Chapter Three

Angie

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The party was going well, and Diana didn’t feel out of place, which she thought remarkable given how she had rarely met most of these people.

She had decided to keep it casual and was wearing a pair of CK’s she had found in a discount store on one of the rare occasions when she had shopped for clothing. With a slightly dressy top and jacket, she fit right in – what was it called? Dressy casual? Luckily, the weather was fine and warm.

She mingled and moved around, talking to people she had met, and reconnecting with her great aunt. All the time, she tried to avoid Alan for long enough to put together an explanation, and she thought of it just in time. He approached her near the end of the party, with Jacob holding onto her hand. The boy had been somewhat overwhelmed, and she guessed he was looking forward to not having so many strangers around at her sister’s.

 Give him a chance to wind down, she thought.

“Hi… Uncle Alan?” Jacob greeted him, uncertain.

Alan smiled. “Just Alan is fine, Kiddo.”

Jacob nodded. “Thanks for the photos.” He was not happy that a wedding photo of his father and Diana had been included in the bunch, but said nothing.

“Hi kiddo, nice wedding photo,” Alan commented, getting right to the point.

“It is,” Diana agreed. “We wanted to make our wedding special, so we dressed up.” 

Sometimes she amazed herself at how glibly she could lie – but that too was part of her profession, along with being cool under stress. She didn’t really remember Alan; she had been to too few functions, although she had seen him at her sister’s wedding. Just someone else she had lost track of over the years. Unfortunately, it seemed he also had an inconvenient curiosity about her.

“Why those costumes?” Alan asked, his curiosity now buzzing in his head.

“We both like old legends and myths – my heritage, you know – and we decided to pay them homage.”

“Your costume is interesting – definitely mythical - but where did you get the inspiration for your groom’s?”

“Oh, that was just chance. We love the Beauty and the Beast legend, but that Beast was too scary for a wedding, so we chose a different figure. We remembered reading about the now-famous lion man figurine found in Stadel, Germany, and looked it up. It was made 40,000 years ago of mammoth ivory. It was certainly made with skill.

“My husband loved the idea of it, suggested that the image must have been of someone the people revered, perhaps a storyteller, and our ideas ran from there. He tried to duplicate what he thought was the costume – with considerable artistic license. As to his face, we have occasion in the 210 to use the skills of certain anatomy and facial experts - you don’t want to know – and they told me about a makeup artist who could do the job.”

“Fantastic,” was Alan’s response to this, and he relaxed. There was always an easy explanation, so why was he so surprised?

“Thanks for the photo,” Diana said. “Jessica must have forgotten that roll. Not like her, but Jacob here has been very busy with his camera, and we’ve had to reduce the number of photos she’s developing. What do you think of his work?”

“It’s terrific,” Alan admitted with a smile. “He has talent - and an eye for scene, lighting, and context.”

Diana nodded.

“Are you planning to be a professional?” Alan asked Jacob, looking down at him.

Jacob hoped Alan accepted the explanation. He was glad to speak about his photography instead.

“I love seeing the world through a camera lens,” he told Alan. “I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but maybe something that uses photography.” He shrugged.

Any talk like that was not likely to be important for some years, so he wasn’t worried. His father always told him not to rush things. Much could change; he was told. Enjoy what you do now and let the future take care of itself. So, he was. He would have to be more careful with his photos, and film rolls - and so would Jessica. The wedding photo should not have been on a roll with other work. He had taken a lot of photos that day – so how had that happened?

While he was talking, Diana made a mental reminder to tell Jessica to recover the negatives and any other prints made. She would be distraught that Alan had let his curiosity win over his morality. She suspected there would be words. Jessica did not take kindly to being put on the spot. Perhaps Jacob would have to find another pursuit for a while too. They had been taking advantage of Jessica’s talent and access to a photo lab far too often. A break would be good for everyone and give Alan time to forget the photo.

“Well, we must go,” Diana told Alan at last, as Jacob stopped talking and Alan seemed at a loss as to what to say next. “Susan is waiting, and we promised we would have dinner with her.”

“See you tomorrow then,” Alan said, smiling.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Diana lied again.

She decided she wanted no more conversations with this relative. It could only get worse from here on in, and she would never hint at her secret life. If it came to it, she and Jacob could just show up for the main meal. She had seen just about all she wanted to see of her extended family for some time. She was not a social animal herself, and she was almost as overwhelmed as Jacob at the flurry of talk, hugs, and questions. No one had pried too deeply and had accepted her somewhat bare-bones explanations in the ongoing fun, but families were nosy. She hoped she could deflect any overt questions at the dinner, so she and Jacob would have to come up with a story together tonight.

Much as she loved her family, she had not sufficiently considered how nosy they would be. She had a lot more sympathy for Catherine Chandler now. She had not had so many relatives, by all accounts, but she had many friends and a father, and from all Vincent said, she walked a tightrope too, often alone.

Of Catherine’s acquaintances she knew of, only Elliot Burch had met Vincent, and he’d had a terrible accident and was now very much less in the public view. He had recovered in the tunnels, after Vincent found him weeks later on the streets, almost unrecognizable and in hiding from the outcome of Gabriel’s attempts to ruin him financially – and the explosion on the Compass Rose. Elliot had recovered and returned to his company, his fortune largely intact, but now focused on small scale social housing projects instead of large urban renewal. A tribute, he had told her, to both Catherine and his tunnel friends. His friendship was valuable, but he was cautious of his interactions above and below, although he had formed a friendship with the tunnel dwellers and become a helper.

Her boss, Joe Maxwell, had not met Vincent, but had agreed not to meddle in her personal life. He respected her, and knew she was married, and that Catherine’s son was in her life, but that explanation had not had to be further explained – yet. He had met Jacob, some time ago, not long after he had been rescued, and was content to know the boy was being cared for and thriving. He had apparently twigged to the fact that getting more pointedly personal might lose him Diana’s friendship. Joe had confessed that he was partly responsible for Catherine’s abduction and death and would live with that guilt for the rest of his life. He gave Diana all the personal space she needed – something he belatedly wished he had given Catherine more often. He’d known she had a private life, even if she didn’t say much about it, but he had needed her to work, often long hours.

As Catherine had done, Diana often skirted the truth about Vincent with Joe and others, by saying he was often unavailable for public functions in the world above. That explanation would need to be adapted a little too, she thought, as she and Jacob got into the back seat of Susan’s car. She sighed silently as they drove back to her sister’s house and Jacob took her hand. She looked down at him, knowing he had been uncomfortable with Alan too. She nodded, not willing to say anything that Susan might question later.

“Too much?” Susan asked, after they all, wearily, got out of the car and went in the front door.

Diana heaved a large sigh and nodded. “I love you all, but you’re overwhelming, and Jake here is tired too. We’ll have an early night after dinner, if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course,” Susan agreed. “I have it all ready to go, and we can eat in half an hour or so.”

“Wonderful,” Diana told her. “We’ll go and tidy up and see you shortly.”

Susan nodded and headed for the kitchen.