Children of the House of Four Seasons: Knowledge

The direct continuation of Discovery

By Atonia Walpole

(Picture creations also by Atonia)

Part 1

Jacky was the first one awake and he rolled off the sofa, untangling his legs from Maxi. He went down the hall to his room and splashed some water on his face, found his running shoes and donned a tee shirt. It seemed his feet knew the way so he ran without thought as to where he was going. He just concentrated on his breathing but last night’s revelations kept trying to take hold of his conscious mind. It was fantastical that their fathers were movie characters. The how and why of it he couldn’t imagine. Andy had said you could call anyone you wanted for a season. There were four of them and if he was to be believed, and that was a big IF, then their fathers had been called as companions...but they weren’t real. Did that mean you could call anybody fake people? What about a made up person, like the ideal woman?  And then there was the question of who had called them? His mind couldn’t go there. Proof of Life…well, that’s what he wanted now…proof this wasn’t some bad dream, wasn’t magic because there was no such thing…not really…everything could be explained…or not.

Rose had been awake for some time. Through her lashes she saw Jacky ease out of the room. She was still trying to take it all in and make some sense out of it. She looked over at Claire, still sound asleep, and she quietly got out of the bed. Glancing at Maxi on the sofa, she went to her bathroom and pulled her swimsuit from her bag. She was going for a swim in the pool.

She did her stretches and dove in, barely rippling the surface of the pool. It was easier for her to accept that magic was involved because she believed in magic. How else to explain her Papa.? But how to explain a character in a movie becoming a real person was beyond her. The other thing…the same actor created all four characters, which meant they were really the same man in different guise. Which meant that they were all brothers and sisters, not cousins. It was mind boggling, to say the least.

Claire roused, sitting up in the bed, getting her bearings. Rose’s room…then it all came back to her and she put her face in her hands. Her Daddy had been at this house. Her daddy was really a movie character walking around in real life. He’d been a companion to some woman here…her Daddy. None of it made any sense. She got out of the bed and stumbled across the hall to her bathroom. She found a pair of shorts and a tank top and went downstairs to the kitchen. Coffee was already made and she looked at the clock. It was after ten but then they’d been up most of the night watching each movie and discussing the possibilities.

She took her coffee outside to the terrace and sat at the table. One thing the movies did was give each of them an insight to their fathers, how they had been before…before what?  Before they jumped from the screen into real life? There had to be an explanation for it. There had to be because her mother and brothers were in the same movie. What happened to them when her daddy was here at this house? She was beginning to think like Maxi. It was some kind of set up, some kind of bad practical joke. Anything could be faked.

Maxi hugged the sofa pillow to his chest, trying to hang onto the dream that was fast fading away as consciousness returned. Fanny…he’d been dreaming about Fanny. He found his legs and stood up. Everyone else was out of the room so he went to Rose’s bathroom and washed his face, coming alive. He blinked water out of his eyes and looked at himself in the mirror, reaching out and touching the mirror with his fingers. Was he real?

He’d watched the movie with his dad, A Good Year. Everything he knew and loved was there, the chateau, Duflot and Ludivine. Even the London flat, everything…except Mum. And Fanny...what happened to her? He thought the House tied in with it all but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out how. He went to his room…his dad’s room he was thinking and pulled out a blue polo shirt from the wardrobe. Might as well BE him…something caught his eye on the floor of the wardrobe and he picked it up, a faded dried rose petal. He laid it carefully on the bedside table and had second thoughts about the shirt he was about to wear. Something had happened in this house, something his Dad had never told him…but then he hadn’t mentioned Fanny, either.

Later they were all gathered on the terrace eating brunch. They’d found a buffet set out on the center island and being hungry, they filled plates and went outside to eat. None of them had mentioned to each other their private thoughts as yet.

“Well, I guess you’ll believe me about Papa now. I wasn’t lying, was I?”

Maxi looked up. “No, Rose, you weren’t lying. No way you could’ve known.”

“I still think there’s something, something we’re not seeing yet. There has to be a logical explanation for all this. I’m still not convinced it’s not some kind of joke on us.”  Claire speared a sausage and began to eat.

“It would have to be a pretty clever jokester, wouldn’t it, follow Dad to some place in South America, show up at La Siroque, Mystery, Alaska. You know there is no such place. I looked it up on Maxi’s computer this morning. I mean, how could they film a sea battle? No…I don’t think it’s a joke, Claire. I just don’t know what it is or why it is.”

“You can’t believe it’s magic, can you?”

“Magic…like the rabbit in the hat…no.”

“Magic like wanting something to be true and then having it come true.”

They looked at Rose. “Things like that don’t happen, not magically anyway. If you want something, you have to make it happen.”

“Maybe somebody did,” Rose said, picking up her glass of juice. “We haven’t talked about that. Who called them here? Who wanted them for a companion?”

Jacky and Maxi looked at each other and then down at their plates. “A common denominator,” Jacky said and picked up his cup of coffee. “Who do we know?” he added softly.

Rose looked up. “Mum.”

“No, it couldn’t be Aunt Toni because Daddy was here. He was married to my mom.” She met their gazes. “He was! You saw it! He would never…he wouldn’t!”

Rose looked off toward the sea. She believed it was her mum. “But she loves him.”

John had just crossed into Massachusetts. It wouldn’t be long now. He’d driven nonstop right at the speed limit all the way from Maine. He looked at the clock on the dial. It was going four; a lot could have happened since last night. There were two things bothering him. One, of course, was the revelation itself and the other was that they were four healthy, good-looking kids in a house of love. Never mind that they thought they were cousins. Hell, cousins do it.

He saw the turn off for Gloucester. Boy, how many times had he been there…skated on their hockey team. He wondered if they still had it going. It had been a long time but things like that become tradition. He drove through the town, looking right and left. Not much had changed, a few different store fronts, probably done over. The old tavern was still there. He’d been in that many times with Toni. Toni…he wondered if Max had told her where he was going and what was going on. Kids, damn kids! He should have warned Claire about booking online…but who would have thought…where’s the damn road…?

There was no one in sight when he drove through the gates. Claire’s car was parked down by the garage so they were still there somewhere. He took a breath, looking at the House where so many memories lived, but his daughter was there now. He squared his jaw and went into the House. It looked just like it always did except it was summer, the flowers were different, a different scent in the House. He checked the downstairs rooms and walked out on the back terrace then to the cliff. Ah, they were on the beach, all of them sitting and lying on a blanket with a cooler of beer. Beer sounded good. He made his way to the cliff and stopped. What if they hadn’t discovered anything yet? How was he going to explain his presence here? He looked back at the House and it fueled him onward down the cliff path. It was only a matter of time anyway before something would be happening.

Rose stood up, intending to go back in the water, as John reached the bottom of the cliff path. He took one look at her and did a sharp intake of breath. She had blossomed. Wow, she had the look of her mother about her but her coloring was all Jack.

Maxi spotted him. “Uncle John…?” They all turned with surprised looks on their faces.

“Daddy…what are you doing here?”

“Well, I got to looking at the pictures you sent and…I, uh.”

“You figured out where we were.” Jacky finished his sentence.

They were all on their feet now, giving and receiving hugs and greetings.

“Want a beer?” Maxi opened the cooler and handed one to his Uncle John.

“Yeah, beer.” He felt a little awkward now and their faces revealed nothing. Claire he noticed was not her usual self. “So, ah, you having a good time?”

“Daddy, how did you know where we were?”

“Because I’ve been here before,” he answered. “A long time ago before you were born.”

“Yeah, I found your clothes in the closet in my room. It was your room, wasn’t it?”

“I had a room here. I can’t believe my clothes are still here.”

“Uncle John, we, um, know. We found the movies. All our rooms are our dads' rooms except Rose’s.” Jacky reached for another beer and twisted off the cap.

“We watched all four movies…all night long,” Maxi yawned, “so we know.”

“All right, let’s sit down and you tell me what you think you know."

They all looked at Claire. It was her father but she wasn’t saying anything. She was busy peeling the label off her beer bottle so Jacky took it up.

“We were told when we came here about the House and its four seasons. So we found the movies and the rooms and we started putting two and two together and came up with five. We figured out the seasons or companions but somebody had to invite them here.” He swallowed. “Rose thinks it was Mum.”

“Well, you got the basics but that ain’t exactly how it was. When Toni came here, she was Toni Stanley then and she didn’t know what kind of a house this was. She rented it off the internet just like you did Claire. She was a writer and was looking for a place to write for a year. She met this guide in Boston….”

“Andy?”

“Yeah, that was his name, and he brought her up here and explained it all to her. She really loved this place, sort of a dream house for her. Andy stayed here a week with her so she could get used to the House and how it all worked. She came in the middle of November.” John took a drink from his bottle. “Usually the seasons would run for three months but because she came in the middle of November the first season started a couple of weeks early.”

“Were you her first season, Uncle John?” Rose asked.

“Yeah, Rose…I was.” He looked at Claire, who wouldn’t look at him. He felt his heart aching for her, his princess. "I stayed until the first of March and then I went back to my movie life. You see what happened was the movie life stopped when I came here and restarted same time same day when I went back.”

“Uncle John, just how do you get out of a movie? How is it you’re a character created by somebody else and you’re walking around here?”

“Maxi, it was magic, all of it was magic, an illusion, if you wish. This House is magic, you know. It really is. It can do things…hey, look, I know this all sounds fantastic but it happened. There were rules to the magic and some things just weren’t supposed to happen. I think it had been used before like a fantasy thing, you know,” he blushed a little, “but this was no fantasy for Toni. She didn’t come here looking for a man or seasons. She came here looking for peace and quiet and instead she got me. I’m going to be totally honest with you all. We fell in love…that wasn’t supposed to happen, but it did. At the end of February I had to leave and at that time the rules here said if I ever came back I would have no memory of her. She couldn’t call me back for spring or summer. I was her winter. It was a bad scene for both of us the day I left. I found out later that she was planning on leaving that day after I’d gone but the owner of the House at that time knew what had happened and felt bad about it so he sent someone he thought could bring her back around. He sent Jack. Now Jack shows up with no idea what has happened and he’s not here because she asked for him….”

“She asked for you?”

“Yes, she did. Andy told her if she didn’t choose a companion one would be chosen for her. There was a stack of DVD’s in her room and mine was the one she watched that night before she went to bed. I was here the next morning. I knew something about her when I got here. That information was given to me on my computer before I was taken from my movie.  I just appeared here. You’re right, Maxi. I was just a character in a movie, created by an actor, but your mother made it possible for me to be here now, to come out of my movie and live in the real world, and Donna and the boys became real, too, and we were able to have Claire.”

“Does Mom know?” Claire looked up at him. “Does she know about you and Aunt Toni?”

“Yeah, she knows. She’s been here to the house with me. We came here and stayed for a week before we found the property in Maine. This was after we were out in reality.”

“What I’d like to know is why she didn’t get in the car and leave when she found out what kind of a place this was. Why did she stay?” Jacky asked.

John sighed, “I don’t know, Jacky. She was young, with a sense of adventure about her.  If she’d known what kind of heartache she’d set herself up for at the time she might have turned her vehicle around and gone back to Boston.”

Part 2

Terry really didn’t have time for this right now. He sighed as he slipped his passport across the counter and shouldered his laptop. Of all the places in the world the kids could go, how in the world had they ended up at The House of Four Seasons? He wasn’t sure he wanted to go there. The last time had been the week he’d spent there with Toni after he’d come back from Bolivia, over twenty years ago, the year of his fall from grace. But, of course, he had to go. Jacky was there, there amongst the remnants of his life, his and Toni’s. There was only one reason he could think of to draw the kids there and that was to let them find out about their parents and where they’d come from. He felt a strong desire to be there for Jacky because he didn’t know what direction he would launch into once he knew.

Jacky already had a strained relationship with his mother and Terry knew he only held him by a thread. It wouldn’t take much to lose him completely. He made his way through security and headed for the gate. He remembered he had a dinner date that night and pulled out his phone to call Amy. He had been seeing Amy off and on for about six years now. She’d come closest to anyone to finding the man behind the mask. Terry had several women over the years, usually not lasting more than six months to a year, but he’d never let anyone into his inner sanctum. His family he kept separate. Anyone else remained outside the wall he’d successfully built around himself and his life. He’d never brought a woman home to meet his son.

Amy was a travel editor for British Travels magazine. She was divorced and had a daughter who worked for the magazine as a photographer. She’d taken a hiatus right now and had gone to Africa on her own to photograph the aftermath of another warring faction. She was closing up her office, turning out lights when her cell phone rang.

“Hiya, Amy. I wanted to call and let you know I can’t make it tonight. Something unexpected came up and I’m at the airport now waiting for a flight out.”

“Terry, well, I’m sorry I won’t be seeing you. When will you be back?”

“I’m not sure right now. It's, um, family related.”

Amy smiled a little. She knew he had two sons and he knew she had a daughter but that’s as far as he’d ever let her get with that. “I hope everything turns out all right for you. When you get back, call me.” She’d cut herself off; she didn’t want to lose him.

“Yeah, I’ll do that. Well, um, sorry about tonight. I’ll make it up to you.”

“I’ll make sure you do. Take care, Terry.”

It was getting harder and harder for Amy. When had it happened? Two years ago…three...when they’d broken off for awhile and then come back together after running into each other by accident. She was hopelessly in love with him.

Max was heading for the gate, too, after a tearful goodbye to Toni. She’d wanted to come with him and while he let her blow him around, this time he’d said no and meant it. This was something he wanted to deal with on his own. Maxi and Rose at the House of Four Seasons was serious and while he loved Toni with all his heart and soul, her emotions would get in the way of clear thinking. There was no doubt in his mind about the House’s intentions and in his mind it was totally unnecessary. There was no sane reason for the kids to know. They wouldn’t understand and probably get the wrong impression of their mother.

John, with his calm reasonable approach, would probably head off the worst of it but still he had some explaining to do.

It was late in the evening and the wind had come up, driving them from the beach to the House. They’d had their evening meal and John noticed they stayed close to him. If he went into the living room, they followed, so he found a comfortable chair and sat down…so many memories in this room. He looked at the fireplace. He’d married Toni in front of that fireplace. The Christmas tree was always there in front of the window.

“What is it, Uncle John?” Rose asked.

“Ah…memories,” he smiled. “The Christmas tree was always right here between these chairs. We cut one down for the first couple of years and then went into Salem and bought one. Your mum got worried because the trees were disappearing.”

“More than one Christmas? How many years?” Jacky asked.

“Um, I was here for five, missed one, the second one because she went home. She’d had her year here and thought she was done with the place.”

“Five years…you came here five times?” Claire asked, her voice rising a little.

“Yeah, I did and I was glad to come because I loved her. What we had here, what went on here in this house, had nothing to do with your mother. When I went back to the movie life I didn’t remember or know I’d been away. That’s just how it was. That’s how the magic worked. It changed that second year for her because she had a bad experience here in spring that left her in a bad way. She was going to close the house down and so it made some changes and summoned her seasons. We all came at the beginning of summer and met with her.  I remembered her, you see, so I knew something was different, and Max was here and Maximus.”

“What…Maximus?” Maxi stood up. “Where did he come in?”

“Where was Papa? I thought he was her spring?”

John ran his hand over his face. It was more complicated than he thought. “That first year she had me for winter. She didn’t really have a spring but Jack was sent here. He only stayed two months and then Max was summer and Maximus was fall. That changed after the first year. Terry was her fall and he remained her fall. Three of us were in place. That second year she had Cort, a troubled young man, and though she tried, it just didn’t work and left her hurting for him. She had two other springs…well, they were the same, Bud White, but she wasn’t balanced. That’s where the elements come into play. You got to have one of each. Bud was my fault. I should have stayed out of it and let her pick her own. The next year she called Jack.”

“That’s seven…seven.”

“Seven what?” John turned to Jacky.

“Seven of ya…she had.”

“Yeah, so? How many you had?” John didn’t like his tone of voice. “Your mama has the biggest capacity to love of anyone I’ve ever known in my life. And she did; she loved us all. She was single…what the hell? Things changed the last year. She had her four seasons in place and Max married her in the summer. He gave her a magical ring that set things in motion for the rest of us. We each had to marry her and we did; we married for eternity.  The next thing that happened was she could take someone out. I mean they would become a real man, not an illusion. She had four choices but there was no hurry. It could have gone on like it was but she couldn’t do that, knowing eventually she would have to choose. It didn’t take her long to make her choice. She chose Terry but instead of taking him out in the fall when it was his season, she wanted to give us each a chance. I knew it wasn’t me when I walked in the House the first of December and by the next day I was gone. I made a choice of my own. It was either her or give up my wife Donna and my boys. I loved your mama, Claire, and your brothers. That was the choice I made that day.”

Claire glanced at him and then back at the floor where she’d been staring while he spoke.

“Why didn’t she choose Dad? He was the first to marry her…and how can you be married to four men? That’s against the law in any country.”

“Maxi, I don’t know. She and Terry had something special and the marriage was a magical marriage, nothing to do with any laws.”

“So she was married to my Papa?”

“Yes, Rose, she married Jack in the spring.” He smiled at her. Out of all of them she was the one who accepted the magic and had a smile on her face. He looked at the others. Jacky was stone-faced. Maxi he couldn’t tell. He didn’t know Maxi that well and Claire still wouldn’t meet his eyes. He guessed he’d exposed his feet of clay today.

“Does it still work? Can you still have a season here?” Rose asked.

“Yeah, I guess so. I think Toni still leases it out. Why?”

“You can have anyone you want, real or make believe?”

“Uh, that’s the way it worked. You aren’t thinking…oh, no!”

Rose got up, walked to the front door and went outside.

“Rose got a double dose just like Jacky here. You don’t know this, Jacky, but your great grandfather came from here. That’s why you have such a clear channel when you open it, but you don’t open it very often, do you?”

“I do sometimes.” He looked to the side.

“Not for awhile.” Maxi sat back down. “Rose and I do. We know how to without giving too much away.” He grinned a little. “Not all our thoughts. I know she is intrigued by the thought of calling someone here. There is someone she would like to have here with her.”

“What would you think about that, Maxi?” John asked.

“I don’t want her to. This place is crazy, il n’est pas?”

“What about you, Jacky?”

“Blokes can too?”

“I guess so. Anybody you’d like. Would you do it?”

“No, I wouldn’t. It’s not real, none of it. I don’t even know…if I’m real or not.”

“You’re real, Jacky. Your mom and dad are two of the realest people I know. We all are now, even Jack.”

“How did you get that way?  If you were an illusion, how is it now you are a real man?” Maxi asked.

“Well, one of the things about the magic and the four seasons is that we are all bound together for eternity. If one of us gets in trouble or has need of the other, then we go. Terry needed somebody to talk to in London and Jack went, then Max found Dino and Wyatt in South America and I went. When I came back I was out and so was Donna,. I don’t know how it happened, but it did, and let me tell you, it was a shock. Just trying to figure out what was real and wasn’t. Things you thought you knew like places and people didn’t exist anymore. Then Terry got in trouble in South America and Max came out. He came to Virginia to be with Toni because Terry was hurt. When he got back to London he realized he was out, no longer in his movie life. The bank where he worked…gone…didn’t exist. We don’t know how long Jack’s been out, at least twenty years, cause Rose was conceived. We kinda figured we all came out because Toni and Terry needed us.”

“Daddy…not that I understand any of this completely because you have to believe in magic, but you and your, um, brothers…you’re all the same person. The same man created each of you on screen, so we aren’t cousins at all, are we? I mean, aren’t we brothers and sisters?”  She looked over at Jacky, meeting his eyes.

“Well, technically yes, I guess, so we’d all have the same DNA but as far as personality or looks even…I know we favor but we aren’t the same age.”

Claire covered her face. “Oh, God!” she moaned.

“What?” John asked. “Doesn’t change anything for you, does it?”

“No, not now but it would have been nice to know this a couple of years ago.”

“Claire…leave it,” Jacky said.

“Leave what? What are you talking about?”

“Nothing,” Jacky said, getting a quick look from Maxi.

Claire got up and left the room.

“Is there something I need to know about?” John asked, looking directly at Jacky.

“No, sir, nothing you need to know.” Jacky followed Claire out of the room toward the kitchen.

“What do you know?” John asked Maxi and got a very Gallic shrug.

“Uncle John,” Maxi stopped him from following the other two, “why is Uncle Jack different? Why is he not living like the rest of you?”

John sat back down.

Jacky found Claire on the back terrace. “Hey, don’t let it bother you, Claire.”

“I don’t believe it, Jacky. I would never….”

“We didn’t know. Simple as that. Thanks to the dirty little secret they’ve all been keeping all these years. You aren’t going to tell him?”

“No, I couldn’t. He’d never get over it.”

“Well, I’m not sorry. I have a lot of respect for your dad, Claire, but he was a part of this and worrying about what the fuck he thinks about anything should be the last thing on your mind.”

“It’s all just…unbelievable!” She wiped her eyes. “Does Maxi know about…us?”

“He’s no fool. He knows you came and stayed with me at the farm.”

“What about Maxi and Rose?”

“I don’t think so. Pretty sure not.” He lit a cigarette.  “Don’t worry about it. It’s done. We can’t very well go back and…unfuck, now can we?” he grinned.

Claire giggled, “No. I guess you will all hate me now for bringing you here. God, if I’d known....”

“Nobody is going to hate you. Knowing what we know now, I don’t see how that’s going to change anything for you, Claire. I mean you’ll finish law school and go on.”

“What about you? What will you do with it?”

“Leave it here. I might go to Mexico …see what Dino’s got cooking.”

“He won’t let you, Jacky.”

“Dino’s cool. He’ll find something for me to do and if no, I don’t know…maybe drift across to Australia.”

“You’re not going home?”

“No, I don’t think I’m going back. Ha! Back to what?”

Part 3

Rose tapped lightly on Maxi’s door. She couldn’t sleep and wanted to talk to him. Claire was in, doubling up with her since John had arrived. She hadn’t had an opportunity to talk to him since John had told them the story that evening.

“Maxi…? she whispered opening the door.

“Ce que vous voulez?”

“Just to talk.” She let herself in his room, came over and crawled up on the bed with him.

Maxi pushed pillows behind his head and half sat up. “You can’t sleep?”

“No, Claire is in the bed…and….”

“You can’t sleep with me.”

She dismissed him with her hand. “I don’t want you. I want to talk to you. I really am your sister now,” she smiled pushing pillows behind her back. “Maxi, what does this mean for us to know about Mum and Papa and Dad?”

“I’ve been thinking about it, too. They never lied to us, just never told us anything.  Now I don’t know. I’d like to talk to Dad, let him tell me how such a thing is possible.”

“I’m thinking about Mummy living here with four husbands. How do you choose when you love them all?”

“Maybe she didn’t.”

“I think she did. Well, she still does, you know, Dad, Uncle Terry and Uncle Jack. I did know she loved Uncle John but I didn’t know about them.”

“Why were you asking about if this place still worked?”

She looked at him. “I might want to stay.”

“No…you don’t. You aren’t going to get tangled up in this place, Rose. I won’t let you.”

“You can't stop me. I can do what I want.”

“I’ll bet Mum can stop you.”

“Ha, but you won’t tell her…I know you.”

“You know too damn much.”

“Hah, yes, and so do you. That’s what keeps us on the straight and narrow. I could have him, you know, maybe right here in this bed.” She cocked a brow at him.

“Go back to bed. He doesn’t even know you.”

“But he would, Maxi. He would be mine.”

“You’d have to have three others. Forget it. I’ll tell Dad.”

“Tell him…go ahead and tell him. It might not have mattered before but it would now. Oh, it does now, Maxi! It matters very much now.”

“We were just kids playing around.”

“I know but we learned, didn’t we, learned what it was all about, the big mystery as cousins.”

“Yeah, but we aren’t…as of today, cousins anymore. They should have told us, Rose, a long time ago.”

“Are you going to tell Dad?”

“I might. Let him know what his silence resulted in. It probably never occurred to him or Mum that we would ever, you know.”

“I don’t think you should tell him. It’s enough that we know. Will you go back home now?”

“I don’t know. Depends on what Jacky and Claire want to do. Nobody has said anything about leaving yet.”

“I’m going to stay. Doesn’t matter what you do. I’m going back to my bed. Good night, Maxi.” She kissed him softly.

John, in the room next door standing by his door listening to her walking back across the hall to her room, was relieved it wasn’t Claire and concerned it was Rose. It was this damn House! He sure would be glad when their dads got here. He purposely hadn’t told them they were coming.

Terry was the first to arrive at Logan. He had a little over an hour to wait for Max’s plane to land. He found a coffee shop and opened his laptop, a couple of things going on at work he wanted to keep up with. Once at the House his cell phone wouldn’t be operable and he’d never trusted the internet there.

Forty-five minutes later he looked up to see Jack standing outside the glass of the coffee shop, and motioned for him to come in.

“I wasn’t sure it was you,” Jack said, giving him a hug.

“It’s me. You got here in a hurry. Where were you?”

“Portsmouth. I got a flight out immediately to Paris and from there to here. Max?”

“Due in about thirty minutes or so.” He checked his watch. “Coffee?”

“I could use something stronger.” Jack sat down at Terry’s table.

“It’s only nine-thirty.”

“Oh…I’ve lost the time somewhere. Oh, very well…coffee.”

Terry closed his laptop. “John was driving down yesterday so he should be there.”

“Will you tell me what is going on…Rose?”

“It’s all of them, Jack. Somehow they ended up at the House of Four Seasons for a holiday. As far as I know they’re all okay but what they may find out there.…” He shook his head slightly.

“Ah, yes, I see. How long have they…?”

“Arrived two days ago. They probably know already. I just don’t know how they will process this, Jack.”

“I don’t think Rose will have a problem with it. No doubt there will be questions. She’s already been introduced to magic at a young age.”

“I’m glad you’re here. Now if we can just get Max, we can set off.” Terry loaded his leather case with his laptop, gathering his phone, sunglasses and the keys to the rental.

John was out on the terrace with the kids when they arrived, each of them walking through the House setting things down, glancing around. Nothing had changed…the same warm welcoming when they entered.

“Dad….” Maxi stood up, totally shocked as the other two came out behind him.

“Maxi, Rose,” Max smiled and went over and hugged Rose before she went to Jack.

“Dad, what are you doing here?” Maxi asked.

“I might ask you the same question.”

“Oh, right! This is all we need!” Jacky rose from his chair as Terry came around the table and found a seat.

“It might be all you need,” Terry said with a little smile.

“Oh, Papa!” Rose was in her father’s arms for a big hug and a kiss.

After everyone had been greeted, hugged and sat down again John said he’d told them how it had all started, that they had found the DVD’s. “I don’t know what kind of a job I did on the story but it’s all out there, at least up until we came out.”

“Thanks, John. Well…now you know.” Max looked at Maxi.

“I’m not sure what I know. Hard to take it in, you know.”

“Would you like to go somewhere and talk about it?”

“I, uh, think I would, Dad.”

Max pulled off his jacket and draped it over the back of a chair. “Follow me. I know this place well.” Max led him down to the gazebo, stopping now and again just to remember and let the place soak into him once more. He slowed at the boathouse.

Maxi said, “I found a pole in the water and pulled it out. That’s when I knew something was strange here. It was almost like I could feel myself tossing it in the water.”

Max smiled and rubbed his chin. “I tossed it in. I’d taken Toni out in the boat and we were teasing and playing about. The oars were in the boathouse but I hadn’t seen them. I tossed the pole,” he sighed. “We had a bottle of wine on the boat and spent the afternoon drifting.” He looked at his son. “You can’t imagine what it was like here…the most peaceful wonderful place I’d ever known, the only world I knew outside my movie.”

Maxi looked at him a moment and turned, heading for the gazebo. “How many seasons were you here?”

“Six.”

“Six years? Dad, why didn’t you ever tell us about this?”

“We never thought there was a chance in hell you’d end up here, Maxi. There didn’t seem to be a reason to tell you. Our lives had undergone changes by the time you were in it. This place wasn’t a part of our life anymore. The last time I was here was with your mother, Connie.”

“She knew?”

“Of course she did. I had to tell her about myself. Well, in fact Jack told her. If she was going to join the family she had to know. “

“I was a part of the family. Why wasn’t it important for me to know…to know that you and your brothers are one in the same?”

“I don’t follow you?”

“That you’re really the same man four different ways.”

“I never thought of myself that way.”

“We weren’t cousins, Rose and I…Jacky and Claire. We’re all brothers and sisters.”

“Well, I’m not sure that would have made a difference in the way you grew up."

“How many more are there of you out here walking around?”

“I don’t know of anyone else.”

“What if I met someone…say Bud White’s daughter. How would I know she was my sister?”

“Bud’s not out…at least I don’t think he is,” Max frowned.

“But he could be or Cort or any of the characters. You should have told me!” Maxi turned, leaning on the gazebo entrance.

“Maxi…we, all of us, always thought the fewer people who knew, the better. I had to tell Connie but no one else ever knew.”

“Even Grandpa Duncan? He didn’t know?”

“No, only your mother knew. She never told him or your Aunt Penny.”

“Rose didn’t know.”

“No, I certainly never told her nor did her mother and I don’t think her father did either. If Rose had known anything you know she would have told you.”

“Yeah, she would have. Jacky would have, too.”

“Maxi, is this the big thing with you…that I never told you?”

Maxi wanted to tell him. He wanted to tell him and he turned and looked at his father…he couldn’t.

“I’m sorry, Maxi.” Max could see it had really upset Maxi. In fact he couldn’t remember ever seeing that look in his eyes before. He pulled him close and hugged him. “I don’t think this is going to change your life. You just know your heritage now, such as it is.”

Maxi blinked his eyes, pulling himself together. “Yeah, I know. So, um, tell me,” he stepped into the gazebo, “how did you manage to fuck it up with Mum? Why didn’t she take you out?”

Max took a breath and stepped in and sat down.

Part 4

Terry and Jacky walked toward the forest, neither saying anything until they reached the trees.

“Why did you come?” Jacky asked.

“I wasn’t sure how you’d take this, Jacky. I wanted to be here to explain and make sure you knew exactly what happened…and how much I loved your mother.”

“Oh. yeah!” Jacky glanced sideways at him.

“I don’t know what John told you.…”

“He pretty much told it. You know, Dad, it really doesn’t matter anymore. I wish I had known you were more than just brothers, that we were all brothers and sisters instead of cousins and halfs, but even that doesn’t matter now. I mean, I’m glad I know so to be on the lookout if another movie character turns up somewhere. I wouldn’t want to make a mistake there.”

“What do you mean, make a mistake?”

“Nothing. What does all this make me? Am I real or some character once removed?”

“Oh, you’re real enough. I was there in the delivery room when you were born.” Terry fished out a cigarette and Jacky reached for one. “When did you start smoking?”

“When I was sixteen.” He lit it himself.

“Sixteen…?”

“Yeah, the year I grew up.”

“I’m not sure you’re there yet, Jacky.”

Jacky looked at him, blowing smoke. “I’m there.”

Terry narrowed his eyes and smiled a little, looking off to the side. “So what’s your take on this, what you’ve heard here?”

“Sounds like a fairy tale. I know Uncle John wouldn’t lie about it all so I guess it’s true. I don’t understand the mechanics of it but I guess we’re living proof, right…Proof of Life?”

“I guess we are. If it wasn’t for your mother none of us would be here. She not only gave you life, she gave me life, too, and your uncles.”

“Not all she gave them.” He looked down and was suddenly backed against a tree by Terry.

“Don’t you ever say anything like that again! She loves you.”

“Yeah…I know.”

“So what’s your problem with her?” He hadn’t released him.

“You threw her out, gave her away. She wasn’t good enough for you, was she?”

“You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. I love her to this day with a passion that will never die. I made a mistake and I’ve paid for it every fucking day of my life. I let emotions rule my head and that was the result. So don’t you mouth shite you don’t know.” Terry backed off.

Jacky pulled tree bark out of the back of his hair. “I’m sorry, Dad.”

“What…say that again?”

“I said I’m sorry.”

“You want to be a man then act like one, not a sniveling little boy.”

“You never talked to me about it. All I know is what I’ve heard.”

“From whom? Who told you that?”

“Anna. I went around to see her after you let her go.”

“I gave your mother to Max because I didn’t think I deserved her and he did. He loved her too, Jacky, and they’re still together.”

“It wasn’t because she was pregnant with Rose?”

“No…I put her through hell, one thing after another, and then I…I betrayed her with another woman. “

“You?”

“Yeah…me.”

“What happened…to the other woman?”

“I have no fucking idea. It was a one off thing when I was off on a training session.”

This was a side of his father he’d never seen. “I didn’t think you…I mean you never had another after Mum, did you?”

“Not for awhile. I’m not a priest, Jacky.”

“Ha, and here I thought you were perfect.”

“No, the reality is I’m no better than anyone else. I’ve made mistakes I’ve had to live with. We all do.”

“Yeah…we do.”

“Anything else you want to know?” Terry looked him in the eye.

Rose followed her Papa down the cliff path to the beach below.

“Papa, you’re not like the others, are you?”

“I am, Rose, but I do not live in this world.”

“Why, do you not live with us…I always knew there was something magic about you but now I want to know”

“I can’t live in this world. My life is not here. You know I have another family, a wife and children who are now grown, as you are.”

“But…you married my mother.”

“I did. It was a magical marriage, a much stronger bond than a legal marriage.”

“I always thought of myself as a love child.”

Jack smiled, “That you are for I love your mother. You were conceived in love.”

“Papa, I would like to know how the seasons work. If you want someone to come, what do you do, how do you get them to come?”

“You summon them, my dear, whilst you are in the House. The House will take it from there and contact them and the magic will bring them here for a season.”

“How long does it take to get here?”

“Not long at all. Why? Are you...?”

“I want to stay when the others leave…to stay for a season.”

Jack looked at her for a moment. “No, my dear, this is not for you. You are barely twenty years of age. There is an age limit here. You must be twenty-five.”

“But it’s Mum’s house…I could stay.”

“No, my love. You are too young…a maiden.”

“I’m not.”

“What did you say?”

Rose’s eyes got big. “I’m…not.”

“Well, then, he shall marry you. Who?”

“No, Papa, I can’t marry him. I don’t want to marry.”

“Your mother, does she know about this?”

“No…no.” Rose was wishing she’d never said a thing.

“You…have a lover?” Jack couldn’t believe his little Rose.

“No…no, Papa.”

“He took you by force? Who?”

“He did not. We were children…just young and experimenting”

“Children…who would take a child?” Jack’s voice rose.

“Not exactly a child. Please, Papa, it doesn’t matter. It’s not important.”

“It is important! I left you in the care of Max Skinner. if he….”

“Oh, no, Papa! No! Dad would never…oh, mon Dieu, no!  Papa, I will not tell you who. It does not matter. I am well and I am happy and healthy. I, um, go back to school in the fall. We will be taking part of our lessons aboard ship and.…”

“Rose, I would defend your honor.”

“Please, Papa, there is no one to fight. Please! I beg of you!” She placed a hand on his arm and he hugged her, still not quite mollified.

“We need to get you out of here as soon as we can,” John said as he and Claire walked off in the garden. “This is not a good place for you to be. You don’t always have, well, complete control of things.”

“Are you saying you weren’t in control of yourself when you were here with Aunt Toni?”

“No, I’m not saying that at all. That was…then. I’m talking about now. This House encourages things, things that ought not to be happening. I’m sorry you had to find out.”

“I’m not. I’m glad I know. You should have told me a long time ago, Daddy.”

“What happened here didn’t have anything to do with you or your mama.”

“I understand that but it has impacted me. You just don’t know.”

“Well, tell me what I don’t know.” John stopped and turned to her.

“I grew up thinking I had cousins and they weren’t. It’s too late now.”

“What’s too late? What are you talking about? Is this something to do with Maxi and Rose?”

“What? No…Maxi and Rose?”

“She went in his bedroom last night for awhile. What do you know about that?”

“I don’t know anything. I was…asleep. Dad, I don’t think…you don’t believe…?”

“I don’t know what I think yet.” John ran his hand through his hair.

“She probably just wanted to talk to him.”

“Yeah…probably. I think I’ll tell Max, though. He needs to keep an eye on that.”

“Daddy, I think you’re  over reacting. It’s probably your own guilt that’s making you think like this.”

“What guilt? I don’t have any guilt riding around with me, certainly not about what happened here.”

“You haven’t been faithful to Mom, you and Aunt Toni.”

“Now you don’t know what you’re talking about! When I left this house and went back to your mother and the movie life, I never…I was married in every sense of the word to your mother. I’ve never been with anybody else.”

“It’s hard to even imagine you here. Why did you come? Why didn’t you just refuse?”

“I couldn’t refuse and besides after that first year, I wanted to come. It was the only life I knew, Claire.”

“Is that why we lived over here in the States, so you wouldn’t be close to her?”

“No, we lived here because we wanted to, nothing to do with Toni. Besides that, I’m an American.” John continued walking. “I figure tomorrow. That will give them time to make flight arrangements…”

“Daddy, I’m not ready to go. We’ve got two weeks here and in spite of what’s happened I think we should….”

“I don’t. It’s time the lot of you were out of here before something happens.”

“What else could happen? The worst is over. I rented this place for two weeks. It’s already paid for.”

“I’ll reimburse you.”

“I don’t want you to, Daddy. I’m twenty-three years old. I can pay my own way.”

“Oh, yeah? Who pays the bills?”

“I’m going to as soon as I get out of school, every penny back to you.”

“You think I’d take money from you, Princess? I’m just trying to look after you here. Let me.”

“I don’t think I’m your princess anymore. I haven’t been for a long time. I’m a woman now and I can make some decisions on my own.”

“What…what do you mean you’re a woman? You haven’t…ah, shit, Claire!”

Part 5

“Of course I know things are different now. Young people think nothing of it but it was a shock to me and my old-fashioned sensibilities. I still think of her as a child. She would not tell me who it was that had taken her maidenhood.”

“I know she’s had boyfriends. All girls do. Mostly Maxi’s friends. They used to come out on the weekend and, of course, she’s been at university for two years, Jack. I have no control over what she does when she is not at home. I can assure you she was brought up to respect herself. Toni saw to that.”

“It was a childhood thing, experimenting, she said.”

“I’m sorry, Jack. I really….”

John had kept quiet but he thought Max should know. “Max, maybe you should look a little closer to home. She was in Maxi’s room last night for awhile.”

“He’s her brother…he would never. She’s his sister, for bloody sake! He has girls. I know this for a fact.”

“They thought they were cousins until yesterday, you know,” Terry said, raising a brow.

“I’ll kill the bastard!” Max’s eyes went wide. “I…he wouldn’t…he fucking would!” Max left to find Maxi.

“Oh, shit! It’s gonna hit the fan now. I shoulda kept my mouth shut.” John ran his hand over his face.

“Well, I wouldn’t have thought.…”

“No, you wouldn’t, but they didn’t know, Jack. I’ve come to the conclusion we really know nothing about our children. Jacky smokes has done since he was sixteen. I found out today. Just like us they put on the face we want to see, smart little buggers.”

“Not so little anymore, Terry. I found out today about Claire, too. Says she is a woman now, so that can only mean one thing.”

“I suppose they are adults now but, God damn it, it's hard to think of them that way. I don’t fault Max for Rose. You can’t keep them in a bell jar. But I had so hoped she would marry first. Perhaps it would have been wise to have told them of their origins long before now. I don’t believe Maxi would take his sister, but a cousin…well, that is not uncommon even in my world.”

“You know, I wonder about Claire now. She did go the farm with Jacky a couple of times, spent a few weeks with him on his own. She had a big crush on him one time. I didn’t even think about…that they might….”

“You don’t know if they did but the same thing applies. They didn’t know.”

Max found Maxi out back of the house with the rest and without a word grabbed him up by the arm and pushed him around to the side of the house.

“I want you to tell me the truth! Did you shag Rose?”

Maxi closed his eyes. “Yes, sir.”

“She is your bloody sister!”

“We worked it out as cousins, first cousins.”

“Regardless of what you worked out she lived in the house as your sister! How could you do such a thing?”

“It wasn’t just me.” That got him a backhand across his cheek.

“We were kids, Dad, just fifteen and sixteen.”  He felt tears starting…oh, fuck! He couldn’t cry.

“Jack trusted me with his daughter to bring up, and you…bollocks, Maxi!”

“I know, I’m sorry. We didn’t know about…we thought…I’m sorry, Dad. I don’t know what else to say. It won’t ever happen again. We know now.”

“You’re right it won’t happen again.” Max backed away and wiped his face, his anger draining away he looked back at his son. “The two of you are not to stay under the same roof again. Is that understood?”

“Yes,. Will you tell Mum?”

“That’s the least of your worries, Maxi. Yes, she needs to know and God help you there.

“Oh,” Rose put her hands over her ears, “I think I got Maxi in trouble.”

“What did you do?” Claire asked.

“Papa, he knows I’ve had sex. Maybe I told him too much. They've figured it out.”

“You and Maxi?” she asked.

“Yes, since we were teenagers. We learn with each other, you know. We don’t do it anymore.”

“Was he your first?”

“Yes, Claire, he was. We were cousins then.”

Jacky looked at Claire and sent her a mental message to keep her mouth shut.

Claire put her arm around Rose. “It’s not so bad, Rose. At least it wasn’t some guy who didn’t care about you.”

“Don’t worry about him, Rose. He can hold his own with his dad.”

“It’s not fair he takes it for me. It wasn’t all his fault.” She started to get up and Jacky pulled her back down on the grass.

“Don’t, Rose. You’ll just make it worse.”

“I am not afraid to take my punishment. I am not afraid.”

“I know that, Rose. You’re not afraid of anything, Don’t go looking for trouble. Let it find you.”

Max came back around the house stopped for a moment, looking at Rose, then walked off. He’d leave her to her mother.

He met Terry, who’d actually come looking for him. “He’s leaving today. I’ve sent him to pack up his gear. He admitted it and said he was sorry. Of course the damage is done.”

Terry offered him a cigarette. “Max, the damage was done when we decided to keep everything a secret. As far as Rose goes, if it wasn’t Maxi it would have been someone, maybe someone you didn’t like at all.”

“It shouldn’t have happened. I’m responsible for Rose and somehow I’ve failed her and her Papa. Jack must be livid. I should have let him have at Maxi.”

“Actually, he’s not. Would you shag a cousin? Fuck, yes, you would.”

Max looked at him a minute. “But I didn’t.”

“Only because of Fanny. You thought about it.”

“Yes…I did.” Max took a draw off the cigarette. “That still doesn’t excuse what he did. Rose has grown up with him as his sister, his and Jacky’s.  I won’t tolerate it.”

“What will you do about it?”

“Maxi will go to Chambord. He’s not welcome to stay at La Siroque while Rose is there. Rose will go back to school in a couple of months.”

“Are you going to tell Toni?”

“Well, yes, she’ll have Rose to deal with,” Max sighed. “Easier if they’d all been boys. You can rack them up against the wall. Can’t do anything with a girl. Although, I think Toni will.”

“We’ve got three vehicles here, two not ours. How do you propose to send him home today?”

“I’ll put his arse on a bus to Boston.”

“Max, I think you should step back, cool down and think.”

“You’re right. Portland has an airport, longer bus ride.”

“Think the liquor cabinet still works?” Terry asked.

“If not, there’s the wine cellar. I’m with you.”

Jack took Rose sailing. Jacky and Claire decided to go horseback riding. John joined Max and Terry in the living room with a bottle.

Maxi packed up his gear and looked out his window toward the gates. In all honesty Maxi wasn’t sorry he’d shagged Rose. Sorry it came out and he wouldn’t do it again now that he knew their relationship, but he wasn’t sorry. That was something he knew he had to say and so he did. He didn’t fancy looking his mum in the eye and telling her. That would cut pretty deep. He walked to the top of the stairs and listened, a big ha, ha from the living room. Probably telling stories to entertain themselves. Back in the bedroom he looked at the faded rose petal from his father’s life here. He’d seen the film, knew who he was then, not that much different now except he’d mellowed…until today. Maxi would be twenty-two in November. His father had never hit him. It hurt more than he wanted to admit. He looked out the window again. Who was he really, made up of his father and his uncles and a mother he’d never known.

He placed the rose petal on the pillow and shouldered the leather bag. Walking quietly down the stairs, he let himself out the front door.

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