Captain Nemo: The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius by Kevin J. Anderson Read Free Book Online Page A

uncomfortable.   “Be realistic, boy.   Are you going to work fifteen hours a day in one of the garment factories?   That’ll only bring you thirty sous a week.   You’ll never have enough to pay me what your father owed.   I’ve already done the arithmetic.”
    Nemo took deep, heavy breaths, trying to calm the rising anger in his gut.   “Then I’ll sell some of my father’s artifacts.”   This brought another round of laughter from the henchmen.  
    “He’ll rob the citizens of Nantes, more like,” one of the big men said.
    “I’ll not have a thief in my house,” the landlord said with increasing sternness.   His smaller eye twitched with a nervous tic.
    “I am not a thief.”   Nemo’s dark eyes flashed, and he stepped forward.   Though he was much younger than the other man, his look of furious determination drove the landlord back a pace.   The two muscular men closed in, ready to pound him -- but Nemo looked as if he just might best both of them, then go after the landlord.   He would be in jail before the day was done.
    “It’s only a matter of time, boy.   You’ve no prospects, and there are good families in need of a dwelling like this,” the landlord said from behind the broad shoulders of his two companions.   “If you’re not gone tomorrow, I’ll have my friends carry you into the streets.”  
    “They can try,” Nemo said in low fury.
    The landlord squinted once more.   The men looked as if they wanted to break something, but the landlord marched them out.   In an unexpected show of courtesy, the small-statured man closed the door behind himself.
    Some time later, Nemo went to the doorway.   He looked between buildings down toward the river and the shipyards where the masts stood tall.   He could hear the sounds of workers on the docks as vessels prepared to set sail with the outgoing tide.   He recalled the tales his father had told of his days at sea.
     

    vii

     

    Caroline Aronnax arranged to meet him at the rue Kervegan flower market, where she often went with Marie to gather fresh bouquets.   The Aronnax household was well known for its sweet scents and colorful blossoms.
    Nemo watched the intelligent and independent Caroline, but he could no longer allow himself to dream of a future with her.   He remembered their night under the magnolia trees, when they had spoken foolish promises.   Now an invisible chasm separated him from the young woman he loved. . . .
    Rather than let the landlord take his father’s belongings, Nemo had sold every scrap and trinket that might bring him a few sous, even the sea chest.   He had kept only the engraving of his long-dead mother.   With her dark and mysterious features, her large black eyes, and a smile that seemed just for him, Nemo had always gauged feminine beauty by her standard.   But Caroline Aronnax, though, established a standard all her own.
    He had lost his mother before he’d ever gotten a chance to know her.   Now it looked as if he would lose any hope of Caroline before their love could grow.   Perhaps that was for the best, though his heart would ache for the rest of his life.
    In the afternoon sunshine, Caroline moved with flowing grace, despite the frilly clothes she wore and the high-society airs her mother urged her to imitate.   Although Madame Aronnax made her daughter cater to fashion, Caroline’s burnished hair and blue eyes announced to anyone that she was her own young woman.   The delicate freckles on her face would probably fade with age, or with a deeper tan, if -- to her mother’s chagrin -- Caroline continued to spend time out in the sun.   She would never grow up to be a quiet, gossiping socialite; no doubt she would be quite a challenge for her future husband.  
    Nemo thought she was magnificent.
    Caroline drifted through the flower market, humming the melody of one of her secret compositions.   Nemo recognized it, since he ofttimes lingered in the street outside her home, just