The Devil You Know: Chapter 10

One week later, Reginald was getting the Manning family luggage ready for their trip to Llanview when Todd found him.  “So,” he asked the butler, “With all of us away for Thanksgiving, you have any plans?”

Reginald smiled.  “Well, Dr. Quartermaine actually called me about that yesterday and asked me the same question.  When I told her no, she invited me over there as a guest for dinner.”

“That’s nice, I guess,” Todd said.  “That’s were you’ll be?”

“I turned her down.  In the years since I left them, I’ve come to enjoy the taste of turkey and all the fixing for the holiday too much to go back,” Reginald relied.  When he saw Todd’s confused look, he elaborated.  “Let’s just say, no bird has ever made it to the Quartermaine table to be eaten.”  With that, the butler left Todd even more confused as the publisher made his way into the dining room. 

Sitting down already were Blair and the kids and before he himself could take a sip of his coffee, the doorbell rang.  That was likely to be Michael and Dillon, who both did walk in.  “The car is all packed and ready to head for Llanview,” Michael said.  “We just need you ladies and your stuff and we can head out.

Starr and Sarah pointed their bags out to the guys and left to say goodbye.  They would be getting into town before the rest of the Port Charles contingent. 

Todd gave a hard glare to Michael.  “Be careful driving,” he warned and Michael, knowing Todd, merely nodded.  Then he kissed his daughter on the cheek and watched her leave. 

As they were heading out the door, Alexis and Molly were heading in.  Molly pulled her suitcase near the others and Alexis went to talk to Blair and Todd.  “Well, Molly’s bags are here and I think we’re squared away with everything for the trip.  I hope you all enjoy yourselves.”

Blair could see the comment that was forming on the tip of Todd’s tongue, so she spoke first.  “Thanks Alexis.  It should be lovely to be home.”

Alexis turned back to her daughter.  “You’ll call me when you get to Llanview, right?”

Molly rolled her eyes and sighed melodramatically. “Yes, as soon as we get to La Boulaie like I promised.  Don’t worry about me.  I’ll be home on Sunday with Michael, just like I promised.”  Then she turned her heels and was out the door, Jack and Sam following her.  Alexis closed her eyes and let out a breath before following the kids.

Todd eventually made his way to the office and sadly for him, the day flew by as he left instructions for his editors and reporters and Maxie.  He was almost tempted to tell her to call him at the time the wedding was going to start, but thought better of it as he left.  The car was waiting for him and took him, Blair and Addie to the schools to pick up the kids then on to the airport where the Roberts were meeting them.  Then they all boarded the private jet and were off.   

Todd had hoped for some peace and quiet for the flight, but Tina started up.  “So, you’ll be staying with Dorian, eh?” she asked, a wicked smile on her face.  “And will her husband be there as well?”

Blair offer Todd a grimace.  “Well, he is a friend of Viki’s and I believe his latest movie is finished shooting,” she said.

While David Vickers wasn’t a topic that Todd ever liked to dwell on, a question popped into his head that had been bothering him for a while.  “Tina, what in the world possessed you to call that mangy mutt of yours ‘David Vickers‘?”  For some reason, that prompted a flood of tears from his sister.  He sat up and shot Cord a confused look.  “What did I say?”

It was CJ who shook his head.  “The dog had to be put down,” he explained to his uncle. 

Through her tears, Tina got out, “She…was hit…by a taxi in…London.”  Tina opened her bag and grabbed a handful of tissues.  “The vet there said nothing could be done.” 

Todd gulped down an, “I’m sorry” when Tina’s tears miraculously dried up as she asked, “Speaking about David Vickers, the man, what really happened that night at the Bayberry Inn?”

Blair let out a laugh that startled Jack and Molly.  “What’s she talking about?” her son asked.

Todd’s lopsided grim became plastered on his face.  “Your mother never told you that story?”  When Jack shook his head and with Molly looking curious, Todd couldn’t resist reliving that night, all these years later.  “Okay, so, after your mom and I divorced the first time--”

“Annulled, Todd.  I was annulled,” Blair corrected him.

“I realized just how much I was in love with her.  And since it was around her birthday, and I had ordered her a present months in advance that had finally arrived at the country club, we were making our way back to each other,” Todd began, ignoring Blair’s comment.

“What was the present?” Molly asked.

Blair smiled at that memory.  “It was a black Arabian horse and I named him Araby.  And Todd,” Blair said as she touched his cheek, “gave me the best gift in comparing him to me, that we were both wild and untamable.  It was a memorable night.”

Addie smiled at the way Blair was looking at Todd.  “By the looks on both of your faces, I’ll bet it was.”

Jack let out a strangled yelp, not wanting to imagine what his parents were thinking.  Tina didn’t help when she said, “I’ll be that horse got quite a show.”  When she saw the looks everyone gave her, including Cord, she held up her hands innocently.  “What?  It’s not like we’ve never put on a show like that before.”

That was too much information for Todd to ever know, so he continued with the story.  “Well, even as we were getting closer, for some reason, Blair was hanging around David Vickers way too much for my liking.  She finally told me why.”

“He was married to my Aunt Dorian at the time and bleeding her of her money,” Blair explained more for Molly then anyone else.  “The only way out of the marriage was to prove he was cheating on her.  So Dorian and I set it up to make it look like he was doing that…with me,”  Blair said, blushing slightly.  “I then let Todd in on the scam and he offered to help by grabbing something out of David’s safe while I was setting him up.  But I didn’t go through with the act.”

“Turned out that David was cheating on Dorian…with Dorian,” Todd finished.

No one seemed to get it until Tina finally figured it out.  “Wait so…Madeleine Helmour…was Dorian?” she asked, remembering the picture from the front page of the Sun.  At Blair nodding grin, Tina laughed.  “That is brilliant!  And David never suspected a thing?”

“Oh, he figured it out, not that we ever confirmed it.  But we had fun with him over it,” Todd replied.

“What were you trying to get from David?” CJ asked.

A dark cloud seemed to pass over Todd’s face.  He had to blinked back the memory of reading her words before answered his nephew.  “It was a diary, one that Vickers forged to scam the Lord trustees.”

Blair took Todd’s hand, offering him strength for what had be left unsaid.  Tina mercifully shot her son and the teenagers a silent shake, knowing what her baby brother was talking about. 

“What happened after this caper you pulled?” Molly asked, trying to lighten the tone of the conversation. 

Blair was pulled out of her thoughts and smiled again.  “Todd took me on a flight on his jet down to Key West where we were married the first time.  And as we were flying overhead, he proposed to me again.”

“And Blair told me she was pregnant with Starr right after that,” Todd added, his eyes brightening.       

“And a few days later we were married,” Blair said, moving in to kiss Todd, even as she heard the disgusted sound her son made. 

The rest of the flight was quiet.  Todd hadn’t felt the urge to kill Cord or Tina anymore.  In fact as they disembarked from the plane, he pulled her aside.  “Thanks for what you did earlier with the kids and the diary…” his voice trailed off.

“I know you’re still going through a lot of pain with what our moth--what was done to you,” Tina said sincerely.  “That’s something we all need to talk about.”  With that, she joined everyone else.

He let out a sigh.  “Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of,” he said almost to himself.


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