Afterthought by M J Marlow (red white royal blue .txt) 📖

found floating in the river with their throats slit. He could not abide this failure. It was time he used other measures to get close enough to take the girl prisoner. And that meant becoming someone she trusted. He listened to his agent read the report again. “The stables,” he decided. “The riding trails are along the edge of the property. You will station men at various points along them off the grounds and prepare to move as soon as a pattern is noted. Get me the particulars on stable hands, the manager, and anyone else who works with the horses. See who would be easiest to replace.” The man nodded and left the room. Aileen looked up from where she was polishing her nails and her expression was not pleasant. Edward smiled as he laid his hand on the woman’s shoulders. Aileen smiled and laid her hand on his. Elinor had done an excellent job programming the woman, Edward thought as he ran his hand along Aileen’s cheek and she leaned into his touch. “You are going to an awful lot of trouble to lay your hands on the child,” Aileen frowned. “Am I not enough for you?” “There is something quite special about your daughter, Aileen,” her captor replied. He sat down on the arm of the chair near her and began to rub the back of her neck. He looked over at his other sister. “What a challenge she would be for your programming process, Elinor.” He could see the hunger in her eyes and knew he had her hooked. “You will have the daughter of the man who has single-handedly undone some of your greatest work in your hands.” He raised Aileen’s eyes to his and smiled as she waited for his command. “We must get close to her.” “I will do whatever you ask me to do, darling,” Aileen smiled up at him. “If you want my daughter, then I will help you.” “Appearance is quite an easy thing to alter.” Elinor smiled as she had an idea. “I think it is time I rejoined my ‘husband’. Dear old Maximilian will be quite happy to have me back. Perhaps he will even allow me to accompany him on these lessons he is giving the pretty princess.” Edward smiled and kissed Aileen on the back of the neck. She sighed and put the bottle of polish down. Then she put her arms around his neck and kissed him warmly. Yes, she decided as he pressed his advantage, she would help capture his little princess for him. Elinor would program the child, and Evangeline would become a slave for his pleasures, as her mother was. Elinor left the apartment and made her way to the gallery. Maximilian was in the office when she arrived. He looked up and his eyes narrowed in anger as he recognized his errant wife. He had forgotten how beautiful the blue-eyed redhead was, but he had not forgotten how devious and selfish she was. He did not return her smile. “Run out of money, woman?” he asked coldly. “Don’t be that way, Maxie,” Elinor cooed as she moved around the desk and sat in the man’s lap. Her hands moved up his chest as he sat stiff and unyielding. She frowned up at him. “You didn’t miss me even a little while I was gone?” “I don’t have times for your games, Lenore,” Max shot back at her. He set her on her feet. “Go find some other man to torment.” “I hear through our mutual friends,” Elinor said as she sat on the desk and ran his nails lightly up his arm; “that you have made some powerful new friends. Isn’t giving art lessons a little beneath you, darling?” “I am not introducing you to them, Lenore,” Max snarled. “They are good people and the child has real talent…” He hissed as her hand moved to a certain spot. “Stop it! I don’t want…” He suddenly froze and his face went completely blank. Then his eyes softened as he saw her and he pulled her to him. “Lenore, my love. How I’ve missed you!” “My darling man,” Elinor cooed up at him. “I could not stay away a moment longer. Take me to bed and show me how you’ve missed me.” “I would,” Max told her sadly, “but I have a meeting with a potential student. Brilliant child with real talent.” He thought about it as her hands caressed and teased. “You could come with me to meet the family. Her father is royalty.” Elinor nodded and he kissed her willingly then, groaning with the need she had programmed into his mind years ago. This man had been one of her first patients; and she had made him her willing puppet. He could no more fight her will than he could stop breathing. He set her on her feet again and got his keys and paints and brushes. He got a roll of canvas and some frames and tools. Elinor helped him pack the supplies and then got in the car. They held hands like a teenaged couple as they drove to the castle. Elinor looked up as they were stopped at the gate and was very impressed with the Roza estate. She could see herself living here as in-law to the new prince, her brother. They joined Evangeline in the conservatory. The girl turned and Elinor noted that the child had spent a restless night. There was a bandage on her arm, but it was not the injury that had caused the haunted look in her eyes. Elinor smiled to herself. She knew what had plagued the girl. Her brother’s threats and the little ‘gifts’ they had sent were frightening her. Which is exactly what they had been calculated to do. “Princess Evangeline,” Max smiled as he pulled Elinor forward. “I would like to present my wife to you, Lenore Otto.” He frowned. “You did not sleep well, little princess?” “It happens,” Evangeline shrugged. She saw all the supplies the servants were carrying in. “All this to make oil paintings?” “It is time consuming,” Max nodded; “but the effects are worth the effort. And a child of your talent should be aware of all the mediums available to you.” He sat her down. “Let me show you how to stretch a canvas and then we will begin.” He nodded towards his wife. “You may use Lenore as your model for this lesson.” Evangeline looked at the blond woman and shivered. There was something hard about this woman, hidden underneath the russet curls and violet blue eyes. She was wearing a mask, the girl thought; as she picked up her sketchbook and began to draw. She watched Max prepare a canvas and decided that she liked her sketchbook better. All that she required was a blank page and pencils. But she was intrigued enough by his offer to teach her new skills to go along with these lessons. Max came over to see the sketch and he looked at his wife. He didn’t see what the girl was seeing and that bothered him; but it was her vision that was the point, not his. He handed her the pencil. “You transfer the sketch to the canvas,” he instructed her; “enlarging it as needed to fill the entire area. Decide what the focus of this piece is; what you wish to convey to your audience.” Evangeline sat down on the stool in front of the blank canvas and looked from the sketch to the white space. She drew the woman’s eyes, for that was where the secrets lay hidden. “She does have beautiful eyes,” Max nodded as he watched over Evangeline’s shoulder. “Would you care for some refreshment while you wait?” Evangeline offered as she remembered her manners. She rang for a maid. “I would like some raspberry tea and some aspirin, please. Monsieur Otto and his wife are to be given whatever they wish, Charlotte.” The orders given, Evangeline returned her attention to the sketch. She seemed to know without being told to apply the pencil lightly. She finished making the sketch on the canvas and knew what she needed to convey. There would be shadows in this portrait. The woman was full of dark corners where secrets were hidden and danger lurked for those who were taken in too quickly by her pretty face. Max showed her how to mix the paints and she went to work. “You see something in her,” he said as he checked on Evangeline’s progress, “that I am not noting.” He looked at Elinor. “I usually see what you mean to convey with your sketches, Princess.” “I am looking at your wife with fresh eyes,” Evangeline told him. “Having never met her before, I can only present what I see in her at this first meeting.” She looked at Elinor and controlled the shudder. “Perhaps I shall see more of what you see with longer exposure?” She looked again and something in the shape of the woman’s face struck her as odd. It stirred a memory of another place, another person. She rubbed the spot where she had been tattooed absently as she set the brush down and got to her feet, shaking. “I’m sorry, Max. I can’t finish this now. I have a headache.” “Finish?” Max was confused. To him the portrait was more than finished. He had never seen anything more accomplished from a person just introduced to working with oils. “Shall I take this with me, Princess.” “No,” Evangeline shook her head. “I may feel like working on it further once I’ve had a short nap.” She smiled at the man and put her hand on his. “Thank you for taking this time to teach me, Max. I greatly appreciate your patience with me.” She left the room and Elinor went to look at the painting. She was in the forefront but her face was partially in shadow. She was wearing a masquerade costume and an ornate mask was held in her slim fingers. There was a smile on her face, but it was not one of amusement. She could see this woman was pleased at the thought that people did not see she was playing with them. Maximilian was on his knees before her, looking up at her adoringly, and holding out a single red rose. Other people were in the background wearing other masks, and one of them remarkably reminiscent of her brother, Edward. Elaine flinched. This girl was a menace. Without being aware of it, she could see to the very essence of a person and bring it out in her artwork. “You were right, darling,” Elinor said as she laid her hand on his arm. “Your little princess is quite talented. But if this is how she sees me,” she continued as she started to turn away, “I have a long way to go to earn her trust.” As they left the estate, Elinor saw the princess out on the terrace speaking to the head of the security forces. That child was not as innocent or unseeing as she liked people to think. The man was listening to her quite closely. So she had proven to a grown man trained to protect and harm as necessary that her fears should be heeded. That was not good. If she took one step out of line around this child, Elinor realized; her secret would become known. “I don’t know why, Emilio,” Evangeline said, as she studiously did not watch the woman. “That woman Max claims is his wife disturbs me. Could you look into her background for me? Maybe I’m just sensitive because she is unknown to me and Max is my friend.” “I’ll have Petrie on it,” Emilio nodded. He would never question this child’s instincts again. She was a wonder child and should be heeded. “He is the best at such things. The woman will not even know