Strange Bedfellows
~ ch. 17, continued ~

Stefan assisted Bishop Eymard onto the launch before turning his attention to the guard awaiting his instructions.  He gave the trusted employee a quick nod of the head and led him several feet away from where the Bishop stood waiting to depart. 

“Let him come,” Stefan ordered the guard.  “Escort him to the west parlor.”  He was confident that the guard understood his implicit command.  The sentry was not only to escort their guest to the parlor in the west wing, but he was to detain him there, forcibly if need be, until further notification from his employer.

Stefan dismissed the guard and watched him clamber onto the launch.  It smoothly set off across the waters separating Spoon Island from the rest of Port Charles.

“Master Stefan?” a servant approached.  “You have been summoned to the study.  The judge wishes to speak with you.”

“And my wife?”  Stefan did not bother to pretend that news of his impromptu marriage had not spread like wildfire throughout Wyndemere’s servants.

“The mistress is already on her way there.”

“Thank you.”

Stefan mentally reviewed just which approach he would use to announce the news of his marriage to Dara.  It was a delicate matter that needed proper handling if Stefan was to guide Judge Cho in the preferred direction.

He had no intention of insulting the judge’s intelligence by claiming that the marriage had taken place with no consideration of the recent ruling that Dara must be family in order to serve as trustee.  Instead, Stefan decided to address the obvious doubts head-on and rely on the judge’s high opinion of Dara and her integrity to put his doubts to rest.

Stefan had no interest in putting his mother’s doubts to rest, nor those of his ambitious cousin Aristide.  Lines had been drawn and sides taken in the battle for the power that came with the title of Cassadine Family Trustee.  Nothing Stefan could say would change the nature of their interaction.

Continued