GiulianAndElissaAtTheUniLibraryThanks to the addition of the nest egg after her last unmentionable job, not to mention it was past time to get out of the business, Elissa signed up for classes at the University. It was also thanks to an earlier trip to meet up with Giulian and Renata. After getting a schedule and her books, Elissa decided to wander through the library. She signed up for a combination degree in business, literature, and library science. She wasn't sure exactly what to do with her life, but this would keep options open. Walking around, Elissa passed some reading rooms and stopped. Her eyebrow raised and she walked backwards a few steps to stare through an open doorway. She noticed the color of his hair and his build before she noticed the discarded crutches. She always noticed his face before the disability created by the long-ago carriage accident. His eyes drew her in with the knowledge and sincerity in them. With a friendly smile at the sight of the stack of newspaper volumes, she leaned a shoulder against the doorway. She rapped her knuckles lightly against the frame to get his attention, without startling him. Giulian looked up, saw Elissa standing there, and smiled, his eyes lighting. "Good afternoon, Elissa. Do you need help with something?" Elissa's transformation from street fighter to student amazed, and to an extent amused him. At the same time he applauded her determination to make a better life for herself by means of her studies. Elissa smiled back and entered the small room and glanced at the folios. "Actually, I was going to ask you if you need help. I'm pretty good with research," she said. "I just finished signing up for some classes, but haven't started anything just yet. I have time on my hands." "What courses are you taking?" Giulian asked her, at the same time gesturing toward a chair. "A combination of business, literature, and library science. I love books and libraries and I need business in case I do something for myself. I am also planning on leaving the lower city and finding another place to live." Giulian nodded. "Are you staying in the dorms for now?" he asked. She shook her head. "No. I can't stand that many people around me. I was still staying with Sasha, but I believe I found something." "There's safety in numbers," Giulian noted. "But I can understand the desire to have your own place." Slipping her shoulder bag off, she settled in a chair near him, the full skirt of her light blue dress settled around her. She lifted a long curl away from her shoulder and slid it back as she leaned forward to look at the folios. A light scent of lilies and chamomile drifted over to him from her skin and hair. "With my job, I needed to learn how to do research. I can help put it to good use now," she added. "Well, thinking about it," Giulian mused, "you might be a good person to help with this particular bit of research, since you know something about the context, so to speak. "You might say I'm delving into family history," he continued with a tight smile. "The kidnapping of Jack Kennington and Salla Lasse, twenty-five years ago. I want articles dealing with that subject, of course, but I'm also interested in anything to do with any of these people or subjects." She pulled her eyebrows together and nodded as she leaned closer. "What other people?" He indicated a list lying on the table in front of him, written in his neat, precise hand. Much of it was in ink, but some of the later entries were penciled in, or in ink of different colors, as if they'd been added later as the research proceeded and opened up new avenues of investigation. "If you could just go through and mark relevant articles -- and anything that catches your eye -- that would save time," he explained. "How would you like me to make a note of them? The folio number as well as the date and page of the article?" She scooted her chair closer and picked up a folio. Her hands, long fingered and sensitive, caressed the leather and pages as she opened it. She leaned back, using the chair and table as a holder. "That, and perhaps the subject -- which item on the list it mentions, or what caught your attention," suggested Giulian. "That way when I go through them I won't necessarily have to do it in chronological order." He took the next volume off the stack and opened it up, propping it against the rest of the pile to leave space in front of him for his note-book. Elissa nodded, pulled up a leg to curl under her for more support. She pulled out a note-book and her own pen and ink to make notes and not disturb his. She glanced over at him, pushed a hand through her hair, and leaned over to begin reading and flipping the pages, looking for pieces of a long ago mystery. After a moment he looked up again and said, "I've been looking through the excerpts you gave me last night. A few questions came up... What would be a good time and place to discuss them?" "Oh... Figured you may have a few, especially with my crazy handwriting. There is also a little bit of the Chatham code to protect us," she said with a smile. "Ahh... I'm still searching for a place and you're a noble...I'm not... Wherever you think is a good time and place? I can go wherever you need." "It isn't so much a question of my being a noble as that you're a female and I'm not," Giulian pointed out with a rueful half-smile. "Otherwise I'd suggest you come by my place later this afternoon ... but under the circumstances that could be misconstrued by any number of people. I imagine, though, that with family records you'd want a certain amount of privacy. Maybe Renata can help us," he mused. "Oh yes... The whole let's protect the female thing. That's the one area that..." She grumbled quietly under her breath and smiled. "At least people notice I'm a female citizen. I'm usually a shadow, a non-entity to most. Until something goes missing." "That's how you want it, isn't it?" he queried, with a trace of amusement. "In your old job, I mean." Shrugging, she gave him a little half smile. "Old job, yes. But, I'm getting away from that old job. Remember?" "I know you are," he replied. "But old habits die hard, I expect." "I haven't gotten itchy fingers, just yet. I don't steal just to steal or from anyone..." She sighed. "Didn't steal, I mean. I wasn't a run of the mill thief." "I wouldn't imagine you to be a run-of-the-mill anything," said Giulian. "I meant that it might take a while for other people's perceptions of you to change, as well as how you tend to act around others." She looked at him with a raised eyebrow and then nodded. "I know... I'm trying..." She ran a hand through her hair, pushing it back from her face and moved her head from one side to another. "I would want the privacy and I would need to get them from their hiding place. The less people who know the exact contents the better. It's okay with the edited stuff, no one can prove anything with them." She glanced back at him. "I can meet you back at your place. You trust Peterson and we'll...umm.. keep the door open to the study area." "I do trust Peterson," said Giulian, "but I don't necessarily trust one of my sisters, for instance, not to come waltzing in at precisely the wrong moment." He could easily imagine Renalda doing such a thing, especially now that he'd been elected her confidant in matters of the heart. "Ahh... Only child and sent off to a school, so I don't know exactly what it is like. Well... What would you suggest then? I still need to find and secure a decent place." "That's why I said Renata might be able to help us. If you'd be comfortable with her sitting in, the two of you could come together," Giulian suggested. "Our families are so close that Renata's practically like a sister to me." She shook her head. "I meant my new home.... But it can apply for conversing over the books." She rubbed her fingers over her forehead. "I don't know... I've only just started to know all of you. Just giving you those pieces would make my family roll in their graves." "I appreciate it all the more, then," he said seriously. "Hm. Renata wouldn't necessarily have to be in the same room while we were going over the papers, as long as the two of you arrived and left together. And in between we could leave the study door open, as you suggested." "Perhaps that will work. I think it would be best for you to bring up the subject as you know Renata better..." Giulian nodded. "If I don't see her today, I'll leave a note in her pigeonhole," he said. "Until then... I can probably answer some of the questions. I remember most of what I read," she said. "I think what I'm really missing most is context," said Giulian. "Who these people are, or were, and therefore from what angle they'd be observing events." "I can go over some of that here. We may actually find some other stories within the volumes that we have here. Since it is all from the same timeframe," she said, scooting her chair closer. "What are you missing?" "What I really meant is the people who wrote the excerpts you gave me -- your family, I gather. Of course, I understand if that's privileged information," said Giulian. "Oh. Well... Yes, some are family members, I believe, others are umm... acquaintances. I can generalize things for you to keep things...umm...quiet, for now," she said. She looked up at him, wishing she could tell him everything and get it off her shoulders. Since losing the last of her family in the influenza, not even knowing who they truly are, she was lost about what to do, let alone keep up the 'trade' of the Chathams. "That's all I really need," said Giulian. "Their stations in life, what they did for a living, that sort of thing. A shop owner will have a somewhat different view of the world than a farmer, or a monk," he explained. "Ahh... I see. Well... Let's go through the list and I'll see what I can do. If I can't say it aloud, I'll write it in," she said. "If this is too open of a place, then we'll plan on getting together somewhere else." "That sounds like a good plan," said Giulian. He bent over to rummage through the satchel at his feet, and presently drew out the sheaf of notes Elissa had given him the previous night. He laid it on the table in front of him and then opened his notebook to a fresh page. Smiling, Elissa pulled out her own notebook where she made notes of her own about the journals, things she wanted to look into. "Where do you want to start?" she asked, flipping through the notebook. "Let's start with this diarist, Rodman Chatham -- you have several entries from him," Giulian suggested. "My grandfather. Very clever with umm... locks and getting into places he's not supposed to. He's one of the few of my family that I remember. The only one who picked me up and played with me." She let a small smile curl her lips at the memory of an old man. "Always smelled of peppermint oil, something for his hands, and his favorite candy." Giulian smiled and, over against Rodman Chatham's name, inscribed an innocuous "locksmith." Elissa watched what he inscribed and laughed. "It's a mnemonic," Giulian told her, his dark eyes twinkling. "But I'll bet that's what he told people he was, when they asked. Am I right?" The laughter slowly left her, brightening her eyes still. She nodded while wiping away the tears. "That's what most of my family said. Some even designed the locks," she said with a shrug of her slender shoulders. "Not what I should tell the son of the Regent," she added with a little grimace. "Or the nephew of Josh Salter," Giulian responded dryly. Then he went on to assure her, "Anderons know how to keep secrets. And protect sources." "Josh Salter? Oh good heavens..." Elissa dropped her head in her hands. "You didn't realize? Yes, he's my mother's elder brother," said Giulian, and chuckled. "Haven't you ever wondered why Aquila Awake! is pro-Regent for the most part?" "I'm sure he would love the scoop of a lifetime for his paper. That paper has.... hinted at things and actually published fact about my family without even knowing it." She massaged her head and lifted it up again. "Good. Consider me a source for now. Who is next?" "I consider you a friend, Elissa," Giulian said, "and would protect you anyway. "How about Josephine Folger?" She smiled at him. "I consider you as a friend too." She flipped her notebook and nodded. "My aunt by marriage. A umm... lady of the night. That's her umm... working name." "There isn't really a polite dodge for that, is there?" Giulian commented ruefully. Elissa shook her head with a playful grin. "I've heard that some places offworld, they just say 'sex worker' and have done with it," said Giulian. Elissa chuckled again and blushed. "It wouldn't work on Aquila, though. We're too....prudish here." She shrugged. "Other places have different standards," Giulian agreed. "My uncle liked her too much and didn't want to give her up. Not to mention, she knew where a lot of good...things were hiding. Thanks to pillow talk." "I'll have to remember that. For the moment, 'aunt by marriage' will do," said Giulian, writing it down. "I had an interesting family, unfortunately I missed most of life with them." She looked over his shoulder again. "Who's next?" "Did you?" Giulian suppressed the urge to ask Elissa about her own life experience and went on to the next name. "Edgardo Chatham." She nodded. "That's her husband." "Your uncle? And what was his station in life?" asked Giulian. "He knew his way around jewelry and art. Not always...his own," she said. Giulian's lips twitched as he wrote down "appraiser." Elissa couldn't help it. She cracked up laughing once more, close to leaning against his shoulder as she lost her breath from the laughter. Giulian grinned at her, his eyes sparkling with unvoiced laughter to match hers, then glanced around to make sure they weren't drawing unwelcome attention. Elissa tried to stifle her laughter against a hand as she sat up, flushing that she leaned against him. Not to mention, he felt wonderful to lean against with a light scent that was all him. He didn't seem to mind the contact. He couldn't recall ever seeing Elissa laugh before; he liked the way it made her cheeks flush and her eyes sparkle. "That'll....work," she said, chuckling again. "Who is...umm... next? Should we dare continue?" "You'd know better than me," Giulian pointed out, still grinning. He consulted his list again. "Um... Tonio Camberi?" Elissa chuckled again, shaking her head. She pulled her eyebrows together as she leaned closer to look at the name. "I changed that one...." she flipped through the notebook and found the entry she added in without the changes she gave Giulian. "Names changed to protect the innocent," Giulian murmured, deadpan. "My mother's brother, my uncle from her side. He was also a....umm....appraiser. He was the one responsible for.... an arrest and capture." "Salute to him, then," said Giulian, making the appropriate notation. "And may we share his luck." "It was my father..." Shock and consternation wiped all trace of amusement from his expression. "The one captured?" He reached out to touch her hand. "I'm sorry. Not..." He hesitated. "Not in connection with what we're researching, then." The kidnappings. Whiteblood. She nodded. "The one captured. No... A job he was on. My... Tonio turned traitor, because he wanted the job. My grandfather gave it to my father instead. Tonio revealed what he could and my father was caught. My mother was devastated and I was placed in a convent." She stared at where their hands touched. "He's still around... I haven't contacted him though." "Tonio? No, I don't imagine you would. I'm sorry," Giulian said again. She looked over at him, her eyes darkened, the sparkle of laughter gone, and she shrugged. He didn't want to think too much about Elissa's line of work -- former line of work, he told himself firmly, if only recently abandoned -- but he couldn't help recalling the snatches of conversation he'd overheard in the lower city, when those two thugs had attacked Elissa outside of Renata's lodging house. Something about a job that should have been theirs... "Does that sort of thing happen often?" he asked in a low voice. "Jealousies, and betrayals." What if someone knew something, decided to lay an information...? "It depends on the job, who is involved. After learning about my father, I kept solo. Just nodding acquaintances to those who could...pass on the items I procured. Less people who know, the better, the safer you are." He nodded, then turned, determinedly, back to the list. "Ricardo Knopf." "Dispenser of hot items... Grandfather's time. No longer alive." Giulian nodded and wrote "resale" next to Knopf's name. "Honey Norton?" he queried next. Her lips twitched in amusement as she watched him write it down. "Mistress." "Knopf's? Or someone else's?" "Grandfather. He was...umm...a busy man." "I have relatives like that, too," noted Giulian, and wrote "step-grandmother". She raised an eyebrow and chuckled once more. "Nice way to put it. On the wrong side of the sheets." A corner of Giulian's mouth twitched and he said, "As a boy I had a big book of old Earth mythology -- for children, you understand -- that described all of Zeus's amours as his 'wives' ... explaining, with beautiful simplicity, that since Zeus was a god he could have as many wives as he liked. It's all in how you look at it, I suppose." Elissa shook her head at him. "Hmm... I've wanted to find a book like that. Do they have a copy here? One perhaps for adults as well as children." "That particular one was a gift from Lady Bahlmis, but I'm sure there are any number of them here," said Giulian. "They'd be in the Classics section." She nodded. "I'll have to look it up then. Perhaps I can find something close to it." She leaned closer for a moment, a lock of her hair falling free from the braid she pulled it back in and curling around her neck and shoulder. "Who else is in question?" Giulian found his thoughts straying to step-grandmothers and other such things before he forcibly redirected it to business. "Just one more," he said. "Vincenzo Chatham." She glanced at him, seeing him fight against something as his eyes just barely darkened. "That is my father. That last passage was from his younger years. Before I came along." From their earlier discussion of Tonio, Giulian didn't need to ask what Vincenzo Chatham's profession had been, so he simply made the note "father." "Thank you," he said. "That will help put things in perspective." She shrugged. "Perhaps... Guess we don't need to meet up later on then... Anything else I can help with?" "Oh, well, this is just a start," said Giulian, who found he rather liked the idea of talking with Elissa some more. "I'll probably have more detailed questions when I've had a chance to study the excerpts together with whatever articles I find. If you wouldn't mind, that is." She smiled and shook her head. "No, I wouldn't mind at all. I will look forward to it." |
