of his desk. Since discussing the next step of his plan with Rebecca, he preferred the solitude of his private chambers or the company of his trusted man, Edward.
He needed to consider all options and possibilities. Edward’s private sources had proved correct, so now nothing could be left to fate or chance if he was to finish this McGowan business once and for all.
Pausing on the carpet, he turned and looked out the study window at the uncommonly gray and cloudy summer sky. Clammy chills of the approaching evening pricked his exposed skin. The sharp, stabbing pain in his groin meant more immediate warmth was needed.
He put on his crimson, silk Chinese housecoat and tied the gold belt around his waist. He poured himself another cup of strong black tea and sipped. Feeling his body enclosed in growing warmth, his thoughts turned to the much anticipated visit of Gabrielle that evening.
The long talks with Arley over the last several weeks were beginning to bear fruit. Arley was a sensible man who knew the value of the Society’s contact with the best and brightest men that the future would have to offer. Yes. A concerned father’s obligations were to his children first.
Caden sat down behind this desk, opened his diary, and started his Monday evening entry.
Tonight, the future begins for both of us. As the persistent waves of the tireless sea transform the earth’s jagged shore into smooth rock and sand, so to will my words recast one woman’s uninformed reluctance into loving loyalty.
Caden closed the brown leather cover of his diary and snapped the cap on his fountain pen. He turned to look at himself in the full length closet mirror, wanting to confirm the appearance of a mature man worthy of commanding unquestioning devotion in a younger woman of such refined breeding.
In his opinion, the rosy twilight filtering through the study window gave his patrician and dignified features a subtle warmth and vitality that did much to soften the impact of his imposing appearance.
He lifted his head and spoke as if rehearsing for one of his lectures. “The slaves to mediocrity and myth are bound by more than the fetters of custom and the familiar: they are servants, bonded to sluggish thought and barren dreams, and hence, incapable, by virtue of their self-imposed enslavement, of cultivating anything of intrinsic and lasting value for mankind. Only those with the highest ideals and the strongest character will have the courage to give birth to the new era.”
Caden extended his hand as if inviting his unseen beloved to take hold. “Come, take my hand, though blood and chaos may precede us as in every cyclic upheaval in nature, we are the masters of our future, letting loose a tidal wave of thought and action to wash away the old world and cleanse our race to receive the new.”
He brought his hand back and placed it, palm down against his chest, over his heart. “A new world.” He closed his eyes. For you and I, Gabrielle.
Gabrielle passed under the magnificent portico of the Theogenesis Society, awed by its commanding grandeur. She knocked once and the heavy wood front opened.
“Miss Caldwell?” a tall, unfamiliar man asked, extending his hand out to her.
“Yes. I have an appointment with Doctor Hellreich.”
“We have been expecting you, Miss Caldwell. I am Doctor Hellreich’s personal assistant, Mr. Wallace.”
Judging him to be a few years younger than Bret, she was startled by his sunken, waxen cheeks and dark, ogling eyes. Gabrielle withdrew her hand from his strong, rigid fingers.
Mr. Wallace ushered her politely across the threshold. “Please, come this way.” He admitted her into the central foyer and motioned to her to follow him.
Without saying another word, Gabrielle walked behind Mr. Wallace, who turned around briefly only once as if to make sure she was still there. They continued on through a long, darkened lecture hall toward another hallway at the opposite end.
Gabrielle moistened wet her lips and swallowed. The uncomfortable sense of wonder lurking around the corners of her apprehension now exerted itself upon her with a growing intensity after each reverberating step across the cold marble floor.
Mr. Wallace pointed to a door in the hallway leading out from the lecture hall. “Please, take a seat and make yourself comfortable. Doctor Hellreich will call for you shortly in his study.”
She sat in the nearest wood chair.
Mr. Wallace nodded in respect and took his leave of her the same way they had entered.
Gabrielle clasped her Parisian handbag in front of