Pamela Morsi
Page 30
She giggled against his neck. "Well, it is almost full dark," she said. "Surely if we are quiet, no one will find us out."
"I don't know if I can be quiet," he said as his hands began to roam the geography that he had already learned so well.
Aida moaned aloud. "I'm not sure I can be quiet myself," she admitted.
"What the devil do you have on?" Armand asked suddenly, the timber of his voice rising as he was startled out of his revelry.
"They are called drawers," Aida answered. "Helga gave them to me. All the German women wear them and they have become quite the fashion among the Creoles and the Americaines, she assures me."
"I don't like them," he said bluntly.
"They are a wonderful invention," Aida said. "They are warm and pretty and a woman need not live in mortal fear of every gust of wind that comes her way."
"But Aida, I can't get to you through these," he complained.
"Then, Monsieur Sonnier, you will just have to learn how to take them off."
Jakob watched and waved at the departing pirogue long after the music and dancing had resumed. His oncle was now his poppa, which was how he had always dreamed it would be.
Tonight they would spend in the cabin on Bayou Tortue by themselves. Tomorrow Monsieur Hebert, or rather Oncle Ozeme, would take him and Elsa and Karl home and they would live forever with Mama and Poppa. And Jakob's name would not be Shotz anymore. It would be Boudreau, just like Mama's and Poppa's and like so many of his cousins.
He squinted to catch the last glimpse of the prettily festooned boat in the distance, the happy couple within it so very much in love. He closed his eyes to try to press the sight upon his memory forever. He succeeded admirably.
Twenty years later he was to recall it with perfect clarity as he decorated his own pirogue with blooming hyacinth and real satin ribbons brought all the way from New Orleans by steam packet. It was right to have it done up so pretty as his bride, Mademoiselle Sonnier, was extremely so. In fact people said of his lovely Jeanette that she was the most beautiful woman on the Vermilion River.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22