„Men also cry when their heart bleeds”

„It’s only your fault for what happened to Bardain,” Stan furiously shouted, throwing himself over Colby when the man descended from the driving box and wanted to approach the carriage’s door to open it. But he didn’t even take 5-6 steps when he felt Stan over him and the two rolled on the ground, a few meters away from the carriage.

„Colby, what’s going on?” Shelby’s voice was heard from inside of the carriage. But nobody answered him, for his helper was too busy to defend himself from Stan’s punches and kicks. And those hits were somehow deserved by Colby, who Stan got to hate practically overnight and he hated him as he had never hated someone in his life. And how not to hate Colby when, one night ago, he sneaked inside of the castle, behind Keen and Brian, and he heard everything they talked about with the old count?! However, he hadn’t time at that moment to show Colby what he can do, for since he was a beggar, Stan learned to defend himself and those who he loved, and Stan really got to care about Bardain in that short time they lived together.

That’s why, right after spotting the unknown carriage entering Stonebridge’s property and, recognizing Colby in that teamster, Stan decided that it was the moment to at least punch him several times to cool his soul thus.

„You made him vanish! It’s only your fault!” Stan’s shouts were heard while inveterately fighting with Colby.

But Colby, having more experience in fighting and knowing how to defend himself, managed eventually to throw the boy off him, and, from one jump, he was back to his feet.

Stan instead didn’t calm down: not even after he hit hard the carriage’s wheel when he rolled on the ground after being thrown by Colby off him. So, when he felt that he was again able to stand up, he looked at his rival with the eyes of a crazy bull.

„Stop it!” Colby shouted at Stan when he understood that the boy won’t give up. „If you want to get even with me, we can do it later. First, we have to…”

But Stan wasn’t listening to him and, from one jerk, he jumped again on Colby. But he went head over heels, passing by Colby, who jumped to the side and avoided thus the boy’s attack. This, however, didn’t cool Stan, who, at the moment he stopped rolling again, for after passing by Colby he fell on his knees and, because of the inertia, he rolled a few meters further, he stood up and slowly turned toward Colby, throwing poisoned arrows from his eyes: „you’re a dead body!” Stan hissed through his teeth. „Only because of you a good man like Bardain disappeared eventually. Only because…”

„Stop this, Stan!” the boy heard Brian’s demanding voice, for he, hearing Colby, Stan, and Shelby’s shouts through the open window of his office, for he opened that window feeling the necessity of breathing fresh air, hurried to get out of the house, convinced that if he doesn’t intervene, something bad will happened. And he has been right, for, once outside, he saw the fight of Stan and Colby, and that Shelby was desperately trying to get out of his carriage. That’s why he decided to get closer to them and to stop that madness, for even if he has been the one threatening Shelby one evening ago, yet, he still considered him an invalid person and he couldn’t let him open that door and injure himself after falling from it, for if Shelby had managed to open it, he would have fallen like a sack of potatoes, for the carriage was high and difficult to descend even for a normal person, but it could be deadly for a man like Shelby Storm who wasn’t able to move without help.

„But, mister Beneath… this man…,” said Stan through tears, „this idiot is guilty of Bardain… only this rat…”

„Watch your tongue!” Colby shouted, furious that Stan named him rat and idiot.

„Or what?” Stan answered him in a shout and again hurried toward him, intending to fight. „Will you hurt me as you did to Bardain?” but instead of punching Colby, he punched Brian’s palm, who suddenly appeared between them, and avoided the hit on Colby’s face.

Then, watching into the boy’s eyes, Brian said: „it’ll come the time for justice, Stan. Now isn’t the moment.”

„Justice?!” murmured the boy while bitter tears were bathing his face. „I don’t think that there’s still left justice in this world. Not for people like us, who fall prey to cobras like this one.”

„Hei, you, I told you to shut your mouth!” Colby shouted and intended to approach the boy. But Shelby’s shout: „Colby, you also keep it shut!” made him swallow hard and approached the carriage, opening the door next to which Shelby was. „I’m sorry, count. I…”

„I know,” Shelby drily said. „Yet: it’s not the time for hurt egos, Colby. More when the boy is right,” and these words amazed both Colby and Brian.

The only one who didn’t really care about Shelby’s speech was Stan, who went away from them, heading toward the stables. Yet, while moving away, he looked with hatred at Colby, scornfully spitting toward him. After this, he simply went away.

„This boy seems to need to be taught some good manners,” Colby hissed through his teeth. But he kept silent, spotting Brian approaching him and the count, and then Brian told him harshly: „actually, as you, Colby. Or what? Do you think that you still have nothing else to learn from this life? I think you have. Especially you have a lot to learn from that boy, the one you called crude and the first thing you must learn from him is how to love the ones next to you.”

Colby nastily smiled: „when you get to know this life as I got to know it, you understand that there isn’t love left in this world.”

„Are you sure?” said Brian, staring at Storm’s man. „If I were you, I would think twice before saying something like this, for… you didn’t find the right person to tell him that there’s no left love in this world. More… after a person is missing because of you.”

„It’s not his fault and you know this, Brian,” Shelby said.

„Really?” said Brian ironically. „Ah, yes, it seems so, for this man doesn’t think alone, but with your brain.”

„Let’s not insult each other, Brian. We are adult people who can use words to understand each other,” added Shelby.

„Then, why didn’t you try to use words to make a deal with me, but you sent people behind Bardain, who you eventually forced to act behind my back? If you hadn't done that, he wouldn't have been forced to do everything alone, hiding, and maybe we would have found his traces now and…”

„This word „if” has so many meanings, Brian. Yet: I think we should have a private talk.”

„About? I don’t think we have anything else left to discuss after yesterday night,” said Brian, confidently.

„I still think that we have, for when I told you about my tragedy, about what happened to me 25 years ago, I didn’t tell you everything. Especially I didn’t tell you what role had your father in what happened to me, for… Baron Beneath was one of those who wished my death and planned my attack then.”

Staring at Storm, Brian looked as if someone hit the top of his head with a hammer, for even though he suspected that something weird happened with that old man, yet, he never thought that his old father had something to do with Shelby Storm’s accident.

***

„Baron Beneath has been one of those who threw me into that gulf that morning,” Storm started his story while he and Brian were in Beneath’s office, staring at the half-open window through which was so well seen that strange dance of the last leaves left on the trees, touched by that gently and at the same time savage caress of the autumn wind. „Yet, he couldn’t let me die eventually and followed me that night, for something told him that I’ll survive and he hasn’t been wrong.”

„Yet, I don’t understand why Bardain always avoided you and accused you that you want to hurt me,” said Brian while standing next to the door, which he closed behind Colby.

„Because I’ve always been a fool,” the old man muttered. „And I dreamt about revenge. And, even if Baron saved my life then, I always accused him of what happened, and it seems that it brought his death closer to him eventually.”

„But… how did you find out that my father has been involved in what happened to you?”

„He told me this,” murmured Shelby, sadly smiling. „A few days before passing away. He came to me and told me: „friend, Shelby, I’m so sorry.” What for? I asked him then. But he only told me: „for what happened to you and for being count Shark now.”

„And only for this did you suspect that he has been one of those who wanted you dead?”

„Not only. It has also been for something that happened later, for… it seems to me that your father did a big mistake, something that could have cost you your life. That’s why he accepted to get rid of an old friend only to protect his son.”

Brian staggered to his feet, hearing such words: it was too much for him to find out so many secrets about his father at once. Especially, it was really hard for him to find out that for saving him his father, the one he always considered a heroe, got to intend to kill someone.

„Yet, Brian, I don’t accuse him anymore of what he did, for if I was him maybe I’d had done the same if my son had been threatened by the puppeteer. Just him to be alright.”

„The puppeteer?” muttered Brian, approaching eventually his desk and sitting on it. „Who is he?”

„To be honest, I don’t know his name. Your father instead seemed to have known him well and that he had evidence about this, hidden somewhere.”

„That’s why you always looked for the envelope hidden by Bardain?”

Brian’s words amazed Shelby a lot, for even if he suspected this since last night when he had that argument with Brian, yet, he was enough confused to hear him talking to him so openly about this. „What do you know about this, Brian?” asked Shelby.

„Nothing concrete, for… in that envelope, there’s nothing related to the puppeteer.”

„Then? What exactly has Baron left there? The last time he visited me, he told me that he left an envelope for me.”

„Did he also tell you what exactly he left?”

„No. Yet: he said that he’ll do everything to destroy that puppeteer, for only because of him all these shits happened to us.”

„It means that father didn’t know who he was.”

„It seems so. But: you didn’t tell me what was in that envelope.”

„Only old documents,” said Brian in a half a voice and, after standing up, he took a few steps through the room. „Documents signed by four friends where they were agreeing about an assassinate.”

Shelby swallowed hard and squeezed his fists: „he kept the documents.”

„Right. With what purpose… don’t ask me. It seems that he thought he could protect us all with this.”

Moving a little in his armchair, Shelby managed to turn to face Brian and stared at him for a long time: „and… how much did you read from those documents?”

„Is it still necessary to say this?” said Brian, ironically smiling. „Such a treasure couldn’t be left behind, count Shark, for… how otherwise could I find out that George Chesterman has been eventually killed because his son wanted this, the one who hired four idiots for this, four men who considered themselves friends, but who fell to disgrace only because he promised them not to take their fortune for falsification of documents.”

„This is a lie,” shouted Shelby. „We have never falsified those documents. None of us. Only… we trusted Chesterman and, blindly believing that he was just trying to get rid of that mine because his son wasn’t interested in it, we paid him and signed the contract.”

„Without actually knowing that that mine wasn’t belonging to the old Chesterman since long ago, but it was of his son.”

„Actually, that mine hasn’t been ever of George Chesterman, but it belonged to his wife. But… none of us knew this.”

However, such words didn’t amaze Brian, even if Shelby thought that he’ll be more than shocked. „It’s true,” said Brian eventually, taking Shelby by surprise. „I knew that George Chesterman hasn’t been more than a charlatan, who messed with Audrey Thorn, who actually he left his entire fortune and who always helped Dane Bircham to be on top. Yet: what surprises me is to find out that a man like Chesterman, who was a brilliant mind actually, has been yet deceived by such a woman.”

Shelby smiled: „Did you ever meet Audrey Thorn?”

„No. I haven't such… „honor,” murmured Brian, smiling. „Why?”

„Because if you had met her, you would have understood why a man like George Chesterman and like many others actually did what they did for that woman.”

„About who others say that she has been the secret mistress of a Sir.”

„Sir William Haris Wilson!” Shelby drawled, somehow thoughtfully.

„Did you meet him?”

„Who actually didn’t know that old man?!” murmured Shelby. „He was a man built from a sing piece of hard stone. A man who made a fortune from nothing, for his father hasn’t been at all skilled and he almost brought his family to ruin. Yet, that big man had a weakness: the beautiful women, and Audrey Thorn was more than a Goddess.”

„One that drove a nail into his coffin eventually, for… the circumstances in which he died… are somehow… suspicious.”

„Yet, that man died because of natural causes.”

„How do you know that?”

„From George Chesterman. He confessed this before dying, for even if we planned to kill him, he also died because death was already waiting for him.”

„Why did Luis Chesterman think differently all this time?”

„Because it was something convenient for us to think so, for… otherwise, he would have used his plan and we would have lost everything we had.”

„And… don’t you think that he could be the one who planned your falling?”

„No, Brian. This man isn’t more than a coward, who pretends to be a big man. And… if not for Christine Bircham and eventually for Emily Davis, he would have been ruined since long ago, for… Marianne Chesterman Loran, even if she’s an intelligent woman, wouldn’t have been able to save him from all those social games in which he has been involved. And… even if he is the son of a man like George Chesterman, yet… he isn’t even his father’s shadow.”

„Yet: with Emily Davis dead and Christine Bircham out of the game, Luis Chesterman seemed to be weak, from all points of view. And this also because of a woman,” said Brian, smiling.

„I don’t think so,” murmured Shelby, thoughtfully this time. „Because… besides Christine and Emily, Luis Chesterman had his back protected by someone. Who instead: I don’t know. And… there’s one more thing there, hidden: how that child got into his arms.”

Brian squeezed his palms into a single fist, to later release them and squeeze them again. Then, he allowed a sigh to come out of his chest, something noticed by Shelby yet, who said: „it seems to me that you know that girl’s story.”

„Only a few details,” murmured Brian, remembering Eva, for she has been who told him more details about what happened to Anne. But not because of this Brian sighed, but because he remembered Eva.

„It’s hard, isn’t it?” asked Shelby, staring at Brian, who only after a few minutes took his eyes from the window, next to which that big tree was slowly rocking his branches. „Yet, I’ll advice you not to give up on her, Brian.”

These words made Brian wince and stare at the old man: „yet, it seems that it won’t be as I want.”

„Then, make it real,” said the old man with some traces of cunningness in his voice. But… his words haven’t been told with a mean or hidden purpose and this was seen in his glance.

„Then?” mumbled Brian.

„That child seems to run off something, Brian and I think that her run has something to do with that strange visit she had the day she gave birth to your child. Otherwise, I can’t explain her sudden decision, for even if I don’t know Eva Stonebridge personally, from what Colby found out, she’s not that kind of mother capable to abandon her baby, for… Brian, she ran from Brighton to save your baby.”

Brian swallowed hard: „what the hell are you talking about?”

„That Emily Davis took Eva from you with a purpose: she wanted the baby for her and she intended to get rid of the mother right after the birth.”

Hearing such words, Brian squeezed his fists hard and his jaw started to hurt from so much pressure that even a strange buzz was heard in his ears.

„Yet, Brian: if she decided to leave you behind, it might be for a reason. That’s why I suggest you find out first what’s going on and only after to make some conclusions.”

Shelby’s voice resounded like the voice of a father and this melted Brian’s heart somehow, for with Bardain’s disappearance, Brian felt that he missed his father a lot. And how not to feel that when Bardain Jones has been for him like a father since Baron died?! Yet, Brian understood this only after Bardain wasn’t next to him anymore.