Pandora felt that this particular July evening was inordinately fine. Her life lately had been so full and so perfect that it almost frightened her. Fate was not usually so kind. She glanced up at Ward. He was tipping his hat to a couple coming toward them.
“Jacob, Angelica, so nice to see you!” he greeted.
Something like a cool, dark shadow suddenly passed over Pandora’s soul. The smile on her face mirrored nothing of her inner feelings. Why didn’t she trust this change in her cousin? She hated herself for being so suspicious. Angelica had challenged her all her life; could a person change so drastically in such a short span of time?
Angelica hurried to the white wicker pram and bent over the babies.” Oh, my two little darlings!” she crooned. She smiled at Pandora and said, “I declare, it seems that if I miss seeing them for one single day they grow and change so I hardly know them. Just look how plump they’re getting, darling.” She squeezed her husband’s arm.
Jacob glanced down at the babies and nodded. “I have to compliment you, Pan. You’re doing one fine job of mothering.
Pandora couldn’t be sure, it seemed she glimpsed a flicker of annoyance in Angelica’s pale blue eyes.
“I’ve had a lot of help,” Pandora replied. “I don’t know what I’d do without Angelica. She’s been wonderful with the babies. A great help to me.”
“We haven’t seen either of you in almost a week,” Ward said, secretly grateful for their unusual absence.
“Busy season,” Jacob answered. “Seems like the heat brings out every illness known to man and some that aren’t. I’m at the office everyday from dawn till after dark. This heat today,” he shook his head and wiped his brow, “it’s even been too hot for the sick to come out for attention. Thank goodness, it’s finally cooling off.”
“It’s been a scorcher, all right,” Ward agreed.
Angelica had been standing by silently. As she gazed at Ward she felt a hunger rise inside her. She decided that the time had come; she could wait no longer.
“Pandora, have you any plans for tomorrow?” she asked. “I thought I might stop by in the morning.”
Pandora tried not to let her relief show as she answered, “I’m afraid I do have an appointment in the morning, Angelica. My dressmaker is here from New Orleans. I suggested we meet at the hotel so she wouldn’t have to bring all those bolts of fabric to the house.” Pandora smoothed her hands down over her slender waist. “Motherhood has taken its toll on my figure. I’m having a whole new summer wardrobe made, with a few inches added. So, I’ll be with Madame Leone all morning.”
Angelica beamed a glorious smile at her cousin. “Why, that’s perfect! I’ll come by early, before it gets too hot, and take the girls out, if that’s all right with you. That way Cassie will be free to take care of her other chores and the twins will still have their morning outing. Jacob says that babies need lots of fresh air and sunshine, isn’t that right, my darling?”
Jacob nodded and mumbled his agreement, noting the slight look of displeasure in Pandora’s eyes. He’d known her too many years not to be able to read her expressions. She didn’t trust Angelica any more than he did.
“Angelica, perhaps Pandora had other plans for the girls,” Jacob suggested.
Pandora shook her head, relenting. “No, that will be fine. It’s very generous of you to offer, Angelica.”
The Saengers walked on. Pandora was no longer smiling and chatting; the lovely evening had soured.
“Oh, Lord!” Ward said suddenly, in a disgusted tone. “I knew we should have gone back to the house a while ago.
Pandora looked up to see old Nettie bearing determinedly down on them, her flowered hat flapping in the stiff breeze.
“Be nice to her, darling,” Pandora pleaded, touching Ward’s arm in a placating gesture. “She’s harmless enough.”
“I don’t like her around the girls.”
Before either of them could say another word, Nettie was upon them. “You shouldn’t let that one near them babies,” she scolded.
“Who do you mean?” Pandora asked.
Nettie leaned forward, glanced this way and that, then whispered, “You know who! That bad woman! Ain’t you ever gonna learn? Ain’t she caused you enough trouble already?”
Realizing immediately that Nettie meant Angelica, Pandora felt her skin prickle. Nettie’s words seemed to confirm her own nameless fears, but Pandora refused to admit to herself that Angelica might be a true threat.
“Here, I brung these for the twins.” Nettie shoved two bags decorated with feathers and bones toward Pandora. Whatever was inside the little sacks reeked of dead things and strong herbs. “To keep ’em both safe,” she explained. “This one’s for Meraiah. She’ll need a more powerful charm. Even that turquoise necklace her daddy give her won’t be strong enough for what’s coming.”
“I don’t think they need…” Ward began.
Nettie cut him off. “Time you was coming around to see old Dan’l, Miss Pan. He’s got real lucid of late. I reckon his wait’s almost over. Now that his old brain’s unscrambling’, he’ll know you soon.”
Before either Pandora or Ward could say another word, Nettie shuffled away, her long skirts flapping out behind her like the bright wings of a bird.
“Crazy old coot!” Ward snapped. “I want you to keep her away from the girls, Pan. And I don’t want you going to that filthy shack to see old Daniel. He might be carrying some disease that you’d bring home to the twins.” He looked at Pandora hard suddenly. “What ‘bad woman’ was she referring to?”
Pandora sighed. “Ward, I think it’s time we had a long talk. Let’s go home, shall we?”
“You know that I love you, don’t you?” Pandora asked, almost dreading his answer. She knew the jealousy that consumed Ward at times, even if he tried to hide it.
The twins were in bed. Pandora and Ward sat together in the garden, cool glasses of wine punch before them on a round, wrought iron table.
“What kind of question is that, darling? Of course you love me and I love you!”
She touched his hand. “Well, I just want you to remember that while you’re listening to what I have to say. We’ve been married for some time and now we have the twins to cement our union further. Angelica tried to come between us, and I know how uneasy you’ve felt with Jacob taking care of me these past months. But I don’t believe that there is anyone or anything that can separate us.”
“Certainly not,” Ward affirmed, feeling guilty that Pandora had guessed his secret feelings toward Jacob.
Pandora smiled at him a little sadly. “I’m glad you agree, darling, because it’s going to take all your love and understanding to help me through what I have to tell you.”
Pandora began at the very beginning—going back over all the things she’d learned in Paris in Dr. Pinel’s office. She told Ward everything, including her most recent vision of Jean Laffite and the necklaces—the very ones that Ward himself had brought for their daughters. “I don’t know what part old Nettie has in all this but she seems convinced that you and I both share ancient souls. In our lives as Nicolette and Laffite, we experienced great tragedies, the final one being Nicolette’s murder.”
Ward twisted uneasily in his chair, remembering the oddly personal desolation he’d experienced that day at the Eden Museé when he’d come upon Nicolette’s death scene. He still saw it in his nightmares.
“Nettie seems to think,” Pandora continued, “that the evil from our past lives has somehow followed us into the present. Nettie does not trust Angelica. So there it is, darling. The whole truth! I need to have you share this with me. I’m afraid our relationship will never be complete until you accept all these things. I hope you understand.”
Ward Gabriel didn’t understand any of it. Nor did he want to. The one emotion raging through him at the moment was anger. He had hoped that Pandora had put aside these wild notions. He felt now exactly as he had that first night that he’d m
eant to make love to her—the night she had lain in his arms and called him by another man’s name. The jealousy tore at his gut and raged in his heart like acid eating away at raw flesh when she spoke of Nicolette’s love for Jean Laffite. He feared that what Pandora really described was her love for some other man.
“You must be tired, Pan,” he said at length, his voice cool and abrupt. “Why don’t you go on up to bed?”
Pandora did as he suggested, but with a heavy heart. Ward was not pleased with what she’d told him. He didn’t understand at all. He didn’t believe her. How could she ever make him see the truth? How could they ever be totally one, if he refused to accept what was?
All night she tossed and turned, alone in their big bed. Ward never came to her. When she rose in the morning, Ward had already left to go to his office. With a dull ache in her head and her heart, she dressed. She almost cancelled her appointment with the dressmaker. Nothing seemed right this morning. It was more than a simple headache, it was like a premonition. Yet, try as she would, she could see not the slightest shadow when she willed her mind into the future. Finally, she told herself she was only being silly. She would go on with her day as planned.
On the way out, she told Cassie that Angelica would stop by to take the girls out for a stroll. Before she left, Pandora went to the white wicker pram and tucked Nettie’s two foul-smelling fetishes under the pillows. She felt an odd sense of relief as she went out the door.
Pandora was hardly down the front stairs before Cassie came to put a clean coverlet in the pram. Plumping the pillows, she came across Nettie’s charms.
“Them pesky cats,” she complained. “Been in the babies’ stroller playing again and hiding their dirty old toys!”
She tossed the two smelly objects in the nearest trash basket.
The Beach Hotel had been closed since the beginning of the season until proper sewer lines could be laid. So far, no work was in progress. Angelica had been careful to scout out the building’s possibilities. She knew that the only living beings in the place were the night watchman and his bull terrier. On the night of July 3, preparing carefully for this day, she had sneaked into the place, lured the dog with a bit of poison meat, and disposed of its body in the Gulf. The barking terrier had been a problem. The watchman was not. She knew from careful observation that the man left his dog on guard alone while he went down the beach every night to drink with his buddies. So far as she knew, the lazy man had not bothered to get another dog.
As she walked along Broadway, pushing Meraiah and Miriam in their stroller the morning of July 22, she went back over her plans carefully in her mind. She left no detail to chance. She had stocked one room in the empty hotel with everything she would need. She had her train tickets. She had reservations at a cheap, out-of-the-way hotel in Houston under the name of Smith. Now all that was left was for the day to pass.
After her outing with the twins, Angelica made a great show of leaving for Cassie’s benefit. But the moment the servants were all out of sight, she slipped back into the castle and up the stairs, hiding in Pandora’s studio.
The afternoon was long and hot. The paint and turpentine smells made her head swim. She should have gone ahead with her plan earlier. Waiting was making her jumpy. Still, she reminded herself, she needed the cover of darkness.
Slowly, the afternoon faded into evening. The supper hour came and went. She cracked the door open slightly for a breath of fresh air. She could hear voices down the hallway—Pandora and Ward arguing.
“Dammit! I can’t help the way I feel! I figured we’d both be better off if I left last night.”
“But where were you?” Pandora was crying, Angelica could tell.
“I slept at my office—alone!” He was almost yelling. Angelica smiled. “I figured you wouldn’t mind.”
“But I do mind, Ward! I want you here with me!”
His laugh was cruel and hurtful. “It gets a bit crowded with three of us sharing a bed! You let me know when Laffite leaves and I’ll come back.”
“Ward, please!” Pandora sobbed.
Angelica heard Ward’s heavy footsteps in the hall, then the front door slammed.
“My poor darling,” Angelica whispered, closing the studio door carefully and smiling to herself. “Don’t worry, things will be all right soon.”
A short while later, it was dark out. Time! Angelica knew from listening at the door that Pandora was still in her bedroom. The servants, sensing that all was not well above, had remained on the first floor. It was easier than Angelica could have wished to slip down the hall to the nursery and take the sleeping infant. The back stairs, too, were clear. She hurried down and out the servants’ entrance. In less than half an hour, she was hurrying up the side steps of the deserted Beach Hotel.
Her heart pounded with a mixture of fear and excitement.
“We’ve done it!” she cried aloud to the baby in her arms. “You’re mine now. Don’t worry, little love, soon your daddy will be with us.”
Angelica moved cautiously across the front veranda, listening for the slightest sound. The watchman was off at his usual nightly amusement. She felt in her pocket for the knife she had brought just in case, hoping she wouldn’t have to use it.
Going to a door with a broken pane, she reached through and flipped the lock. The place looked eerie and strange at night—all dark shapes and shadows. The wooden structure creaked and groaned and the wind howled at the eaves. She trembled slightly, but forced herself to remain calm.
“We have nothing to fear now, Meraiah. The hard part is over. No one will find us here. Nothing can hurt us.”
Suddenly, out of nowhere a black shape charged toward them. The creature’s snarls, Angelica’s screams, and the baby’s wails filled the silent building. It all happened so quickly that Angelica did not have time to realize the true extent of her fear until the new watchdog lay in a bloody heap at her feet, her knife lodged in its ribs. Trembling badly, Angelica soothed the crying child as she made her way to the room where they would wait until it was time to leave for the train.
She slumped to the floor of the windowless pantry, placing Meraiah on a blanket she had hidden there earlier. Feeling about for her supplies, she located a kerosene lantern and a box of matches. The light helped. Her trembling ceased. Carefully, she took stock of everything—her packed carpetbag, food for herself, a bottle and milk for the baby, and her traveling clothes. Quickly, she changed into the widow’s weeds she had worn back to Galveston. She had her story all planned. Mrs. Smith’s husband had been lost at sea. She was traveling with her newborn child, back to her family in the East.
“Yes, a new mother in mourning. My privacy will be ensured,” she told Meraiah. “Nothing and no one can stop us now!”
Pandora cried for more than an hour after Ward walked out. It seemed she would never be able to stop. She knew she had to pull herself together; it would soon be time to feed the twins. Cassie swore that “Weeping sours a mother’s milk.” Pandora wondered what she was going to do. How was she ever going to survive if Ward refused to understand? Her whole world seemed to be crashing down around her.
Finally, she dried her tears and rose from the bed, feeling drained and weak. She could not let this bring her down. She loved Ward and he loved her, nothing else mattered. He would return soon, after he’d cooled off. Then they would talk and make up.
She walked down the hallway to see if either of the babies was awake yet. Meraiah, the greedy one, always demanded her feeding first. Little Miriam would wait patiently, accepting gratefully whatever her sister left her.
Pandora lifted the netting over the cradle and peered down. There lay Miriam on her stomach, softly sucking her thumb. Meraiah, as usual, was under the tangled coverlet, completely hidden.
“When you marry, young lady, you’re going to have to learn not to pull all the covers.”
Pandora picked up the coverlet and froze. Meraiah was gone!
Her confusion
quickly subsided. “Cassie, of course,” she said with a smile. “She must have heard Meraiah wake up. She probably took her downstairs so she wouldn’t disturb me.
Quickly, Pandora headed for the kitchen, expecting to find her missing baby in the down-lined basket beside the stove where she often slept while Cassie worked. She found only Cass and another of the servants sitting together over tall glasses of iced tea.
“Where’s Meraiah?” Pandora asked lightly.
Cassie shot out of her chair. “Ma’am? She’s sleeping still.”
Panic seized Pandora like a cold flood. Suddenly, it seemed that all the evil in the universe had descended upon her. She felt the blood drain from her head. She reached out to steady herself, swallowing several times before she could find her voice.
“Quickly, Cass, send someone to locate Mr. Ward. My baby’s been stolen!”
With a cry of alarm, Cassied rushed from the room, leaving her mistress near fainting.
Shaking off her dizziness after a few moments, Pandora realized that the phone was ringing off its hook. Someone answer it! a voice in her aching head screamed. She could not make herself move. She seemed rooted to the spot, turned to cold stone. Finally, she roused herself and ran to the hall.
“Yes!” she screamed hysterically into the receiver. “Ward, is that you?”
“Pandora? It’s Jacob. Is Angelica there? She left early this morning and she hasn’t come home yet. I’m worried. No one seems to have seen her all day.”
Pandora’s pounding head drooped. She leaned her forehead against the wall and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was staring directly into the waste basket near the phone, at two befeathered bags—Nettie’s charms against evil.
Forever, For Love Page 33