Catnip [romance]

Korat

Nathan found himself standing in the kitchen of the townhouse, pacing back and forth as he stared at his cellphone. He had texted Freya about the situation and was expecting a reply, until he decided to check the time in Florence and saw that she was probably asleep by now. He groaned, pushing himself up onto the countertop to sit as he continued to avoid the table. Seeing the look on Philip Beauregard's face gave him enough reason to hide out in the kitchen. The chefs in the kitchen minded their own business, only acknowledging him with a quick nod before whipping up dessert for the five couples out at the dining hall.

His haven was quickly disrupted when he looked up to see Bianca Beauregard looking back at him, a gentle smile gracing her face. She looked exactly like an older Freya, since they shared the same eyes and the same smile. The only thing he saw that was different was the shape of the eyes that Freya had inherited from her father instead.

"Mrs. Beauregard," he cleared his throat.

"Call me Ms Medici, as in M-S, not M-I-S-S. I have to hold up the other name in Medici-Beauregard Shipping," she responded with a smile. Her Italian accent was still strong even from all these years living in America.

Medici. Bianca de Medici-Beauregard. He remembered reading about how Italian women would traditionally keep their maiden names after marriage too. That particular surname also happened to belong to one of the most powerful houses in Europe back in medieval times. Now, he could see how Freya was related to royalty.

"Ah, right, Ms Medici," he kept that in mind as he gave a brief smile. "What can I help you with?"

"If you don't mind, Nathaniel, I'd like to talk about my daughter at some place more private." She requested.

Oh. He made sure the smile on his face didn't turn into a grimace. "Uhm, yeah, sure. There's always the library." He got off of the countertop and led the way to the room. Eventually, they went in the burgundy-colored room with tons of books shelved across the walls. He gestured for her to take a seat on the chairs in the room which she did. Beside the chair was a tray with whiskey and crystal drinking glasses, which he poured one for himself to help him calm his nerves.

Taking a seat opposite to her, he sighed. "Ms Medici, I know I'm not exactly the best choice for your daughter—"

"Oh, I wasn't going to talk about that. I'm so sorry I made you think I was going to." She shook her head. "It's just that... among the three of my children, Freya is the one we barely see ever since she came back from London. I haven't gotten time to check in with her about things, and neither has my husband. She prefers to keep to herself a lot. The only thing that she's told us was during the birthday celebrations when we heard rumors of her fiancé which she denied to us and told us that they'd broken it off. When he won the date to Masa with her, however..." She trailed off before she sighed. "Has she told you of anything that may have happened between her and Hugo Desrosiers? Why she had broken off the engagement with him and so on? She hasn't told me much, and I'm worried."

He was sure that Freya wouldn't want him divulging information, but this was her mother. He pursed his lips. "She told me about a lot of things." He started hesitantly. "She broke it off because he emotionally abused her."

Bianca widened her eyes, her hand flying to her mouth as she muffled her gasp.

"When they had their dinner at Masa, the same thing happened. She called me to come over and fetch her from this mess. She didn't look so good either when I first saw them talk to each other at the birthday party. She looked shaken up after they talked that when I held her arm, she assumed that I was Hugo without looking and her demeanor changed." Nathan raked his fingers through his hair, sighing. "When I saved her from the date, Hugo bought over Gawker and the first article after the purchase was of us. He's been using Gawker to get to us. Freya hasn't been all that comfortable with his eyes all over the place, which was why I brought her to Boston for a while before coming back. The next thing I knew was that she took off again to Florence and it was too late when I found out. I don't know why— she was fine the night before when we came back to New York."