"Ah! Everyone is here. Good, good." Abe walked into the room, accompanied by Sir Henri Montblanc.
Corwin backed away from Connor and slowly sat back onto his chair.
"Good morning to you all," Sir Montblanc called out as he reached his seat at the end of the table. He gave a signal with his fingers.
"Where is the waitress? How come the coffee is not here yet? Has everyone ordered breakfast?"
Through the hubbub of the two men ordering the wait staff around, we mages were momentarily forgotten.
I stole a glance at Corwin and could see his sad blue eyes, looking at me with something akin hurt and betrayal.
It was going to be one of those day.
"Ah. Coffee is the high light of the morning, yes?" Sir Montblanc was saying.
"And I did promise the fair maiden there that I would introduce you to someone who would have an idea of a group of primates the size that you are indicating.
Let me call him to the banquet hall." He whipped out his mobile phone and spoke a few words as the waitresses moved about, arranging platters of pastries, fruit, hot cakes, eggs, sausages, and mounds of steamed rice in front of us.
As I sipped my orange juice, I wondered about what the ramifications of my impulsive request to Sir Montblanc was going to garner, especially since I had a nagging feeling that Corwin was not too happy with how everything was going down.
I didn't have much time to muse over everything because at that moment, the door opened to reveal the person that Sir Montblanc had said was an expert on primates.
The man had dark brown hair and hazel eyes, his face, well-proportioned and quite handsome. He was tall and stately, looking almost like Sir Montblanc, only not so old, and not so stiff and formal.
He stared at me, looking as if he had seen a ghost.
"Chloe!" He exclaimed, and ran to my side. Sinking down on his knees, he grabbed my hands and began kissing them with fervent desperation.
In two seconds flat, my twin red-heads had sent him slamming up against the wall.
"Stay away from my woman!" They both said at the same time.
The man looked up from his crumpled heap and suddenly began to cry, tears streaming down his face in a sad state of affairs.
I gasped at the sudden turn of events, not knowing quite what to say.
Even Sir Montblanc was stunned and sat there for a moment, apoplectic and horrified.
"Étienne Montblanc. What in blazes are you doing!"
"Chloe," the man named Étienne Montblanc pointed at me. "That's—that's Chloe!"
"Your wife? You mean the one who disappeared eighteen years ago? Are you daft boy? The girl is barely sixteen, if even that." Sir Montblanc roared, his face turning red with outrage.
"It's her!" Étienne insisted. "I would recognize her anywhere. She is my Chloe!"
I stood up. The man had gone too far.
I was going to say something except I felt hands pulling me down.
Stay quiet! Connor called out inside my head.
Sir Montblanc sighed. "Stand up, you imbecile. I knew allowing you to mingle with the apes would make you go crazy sooner rather than later."
He sighed and rubbed a weary hand over his eyes.
"This young lady's name is Nana Imara and she is a valued guest. She has nothing to do with your long-vanished wife."
Étienne looked at Sir Henri Montblanc, startled out of his reveries by the old man's harsh tones.
He stared back at me, searching for something that I did not understand, and then he slumped to the ground as if all hopes had been dashed.
"You're right. I'm sorry father. This young lady is not Chloe. She is a doppelgänger of my wife, but I can see that she is not."
He scrutinized me much closer this time.
"Her eyes are not green enough, her hair not golden enough. She is not tall enough, nor is she old enough…"
"Seventeen," I said, my voice ringing out with a clarity that startled everyone around me. "I'm seventeen. I will be eighteen in December. I am not his wife."
"Of course not," Sir Henri Montblanc shook his head morosely.
"I apologize. Where are our manners. Everyone, this sad pathetic sack of a man is my only son, Dr. Étienne Montblanc. He is a research biologist who specializes in primate development.
He sighed. "The woman with whom he alludes to was his wife, Chloe Belladonna, who disappeared over eighteen years ago."
Chloe Belladonna?
The centurion Chloe Belladonna whose dusty painting hung in Blackstone's office? My jaw dropped. He must be on mushrooms!
Sir Henri Montblanc stood up and walked over to where Dr. Étienne Montblanc was still seated on the floor and helped him to his feet.
"I brought him here, not to make a spectacle out of himself but to see if he could assist you in your quest for this large group of primates that you say are within the vicinity. Perhaps this was a bad idea."
"You say there are a large group of primates in this area?" Dr. Montblanc raised his eyes in excitement, all traces of his desperate anguish vanished.
"Could it be?" He began trembling with something that resembled frenzied elation. "After all these years, could it possibly…"
He looked at his father.
He looked at me.
He stared at everyone else.
And then he ran towards me and grabbed the empty juice glass from my hand.
"I need this. Much obliged!" He yelled, and then ran out the door like a mad man.
Abe shook his head. "What in heavens name just happened here?"
Sir Henri Montblanc shook his head, his usual dignified bearing replaced with a worn, defeated look. "I must sincerely apologize. My son is usually not that…strange."
I nodded, not convinced.
"He is actually a very good scientist. But since the day his wife left him, he has never been the same."
Sir Henri Montblanc looked at the twins. "Mark my words, once a man has found his only love, if he loses her, he becomes unbalanced and is never the same again. When my wife passed away, I had to remain strong for my son."
He looked at the doorway where Dr. Étienne Montblanc had just exited.
"He has nobody to keep him from wavering and he has spent too much time in isolation, staying away from humanity and preferring instead, to work with his primates."
"It's quite alright," I said. "We will try to find them on our own. I do appreciate the effort on your part though."
Sir Montblanc shook his head. "It was no effort at all, but I am guessing my son has a clue as to what is going on. He ran out of here muttering something about the primates."
"I expect he will be contacting us within the day. At the very least, please allow him twenty-four hours to contact us with what he knows."
We all nodded our heads in agreement. We really did not have any leads at the moment, and it did look as if the Doctor actually had some plan formulating in his head as he ran for the door.
Sir Montblanc and Abe did not stay much longer in the banquet room.
They finished their coffee, excused themselves, and left us in charge of polishing off the huge breakfast we had ordered.
Tarzan, who sat like a quiet mouse at one corner of the table was more than happy to begin attacking the food.
Simon, who was chattering nonstop at Tarzan about something or other, was stuffing his face in a similarly starved manner.
So much was still rattling around my brain when one of the twins spoke up.
"So, Nana. Tell me again about the book."
Of course, it had to be Connor.
I put my coffee cup down and wiped my mouth with my napkin.
"I opened the book."
Simon gasped. His blue eyes sparkled brightly.