Muse in Secret

Chapter Nine

"James you know I don't control the French office. James? James are you quite alright?" Arthur Weasley asked.

James was sitting across from him, staring out the window. It had been exactly three weeks since the funeral, and five days since he had seen Regulus last. It felt like a lifetime, but he knew each step of this plan had to be executed well for any of this to work. He would of course need to leave plenty of funds for Lily, once he told her. He also had to have money available in France for his use, as there was a good chance that Flourish and Blots would seize his French account and take back the advance as it had been a three book deal issued in good faith.  "Yes. Yes I am listening." He answered quickly.

"James please think this though. I think you are grief ridden, I think if you explain that, you will get all the extension that you require, but dropping a three book deal two books in is absolute madness!"

"There's notes. Excerpts. It just needs an ending." He said as plainly as he could manage.

Arthur looked as though he was about to explode. He had gone very red in the face, nearly matching his hair in color. There was something paternal about him that made the scene not frightening, but did strike a bit of guilt into James' heart.

"You will be ruined James. You don't understand. The numbers are picking up, sales are happening. Leave people hanging, and you will never be published again. Your work will never be one of the greats, because everything you have written will simple fade out. I am angry, because you damn well the best writer I have ever met. Your stories are wonderful, and you can't throw them away!"

"I told you when I pitched it, it was never about the money."

"James..."

"Please, help me. All those years ago, when you took a chance on my first novel. Take a chance on this. If nothing else,  just show me how I get myself out of this mess. My heart isn't in it, not anymore."

Arthur sighed, taking two big puffs from his pipe. "But James, the book is selling, we've translated nearly one hundred copies in England alone! And looking at our numbers, the French sales are steadily climbing. Look, the best I can offer you is a press party- preferably in France. Bring your wife, make a show of it. Give then what you have of the third book, slap an ending on and be done with it. Might it be disappointing? Sure. But it will certainly be better than walking away after all of this."

James sunk back into his chair, letting his shoulders slump forward. He felt as though he was a petulant child, being reprimanded by the school teacher. "You wont like the ending."

"I don't have to like the ending." Arthur said, staring down at him. "No one has to like the ending. There just needs to be one, James. Leave it open, like you did with the Curlews, but the only advice I can give you is to give them something."

James tried to soften himself. After all, this was hardly Arthurs wrongdoing, or his doing at all. He was just a man trying his hardest to accomplish a job James was making near impossible. So he agreed on a party in France, though the prospect of bringing Lily made his stomach churn. He hadn't shared a bed with her or so much as spoken more than a few kind words to her since his return, and the thought of putting Regulus through having to see her again when he had promised that the next time was his forever pained him.

Dear Regulus,

In order to fulfill my contract, I will be having a press party in France in three weeks time. I have been persuaded to finish the third novel, although I fear it is not my best work. I am writing to let you know that Lily will be coming- but I will be moving my things in the time being, though in such a way to not create suspicion. As I do not wish for you to be in the spotlight, she will attend as my wife, and I shall inform her of my plans to stay in France the next day. I hope you can understand the change in plans. This should keep my accounts from being frozen so that we may have a comfortable salary and revenue from my books. As we have discussed before, I will let her keep control of the English accounts. I am not sure how the proceeding with go in terms of dissolving the marriage I have to her on paper, but that will be a bridge we cross when the time arrises.