Chapter 2
"Why are you here, mother?" Francis asked his mother as they both sat down on the chairs in the lobby.
Catherine smiled, "What? Can't a mother just visit her son?" She sounded convincing but Francis knew better. He looked at her sternly and with a scoff, Catherine seemed to give up and answered him truthfully. "Fine, your father wants you back in France for business. "
"Mother, how many times do I have to tell you?" Francis asked, annoyed. "I'm not going back there to run the family business. Or marry a person I don't love!" He added when he saw his mother open her mouth to interrupt.
"Francis, this isn't about the Stuarts." Catherine reassured.
"But you mentioned we were going to talk about Mary." Francis remarked.
"Yes, Mary." She said – she wasn't pleased with the mention of her. She never was. "She's coming to France in two days with her half-brother for business and your father said it would be best if you two meet again."
"Then this is about the Stuarts." He cleared up.
"Well, yes," She admitted. She was never fond of the Stuarts, particularly Mary. "But not all. Your brother, Sebastian, needs you or at least your father says. He's planning on letting Bash go work for the company and wants you to train him. "
"Me?" Francis asked, "Why me? Why can't father do it himself?"
"Francis, you know how busy your father is with the company already." Catherine answered, "Plus he is far too busy with Diane to care for other things besides the former. "
Diane was Francis's father's mistress. The mother of Bash. It was no secret to the family, everyone knew it, but the public didn't know. It would have been a scandal to end their company's reputation. They tried to keep it on the down low by saying that she was just a close family friend. A family friend that Catherine wanted to strangle every time she saw her.
Francis rolled his eyes. How could something make him so happy and so willing to set himself on fire at the same time? He was happy that Bash was finally going to work for the company – though he doubted that he really wanted to. Bash has always been doing his own things. Living his life the way he wanted to. – However he was irritated that it had to be him to help his brother train. He didn't want to leave the paradise of Santorini.
"Mother you don't understand, I can't just go." Francis stated. Besides for the fact that he really didn't want to go back to the chaos of the Valois world, he had a business of his own to run.
"Why not?" Catherine questioned. She'd been on a three hour flight from Orléans to Santorini, she was tired and wanted her son on a plane back to France now. Why was he being so difficult?
"Because I'm the one who runs this place now," He explained.
Catherine looked around the empty resort lobby.
"And what a wonderful job you're doing" She said sarcastically
Francis groaned at his mother's tone. "It's mostly close during off seasons but it will open again soon."
"Francis, the plan was for you to forget about your father and the stress of work for two weeks." Catherine stated, "You've been gone for ten months. You need to come back home."
She reached for him and gently caressed her sons face.
"Mother…"
"Please, we miss you." She said, "I miss you."
"It's not that easy," Francis replied.
Catherine groaned in annoyance. Her son was rather stubborn, when did he become this stubborn?
"Fine, you can return here after a month of training Sebastian and some quality time with your family." She bargained. Moving away from him and looking him sternly in the eyes.
"And the Stuarts?"
"They won't be long." She replied, "After the meeting they'll be gone. I assume. No worries about her." Francis rolled his eyes at the emphasis her mother put on the mention of Mary.
Francis thought about the proposition. One month with his family. Seems tolerable. He tolerated them for his first eighteen years and he could surely tolerate Mary for a day. And besides, what was the probability of seeing her again? There was a chance that they could probably not cross paths. And she might not even remember him, it has been seven years.
He looked at her mother and finally agreed. "I'll go pack my bags and talk to the staff."
"Fantastic." Catherine beamed. "We leave tomorrow."
"Mary, are you alright?" James, her half-brother asked as the both of them sat next to each other on the plane to France. "You've been awfully silent. Are you sick?"
Mary shook her head, she was fine. Just nervous. She hasn't been to France since the incident and was anxious of seeing the Valois's, including Francis. What was she going to say to him? Would he even remember her?
"If you're worried about the business meeting, don't be." James mentioned, pulling Mary out of her thoughts. "It will just be us, Henry and a few other business associates. You don't really have to say anything besides from the documents Father gave to you. You did read them, correct?"
"Of course," Mary answered. The documents were ten pages long and went on and on about hotels and their management. Statistics and charts filled about five pages, Mary almost fell asleep reading half of it. But she needed to impress her father and show that she could run the company in the years to come.
"Good," James replied, "Now, Henry needs this business deal, it has been in the papers that their firm has been losing its hold in the market and Father wants to –"
"Jem, enough." Mary cut in, using her brother's nickname. "Please, can we just discuss this later when were in France? I'm still tired."
Jem sat up straight in his chair, he was a spitting image of their Father, especially now in his classic fit dark blue almost black suit and black and white striped necktie.
"It just a two hour long ride to France," He stated, as he himself closed his eyes. "I'll give you an hour to rest but after that, we need to talk about the plans for this meeting."
Mary smiled, her brother was amazing. He understood her very well; after all, it wasn't long ago that he was being trained by their Father to handle the company.
Orléans and France seemed not so different by the looks of it to Francis, who was in the back seat of their car with his mother besides him. Same oceanic climate, cool breeze but still with the lovely heat from the rays of the sun – it was a delightful moment. However by the looks of the amount of tourist around the streets, Francis was just in time for the start of the Festival de Loire.
"Francis!" His mother called, "Are you listening to a word I say?"
"What?" Francis asked in his confusion, Catherine gave him a look that could easily make anyone go hide in the riverbanks. "Oh. Of course I am." He lied; he was too busy thinking of Santorini.
"I swear Francis; you're just like your father." She commented, rolling her eyes and scoffing.
"I'm nothing like him," He defended.
"Of course you're not." His mother said, "You're far too kind hearted to be like him. I'm sorry."
"Mother, can we just not talk until we get there?" He begged, "Paris was filled with too many people and it annoyed me, really."
"Okay, fine." Catherine agreed, "But I must warn you, I received a text saying that James Moray has arrived at Paris with Mary."
"Moray?" Francis questioned, "You mean Mary's brother?"
"Half-brother," She corrected, "James's son to his first wife."
Francis knew about James Moray, everyone did. He was no secret, unlike Bash. James Moray or rather Jem as he was called by his friends was James Stuart's son to his first wife, Margaret Erskine. Jem decided to change his last name because he wanted to achieve things because he worked hard for it, not because he was a Stuart. Or at least that was what Mary told Francis when they were young.
Marie Guise Stuart, Mary's mother took Jem in with love and acceptance after his mother died. Oh how Francis wished his mother did the same thing with Bash. But their family lives were different. So different and complicated.
"Oh, and also," Catherine said casually, "They'll be staying at our home for this trip. Your father insisted."
Fantastic. So much for not crossing paths with Mary.
After they landed in Paris, and after an hour long discussion about this business meeting, Mary was positively tired but she needed to suck it up. Work was the only thing on her mind. She would only focus on work and nothing else. Shopping could wait until after.
"What hotel are we staying in?" Mary inquired to her brother. They were in a car on their way to their hotel, or so Mary thought.
"None." Jem answered, not looking at Mary. All of his attention on his mobile.
"What do you mean?"
"We're not staying at a hotel," He cleared, "We're staying with the Valois's at their home. Henry insisted and Father agreed."
"What?!" Mary was shocked. How could her father possibly agree to that? Did he already forget what happened before? "Why?"
"I don't know," Jem answered, finally looking up from his phone. "Do you have a problem with the arrangements?"
Yes. Mary screamed in her head.
"No," She lied. She told herself that this was a business trip and she needed to forget about what happened and just focus on why they were truly here. Work.
Jem looked at his sister who was visually nervous and was visually trying to keep herself calm. She was playing with her fingers and biting her lower lip. Telltale signs that she was nervous.
"Don't worry, Mary." Jem reassured, "We'll only be there for two days for work and nothing more. And if you do want to go shopping, we'll stay at a hotel in Paris."
"Thank you," Mary smiled, her brother was the best.
AN/ Hello.
This chapter was up so fast.
Don't expect it to happen again.
Sorry.
Also, in the first chapter, I included some French and Greek words and now I decided to make this story in pure English. It seemed unauthentic with the mixture of other languages.
Tell me what you think. Please.
