The Shape of Things to Come (Hypernaturals 15)

Parts on the Ground

The La Cour family home is not the cheap seats. It is dwarfed in size and antiquity by the place Helen inherited five centuries back from her husband, the first Claremont, but the sprawling La Cour family mansion is not small or inexpensive.

"As much as they might hate us Claremont's, I must admit that the La Cour family have not been utterly unsuccessful." I commented as we talked up to the house.

"Us Claremont's?" Fiona asked.

"Don't be silly, silly." Denise chided her. "Of course you are a Claremont. The red-headed branch from Ireland."

"Hmm." Fiona responded to that.

"What Denise said." I added.

Fiona accepted the nomination with a nod and then gave us a Claremont-related history lesson, proving she is more Claremont than me. "This building nor any of the Estate is wine money. The land was acquired, and this comfy little cabin built using old money. The La Cour patriarch of the day had a dream to get into wine. It was irrelevant if that was anyone else in the family's dream, but maybe it was. Being a world-famous vintner has a certain cachet to it. Especially here. Why the La Cour family has for generations hated the Claremont's. They aspire to their status as both a world-class operation and having the exclusivity that Claremont does. Claremont is the winemaker's winemaker. Most people in the world have no idea who they are."

"Who we are, Fiona. We." Denise corrected her.

"Who we are." Fiona accepted the correction smoothly. "If you are a producer of fine wines and in the know? You know about Claremont. You do not know or at least care about La Cour. The La Cour's were in a variety of other businesses and still are. Shipping primarily. Over the land and over the sea. Helen owns Cruise ships. They own container ships."

"Helen has those too." Denise said. A thing I did not know.

"Of course she does. The woman never misses a place to put money to work." Fiona said.

"Nope." Denise said.

I said nothing about not knowing anything about that. I have made it my mission to never ask Helen about her professional life outside Council. I never want her to think I am for a nanosecond interested in her money. I know perfectly well why Helen is the NorthAm treasurer. This is why when she and I had a fight over me being on Council, I pointedly moved my pittance of money away from her control. I was being intentionally hurtful to show her how much she hurt me.

Fiona went on. "There are various and sundry related other lines of business. Not Helen scale diversity, but they spent some time buying up small businesses here and there in a hodgepodge of purchases. Other businesses that they could support by undercutting the competition via the shipping business. They make their wine money via shipping as well. If you are French, you drink Claremont. If you are American, you might think La Cour is good wine." Fiona explained. She laughed. "Irony. Helen could ship Claremont anywhere and she didn't. La Cour never really understood her success. There is a reason Helen is secretly far more successful than they are. They are very overt. Helen can predict their moves easily and counter them when she needs to. Helen plays the long game as only a Vampire can."

"She is pretty amazing that way. Good for her. I find that game boring and just stuffed all my money away to grow. Simple interest over centuries." Denise said.

"Into funds managed by Helen?" Fiona asked curiously.

"Not at first. I did not know who she was. We are nearly the same age, but we did not know each other right away. But yes. Eventually. She made me more money faster than I would have thought possible, but I never spend it on much. I'm a simple lady. Most of the money I have spent for the last few centuries was Crew money. Even my Jeep is Crew provided. My nest egg grows, and I do what I want to instead. I don't care about the power of influence. I just want to be the best me I know how to be, best mom I know how to be, best Crew Lead I know how to be, and I just want to take Adrian, Jessica, Helen, and Morgan to bed. That's what I like to do."