CHAPTER TWELVE
 

Laura and Remington sat on the couch completely dumbfounded as Mildred read them the riot act.  “For the last three years I have sat in this office watching the two of you playing cat and mouse with each other.”  She alternated looking at him and then her as she spoke.  “You send her flower arrangements.  You cut off his credit line.  You run off at a moment’s notice.  You follow him halfway around the world.  You wanted a roll in the hay.  You wanted a commitment.  Okay you both got what you wanted, so what the heck is your problem now?!”

Remington started to open his mouth but Mildred stopped him.  “Did I say you could speak?  Look, it’s obvious that the two of you are in love with each other but your on-again, off-again hourly relationship has got to stop.  You need to figure out what you want from this relationship and each other and you’re going to figure it out tonight.  I mean it!  I’m sick and tired of sitting in this office or traipsing around the world with the two of you not knowing from one day to the next whether you’re speaking to each other or if you’re playing some game to test the other’s love and commitment.  It’s childish, it’s ridiculous and it’s stopping one way or the other.  Do I make myself clear?”  They nodded in agreement.  “Now what do you have to say for yourselves?”  She looked at Remington.  “You first.”

“You’re fired.”

The corners of Mildred’s mouth curled in a slight smile.  “You can’t do that.  You don’t own this agency.”  She pointed to Laura.  “That’s her job around here remember?”

Laura sat straighter and almost laughed at the comment.  She leaned closer to him.  “She’s right.  You know you really should remember that from time to time.”

Mildred didn’t find Laura’s actions amusing.  “Didn’t I just tell you to stop that?  What’s it going to take to make the two of you behave like adults for more than two minutes at a time?!!  You’re going to pick a topic and discuss it like mature adults if it kills you.”  She looked at Remington again.  “Shall we try this again?”

Remington looked at Laura and then at Mildred.  “I want her to stop hiding behind her bloody past and approach this relationship like someone who actually wishes to have one!”

Laura glared at him.  “And I want him to stop withholding his damned past and be honest for the first time in his life about what he wants from this relationship!”

“Good!  Now you’ve got somewhere to start.  I’m going to the other room and you two are going to stay in here and have a serious discussion.  Understood?”  By then they were both off the couch but waved Mildred out of the room.

“Why the bloody hell should I tell you about my past when I know damn well that you’ll only use it to toss in my face during another argument just like this one?!”

Abigail had tried to call Laura but got no answer so she decided to try the office.  As she walked in Mildred gave her a motion to be quiet and they listened in horror as the argument progressed.

“It seems only fair since you can’t manage to leave my family out of every argument we have when I don’t swoon and fall into your arms!”  Laura shouted back at him.

“Your family IS the cause of this argument!  If your father hadn’t been such a cad and walked out on your mother instead of having affairs with every woman who walked by you would know what a responsible loving relationship is supposed to be about!”

Laura’s eyes grew wide with fury radiating from them.  “How dare you!  What the hell gives you the right to stand here and say vicious things about my father?!  You have no idea of the kind of hell my mother had to have put him through to drive him away!  You’re a fine one to talk!  Your father was nothing more than a high-priced con man who would have swindled a baby if it had anything of value!”

“Let me tell you Laura, Daniel was a far better man than you’ll ever know!  He may not have told me that he was my father, but he treated me a hell of a lot better than yours will ever treat you.  At least Daniel cared whether I lived or died.  At least Daniel wanted me around.  That’s more than I can say for yours!” 

The door swung back open and Abigail stepped inside as Laura was about to slap his face.  “Mr. Steele, you promised you wouldn’t tell her!”

Laura stopped with her hand in mid-air and looked at him.  “Tell me what?”

Remington quickly regained his composure.  “Nothing, it’s nothing.”  He turned to Abigail.  “I’m sorry Abigail.  When I got here I had no idea she would be here nor did I have any intention to continue this argument.  Perhaps it would be best if I were to leave.”

“Hold it right there, buddy.  You’re not going anywhere until I get an answer.  What aren’t I supposed to know about?”

“Ask your mother.”  He turned to walk out of the office.  “Mildred, nice try love.  But I think it’s safe to say that Laura and I have far more to work out than what can be done in one night.”

Abigail held up a hand.  “Mr. Steele wait…”  She walked to him and then over to Laura and took both of them by the hand and led them to the couch.  “Please sit down.  I was in the other room the entire time you were arguing.  Laura, your father isn’t all he’s cracked up to be and although Mr. Steele was wrong in bringing up his leaving, you should be ashamed of yourself.”

Laura looked at her in disbelief.  “I should be ashamed of myself?!  Why?!!!”

“Because you chose to insult the memory of a charming man who had nothing but kind and wonderful things to say about you who died before he had a chance to forge a relationship with his son.”  Turning her attention to Remington, “and you need to stop reminding my daughter that her father thought more of himself than he did of his family and left.” 

Mildred stood next to Abigail.  “Let me ask you something and I want completely honest answers.”  She looked at Remington.  “Do you love her?”

“Yes.”

“Do you love him?”

“Despite my better judgment.” 

Mildred’s brows furrowed but then softened.  “Then what difference does it make what kind of childhoods you had or what you did before you met?  It’s what you’ve done since then that’s important.  You’ve built this agency. You’ve learned to rely on each other for everything from finding a clue to saving each other’s life.  So what if he’s the son of a con man and you’re the daughter of a cad.  Isn’t it more important that you explore the love you have for each other than dwelling on a past that nothing’s going to be able to change?  Trust me kids, I’ve been there.  If I had spent more time focusing on love instead of faults, I might still be married…”

Mildred and Abigail looked at Remington and Laura.  They both looked like children who had been sent to the corner.  Remington shifted and Laura inhaled and exhaled heavily.  “I’m sorry I insulted Daniel’s memory.  He really was a gentle man.”

“I’m sorry about the comments about your family.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about William Westfield sooner.”

“I’m not.  I could have gone an entire lifetime without hearing about that.”  He reached over and took her hand in his.  “And I’m sorry about the comment I made this afternoon.  Well almost all of it anyway...”

“So now what?”

“I don’t know.  We can’t live together but it would appear that we can’t live apart either.”  They looked up at Mildred and Abigail.  “So what do we do now?”

Abigail looked at both of them and spoke with complete conviction.  “You’re going to forget about all of this nonsense and get back to the important things in life.  Mildred and I have spent the better part of the last two weeks arranging a wedding for the two of you.  The invitations are already at the printers, the caterers are planning their menus, the flowers are being chosen and the dresses are already being fitted.  You two are getting married whether you want to or not!”

They left the office and rode in silence barely looking at one another.  He unlocked the door and Laura walked into his apartment not sure of what was to come next.  Remington closed the door and put the keys on the table against the wall.  He motioned for Laura to sit but instead she had begun to pace.  “Laura, about this afternoon…”

“What about it?”  Laura’s tone indicated that she was expecting another confrontation and it didn’t go unnoticed.

“I just…I don’t want to fight Laura.”

“I don’t want to fight either but at the moment it seems to be the only thing we’re any good at.”

Remington walked to her and reached out an arm to pull her closer with.  “It’s not the ONLY thing we’re good at.”  He leaned in to kiss her and she turned her head so he would kiss her cheek instead of her lips. 

“That’s not what I mean.  It seems these days if we’re not in bed we’re constantly fighting.”  He lightly kissed her cheek again.  “I can’t live like that.”  He moved his kisses to her forehead.  “I don’t WANT to live like that.”  He streamed light pecks down her hairline to the side of her ear.  “You know, this isn’t getting us anywhere.”  Remington let out a light sigh and continued with his array of kisses.  “We need to talk about this mess and figure out what we’re going to do about this relationship.”  He nodded his head in agreement and moved his lips to the other side of her face.  “This is doing absolutely nothing for me.”

“Nothing?”  He asked seeming a little surprised.

“Not a thing.” 

He pulled her body closer to his and bent his head to kiss her neck.  “Anything?”

She shook her head.  “No.  There isn’t anything that’s going to work until we’ve come to an understanding and work through our issues.”  Remington held her as close as he possibly could and kissed her with such intensity that he nearly ran out of air.  He felt her body release the tension it was clinging to and as the kiss came to an end Laura bit her bottom lip before speaking.  “Why do you have to be so good at that?” 

Remington flashed a mixture of his most dazzling smile and mischievous grin.  He kissed her again and slowly backed her through the bedroom door. 

They laid in the darkness with the moonlight shining through the bedroom window.  Laura shifted her body to get closer to his.  His arm gently wrapped around her waist and squeezed lightly.  She looked at him and hesitated before speaking.  “I still want to know.”

“Know what?”

“What you and my mother are obviously keeping from me.”

“Perhaps you should speak to your mother about that.”

“What’s so horrible that you had to promise her not to tell me and what difference does it make?”

Remington removed his arm from her waist and shifted uncomfortably.  “It’s nothing… Really Laura, I promise you it’s nothing to worry about.  Can I ask you something?”

She looked at him again.  “Yes.”

“Considering how much you’ve obviously missed having your father around and the fact you’ve been a private detective for all of these years, why haven’t you ever tried to find him?”

“I did.  He lives in Ventura.  I went to his house once and watched him walk across the yard and into the garage.  I had a speech all worked out but then when the time came to confront him, I couldn’t get out of the car.  I drove away and never went back.  I don’t know why.  Maybe I’m afraid he won’t be the man I always thought he was and it would ruin the good memories I have.”  She shrugged her shoulders.  “What about you?  Didn’t you want to find your father before Daniel came into your life?”

Remington sighed deeply and thought before answering.  “I had always wanted a father and spent years trying to imagine what mine was like.  Who he was, what he did for a living, or whether he even knew about me.  I had been shuffled around so much that I never really felt like anyone cared whether I lived or died.  That’s how I ended up on the streets.  I was eight-years-old and wandering the streets of Dublin looking for any friendly face.  I didn’t find one and knowing that no one would miss me, I stowed away on a ferry and then the train bound for London.  I wasn’t any better off there but at least a few restaurant owners took pity on me and gave me something hot to eat once a day.”

Laura gently kissed his shoulder and laid her head on it as he continued.  “The days weren’t all that bad but the nights…those were another story.  I learned how to avoid the people who would round up runaway children and ship them off to orphanages.  I also learned how to deal with constant fear and I had to discover how to sleep in the freezing cold with nothing more than a piece of cardboard or a newspaper to cover me.  The older I got the more I thought about my father and the curiosity of what he might have been was replaced with anger for the fact that he had abandoned me.”

“How did you meet Daniel?”

“I was fourteen and had met more than my share of shady characters along the way.  I’d learned to pick a pocket better than anyone and one day I saw this distinguished looking man walking down Oxford Street near Hyde Park.  I watched him for a few seconds and decided that he would be my next mark.  He went inside a shop and I waited for him to come out then made my move.  I bumped him and lifted his wallet.  He kept on walking as if nothing had happened.  I was pretty damned happy when I opened the wallet and saw hundreds of pounds because I knew it would get me a place and good food for at least a week, maybe two.  I started walking to the park and as I was going under the Marble Arch, Daniel stepped around from the other side.  At first I was stunned but then I wanted to run.  Daniel knew what I was thinking and grabbed my arm before I could get away.”

“What did he do?”

Remington started to laugh.  “He congratulated me on a job well done and then told me that there was more where that came from if I played my cards right.  Then he looked up and down at the filthy clothes I was wearing and my uncut, dirty hair and decided that the first thing we were doing was finding a barbershop.  Once my hair was washed and cut he took me to his flat for a shower and asked his lady-friend to run out and get me a change of clothes.  When I got out of the shower, Daniel asked me my name.  For some reason, I had this strange feeling that I could trust him, so I told him that I wasn’t completely sure and then told him about the last few years.”

“And his reaction to you not knowing your name?”

“He said, ‘We’ll just have to think of a new one!’  When his friend came back with a pair of trousers and a sweater, I changed and left with Daniel to see about getting something to eat and a few more pieces of attire.  While we were walking down the different streets of London, Daniel would look at the street names or buildings and try them out on me.  He went through everything from Paul to Buck after Buckingham Palace to Edward to Albert to Ken to Harold because he didn’t think Harrod would work with my appearance.  We had been out for hours when he finally gave up.  We wandered into the last shop he wanted to go to and purchased two suits, shirts, ties and undergarments then walked out the door.  I commented that I had never been in a store that fancy before and asked what the name was.  He was a few steps ahead of me and said ‘Harry Winston’.  Then he suddenly stopped walking, turned around and looked me square in the eye.  ‘Harry,’ he said, ‘Harry… it’s elegant yet subdued, distinguished and yet could be intimidating.  Yes, Harry it will be!’  Then he turned back around and began laughing as his stride got faster.  Within one afternoon I went from being a wayward boy looking for my next mark to the protégé of the master.  Of course at the time, I had no idea of what Daniel did for a living and oddly enough, I really didn’t care because it was the first time in years that I didn’t have to wonder if I would have a hot meal and a warm place to sleep at night.”

Remington ran his hand over Laura’s silky hair and then rested it on her side.  “He taught me everything there was to know about not only executing the perfect scam but things like clothing, food, wines, music, art, jewels and the more important items such as dealing with people, exceptional manners and women.”

Laura propped herself up on an elbow.  “Daniel taught you about women?”

“In a manner of speaking… I was nearing my eighteenth birthday and he knew I was relatively inexperienced with the art of seduction, so he hired someone from a local madam that let me practice a few moves and in turn, taught me a few more.”  He grinned devilishly.

Laura returned his grin with one of her own.  “Well, there’s something I can always be grateful to him for…”  She leaned in and lightly kissed him.

Remington turned to his side and wrapped his arms around her body, drawing her closer to him again.  He kissed her gently then kissed her again with a bit more depth.  She responded to his not-so-subtle advances by sliding her hand over his chest.  “Perhaps we can find a few more things to appreciate...”

“Ah, Mr. Steele…What do you have in mind?”