by Beth Byers
“It wasn’t who she had been or who she was. It wasn’t what she taught me. It was how she loved.”
Severine loved Sister Mary Chastity because Sister Mary Chastity had loved Severine as deeply and truly as any mother loved any child. Severine had never felt loved until Sister Mary Chastity, and Sister Mary Chastity had loved her hard enough to last Severine a lifetime.
“What is it that you like to do, Mr. Thorne?” Lisette asked him and then glanced pointedly at Severine.
“Me?” He laughed a little awkwardly. “Oh, I suppose the normal things. I like to read, you know. A good game of billiards. Dinner with friends. Sailing. Rowing. Music. Perhaps, a good cigar and coffee with friends.”
“That’s so many things,” Lisette said as pointedly as before. Then, because apparently Mr. Thorne had received Lisette’s approval, she said, “Severine is struggling now that she’s returned from that other life of hers.”
“Are you?” He grinned at her. “Perhaps a notebook. Make a list. Try things that weren’t possibilities as a child or at the convent.”
Severine nodded.
“Don’t let it bother you,” he comforted. “I’ve felt a bit outside of my skin a few times. When I went away to school the first time, when I came home, coming here. It settles down.”
Severine sipped her coffee in answer and then lifted her hand to block the sun. The wind was building and there were dark clouds in the distance. A storm seemed in the offing, and she wondered if the way her hair stood on end was because of a natural or preternatural ruckus that seemed sure to break over them soon.
Chapter Seven
“Are you ready then?” Severine asked. Their trunks had been sent up with Mr. Brand a few hours earlier than they were going to arrive. They had a basket stuffed with food from Lisette’s mother: Crab po boys, lobster rolls, apples to see them through the journey. Along with the dogs and their leads, and a few other incidentals, the Rolls-Royce was a bit stuffed.
Severine was wearing a simple black skirt, a white collared blouse, a black tie around her neck, and a black cardigan over the top. She felt if her hair were in braids rather than floating around her shoulders, she could be a schoolgirl once again. Lisette, on the other hand, wore a pink and green day dress that screamed like spring.
Severine focused on what she’d packed into the car to avoid the feeling of her heart in her throat. It was good that she hadn’t learned to drive well enough yet to be behind the wheel. She’d put the shiny new thing in a ditch with her thoughts wandering.
“I can’t believe I’m driving this,” Lisette squealed, glancing at Severine and then letting her hands run over the wheel again.
Given it was difficult to handle, Severine said, “Better you than me.”
Lisette snorted and the engine roared to life. The drive out of New Orleans and towards the house in the country would take two or three hours, and they were starting late. The skies were gray in the distance and her dogs were restless in the back of the car. Severine leaned her back against the seat, her mind encompassed with the last few days.
After the Spirit Society evening, Clive had visited every morning and it had been impossible to rid herself of him. He had been with her when everyone who had known her parents and were in the city had dropped by to convey their welcome, their belated condolences, and to leave with gossip for the coming days.
She had met business partners, relatives who’d never written, supposed friends, and was reacquainted with cousins she could barely remember.
Lisette glanced at Severine and then back to the road. Her dark cheeks were flushed with joy and Severine left her to the driving.
She had made a list of everyone who had visited and another of everyone who were members of the Spirit Society. While she’d been comparing those, Mr. Brand had bribed the police and received a copy of the file that had been kept on her parents’ murder. Included was a list of those who had been invited to the party, those who were in attendance the night of her parents’ death, and those who had been interviewed.
Severine had compared them all and the list was huge. Through her lashes, she read name after name. Very few did she have any memory of at all. Some, however, she remembered, like ‘Uncle’ Brantley who had been her father’s partner. He kept a tin of hot cinnamon candy in his coat and whenever he saw her, he’d offer her a piece.
“Careful now,” he’d say, “it’s hot as Hades.” He never got tired of the joke and he never got tired of thinking it quite funny that Severine would calmly take a piece, place it in the center of her tongue, and be unbothered by the heat.
When he’d visit her, he’d shook his head at the sight of her and said, “Your father is in you, Severine. It’s like he’s come back to stare me down once again with those eyes of yours.”
She hadn’t known what to say to that, so she’d mentioned his son and watched his scowl grow deeper. Either way, it had changed the subject and she’d watched him as he paced around the drawing room as he had when she’d been the silent waif in the corner and her father had been the one to whom he had been speaking.
Severine looked up when the first drop of water hit the windshield. They were at least an hour, if not more, from the house, and when she looked behind them, she saw the worried eyes of Anubis and the shaking girls. The rain was dark and heavy in the distance, and there was a clear line of demarcation between the dark clouds behind them and the slightly gray clouds over their heads.
“I think we’re in for it, Lisette.”
Lisette’s answer was a hoarsely whispered Lord’s prayer.
Severine pulled the puppies into her lap and kept her gaze ahead of them. The wind was fierce and it was good that their auto was so very heavy. She couldn’t help but wonder if they’d be thrown around if they were driving something lighter.
Severine hummed to the dogs as Lisette struggled to find the way through the increasing wind.
“I’m worried,” Lisette said, and then returned to the Lord’s prayer.
“As am I. We’ll do the best we can with what we’re facing.”
“What if I destroy your pretty car?” Lisette demanded.
“Better the car than us,” Severine countered. She felt her heart in her throat. “If we were at the convent and it were like this, Mother Superior would call us all to the library because it was the coziest of the rooms. She’d have Sister Sophie prepare her famous mulled wine, and someone would read poetry.”
“That sounds lovely. Did the lights go out?”
Severine laughed. “We didn’t have electricity, silly. A storm was big noises, falling trees, and flying branches.”
“Like that one?!” Lisette asked, swerving and nearly sending them into the ditch. She stopped the auto in the middle of the road and they both breathed deeply. Anubis had yelped in the back and one of the puppies whimpered.
“It’s all right, loves,” Severine soothed as she held the puppies tightly.
“Cher,” Lisette snapped, “I hope you’re right about that.” She considered their location in the middle of nowhere and then slowly started the auto down the road again. Severine leaned forward trying to help see through the driving rain.
After another full two hours of straining against the wind, the rain, and the attempt to see debris ahead of them, they found the turn off to the house.
“We may have to walk,” Severine said when she saw the long downward slope of the driveway before it turned upward again.
“I should say so. Do you want me to go as far as possible or shall we leave it here?”
Severine nodded. “It’s a long walk.”
Lisette got them as close as the auto would go on the muddied lane. Severine told Lisette as she put the Rolls-Royce in park, “Prepare yourself to be drenched.”
Severine opened the auto door and looked down at her shoes. They were heeled black things with worked leather. They were lovely and perfect for a long drive in an auto and terrible for a wet walk up a mud road. They’d reached almost the bott
om of the long slope down but there was another long slope upwards towards the house that they’d have to climb through.
Severine sighed and stepped resolutely into the mud. She reached into the back of the auto and put a heavy black cloak around her body, pulling up the hood and calling to Anubis. The woolen cloak was from her days in the nunnery, and she was grateful for it in the pelting rain.
Lisette snapped leads onto the puppies and took her own coat, which wasn’t nearly sufficient for the day. Lightning cracked, and Lisette gasped, restarting another round of the Lord’s prayer while Severine wound her fingers around Anubis’s collar.
The late start combined with the slow drive through the wind and rain had dusk falling over them. The driveway ahead was lined with ancient oak trees covered in moss, and Severine could imagine those same trees lining the path to hell.
“It’ll be dark before we make it,” Lisette said with the wide, worried gaze of a woman who felt the impending doom as well. She was nearly shouting to be heard over the wind and rain.
“It’s just a little wind and rain,” Severine countered. “We’ll be fine.”
“We’ll be chilled within an inch of our lives.”
“I’ll make the mulled wine myself,” Severine told her. “We’ll have hot baths, mulled wine, and something to eat. It’ll be fine.” She hoped she wasn’t wrong. Severine had a flash of a memory of an oversized bathtub and painted ceilings.
Severine took Lisette’s arm in one hand and Anubis’s collar in the other and sloshed through the mud towards the house, the puppies pressed so close to their feet that they might trip the women. The wind lifted and darkness seemed to be racing them with every step. Each pressing stride forward was another step into the dark until a dozen strides left them in an otherworldly abyss.
“Did we take a turn through one of the gates to Guinee?” Lisette clung to Severine’s hand and the puppies’ leads.
“What now?” Severine asked. It was so preternatural, it seemed as though they were accompanied by a fleet of their dead.
“The spirit world. My grammy would be looking for Papa Legba now.”
Severine squeezed Lisette’s hand. “We aren’t going to see Guinee, Hades, or any of the circles of hell. I promise mulled wine.”
Another crash of lightning and Lisette screamed again. Severine laughed and then pointed, “Look, Lisette, lights.”
“Those are the eyes of a hellhound,” she muttered and said with a little more vehemence, “Deliver us from evil.”
“If so,” Severine said, echoing the prayer in her heart, “Anubis will scare them off.”
The next crash of thunder and flash of lightning were so close together, Kali howled in terror. Severine picked her up, tucking her under one arm and doing the same with Persephone under the other. She ordered Anubis to heel and asked, “Shall we run for it?”
Lisette nodded and took off and Severine followed after, cursing her shoes. They seemed to be chased by lightning that struck time after time as they rushed forward.
Suddenly, a stillness embraced them after the last crash of lightning. Severine paused, leaning down to catch her breath, when she heard another large crack of thunder, but it wasn’t chased by lightning. She and Lisette met each other's gaze in the darkness, and Lisette took one of the dogs, then they clasped hands and ran forward until the house was in sight.
Severine stopped again, in the shadow of a tree. Her mind was shouting at her to get out of the storm, and there shelter was before them. Gables and columns, towers, and roofs upon roofs. It was a monstrosity of a place, designed by a madman who had been more interested in cramming in pieces of architecture through the ages rather than following one reasonable theme.
Severine shook her head, and she could have sworn she heard her father’s laughter as she started down the last hill towards the house. What do you think, Sevie girl? Look at this place. It’s all ours now. A crow of laughter and a lash of the wind, and she wasn’t sure which sounds were from her memories and which were from the moment.
Anubis bumped her, and she glanced at Lisette, seeing the white of her friend’s eyes. They were wide with worry.
“I never thought,” Severine said, “I’d come back here after I was left alone for so long. Sometimes it seemed as though my parents and this house and the rest couldn’t have been real.”
“It is real,” Lisette said flatly, tugging Severine forward.
“Is it?” Severine asked, swearing she heard the shout of her mother, shrieking at her father. Mother or the wind? Severine wasn’t sure she could tell right at that moment.
“It’s real, it’s dry, and I was promised wine.”
Chapter Eight
They poured into the great hall on the other side of the massive front doors like damsels in distress, complete with soaked dress and hair, a door clattering against the wall in the face of the wind, and the inexplicable howl from Anubis who was nearly always quiet.
“Well,” Severine laughed when a startled butler appeared, followed by Mr. Brand, her grandmother, and a good half dozen others. “We’ve arrived.”
“You’re soaked!” Mr. Brand said, rushing forward to take her sopping cloak.
“Oh, no, no, I’m sure my dress is even worse.” She grinned at him. “Perhaps a bedroom with a bath?”
“Immediately,” he said.
“The dogs will need to be taken to the stables,” Grandmère stated.
“Don’t be silly, Grandmère, they’re angels. I’d kiss you, but alas, I fear you too would need to bathe off the storm.”
She glanced round the room, shoved back her wet hair, and smiled to Lisette who looked so relieved to be inside she might collapse where she stood.
“Come,” Mr. Brand said. He nodded at the butler who waited until Grandmère nodded as well and Severine scooped up Kali and Persephone and clucked at Anubis. The butler led the way, followed by Mr. Brand and Grandmère, who seemed to be struggling for supremacy. Severine and Lisette trailed after them, dripping on the rich carpets and marble floors. They reached the floor where Severine’s parents had once lived and then passed it by.
“Who is living here?”
“Mr. Brand stated those rooms should remain empty,” Grandmère replied. “Your bedroom was prepared for you, but it was aired out by an idiot girl who left the windows open before the storm started.”
“No matter,” Severine said. She wasn’t sure she wanted her old bedroom.
“Lisette can stay in a room up those stairs,” Grandmère stated.
Severine turned, noticed the servant’s stairs. “No.”
Grandmère lifted a brow. “I am the mistress here.”
“You are a guest of my parents who stayed after their death,” Severine stated firmly. “This is my house.”
Grandmère hissed, “I would have thought nuns would have raised you to respect your elders.”
“Nuns raised me to stand up for what I believe is right,” Severine shot back. “Lisette is my friend. She’ll have a suite next to mine and be treated as an honored guest.”
“Lisette is a girl you picked up in New Orleans upon your return. She is nothing more than the byblow of a man who didn’t even bother to marry her mother.”
Lisette blushed darkly and her hands were fisted.
“That is indeed a crime,” Severine stated evenly. “And no more fault of hers than my divorced mother is of mine.”
Grandmère slapped Severine like a cobra striking, but Severine grabbed her wrist just as quickly, ignoring the flare of pain. Mr. Brand’s gasp of horror was echoed by Lisette’s.
“Grandmère,” Severine told her calmly, “I would say I love you, but I cannot recall one instance of kindness or care, so instead, I will remind you that your income, your home, and your security rely upon my goodwill.”
Grandmère’s hand trembled as Severine added as she released her bony wrist, “Hell will freeze over before I see you homeless, poor, or unsafe. You will have those funds until the day you die along
with an excellent place to live.”
Grandmère lifted her jaw, her gaze raking over Severine with an edge of dislike that she didn’t feel she deserved.
Still, she recalled that she had been raised to respect her elders, even ones like her grandmother. “I apologize for threatening you. I shouldn’t have done it.”
“Your mother would have been disgusted.”
Severine smiled slightly and said, “Let’s not pretend that she didn’t always find me vaguely distasteful. I was not the daughter she wanted, and I wish I could have been. Perhaps there was some confusion in heaven before my birth.”
Grandmère stepped back. “What has become the family wing is full. Your parents’ floor will remain empty. Unless you disagree?”
Severine shook her head.
“There are quite nice suites the next floor up.”
“Lovely,” Severine said easily, ignoring the heat in her cheek and the fury in her heart.
“The servants won’t be waiting on your east wing of the house has been prepared for your little —” Grandmère finished with a rude insult about the color of Lisette’s skin. and Severine wanted to be shocked at the icy hatred, but she wasn’t and neither, it seemed, was Mr. Brand.
He merely turned from Grandmère to the butler. “Miss DuNoir is your mistress. Any servant who objects should pack their bags this evening.”
“Sir,” the butler said, evenly.
Severine added smoothly, “Lisette is my special guest.”
“Yes, miss.”
“Ensure she is treated as such, please.”
“Of course, Miss DuNoir. Welcome home.”
Severine turned to her grandmother. “If you wish to maintain your status as the mistress of the house, it is possible. It’s entirely up to you.”
“You mean I have to obey my granddaughter?” The last words sounded so disgusted that Severine was surprised she didn’t cough it out.
“I don’t care who you invite, I don’t care what you serve for dinner, I don’t care what time dinner is served or which rooms you assign to anyone who isn’t invited by me. I don’t care if you present yourself as the mistress. All of that fluff means nothing, and we’ve probably already covered what matters to me.” Severine turned to Mr. Brand. “We are cold.”