Author's Note: This story builds on characters and places introduced in my previous stories but may still be read on its own. The whole sequence of stories is:
In Camera
The Sins Of The Father
Summer Of Love
A Lady's Companion
Summa Cum Laude
Things To Be Thankful For
That Special Someone
Homecoming Queen
Touch But Don't Look
Promises, Rules And Their Breaking
Fifty Ways To Please Your Lover
London Calling
Business And Pleasure
Through A Glass Darkly
* * * * *
L'Origine Du Monde Presents
Through A Glass Darkly.
Original commissions by some of the world's most renowned glass blowers.
September 20th – October 18th, 2010.
Glass: The product of techniques and technology that span the ages. There has always been a special fascination for the alchemy that turns fire into ice. This exhibition brings together examples of the highest art and finest craftsmanship by the world's most renowned glass blowers. Their creations, all part of the Kruppa Collection, are at once beautiful and useful.
As proof of this utility, Eric Kruppa has created a series of illustrative images of 'The Family Crystal', as he affectionately describes the Kruppa Collection.
* * * * *
"Good evening, Francis." Eric shook Francis Deerborne effusively by the hand as if they were old friends, long parted. They were not. Francis Deerborne has had cause to curse the day he first set eyes on Eric Kruppa, two years ago at Christabelle Deerborne's graduation. Eric, for his part, is well aware of the antipathy Francis holds for him.
"Good Evening Mr Kruppa." Francis could never bring himself to be politely informal towards anyone he loathed as much as Eric. Not that Francis did loathe anyone else quite as much as he loathed Eric. Even Helen, his arch tormentor, was less culpable in Deerborne's eyes, since he quite wrongly assumed that Eric was the architect of her games.
"It's so good of you to spare the time to visit us." Eric laid it on thick, enjoying Deerborne's discomfiture.
"I didn't realize I had a choice." Deerborne lowered his tone to exclude all but Eric. "Your whore made it clear I should attend."
"Not my whore, Francis." Eric said, rather less confidentially, laughter in his voice, "You're the one paying her to-"
"Enough!" Deerborne shouted Eric down then, realizing he was making a scene and so would hardly get out of here unnoticed, "Why am I here?"
"Why? Because Helen invited you. Ahh, there she is." Eric couldn't resist twisting the knife just once more in the moments it took Helen to navigate through the sparse crowd. "By the way, how is Christabelle? I haven't heard from her for ages. Do you know if she liked the Pralines I sent her for her birthday?" Eric watched Francis' face. There seemed to be a struggle between the blood that was draining from his complexion and the blood that was rising up his neck in fury. "I know they're your favourites but I wasn't sure that Christabelle-"
"Darling! You came!" Helen squeezed between the two men, kissing Deerborne with open-mouthed enthusiasm. At least, that was why her mouth was open: His was open because he'd been about to blast Eric for his effrontery. Helen always had excellent timing. "Come and see Eric's new pictures of me. I shall expect you to bid for at least one of them." She deftly steered the shell-shocked Deerborne away into the opening-night throng.
Eric watched the poor fellow go and wondered just how far Helen would push him before he snapped. Deerborne was, from one perspective, one of the chosen few: He, however, wouldn't see it that way. It was a perfect example, thought Eric, of the old adage 'be careful what you wish for'. When Helen gave up whoring, she didn't entirely give up. Deerborne was one of a handful of regular clients she kept for their entertainment value. In his case, the entertainment came from a little gentle blackmail.
It was all Helen's elaborate revenge upon Christabelle Deerborne, A.K.A. Prissy Chrissy, That self-righteous bitch or Daddy's chocolate fantasy, who'd done everything possible to make life difficult for Helen and B when they were all in college together.
Tonight was about being seen together publicly, which would just annoy the hell out of Christabelle: Francis would have a lot of explaining to do when his daughter heard who he'd been spending time with.
* * * * *
"Why do you do this?" Francis finally found his voice, or at least a quieter version of it.
"Because I enjoy flaunting myself." Helen chose to assume he was talking about the graphic image of her vagina partly hiding an enormous piece of Lalique glassware, the iridescent length of which appeared to stick right out of the picture, almost in 3D. There was no escaping the fact that Eric was very competent with a camera, but beautiful as the pornographic image was, that wasn't what Francis had been asking about.
"I meant..." he practically hissed, "Why do you do this to me?"
"Francis, Sweety, the answer's the same. Because I enjoy flaunting myself. Not just those bits of me," She waved at the pictures on the wall. "But my entire life. Tonight, here, I'm enjoying flaunting my relationship with an older man. I've told you so much about myself because I enjoy flaunting those most private parts of my life and because I know you'll keep my secrets. You will keep my secrets, won't you Francis?" She moved close, looking into his eyes as she asked. Helen's beauty struck him like a slap, like so often before. It was the reason he always ended up right back at, whenever he started asking himself why he let her torment him so.
"No." His natural instinct for defiance and boardroom conflict kicked in.
"No? But I thought we were friends." Helen contrived to look hurt.
"Friends?" Francis almost laughed. "You're just a whore I picked up in Boston, who's extorting money from me because I love my daughter too much to have her good name dragged down into the mud with mine."
"Right, wrong and wrong. I'm a whore but I'm extorting nothing: You always get what you pay for, Francis. As for loving your daughter too much: That's why you picked up this Boston whore in the first place, wasn't it... Pappy?" Helen's voice was syrup and silk but her words winded Francis Deerborne, knocking the defiance out of him. Helen saw it happen and smiled reassuringly. "That's better. I don't like it when we fight. Kiss and make up?" Ever in control, Helen didn't give Francis time to demure. Her lips briefly met his then, as swiftly, found his ear. "Recognise that?" Her fingers, cool on his cheek, turned his face to the left and a pedestal upon which a perfectly lifelike lead crystal penis, complete with intricately textured scrotum, was mounted on a gold plated and baroquely engraved chastity belt.
"I remember." Francis barely breathed. The colour drained from his face as he recalled his first, his only, his very intimate encounter with that... that thing.
"It's a pity none of these are for sale. You could buy it for us." Helen ignored the fact that it was actually one of her sex toys - a Christmas present from Eric - so she could have it whenever she wanted.
"I'd smash it to pieces." Francis hissed in rage and shame. He remembered too well how he'd encountered that... thing.
* * * * *
Six Months Earlier...
"I have a surprise for you tonight." Helen was riding the elevator to Francis Deerborne's apartment with him. They'd been out to dinner and she'd been absolutely charming all evening. She could be so beguiling when she wanted to be. There were times he could almost believe she cared about him. Then there were the other times, when she would sweetly explain what she wanted from him in return for her sexual favours and her continued silence.
"A Surprise?" He was never sure whether to be excited of terrified by Helen's surprises.