Blackwood Farm - Anne Rice [172]
“ ‘And how have you spent today?’ I asked. ‘I feel that, having fallen in love with Mona, I’m neglecting you, but discovering one’s future bride can be very distracting. I’ve become a happy madman.’
“ ‘And well it should distract you,’ he replied. ‘And you mustn’t worry about me for a moment. This is all so new to me, so fascinating. I’ve been quite fine. I took a long early afternoon nap and then spent a wonderful time surveying your Aunt Queen’s fabulous collection of cameos.’
“ ‘Cameos,’ said Mona. ‘You mean you have more than what we saw in the living room case?’
“ ‘Hundreds more,’ said Aunt Queen. ‘Spanning my whole life, and you can well imagine how long that is. But here, a toast to Mona Mayfair, our lovely young guest, and to Nash Penfield, who will soon guide us on the Grand Tour, and to my great-nephew, who this day came into part of his inheritance.’
“ ‘Mona’s going with us to Europe, Aunt Queen,’ I declared. ‘Is there any way we could leave before midnight? Mona will be going as my bride.’
“Mona was clearly startled, but she didn’t laugh. She only beamed at me, and then boldly she leaned over and kissed my cheek. ‘You would really marry me tonight?’ she asked. ‘I think you’re truly and egregiously in love with me.’
“ ‘Absolutely and forever,’ I said. ‘But we don’t have to wait for the ceremony. We could fly out tonight, and get married in Paris. Aunt Queen does it all the time—just flying out. We’d need your passport of course, but I’d go back to the house with you—.’
“ ‘Darling,’ said Aunt Queen, ‘I don’t think that’s necessary. I think I see the Mayfairs coming up the drive now.’
“It was a giant black stretch limousine, just like Aunt Queen’s car, crunching the gravel down as it lumbered to a stop before the front steps of the house.
“Mona turned around, then she turned back and she looked at me. The tears rose in her eyes. ‘Tarquin,’ she said, ‘would you really take me with you tonight?’
“ ‘Yes, absolutely!’ I said. ‘Aunt Queen, you know it’s what you want, that I go to Europe, that I be educated! Nash, you can guide and tutor all of us.’ I would die for Mona, I knew it. I would fight everyone in that car.
“ ‘Nash,’ said Aunt Queen, ‘go and greet them for me, darling. I see the security man rising to his feet. Call him off. I’ll never make it across the lawn in these shoes. Be the front man, will you, dear?’
“Mona quickly explained that it was Ryan Mayfair, the lawyer and father of Pierce, and Dr. Rowan Mayfair, and her husband, Michael Curry, who were now approaching the table. I stood up naturally, but Mona did not, and I moved behind her chair and I placed my hands on her shoulders. I had my back to those coming up the lawn. I was being rude. I was bracing for battle.
“ ‘Don’t worry, my brave Ophelia,’ I said under my breath, ‘you shall not perish while this brave Laertes lives.’
“But the most curious aspect to all this for me was not my own pounding heart, it was the cautious and almost hostile expression on Aunt Queen’s face as the little party came around to the left of me, with Nash quickly inviting them to sit down.
“They all declined a chair. They were very much ‘in a hurry,’ but were very thankful. ‘We’ve come to pick up Mona,’ said Dr. Rowan Mayfair in a very soft and polite voice. I believe it’s what you call a whiskey voice. ‘Mrs. McQueen,’ she said with a little nod of her head, ‘you have a magnificent house.’
“ ‘Well, I hope someday,’ said Aunt Queen, ‘you can come to visit.’ But she was not her usual warm self when she said these words, and she was scrutinizing the group of them in a way I’ve never seen.
“Introductions were made all around, Ryan Mayfair looking as if he’d been born in his Brooks Brothers suit and Michael Curry, being the oldest and rough cut but a very handsome guy in his safari jacket, with his beautiful salt-and-pepper hair and a very easy manner. He had a very Irish look to him with his square