Out of Body

“Just what I said. My brother and his wife—your parents whom you only see if you follow them around the world—are having a charming visit with your sisters.”

Marley got to her feet, as well, tipping Winnie to the floor, but quickly sat again. She was light-headed.

“Look at you,” Uncle Pascal said to her. “You’re worn out. You’ve been experimenting with something again and it’s against the rules unless you make sure I’m informed.”

That was only partly true. She had a right to use her powers without telling anyone, Uncle Pascal included, unless she was certain she needed help. As long as Marley thought she could manage alone, she would do so.

“The Mentor means for us to rely on one another,” Uncle Pascal said.

“Am I the only one who’s been wondering about the Mentor lately?” Sykes said. “Seems a long time since anyone has pointed out that we’re no closer to finding out if there ever was an actual Mentor.”

“The Millet family Mentor is a fact,” Uncle Pascal said flatly. “What we don’t know is whether the term refers only to the code of honor we live by, or if there was once a being the family referred to by that name.”

“And our parents have contacted you to say they’re still no closer to finding out the truth?” Sykes said. “You didn’t have to bring us here to say that.”

Uncle paused and they listened to the ticking of a rare French industrial clock in the form of a fishing boat. Uncle Pascal spared a smile for the shimmering gilt piece before he responded. “Eighteen-eighty,” he said of the clock. He made a habit of stating details of the treasures that filled his flat. “You’re right, Sykes. I have more on my mind but I choose to start with just how little progress your parents have made.”

“Are we surprised?” Sykes said. Apparently he didn’t care how disrespectful he was. “I’ve got a thought for you. What if this Mentor of ours still is? What if he or she—or it—is still lurking around the planet and the parents do dig it up one day? That would be by accident, of course, but it might happen.”

“I hope it does exist,” Marley said. She needed chocolate. “I’ve got questions that need answers and so do you.”

“So do I,” Uncle Pascal added. “When I agreed to take over the reins for Antoine, I didn’t expect it to be for twenty years! He was supposed to come back with answers and help figure out where we go from here. Someone has to carry on after my generation.”

“Yes,” Marley said, looking pointedly at Sykes. “We’ve got to get over our hang-ups. This old tale about a curse is crazy. A dark-haired male Millet can’t take his place as head of the family? Good grief, we still say head of the family, as if we were in the middle ages.”

“Our problem was around then, too,” Uncle Pascal said. “Do you question your powers, Marley?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Of course not.”

“That’s what I thought. So why question the curse unless you have some proof? It’s dangerous.”

“Let’s move on,” Marley said. “Someone has to run the business. Let’s talk in twenty-first-century terms. And since the Millets remain stuck on a male heir, and you don’t want to keep doing the job, Uncle, then either Papa should come back or Sykes must take over.”

“Your father can’t return to his former position,” Uncle Pascal said, his mouth pursed. “Once he stepped down that was it for him. I’m a sort of stand-in till we come up with the next in line.”

“You may be standing-in till your legs fall off, then,” Sykes said with a smirk. “As Marley points out, according to the curse, a dark-haired Millet running things means disaster, and we wouldn’t want that.”

“Only if you marry.” This time Uncle Pascal did shout. “Which you show no signs of doing.”

Winnie made sounds like a crying piglet and Marley whispered, “Hush.”

“We don’t know what I may do one day,” Sykes said. “You can’t take the risk of trying to leave things with me.”

Marley was grateful that her brother didn’t grin when he said that. He often announced that his parents’ dysfunctional marriage was a warning and he intended to stay single. “Have you met someone?” Uncle asked.

“I meet lots of people,” Sykes said. “And I could meet a woman I want to…It could happen that I find a woman I really like one day.”

Marley had been holding her breath, hoping Sykes would say the B word. She should have known better. “Someone to bond with,” she prompted, energized by her own daring.

Sykes gave her a withering look. “If I ever feel the slightest hint of a bonding, you will be the last to know.” He spread his broad artist’s hands and looked at the ceiling. “Bonding. Now we’re really heading into the weeds with all this. It isn’t as if I live like a monk, and I’ve yet to feel shivers up my spine.”

What he meant was that as long as there was no bonding between him and a woman, a casual relationship worked just fine for him. “Is there someone now?” Marley asked. She made big eyes at Sykes.

He shook his head as if weary and didn’t answer.

Uncle Pascal lost interest in the exchange and paced again. “I want to spend more time training,” he said. “And collecting. I’m sick of sending someone else after rare finds when I’ve hunted them down. It annoys me more all the time. I want to be free to travel the world myself.”

“We can’t solve that here and now,” Sykes said. “Did you want to talk about something else?”

Marley felt sorry for their uncle, but she saw Sykes’s point of view. Why would he want to give up total freedom to watch over the Millet fortune—whatever that consisted of these days.

“The code,” Uncle Pascal said, his chin jutting fiercely. “It’s simple enough, but I’m not sure how careful everyone’s being about the most important rules. First—Only use your powers for good.”

Marley nodded and saw Sykes do the same.

“Second—Never invade another family member’s mind without an invitation,” Uncle continued. “If you begin to intercept accidentally, leave.”

She didn’t remind him he’d come close to doing that last night. True, he had made a tentative approach at first and waited for her to acknowledge him, but finding her like that, remotely, had been over the top, even if he had been worried about her. But she took some comfort in knowing he’d had to go to Sykes for help and he wouldn’t make a habit of that.

“Three—Don’t act alone if you could be in danger.”

That was the rule he wanted to skewer her with. She didn’t look at him.

“Marley?” Uncle said. “What have you been up to? Why were you with someone who frightened you last night?”

“He didn’t,” she told him promptly. In fact, Gray had terrified her. She would never forget the shock of seeing those pale marks on his face and remembering at once the man she’d seen in the unknown place.

“Isn’t there another rule about telling each other the truth?”

Marley ignored Sykes’s interference.

Uncle Pascal stopped in front of her and peered down. “I know what I felt and it was fear. Explain yourself.”

For the good of a serious cause she would not betray the trust Belle had placed in her. “I don’t get out enough,” she said. “Last night I went to find some good jazz and ran into someone I know.”

“That’s a stretch,” Sykes signaled.

“It takes a stretcher to know a stretcher,” she told him.

“But you weren’t comfortable,” Uncle Pascal said. His tone eased and he became the concerned surrogate dad he’d been to her for years. “You know I worry about all of you, especially you girls. This hulk can take care of himself.” He gave Sykes’s shoulder a glancing punch.

“What is going on with you?” Sykes asked Marley. “You were edgy with your friend Gray. You’re into him, though.”

“You’re imagining things. I can handle it.”

“Would you ask me to come if you needed to?”

She glanced at him and felt Uncle Pascal grow edgy.

“Later,” Sykes said. “Uncle’s feeling left out.”

“Marley?” Uncle Pascal was still waiting for her answer.

“I am dealing with something unusual,” she admitted. Truth between them was their accepted strength as a family. “I want to continue on alone, but I promise I’ll ask for help if I have to.”

Uncle Pascal turned to Sykes. “You were there. What did you think?”

“I wasn’t there long,” Sykes said, his blue eyes guileless. “Marley knows she shouldn’t take stupid