The next day, Meg made her way into the offices of Underworld Relations and sat down at her desk. Her co-worker, Giselle, who was busily filing her nails, smiled at her in greeting, before going back to her nails.


“Shouldn’t you be filing paperwork instead of your nails?” grinned Meg.


“Oh, I know, but I just have one that’s really snagging on my jumpers,” sighed Giselle.


A hand came down on Meg’s shoulder. She jumped and then sighed. “Hey, boss.”


Mr Hades, who ran Underworld Relations, had a creepy crush on her, it was well known, but even so, Meg trusted him not to try and harm her physically. Blackmail and empty threats were more his style. “No hangover today, Nutmeg?”


Meg rolled her eyes. “Last Tuesday was a one-off, Mr Hades, I can assure you.”


“Did you have a good weekend?” chirped Giselle. “Anything happen on St Patrick’s day?”


“Not to me, but my friend Tiana, you met her at the Christmas party...”


“Oh, yeah, I liked her.”


“Well, she met a guy, Lestat de...something or other.”


Mr Hades removed his hand from her shoulder and straightened up. “Lestat de Lioncourt?”


“Yes, that was it.” Meg glanced at him. “You’ve heard of him?”


Mr Hades looked puzzled. “He was a musician back in the late eighteen hundreds, well renowned for his violin playing. Pity our company wasn’t alive then; we could have done some good work with him.”


“The eighteen hundreds?” Meg repeated, with a frown. “Did he have any kids?”


Mr Hades shook his head. “None recorded, anyway. I think I might have a photograph of him somewhere on file, hold on.” He left the room, leaving Meg puzzled.


“It can’t be the same Lestat,” said Giselle. “No one lives that long.”


“It could be a coincidence,” said Meg, thoughtfully. “But then, the name Lestat’s hardly a common one, like John...”


Mr Hades was back and now he held out an old newpaper clipping to her. Meg looked at it. It showed a young man with tousled hair playing a violin alongside several other people with musical instruments, all dressed in Victorian clothing. The headline read “Lestat de Lioncourt’s playing praised by Queen,” and then underneath ran a brief description of Queen Victoria’s admiration for the young man’s performance during a concert in Hyde Park.


“May I hang onto this?” Meg asked. “I think Tiana might like to see it.”


Mr Hades smirked. “What’s mine is yours, Meg, you know that.”


“Uch,” Meg muttered, glancing back at the photograph again. Because it was in black and white, she couldn’t tell what colour the man’s hair was, and yet he did look somewhat like she imagined from Tiana’s description of him. And she had stated that he played the violin. Even if it was a coincidence, it was a pretty spooky one.


She tucked the clipping into her pocket and went back to her work. Around lunchtime, however, she was interrupted by a phone call. “Underworld Relations, Megara speaking, how can I help you?”


“Oh, Meg, you are not going to believe this!” It was Belle, and she sounded pretty excited.


“What? What? Are you ok?” Meg asked, taken aback by the excitement in her voice.


“Adam has just asked me to marry him!”


Meg almost fell off her chair in surprise. “What?! Are you serious? Is he serious?”


“Oh, Meg, it’s all been like some mad fairytale! Last night we were up in the library and, well...”


“Did he kiss you?” Meg guessed.


“Yes!”

“Well, do you want to marry him?”


“More than anything!” Belle sighed, happily. “I only realised last night that, well, that I love him. And he loves me too.”

Meg felt her jaw drop. Not that Belle wasn’t loveable, of course she was, but she had never expected anyone she knew to wind up married to a prince. “Belle, I-I can’t find the words. I’m speechless. I mean congratulations and all, but wow! This must have come as a shock to you!”


“Well, yes, I mean I had no idea that he felt that way about me.”


“Though it does explain why he always kept you close.”


“Yes.” Belle sighed again. “Oh, Meg, I just had to tell someone! Do-do you think Papa would have approved?”

“Of you marrying a prince? I should say so!” Meg laughed. “I’m so happy for you! I mean, he’s a good man, right? He makes you happy?”

“Happier than I’ve ever been with anyone else!” Belle gushed. “Oh, you and Tiana’ll be my bridesmaids, right?”

“Of course, we always said we’d do that for each other!” Meg reminded her. “Belle, that’s the best news I’ve heard all day! Have you told Tiana yet?”

“I tried ringing the Blue Moon but I couldn’t get through.”

“Oh, right. Well, I think we should pop around to hers later with a bottle of champagne and celebrate!”

“Champagne? Have you suddenly had a pay rise?” Belle teased.

Meg laughed. “I wish! Oh, yeah, before we go on to details of proposal and stuff, there was something else I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh, yes?”

“Well, did your Adam manage to find out anything about the De Lioncourts?” asked Meg, fingering the clipping in her pocket.

“Only that they’re an old family going back to the 1700s, according to their family tree, but apart from that, nothing. Why?”

“Because I’ve found something interesting,” replied Meg. She explained about the clipping and Belle listened, intently. “I mean, it could just be a coincidence,” she finished.

“Spooky coincidence,” Belle replied, shivering, even though Meg couldn’t see her. “I mean, when Adam showed me their family tree, the name Lestat was the last one listed, born 1760 and there was no death date, just a question mark. I mean, that could just mean that his death wasn’t recorded, but still...”

Something beeped down the phone and Meg sighed. “Hang on, that’s call waiting. It might be important. Look, I’ll see you tonight, ok?”

“Ok, I’ll meet you by the tram station,” Belle replied.

“Right, and hey, tell Adam from me he’s a lucky man!” Meg grinned and then took the waiting call. “Hello, Underworld-?”

“It’s me, Tiana!”

“Oh, hey! Belle’s been trying to get through to you, you know.”

“Yeah, the phone’s been busy. I haven’t had a chance to anyone talk all day. Listen,” Tiana pressed closer to the phone, “I’m beginning to think something spooky’s going on around here.”

“How come?”

“Well, I met this guy last night, said he was a friend of Lestat’s, called Marius, and he tried to warn me away from Lestat, I think, or at least he told me to; at any rate, he said something about him not being all he seemed, and then when I turned around, he seemed to have just vanished into thin air.” She shivered. “It was...weird.”

“That does seem weird.” Meg commented. Have you see Lestat today?”

“Not yet.”

“Well, look, Belle and I were going to pop around to see you tonight anyway. Belle’s got some big news, and there was something I wanted to show you.”

Tiana frowned. “Why do I get the feeling this is something to do with Lestat, Meg?”

“Well, it kind of is,” Meg replied, biting her lip. “Look, don’t worry, ok, all will be revealed tonight.”

“Ok, well, what should I do about this guy?”

“Why? Is he harassing you?”

“No, but I’m worried.”

“Look, he was probably just jealous or something,” Meg said, hurriedly. “I suggest you leave work early and we’ll be around tonight, ok?”

“Ok, yeah, you’re probably right, thanks, Meg,” said Tiana, all in a rush and she quickly went back to work. Meg probably was right, she decided, she probably was worrying for nothing.

Even so, she worried as she walked home that day, throwing glances over her shoulder in case Marius should appear out of nowhere. But he didn’t and so she turned her attention to the fact that she hadn’t seen Lestat today at all. Why was that? Was he busy? Or was there some other reason?
She pushed it to the back of her mind and instead tried her hand at French cooking that evening. To her surprise, the beef bourginoin was very good, to say she had never made it before. Then, she waited until she heard Meg and Belle come knocking on the door.

“So, what is it?” she asked, ushering them into the living room. “What’s this big news?”

Belle beamed at her. “I’m getting married!”

“No?” Tiana’s jaw dropped. “Who to? Prince Adam?”

Belle nodded and Tiana hugged her. “Isn’t it great?” gushed Meg, joining the hug. “Our Belle’s gonna be a princess!”

“Belle, I’m so happy for you!” cried Tiana.

The newspaper cutting fell from Meg’s pocket then and Tiana picked it up. “What’s this?”

“Oh, that was what I wanted to show you...”Meg faltered as Tiana unfolded it and stared at the photograph.

“This is impossible!” she whispered.