Henry's Son

Vicki was unusually happy as she walked across the grass heading toward the college and a class for the visually challenged. She had come to terms with her condition and finally accepted the fact she needed to prepare for her future.

Henry and Mike had managed to come to a truce. Mike came during the day to talk and share ideas while Henry spent most of his nights with her. She loved them both different ways, Mike was her best friend and buddy while Henry was her soul mate and shared her bed. They would snarl and snipe, but didn't out and out fight with each other, at least not while she was around.

Smiling to herself, she wasn't paying attention to where she was walking and neither was the young man heading toward her. Their collision knocked her back. With quick reflexes the man's hand shot out and grabbed Vicki's elbow, "Steady. I didn't hurt you did I?"

Vicki looked into the deep blue eyes and the dimpled smile, "No." She blinked and asked, "What are you doing out this time of day?" Then gave him a long passionate kiss.

He accepted the kiss and returned it with passion of his own. After the kiss broke he shook his head as the sun played off the shoulder length curls, "Sorry love. I don't know you, but I appreciate the way you say hello."

Vicki looked harder at the one standing in front of her and readjusted her glasses asking, "What's your name? Where are you from? How old are you?"

The young man stepped back a pace, "Whoa! Thats a lot of personal questions, love. I'm not sure I should answer them."

Vicki took a breath, "Okay you're right. I'm sorry. Being nosy is my profession. Well it was. You look like a good friend of mine. He's more than a friend. I don't normally greet friends with that kind of kiss." Vicki started laughing at his confused face and added as she held out her hand, "Vicki Nelson, retired cop and private investigator."

He took her offered hand and said, "Rich, that is, Richard Fitz-Henry at your service. I'm from England on holiday and I'm almost 23."

Vicki looked down at the hand holding hers. It looked so alive, warm to touch with a healthy color that only hours in the sun could give youth. She saw her Henry as he should have looked.

Vicki held the hand tighter and asked, "Please come to my office tonight, I'd like to get to know you."

Rich saw Vicki's hopeful look and smiled, "I won't be able to come to your office, but how about talking now?"

Vicki looked at the sky and saw the sun about to set and said, "Okay we'll sit on that bench over there, but let me make a quick call first." Vicki pulled out her cell as Rich walked over to the bench Vicki had pointed out. She mumbled while dialing, "Please be up, please answer. Come on pick up." She let the phone ring four times, hung up, tried again and heard Henry growl, "This better be important. You know how irritating it is for me to hear the phone ringing before I can move."

"Don't ask questions. Get dressed and get to the park by the college. I'll be on the bench by the big old oak tree. Stay hidden, but get as close as you can. Move it."

Henry hung up, annoyed to have to move quickly, but he knew when Vicki called like this it was important and he better not take his time getting to her. Past experience told him that loss of blood usually accompanied Vicki's demands for immediate attention. He grabbed a shirt and jeans and made it to the designated area in record time. He saw Vicki sitting on a bench talking with a young man. As he moved closer he heard the following:

"There's no written documentation to prove anything I say. It has always been up to the older generation to tell the younger. It's been going on that way for centuries now and whether it's the truth or a lie who knows? There's no way to prove it because any and all records were destroyed. My own grandmother talked about seeing her grandfather burn papers that had names and dates on it. We kept the family name to ourselves but my father decided enough time had passed and he liked the sound of it, so he started using it all the time."

Vicki listened and saw by the flashing of a signal light, that Henry was in the dense shrubbery listening too. "Please tell me the whole story. You'll never know how important it is to me."

Rich shifted on the bench and Henry saw his own face. "If you promise never to repeat it, I'll tell you."

Vicki looked over Rich's shoulder to where she was sure Henry stood and whispered, "I swear to you that I'll never repeat this conversation to a living soul."

Rich could tell Vicki was telling the truth, nodded and said, "All right."

It was the late summer of 1535 when a young scullery maid met a royal prince eager to prove his manhood. That August the prince and the maid found many interesting ways to keep busy during the short nights. The prince returned to court life when the heat broke and the maid returned to her duties until her time came.

During the time the prince was in his father's court, the king petitioned to have his bastard son declared the royal heir and arranged his son's marriage to the daughter of a trusted friend. The prince had to time to think of his summer frolic but moved forward with his father's plans for his life and the events of history.

June 19 of the following year the scullery maid stood outside the great house's door and heard the wailing of women and the curses of men. She stood holding a newborn in her arms trying to decide what to do when the head gardener spoke to her and said, "Get on with ye. Don't be near the place with a babe in arms."

The maid looked at the gardener asking, "Is the prince here?"

The gardener spat on the ground saying, "Aye, been an gone."

The maid held the baby close and cried, "Gone? He told me he spends the summers here."

"No more. Dead an gone. Sweating fever took him during the night. Buried today."

The scullery maid's eyes sparkled with tears as she turned and walked down the dusty path whispering to her baby, "Fitz-Henry you are, Fitz-Henry you'll be. Bastard baby of a bastard prince."

Rich took a breath then added, "Whether it's true or not – some one in the family is always called Fitz-Henry, or Richmond or even Somerset. My dad liked the last name of Fitz-Henry, said it sounded noble. So that's my story." He looked at his watch, "I've got to go. Should've met up with my mates an hour ago." He got up and ran off before Vicki could say another word.

She started to call after him but thought better of it when she saw Henry sitting on the grass with his head in his hands. She went to him, sat and put her arm around his shoulder. "Henry, say something."

He looked at her with hurt and hunger in his eyes. She held out her wrist and said, "Feed."

He took her wrist and bit down with great care. Taking only enough to dull the hunger. "Thank you. You always take care of me."

Vicki ran her hand over the back of his head and smoothed his curls, "I love you. Today, when I saw that boy, I felt my heart skip a beat thinking he was you. He started speaking and I heard your voice. I knew without hearing his story that he was yours. I called because you needed to see him for yourself."

Henry spoke with a husky voice full of emotion, "You gave me the greatest gift a woman could ever give a man – you gave me a child." Vicki held him close to her heart and Henry's head was cradled between her breasts as he added, "I would have cared for them if I had known."

Vicki held him like a mother holding a beloved child gently rocking back and forth as she said, "I know Henry. I know. Don't cry."

Henry pushed himself up saying, "I've go to find him."

Vicki held him back saying, "Let him go. You've seen him and heard the story. Let it be enough. Don't mess him up by revealing yourself as vampire. There are generations that have lived and died with that story about a maid and a prince. They've lived proudly and honorably. It's the essence of you that's lived on." He made to push her aside and she held him tighter saying, "God gave you, gave us, a gift today. Take it for what it is and don't ruin it."

"What gift?"

"You got to see yourself as you should have been. You got to see what the love between a boy and girl 500 years later looks like. That whole line of descendents you started were able to live their lives with a special secret. Leave him be. He's the best of you."

"You may be right, but I intend to keep an eye out for him and his family. If I can do things that will keep them from harm or make lives a little easier, I will."

Vicki closed her eyes a minute. "Then let me help."

Henry held her tight and she told him that she did have Fitz-Henry's home address and e-mail. That she would be the one typing, but he would be the one dictating the words.