“You’re family now. Mamaw will take it as a slight if you try to give her money.”
“Your grandmother is an intimidating woman. I haven’t the slightest qualm about meeting with oil company executives or government regulators, but when I’m around her, I feel so nervous my entire body shakes.”
Having always thought of Virginia Sutton Reed as the epitome of poise and confidence, Elita found her admission of apprehension surprising. But then they were talking about Pearl Dupree, a woman who could deflate the ego of the cockiest salesman with a single withering glare.
“Maybe it’s guilt you’re feeling.”
Virginia’s eyes widened. “Ouch.”
“Sorry. That just slipped out.”
“The truth has a way of doing that sometimes.”
Regretting her slip of the tongue, Elita changed the subject. “How’s Cliff? I’ve called the hospital several times, but the operator said she wasn’t allowed to put the call through to his room. I figured Dorothea had a hand in that.”
“Yes, but I understand her reason. Reporters camped out trying to get a photo or interview with Cliff. One of his old girlfriends even dressed up as a nurse and tried to slip into his room, but she didn’t make it past the security guard Dorothea hired.”
“The Suttons are important people in Louisiana. When something happens to one of you, it’s big news throughout the state.”
“It’s like living in the proverbial fishbowl. I grew up with it, but it really bothers Matt. That was another reason he wanted to keep his new business under wraps. Now that he’s in the fishbowl with me, he didn’t want to risk the media finding out and writing what he calls, ‘the princess and the pauper’ stories.”
“I know how he feels. Only with me and Royce, it’s the rich, handsome prince and the scheming bayou bitch.”
First, shock registered on Virginia’s face. “That’s awful.” Then a low chuckle started in her throat and rose to a full laugh.
“It’s not funny. Their so-called news reports get more bizarre each time they repeat the story,” Elita said, failing to control her own laughter. “I suppose there’s a lesson here somewhere. Maybe the message is we should stop buying newspapers.”
“I would agree except Sutton Industries owns stock in the major newspapers in Louisiana and Texas, and big Sutton family blunders help sell more papers.”
“If you own the stock, can’t you control what’s written about your family?”
Virginia shrugged. “There’s the First Amendment to consider, and except for Dorothea, we all believe in freedom of the press. She has her own convoluted code of ethics.”
Elita snickered. “I never thought of Dorothea as having any ethics, convoluted or otherwise.”
They both laughed for a moment and then a contemplative quiet slid over them. Finally, Virginia spoke. “Matt thinks things will improve between me and Pearl in time, but I’m not sure.” She folded her hands, placed them on the table. “What do you think?”
“Uncle Matt is right. Give it time and be straight with her. She can be loving and supportive, but she won’t put up with any nonsense. And don’t lie to her anymore about the slightest thing because she can see right through you.”
“Is there anything I can do to heal the hurt?”
Elita swallowed hard, ran her tongue across her dry bottom lip. “I’ve been thinking everything over. You were right not to tell me about Susan. I wouldn’t have told anyone, but it would have eaten me up inside every time I saw her. It would’ve definitely influenced my relationship with Royce, and not for the better.”
Virginia wiped at the tears sliding down her cheek. “I was truly doing what I thought was best for Susan at the time, especially considering the ultimatum my father gave me.”
“Ultimatum?”
“Three weeks after Matt shipped out, I realized I was pregnant. It was the middle of the Korean War, and he was with the Seventh Fleet fighting somewhere near the China coast. I had no way of contacting him.”
“What did you do?”
“I had terrible morning sickness. When my mother heard me throwing up, I made the mistake of blaming it on eating some bad fish the night before. She took me to the doctor to see if it was food poisoning. He ran lab tests, including a pregnancy test that my mother secretly requested, since we’d had prime rib the night before.” Virginia’s apricot polished fingernail chipped at the flaking green paint of the table top. “How’s that for being stupid?”
“You weren’t stupid, just inexperienced. It’s hard to come up with a believable lie when you’re suddenly put on the spot.”
Virginia’s lips lifted in a sad, grateful smile. “Whatever experience I lacked then, I’ve certainly made up for it over the last eighteen years.”
“What happened when your daddy found out?”
“He gave me two choices. I could agree to marry a man of his choosing.” Virginia rubbed her hands up and down her arms as if a sudden chill had overpowered her. “Or, I’d be sent to Quebec, Canada to a boarding school for young girls of affluent families who had, according to him, ‘shamed themselves and their families.’ My parents would tell everyone I was spending my senior year studying abroad. After my baby was born, I would come home.”
“But how would they explain the baby when you returned?”
“There would be no baby to explain. She would be taken away immediately to be adopted by some married couple, one kind enough to give a bastard child a proper Christian home.” Virginia’s chin trembled. “I would never get to see my child, much less hold her.”
Elita shook her head. “I can’t believe that. Your father must have been bluffing. What kind of man would give away his own grandchild?”
“One who valued power, prestige, and profit over everything, including the happiness of his family. He sought to control everyone around him at any cost.” Virginia cleared her throat. “Your grandmother called him a bully. She’s correct, and when a bully has wealth and power like my father did, he is unstoppable.”
“Mamaw said you should’ve come to her and our family for help. The Duprees don’t back down to any bully, especially one that threatens a Dupree child.”
“I knew that just from knowing Matt and being friends with your parents. But if I’d done that, my family would’ve figured out Matt was the daddy. I was seventeen. My father would’ve had Matt arrested for rape.”
“Uncle Matt was in the Navy, off fighting a war. Your father’s reach wasn’t that long.”
Virginia leaned in. “Yes, it was. He had powerful friends in the government and military, and a country at war needs oil and gasoline more than one lonely sailor. And he wouldn’t have stopped at destroying Matt. He’d have gone after your parents, too. Your father needed permits and licenses to operate in the Caddo. Father would have twisted enough arms to get those yanked. Yancy would’ve been out of business in a week.”
A threat to her family, even a long past and unperceived threat, resurrected the fighter in Elita. “If your father had gone after my family, all the money and power in the world wouldn’t have protected him. When you take on one Dupree, you take on the whole clan, plus the Monroes and other families bound by marriage or blood. No one can destroy us.” No one but ourselves.
“But he could have hurt your family very badly.” Virginia folded her arms, rested them on the table. “Dorothea doesn’t have near the power or money my father had. But with one phone call, she was able to get you arrested. If I hadn’t threatened Dorothea, you’d have spent the night in jail.”
“You threatened her? Uncle Matt told me you had ‘talked some sense’ into her.”
“Sutton Manor belongs to me. I hate that house, but my brother and Dorothea wanted to raise their sons there. I told her if she didn’t drop her bogus charges against you, I’d throw her out. Free rent was more important to her than embarrassing you.”
“If that was Dorothea’s goal, she achieved it.”
“I’m sorry she put you through that.”
Elita rubbed her forehead in a futile effort to massage away a growing headache. She needed answers, not sympathy. “How long have you and Uncle Matt been married?”
“We’d planned to marry in August, before Susan left for college. But while in Las Vegas, we saw marriage chapels on every other corner, so we decided not to wait.”
“How did Susan take the news?”
“I’d introduced her to Matt before and she knew I cared for him. So when we told her we‘d married, Susan was surprised, but happy for us. The parade accident made us all realize how fragile life can be and how we need to cherish the time we have with those we love.” Virginia slipped off her jacket, folded it neatly, and placed it on the bench beside her. “Have you and Royce talked since that evening at the clinic?”
“I don’t want to talk about Royce right now,” Elita said. How could she talk about her relationship with Royce when he’d told her to go back to Chicago? She hadn’t heard from him since that evening. Why discuss their wrecked relationship with his aunt? Some heartaches were too deep, some wounds too raw to share. Especially, when the wounds were self-inflicted.
Elita rose and walked over to stand in the shade of a pecan tree.
“I’m going to get us a cold drink.” Virginia stood. “Do you want tea or water?”
“Water, and grab the aspirin, please. The bottle is on the kitchen window sill.”
She nodded and headed for the house.
Elita waited until Virginia disappeared inside before walking over to the dock where she hoped it would be cooler. As she stared down at the brown-stained water, her mind replayed the events of her arrest. The desperation she’d felt when the hotel manager refused to call Royce to the phone. The shock and embarrassment of being handcuffed, patted down, and put in a cell.
Twigs snapping on the bank opposite the dock startled Elita out of her bitter reverie. A rustling disturbed the undergrowth of palmetto, sweetspire, and snowbell brush. A tan blur darted from the underbrush to hide behind deeply furrowed trunks of a trio of tupelo gum trees.
Elita focused on the gum trees, searching for the slightest movement, but the Caddo stood quiet. Too quiet. No birds chattering, nothing stirring on the banks or in the murky waters of Devin’s Cove. Beads of sweat popped out along her hairline. Her head tingled as it always did when intuition triggered internal alarms. A deer or stray dog? A wild hog, perhaps? Something or someone? Her mind resurrected Jax’s warnings about the loup-garou watching her. The panic churning in her stomach rose to her chest, urging her to run for the safety of the house.
No, dammit! The fighter in her awakened. Defiance and determination replaced the fear in her gut. Thoughts of fleeing vanished. Loup-garous existed only in fantasies and fables. Devin’s Cove was Dupree land. Her birthplace. Her family’s heritage.
Elita stood at the dock’s edge, arms crossed. “Who’s there?” No answer, no movement. If her shy visitor wouldn’t come out, she’d go over. Even if it ran off before she paddled over to the other bank, there’d be marks left in the moist soil. Her father had taught her to read the signs of the Caddo. Tracks would show whether the uninvited visitor was animal or human. Elita marched over to the edge of the pier, squatted and untied the dock line to the pirogue.
“Where are you going, Elita?”
She jerked to attention and turned to find Virginia standing next to the picnic table, holding a tray loaded with a pitcher of ice water, two jelly glasses, and a bottle of aspirin.
“Just checking the dock line.” She retied the rope, scanned the other side of the cove again. Nothing. Elita felt both relief and disappointment that her investigation of the unknown had been interrupted.
CHAPTER 25
Virginia filled the two glasses, pushed one across the table.
“Thanks.” Elita shook out two aspirin, and downed them with half the glass of water. “Where does your ex-husband figure into this? Why did your father choose Mr. Reed for you to marry? He’s much older than you, isn’t he?”
“Fifteen years older. Father didn’t pick Darwin. I did.”
Elita rubbed her temple. “I’m totally confused.”
“Father kept me locked up in Sutton Manor. I escaped once by crawling out my bedroom window and climbing down the magnolia tree. I got as far as Texarkana before getting caught and brought home.” Virginia slapped at a mosquito. “After that, he had bars installed on my bedroom windows. I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere except our backyard, and only then if someone was there to guard me.”
“Little wonder you hate that house. Was Mr. Reed your guard?”
“Not really. Darwin loves to draw nature scenes. It relaxes him. So most weekends he’d stay in our guest house and fill sketchbooks with drawings of Caddo Lake.”
“Your father didn’t mind?”
“Daddy considered Darwin his chief business asset. He’d have adopted him if he could’ve because other oil companies were always trying to poach him. Darwin is the only man Father ever respected, and the only person he listened to when making key business decisions.” Virginia rested her arms on the table. “The one time he ignored Darwin’s opinion, Father ended up losing a third of Sutton Oil. He never went against Darwin’s advice again.”
“Mr. Reed sounds like a very accomplished man.”
“Darwin Reed is a genius, and I mean that literally. By the time he was twenty-two, he’d graduated summa cum laude with masters degrees in physics, engineering, and a doctorate in applied mathematics. In World War II, he served in an intelligence unit that, I suspect, had something to do with decrypting enemy codes. Darwin seldom talks about that time in his life.” Virginia reached into her blouse pocket, pulled out a roll of mints, offered one to Elita. “I’m trying to quit smoking.”
Elita took a mint. “How did he end up being your husband?”
“After the war, he went to the University of Texas to teach engineering. One of the other professors introduced him to my father and dear old dad talked Darwin into working for him. Darwin knew he’d make more money in the oil industry than in research or teaching.” She slipped the mints back into her pocket. “Darwin is a terrific problem solver because no detail slips past him. He noticed I‘d gained a few pounds. When he added in the fact my father had imprisoned me in my own home and was suddenly inviting only young, unmarried professional men down to visit each weekend, Darwin concluded correctly that I was pregnant.”
“Didn’t the men wonder why they’d been invited to their boss’s family home?”
“Father said he planned to promote one of them. He wanted to get to know them better so he’d know who would ‘best fit in with the Sutton family.’ Father meant it literally, but the guys believed he was referring to the Sutton Oil family. He thought his play on words clever. Want a big promotion, Mr. Ambitious Young Executive? A bigger office? A seat at the Sutton’s Christmas table? Just marry my daughter, claim her bastard child as your own, save the Sutton name from ridicule, and never tell anyone the truth.”
Elita watched Virginia unroll two mints, pop them into her mouth and crunch them furiously as if they were as hard as peanut brittle. “You don’t have to talk about this, Virginia.”
“There have been enough misunderstandings between us. I need you to know about my marriage to Darwin and how Matt fits in.”
Elita nodded.
“I told Darwin I loved the father of my child, but he was fighting in Korea and I didn’t know if he was alive or dead. I explained how Father threatened to take away my baby if I didn’t marry one of his respectable young men. Darwin was sympathetic because he’d fallen in love with a college friend and he’d been pressured by his parents into giving up his ‘improper relationship.’ He’d always regretted his decision.”
“Time doesn’t change some things, although Dorothea uses stronger terms than ‘improper relationship’ to describe her disgust with my being with Royce in the past.” In the past . . . the phrase swirled across Elita’s mind. Her loss of trust in Royce at the parade
fire hurt him to the core. Had it killed his love for her altogether? Had her painful lapse of confidence in him brought about the very thing Dorothea’s despicable schemes had failed to accomplish? She grabbed the aspirin, shook out another tablet.
“I’ll take a couple of those, please.”
Elita handed her the bottle. “Did you tell Darwin the name of your baby’s father?”
“He didn’t ask, and I didn’t volunteer.” Virginia grabbed her water. “I didn’t tell him until Matt returned to the Caddo years later.”
“Our family wondered why Uncle Matt didn’t come home after the war. I’d never heard Mamaw curse before the day she got his letter saying he’d reenlisted for two more years. She felt he’d betrayed her.”
“Betrayal is the right word, but it wasn’t by Matt. Because of my pregnancy, Mother insisted my wedding to Darwin be a private, family ceremony at Sutton Manor. Less people meant fewer wagging tongues.” Virginia popped two aspirin in her mouth, washed them down, returned her glass to the tray. “But somehow, the story of the wedding and three photos of the bride and groom appeared on the front page of the Shreveport Times. Years later, I learned some anonymous jackass had sent Matt a copy of the newspaper. He thought I’d forgotten him and had fallen in love with Darwin. He got mad-drunk and reenlisted.”
“Why would anyone send Uncle Matt that newspaper photo unless they knew about your relationship?”
“Dorothea saw me talking to Matt a few times. I’m sure she told my father. With his contacts, Father could’ve got Matt’s military address.” Virginia shrugged. “Either of them could’ve sent it.”
“So you think he knew Uncle Matt was the baby’s father?”
“He may have had his suspicions and sent the paper to Matt just in case.” Virginia picked up the water pitcher and refilled their glasses. “Five years passed before I saw Matt again. A few weeks after Sutton Oil opened new offices in Houston, my father died from a massive stroke and Mother moved to Shreveport to live with us. I’d come back to Sutton Manor to get her things. It was a miserably hot August day, so I decided to get a milk shake for the trip back. I walked into Hebert’s Pharmacy and saw Matt sitting at the lunch counter. I couldn’t believe my eyes.”
Shadows of Home: A Woman with Questions. A Man with Secrets. A Bayou without Mercy Page 25