Empire's Legacy

Chapter 14: Welcome Home, Annieka

He was silent for a moment, and then said, "So who is this contact of yours, anyway?"

"Oh, let's not talk about that either."

"You seem to be rapidly eliminating all of the interesting topics of conversation."

"Only if you find me interesting."

"You might be the most fascinating woman I've ever met."

Amy laughed. "Only because you don't know me, Grey. Only because you don't know me. I assure you if you knew very much about me at all, you'd run as fast as possible in the opposite direction." A pause. "And I'm a slob."

"Taz is the neatest person I've ever met."

"Well, that's apropos of nothing." She glanced sideways at him, burying her discomfort. "Where'd that come from?"

Grey shrugged. "He likes you."

She laughed again. "What about Kate?"

"What about her?"

Amy turned off the main road and onto a wide pebbled side road. "I thought they—you know."

"Taz and Kate? That's a brother–sister thing, Jones."

"Huh. Clearly my radar's way off, then."

"Apparently so." He sidestepped a boulder and frowned. "So how far exactly is this place we're going?"

"Not much farther," Amy replied. "I probably should have made a call ahead to let Cam know we were coming—he could have sent transport." She tipped back her head and inhaled deeply. "It's just nice to be dirtside."

"When was the last time you were dirtside?"

"Just before I joined up with you, actually," she said. "I was here visiting Cam."

Grey eyed the back of her head as she walked up the path ahead of him. "So Cam is, what, a part-time lover?"

She whirled around. "Oh god, no," she exclaimed, looking horrified. "Absolutely not. No."

"Just a question, since you won't tell me who he is."

"Let's not talk about that. Let's talk about something else." The path forked and Amy turned right. "Tell me about Molly."

"Molly?"

"Yes, your daughter. The one we're going to all this trouble for."

Grey's expression softened. "What do you want to know?"

Amy shifted her bag to her other shoulder. "My experience with absent fathers tells me that they make a hell of a lot of excuses and buy a lot of presents to make up for never being around. Molly smart enough to realize that?"

"She's a bright kid," Grey replied. "She's interested in rocks. Tells me all about them every time I visit. I try to bring her samples from the different worlds I visit." He frowned at Amy. "That doesn't mean I'm compensating."

She shrugged. "Whatever your reasons, you're still an absent father, Grey. You weren't around when she was born, took her first step, said her first word. You weren't around when she had to explain to her friends why her mother was dead or how she died." Her voice shook. "You weren't there when she had to lie."

Grey gave her a strange look. "Are we still talking about me and Molly?"

Amy didn't answer, just shook her head and stepped out of the trees into a clearing. A tall fence stood before them. On the other side of the fence stretched a large park, a long expanse of grass sloping upwards to a mansion set at the top of the hill. A gleaming skimmer hummed up the path to the left and stopped at the gates; after a moment the gates swung open and the skimmer headed up the hill towards the mansion.

"Oh good, Cam's home," Amy said, starting across the clearing.

"Do you mean that that is where we're going?" Grey demanded. "We're asking favors from some wealthy prick living in a mansion?"

"You haven't met Cam yet," Amy said calmly. "Kindly reserve judgments until you've met him. Then you're perfectly welcome to call him a prick."

They reached the gates and Amy rang the bell. A moment later an elderly man in blue and grey livery stepped out of the gatehouse and peered through the fence. As soon as he spotted Amy a smile brightened his face and he opened the gates.

"Miss Annieka!" he exclaimed as Amy and Grey stepped through onto the wide drive. "Why, we weren't expecting you back to the Manor nearly so soon. Master Camryn will be so pleased to see you."

Amy smiled. "I'm certain he will, Teddy. Teddy, this is Morgan Greyson, a colleague of mine. He'll be staying at the Manor for a few days, so I would very much appreciate it if you could make sure to let him come and go as he pleases."

"Of course, Miss Annieka," Teddy said. "And will your father be coming home to visit any time soon?"

Her smile faded. "I'm afraid not. He is so busy, you know."

"Of course." Teddy bowed to Amy and Grey. "So good to see you again, Miss Annieka. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Greyson."

Impulsively, Amy leaned forward and gave Teddy a hug. "It's really lovely to see you as well, Teddy."

Teddy patted her gently on the back, his eyes sad. "I know, Miss Annieka. Now go on. Shall I call ahead and let Master Camryn know you're coming?"

"Yes, do," Amy said. She nodded to him and then started up the path, Grey trailing behind.

"You realize that you've changed the way you talk?" Grey asked after several minutes.

Amy glanced sideways at him. "How do you mean?"

"Your accent's gotten stronger and your language's gotten more formal."

A small smile twisted the corner of Amy's mouth. "Old habits die hard," she said, looking up at the house looming ahead of them.

"So this manor," Grey said. "It's your childhood home, isn't it?"

Amy bit her lip. "Yeah."

"That's a hell of a lot of money."

"We're not talking about it."