Chapter 24

She tensed as she watched her Lord Husband stride across the room, heading directly for her. Panic bubbled in her throat as her mind scrambled for her original purpose, her task set by Caesar. But she took immediate measures to calm herself. She wasn't doing anything wrong. Technically, she was doing exactly as Caesar instructed by enlisting the White Glove Society.

Which left the question, why was Vulpes here?

When he joined them at the table, his eyes smoothly registered Arcade's presence beside her without betraying any sort of reaction. "Interesting company, my dear," he said in that delicately muted voice. Arcade did not hear him and thus perceived no insult.

She feared Vulpes would think of Arcade jealously as he did with Sarah and she wanted so desperately to quell such imagined suspicions. But she had no idea how, outside of blurting Arcade's orientation before them all. So she turned the attention instead to him. "What brings you here?" In a lower voice she asked, unable to mask the wounded pride, "Does Caesar not trust me?"

The gaze Vulpes turned to her all but abandoned Arcade. "That's not why I'm here." Something in his tone and face surprised her. It was uniquely uncommon for Vulpes even to appear so concerned. "Should we speak in private?"

Before she could respond, the inebriated Arcade seemed to belatedly join the conversation. He attempted standing, which did not go very well for him as he stumbled. "Name's Arcade, Arcade Gannon. And your wife here is an upstanding lady of—" He gave a small hiccup here. "A lady of high moral fortitude. We might have spent some time together, but I assure you that nothing of questionable infidelity has occurred between the two of us. Why, I do not even care for her sex. I actually find you more pleasing to mine eyes." For emphasis, Arcade peered at Vulpes over the brim of his eyeglasses, and she felt herself crumble on the inside from sheer shock and embarrassment. The slurred words were loud enough to give the blackjack dealer pause as the other patrons listened closely to their conversation.

The corner of Vulpes's mouth curled in amusement. "I appreciate the clarification, Mr. Gannon. But I have no doubt of my wife's fidelity."

Still looking over the top of his glasses, Arcade slurred, "She might have to worry about yours, though, if I have my way."

This caused her to give a great snort, but she felt entirely ashamed to witness such an exchange. Vulpes remained patient and acted as though he did not hear his wife laugh at Arcade shamelessly flirting with him. She estimated that Vulpes would probably want to lash Arcade to a cross for his profligate sins and desires.

Vulpes leaned in close to her, and she felt the stifling body heat through the thin shirt and the hard planes of his chest. "Maria, do you recall when you had inquired about our Father's medical condition?"

Arcade briefly interrupted. "Maria? I thought your name was Mary."

Her face burned but she ignored him for the moment.

It took no effort for her to realize that Father meant Caesar, and the medical condition must have included the headaches and absence seizures. "Yes, I remember. You said that he was tired and had much to deal with." She knew, however, there was more to it than that, but she was content to leave the Caesar's cranial trauma undiagnosed.

Vulpes's smile was wry. "Yes, well I am afraid that his condition has worsened. Siri has deduced that he suffers from a tumor in the brain, but she is incapable of treatment. She recommended you, actually."

Her stomach twisted at the possibility of treating a brain tumor. If she had the right equipment, there might be something she could do about it. But she had never performed surgery before—

"Your father has a brain tumor?" Arcade piped up. He leaned against his booth seat. "I'm with the Followers of the Apocalypse. I have medical training. I could help, actually. I'm much better at medicine than Maria." It was a teasing sneer, she knew, as he referenced how he had been far more capable of treating the patients at Nelson than she was.

But her chest immediately tightened as Vulpes looked Arcade over once more with a keen eye, like the hungry fox he was. She could see Vulpes sizing Arcade up. And if Arcade was ever taken to the Legion, he would remain, as slave. Like her and Siri. Never allowed to leave.

"No! No!" she hissed. She placed a pleading hand on Vulpes's chest to ground him back to her. It worked enough to reclaim his attention for the moment. "We don't need him, Vulpes. I will go with you. I can treat him. Caesar will live."

Vulpes arched a curious eyebrow at her urgency. "You are awfully protective of this Follower of the Apocalypse. Has your loyalty to Caesar so easily defected for this profligate's sake?"

"When have I ever given an oath of loyalty to the Legion?" she countered steely. "Please, Vulpes. I just ask you this one thing. Don't take him."

He considered her request with an expression of serious deliberation. She held onto a glimmer of hope, until he glanced at Arcade again. "He is of the Followers of the Apocalypse. He is a profligate who prefers men. Enslavement will be better for him than what Caesar has in mind for the Followers when he takes the Dam, since you care so much for him."

"Vulpes, no!"

He spoke louder to include Arcade into the conversation this time. "I cannot refuse when he so readily volunteers."

She felt that hope, the light of Arcade's proposed plan to take New Vegas for the people shatter and dissolve. Vulpes escorted the drunken Arcade who did not yet possess his normal faculties out of the casino and out of New Vegas where other Frumentarii waited for their arrival. They slapped a slave collar on him, but he was too out of his perception to realize the significance. He cheerily chatted away at the Frumentarii, boasting of his own medical abilities.

And she found, as she sullenly followed her Lord Husband back to Fortification Hill, back to her own chains of enslavement, that she did not have the heart to inform Arcade otherwise. When he passed out from drunkenness, the Frumentarii carried him the rest of the way. By the time he awoke and realized his fate, Arcade was already chained by Lord Caesar's side, and she hid away in the Inculta tent, too ashamed of her mistake to apologize.