Merit and Inheritance
Chapter Forty-nine
Ice Cream, Coffee, Conversation
"What do you want, Ricardo?"
After wearing out relays of owls as they discussed Mendini's proposed trip to London, Harry and Ricardo Mendini had ended up at Fortescue's. It wasn't lost on Harry that he had proposed the neutral and very public space in his reply to Mendini's initial letter.
'Whatever,' Harry had sighed to himself on the occasion of Mendini's acceptance.
"This is a beautiful spot, Harry," said Ricardo. "I must confess, before we go further, I just could not get it through my head that an ice cream shop could be so perfectly placed. These tables and the view of Diagon Alley…did you know, on the Continent, Diagon Alley has a mythical character, for children, growing up? I've heard of witches demanding a honeymoon stop in Diagon Alley as a condition in their marriage contracts."
Harry looked at Mendini, who looked back. Harry waited for the sober mask to break into a laugh, but it seemed Ricardo Mendini really was telling the truth.
"Well, you're a busy man, I know, so here it is," Ricardo said. "The late Baron, Lorenzo, my great-uncle, left a widow, who was, I suppose, my Aunt Romilda. Things were not smooth when Romilda was at Our Place. Some of the cousins weren't very kind to her. I tried, within the bounds of propriety, to be supportive."
'Oh, crap,' Harry thought.
"I just wanted…If you know…ahhhh…Is she alright, Harry? It's thought, at Our Place, that she must be in Britain, or possibly, Ireland, somewhere. The magical community is small. If you put the word out, asked around, could you?"
What in Merlin's name? Why did he keep getting pulled into the Bergs' romantic affairs?
It came to Harry in a flash: Ricardo Mendini had a thing for the Widow Berg. Harry saw the path in its entirety. Mendini wanted to reach out, through Harry, which would make Harry a quasi-matchmaker with Ricardo for a client, exposing him again to the lunacy of Our Place and the inbred mountaineers. This after Romilda had gotten him to handle four of the Bergs for her right here in London. It didn't seem right, nor a good thing for him to dabble in.
"Things are changing on the mountain, Harry," Mendini went on. "When Selwyn put your excursion together and brought you all to Our Place, you showed the community the old, fixed ideas are no longer useful, if they ever were. Cousin Max has been working on them. I even got Amalia to come to Salzburg with me for a week. She's admitted we need to 'adjust' as she says. Not change."
Ricardo started to laugh at the irony while it was Harry's turn to don the mask of neutrality.
"Where is your Aunt Romilda in all of this?" Harry asked. "You obviously have some kind of feelings for her. Do you want to take her to Our Place?"
"No, no, no," said Mendini. "I won't be residing at Our Place again. Amalia is right. I've been away too long. The cousins, the ones like Amalia, avoid going outside so they don't have to deal with the outside. Salzburg is not that big. It's very manageable, in fact. They won't do it. Then there are Max, me, and quite a few others, if you can believe it. We own profitable enterprises that we pay others to run for us. Managers, staff, lawyers, all of it. Those could be our jobs, paying for a bit more of a modern way of life."
"Ahh…" said Harry. "You're a young man."
Ricardo grinned, slightly, nodding once.
"You see a future, something new, unexpected, opening up in front of you, a career, modernizing an aging family enterprise," said Harry. "I respect your vision."
"I have heard," Ricardo began, then changed direction.
"Heard you have trod a similar path."
Harry held his tongue, studying Mendini. He liked Ricardo. He didn't want to alienate him unnecessarily but there was the possibility of unfinished business between the Potters and Our Place.
"Ricardo, I have to ask, have you been sent? Are you part of something that threatens me, my wife, her family, our friends?"
Harry sat still and watched Ricardo Mendini's face.
"Harry, I assure you, I mean you no harm," said Mendini. "I had two reasons for getting in touch. You discovered them both. Romilda, just, well, she came to Our Place and she was my great-uncle's wife and we could all see she was mismatched but that is what he wanted, for some reason, so I had to respect my Baron. That is when I moved full-time to Salzburg. That had been coming on anyway, it was inevitable, the move. I like business and none of the others wanted to devote the necessary time. That's the second reason. Business. Someone to talk business with."
"There are businesses over your way," said Harry.
"Not a lot of magical businessmen, or women," said Mendini. "The non-mage, Harry, just see a rustic, from the mountains. I have so much to learn, but I'm the first of my clan to attempt modernization in centuries, so it will be up to me to find the way."
Conversation stopped again. Harry signaled to the young man serving the outdoor tables, ordering a second round of coffees for himself and Mendini.
"Ricardo, let me begin by saying a couple of things, personal things, so we get them out of the way," Harry said when the coffee arrived and the young server returned to his station.
"Our Ministry has archives. Your extended family appears in a volume or two, probably because of the line of barons. The titled always have to see themselves in the Almanack, or else they don't believe they're really nobility. My guess is the archivists cross-referenced diplomatic correspondence. Reports of activities that, what can I say? Activities that took place outside the mainstream of magical culture? Otherwise your habit of concealment would have effectively removed you from European magical annals."
Harry took a sip of coffee while he looked at Ricardo Mendini over the rim of his cup. Mendini didn't seem to be incubating any uncontrollable rages so Harry continued.
"Based on what I've learned, I don't want to be in a conflictive situation with any of you. How many, or what percentage, I should say, of the whole Our Place extended family does Amalia represent? If we became correspondents, and Amalia found out, would she take offense? Come after you? Come looking for me? How many would she bring with her?"
"Second, if Romilda wandered through here this afternoon, and saw you sitting right there, would she want to say 'Hello?' Or would she get out of London by the fastest means available to her?"
Ricardo Mendini leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh.
"I honestly don't know," he said. "I wanted to do better by her. Let's say I thought the family ought to do better by her. I hoped she noticed."
"Ricardo, honestly, if Romilda had remained, would she have been in danger?" asked Harry. "If so, has anything changed?"
Mendini seemed to be about to respond, several times, before he shook his head.
"Yes, to your first question. The second, I don't know."
"Thank-you for your honesty," Harry said. "One other thing, Amalia, and the great-aunt you referred to before—are they nursing any grudges? Against me, my wife or any of our associates?"
Mendini grinned.
"Not your wife, nor her companion. Narcissa, was it? If the truth were known, I think Amalia would like to apprentice with them."
"Uh-huh, fine. Now, what about me? Amalia, in our one meeting, was ready to have a go at me."
"You showed great forbearance, Harry, and I am personally grateful. I think we both know how that would have ended. Dieter was a favorite uncle, Amalia's mother's brother. When he didn't return from the…the search for Romilda, Amalia was very upset."
"So every wizard in London is responsible for her uncle's disappearance, in her mind?" asked Harry, again making a close study of Ricardo's face as he got ready to answer.
"Amalia, somehow, found out about Laurent Selwyn and his disappointment in not marrying either Lady Daphne or her sister. They planned the abduction and luring of yourself to Our Place. He must have said enough or alluded to something and Amalia supplied the rest from her imagination," said Ricardo.
'Plausible enough, as far as it goes,' thought Harry as he continued to watch Mendini.
"Well, Ricardo, I don't think any harm will come from conversations such as this," Harry said. He brushed off his slacks with his napkin and got ready to stand. "I wish you well with your enterprises. You'll pardon me if I don't present myself at Our Place on a regular basis, Alpine paradise or not. I won't mix well with some of your relatives, ever. At least I don't think so. Oh, one other thing—do we have to stay alert for the return of Laurent Selwyn? Another perpetual…"
Harry circled his hand a few times.
"…annoyance, one could say," he concluded.
Mendini leaned over the table.
"Selwyn returned to his family, the entire incident forgotten," he said.
Harry nodded. He thought that must mean obliviation but didn't want to pursue it. If Mendini meant obliviation Harry truly did not want to know. It was a delicate task for a skilled witch or wizard and Harry hadn't seen a lot of sophisticated magic from any of the Berg-Mendini's.
"Pleasant trip," said Harry with a nod. Ricardo nodded back. Neither felt inclined to offer a hand.
Harry dined with Daphne at Potter Manor later that evening.
"You did WHAT?" Daphne demanded. "After all that foolishness you had lunch with one of them?"
"Ice cream and a coffee," said Harry. Was his voice a bit plaintive? He thought it might be.
"Out in the open. Clear sightlines everywhere. It was just Ricardo, as far as I could tell. We had a nice chat. I learned some things."
"Like?" asked Daphne, her voice still a little strained.
"He'd like to reach out to Romilda," said Harry. "As a person. One to one. Did I say that correctly?"
"You mean he has romantic feelings for her?" Daphne asked.
"Seemed like it to me," said Harry.
"What did he say?"
"Just that some of the family was not nice to her and he regretted it and wanted to be more supportive but it was delicate, her being the young bride of his great-uncle who was also the Baron," said Harry. "He couldn't be seen to…He said he had to stay within the bounds of propriety."
"I don't like it," said Daphne. "Why did he think you could get in touch with Romilda? How did Ricardo make a connection at all?"
"He didn't say anything that made me think he saw a connection," said Harry. "I listened for that. If he was holding out he didn't make a slip, not that I heard."
Daphne pushed a floret of steamed cauliflower around on her plate while she thought. Harry could almost see the evidence, on the outside of Daphne's face, of the gears turning, meshing, breaking contact and reconfiguring themselves inside.
"Any message?" she asked.
"No," said Harry. "I suppose there would be an implicit 'Thinking of you' in there, somewhere.
Daphne let out a snort.
"What else?"
"Selwyn has returned to his family, the entire incident forgotten," said Harry.
"Obliviated? No, you know what? I'll just keep my ears open. More?" asked Daphne.
"Dieter Berg was a favorite uncle of Amalia's," said Harry. "I asked how she connected me with Dieter. Ricardo said she had somehow heard of Selwyn's disappointment in not landing either you or Astoria, and the two of them cooked up the abduction plan and got some of the others to go along with them."
"Well," said Daphne. She took the bite of cauliflower, chewed, swallowed. "Well, well, well."