Page 61 of The Elementalist
“His name is Max Long. He’s a private investigator helping me find out what happened to Dana.”
“Ahh.” The old woman changed the way she looked at me from ‘bit of refuse’ to ‘acceptable servant.’ She rang a small bell, which summoned Pierce.
The butler peered one eye around the door, as if afraid to walk into the room.
“Oh, knock that off,” snapped Grandmother. “Crystal is not going to devour your soul. There has been a misunderstanding. She is no longer persona non grata. Please, see her to Sophia’s study.”
As if the man had never once given her a sour look, he smiled, then turned on his heel. “This way, madam.”
Crystal glanced over at me with a ‘you should follow me’ stare.
So… I did.
Chapter Thirty
Reconciliation
Waiting in the room with Darth Grandmother didn’t exactly appeal to me.
However, after an hour sitting on a nice chair near the sitting room where Crystal broke the news to her mother about the former Mayor Bradbury cheating on her… I almost wished I’d rolled the dice with the old one.
I didn’t doubt Sophia Bradbury was Crystal’s mother. By looks, they could’ve been sisters with a two-decade age gap. Crystal’s more sylphlike, elven build came from her non-human father, and her mother had darker strawberry blonde hair. As soon as we walked in, I could tell the woman had long since fallen into a deep depression and probably spent whole days sitting alone and staring into space. The instant she saw Crystal, her mother brightened, clearly surprised at her being in the house. But also genuinely happy to see her.
So, I made myself as inconspicuous as possible, plopped down on a chair out in the hallway to give them some privacy, and tried not to feel too awkward as the resulting emotional storm raged on a short distance away from me. Sophia, unlike Gram-zilla downstairs, appeared to possess genuine human emotions. Though, I will say that after the elder realized what a shit her son had been to Crystal, she did soften a little. Kinda lame the old woman only invited her back for holidays, but I suppose after spending the past eleven years thinking of her as a ‘creature’ with self-control issues, it would take her a while to adjust.
Still, that pissed me off. These people interacted with vampires relatively frequently and they thoughtCrystalwas a dangerous fiend? The worst thing she’d ever do to someone is give a guy the best night of his life.
Anyway… over the next hour or two, Crystal danced around the subject of her not-father. It was as awkward and cringe-inducing as a Will Ferrell movie, but not at all funny. When she finally managed to get it out, her mother gasped, stared for a moment, then grabbed her in a fierce hug before bursting into tears. I’m no psychologist, though I’ve taken a bunch of online classes (learning how to read people comes in handy for a PI), I got the feeling anger at what her husband did to Crystal helped Sophia at least see over the top of the pit of grief she’d fallen into over his death.Maybe she’d even decided to be upset with him for cheating on her. Sophia spent a little while scolding Crystal for going along with the lie, but in the ‘Oh my God, why would you ever do that?’ sort of way, not actual yelling.
Sophia also appeared quite upset that Nigel Farrington wanted to abduct and kill Crystal, and utterly furious over the death of her older daughter. Though the woman seemed much nicer than the elder, I had a feeling relations with the Farringtons would soon become rather tense.
Our meeting with her mother elongated into staying for lunch. It unnerved me to watch the butler and some servants who’d initially reacted to Crystal as though some homeless drug addict had broken into the house were now all smiles and acting normal. I couldn’t tell if they’d been artificially hostile to her out of fear of being dismissed, or if they faked the niceness now. It bothered me that I couldn’t read them, though in all fairness, I’d only seen short glimpses of their nastiness beforehand.
I imagine whatever information network or gossip channel existed among the Founding Families had already started passing along word that Crystal had been restored to good graces with the family. That alone wouldn’t stop Nigel, but it could potentially complicate things for him.
Eventually, we escaped. Or at least I escaped. Crystal didn’t seem as relieved to get out of there as I did. She also appearedto be daydreaming about finally being able to move back into the place. As soon as we returned to her car, I let out a long sigh of relief.
“Oh, they’re notthatbad.” She glanced at the mirror and tweaked at her hair. “Except Grandmother. I still can’t believe she actually listened to me.”
“And I’m kinda surprised you forgave them so easily for how they treated you.”
She gave me a ‘what can ya do’ look, then started the engine. “I’m too nice. But at least my mother won’t have to sneak around to see me without anyone finding out.”
“I can’t even begin to comprehend how your father lied about you like that. Whowantsanyone to believe they were seduced by their own daughter?”
“First of all, the man wasn’t my father. Only on paper.”
“Stepdaughter is still creepy as hell, even without the age difference. Is the rivalry with the Anworths reallythatbad?”
She drove to the gate and drummed her fingers on the wheel while waiting for it to open. “If I’d been a normal human, I don’t think he would’ve gone there. Meaning, my being a succubus provided the perfect lie. As in... not his fault; not my fault. Truly, I have no idea how he would’ve handled it if I hadn’t been such a perfect scapegoat. Brittany Anworth is also blonde and thin… the brief glimpse Mother got of her running off hadn’t been enough for her to positively identify me enough to deny it when he claimed it had been me charming him. It was just assumed.”
“Sorry.”
“Not your fault, Max. The idea that Sterling Bradbury’s daughter seduced him only sounds horrible to people who don’t understand the truth. And really, no one outside the family even knowswhyI was sent to Ironside. Only that I was ‘wild’ or ‘improper.’ And, the people who were given the story about Mother catching me with him know what I am and believed Icouldn’t help myself. And he likewise.”
The gate opened.
She drove out down the long, curving driveway surrounded on both sides by thick trees. It seemed somehow wrong to be driving a car here instead of a horse-drawn carriage.
