Chapter 6
They stepped from the shelter of Elena's apartment building and onto the street. Both shivered in reaction to the brisk wind tugging at the edge of their clothing.
"I should have worn a coat," her grandfather said with a bit of a rueful smile.
"I'm sorry, I don't think I have anything that would fit you," she answered. He waved away her concern.
"It is not far and I have endured much worse." She smiled at him. "It is good to see you doing so well out here on your own. The family was concerned." Elena felt her smile slipping into a bit of a sneer and turned her face from her grandfather. With the exception of her cousin Mateo there were few members of her family she spared a thought for. And while Mateo was friend as well as blood, to keep in contact with her after she had left would have proved extremely problematic.
"Not concerned enough to visit," she said. Her words puffed in the air. Therese declared Elena shunned by the family when she left and none of them had bothered to call or drop a post card in the past five years. "How worried could they be?" She asked.
"It has been quite busy," Her grandfather answered. Alexandro Calabrese never admitted to the rift between Elena and Therese and she didn't expect him to start now. When pressed he would simply claim they were both passionate women and often held differences of opinion, nothing more. They were blood and there was love, at least to his mind. Elena shook her head letting it drop. Once his mind was made up, changing it was often more trouble than it was worth. While she had very few feelings towards Therese, her cousin actively hated her, of that she was sure.
"There is to be a marriage soon," he continued. "Nathanial has found a mate."
"That's nice," Elena responded. Nate was Mateo's older brother and not a bad sort of person. He was about fifteen years her senior and so their paths rarely crossed. "Is she a Pilot?"
"Yes, of the House of Carloti," he answered. He smiled, pleased that she had bothered to ask. "The wedding will take place next fall, at the end of the busy season so they can take a nice long honeymoon. You'll be coming of course."
"I'm invited?" Elena asked with some surprise.
"Of course," Alexandro said. "You are family." Elena saw the calculated gleam slide through his eyes before he blinked and smiled. "All of the family will be there."
"I see," Elena said. She had the feeling her grandfather would bring pressure to bear to have her invited and a grumpy time would be had by all. She put tomorrow's troubles away. Today's agenda was already more than full.
Luckily the store was but a handful of steps away. Soon they could pause the family chatter and with luck the Council would be meeting close enough that she wouldn't have too much catching up on family matters to endure. Elena tugged her keys from her pocket and reached towards the door handle. Her grandfather reached out and grabbed her wrist. She looked up at him over her shoulder.
"They do love you." His face was serious and his eyes pleading. Elena sighed.
"I know," she said. "In their own way. I'm sure they have been busy." She kept her tone neutral. He let her wrist go.
"Yes, for all five years," he said softly. There was a sadness in his voice that made Elena swallow hard. She turned back to the door, unlocked it and pushed it open.
"I have to leave some details for while I'm away. Feel free to look around; just don't open the back door. Those alarms are still active." He nodded and turned to walk around the store. His slow measured stride let her know he was taking in all the details. Elena smiled as she took Emily's chair behind the register. They worked hard this afternoon and the store showed their efforts, even in the dim half-light. She was proud of what she built and even with the inner turmoil it caused, she was proud he could see it. Elena slid a notebook out and began to make a list.
She usually dealt with the details surrounding corporate client purchases. While she knew any of her staff were more than capable of dealing with the clients, the logistical arrangements were usually left to her. She jotted down notes for the ones booked for the next few days as well as a few suggestions.
Between Max and TJ she knew all would be well. Even Emily would do well with the clients if she didn't let the scale bother her. The individual clients she could handle. The ones seeking large-scale purchases frightened her because she thought there was too much at stake. Elena planned to work on that with her, but doubted this would be the time for a road test. She finished her notes and left the open notebook on the counter. She stood up and her grandfather circled over to her.
"Ready?" he asked. She nodded.
"Just finished. Have you seen everything?"
"I doubt I could see everything if given a week locked in here alone. This is quite a fine place. But it is time we leave. I will call Marcus." Alexandro pulled out his cell phone and pressed the needed buttons.
"We are ready to leave," he said. There was a pause as he listened. "Of course," he replied. He turned off the phone and tucked it into his pocket. "Do you need assistance locking up?"
"No," she replied. They went to the front door and after shooing him outside she reset the alarms and locked the door. "So where do we go now?"
"This way, if you please," he said leading her away from the store. They walked in silence, for which Elena was grateful. She didn't think the quiet was necessary as her grandfather was muttering under his breath as he walked. She smiled and kept her thoughts to herself. His sense of direction was not the greatest in the world and no doubt he had simply memorized his instructions from Marcus. She was content to follow along and not derail them. He sighed with relief as they reached the street corner and Marcus pulled a car to a halt in front of them. He opened the door and Elena slid inside. He followed and Marcus led them out of the city.
"You shouldn't laugh at your elders," her grandfather said peevishly. Marcus laughed, a deep, low, rumble of a laugh.
"Was he muttering to himself again?"
"Yes," Elena replied.
"I have no need to learn my way around. On ship I have a pilot and on land I have Marcus. I need only know where I want to go, not how to get there." Elena smiled and shifted to get comfortable in her seat. A few minutes of silence passed.
"I greatly liked your store," he said.
"Thank you."
"Tell me how do you come by your goods?" Elena smiled at the question.
"I travel, Grandfather. We are small and somewhat high end. I go on buying trips and sell what I find."
"From companies?"
"Sometimes. Most of the time I talk to individual or small scale artisans and craftsmen who need outlets for their goods."
"Interesting," he replied. She could tell that his thoughts were circling around and he was trying to place her comments into one of his schemes. She sighed knowing it was inevitable.
"These last five years have not been kind to us," he began. "Our world is changing."
"Oh," Elena replied. "I thought I wasn't supposed to know details?" He waved the comment away with a twisted smile.
"That is politics. This is business," he replied but she could tell he was thinking more about his words before he said them. "The world in general has changed. Before when we brought a shipment in we could invent stories to cover our supply lines." His voice slipped into a singsong type of tone as he imitated one of the merchants.
"Come see our wares, Signore, taken from the far-east, from the distant kingdoms at the edge of the world." He chuckled to himself and his voice dropped into its normal range. "Now they want to know what Province it came from, the year it was built, the artist who designed it and exactly what sort of materials went into it. Sometimes they even ask how the materials were harvested to make certain it was done in an Earth-friendly way." He snorted. "We can hardly tell them the truth can we? Of course Signore, it is earth friendly, neither the materials nor the artist are from the Earth.
I am certain that would go over well." He shook his head.
"And these shows the televisions are so fond of making," he continued, clearly on a roll. "The crime investigation ones where they use microscopes and testing on the least little things." He shivered theatrically. "It is not good for business. What if one of them tests a rosewood cabinet and discovers not only that it is not rosewood but not really any type of wood at all?"
"You could pass it off as synthetic in some cases." Elena commented, but only half-heartedly. While her grandfather was known to go over the top about many things he did raise a point. He waved his hand in the air and blew a razberry with his mouth.
"And the locations of our suppliers? Do we show them the bill of sale? The provenance? Or did the goods just drop out of the sky like gifts from an over generous God?" Elena grimaced. She knew her grandfather well enough to know what he wanted her to say and where he wanted to lead her. She shook her head. Some things didn't change.
"Well logically, for a price you could probably get some of the artisans in some of the far off places you say you import from to sign off on the items and give a bill of sale for the records."
"Ah," he said, obviously pleased she had gone along with him. "But to do that we would have to have a network of trusted artisans with whom we had built relationships."
"Yes, you would." She answered simply. He looked at her, his eyes piercing, willing her to say something. Elena kept her mouth shut and stared right back at him, reminding herself that she was no longer a part of the Guild and therefore not a part of the business. Alexandro smiled and chuckled beneath his breath.
"You would make me ask?" He said teasingly. Elena made her eyes wide and tried to look innocent.
"Ask what?"
Marcus's chuckle rumbled from the front seat. "She is your granddaughter." He said.
"Therese never gives me this much trouble and she is my granddaughter." He replied. Marcus shrugged.
"Elena is not Therese," he said simply. Alexandro snorted.
"I can tell the difference, you know. I have eyes in my head do I not? Very well," He continued, turning his attention back to Elena. "You have a connection of artisans that you presumably trust and are more than likely located in the right districts for our purposes. Would you be willing to work with your family to assist us in making these connections?" Elena braced herself to say no. To tell him that when she could no longer be of use to them as a pilot they ceased to take an interest in her and they could therefore rot for all she cared.
"I don't know." She replied, the words surprising herself even as they tumbled from her lips. "I'll have to think about it." Elena leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. What had she done? Silence filled the vehicle.
"Therese would have instantly said yes," her grandfather said. Elena opened her eyes and turned towards him.
"As Marcus pointed out, I am not Therese." A strangely thoughtful look passed over his face.
"No, you are not." He stared at her as if deep in thought. "You should try and get some sleep. We will have to drive through the night to reach the arranged place in time for the meeting." Elena nodded and turned away from her grandfather to stare at the dark world beyond the window glass.
The wind whipped the treetops into a frenetic dance and they cast odd shadows when they passed in front of the streetlamps. Rain began to tap on the glass and slide down in diamond droplets. In the reflection Elena saw her grandfather tug his briefcase from under the seat and pull a leather bound volume from its depths. He placed the notebook on top of the briefcase and pulled out a pen, writing as if the briefcase were a laptop desk. Marcus switched on the radio and something soothing and classical filled the dark spaces between them all.
'I'll never fall asleep,' she thought to herself leaning her forehead on the cool glass and closing her eyes. 'There is no way I could fall asleep.' It was her last thought before sleep claimed her.