I may faint from the shock. I survived everything the Empire could throw at me, and the horrors of Haceldama. I think I can handle a few politicians. Don't worry, if I have to kill anyone, I'll be sure and do it when no one's looking.'
'The trouble is, he means it,' said Adrienne. 'That's his idea of being diplomatic.'
'In the meantime,' said Finlay, 'I want to see our children.'
They all looked at him in surprise, including Evangeline. Adrienne shook her head slowly. 'Finlay, you've never wanted to see the children. Not even when they were born. I have to remind you to send them birthday presents. They only know what you look like from watching the holos. And where the hell were you when Gregor Shreck was threatening to have them killed to get at you? Give me one good reason why I should let you anywhere near them!'
'I've been… feeling my mortality lately,' said Finlay. 'When I'm gone, all that will be left will be my reputation and my children. I look at what the news people and the docu-dramas have made of my past, and I don't recognize myself at all. That just leaves my children, and I'd like them at least to have some idea of who I really was. I know I've done… questionable things, but I always thought I had a good reason. In the past I was busy living two lives at once, and I told myself there was no room for children in either of them. They would only have got hurt. They were safer with you. Besides, I didn't know what to do with children. Not sure I do now. But I'd… like to try to get to know them now. If they'd like to see me…'
Adrienne was taken aback for a moment. In all their years of marriage, she'd never heard Finlay open up like that before. 'I'll ask them,' she said finally. 'But it's up to them. I won't put in a word one way or another.'
'That's all I ask,' said Finlay.
The four of them talked a little more, but they didn't have enough in common for small talk, and they'd taken care of all their business. Eventually Adrienne and Robert made their excuses and moved off into the crowd, and Finlay and Evangeline were left together.
'We've never talked about… children,' said Evangeline quietly. 'Given the lives we were leading during the rebellion, it just wasn't possible. We were always racing off into danger and sudden death, never knowing for sure whether we'd live to see the morrow. And afterward… you never raised the subject.'
'I've been thinking about a lot of things I never did before,' said Finlay. 'I never wanted children with Adrienne, but my father required it for the Family. Things are different now.'
'I couldn't bring myself to raise the subject,' said Evangeline, not looking at him. 'I was always afraid you never said anything because I was just a clone. You're an aristocrat, but I'm not. Not really. Some would say I'm not really human. And even in our marvelous new order, the marriage of an aristocrat and a clone would be a scandal, their children an outrage. If anyone found out…'
'You're more human that most of the people I have to deal with,' said Finlay. 'You're worth a hundred of them. A thousand.' She sank into his embrace, her face pressed against his shoulder so he wouldn't see the tears in her eyes. He knew they were there anyway, but carried on as though he didn't, his voice carefully steady. 'I can't marry you, Evangeline. Not because you're a clone, but because divorcing Adrienne would distance me from people I need to be close to. Politics in our circles are still largely dictated by old Family connections, and my position is precarious enough as it is. But you are my love, my life—the only woman I've ever cared for. Of course we can have children, if that's what you want. People will make allowances. They always have.'
Evangeline hugged him so tightly she thought she must be hurting him, but he never said anything. When she was sure her eyes were dry, she let go of him and stepped back. And then someone came and called Finlay away on urgent business, and Evangeline was left alone again. She watched him go with a brave little smile on her face, but inside, her thoughts were churning furiously. Before she could even think of starting a family with Finlay, there was a lot she had to sort out in her life, most of it things Finlay didn't know about, and must never know.
Finlay knew Evangeline had been cloned from a dead original, but he didn't know why. Gregor Shreck had loved his Evangeline as a man rather than a father, and finally murdered her in a fit of rage when she tried to run away. To cover up his crime, and have his daughter in his bed again, Gregor had the clone made in strictest secrecy, and she became the Evangeline that Finlay came to know and love. He rescued her from her father and helped her make a new life of her own. But he never knew just what he rescued her from, and Evangeline could never tell him. If he ever found out, he would murder Gregor, not giving a damn for the consequences. She couldn't let him do that. She wanted Gregor dead, wanted it with a deep, despairing sickness of the heart, but Finlay must never know. Because it would hurt him so much. And perhaps because, deep down, she feared he'd never feel the same way about her again once he knew the truth.
Besides, Gregor Shreck was a powerful and dangerous man, even if he had fallen from favor just lately. He surrounded himself with an army of private guards, and even Finlay Campbell couldn't take on a whole army single- handed.
She couldn't risk losing him. Not now, not after they'd gone through so much to get here.
Secrets. So many secrets between two people.
And there were more. Before Gregor had disappeared behind his private army and enough corrupt influence to keep even Parliament's hounds at bay, he'd contacted Evangeline to let her know he'd taken her best friend, Penny DeCarlo, as his prisoner. And that dear Penny would die in horrible agony if Evangeline didn't return to him. Finlay didn't know about that, either. She hadn't told him. Because once again he'd go rushing off to be the hero for her sake and get himself killed. So far she'd kept Gregor at bay by various strategems, but they'd mostly run out now. Soon she would have to find a way to rescue Penny that didn't involve Finlay, or go back to Gregor and hope to sort out some kind of deal. Either way had its dangers, but her time in the rebellion had hardened Evangeline. She was no longer the weak, helpless victim that Gregor remembered. And just maybe that was a weapon she could use against him.
Not far away, someone else was watching Finlay Campbell. The esper Julian Skye had been Finlay's friend and disciple ever since the Campbell rescued him from the torture cells of the Imperial interrogators. Julian still carried the scars, mental and physical, from the things that had been done to him, but he owed his life to Finlay, and dedicated that life to the Campbell's service. The Campbell didn't get a say in the matter. But now that Finlay had found a new life in politics, he didn't need a warrior at his side anymore. And Julian understood nothing of politics, and cared even less.
He was currently occupying himself by portraying himself in docudramas of his times during the rebellion. He'd never seen himself as an actor, but people had really liked watching him in the news footage Toby and Flynn had shot, and apparently that was enough to make you a star, if not an actor. He'd never be a major attraction, but he had an audience and a faithful following, and he made more than enough money to indulge his few vices. It helped that the memories he'd dictated to the screenwriters had been almost entirely fictional. The public wanted the legend, not the facts, and there was still so much of his past that he couldn't bring himself to talk about. Very definitely including the woman who was standing not so far away from him, that petite, dark-haired oriental beauty BB Chojiro.
He'd loved her once. Loved her, and she betrayed him to the Imperial torturers. Because he was a rebel, and because the BB in her name stood for Blue Block, the secret inner circle of young aristos conditioned to be loyal to the Families to the death and beyond. She still loved him, but she had to follow her conditioning. She had said that to him in the cell of the torturers.
But now Blue Block was running the Families for their own good. And BB Chojiro was the pleasant public face of that inner circle. She had come to Parliament, as usual, to stand quietly at the back to listen to all that was said. Everyone knew that when she spoke, she spoke as the voice of Blue Block, and everyone listened. If they knew what was good for them.
This was the first time Julian had dared to come to the Chamber. To be so close to BB Chojiro… Part of him still desperately wanted to kill her for what she'd done to him, for what had been done to him because of her. For the betrayal of everything he'd thought they had between them. And part of him wondered if even now he'd forget all that, forgive her everything, if she would just take him in her arms and kiss him and love him once again.
So, frightened, he stayed away. But now here he was, not ten feet away from her, and damned if he knew why. Perhaps it was just unfinished business, as simple as that. Either way, he had come to Parliament to see her and perhaps talk to her. And if he didn't kill her, he might just learn how to be free of her. If that was what he really wanted. Julian had to smile. He was so messed up in the head where BB Chojiro was concerned that it was either laugh or go mad.
She stood at ease among her advisers, smiling and listening and saying little. A tiny little doll of a woman in a
