Side Story - The Unyielding Matriarch (Patreon)

Side Story

The Unyielding Matriarch

The crack of impacts echoed across the estate grounds, carrying through the warm summer air.

Caroline Delvane turned a page.

Two of her nieces were sparring on the lower lawn, trading blows that would have hospitalized anyone without the family gifts. One of them attempted an overhead strike that the other caught and redirected, sending her sprawling across the grass. She rolled, launched back to her feet, and closed again. Sloppy footwork. 

Caroline made a mental note.

She reclined in her lawn chair beneath the shade of an old oak, dressed in simple white cottons, a paperback novel resting in her hands. The estate stretched around her in every direction. Manicured gardens. Training grounds. The tree line that bordered the property in a wall of ancient forest. Behind her, the main house rose against the sky, its stone walls and towers unchanged in two centuries.

Henri stood just behind her right shoulder, hands clasped at his waist. He had been her butler for twenty-three years, and in that time had perfected the art of being present without existing.

Footsteps approached from the house. Caroline didn’t look up.

“Madam.”

Caroline turned a page. “Elise. You know better than to interrupt my reading hour.”

Elise stopped a few paces away and dipped her head. “My apologies, madam. But you’ll want to see this.”

She held out a tablet. Henri stepped forward, accepted it, and placed it in Caroline’s hand.

Caroline laid the paperback face-down across her knee and pressed play.

The screen showed the GTNN broadcast. She recognized the set. Alexander Rooke and Maximilian de Castillo sat on a sofa across from the correspondent.

Caroline smiled. “Oh, what has the young Castillo done now?”

She watched in silence. The correspondent confirmed the Lost Prophet’s death. Maximilian discussed the Compact. All very polished. She would have expected nothing less from Franklin’s boy.

Then the correspondent turned to Alexander. Showed a photograph. Asked about Julia.

“We are,” the young man said.

The tablet cracked in Caroline’s grip.

Henri reached down and gently extracted it from her hand before it suffered further damage. She let him take it.

Caroline stared across the training grounds. The two girls were still sparring, oblivious.

“The Machine God. Alexander Rooke.” She frowned. “His name is familiar. Why do I know it? Besides the obvious.”

Henri cleared his throat. “Mr. Rooke and Miss Julia were sweethearts in school, madam. Before she was recalled for training.”

A pause.

“That is also why she was so upset upon her return, if you recall.” Henri hesitated. “Regarding your insistence that she come home immediately.”

Caroline’s frown softened. She remembered that argument. Julia had been furious. Inconsolable for weeks. Caroline had attributed it to teenage dramatics and moved on. She hadn’t asked what, or who, her daughter had left behind.

“Ah.” She tapped a finger against the arm of the chair. “That would explain it.”

A breeze moved through the oak, rustling the leaves above her.

“Well. At least she didn’t pick Franklin’s boy. That one has had a stick up his backside since he learned to walk.” She hummed quietly to herself. “Still. The girl hasn’t learned. Keeping secrets from her own mother. I think a visit is in order.”

Henri remained perfectly still. “Shall I arrange travel, madam?”

“Yes. Tell my husband we’re flying to the States.” Caroline picked up her paperback and found her place. “I believe he already knows the boy, but I’d like to meet him for myself.”