Red Phoenix

us; then he saw John and froze.
    John shot to his feet. ‘Of course! Leonard Black! I didn’t realise until just now. Good to see you!’
    Leonard bowed very deeply from the waist to John. ‘Your Celestial Highness.’ Then he rushed to John, grabbed his hand, and pumped his arm until it was about to fall off, a huge grin on his face. ‘Lord Xuan! What are you doing here?’
    ‘It seems,’ John said, ‘that your wife is the sister of my Lady.’
    Leonard was bewildered. ‘Emma? You’re the Dark Lady that everybody’s been talking about?’ His facecleared. ‘Oh my God, Emma. Of course. I didn’t know.’ He looked from John to me and he grinned broadly. ‘What an amazing coincidence.’
    ‘Leonard,’ Jennifer said as Leonard charged over to pull me up and give me a huge hug, ‘what are you talking about? Emma is just the nanny, to this man from Hong Kong.’
    ‘No,’ Leonard said, ‘Emma’s the Dark Lady of Lord Xuan Wu, sworn to marry him when he returns. Didn’t you know ?’ He grinned widely at me. ‘I hear you can throw fireballs, Emma, you must show me. Come into the backyard. The boys have to see this.’ He saw Simone sitting in Leo’s lap. ‘Is that who I think it is? Princess Simone?’ He saw Leo. ‘And the Black Lion. My, but the house is fairly bursting at the seams with notables today.’
    ‘Now hold on a minute!’ I shouted, pushing Leonard away. I studied him closely. Nope, perfectly normal human. ‘What the hell is going on? How come you know all this, Leonard?’
    ‘I told you this was to stay in the office, Leonard,’ Jennifer said fiercely. ‘I want none of this business brought home.’
    ‘It was your idea to have Emma over, dear,’ Leonard said. ‘Didn’t you know she was the Dark Lady?’
    Jennifer looked daggers at me. She was ready to rip my throat out.
    ‘She has her singing sword, Leonard,’ John said. ‘You may see it after all.’
    Leonard gasped. ‘Could I? Please, my Lord, I’ve heard so much about it.’
    John gestured, and Leo popped Simone out of his lap. She went to John and held his hand. Leo went out to the van.
    ‘I cannot believe that my own sister-in-law is the promised of the Dark Lord. I always knew you camefrom an exceptional family, Jen,’ Leonard said. ‘Come on out to the yard. I really have to see this.’
    We all tramped out to the garden. Leonard gestured for us to sit and we did. Leo came out the back door, sat, and placed my sword on the table in front of him.
    The boys chased each other through the yard, obviously no longer wanting the swings now that Simone didn’t. They ran inside, both banging the door as they went through it.
    ‘May I play on the swings again, Mrs Black?’ Simone said.
    ‘Call her Aunty Jen, Highness,’ Leonard said. ‘Dear God, what an honour. Call me Uncle Leonard. Go and play if you like, Princess, the house is yours.’
    Simone hesitated. I smiled reassurance, and she went to play.
    ‘How come you know all this, Leonard?’ I said.
    ‘He’s my London solicitor,’ John said. ‘The firm of Black and Black has handled my affairs for, what…?’
    ‘Nigh on two hundred years, my Lord,’ Leonard said. ‘I’m about the sixth in the line to handle the Dark Lord’s affairs here.’
    ‘What about Gold?’ I said.
    ‘Gold is a recent acquisition, you know that, Emma,’ John said, then his face went strange. He pulled Gold out of his pocket and put him on the table. Gold had made himself about a centimetre long.
    ‘Your people made a huge mistake, Black,’ Gold said in his usual voice. ‘The Dark Lord’s Kensington house hasn’t changed hands in a hundred and fifty years. It’ll take me ages to fix that.’
    ‘We thought he’d never want to sell it,’ Leonard said, looking around for the source of the voice.
    ‘Permission to stay in True Form for just a little longer, my Lord,’ Gold said. ‘And if you could put me in the sun for a while, that would be delightful.’
    ‘Leo.’ John gestured, and Leo obliged, moving Gold to a sunny spot in the garden. Gold sighed with bliss.
    ‘You are extremely lazy sometimes, Gold.’ I explained for Jennifer: ‘Gold is our solicitor in Hong Kong.’
    ‘I don’t want to know about it,’ Jennifer snapped. Then she burst into tears.
    Leonard rushed to console her. ‘It’s all right, darling, it’s just your sister. Sometimes strange things happen when you deal with Immortals, you know that.’
    Jennifer rounded on me, furious. ‘Are you