The Mandate of Heaven (32 page)

“You’ll not be rid of me that easily,” Alex sneered, taking another step forward, until it was only the massive desk that separated the two of them.

“Oh, I think I will,” Granville replied, motioning forward the two guards stationed behind him.  The two, who had followed them into the room, took a step forward and raised their weapons until the muzzles rested against the back of Alex’s head.

“Call off your lap dogs,” Alex snapped, “Or I’ll leash them for you.”

Unfortunately, before Granville could respond, one of the guards pre-empted his answer, by lifting his weapon from Alex, raising it high into the air, preparing to bring the butt of it down against Alex’s head.  Taking advantage of the opportunity, Alex reached out with a free hand, grasping the other weapon still pointed firmly at the back of his head, snapping the weapon down with ferocious force against the side of the desk.  The guard’s fingers, still trapped in the trigger guard of the weapon,
cracked
with the impact.  He let out a ferocious howl of pain, which was abruptly cut off, when Alex followed this by slamming the man’s head onto the surface of the desk.  The
crunch
as the man’s nose broke was easily audible to all.

The second guard, in the unenviable position of having his weapon aimed at the ceiling, did the only thing he could by following up his initial plan of slamming the butt of the weapon into the back of Alex’s head.  But the weapon wouldn’t budge, instead it was frozen in mid-air, with Alex’s free hand unceremoniously wrapped around it.  The muscles in the guard’s forehead bulged, and his face went a bright scarlet, as with the combined force of two hands he desperately tried to dislodge it.

“Don’t provoke me,” Alex growled menacingly at the man, as the guard balanced on his tiptoes, hanging on with all his might to the weapon still hovering in the air.  “I’ve already been hounded by my housekeeper, pestered by my friends and frankly pushed beyond the edge of sanity by a blue-eyed vixen.  A man can only take so much before he snaps,” he roared.

Which was when the remaining two guards, who had been edging their way around the desk, lunged at him and the four of them went down in a pile of tangled limbs.

*****

Jessica could only stare at the scene unfolding before her, tapping Alex’s fusion pistol against her thigh irritably.

Men.

She tried clearing her throat, but this had no effect, drowned out by the sound of fists impacting on skin and the repeated cries and grunts of pain coming from the pile of human flesh squirming around on the ground.

“Excuse me,” she called out abruptly, but was pointedly ignored by all.  Even Lord Granville seemed to have forgotten about her, instead leaning forward across his desk to peer at the brawl taking place on the floor.  He looked decidedly curious about who was going to come out on top, or bottom, as the case might be.

Jessica’s fusion pistol stilled in her grasp, before she held out her arm, the weapon igniting like a small supernova.  The intense, focused beam, leapt across the length of the room, coming to rest on a small pile of wooden logs, that had been stacked in an open fireplace, ready and waiting to be lit.  With a massive
crack
, sheets of lightning spread out from the fireplace, with bolts racing along the walls and ceiling. Then, with a blinding burst of light, the entire fireplace exploded, with a ball of flame reaching up to the ceiling, racing off in all directions.

Jessica blinked.

“Whoops, my bad,” she said.  “I just thought I’d start a fire, settle down and get comfortable while you
boys
sorted things out.”

“My dear, we’re in the middle of a Nova-Class Dreadnaught, in deep space, just where did you think the smoke was going to go exactly?” Granville drawled out, amused.

“A good point, but my most recent accommodations have been very drafty, the only illumination from candlelight and fireplaces, I’m afraid.”

“How dreadful,” Granville responded, resting his elbows on the desk, propping up his chin.  “I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced, I am Lord Neville Granville, businessman, entrepreneur and present owner of
Elysium Fields
, and who might you be?”

“Lady Jessica Hadley, eldest daughter of High-Lord Hadley.”

The silence in the room was deafening, as all eyeballs in the room turned to face her, judging her, quickly followed by shaking heads of disbelief and astonishment.

“Alex?” Granville called out enquiringly.

“Difficult to believe, but yes, it’s true,” came the muffled reply from the floor.

“Well, why didn’t you say so earlier, Alex,” Granville replied shaking his head.  “I thought you had better manners than that, and us, talking shop in front of her like that.  Please take a seat, my Lady,” he said, pulling out a plush, leather bound chair and offering it to her.  “Refreshments!  Tea, cakes, biscuits.”

“Do you have something a little stronger?  Scotch, whiskey or an analgesic perhaps,” Alex groaned from below.

“Do get up Alex,” Granville sighed.  “You’re embarrassing me in front of Lady Jessica.”

*****

“Guests?” Granville said, sounding confused.  “How many?”

“Not that many,” Alex reassured him, peering suspiciously at a daintily cut cucumber sandwich, small enough to hold between his thumb and forefinger, very much doubting that it would do much to appease his empty stomach.  Instead he slid it back onto the plate from whence it had come.

“But why don’t you hold this party at your own home.  Last I heard you had quite the bachelor pad, what was it, twenty-nine rooms?”

“Thirty,” Jessica and Alex replied in unison.

“Right,” he drawled, looking at the pair bemusedly.  “So you want to hold it here instead, why?”

“Just in case the party gets out of hand,” Alex replied unconcernedly.  “It’s far easier for you to turn away guests, than me.”

“So who will be attending?”

“High-Lord Hadley for one,” Alex responded.

“Really?” Granville’s expression brightened.  “I’ve done a lot of business with him in the past, it will be a pleasure to finally make his acquaintance.”

“I bet you have,” Alex muttered.  “I just wonder if High-Lord Hadley is aware of this commerce.”

“What sort of business are you involved in, my Lord?” Jessica asked, looking between the pair, bewildered.

“Oh, I have various, on-going, concerns,” Granville replied waving his hand loftily.  “I have a fairly sizable fleet my dear, they obtain goods from various sources and ship them to major trading hubs in the surrounding systems. It is a form of commerce I suppose.”

“And like Sanderson, I assume you’re fully up-to-date on all your customs and exercise duty?” Alex asked sarcastically.

“Well,” Granville hedged.  “Import duty is so high these days, especially to discourage trade between the different Mega-Corporations, so if a few, small, items of negligible value were to slip through unnoticed…”

“You’re a smuggler then?” Jessica enquired, intrigued.

“A smuggler?” Granville actually looked offended, while Alex could only laugh.

“Well, I’m sure that my father will be looking forward to making your acquaintance,” Jessica said, diplomatically.

“Only if he remembers to bring several feet of rope,” Alex muttered. “So, how’s your family?” he asked in a louder voice.

Jessica tensed, expecting the worst, but Granville simply smiled broadly.

“Good thanks and I now have a grandson, Lord James.  Who would ever imagine, my offspring, one day could become High-Lord…”

“There is no justice in the world,” Alex commiserated.  “And your son-in-law, he is well?  Keeping out of trouble?”

“Yes, they’re all fine.”

“I’m relieved,” Alex confessed.  “As a more terrible soldier, there never existed.  He was very popular with the enlisted men, however, mostly because he was a terrible gambler and lost profusely.”

“I wasn’t aware that gambling was permitted amongst the troops?” Jessica commented.

“It isn’t,” Alex admitted.  “He was also a terrible officer.  Frankly, I was relieved that he had decided to take a different career path upon getting married.  Last I had heard he had returned to the family business, and likely lost a fortune there too.”

“So you were there, when they met?”

“There?” Alex scoffed, “I introduced them to each other, and never was there a more perfect match.  She wanted a rich, titled, husband.  He wanted an insipid, but beautiful, wife.  I wanted to be rid of both of them, preferably without having to resort to murder, and why Granville here is indebted to me.  Ring any bells, my Lord?”

“I think it’s slowly coming back to me now,” Lord Granville replied sullenly.

*****

“I don’t understand why you were so rude to Lord Granville,” Jessica scolded Alex, sometime later after they’d retired for the evening.  “He seemed like the perfect gentleman the entire time.  He even insisted that we stay here, with him, as his personal guests.”  The guest quarters made available to them, while not as luxurious as those offered by her father, were still a dramatic improvement over Alex’s rustic country mansion—having lights for one.

“I fear that the irony in that statement, has completely passed you by,” Alex yawned, scratching his stomach.  “Well, I for one am ready for bed, I didn’t get much sleep last night.  You kept pushing me off the side.  When you weren’t monopolising the bed, it was the blankets, you were rolled up like a cocoon.  I spent the entire night shivering and constantly retrieving the bed covers.  Has anyone ever told you that you’re a terrible bed hog?”

“No,” Jessica replied flatly.

“And a good thing too,” Alex responded plumping up one of the pillows and testing its softness.  “Your father would have had their head.”

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.

“What does it look like?  Getting ready for bed.”

“Not sleeping here, you’re not.”

“Oh, well, about that,” Alex looked faintly embarrassed.  “You see, Granville only assigned us one guest room.”

“Why would he have done that?” she demanded, suspiciously.

“Probably because I informed him that we’re sleeping together.”

“No,” Jessica said.  “We’re not.”

“I’m fairly sure we are,” Alex smirked.  “Especially considering my intimate knowledge of your atrocious sleeping habits.”

“Are not.”

“Are too.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m glad that we’ve agreed on that,” Alex said.  “Honestly I thought you would be more difficult about it.”

Jessica could only stare, mentally replaying the entire conversation in her head.  She blinked.  “You cheated,” she accused.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did.”

“Let’s not go there again,” he said.  Having decided upon the most comfortable pillow Alex picked it up, walking around the bed.  “I must confess to having an ulterior motive,” he said, coming to a stop in front of her, pillow still in hand.

“Oh?” Jessica raised her chin, to look him in the eye.  “You’ve changed your mind, and decided to ignore the promise to my father and steal my virtue?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

“You know, you actually sound disappointed,” Alex chuckled.  Turning his back on her, he casually tossed the pillow into the doorway, before sprawling onto the ground.  Using the pillow to prop himself up in the doorway, he said, “I was actually going to say that after your last disastrous escape attempt, I don’t trust you not to try again.  Frankly I don’t feel up to having to hunt you down for the second night in a row, especially in a five mile long station, full of disreputable sorts.  Sweet dreams.”

Sliding under the covers, Jessica slipped the fusion pistol under her pillow, as always comforted by its close presence.  In the dark, she stared up at the ceiling, willing herself to sleep, with little success.  She tossed and turned several times, trying to find a comfortable position, before stilling, remembering Alex’s warning that she was a bed hog.  She felt ridiculous.  Surely she couldn’t be missing his comfortable presence, after all it had only been one night.  She had a brief, irrational, urge to suggest that they shared the bed, but feared his reaction.  At best he would reply with a bitingly sarcastic remark, at worst he might actually accept, misconstruing her offer.  Instead she could only stare into the darkness of the unfamiliar room, comforted at least by Alex’s shallow breathing and steady heartbeat.  She wondered how he had survived, alone, like this for five years.

“Alex, are you still awake?”

“I am now,” he replied, amused.

“How did you do it?  In the dark, all alone for five years, without going—”

“Insane?” Alex supplied helpfully.

“Yes.”

“I didn’t mind the isolation so much.  I spent most of my life alone and never experienced loneliness.  The dark and confined space also didn’t bother me, at first.  I must have been there for several weeks when the darkness seemed to get darker and the walls, started getting closer.  I think that was the worst time.”