.’
‘If anyone is at risk it’s him. You must be very careful if you don’t want to hurt him. You know about your powers?’ He held out his fingers. She could feel the energy that pulsed from him as it did her.
‘I do – and much more. There’s a lot to tell you about that but for now you have to understand that I’m with Kel. That’s how it is for us both.’
He patted her hand. ‘Then I’ll try to like him for your sake, sweetheart, but you won’t be able to keep him. You understand that?’
‘No, I don’t.’
He smiled in that ‘I know better way’ she’d seen so many times before. ‘And there speaks your mother – stubborn to the core. OK, we’ll shelve that discussion until later. Last thing either of us wants after fifteen years apart is to start with a row about boys! That would be diving straight into teenage door slamming and parental huffing and puffing, wouldn’t it, without the good bits in between?’
He was making Kel sound like a disreputable date for prom, not the love of her life.
‘Dad, it’s more than that.’
‘I’m sure it is to you. I do remember what it felt like when I first met Veronica at your age. But for now, let’s concentrate on the essentials. We need to sort out this mess with our people. The Tean council ran you off, did they?’
Meri really didn’t want it shelved – she wanted it settled. ‘Dad – ’
‘You know that the Tean law regards you as not having reached your full maturity until you’re twenty-one? Some of your properties are held in trust until you’re twenty-five. I’m surprised they didn’t try to appoint a guardian and get control of them.’
‘No they didn’t tell me that, though Miss Brook-Walker did start but we never finished the conversation.’ Nor was it welcome news. ‘As for the Tean Council members, they were too busy shooting at me to explain.’
‘That’s unforgivable. I’ll deal with them.’
‘I only took over the properties once I’d fled. I didn’t have any problems claiming them.’ Thanks to Sadie, who probably cut corners and circumvented such pesky annoyances as age restrictions.
‘They’ve likely launched a counter suit. But don’t worry, I’ll block any attempt to do so now. Parental rights trump guardianship.’
Meri had feared and wanted this from the moment she saw Blake – the assumption that he would slide back into that role of fathering. She’d have to find a diplomatic way of channelling it. Maybe this was it? He could stand between her and the council. ‘That’s helpful, thanks.’
‘And I think it is time to plan for my re-emergence from the shadows.’
‘I’m pleased. I want to have my dad around. But there are others that I need around me too.’ She wanted to say that he couldn’t put the horse back in the stable now it had bolted – she’d experienced being in control, made her own difficult choices and wasn’t going to take to having her decisions placed under parental guidance. Yet how could she slap him down so soon? He looked so energized and proud to be needed again. Parents – even one absent for so long – had a hook right in the heart.
He held up his hands and let the power dance on the tips – a dangerous peril-coloured light; he was at ease with his ability in a way she had not yet learned. ‘You’re talking about Kel, aren’t you? You think he’ll stay with you even with this as an ever-present threat?’
‘We’ve discovered that it doesn’t have to be a threat. We can share. It led us to ask why can’t we – I mean our two peoples – find another way so we can live together? The events on Atlantis are so long ago: why should they decide how we live today?’
‘So young – so idealistic.’ He smiled fondly at her. ‘I still remember how it was when you were four, always asking questions, wanting to know why.’
She wasn’t sure if he meant to but she was reminded of how her innocent question at Mount Vernon had tipped off the Perilous that she was Tean. It had been her fault – unwitting though she had been.
‘I’m just trying to do things differently, Dad – be my own person.’
‘Ah the confidence of youth! None of us belong to ourselves, Meri. We are all part of a complex web of people, family and friends. None of us can stand alone. Even your Perilous will find that over time. He’ll want his people back when his feelings for you settle to a more normal level. He might grow to resent you, have you considered that?’
