The Redtail Heiress
Realmi
Act 01: Of Plans and Trickery
***
"Damn it all to Hell!" Spike Spiegel yelled after the bill collector left. The Spiegel estate had fallen on hard times while he was away playing cowboy with Ein and Jet. What was once a proud and noble manor now looked like a child had super glued it together. "Goddammit, I knew leaving the place in Fad's charge was a bad idea."
"Any idiot with half a brain could figure that one out, Spike," sighed the tall golden haired Ein.
"Now, Ein, leave Spike alone, not even I thought Fad was low enough to do this to his own family!" Jet said, coming to Spike's rescue. The three friends took off about three years ago for an "adventure." Not daring to leave his two sisters unattended, he wrote a letter to his cousin Fad to stay with Ed and Electra. During those three years, Fad managed to destroy a good part of the Spiegel farmland, spend the family fortune, but them miles in debt, and die before Spike came back to give him a proper ass kicking.
"Damn bastard," Spike, who had returned five days ago, said bitterly as he hung his head. "There has to be someway to save this place!"
"Doesn't the Queen owe you a favor?" Ein asked as he laid out on a moth eaten couch. The once glamorous mansion was now barren except for the old long table in the dining hall, a few chairs and bed, the rest was all things they couldn't or wouldn't sale.
"The Queen of Bebop got the three of us out of jail because I slept with her and she didn't want her husband to find out." Spike said, Ein opened his mouth to say something but closed it when he remembered Spike's views on blackmailing.
"Oh Spikii-Spike!" called the sing song voice of Spike's youngest sister, Ed. "Mail for you, mail for you-u!" she sang happily to her own little tune as she danced into the once lounge where the trio was currently moping. Electra followed her into the room smiling. Ein immediately sat up straight as spike's beautiful twin sister walked in.
"Hello, gentlemen," she said as elegantly as can be expected from a duke's sister. True the Spiegel clan had fallen on some very harsh times, but they were still noble blood nonetheless. Jet gave her a little salute and Ein smiled weakly as she stalked over to her brother, who was being terrorized by Ed.
"Give me the letter, will you?"
"Spikii gotta say please-ese!" Ed squealed as she darted the letter to and fro, always just out of her older brother's reach.
"Why you," Spike snarled tackling his sibling to the ground. "Gimme that," he ordered tickling her into submission.
"AHAHAHAHAHA! OKAY! HERE LETTER!" Ed giggled tossing the letter to her brother, who immediately stopped tickling her to see who had written him. What he saw nearly made him die of surprise; on the envelope was the Redtail seal.
"Spike? What's wrong?" asked Electra, leaning in to read over his shoulder. "Oh my, what could Redtail want with us?"
"REDTAIL!?" shouted Ein and Jet together. The Redtail family was a very mysterious and very rich family. The legendary merchant Cyanide Redtail had made the largest fortune in the entire known world and one daughter, who was the mystery of the family. She was the offspring of the marriage between Mr. Redtail and the daughter of Garrote Swordfish, the largest landowner in the country Bebop. Whether it is truth or rumor, Redtail only went to bed with the daughter of Swordfish once and nine months later had no wife and a baby girl (the mother died in pregnancy in case you didn't get that). Redtail then crafted a large castle in which to keep his daughter from the public, and that is where she was still. Not much was known about her, not even her name, but what was known about her is enough to spark any man's interest. She, upon her father's death, will be rich beyond reasoning, for even though Redtail was a wizard at making money, he had "issues" with spending it.
"Well, open it, Spike," Jet encouraged. Spike shrugged nonchalantly peeled off the seal, took out the contents, and began to read.
"Hmmmm…" he said after reading it, everyone in the room stopped and looked at Spike in question. "Interesting," he said putting the letter in his pocket.
"Well, what does Redtail want?" Electra asked, everyone stared at Spike intently; he smiled wickedly and said,
"I'm not telling."
"Tell, Spikii, Te-l!" Ed roared, reaching for her brother's pocket.
"Com'on, Spike!" Jet begged.
"What kind of friend are you!?" Ein yelled.
"Please?" Electra asked. Spike smiled again and took out the letter.
"It seems good old Redtail wants me to escort his daughter to her groom to be."
"The Redtail Heiress is getting married?"
"Wedding! Wedding! Lovey-dovey wedding!" Ed sand, dancing about.
"Love? Most likely not, Redtail never gave anything away for free in his life, and I don't think he's going to start with his most prized possession." Spike sighed. "The Heiress is marrying Vicious Syndicate, you know, the son of the second riches family on Bebop."
"What if….. Mr. Redtail had no choice in the matter?" Electra said, Spike looked up at her in question. His puzzlement was quickly replaced by fear. Spike considered himself to be a very brave man, in fact only two things scared him: Whatever it was that Jet had cooked for dinner three nights ago and that look. Nothing good had ever come to a man who was given that look by a female.
"No way, ut uh, not happening!" he said, reading his twin's thoughts. "I'm *not* going to seduce the Heiress. No!" Everyone else, aside from Ed who was humming "Here Comes the Bride," gave Spike the same look Electra was giving him. "Hey, hey, hey! Not you guys to! I thought you all liked me alive!" Spike shouted frantically, imagining all the horrible things that Redtail would do to him if he tried that.
"We do like you alive Spike," Ein said reassuringly, smiling in a fake sweetness.
"We'd just like you a lot better attached to billions upon billions of woolongs!" Jet smiled. Spike shook his head madly.
"NO! NO! NO! NO!" he yelled.
"Well that's just very selfish of you then, isn't it!?" Electra said raising her voice. This caused everyone to stop, even Ed, no one had heard Electra yell before.
"Selfish?" Spike asked, warily.
"Yes, who else are we going to keep this place afloat? We have hundreds of thousands of woolongs in debt! Hundreds of thousands that we don't have! We need you to do this! While you were out with your friends doing God knowing what and who, Ed and I had to put up with hunger pains and the drunken asshole you had got to baby sit us!" Electra bellowed, causing the men to sink lower in their places with guilt.
"Well, Spike, it looks like Electra is your twin after all," Ein said quietly, her wording was very much similar to the man across from him.
"Couldn't you tell by the stunning good looks and charm?" Spike joked.
"Exactly, Spike, put your so called stunning good looks and charm to use!" Electra ordered.
"And snag yourself an Heiress!" Jet finished with a smirk.
"What if she's ugly?" Spike sighed in defeat.
***
Faye Redtail walked through the garden silently, musing about her new challenge. "So, the old man wants me to marry?" she whispered aloud. She threw her raven haired head back and sighed. Will my husband let me paint? Boss people around? Make choices? Or will I be even more caged then I already am? She thought gloomily. The sun picked at her pale skin, she normally only took her walks in the evenings but the news made the need to clear her head very important. Never in all my life have I been outside those walls, she though, sitting down on one of the garden benches. Is there even a world out there? If so, I would like to see it for once! She thought angrily, sitting up. That's it, where is Julia? I need to paint something.
***
Within moments Faye had found her lovely cousin and was in the shade painting her. Julia sat serenely on one of the garden benches looking intently at Tristan and Isolde in a very stunning silk dress that showed off every curve of her cousins beautiful body. A pang of jealously shot through Faye as she looked at her relative, Faye would gladly change her pasty skin for her cousin's sun kissed one. Her short, straight, dark hair for Julia's long golden, curly locks, her green eyes for Julia's honeyed colored, the list went on. However, the jealously died when she remembered something that had made the past ten odd years of her life bearable. What I lack in looks I make up for ten fold in brains! She thought happily.
She dabbed her brush into so blue pain to color in the flower in Julia's hair….only to look down her brown cotton dress to find all the blue paint was there. "Hey, I'm going to go get some more paint, don't move," Faye called out to her cousin. Julia was very good about not moving, any chance to have her beauty captured was good enough reason for her to sit around doing nothing.
As Faye was walking towards the shed, were the head gardener let her put her paints, a hand reached out and clamped itself about her mouth. Before her mind could relay this to her body she was dragged to the other side of the castle. Oh God, I'm going to be kidnapped, raped, but most likely killed! Faye thought. I forgive my father for putting my in this pretty prison, it isn't really so bad. Oh God! She thought, fighting against her captor. "Whoa, whoa, relax, I'm not going to hurt you," whispered a pleasant male voice in Faye's ear. The voice caused Faye to relax, somewhat. "I'm going to let go of your mouth, please don't scream,"
Heh, fool, Faye thought was the "villain" let go of her mouth. She then let out a scream to quake the dead. However, before 2 seconds of screaming the strong hand was back over her mouth.
"I told you not to scream." The voice sighed. Faye could feel the man shaking his head. He was a good seven inches taller then her and lean and muscled as far as she could tell. Hmmm…..if he is pretty maybe I can talk to him about posing for some paintings…….Oh God I can't believe I just thought that!
"Did you hear me?" The voice asked. Oh, he's talking? Faye shook her head "no." "I want to ask some questions about the Heiress," he said, releasing his other hand from Faye's arm and pointing to Julia, who hadn't moved. Heh heh, this sucker doesn't know I'm the heiress…..ooo……here's an evil thought. "If I let go of your mouth, do you promise not to scream?" the voice asked, Faye nodded again and he let her go. This time instead of screaming she turned around to face the fool that confused her and her cousin.
And she almost melted in spot when she did, before she remembered that this was *not* a romance novel and that she was *not* and utterly pathetic spineless heroine in one. But, Damn, he is beautiful……which means he's a stupid, arrogant, bastard, Faye said inwardly. "What do you want to know about my cousin?"
"So, she's your cousin?" the man asked her, looking skeptical, eyeing her brown cotton paint stained dress.
"Not everyone has to dress up like a peacock, Mister….?"
"Spiegel, Spike Spiegel," he said. "So tell me, what is your cousin's name?"
"Julia," Faye stated. "Her favorite color is black and she likes velvet." She added.
"Ah….and what is he lovely Julia's favorite flower? Roses?"
"Heh, your lovely Julia is as vain as she is beautiful, she doesn't like anything that compares with her beauty. You're best bet would be dandelions"
"Ah, but I see she seems smart enough, she's reading a book," Spike said, gazing at Julia in a calculating manor.
"Yeah, Julia is a real bookworm," Faye said. "Why do you want to know all this? Trying to seduce the fair Heiress? How did you get in here anyway? Who the Hell are you?" Fay asked rapidly.
"I want to get to know her, I threw a rope over the wall climbed up it and climbed down on that peach tree, and I'm escorting Julia to her fiancé." Spike answered.
"You're a day early."
"Yes, I wanted to see the Heiress."
"You didn't answer a question, are you trying to seduce my cousin?"
Spike looked uncomfortable and answered, "That's were I need your help, my family had fallen on hard times while I was away, and we need serious money seriously soon."
Oh please, can't you come up with something original? Faye thought, surprising the urge to roll her eyes. "Well, I told you just about everything you need to know about Julia, she should be eating out of your hand by tomorrow, the day you "officially" are welcomed here." She said happily. Spike cupped her hands together and kissed them.
"You are very kind." He said, then he darted towards the peach tree and with a speed that surprised the real Heiress, climbed up it, waved back at her and dropped out of sight.
Poor fool, Faye thought on her way to the shed. Julia can't stand the color black or velvet. She can't read n she's allergic to dandelions. Oh well, he should know better then to trust a woman with a brain. Oh well, he'll find out tomorrow… She stopped five feet in front of the door handle. Or maybe he won't…. then the Heiress got an idea, an awful idea, the Heiress got a wonderful, awful idea! I have to go find Vincent and fill him in, Julia's not going anywhere.
***
"Come on!" Faye begged her best friend.
"No, absolutely not, your father would sever my head off and leave my mangled body nailed to the door as an example to all others." Vincent said, sitting in the sole chair in Faye's room, which was much plainer then Julia's cause Faye had inherited a trait from her father: spend other people's money as much as you want, spend your money very little.
"Vincent…." Faye whined.
"The pout isn't going to work, Redtail," Vincent sighed. Oh, how he hated it when Faye got ideas, they always lead to trouble. Vincent had been living with Faye since she was six, her father brought the orphaned boy in as a playmate for his only daughter, and six years later Redtail brought in Julia too. Vincent had been abused by his witchdoctor of a father when he was young that had left him with horrible scars on his neck, face, and arms, bad lungs and an icy disregard to everyone aside Faye, who had always loved him.
"Do you know who I am to marry, Vincent?" asked the 20 year old girl before him. Vincent sighed, yes, he knew alright. Her father had sold her to the son of a wicked family. The son himself was cold hearted and bitter about a fiancé who had cheated on him. Oh yes, Vincent knew quite well what Faye was unwillingly getting herself into.
"I need this time. I need these days, these weeks. I want to be *free,* Vincent. For once I'd like to be Faye, not the Redtail Heiress! Will my husband let me be Faye? Will my husband see me as a person? Or as an object like my father does?" Faye knew she had won when Vincent stood up and looked out the window.
"Alright, I'll tell the staff, you tell Julia."
"I knew you'd see it my way."
"You are so like your father," Vincent sighed.
"I'm cuter right?"
"Much. And more troublesome too."
"Ah, you're making my blush!" Faye joked and darted out the door to look for Julia. Vincent sank back down into his chair.
"Good Lord, what form of chaos have I unleashed?"
***End Of Plans and Trickery ***
Author's thingii: This is an AU story (duh) based heavily on Jude Deveraux's The Heiress. I don't own anyone or anything….yet. Lalalalalala, ooooo coffee!