Chapter 6

Duncan reluctantly showed the girl into the barge as the storm broke over them. As he entered the living quarters, he turned on lights to offset the darkness of the storm that had overtaken the day. Methos gave the girl an odd questioning glance, then sat back... one of those amused expressions on his face. He ran one hand through his short dark hair content to just watch and let this scene play out.

Outside lightning flashed and the thunder roared almost immediately!

The girl flinched momentarily and then rubbed the rain from her face and held out a book... shaking it slightly and then flipping through it to see if it were all right. Methos saw the cover and his grin was even bigger, "Blade of the MacLeods." he said. "I hear that one's a real page turner."

MacLeod gave him a pained expression. "This is my friend..."

"Adam... Adam Pierson," Methos said before MacLeod could get anything else out. He rose slightly from the chair and then sat back down.

"Hello..." the girl nodded, "Are you in a book, too."

"Not lately," Methos said charmingly with a wry wink of an eye.

Once more MacLeod gave him a warning look and then said brightly to the girl, "Now... I ask again... just what can I do for you."

"Oh..." the girl returned her rapt attention to Duncan and eyed him up and down with an appreciative look. "Could you sign my book." She held out the paperback to MacLeod.

Duncan took it and shrugged, perhaps this would not be as unpleasant an encounter, as some he'd had with other readers of the book a few years ago. He pulled a pen from a drawer. "And... just who should I make this to."

"Alisaunne." She grinned and made a small sound of delight, quickly clasping and unclasping her hands.

Duncan wrote with a flourish and read aloud, "To Alisaunne... the prettiest young lady who ever handed me this book. ~ Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod." He closed it and returned it to her. Above his head, thunder crashed once more.

The girl flinched again at the sound of the thunder. "Oooh!" she then exclaimed, as she read Duncan's message for herself. She sighed and held the book to her chest. Reluctantly she closed it and placed it within her backpack. Then she brought out a small throwaway camera. "And a picture? With me? For proof? So the others will know I'm not making this up?"

"Let me do the honors." Methos rose bowing slightly as he took the camera from her. "Smile MacLeod!" the five thousand-year-old immortal quipped as he took several shots of MacLeod and then MacLeod with Alisaunne. All the while... MacLeod glared at him... except, of course when Methos was snapping the photos.

Finally, after about six shots, MacLeod reached out for the camera, "That ought to do it... I think!" He pulled the camera from Methos' hands and then turned and bowed gallantly, returning the camera to Alisaunne. "For m'lady."

She grinned and giggled once more. Then flinched at the thunder once more and glanced at the porthole. The view was completely obscured by the rain. "Uh... Can I stay until it stops?"

"Don't you have a ride?" asked Duncan, suddenly concerned.

"I came by taxi... I heard your address mentioned at the Museum and pooled my mad money with that of my friends and followed you." She shrugged. "The money wasn't quite enough so I walked the last few blocks."

"Well... I can take you back to the Museum... if you like... or call you a taxi." Duncan continued. From the corner of his eye he saw Methos retake his seat. The old immortal was grinning from ear to ear.

"Alas... I fear they have already returned to our school."

"Without you?" Duncan looked quizzically at her. "Just what kind of school leaves a child behind?"

"Well, I'm hardly a child... I am eighteen... Anyway, my friends were going to cover for me so I would not be missed until dinner tonight." Alisaunne looked sheepish. "I've done this before."

"Follow strange men you don't know into their homes?"

"Oh no... Duncan... er... Monsieur MacLeod... This is the first time I've ever done this. But sometimes I leave the group and go exploring or shopping. It's how I found your book."

Duncan angrily reached for the phone and punched in the number of a taxi service he'd used on occasion and called for a cab. "The name of your school!" he said to Alisaunne pointedly.

She hesitated and then sighed. " Academie de Sacre Coeur." She seemed to realize... the game was over.

Dejectedly she wandered around the barge looking at things as they waited for the taxi to arrive. She paused by the table on which the runestones were still scattered. She gazed at them a long moment and then began to shift some of them around and smiled. "Runestones... my uncle had some like this... These are very old."

"Your uncle?" asked Methos suddenly curious.

"I think he was an archeologist or historian or something when he was young man. He's dead now." Alisaunne held one up. "This is the one for crossroads I think." Then she placed it on the table, shrugging as she turned around... still looking at things in the barge.

"Your uncle... was he Jacques de Pres by any chance?" the dark-haired immortal asked thoughtfully.

"Mmmm... yes he was..." she glanced at him... a question in her eyes. "Did you know my uncle?"

"By reputation only," Methos said evenly.

"Taxi's here." said Duncan and shot Methos a piercing glance. The elder immortal just shrugged. Duncan grabbed an umbrella to escort Alisaunne out to the taxi. He paid the driver and indicated the address to him. "And don't take her anywhere else. Also... make certain she goes into that school! That an adult receives her!" The driver smiled at the generous tip and enthusiastically agreed. Duncan watched the taxi drive off... then he turned back to the barge. Methos had some questions to answer.

The immortal was once more working on his computer program and even whistling a bit under his breath. A wry look of amusement teased about his face.

Duncan closed and shook the rain from the umbrella. "All right Methos! Give... who was Jacques de Pres?"

Methos looked at him innocently, "How should I know?"

"Methos!"

"All right, MacLeod... you are entirely too sensitive about this... but then having to deal with a schoolgirl's crush could conceivably put you in a foul mood."

"Don't change the subject!"

Methos leaned back in his chair as he eyed MacLeod evenly. "Jacques de Pres was an alias Darius first used many centuries ago... a cover when he was out and about and in case he was stopped and needed to show papers to authorities, when he wasn't being Darius, the priest who never left Holy Ground. I did not know he might still have used it. It was just a guess."

"The girl was speaking of an uncle!" MacLeod sputtered as he pointed off in the general direction the taxi had likely driven.

"Let me fill in some blanks for you. The girl is an orphan. Darius finds her... sets her up somewhere in a school. Visits occasionally... as her uncle." Methos folded his arms across his chest. "Have I left anything out!"

"No... it makes sense..." Duncan slowly shook his head. "After all... she is one of us... or will be one day."

"Precisely... Darius' student. I'll bet she has some runestones or some papers left to her by her uncle that she knows nothing about." Methos sat forward and was working once more on the computer. "And I have a feeling... MacLeod... you'll need to visit Academie de Sacre Coeur and talk to the headmistress. Perhaps you can get a new lead on things."

Me?"

"Well... you are the one the girl has a crush on." Methos grinned as he kept working intently at the keyboard shifting pages... although in truth... he was currently getting nowhere.