AN: Thank you all for the support you continue to give this story :)
Chapter 37
"Honey, it's just as beautiful as the last time we were here," Tris gushed to Uriah. "Every time is like the first time."
"I know what you mean," Uriah said with a fiendish grin.
"Uriah!" Tris exclaimed, going beet red.
In the plane on their way from Geneva to Paris they had agreed that while they were in Paris they would maintain their characters at all times, except when they were assuredly alone.
Uriah just grinned at her, thoroughly enjoying himself.
"Grab your purse darling, we're here," Uriah said, as their limousine pulled up in front of the Shangri-La in Paris. A car had been waiting of them at the airport, courtesy of the Geiserts. "Chasseur, s'il vous plaît apporter nos affaires dans le hall."
Tris and Uriah had stepped out of the limo and Uriah had asked the bellhop to bring their things into the lobby.
"Ask him to be careful of that suitcase," Tris said. "My favourite Jimmy Choos and Chanel No 5 are in there."
"Of course, darling," Uriah said, murmuring a few things to the bellhop, and pressing 20 Euro into his hand.
They walked inside together, Tris chattering happily away about the hotel.
"Bonjour, Mr and Mrs Murray to check in," Uriah said to the concierge.
"Bonjour Monsieur Murray, you and your wife are in the Eiffel Duplex Terrace Suite," the concierge told them. "It has already been paid for."
"Thank you," Uriah said. "Please have the bellhop bring our luggage up."
They were handed their room keys and headed up to their suite.
As they entered the room, the bellhop bringing up the rear, Tris's cell began to vibrate in her pocket. She pulled it out, glanced at it and an alarmed expression crossed her face briefly before she masked it and put her cell back in pocket.
Tris began to look around the suite then turned to Uriah and exclaimed, "Oh, it is lovely honey, and it's so nice of Evelyn to arrange it all, but do you think you could go back down to the concierge and see if La Suite Chaillot is available? I stayed in it with father once, and I do so prefer the décor of it. Please? I don't care how much extra it costs, it's worth it."
Uriah gave her a puzzled look briefly and she just smiled sweetly and said, "Here's my key, I'll wait in the hall with the bellhop while you arrange it."
So Uriah headed back down to the lobby and Tris waited with the bellhop in the hall.
"Do you speak English?" Tris asked.
"Un peu – a little," he replied, smiling. "Et toi? Ah, est que tu parle Francais?"
"Un peu," Tris echoed, also smiling.
Deciding that was enough small talk she fished in her purse for a little mirror and lipstick and made a show of reapplying her lips with fresh red colour. She was wearing a red and white print Oscar de la Renta dress, paired with red heels. The black overcoat she had worn outside was over her arm, the heated hotel making it redundant inside. She had chosen red lipstick to compliment her dress.
Uriah returned before too long saying, "La Suite Chaillot is ours, my love. Let's get going. I'm sure you need the next 3 hours to prepare for dinner and the ballet."
Soon they were settled in the new suite and the bellhop had been dismissed.
"What was that all about?" Uriah asked Tris as soon as they were alone.
"The other room was bugged," Tris told him seriously. "Your cell phone didn't vibrate as soon as we entered? My app gave off an alert immediately."
"It was in my coat pocket, dammit, I didn't feel it," Uriah muttered, annoyed with himself. "Nice work then. Plus, this suite is nicer. I mean, what a view. And look, our own terrace is much bigger than the other one!"
"And big brother won't be listening," Tris added grimly. "Well, Evelyn really does appear to be planning to test us today. I don't think she's going to be suspicious of me wanting this room, but I'm guessing she's going to bug this room while we're out tonight, so when we get back, we'll have to be Mr and Mrs Murray until we leave? Changing suites again would be far too suspicious."
"Does that mean we have to have fake sex or a fake make out session?" Uriah asked, leering playfully.
"We can re-enact that scene from Easy A," Tris deadpanned.
This stopped Uriah momentarily, before he chuckled, and she joined in.
"Well, I had best unpack and start getting ready," Tris declared. "Can you call Harrison, actually, just email him, and fill him in on the situation, and that it is likely that he won't be us until after we check out of here tomorrow?"
"Sure," Uriah agreed. "I'll also call down for something to eat, I could use a snack."
"So you mean you're going to order a full sized meal," Tris said with a grin.
"I'm a growing boy, besides, playing dress up 24/7 is tiring," Uriah said humorously.
"You'll be growing outwards soon if you don't watch how much cheese and butter you eat," Tris admonished. "These foods should be eaten in moderation, or your new nickname will be fatty."
"I can't have a new nickname without an old one," Uriah pointed out. "And besides, it would take a lot of cheese to destroy this body."
"Just get me some fruit and yoghurt," Tris ordered, turning to their luggage. "Oh, and we're stuck in the same bed tonight. It's the size of a small state, so we'll just stick to our sides. If you grope me, remember my training scores. I will kick your ass."
Tris set to unpacking, putting aside her outfit for the evening first to make sure it was ready to wear in the next couple of hours. Then she grabbed the jewellery she had brought along and put it straight into the complimentary electric safe.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in preparing for the evening; showering, dressing and finalising their strategy for while they were out with Evelyn and Simon.
"You really do scrub up well," Uriah said, as they stepped into the limousine that had arrived for them at the hotel to take them to the restaurant.
"You're not so bad yourself," Tris replied. "Now, my dearest husband, it's time for dinner and a show."
The limo drove them straight to La Tour D'Argent where they alighted and entered the restaurant. Their coats where taken and the maître d' led them to their table where Evelyn and Simon were already seated.
"Glad you could both make it," Simon said, standing and shaking Uriah's hand and kissing Tris's hand. "How was your flight?"
"Oh, fine thank you," Uriah said, holding out Tris's chair.
"You look lovely my dear, I'm so glad we're doing this," Evelyn said, kissing Tris on both cheeks before Tris sat down in the chair offered by Uriah.
"Thank you, Evelyn. You look lovely too, we're going to be the best dressed people at the ballet," Tris said with a tinkling laugh.
Tris did look lovely, she was wearing a black and sheer Stella McCartney gown made of Florence lace-panelled stretch-crepe. It was floor length, with long sleeves and a high neck, which usefully covered Tris's ravens. Tris of course loved her ravens, but Mrs Beatrice Murray didn't want to draw too much attention to them. Evelyn had of course seen them at the fundraiser, but she didn't wish them to be a feature of the evening. An onyx Tiffany and Co ring adorned her right hand and a pair of diamond drop earrings were in her ears, perfectly showcased by the high bun she wore.
A little while later they had all ordered and were waiting their entrees.
"So, tell me more about how you two met," Evelyn said, smiling. "You mentioned that it was at your cotillion? I want all the details."
"Well," Tris began. "I was there with this guy, Robert, and half way through the evening, right before we were supposed to be presented, I couldn't find him. I waited at the top of the stairs, our names were called twice, and then on the third time, Uriah stepped in and escorted me. We danced and talked all evening. It was like I was really seeing him for the first time."
"See, we went to school together, and we were friends, but it was purely platonic, even though I'd had a big crush on her," Uriah added, giving Tris's hand a squeeze.
"And then he rescued me from total humiliation and I just saw him in a new light, and since then I've never had eyes for anyone else," Tris finished. "How did you and Simon meet?"
Evelyn went off on some rambling story about how she'd moved from the United States to make a new life for herself and had met Simon at some charity and at that point Tris had pretty much stopped listening and was staring out of the windows the Seine. There was only so much crap she could listen to Four's traitorous mother talk.
"Oh, Evelyn in case you need to get in touch with as us the hotel before we leave tomorrow, we moved suites," Tris said airily as they were eating their dinner. "It was lovely of course, but I just had to stay in La Suite Chaillot again, it was just so beautiful the last time I stayed there, so I made Uriah get us moved."
"Of course, my dear, that suite is so beautifully decorated," Evelyn agreed. "So long as you're both having a lovely time."
"Oh yes, it's been wonderful, especially as you said you've got good news about Nécessaire," Tris said enthusiastically.
"I do have good news, one of my associates has been in Albania this past week following up a lead and it appears to be a genuine one," Evelyn shared quietly. "It's going to take a few more days, but we should have it in our possession and back at the safe room at our estate next week."
"Oh, that's amazing!" Tris exclaimed, thrilled. "Will we be able to see it straight away? We're heading to England next week and I would love to be able to see it before you send it home to mother!"
"How about we have have afternoon tea one day next week, once I've had a chance to finalise everything?" Evelyn suggested.
"And will we get to meet your team?" Tris asked enthusiastically. "I'd love to meet the people who helped to make this possible! They must have a lot interesting stories about their work, as I'm sure you do too."
"Plenty, but none quite so divine as the poem of a dessert that is being brought out to you now," Evelyn declared. "La tuile croustillante aux fruits rouges, sorbet hibiscus framboise is simply superb."
Uriah and Simon had been making small talk as Evelyn and Tris had chatted at length, slipping into German after a little while, as Simon was not terribly fluent in English.
"Simon, would you pay the bill while Tris and I have the maître d' get our coats," Evelyn said, as they finished eating. "We must head off if we are going to make the ballet on time. You know we must be there before the curtain goes up."
The bill was settled, the coats were procured, and then they were in the limousine heading for the Palais Garnier.
"Have you seen Sleeping Beauty before?" Evelyn asked.
"Only the Disney version," Tris said with a laugh. "I have seen a number of the classic ballets; Don Quixote, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake, among others. I'm quite looking forward to this, I read that the music was composed by Tchaikovski, who is one of my favourite classical composers."
"The choreography by Rudolf Noureev is beautiful too, and I have heard from a number of people that the costuming by Franca Squarciapino is particularly outstanding," Evelyn shared.
Uriah was trying desperately not to crack five different jokes inspired by the absolute mind-numbing discussion of the ballet. It was bad enough that he was going to have to sit through an entire ballet, in a tux, and pretend to like it, without having to listen to the details of the ballet prior to it ad nauseam.
Uriah however, though he would never admit it to a living soul, surprised himself by enjoying the ballet quite a bit. The athletic ability of the dancers impressed him, and their precision was flawless. The production was of first class quality, so even if you were not a ballet lover, it was easy enough to appreciate the standard of the performance put on by the Paris Opera Ballet.
Tris however did not enjoy the ballet as much as she thought she would have. She found that once she had the luxury of some peace and quiet that she couldn't enjoy it and watch the performance. Her mind was filled with thoughts of Four, which were further complicated by the fact that his supposedly dead mother was sitting next to her. On the one hand, it helped knowing that it looked like they would wrap up their mission next week and that Evelyn would pay for at least some of her sins. On the other hand she would have to negotiate the awkward issue of telling Four that his mother was alive, but she was now in prison, due to the fact that she was a criminal who masterminded an elaborate and lucrative felonious organisation.
Hey Four, I missed you, and I also need to tell you I love you, because I've been putting that off. Also, your mom is alive, except, she's just landed herself in gaol. Or rather I landed her there. No, not for faking her own death. No, not because I wanted to go 2 for 0 and put both your parents in gaol, she's just been the head of an organisation for almost a decade that deals in trading illegal artefacts. So, miss me?
Yeah, she'd have to work on finding a better way to deliver that information.
Suddenly the audience was applauding and Tris was broken out of her thoughts. It was time to be Mrs Beatrice Murray again. Tris was looking forward to the day when she would get to lay Mrs Beatrice Murrary to rest. She was starting to feel like she was developing multiple personalities, and it was not an enjoyable sensation.
Tris chattered to Evelyn and Simon about the performance as they headed back to the Shangri-La in the limo. Uriah was able to contribute surprisingly helpfully in some detail about the performance, for which Tris was very grateful.
"Thank you for such a wonderful evening," Tris said as they stepped out of the car. "We're looking forward to seeing you later next week!"
"You're both very welcome," Evelyn said, giving them a smile and a wave as the limousine pulled away into the Parisian night traffic.
"Remember," Tris said quietly to Uriah as the entered the lobby. "Stay in character until we know for sure if the room has been bugged while we're out."
They went up to their suite and both of the cell phones vibrated almost immediately to let them know that they had indeed been bugged.
Tris was overcome with a sudden exhaustion and she just could not face the thought of being Mrs Beatrice Murray constantly for the next 12 hours straight.
"Honey, how about a late night walk?" Tris suggested sweetly. "The Eiffel Tower is only about 10 minutes from here and we'd pass through Les Jardins du Trocadero and walk across La Seine. Paris under night lights? It would be very romantic."
"You don't have to convince me, my love," Uriah said warmly. "Do you want to change into something else though? It is very cold, you know."
"My coat is very warm, but I will grab a scarf, beret and gloves," Tris allowed.
They were outside before too long and wandering through the Gardens of the Trocadero, both maintain and unspoken silence.
"I just needed a moment to be free, to be me," Tris said quietly, as the approached The Seine.
"No one would begrudge you that, not after the evening we've had," Uriah said sympathetically.
"You're great company and all Uri, and I'm so glad you are my partner on this mission, but would you mind very much if we were just stayed quiet for a while?" Tris asked gently.
"Sure, except you have to let me say one joke," Uriah pleaded lightly.
"What?" Tris asked curiously.
"Well, I hadn't wanted to mention this before, because I didn't want to jinx things, but today was Friday the 13th, and nothing went wrong, which is really some sort of miracle, all things considering," Uriah said with a grin.
"So, more of a humorous observation, rather than a joke," Tris teased.
Uriah just nodded, grinning, and they continued to walk in the brisk, night, Parisian winter air, both lost in thought.
AN: Thanks for reading :)
The next chapter is a big one! There's Fourtris, and lots of mission action!
I will put it up after 15 reviews :)
So, please review!