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The Quintessential Q
Chapter Thirty One
Upstairs Downstairs.
Mrs Landsbury goes to the kitchen to tell the Cook the happy news. What she had intended to be a cozy dinner for father and son had turned into a business dinner for seven. Luckily the kitchen was apart from the family quarters and the cooks screams of dismay couldn't be heard upstairs. "Enough. It is done." Mrs L demands. "Take a valium but there will be seven for dinner and it will be amazing or I will have your head." Mrs Landsbury knows she is demanding the near impossible. She reviews the evenings menu. "It's not as bad as it could have been. The prime rib is large enough if sliced thin and if there are sufficient accompaniments...."
The cook's eyes narrow as he begins to think and mentally inventory the contents of the kitchen and gardens. "Yes, not impossible. But I will not have time to prepare a proper dessert. Not with such last minute notice."
"I'll handle dessert." Mrs Landsbury hands back a revised menu. As housekeeper she knew the contents of Wyndemere to a fork and the kitchen contents to the last teaspoon of salt. The Cook nods and adds to the menu handing it back. "Good. Now I must prepare the dining room." Mrs Landsbury goes in search of the maid. Once the maid is at work setting the table to her specifications, Mrs Landsbury goes to the wine cellar to personally select the wine. While only half of the party were old enough to drink in this country, she still picks out two bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon to accompany the prime rib. As soon as all the guests arrived she'd be able to start the dessert. Once the company was seated, the maid would serve and she'd have time.
"Nikolas, I think it is time you explained yourself. You were tardy to this meeting and distracted." Stefan sits back down behind his desk. "Mrs Landsbury indicated that you arrived in deplorable condition. Does this have something to do with the telephone call for which you were waiting? Or the ramshackle hovel you have purchased in a disreputable part of Port Charles?"
Nikolas paces infront of the desk. He stops and turns as Stefan mentions the house. "You know about that?" Stefan just looks at him. "I mean-- you know about that already?"
"You are my son. Of course I'm concerned. This is about Ms Bowen-Quartermaine. Your demeanor has been... mixed since you accompanied her to the theater. And while I realize that you are emotionally fixated on a laison with this girl..."
Nikolas interrupts. "I love her. I've had my share of follies: Sarah, Robin and the worst-- Katherine." Nikolas grimaces. "That one continues to haunt me but Emily is different. I can't screw this one up more than I already have."
"And the hovel?" Stefan asks.
"The Victorian home that I'm in the process of refurbishing is what got me in this mess tonight. But Emily can't know about it. It's a surprise. Part of the Quartermaine tradition I told you about. Alan purchased a home for Monica. AJ purchased a home for Carly. This, when it is completed, will be my present to Emily."
"You're getting ahead of yourself, son."
"Perhaps. But even if I am this is a good move for me. The house will have no memories of Robin or Katherine. It is convenient to everything in town. And since leaving Deception it gives me a productive way to occupy my time."
Stefan nods. "I want to see it."
"Anytime. But realize it is a work in progress." Nikolas sighs. He'd been expecting more of a battle but realizes that his father is just waiting for more ammunition. The saving grace of the project was the continuing distance between him and Katherine. His father would go along with underwater basket weaving if it meant Katherine was out of the picture.
"Now. What has your brother in such a foul mood?"
"When we were ripping apart the house next door I found a safe. I promised Lucky the contents of the safe if he could open it."
"I believe the phrase is sucker's bet." Stefan shakes his head. "Your brother's education has been as unconventional as your own in it's own way."
"That almost sounded like a compliment, Father. Yeah, I mean yes, Lucky was insulted. But now he is concerned."
"Millions he said?"
"The content was stocks among other items. All dating back fifty or more years. One of them must have paid off. I knew he had some research ahead of him but I didn't expect him to call back so fast with answers."
"Hence the need for bankers and an attorney." Stefan nods. "The stocks must be authenticated, and a sudden windfall will cause questions. Your brother is overage now correct?"
"On his last birthday." Nikolas nods. "Part of the plan is for Lucky to move to the carriage house of the property once the mainhouse has been rehabilitated. Right now it is the only part of the property that is sound and is being used as the construction company's command center. Living over the motorcycle shop while... colorful is drafty during the winter."
"Your mother will appreciate that." Stefan says noncommitally.
Nikolas looks over at Stefan in concern. Sometimes he got the feeling that Laura was stringing both Stefan and Luke along. But he couldn't tell his father that.
"Master Lucky, Miss Emily, please come in. I'll let Master Nikolas know you are here." Mrs Landsbury leads Lucky and Emily to the front parlor. "There are refreshments set out. Dinner will be when the last guest arrives." Mrs Landsbury goes to notify Stefan and Nikolas that the guests had begun to arrive.
Emily looks around the room. "I haven't been back here since Nikolas was recovering from being shot. I mean this room. I was here on the island for the Bacchanalia. That was a great night."
Lucky shudders but it doesn't stop him from making serious inroads on the appetizer plate. "Yeah, every romance readers dream: fancy dresses, fancy dancing, and a darn near dead body at the end. This place gives me the creeps. It always has." Emily starts making ghost noises and floating around the room. "Knock it off, Bowen."
Emily laughs. "You are so easy."
"I'm in a mess and you're making fun. Thanks Buddy."
"Anytime Pal. And you are the only person who would bitch about winning a lottery."
"It's not the lottery, for Christ's sake. It's stocks." Lucky screws up his face in horror. "He knew this would happen."
"I knew it might happen." Nikolas says from the doorway shrugging. He glances at Lucky before returning his gaze to Emily. "Hello Emily."
"Nikolas, " Emily says quietly. "Thank you for the flowers, they were lovely."
"Yeah, yeah. The flowers were lovely, now how in the hell are you going to get me out of this mess?" Lucky interjects.
"Lucky, you never really did say where you got those stocks." Emily asks trying to change the subject. Unknowingly right onto a subject that Nikolas was trying to avoid.
"It was kind of a finders/keepers thing. Nikolas, found an old safe on his property. I opened it and he gave me what was in it." Lucky glares at Nikolas.
"I didn't think that the cottage was that old?" Emily asks curiously.
"Ms Bowen- Quartermaine, how delightful to see you again. Your grandmother's theater project is getting excellent reviews in the paper." Stefan enters the room with the bankers accompaning him. "May I introduce Herr Guttman and Herr Franz."
"Gutten Tag" Emily shakes hands with both men. "And I'm afraid that is my limit unless we start talking chocolate."
Herr Guttman bows over Emily's hand. "Did I hear Herr Cassadine correctly-- Did he say Ms Quartermaine?"
"Guilty. But don't hold it against me please." The banker start laying on the charm. ELQ's European monies were split between London and Geneva. But the Geneva monies were in a rival bank. Emily looks over at Nikolas and smiles rolling her eyes. She'd been expecting this. The charm would keep coming her way until these guys got a gander at what Lucky had stashed in his backpack.
"I apologize for being late." Alexis says firmly from the doorway. She hands Mrs Landsbury her coat and brief case. Alexis walks over to Nikolas and kisses him on both cheeks. She smiles at Emily and then looks over to Lucky. "I hear I'm hear to help you out of a jam."
"Jam is right. It's a Cassadine plot to ruin my life."
"You ever thought of going into acting?" Emily digs. "Here why don't you just show them."
Lucky upends the backpack onto a nearby table. Stock certificates and other papers come flooding out. "Now you see what I'm up against."
"God in Heaven!" One of the bankers exclaims picking up the Disney certificate that had fallen on top of everything else. "It's fifty years old.... fifty years old, a hundred shares, fifty years old.."
"Street value-- two point two million at the end of close today-- Wall Street that is. and that's not the best one." Emily nods.
Even Alexis used to closing deals worth thousands of times that is flabbergasted. She sits down on the couch. Emily sits down next to her. "He just threw it down like it was nothing." She murmurs bewildered. "I've seen deals closed with a stroke of a pen worth at least that."
"Yeah, but it's kind of like he just dropped all the money on the table, isn't it?" Emily pats Alexis' hand.
"Why are you so calm?"
"I got over it while I was doing the research." Emily shrugs. She watches with interest as Stefan picks up a certain certificate. The crown jewel of Lucky's collection.
"Haloid Corporation?" Stefan softly murmurs. A frown develops between his eyes. Why did that sound vaguely familiar?
Lucky answers the unspoken question grimly. "Xerox."
Emily interjects cheerfully. "Sixteen point two million at close of street today." Lucky glares at her. She blows him a kiss enjoying his misery at his good fortune.
"They're fakes right... it's a Cassadine trick.. a goof on the Spencers right?" Lucky pleads with Stefan.
"Lucky, you haven't showed them the other one. There are only three really worth serious money. Disney, Haloid and this one." Emily holds up a certificate. "Heinz: 100 shares from the original IPO in '46. I only could find the split history since 1961." She shrugs. "At the rate of 162 shares to each of the original...."
Herr Franz answers. "It was trading at 46 at the close of day. That would be $745,200." He calculates swiftly.
"It's a goof right?" Lucky insists ready to pummel Nikolas. If it was, it was going too far and he was going to more than blow him out of the water with Emily. He was taking this too far when he'd brought the bankers and lawyers into it.
"On our sister's life," Nikolas swears. "I didn't see the content of that safe before you opened it. I opened that wall. You pulled the safe out of the wall. If it is a fraud then it's one perpetuated decades ago."
Lucky slumps into a chair. "What in the hell am I going to do? Hey Nik, wanna trade? How about just welching on the deal." Lucky asks hopefully.
"Nope. I've got plans for my portion." Stefan looks at Nikolas curiously. What portion? Then Nikolas continues. "You've always had such a good time at my expense with all the meetings I've had to attend to administer even the small portion of the estate coming my direction. Have a blast, brother."
Mrs Landsbury throws wide the double doors between the front parlor and the formal dining room. "Dinner is served."
"I hope it's not goose." Lucky mutters.
"Prime Rib." Mrs Landsbury answers.
"Can I have a rib big enough to choke on, please?" Lucky requests politely. Lucky takes a seat next to Alexis. Stefan is at the head of the table and Nikolas at the foot. Emily sits next to Nikolas across from Lucky and next to one of the bankers. The other banker sits next to Alexis and to the right of Stefan. Mrs Landsbury watches as the soup course is served then excuses herself. She has a dessert to finish. The maid was going to have to keep an eye on things.
"Well I know what my father would have to say about this..." Lucky spoons up a tablespoon of the deep ruby red liquid and allows it to dribble back into the bowl.
"While your father is often... spontaneous; he's comments regarding the Cassadine are repetively predictable." Stefan mutters unable to help himself. Alexis glares down the table at him. She might be on the outs with her brother but Nikolas wasn't with his. Stefan wasn't going to wreck this. If she had been sitting next to Stefan she'd have kicked him under the table much the way that Emily had kicked Ned for taunting Carly. Alexis looks over at Emily and shakes her head. Emily shrugs and grins picking up on Alexis' unstated desire.
"Lucky, no blood products were involved in the making of this soup." Alexis jokes. "But I'm sure that Mrs Landsbury will be more than willing to serve up the Prime Rib rare." The bankers have no clue as to the family feud in progress only sense the tension in the air and apply themselves to the delicious borscht. "You know, Lucky, if the money bothers you that much you could always give it away." The bankers choke simultaniously on the soup. Each look over at Alexis with tears in their eyes. Was the woman crazy?
"Or you could travel the world." Stefan suggests an alternative.
"I went around the world when I was eight with nothing but what I was wearing and a backpack." Lucky mutters. "I've eaten jellyfish before I can do this." Lucky takes a small sip of the soup: smooth, creamy, interesting texture. He takes another bite. Kinda tangy. "It's not too bad." Lucky declares.
Emily rolls her eyes. "Most things aren't."
"Optimist." Lucky taunts. But falls silent when he sees Stefan nodding. He and Stefan Cassadine agreeing on something was too scary even for a joke. Lucky makes short work of the soup and wait for the others to finish for the next course to be served. The salad with the apricot vinigrette passes without comment. Once the main course of the prime rib served with butternut squash and garden fresh string beans and baby carrots is before the party does the conversation pick up.
"Herr Spencer, if the magnitude of your fortune is overwealming you perhaps you should just consider the interest on the sum." Herr Franz suggests thoughtfully. "That amount would be much more manageable or even to consider giving away." Herr Franz puts on a hurt look as he glances over at Alexis. Alexis just grins and quirks a brow.
"It would do alot for Lesley Lu or your grandmother, Lucky." Alexis suggests.
"Neither will ever want for anything." Stefan says flatly. Lucky pauses in slicing the tender prime rib. If Cassadine thought he was going to be taking care of his family he had another thought coming.
"Alexis, what about a trust?" Emily suggests. "Something that would benefit Lucky, Lulu... heck even Nikolas. It's not like Nik would have a say in it if Lucky decided to name him."
"Hey wait a minute...!" Nikolas protests.
"I like it." Lucky affirms. "Share the headache. But I'm still not convinced that this thing is all moot. Those certificates could be clever fakes." He cheers at the thought. If the things were faked then he'd gotten a great dinner out of the deal. And if they weren't then he could use the money to make Stefan's life hell. Either way had it's upside.