Chapter Twenty-One
A fresh and well-rested Emily Quartermaine knocks on the imposing, oak door of Wyndemere.
Mrs. Lansbury welcomes her into the foyer when Emily says that she is here to see Nikolas. Stefan enters the room behind Mrs. Lansbury and removes his cute, little reading glasses. Emily thinks, I’ve got to get some of those cool specs.
"Welcome to Wyndemere," says Stefan formally and politely. "Please join us for breakfast, Emily. Mrs. Lansbury, would you please prepare another place for our guest?"
Stefan leads Emily into the breakfast room. Nikolas and Alexis are seated at the table. Alexis is busy reading the Wall Street Journal, and Nikolas is slicing an English muffin with a slow, sullen stroke of his knife. Nikolas brightens when he sees Emily. "Hi," he says shyly. "What are you doing up and out so early in the morning?"
"I’ve had plenty of sleep. Monica put me to bed at 8:00 last night," Emily grins sheepishly. "I missed you yesterday," Emily says carefully. "I wanted to see how you were. I think I’ve recovered," she laughs.
Nikolas gives Emily a small, tight smile. "Everything’s fine," he says. Nikolas quickly glances at Stefan out of the corner of his eye.
Stefan and Alexis fill in the conversation with light chatter about the gardens, hospital gossip, and the weather. Nikolas concentrates on buttering and slowly eating his English muffin with small, careful bites. Emily feels a little impudent and reaches her foot out to touch Nikolas’ leg. Once she has his attention, she moves her foot up and down. Pleasantly surprised, Nikolas is wearing a lopsided grin. Emily removes her foot and concentrates on her grapefruit.
Not wanting the game to finish, Nikolas boldly reaches his foot out to bump Emily’s foot and rub it with his own. Alexis’ paper rattles, and she lowers it to the table. Looking up from her reading glasses, Alexis gives Nikolas a firm look as she raises one eyebrow at him. "Yes, Nikolas," she asks dryly. Nikolas turns three shades of red, and he looks down at his plate. Emily witnesses the interchange and when she figures out what has happened, she brings a napkin to her mouth to hide her chuckle. She decides to rescue the situation.
"Nikolas, will you show me the new horse that you told me about yesterday?" she asks.
Nikolas looks at Stefan as his uncle gives him an almost imperceptible nod. "Sure, Emily," he says. "Let’s go." Nikolas rises from his chair and places his napkin next to his plate.
After the two are gone from the breakfast room, Stefan says to Alexis, "Emily seems like a nice girl. She is not responsible for her unfortunate family. I think that it will do Nikolas good to spend some time with that young lady."
Alexis smiles, but says nothing. Yes, and maybe he will get lucky, she thinks.
~*~*~*~
Todd Manning is up early this morning. He sits on the edge of his bed trying to eat a cold, burnt piece of hospital toast with one hand as he cradles a phone receiver between his good shoulder and ear. When he finally gets a piece of the toast in his mouth, he makes a nasty face and spits it back out onto his tray. He picks up his coffee and looks down into it, then reconsiders and slams it back on the tray.
"GET ME A COMPUTER PRONTO," he orders some unfortunate person on the other end of the phone.
"Good morning, sunshine," a loud female voice says as she enters the room.
"And I know that you’re here to deliver the rain," says Todd sarcastically as he eyes his ex-wife Blair.
I – AM – GOING – TO – KICK – YOUR – SCRAWNY – BUTT – FROM – HERE – TO – LLANVIEW, Blair shrieks as she accentuates each word with a well-placed whack of a QVC snakeskin handbag to Todd’s injured head.
"Whoa, whoa, hold on here," Ian Thornhart says as he enters Todd’s room. "I can hear you two all the way down the hall. There are sick people in this hospital, you know."
Ian takes Blair’s purse slash weapon from her hands and places it on a chair. "Now I know how my patient has sustained his past head injuries," he says with a small, tight smile.
Blair and Todd both look at Ian with wide eyes. "You’re dead," Blair sneers. "Please tell me your name is not Patrick," says Todd. "’Cause I’m not ready to go to hell just yet."
"My name is Dr. Ian Thornhart, brother of Patrick," says Ian.
"And what are the odds for that?" Todd mutters. "Did you get a deal on buy one get one free leprechaun-ports?"
"I’m here to tell you that I’ve signed your release papers, Mr. Manning," says Ian. "You can leave this afternoon." Todd and Blair just stare after him as he leaves the room.
"What was that?" they both ask in unison.
~*~*~*~
The phone next to Lucky’s bed rings insistently. "Hello?" Lucky answers the phone.
Todd’s voice fills the line. "You’re still under contract, Lucky-boy. Get over to my room, NOW," Todd shouts and hangs up the phone.
"Wait," Lucky yells. "What room are you in? Todd?"
~*~*~*~
Nikolas and Emily stroll through the stables holding hands. Emily sighs contentedly. She has dreamed of being close like this to Nikolas for the last three years and now that he has noticed her, it is better than she ever imagined. They’ve talked and walked the grounds for the last two hours.
As they gaze out over the water, they finally come to the subject that they’ve been avoiding.
Nikolas is the first to talk. "I apologize for running out on you yesterday. I just lost it when I saw Lucky dead and lying there in a coffin. My whole life I’ve been in danger from Helena and other members of my family." Nikolas’ eyes take on a faraway look as he winces at the memories. "When I saw Helena in her little performance, and then the bodies, it was just too much. It was like the whole 18 years of my life and all the terrors and intrigue boiled down into a few seconds. Can you understand?"
"I think so," Emily says quietly. I kind of saw my life flash before my eyes when Zander kidnapped me from the rave. Everything that I’d ever said or done went through my mind in a matter of minutes. It was overwhelming. I think violence does that to you."
Nikolas looks into Emily’s lovely brown eyes and kisses her softly. "Thanks for understanding, Emily," he murmurs.
"Nikolas," says Emily. "Let’s go see Lucky. He should be up and around by now."
"Okay," says Nikolas as he walks with her to the launch.
Lots of meetings:
The guys discuss the project
Helena taunts Nik
Todd and Blair tangle (or is it tango?)