Vampyres: Fluff: Truths Told, pt. 3 (of 3)

["A. Fraser" <redoak@interlog.com>]

No warnings.  And you are left to draw your own conclusions of what,
exactly, happened in the Keep.  The third side of the story is Kent
Ravensbrook's... and he's ashes and gone (no loss).  But the truth probably
lies somewhere in the middle, as truths usually do.

Here is the end of the story, and perhaps a beginning.

____
Truths Told
copyright 2000
by Anne Fraser
with the kind assistance of L.M. Wallace

Joshua set down the phone and studied his husband thoughtfully.  Approach
this the wrong way, and Gideon would get all stubborn and prideful, and
nothing at all would be accomplished.  The very name of Adrian Talbot
would be like the proverbial red flag.  Hmmm...

"Gideon," said the recently-turned vampire to the far older one.  "What
would you say was the far better choice between truth or memory?"

The Baron's expression was wary when he replied, "Why?"

"Memories can be false," Josh said.  "Wouldn't you rather know the truth
than keep a false memory?"

Gideon sighed and put down the financial section of the newspaper.  "This
is about That Actor, isn't it?"

"Would you be willing to go over to Meadowsweet Ridge and just talk to the
man?"  Josh asked, rubbing Gideon's shoulders affectionately.  "Please?"

"Absolutely not."

"Please?"

"Why is this so important to you?" Gideon asked, surprised at this
wheedling on behalf of a man Joshua barely knew.

"Because it's eating you up.  You can't keep on hating him for centuries,
Gideon.  Whatever happened between you... and I don't want to know if you
aren't willing to tell me, it's over and done with.  The past is the past.
I've learned that lesson in under a year as a vampire.  There's no sense in
holding such an old grudge, is there?"

"You don't know what he did to me!"  Gideon let the newspaper slip out of
his grasp.  "There are reasons, Joshua!  Why does nobody see that?"

"All I see is how much this is hurting you."  Joshua picked up the paper
and put it safely on Gideon's desk.  "Have you ever thought that maybe he
had a reason for whatever it was he did?  Adrian's a complex man.  I sensed
something at Christmas, when you two shook hands, something that suggested
that the two of you should move in a new direction.  Maybe it's time to heal."

Gideon buried his head in his hands.  "There is no healing for some pasts,"
he whispered.

"What can it hurt to try?"

 The Baron's head lifted.  "Did Pandora say that Talbot was willing?"

"Yes."

"Then I can be no less."

Josh hugged him.  "Atta boy."  He grinned and went off in search of his car
keys.

***

At Meadowsweet Ridge, Pandora made her guests as comfortable as possible in
an awkward situation.  She signalled to Jake and Josh that they should make
themselves scarce after a few moments of socializing, and the two men
followed her out.  Not without some anxious looks back!

"Maybe we should have just given them a couple of pairs of boxing gloves,"
Jake said as the door to the den closed behind them, leaving Gideon and
Adrian alone.

"Or duelling pistols," Josh suggested.

"And give me more work to do?" Pandora asked, shooing them further away
from the room where the two old enemies were sequestered.  "Now, be good
and come along with me to the kitchen.  Jake, I'm sure you must be hungry..."

But she, as much as the two other men, longed to be a fly on the wall in
that room when Gideon and Adrian finally talked.

++++

Silence stretched, elastic-like, between the two men.  It was not a
comfortable silence.  Adrian studied his fingernails.  Gideon stared into
space.  Not even the sound of breathing allieviated the deadly quiet.

Then, finally, a statement.

"You left me there."  It wasn't an accusation.  It was fact, and Gideon
delivered it tonelessly.

"And what did you expect me to do?" Adrian demanded, eyes flashing.
"Rescue you?  How could I have?"

"You did not even try," Gideon countered. 

"Had I tried," Adrian went on, "I'd have been suffering with you.  Is your
memory so clouded that you don't remember what that place was like?  Your
bloodmaster was a savage bastard with more guards than the president.  I
was lucky to get out of there alone, never mind trying to drag his
favourite toy with me.  We'd both have been torn to shreds."

Gideon turned his head away, trying to force the memories of Ravensbrook
back into dormancy.  But they had awakened, and the echoes of old screams
rang in his head.

"I begged you to help me," he said.

"Yes, you did," came the terse answer.  "Do you remember my reply?"

Silence for a moment, while a true memory played back in Gideon's mind's
eye.  "Yes," he admitted painfully.

"And?" Adrian pressed, wanting the admission.

"You said 'I dare not.'"

Adrian's eyes bored into Gideon's, even from across the room.  "Do you
really think I didn't want to get you out of there?  Christ, that place was
hell!  But I had no choice."

"Self-preservation has always been your highest priority, hasn't it, Talbot?"

"Yes."

Gideon could only shake his head.

"Oh, so it's time to play 'holier than thou', is it?" Adrian asked.  "And
what have you done but looked out for yourself over the years?"

"The Brotherhood..."

The actor snorted.  "Bunch of do-gooder do-nothings.  The chief reason you
joined was for protection, wasn't it?  And what is it your precious
Brotherhood does?  Help only those you think are worthy, and harrass anyone
who doesn't fit into your narrow standards of acceptable vampire behaviour."

"That is not true."  Gideon struggled to hold his temper.  "You know
nothing about us if that is what you believe."

"And what do you know of me?" Adrian countered.  "'That Actor', you call
me, as if actors were vermin.  Well, I hate to be the one to break this to
you, Baron, but the Puritan edict against players was revoked a long time
ago.  Actors are allowed to mingle in public these days.  I'm an accredited
university professor, a director, an anthropologist and I could probably
still brew a mean batch of bathtub gin from the days I ran a speakeasy; so
I'm more than just an actor.  Maybe I haven't lead an exemplary life
according to your standards.  But, damn it, I've lived!  I've had
adventures and love affairs by the score; and I've been to places you've
probably never heard of."

Gideon's eyebrows raised at this, but he said nothing.  Adrian had centre
stage and wasn't about to surrender the spotlight.

"You know what I think, Baron?" the actor went on. "I think you're jealous
of me."

That did provoke a disbelieving, wordless exclamation.

"Sure," Adrian went on, gaining confidence.  "I'm free, and you aren't.  It
started then, didn't it?  You hate me because I was free to walk out of
Ravensbrook's control and you weren't.  And now I'm free to do what I want
or go where I please, and you're stuck with the hidebound old Brotherhood
and your precious reputation.

"So your bloodmaster was a monster.  So fucking what?  So was mine.  He
didn't use whips.  He didn't have to.  I don't let the memories get to me.
Maybe I don't have a centuries-old pedigree, my bloodlines traced back to
Noah as if I was some kind of prize breeding dog, but I've got as much
right to live my life the way I want as any damned aristocrat.  You have no
right to pass judgement on me."

Gideon's first reaction, firmly suppressed, was to burst into applause.  He
decided instead to reply in kind.

"But you have the right to pass judgement on me, is that right?" he countered.
"I may not dislike you for your profession or your hedonistic lifestyle,
but you are allowed to sneer at my title and my way of life?  Is that the
bargain?  Because if it is, it's a pretty poor one.  I did not ask to be
born to the aristocracy any more than you asked to be born the offspring of
a prostitute.  In the brief time I was the Baron of Redoak, I did the best
I knew how for my tenants.  I never once, to my knowledge, harmed a
wandering player; nor did I ever embrace the Puritan church's teachings.
You mock me for my wealth, for my quiet life, for my membership in the
Brotherhood.

"Professor Talbot... I wonder if it is not you who are jealous."

Adrian snorted.

"I have something you lack, Professor.  And you feel that lack, whether or
not you choose to admit it."

"Oh?" Adrian drawled sarcastically.  "And what might this mythical lack be?
 Money?  Blue blood?"

"Security," Gideon replied.

Adrian bowed his head, acknowledging the truth of this.  "Security," he
said.  "And a damned good-looking lover."

"That, too."  Try as he might, Gideon couldn't keep a hint of smugness out
of his reply.  "But you are the one who bragged of countless love affairs."

"Let's not allow this to dissolve into one-upmanship, Baron," Adrian said,
heading that subject off at the pass so that he wouldn't have to discuss
his bisexuality with a man who'd stuck to one gender.  "We've steered very
far away from that miserable dungeon in France, haven't we?"

"Yes, we have.  Talbot... Adrian... forgive me."

‘Forgive you?"  Adrian's jaw dropped.  "For what?"

"Being wrong, all these centuries.  I... I thought you had enjoyed what you
did to me."

"Forgive me," Adrian replied, "for doing it in the first place."

Gideon held out his hand.  "Truce?" he asked.

Adrian's own hand reached out, grasped the offered one.  "Truce," he
agreed.  "Thank you, Gideon."

"Thank you, Adrian."

They walked towards the shut door, once more in silence, but this one was
no longer tense.  There was the sharp smell of relief in the room, of
tensions unwound, of healing begun.  As Gideon's hand reached for the
doorknob, Adrian couldn't resist testing this new truce.

"So, Gideon," he said as the door to the rest of Meadowsweet Ridge opened
and three expectant faces popped into the kitchen doorway.  "Would you and
Josh like tickets to my next production?  I'm doing _Dracula_."

____

The End

My sincere thanks to Pandora's Muse for her help and for loaning me Pandora
(and Aisling, however briefly, *g*).

Well?  Tell an author what you thought.  Please....


Baron Gideon Redoak,  redoak@interlog.com
"Tell me you do not want to become a vampire because it is... what is that
expression?... cool." (From "Reprise" by A. Fraser)
Oakwoods Home Page: http://www.crosswinds.net/~redoak/ 
Centre Stage: http://www.redrival.com/thatactor/
My Other Home Page:  http://members.tripod.com/~Anne_F/index.html
The Site Formerly Known as Oakwoods: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/3743/