Carl the Seer: Dear readers: Thanks for the reviews, please don't fret, and above all be patient! Thank you.

Felix the Random Hobbit: (nods) Wow that was deep.

Carl the Seer: (shrugs modestly) Its what I do.

Chapter Nineteen:Force

No one follows me around

Up the hill and then back down

"Sit down, Mr. Van Helsing. Can I offer you a drink?"

"No, thank you, it's a little early for me."

Simon's smile tightened. "It's never too early for me."

"As you like," Van Helsing replied. The situation was making him uneasy, to say the least— once seated he found it hard to keep himself from fidgeting, and there seemed to be some sort of circus going on inside his head. He gritted his teeth and tried to ignore the intrusion of the voices.

Don't trust him. What's wrong with you? Why aren't you looking for Carl? Don't be polite. Rush at him, demand— Mind your manners.

The last was Anna, her voice cool and deliberate.

Don't do anything stupid, Van Helsing.

Well, I'll try not to.

"So," said Simon, "you were with my Tamerlaine's friar friend. I remember you."

"Well you might, it was only this morning."

Easy, Van Helsing—

"Yes— funny, isn't it— so much time seems to have passed."

"Were you at home when I came?" Van Helsing demanded suddenly.

Simon's smile turned fixed. "No, I'm sorry to say. Had I been I would have joined you sooner. Had you come but ten minutes later I would have greeted you at the door."

"Mm— out running errands, were you?"

"Forgive me, Mr. Van Helsing, but this questioning seems a little— pointed, shall we say? Is there a reason underlying it?"

Van Helsing looked him in the eye and they had a brief staring contest. Then Simon flicked his blue gaze away, cloaking his defeat in a tilted head and a nonchalant expression.

"May I ask," he said lazily, "what you're doing in town? I understand you hail from quite some ways away."

"Rome, actually."

"Ah, Rome."

"I'm— we're here on holiday. Mr. Hampton wished to visit his sister, Miss Hampton."

"Ah," said Simon. To Van Helsing's regret, his face showed no signs of having recently encountered and subsequently tied up Hannah. Van Helsing racked his brain but was unable to come up with a more pointed remark— at least, not one that wouldn't give everything away.

Hello, are you the man that tied up Hannah Hampton? I'd like to shake your hand.

"And so your friend had forgotten that my sister lived here? He had no intention of meeting with her?"

"I wouldn't say he'd forgotten," said Van Helsing slowly. To his mind came images of Carl speaking of a girl he'd known while young, though he'd never named her—

"Beautiful," Carl said with faraway eyes. "Hair like gold, eyes like amber, lips like— well, like lips, really. What did you expect?"

"Carl," said Van Helsing, biting back a laugh, "you'd best find yourself a new profession, you're far too poetic to be a friar."

"As a matter of fact, I don't believe your sister has ever been far from Carl's mind."

The eyes of both men turned to the portrait on the mantel, but while Simon's gaze lingered on Tamerlaine's face, Van Helsing's returned to scrutinize Simon's expressioon. He found there something he'd not been expecting to see— love.

He spoke more brusquely than he'd intended. "I'm sorry for the loss of Tamerlaine, Mr.— Gentle, is it?"

Simon looked at him and laughed.

"Why, there you have suspected the secret," he said. "Tamerlaine and I do indeed have different fathers. Our mother played false, you see, to Tam's father. The age-old story. I was sent from Mr. Gentle's sight— bundled off to a cold boarding school for bad food and a worse education. Amazing how things happen, isn't it? You'd think the whole thing had been my fault."

Van Helsing didn't like Simon's knowing look— he didn't like his falsely injured tones— and he didn't like the fact that he was being lied to. In one fast movement he was out of his chair and across the room— by the time the smaller man had stood up he was pinned against the wall, Van helsing's hands at his throat, and flashing hazel eyes boring into him.

"I don't like your face," Van Helsing gritted out, "and I don't like your lies. I don't know who you are or what you've done to my friend— but I want him back— do you hear me? I can't make you tell me where he is— but I can make you regret not. Which shall it be?"

Simon swallowed, with some difficulty, and pried one of Van Helsing's hands loose. Van Helsing held tighter with the other, but when Simon spoke his voice was suprisingly calm.

"I have a loyalty which you cannot understand," he said clearly, "and when I do the right thing it will not be on your account."

Blue eyes stared into hazel ones.

Deeep within himself, Van Helsing was both surprised and a little disconcerted to find another man with a will the equal of his own.