Chapter Twenty-Seven

The Adventures of Megana in France

(Megan and Meg are standing in front of the Crown Jewels at the Louvre)

Megan: Wow, look at the size of those rocks!

Meg: That's sick.

Megan: I want them!

Meg: Yeah, but how could you wear them?

Megan: But they're so cool!

Meg: I know. I'd wear that sapphire crown… it's so amazing!

(Later, as they're being shoved around the massive crowd surrounding the Mona Lisa…)

Random person: (pointing to Meg) Thief! Thief!

Meg: Huh?

(Meg is tackled by security)

It was well into the month of August. Ratigan was getting much better. His health and strength had increased over the past few weeks. He read as many accounts as he could of the Jubilee, angering him as well as giving him fuel for revenge. The war was not yet over; Basil could still be bested.

Rose was inwardly overjoyed. She knew that with his ambitions for revenge, he would require her help. She would have a place to go, a person who would take care of her.

He could walk with the aid of a cane, although it caused him much pain. He was getting restless in the small flat.

Rose sensed that the change in their lives would come soon.

"When are we going to leave?" Rose ventured to ask him one day.

Ratigan peered at her from over the train timetable he had been looking at. "Leave?"

"Yes, sir. We can't stay in this flat forever. It's rather crowded, and certainly not a good place to start anew."

Ratigan chuckled. "You want to start anew? You want to get yourself involved with my schemes all over again?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

"Why would you?" Ratigan asked sharply. "When you first joined me, it took you months to become fully loyal to me. Now that I have nothing, you want to go through the struggle of building everything back up?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because… because I don't have anything else."

He leaned back in his chair. "If there was something else for you, would you leave?"

Rose cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

"This cannot be what you really want to do with the rest of your life, Rose. Hiding from the authorities, from any decent society, and for what? Aren't you afraid of failure?"

She looked into his yellow eyes. They were not angry, just curious.

"No, sir."

He seemed to be studying her. "Aren't you afraid of anything? Getting caught? Prison? Execution?"

"Well, yes, I am." Then, as an afterthought, she added, "But not for the reasons you would think I was afraid of them!"

"Oh, really? Then, for what reasons, pray tell, would you be afraid of them."

"Because I would lose you, sir."

A heavy silence fell in the room that lasted for several long moments. Finally it was broken by the distant toll of Big Ben, causing Ratigan to wince. He cleared his throat.

"I see that you've become rather attached to me."

She could not read the expression in his eyes. "You've been so good to me, sir-"

"Good to you? Hah! You're still so ignorant, Rose! If I've been good to you, then I suppose you would have considered the Athenians to have been just to Socrates when he was put on trial."

Rose did not know anything about Socrates. "You're much too hard on yourself, sir."

"Or you're too easy on me. You are really an enigma to me, Rose. Most people would have turned a half-drowned ra-, hem, criminal mastermind, into Mouseland Yard. But not you. Why?"

"I don't know," she said, growing uneasy.

"You choose exile over freedom? I could just have easily died. You could have killed me, and rid yourself of my burden. So why didn't you?"

"I don't know," she said, feeling more agitated.

"I can see that you do. What I cannot see is any logical reason for you to stay so loyal to me, even when all appeared hopeless. Why is this, Rose? Were you hoping for some sort of payment?"

"No, I wasn't!" she said rather crossly.

"Perhaps some of my money, or my connections?"

"I have no use for your money!"

"You were certainly expecting something in return. What was it, Rose? What did you want? What do you want now?"

"I want your love!" she cried.

A silence, worse than the brief one earlier, now reigned. Rose cursed herself ten thousand times over for her sudden outburst of emotion. She could not read any reaction in those yellow eyes. She reverted her gaze to her lap, and pretended to be smoothing her skirt as she waited for any sort of response.

Finally she heard him get up from his chair. She looked up. He began to walk towards the window in slow, measured steps. He finally reached the curtain. Lifting it gently, he glanced at the outside world. He then let the curtain drop.

"You're a silly girl."

She had not expected this sort of response. "Sir?"

"Yes. I've never met such a strange girl as yourself."

She pushed her chair back and stood up. "You think me strange?" she asked indignantly.

He turned back towards her. "What is this? You're not accustomed to wearing your emotions on your sleeve, as you are now!"

"You don't believe me," she said in disbelief.

Ratigan laughed, making Rose grow red with embarrassment. "Now it all makes sense to me! Your outstanding loyalty to me, even when it would have been in your best interest to completely disown all that I have striven to accomplish. And when did this all start?"

"Don't laugh at me, sir. It's incredibly rude," she said sourly.

He stopped chuckling, but his eyes glimmered with amusement. "Oh, don't pout. Look, see, now I am serious, and ready to listen. When did this… this infatuation for me begin?"

"Oh, don't flatter yourself! You're rude and teasing and… and… mean!"

She expected to hear him laugh again, but heard nothing.

Rose gripped the back of her chair and stared at the ground. "I don't know. It just happened."

"Come here."

She looked up at his figure. "Sir?"

"Come here."

She slowly approached him. He rested his hand on her shoulder and pulled her towards him.

"I have a strange feeling towards you, Rose. One would wonder what it was…" He lifted her chin up. "Is it something stronger than amity? Is it that emotion abused by the ages, a word that has been analyzed, dissected, and torn apart, an ideal powerful enough to bring about the downfall of whole kingdoms, and give unprecedented strength to those who feel it?"

His lips met her lips, and she felt herself melting away into pure bliss.

Emma: So them what happened to you when you got arrested?

JWJ: She got arrested again?

Meg: Unfortunately.

JWJ: What'd you do, try to assassinate George W. Bush just to prove your point about Tecumseh's curse?

Meg: NO! That would disprove my point about Tecumseh's curse!

Luke: So then why were you arrested?

Meg: Ratigan hired some guy to steal the Empress Josephine's emerald necklace or something and put it in my purse while we were in that mob in front of the Mona Lisa.

Emma: So what happened?

Meg: (shrugs) Madame, Ms. Boyle, and Mrs. Connors were already at the police station. Madame somehow managed to straighten it out for me. Still not really sure how.

Emma: Ratigan must really not have a life. All he does is play pranks on you. It's really getting old.

Meg: Tell me about it.