cornerofmadness (cornerofmadness) wrote in royai, @ 2008-03-10 23:29:00 |
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Current mood: | crappy |
Current music: | Run - Snow Patrol |
Fic Update - Sorrow's Dark Array
Sorrow’s Dark Array
Author - cornerofmadness
Disclaimer - not mine, all characters belong to Hiromu Arakawa et al, Square Enix and funimition.
Pairing – Roy/Riza, Ed/Win (eventually) Winry/OC, mentions of Maes/Gracia and Al/OC
Rating – will vary from chapter to chapter, mostly Pg-13 but will eventually contain well marked adult chapters.
Time Line – anime based, spoilers all the way through the anime and the movie and does have strong manga elements such as Armstrong’s older sister and the land of Xing
Summary – As Roy and Riza prepare for their wedding, while dodging assassins, Ed and Al try to find their way back home.
Author’s Note #1– This was written after much prodding by evil_little_dog as a sequel to the source of sorrow and is now her holiday gift even if she has beta’ed part of it. So thanks to her and lyricnonsense for the beta. You do not have to read the first story to understand this. You’ll quickly pick up that Riza has retired from the military to be Roy’s wife and bodyguard. Olivia Armstrong is now president and she’s assigned Roy as the ambassador to Ishbal; oh and that Roy was severely injured in the destruction of the Gate, requiring some of Winry’s automail.
Author's Note #2 - This is a longer work and like real relationships, the ones listed in the pairings, take time to mend and come together. They have to work at it. Hope you enjoy the ride.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
We're a long, long way from home. Home's a long, long way from us.” - Bruce Springsteen
They had been all over Ireland: Hughes and Al doing most of the hard hiking to find the fairy mounds, especially after Ed took a fall over some standing stones and did something to the automail he had gotten from Winry. It was just so hard to keep it running right without the correct parts or anyone who knew how to work it. Ed could barely walk correctly on even surfaces. To go hiking, he needed a crutch. At least his hand was almost working as it should. Ed didn’t want to tell Al how much he wanted to be wrong about fairies and gateways. Ed wanted to go home, would almost kill to get there, but he knew deep down this was a fool’s quest and he had been proven right so far.
Day by day, city after city, Ed watched disappointment wear Al and Hughes down like rock before the ocean waves. In the meantime, he went back to Al’s other idea about Janus and the keys and all the symbols that went with him. In the end, fairy mounds finally convincing even Alphonse they were a dead end, Al returned to Janus as well. Ed had begun to believe there was something to it beyond mythology that the symbols might just be a form of alchemy. That led them to really starting researching into this world’s sciences, only to find that there had been alchemy once but it had fallen out of favor centuries ago.
Ed had learned something very important. Hohenheim’s name was known but that didn’t surprise him. The important discovery was the stained glass windows in gothic churches around Europe were one vast alchemic text that only a few even suspected existed and no one could read: no one but him and his brother. And read the windows they did, learning that there were still signs about how to make a Philosopher Stone, well, until Ed chucked a rock through one of the windows, shattering that bit of knowledge. What they had learned, coupled with the Janus myths had brought them here, Rome: their goal the Cloaca Maxima and, more importantly, the archway above the ancient sewer, the Janus Quadrifrons.
They would wait until the cover of dark for that. The brothers hadn’t been able to elude Hughes, not that they had tried. That would come tonight. They just couldn’t bring him to a world he didn’t know. He needed to stay on Earth and heal, as impossible as that might sound to him now. The brothers knew too well what it was like to be in a world not their own. Ed didn’t want to die here. Al might have lost his heart in this place but Ed knew his brother longed for Amestris as much as he did; more than he could ever have imagined. What Ed wouldn’t do to see Winry again. Hell, he even wanted to see Colonel Shit. It galled that he even missed Mustang.
They ate at a restaurant, wading through the impressive plates of foods Italians dined on regularly. Music played in the background, a waltz, slow and lovely. Ed remembered Al and Ziata dancing to waltzes in the past, Hughes and Gracia. Ed had sat out that dance, wishing he had Winry with him. He remembered the music changing up with the ridiculously fast paced Jitterbug and the Charleston. Al had been a damn good dancer. Even if Ed had had someone to dance with, his automail would never have done it, not in the condition this world left it in. Sometimes, Ed wondered if his fear of being here without anyone who understood automail had somehow made it break down faster, in a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Ed watched as the waiter took away their plates and brought even more food. He had already waded through antipasti and then gnocchi. The secondo plata of grilled fish took the place of the pasta and their limoncello digestivos was refreshed. Ed sipped the sweet lemony liqueur, thinking Winry would have liked it. He glanced over at Al and Hughes, wondering if their poor appetites could bear up to this culinary onslaught or would they end up insulting the locals. A contorno of zucchini in lemon juice was sat down with the fish. By the time the formaggio and frutta and the dessert arrived, Ed didn’t think he and Al could even move, let alone figure a way to give Hughes the slip and get to the archway. Ed knew that his crutch would only slow him down more but Al couldn’t do this alone and he wasn’t staying behind here.
Finally after the coffee, the waiter brought the ammazzacafe, coffee killer. Ed liked that term and Italian coffee was certainly strong enough to need dulling. The sambuca, however, was so licorice-like Ed was convinced he could breathe fire. Mustang could be dangerous with this stuff. He blinked, trying not to think about these people, just in case he and Al failed.
Hughes absently picked at the coffee bean that had been used to make the digestive pretty. “When do you think you’ll be ready to try opening a gate? I’m not sure how long we can stay here, being foreigners.”
Al shook his head, his ponytail catching on his collar. “We’re not sure we can do this at all, sir.”
“You have to be prepared for us to fail,” Ed added, hoping he could dissuade his friend. It already felt awful, lying to the man. How much would it hurt to leave him behind, knowing that their Hughes was long dead? Not as much as bringing him to Amestris to see a still- living Gracia and Elicia.
“Somehow I don’t think failure is an option for you boys,” Hughes replied, peering over his glasses at them.
Al flashed a thin, nervous smile at the man’s intense scrutiny. “You’d be so surprised at how spectacularly we can fail.”
Ed winced at those words. “Come on, let’s get back to the hotel. My leg hurts.” Not to mention his back and his shoulder from having a crutch wedged up under it. If they failed tonight, he would have to risk opening the plates on his leg and seeing if he could find what broke. He knew he could trust Al to help him but they were both so distracted, Ed feared it could be one of those ‘spectacular failures’.”
Trying not to flinch away, disliking people helping him or thinking he was an invalid, Ed suffered through having Hughes help him up and hated that he almost needed that help. Ed got his crutch under him, wondering if he could walk without it when they were sneaking out of the hotel. It made a dreadful thump, then again, so did his failing leg. They were quiet on the way back. Ed felt nervous jitters up and down his spine and it was not entirely from the impending alchemy but from the people around him. The MVSN, the Blackshirts, who enforced Il Duce’s policies, which had stripped away even more personal liberties as of late, had everyone jumpy. Hughes was right. They weren’t tremendously welcome here.
Ed tried to look as normal as he could once they got back to their rooms. As much as he wanted to shoo Hughes out and back to his own room, he let the man sit and talk with him and his brother, just like they did every night. Ed wasn’t even faking it when he half-fell asleep on the bed mid-conversation. When Ed snapped out of it, he was shocked he could relax that much.
Finally, Hughes retired for the night and the brothers waited an hour past that before slowly making their way to the archway of Janus Quadrifrons. Ed noticed his brother’s sideways glances, judging if Ed was actually going to make it or not. Ed knew that the arch was marble over brick but he couldn’t help wondering what had been in all those little niches dotting the structure so many centuries ago. Four arches forming a cross, Ed could only hope this was the right place.
“What if we have to go into the cloaca itself for this?” Al cast another dubious look at Ed’s crutch.
“I’ll lean on you if need be but we can try here first. I’m not going into a thousand year old sewer if I don’t have to.” Ed pulled a long face.
Al, much fussier than his brother, echoed Ed’s horrified expression. “Agreed.”
He and Al looked around then began to draw the arrays. Ed felt rusty at it. It had been so long since he had to draw. They made the array with unpracticed hands but it felt right. The look in Al’s eyes said he felt it, too. Maybe it was possible. They activated the array and the ground dropped out from under them as the doorway opened, wrong, dropping them into the cloaca.
Sputtering, covered with seepage and things he didn’t even want to imagine, Ed sat up. “Fuck!”
Al wrung out his ponytail, squinting in the darkness. He pulled out his flashlight and turned it on. “Ed, look.” The light picked up a goddess carved into the wall, Cloacina, Ed decided from their research, but next to her was Janus and a complex array of symbols. “It worked. The alchemy did work and it brought us here into the Cloaca Maxima.”
“We needed that to complete the array,” Ed said excitedly, hobbling to the wall.
Al gave Ed a huge grin. “Exactly.”
This time, the array went up on the wall faster than the first. Just as they went to activate it, something dropped down behind them with a splash. Ed felt the pull of the opening gate just as he heard Hughes say, “How dare you try to run out on me?” his indignation swallowed up by cold silence and a flash of grease-hued hands.
X X X
Roy looked around stealthily. Not seeing anyone, he slithered out of bed. He hadn’t wanted to come to the Rockbells’. There had been massive fights about the plan to hide him out in the country. He knew someone could come to finish the job of killing him and Roy would not have Pinako and Winry in the middle of that. However, he was too injured to just go home or back to work as much as he wanted to. Surely, Roy had argued, they could hire a live in nurse in that monstrous house of his. Havoc and the rest could handle guarding him and making sure everything went smoothly at work. Instead, those devious women had kidnapped him and dragged him to Resembol. With his ripped up shoulder, hundreds of sutures and broken ribs – not to mention the power of his evil sisters to aid in the abduction – there had been nothing Roy could do.
He was still without a leg because of the infection around the port. His ribs and shoulder didn’t allow for him to get up on crutches, leaving him wheelchair bound. Roy wanted to be on the first floor on a patient cot but the hard-headed Rockbell women wouldn’t hear of it, ensconcing him in Ed and Al’s old room. It felt somehow invasive and creepy to be there. He half expected Ed to come through the door, screaming at Roy for being in his room. Fortunately, Riza came by daily to see him. She and his men, including Aris and Dev, were all holed up at the local inn, so something resembling work could go on. After all, it had been nearly three months and he was just now beginning to recover his strength. He wished Riza could sleep next to him but he had been so sore he couldn’t share a bed and get any rest.
Crawling, Roy poked his head out the door. The coast was clear; he could hear Winry in with another patient. His shoulder twinged as he crept along. It had been a long time since his cadet days but Roy knew how to low crawl with the best of them. He slithered along the floor, aiming for the back door. Winry and Riza had been wheeling him out there so he could rest in the sun but two days ago, another cough settled into his chest and they were afraid he was getting sick and had taken away his wheelchair. Roy, disagreeing with this plan, had decided on making a break for freedom.
Of course, he didn’t know where Winry kept the blanket he laid on when he was outside but the grass wouldn’t be too bad. It was summer and the grass was thick and soft. Roy heard the scurry of feet just as Den caught his pants leg, pulling like she had found a new toy. “Get! Go away!” he hissed at the senile, old dog then turned to crawl some more only to find himself staring at thin legs with bagging stockings. Don’t look up. You do not want to see what’s up that skirt. Roy studied the floor. “Uh….hi?”
Her heel thudded into his head and he shut his eye. “Just where do you think you’re going?” Pinako asked loudly.
“I’m running away from home,” he said petulantly, hearing the door to the patient room open. He glanced over to see Winry coming out with a patient, a stunned young woman with an automail arm. Just what he needed now that he was sprawled out on the floor. “This is what happens when you don’t listen to your mechanic,” he informed her.
“Why is he on the floor?” Winry asked, her oil-stained hands jamming into her hips.
“He claims to be running away. Slithering like a snake is more like it. Men, most of you are bellycrawlers.” Pinako snorted, planting her foot on his forehead again.
“Hey!” he protested but refrained from reminding her she had given birth to a bellycrawler because then it would just remind them all why Urey Rockbell wasn’t with them any more. “I’m just so damn bored. I wanted to go outside but you stole my wheelchair.”
Winry snorted at him and turned to her patient, walking her to the door. “I’ll see you for an adjustment in a week, Lizzie.” The girl thanked Winry and left. Winry stalked back over and kicked him lightly in the butt. “We did that for a reason. It defeats the purpose if you go crawling around on the floor making yourself sick.”
“I’m not going back to my room.” Roy’s jaw jutted stubbornly.
“Fine, we’ll put you to work,” Pinako informed him.
“To hell with that. If I wanted to work, I’d sign those papers Havoc and Dev keep bringing me,” Roy’s eyes canted towards Winry at the mention of Dev’s name but her face didn’t change. Dev had broken up with her a week ago, leaving her feeling abandoned once again. Roy thought the young man was an idiot but he also understood the pressure he was under. Dev had plenty of reservations about Amestrians and to have all his old friends leave him or torment him for having an Amestrian girlfriend was simply too much for him.
“You’re the one who’s so bored, he’s dusting the floor with his belly,” Winry reminded him.
“I’m going outside with a good book,” Roy insisted, inching forward, testing his luck.
“By that do you mean an alchemy book?” Winry crossed her arms.
“Not necessarily,” he hedged. He had been using his sick time to study ways of maybe crossing the barrier and getting the brothers back for her but so far, the only promising lead was out in the Ishbalan desert and the destroyed city of Xerxes. Once he was back on his feet and at his post in Ishbal as ambassador, Roy planned on searching for it.
“Fine.” Winry went into a patient room and came back with the wheelchair, locking its wheels. She helped Roy lever himself up into the chair. “But no alchemy books. I don’t want you getting worked up.”
“Or so bored you drop one of those heavy tomes on your head and crack it,” Pinako added. “Riza brought you a sack of books.”
Roy sighed. So much for his well laid plans. “Pick me one.”
They took him outside and Winry laid out the blanket. Roy spilled out onto it with his book. He usually smuggled his alarm clock out with him just in case he fell asleep in the sun. He would set it for half hour intervals so he could turn over. Once the ladies were gone and Den was settled on her spot on the blanket, Roy stripped off his shirt and tucked up the knee length legs of his shorts, exposing more thigh. His skin had gone nut brown from all the sun, except for the fresh scars over his belly and chest; long, red arrays of pain.
Roy was half asleep, the mystery resting over his eyes when he felt something lick his bare toes. “Hayate!” he said, knowing Riza’s dog had a foot fetish.
“I heard you tried to escape,” Riza said, not calling off her dog.
Roy lifted the book from his face, his smile dying a little seeing that his sister, Aris and Dev were with her. He had something he really wanted to talk to Riza about but not with them around. “I would have made it if not for Den.”
“I can’t believe I missed him crawling like a baby,” Dev said and Li-Ying cuffed him gently.
“You need to behave, brother.” Li-Ying sat on the blanket with him, unfolding her acupuncture kit.
“No treatment today.” He waved her off.
Li-Ying planted a hand on his forehead. “You need one. Just settle.”
“I’m serious. I feel fine.” Roy wrapped a hand around his sister’s wrist. “You’ve helped me a lot but you really can go home now, Li-Ying. You’ve been spending too much time here and running back and forth to Central.”
“It’s all right, brother,” Li-Ying assured him but she folded her kit back up. “I don’t mind. My partners are running the business back home.”
Roy smiled at her, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. “Thanks.” He looked over at Aris and Dev. “You two have to be here on business.”
Aris nodded. “We’ll be heading back to Central in a few days, then on to Ishbal. Lieutenant Colonel Armstrong isn’t convinced that the bomber doesn’t have ties to us and I have to agree. It could just as easily have been from a disgruntled Ishbalan faction. We’re long overdue to go home.”
“Don’t let me keep you from that, Aris,” Roy said, noticing Dev wasn’t really paying attention. He was staring at the house, probably thinking about Winry if Roy didn’t miss his guess. “Go on in and talk to her if you want, Dev. Just make sure she has nothing in her hands.”
Dev snorted then shook his head. “No, it’s okay. I just wanted to show her I could do this.” He wiggled his thumb. It looked more like a spasm of metal than coordinated movement but Roy remembered the excitement of making his automail move for the first time. “But I’m sure she doesn’t care.”
“She’s your mechanic, she’ll care,” Roy assured him but the boy looked unmoved.
“I’ll go with them to Central, brother, then I’m coming back. You two are supposed to be having an engagement party that has yet to happen. It would be nice to have it before you actually get married. But maybe we should wait for you and Dev to get back, Aris,” Li-Ying said, getting to her feet.
“A party?” Roy looked over at Riza.
“You promised,” she reminded him with a glare that said he would do it or die.
“And speaking of promises, here.” Dev dropped his huge stack of folders next to Roy. “Start signing.”
“Gah, can’t you do anything? Like fake a signature,” Roy whined.
“One, I’m a liaison, not your slave. Two, why would I do that when it would deprive me of the joy of watching you suffer?” Dev smirked.
“Don’t make me crawl over there and gnaw on your ankle,” Roy huffed.
“You’d do it, too.” Dev shrugged. “Well, my job’s done. I’m going back to the hotel and work on the itinerary for what I need to do in Central.”
“I’m going to go talk to Winry about those herbs she was interested in for controlling pain since you’re going to be a baby about having a session, Cricket,” Li-Ying said, strolling towards the house.
“Don’t call me Cricket!” Roy snarled.
Aris chuckled. “I’d better get back as well. I just wanted to get a walk in, instead of calling you with our plans.” The priest raised a hand then turned to continue on his walk.
Roy waited for everyone to go but Riza, scratching Hayate’s head, as he tried to be patient. He patted the blanket beside him and Riza sat down, tapping his sun-warmed chin.
“You were bad.” She kissed his cheek.
“Riza, I’m fine. Look at my leg. It’s scarred but the infection is gone. I’m ready for my automail again. That cough I had was just from me lying around too long, I swear it. I want to go home,” Roy said, resting his head on her thigh as Hayate nuzzled closer to him.
“Neither the doctors nor the Rockbells agree, Roy,” Riza said, brushing his hair back. “So no.”
“Can’t you at least take me to the hotel or stay here for a night?” Roy whined, tickling his fingers down her leg while still scratching Hayate.
“Why?” she blurted out then her eyes narrowed. “Roy, are you suggesting…”
”It’s been weeks.” He pouted.
“You nearly died. You have broken bones,” Riza argued.
“They’re healed. I’m fine. I’m horny, damn it.” Roy’s fingers dug into Hayate’s fur and the dog chuffed at him, moving off. “Take me to the hotel.” Roy looked at the house, sitting up. “I’m not sure I could do it here knowing Winry and Pinako are around. Besides, it’s Ed’s old bed…which I suppose is all the more reason to do it here.” He grinned wickedly
“Roy, honestly. You can be such a brat.” Riza pulled him close. “The bed springs squeak at the hotel and Dev is next door, you know.”
“Oh well, if I can terrorize him, that’s just a bonus.” Roy kissed her neck. “Tell Winry you’re borrowing me for the night.”
“And what excuse am I giving?” He could hear her resolve weakening.
“I don’t care,” Roy said, sensing victory.
“Let’s go in and talk to them.” Riza got up and fetched his wheelchair, helping him into it. She piled the folders on Roy’s lap. Riza found the other ladies in the kitchen having tea so parked Roy next to the table.
“You didn’t knock off any more parts, did you?” Winry asked. “I didn’t hear any screams….well, maybe one.”
“That’s when Dev did this to me.” Roy slapped the folders onto the table. “Brat.” He swiveled around and looked at Riza. He knew the request wouldn’t go well coming from him.
“Actually, I’d like to borrow Roy. He can stay at the hotel tonight,” Riza said, her voice as calm as if requisitioning office supplies.
“Why? He’s got a perfectly good bed here,” Winry replied, giving Riza a quizzical look.
Pinako chuckled around her pipe stem. “Think for a moment, girl.”
“Huh?” Winry stared at the couple for a moment then face lit up like a red lantern. “Oh!”
“That’s my brother, always looking for sex.” Li-Ying shook her head, her twin ponytails swinging. “I have herbs to cure that, Riza.”
“No, you don’t.” Roy tossed a file at his sister.
“I’ll keep that in mind, Li-Ying.” Riza laughed.
“You know you’ve always been welcome here, Riza. I mean, if he’s well enough for that then he’s well enough to have you stay the nights with him here,” Winry said, giving Roy a look.
“Roy’s too shy for that,” Riza replied.
“We’re upstairs. What does he think we’ll hear?” Winry asked then rubbed a finger over her lips. “Can it be that loud?” she added, making her grandmother snicker some more.
“It’s been since forever, what do you think?” Roy growled.
“Don’t traumatize Winry,” Riza said, putting a hand on his head. “I’m going to leave you here to go get the car since I walked. You start signing those reports.”
“Don’t leave me here with all these women,” Roy protested, clinging to her wrist. “They’ll mock me.”
“You’re always alone with all these women,” Riza reminded him.
“Yeah well…now they know. ” Roy pouted.
“We’ve always known you were a pervert, Cricket. Just sign your reports or Riza won’t come back for you,” Li-Ying said, her dark eyes gleaming.
Roy glowered at them all. “Get me a damn pen.”
X X X
Rose didn’t like Central. It was just too big. There were so many people and life was so…easy. She was all too aware of how hard it was to make a living in Lior and she had not forgotten what the armies of Central had done to her home, to her. No, a constant reminder held her fingers captive as her son trundled alongside her. She had their luggage brought to the hotel Judith had arranged for her. Now she had to meet with their contact here in Central. Sometimes Rose wondered why Judith had picked her for such an important thing like this, organizing things to ensure Lior got the aid it deserved. Alex Louis would be so proud and Rose had told Judith about how she had worked with the big man to help rebuild Lior in the early days. Judith had been very interested in that, especially now that Alex Louis’ sister ran this country. The person Rose was supposed to meet was part of President Armstrong’s entourage.
Kane sucked on his plump fist, his round eyes taking in everything. If the child was nervous about his new surroundings like his mother was, he didn’t show it. Rose wished she could feel the same ease her child seemed to. Not having a babysitter, Rose hoped it wouldn’t be too big of a problem to just show up at the office she had been instructed to go to with Kane in tow. Of course, just finding the place had proven to be a problem. Even though the president wasn’t actually in the office, it was still out of the way so her staff members wouldn’t be routinely bothered, or so Rose assumed.
Finally, she found the building. A guard stopped her at the door, not threatening, almost seeming as if he was expecting to shoo away a lost mother. Rose handed him the letter that had been left for her at the hotel, the one she had been instructed to bring. He looked at it then escorted her inside to a large desk that a bored young woman sat behind. She perked up some, seeing the guard and Rose.
“Mr. Attaway wants to see her,” the guard said.
“Oh, all right.” The girl made a call then got up, beckoning to Rose. “Follow me please.”
Rose followed her through depressingly beige-walled corridors, a maze that she wasn’t sure she could find her own way out of again. She found herself left with another woman, an older one now who smiled at Kane as she waved a hand at the seats.
”Isn’t he darling?” she asked as the young woman left the office.
“Thank you. His name is Kane.” Rose ruffled his hair fondly.
“Mr. Attaway will be free in just a few moments. You can leave Kane with me while you meet with him.”
Rose felt some of her tension ebb away. “Thank you….” She looked at the woman quizzically.
“I’m Mrs. Dill,” the secretary offered.
“Thank you Mrs. Dill. I just got into town and I don’t know anyone. I couldn’t just leave Kane at the hotel,” Rose babbled nervously.
“No, of course not.” Mrs. Dill glanced up, hearing the inner office door opening.
Rose didn’t know what she expected Mr. Attaway to look like but he was younger than she had anticipated. Slender as a broomstick, he was so tall she wondered if he’d hit his head on the doorway. She had never seen such white-gold hair or icy eyes before. He might have been more attractive if he hadn’t been so gaunt.
“You’re Rose?” He cast a frosty glance at Kane.
“Mrs. Dill said she’d watch him,” Rose said, her throat suddenly dry.
Mr. Attaway gave her a curt nod then ducked back into his office. Rose followed him. His office seemed as cold as he looked, nothing breaking up the beige of the office walls. She sat on the wooden chair in front of his desk. His own chair was well-padded leather. Mr. Attaway sat down and still managed to loom over her. “Judith has been in contact with my office for some time now,” he said without preamble. “I’m Morley Attaway, if Judith hadn’t told you. I’m one of President Armstrong’s attaché’s. While she is busy with her economic advisors and military counsel, I organize much of the every day functions here in Central.”
Rose didn’t know what she was supposed to say. She hadn’t realized he would be so important. She was glad that Attaway continued his speech without seeming to notice that she was at a loss for words.
“Judith wants you to be the liaison between her and myself since we’re both very busy people and could use help with the details so that the rebuilding of Lior can proceed without any further delay. There has been enough of that,” Attaway said and Rose nodded.
“I’ll do my best.” She smiled broadly, thrilled to be part of something so important.
”I’m sure you will.” His smile seemed as cool as the rest of him. “There’s not much we can do today. I’m sure you’re exhausted from such a long trip. I’ll get Mrs. Dill working on finding a sitter for your son, all expenses paid. The one thing I do ask of all my assistants is to remember I’m in charge.”
Rose bobbed her head enthusiastically. She had no problems doing what she was told. “Of course.”
“Then I’ll give you a call at the hotel when I’m ready for you to start. In fact, we’ll probably move you to a small apartment if this works out. You can’t just live out of a hotel. That’s no place for a small boy.” Attaway stood up and held out his hand.
Rose shook it, not noticing the sly look that stole into his eyes. All she could think of was how much good she could do for Lior.