Chapter 6

Evangeline led them through the many galleries, showing them the usual stuff, saving the best for the last. They had a good share of some of Monet’s works and Van Gogh’s self-portrait. She showed them some of the bronze and brass works. The group was impatient she knew they wouldn’t try to hurry her along to the Camelornian collection. They had to pretend to have superficial knowledge of art and ancient culture nodded and followed her. The most impatient of the group though was the pregnant woman.

It frustrated Evangeline because she would have preferred if the handsome stranger was beside her instead of the woman. The blow of her fan lifted strands of Evangeline’s hair into her face.

“And here we have Van Gogh’s Starry night…”

“Lady we are not here to see the Starry night, we want to see the Camelornian diamonds, the pregnant woman suddenly blurted.

Suddenly the other tourists with pinched faces broke into agreement with her.

“And we will get to that ma’am,” Evangeline forced herself to say. “Here…”

“Look I have seen enough Van Gogh to last me a lifetime.” The woman was no longer speaking directly to her. She was facing the other tourists and her voice held a hint of boasting.

With the small group of people agreeing there was nothing Evangeline could do but to do what she wanted. She courteously led the group of people through the rooms to the Camelornian exhibits. There was another tourist group of 15 people looking at the display behind their glass protection. The diamonds were huge and refractive.

“Oh how lovely,” the pregnant woman said in a slightly bored voice. “But my husband and I do have diamonds of our own.”

“Actually ma’am, Camelornian diamonds are known as the biggest diamonds to have ever existed. It was thought to be…”

“I am sure they are. Do you think they can be stolen?”

Evangeline was getting even more angry and was having a hard time managing her anger. “They are highly secured and these display cases you see are highly impossible to penetrate. The controls to this cases are operated by experts in the control room, there are cameras all over the place…”

“But the Royal Diamond necklace was stolen from here…”

Evangeline’s patience grew thin. “Yes it was. That was a long time ago. We are working to recover it.”

“Ah I see. I am sure you can recover. Do you buy diamonds?”

“What?”

“I am saying do you buy diamonds? I have diamonds worth more that the Royal Diamond necklace can ever cost. My husband got them for me of course and lately I have been wanting to get rid of them. They get old, you know?” she raised the briefcase in her hand.

“Ma’am we don’t buy…”

“You will love them. See?” the woman opened the case there and then and suddenly she lost hold of it and hundreds of diamonds came pouring out, their hard surfaces making a huge racket on the linoleum floor. “Oh my diamonds. Somebody get my diamonds.”

Evangeline knew it was too late when order flew out the windows and greedy tourists bent to help themselves to the escaping diamonds.

The people from the other tourist group saw what was happening and joined in the fray. Evangeline was pushed from side to side as more people joined in the rush to gather the scattering stones.

“I got one!”

“It’s mine, let it go!”

The security men were running toward the pandemonium as loss for how to settle the chaos. In the midst of confusion Evangeline felt someone press someone something into her hands. She didn’t have time to see who it was but when she looked down at her hand she nearly had a heart attack.

It was a Ziploc bag and in it was the Royal Diamond necklace.

The blonde man and the pregnant woman were nowhere to be found.

**

She was dreaming.

She was getting married, walking down the aisle to meet her husband. Was it a premonition…or was it the memory of the marriage she was supposed to have with Noel?

It was the day after the one night stand.

Albert had been there to drag her down the stairs when she would not leave her room. Penny cried and railed, she raked her fingers through his skin. She would rather be dead than marry a contracted husband. She was too young to be married, she argued. She begged Albert to let her go but all he did was lift her and carry her downstairs to the small chapel behind her father’s mansion/den. It was there she saw Noel Greer again, standing at the altar signing their marriage papers. He stood stiffly.

 Disbelief came then relief washed through her body as she ran to the altar, her heart light and full of emotions so strong she couldn’t define them. Noel looked up, momentarily distracted by the sound of running feet coming closer. Their eyes met and recognition struck him. He smiled.

Then he frowned as he looked her over dressed in her simple wedding dress with a short veil, his eyes calculating and cold.

 His eyes turned angry and he whirled on father, mother and the priest her father most likely bribed.

“Was this the plan? You would stop so low to throw your daughter at me, Nowak?” he turned on her and she stopped in her tracks. “Or was it your plan to make sure you stuck your greedy fingers in my flesh with a mere one-night stand?”

“What is going on? What the hell are you talking about?” Dad yelled.

“You knew who I was last night, didn’t you? Oh, how was I stupid! I was already in that bar and you knew what you were doing when you came in there. You thought fucking me would secure a marriage with me?! Good grief, I almost fell for that!” he laughed cruelly.

“No that’s not true!”

The hate in his eyes scorched her. “You failed. Better women have tried and failed. You whore yourself for nothing.”

He took the papers he just signed and tore them in two.

It was Albert who held her up when she crumpled in the dust stunted and heartbroken, it was he who led her to her room while her father yelled at her, demanding answers to Noel’s accusations to which she kept mute.

 But Albert wasn’t there when she packed a duffel bag, determined to speed up her freedom but when she climbed over the high fence surrounding the house she grew up in, she saw Albert’s form watching from the library upstairs. He didn’t move, didn’t attempt to raise an alarm, just watched as she fled from home into freedom. And she always wondered why…

She woke up to the gentle rocking of a car and opened her eyes but quickly squeeze them shut when the sun’s rays pierced her brain. Groaning she shaded her eyes and tried again.

They were in her car with Albert behind the wheel looking stiffly ahead. Penny looked outside the window noting that the road they were on wasn’t familiar. In fact, this wasn’t the West Side of Port, neither was it Poland.

“Where is this?” she managed to croak out.

Albert looked over his face as expressionless as ever. “Don’t move too soon, the drug is still wearing off.”

“You drugged me?!” she screamed and was rewarded with a sharp pain in her head.

Something cool pressed against her forehead and she opened her eyes again to see Albert’s hand pressed against her forehead. He looked off the road for a second, and for the first time, she saw something besides blankness in his gaze. He looked concerned.

“You gave me no choice,” he said.

She slapped his hand away. “I am sure dad would be glad to know you abducted his daughter.”

“He told me to use whatever means necessary to bring you home.”

I give dad too much credit, she thought bitterly.

 He was after all the man who read the Adventures of Arsene Lupin the gentleman thief to his daughter at night, preparing her for a life of disguise, lies and stealing. And how she had enjoyed those stories. How easily she fit into the shoes of the mistress of disguise with her alias Midnight Fox.

Forcing the lump in her throat down she looked outside the window. The sun was hot and the air humid and thick.

“Where are we?”

“Let’s just say we are very far away from your home.” When she rewarded him a droll stare he cracked, “We are in Kleve.”

Penny thought she took that information quite well considering the fact that they were miles past the West Side of Port border which would have taken a whole day and a half with Albert’s maniac driving.

“I have been out for a day and half. I suppose we are going to drive to Poland?” she asked sarcastically.

“Two days,” he corrected with a hint of apology in his voice. “The family moved from Poland. Government authorities are after your father. Past ties were linking back to him and he had to protect himself. Your father tried to turn to the big game of conning after you left. Business was good until he conned the wrong people. He moved the family, now we live in Kleve.”

Penny frowned. It must be really bad. “Your father? What happened to calling him the boss?” that was all Albert ever referred to him as.

He averted his gaze and said nothing. Penny could sense something was wrong but she didn’t want to talk about it now. So she asked a different question.

“What is dad’s financial status? If he had to run out of Poland then he wouldn’t risk carrying his precious money or jewelry or any other thing that can be traced.”

Albert sucked in a breath. “You will have to see for yourself.” He was silent for a moment, driving expertly on the dirt road. It was a monotony of dusty, windy roads with a few bare trees at the sides.

“Penelope,” Albert said. It was the first time he ever called her anything but Midnight Fox or the boss’s daughter. He spoke my name as though he was testing the sound of it on his tongue, confirming her fear that there was more he was not saying. “Your father is in deep trouble.”

No shit.

 Being chased by the Polish government made it even worse. The dirt road stretched so far with little minor roads attached to it. Albert took one of the roads, rounding a curve and riding straight up to a town with people covered in scarves to ward off the dust. The houses were white washed, built like Spanish adobes.

A few minutes later he drove up to a huge house with a black wrought iron gate and a white fence. It too was an adobe. The gate was thrown open by an old familiar face, one of her father’s trusty men, and they drove in.

“This is the new hideout until…well you should see your father.”

She climbed out of the car gingerly, her head ached, her tongue felt heavy and her nostrils were clogged with dust. The house was simple and modest at best and almost resembled something a child would draw. It was quiet.

“Also,” Albert spoke, slowly as he too got out. She looked back at him to him looking sheepishly away clutching her handbag. “I should let you know that you got a series of calls…from Noel Greer.”