Heads or Tails (18 page)

Lincoln swore. By the time he pulled back to squint up at the dock, all that was visible of Tristan was his retreating back and his halo of golden curls.

*

The image of Ivyanne and Lincoln’s clinch felt like it had been burned onto Tristan’s retinas. Of course he’d known she’d done such things-
and more
-with the man she had been engaged to, but until then, he’d been fortunate enough not to actually
see
them as lovers. He’d never even seen them kiss!

He flopped down on his bed and screamed into his pillow. His skin was crawling, and his vision kept blurring with tears. It was natural for what he had just witnessed to bother him on many basic levels-but it was surprising just how it had stolen both his breath and his will to live.

It wasn’t just about the act, but Lincoln’s approach-which Tristan had been unfortunate enough to catch most of and too thunderstruck to actually
halt
. He’d always seen Lincoln as being somewhat rigid and uptight. Sexless, almost. And yet there had been
nothing
polite or restrained about the explosive, watery embrace he’d just barged in on! He couldn’t stomach the idea that Lincoln was shedding his human inhibitions so rapidly, or that Ivyanne would be subjective to more than his competition’s sentimentality and refusal to let go. Tristan had had her cornered in the library the week before, telling her he could make her hotter than anyone else ever could. But what if he was wrong? Was it possible that Tristan was about to lose the role of top-dog to a puppy? The way he’d seen his niece, Saraya and Adele eyeing Lincoln was proof that Lincoln had
some
pull. The question was, how much? And what did it say about him, if Ivyanne could live without kissing him, yet was unable to resist that and more from his rival within full view of the shore and sea?

‘Under the dock? Really?’ He cried, punching his pillow so hard that feathers shot out from the pillow slip. ‘Naked?!’

There was a knock on the door, and Tristan looked up to see Garridan poking his head inside the room. His hair was still damp from his swim, his brown eyes full of concern. ‘Hey bud…’ Two words had never conveyed more sympathy than those did. ‘Can I come in without resembling that pillow afterward?’

Tristan grunted, tossing it to Lincoln’s bed and motioned his uncle in. Strangely, he wasn’t in the mood to be alone. Lately, it seemed like he was always alone, even in a crowded room-and usually when he needed company the most.

‘I hope you have a damned good pep-talk up your sleeve.’ He warned his uncle. ‘Like the Martin Luther King speech
good
.’

‘I only caught the tail end of...a wet Lincoln and a flummoxed looking queen.’ Garridan said slowly, his expression cautious. ‘I was kind of hoping he’d just fallen in...Then I come in here and see you looking like a ghost so…’

‘Looking like a ghost?’ Tristan parroted. ‘More like,
feeling
like a ghost.’ He sighed, folding his hands behind his head to stop them from breaking something and staring moodily up at the ceiling. ‘I died, and now am forced to haunt the people I knew in life, watching them find happiness and move on without me. Under the dock.’ He glowered. ‘While one is
naked
.’

‘
Oh
. Well...shit.’ Garridan sighed. ‘I’m sorry if you saw something you didn’t want to. That’s precisely why I try to keep both of you separated from her.’

‘But
I’m
the only one honoring the deal. And she didn’t seem to mind him pawing her so I guess I’m the only one who cares!’

A hand rested on his shoulder. ‘Come on Tristan, don’t jump to conclusions or assume the absolute worst. These Court women are complex creatures, torn between what they want, what they need and what everyone else wants and needs from
them
. And despite all of the little voices in their heads, telling them what to do, they’ve got the same urges as us, telling them to do the opposite and make a right mess out of everything.’

Tristan glanced at Garridan in amazement, wondering if that was the longest sentence his uncle had ever uttered on a subject that wasn’t work-related. ‘You’re some expert now?’

Garridan shrugged. ‘A century or so ago, I sort of
was
.’

Tristan sat up, curiosity tempting him from the need to sink into a coma. ‘Come again?’

Garridan made a face, and the few lines in his skin deepened to prominence. ‘Well in all honesty...I have firsthand experience when it comes to romancing the trunk of this family tree.’ His uncle’s complexion was reddening as he appraised the back of his hands. ‘And I can tell you right now that it doesn’t matter how right you are for one of them, or how much they need you, they’re going to do only what they think is right in the end.’

Tristan couldn’t believe his ears. ‘
You
...romanced a
Court
?’

Garridan raised an eyebrow. ‘That hard to get your head around, eh? I must have lost my looks. Be that as it may, a couple of dozen decades ago, I was where
you
are now-the one everyone assumed would become king.’

‘It’s not your
looks
, but the
mathematics
of the situation throwing me for a loop here!’ Tristan sat up like a schoolgirl eager for gossip. ‘You’re...three hundred and twenty six? Too young for Anna, of course, and Ivy was married centuries ago…!’ He felt himself flush with scandal. ‘You and
Vana
?! How could I not know this?’

‘Because it was buried.’ Garridan answered softly. ‘Our people bury everything unpleasant as quickly as they can. Surely you’ve noticed that?’

‘You and Vana?!’ Tristan repeated, stunned.

Garridan nodded grimly. ‘I was one hundred and eighteen when her first husband died, and her mother started looking for a second straight away. Ivy wasn’t trying to be heartless-but Vana hadn’t had children yet, and time is a valuable thing, even to us.’ He exhaled slowly. ‘So I was put forward for Vana’s hand-the first of the Marked to be volunteered- and we got along like clams.’ Garridan smiled. ‘Ivy gave Vana a year to decide if we were a good match, and left us to it,’ he wriggled his salt and pepper eyebrows. ‘And boy, did we have fun trying to work
that
out.’

Tristan’s mouth fell open. ‘Out of
wedlock
?!’ he demanded, incredulous.

His uncle grinned. ‘Well, she’d been married before. And I had quite the way with the uh, ladies so no one was out to guard my virtue…’

‘So
that’s
where I get it from!’ Tristan snorted, thinking of his father Emilia who was a dark, withdrawn man who’d only ever had the one partner-the woman he’d married.

‘Well sort of, but from your mother too. She was an ostentatious flirt.’ Garridan chuckled. ‘
She’s
the reason why french girls have such bad reputations! And it wasn’t just
men
she was attracted to either. I lost a girlfriend or two to that sly sister of mine!’

‘Um..
. ew
.’ Tristan said, grimacing. ‘Any time you want to stop breaking my world, feel free to.’

‘Sorry.’ Garridan said, looking too amused for it to have been a sincere apology. ‘
Any
way, Vana and I had a very passionate coupling. But there was a problem, when it came to impregnating her. We tried and tried, but got nowhere.’

‘How long did you try for?’ Tristan asked.

‘A year.’

‘Just a
year
?’ Tristan couldn’t believe it. ‘But that’s
nothing
!’

Alas, his uncle shook his head. ‘My problem was more technical than that-I couldn’t actually uh, well…’ his weathered face scrunched up. ‘Nothing happened, to end things. Well I
felt
it, but the piping didn’t work.’

Tristan was relieved. That was hardly
his
problem. ‘Do you know why?’

Garridan nodded. ‘There were complications when I was born, so we think it stems from there. I just don’t produce semen.’ He patted Tristan’s arm. ‘Sorry for the over share, as you youngins’ say.’

‘Sorry for
me
?’ Tristan shook his head. ‘I had no idea! I just thought you had a low fertility or something.’

‘Nope-
zero
fertility. And it’s not like our kind can just run off to a doctor to have some tests done.’ He sighed. ‘Anyway, to make a long story short, it became pretty obvious that I’d never have children.’

‘So she left you?’

‘It wasn’t quite that simple,’ Garridan’s eyes shone. ‘She loved me. She wanted to be with me anyway. She begged Ivy to even try for more children, but she was far too old by then to give her a sister or brother. For a little while, I thought she was going to run away with me anyway, even though that would have been the worst thing for the kingdom.’

‘So what happened?’

Garridan frowned. ‘A shipwreck-that’s what. That’s where Anna found Ash-it happened five nautical miles from her palace in France. Anna turned this man, and while he was recuperating, he fell in love with her beautiful granddaughter….’

Tristan’s eyes opened. ‘And she loved him back?’

Garridan shook his head. ‘Not at first. He was older, but had already had six children to his Italian wife. However she had died from tuberculosis, and the six children were living with their aunt in England.’ He held up six fingers. ‘
Six
. That’s healthy fertility competition right there.’

Tristan had known nothing of this. ‘So Ivyanne has six half brothers and sisters?’

Garridan nodded. ‘Well she did, the youngest of them has been dead for quite some time. Ash used to keep track of them, but after a hundred years or so, realized it was pointless, or so Simone tells me. He was just torturing himself, so he shut that door to the past.’

‘Wow. I wonder if that’s why he was so protective of Ivyanne? I mean, aside from the usual reasons.’

‘That’s more than likely. Fatherhood was different then-it was customary for men to have to leave for long periods of time. But I dare say that he wanted to do the best job he could with his second chance.’

‘I wonder if he was angry at Anna for having turned him?’

Garridan snorted. ‘What would the point have been to that? He would have been dead if she hadn’t. And this way-he scored the love of both our lives.’

Tristan frowned. ‘You loved her?’

‘Like you wouldn’t kno-’ Garridan stopped himself. ‘Well, probably exactly as you know.’

They stared at their hands respectively, each lost in their thoughts until Tristan asked: ‘So what happened?’

Garridan sighed. ‘Ivy got ideas straight away. She even offered Vana a compromise-marry
me
, but bear Ash’s children.’

Tristan narrowed his eyes, thinking of what Saraya had told him about the argument between the Kayu-Api’s and The Courts regarding Ivyanne doing the same thing. ‘Did she go for it?’

Garridan shrugged. ‘I’ll never know. I stormed out and didn’t come back. The very idea of her having to try with someone else over and over again, to give her what I couldn’t…’ Garridan’s face went grey. ‘And I couldn’t. Keeping her would have cost the kingdom dearly, so I set us both free.’ He scratched his neck. ‘That’s when I went to live among the humans in the United States, enlisting in the army for awhile. It was easier to be with them, to not hear the news of what was happening back in France. I think she waited for me for awhile, but the kingdom pushed, and she was married within the year. And apparently, it worked out well for her in the end.’

‘So you stayed in America?’

Garridan nodded. ‘My heart was broken. I couldn’t face coming back and watching her with her new love, knowing there was no chance for me, with humans
or
mers, to have my own family and move on.’ He sighed. ‘I would have stayed away forever, and they were happy to let me go-I’ll give them that-I’ve had more freedom than any Marked child.’ He looked down at his hands. ‘But then Simone started having you kids, and I wanted to get to know you. I started visiting again, first France, and then your family moved to the states just as The Courts decided to settle there for awhile. So naturally our paths crossed.’

‘That must have been awkward.’

Garridan’s cheeks colored. ‘Yes. I had to guard her for a year or two in the late seventies as well-neither Ash or I liked it, but one of the producers of his films made advances towards her while Ash was away, and he was considered dangerous while I was considered the best man for the job.’

Tristan’s eyes widened. ‘Did anything happen?’

‘A kiss.’ He said softly. ‘One, on a full moon.’ He sighed. ‘But then she found out she was pregnant so I got the hell out of there. She loved being a mother, and Ash was a fantastic father. It filled whatever gap they’d had in their intimacy. I guess that gave us both the push to move on forever.’

Tristan was relieved that he only knew this now that Vana was dead. He wasn’t sure that he’d be able to look her in the eye, picturing her with his uncle. And suddenly, a lot of things started to make sense. Vana’s favoritism. Ash’s resentment….it was all because of Garridan!