Eason blinked in surprise. It was Mullen.
«You idiot!» Tiarella yelled. «You could have been killed.» She flung her arms round the dazed lad. «Dear God, you could have been killed.»
«I'm sorry,» Mullen stammered. He was shaking badly. There was blood oozing from his palms.
Tiarella let go, as self-conscious as Althaea had ever been, then sniffed and wiped away what Eason swore were tears. «Yes. Well, OK. It's a tricky approach, you'll have to learn about the currents round the island.»
«Yes, miss,» Mullen said meekly.
Eason took one of the lad's hands and turned it over. The skin on the palm had been rubbed raw. «What happened?»
«It was the rowing. I'm not used to it.»
«Rowing? You mean you rowed here from Oliviera?»
«Yes.»
Eason's immediate response died in his throat. He glanced at Althaea who was looking at Mullen with an expression of surprise and wonder.
«Why?» she asked timidly. «Why did you come?»
«I wanted . . .» He glanced round at Eason and Tiarella, panic-stricken.
«Go on,» Tiarella said gently. «The truth never hurts in the long run.» She smiled encouragement.
Mullen took a nervous breath. «I wanted to see you again,» he blurted to Althaea.
«Me?»
«Uh-huh.»
Her delicate face betrayed a universe of delight. Then it crumpled to guilt, and she looked at Eason, almost fearful.
His own emotions were almost as confused. What a ridiculous romantic the lad was. Small wonder Althaea was flattered. However, right now he was not prepared to tolerate a rival.
«Eason,» Tiarella said sharply. «You and I have to talk. Right now.»
«We do, yes, but now is not the time.» He said it politely, making an effort to keep his temper in check.
«I insist. Althaea.»
«Yes, Mother?»
«I want you to treat Mullen's hands. You know where the first aid kit is. Do it in the kitchen, I expect he'll want something to eat after that voyage.» She patted the surprised lad's head. «Silly boy. Welcome back.»
• • •
Eason closed the study door, cutting off the sound of Althaea and Mullen chattering in the kitchen. When he faced Tiarella he knew that somehow she'd undermined him. Mullen's arrival had changed everything. Yet he didn't see how that was possible.
«Just what the fuck is going on?» he asked.
Tiarella's expression was glacial. «I warned you. I told you your time was up, but you wouldn't listen.»
«My time is just beginning.»
«No it isn't. And as from now, you're not to sleep with Althaea again. I mean that, Eason. And I will enforce it if you make me. Solange is quite capable of dealing with you, and that's just the creature you know about.»
«You're bluffing.»
«Am I? Then it's your call.» She opened a drawer in the desk and pulled out a finger-length cylinder with wires trailing from one end. «This is out of the fluxpump. I visited your chalet yesterday evening, just in case.»
«You would seriously set that snake on me for loving your daughter?»
«I would now, yes. Force is all you know, Eason. It's what you'll use if you think Mullen threatens you. I won't tolerate any violence against him.»
«Oh, come on! You honestly think she's going to choose that boy-child over me?»
«She chose him before she was born.»
«This is your cards shit again, isn't it?»
«Far from it.» She walked round the desk and pointed up at the big family print. «Who is this?» A finger tapped impatiently on Vanstone.
He gave an exasperated sigh. Crazy bitch. Then he looked, really looked at the man's features. All the confidence, all the anger inside him started to chill. «It's . . . But it can't be.»
«Yes, it is,» she said wistfully. «It's Mullen. About ten years older than he is now.»
«What have you done? What is going on here?»
Tiarella grinned ruefully. «Small wonder he frightened the life out of me in that dinghy this morning.» She cocked her head to one side, looking up at Eason. «There's just one last thing to show you.»
He hadn't even known the house had a cellar. Tiarella took a torch to lead him down the slippery stone steps. There was a metal airlock door at the bottom. It was open, leading into a small decontamination chamber. The door at the far end was shut.
«This is Dad's old lab,» Tiarella said as she pumped the manual handle to open the inner door. «The electrics fused in a storm years ago, but it's all still functional, I think.»
Inside, Eason found a world completely removed from the rest of Charmaine. Benches of glassware glinted and sparkled as Tiarella swept the torch beam round. Dead electronic modules sprouted wires and optical fibres to mingle with the tubes, bulbs, and dishes. Autoclaves, freezers, synthesis extruders, and vats stood around the walls, along with cabinets he couldn't begin to understand. Two large computer terminals occupied the central desk, a high-resolution holographic projector on the ceiling above them.
«Most of Charmaine's foliage was spliced together in here,» Tiarella said. «And those pesky firedrakes.»
«Right.»
She came to a halt in front of a large stack of machinery. «What I'm trying to show you, Eason, is that Dad knew what he was doing. He took his master's degree at Kariwak University. Several bitek research labs offered him a position, but he came back here.»
«OK, I believe you. Nyewood was good.»
«Yes. So have you worked it out yet?»
«Tell me.»
«He cloned Vanstone for me. A parthenogenetic clone, identical to the original. There was enough of him left after the accident.»
«Oh Jesus wept. Rousseau said you gave one of your babies away. Twins! He said you had twins.»
«That's right. Dad cloned me as well. He engendered them in here.» She tapped the stack of machinery. «And I nurtured the pair of them in my womb. A second little me, a second little Vanstone, growing together even then. After they were born I kept Althaea here, and gave Mullen to the Church orphanage. He grew up in exactly the same environment as Vanstone did.»
«You really think she's going to fall in love with him, don't you?»
«She already has; she couldn't do anything else. The love between us is too strong, too beautiful. I couldn't let something that wonderful die, not when I had a chance to see it renewed.»
«You used me. You crazy bitch, you used me. You had a lover before Vanstone. That's why you let me come here; to make the conditions for Althaea as close as possible to your time.»
«Of course I did. As you used us to escape whatever it was you were fleeing. Althaea had to learn the difference between a meaningless sexual infatuation and the true love which only Mullen can provide.»
«Crazy bitch! You can't dictate her life like this.»
«But it's
«It's different this time,» he snarled. «This time, I'm here. She loves me, I know she does.»
