“What are you going to do with the Songe mask once it’s released to you from evidence?” Royce put his elbows on his desk and leaned closer.
“I think I’ll donate it to a local museum.”
“Not a chance, sweetheart. Your father didn’t outbid Bessette at auction all those years ago so that the mask would wind up seeing the light of day. I think he purchased it so no one could ever exploit its dark magic. He bought it to protect your mother, and others like her. Too bad Bessette killed him to get it, and killed your mother to keep her from exposing him and his murderous sect. I say we honor your father’s wishes in proxy and burn the hideous thing.”
Royce was right. Any Beholder still out there wasn’t safe as long as the mask existed, and there still might be someone willing to take up where Bessette had left off.
“You’re right. I’ll bring the matches if you bring the lighter fluid.” She smiled across at him and slid her hand toward him.
He covered it with his and sobered. “On to other scary stuff. Are you ready to investigate the address written on the back of your birth certificate?”
She nodded, still clutching the faded document in her other hand. Closure was within reach. This was the last thing on her emotional to-do list, besides loving Royce and making a life with him. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
ROYCE EASED THE CAR in next to the curb and turned off the engine.
Adelaide beat him out of the car and was standing on the sidewalk staring at the house as he joined her.
“This is the address. What are the odds anyone who knows her still lives here?”
“I don’t know, Adelaide, but I can tell you no matter what you find here, I’ll always love you.”
Reaching out, she took his hand, then walked up the sidewalk to the front door of the little square house, painted a quiet shade of yellow.
She rang the bell and waited, trying to calm the spasms of tension in her stomach with a couple of deep breaths.
The door inched open a crack, then pulled open all the way, and she found herself face-to-face with an elderly woman.
“Yes. Can I help you?”
“Can you tell me if a woman named Sury Laverue ever lived here?” Adelaide’s mouth went dry as she stared at the woman, studying her features for any resemblance to her own, and finding many.
“Yes. Thirty-three years ago, dear. I’m her mother, Virginia Wellington.”
Adelaide felt her knees go weak and only the strength of Royce’s arm locked around her waist kept her upright.
“I’m her daughter, Adelaide Charboneau.”
The woman pushed open the screen door and stepped out onto the step. Reaching up with a trembling hand, she cupped Adelaide’s cheek and smiled.
“Yes, you are, child. I’ve been praying you were alive somewhere out there, and here you are. Come in. I have so much to tell you about your parents.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6053-9
KEEPING WATCH
Copyright © 2010 by M. Jan Hambright
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