Without forethought, Alcée grabbed her waist and pulled her toward him. He moved his other hand about her to keep her from escaping. “Why did you come all the way from Loreauville if you didn’t want to see me, to not talk to me?”
“Your parents asked me if I wanted to come with them,” Marguerite answered, wide-eyed at his actions. “And since the LeBlancs were visiting their family, I thought I would join them.”
“Join them?” Alcée almost shouted. “You make it sound like a social outing, while you waltz into my life and ignore me. Do you take pleasure in tormenting me?”
A lone tear fell down Marguerite’s face but she refused to wipe it away. “I never meant to hurt you.”
“How did you imagine marrying another man would not hurt me?”
Marguerite pushed her arms through his and broke away. She turned and gazed up at the ceiling of the stables, wrapping her arms tightly about her chest. “Why haven’t you married?” she asked, visibly fighting back the tears.
“Would that have eased your guilt? If I had married?”
“I only want you to be happy,” she said as a tear freed itself.
Alcée slid his hands about her shoulders, burying his face in the mound of braids and curls. “Make me happy, Marguerite,” Alcée whispered before turning her around and taking possession of her lips. She didn’t resist. Instead, Marguerite clung desperately to his lapel, crying softly while Alcée kissed the tears from her cheeks and chin. When he began to kiss the soft tender reaches of her neck, she wound her arms about his neck and pulled him close.
“I can’t help myself,” she said softly.
“Then don’t.” But it was too late. Marguerite drew away.
“Is it money again?” he demanded angrily, tired of the game.
“No.”
“Look around you. I have more than enough.”
“It’s not money,” she said through her tears.
Alcée anxiously rubbed the bridge of his nose, remembering how René had made the same gesture only that morning. Slowly, enunciating every word, he asked her, “Then what is it that keeps you from me?”
Marguerite closed her eyes and swallowed. “I am barren.”
Alcée stared at her, perplexed.
“I cannot have children. I was married five years and bore no children.”
He didn’t mean to laugh, but the idea that something so simple was keeping them apart, that she indeed cared for him after all, made his heart light.
“It’s not funny,” Marguerite said. “How can you laugh about such a thing?”
“Children? This is about children?”
Marguerite stared at him dumbfounded. “I can never give you a son. You will never have a namesake. No one to carry on the generations.”
Alcée gently took Marguerite’s hands and pressed them to his chest. The smile disappeared, replaced by a serious countenance. “I love you more than life itself, Marguerite Hébert LeBlanc. I can live without children. I have, and will have, more than enough nephews and nieces to care for. But I cannot — I repeat cannot — live without you.”
Marguerite said nothing, but her eyes told Alcée her answer. She moved her hands from Alcée’s grasp, then quickly slid them up to wrap them around his shoulders. Alcée wasted no time in reciprocating, meeting her lips with all the unleashed passion of five very long, very lonely years.
A Cajun Dream
Chapter Sixteen
Amanda woke to find the sheets cold and a slight chill in the air billowing through the open windows. As she retrieved her discarded clothes in the early morning light and pulled them quickly over her head, she recognized that late summer feeling of hope.
It always amazed her how autumn first appeared in Louisiana. Instead of the trees turning colors and dropping their leaves in a climate where shawls were required, it simply became merely hot instead of unbearably hot. Until as late as November, they could not hope for significantly cooler weather, but residents delighted in the slight drop of temperature nonetheless.
Amanda assumed René had headed for the stables for the morning chores until she heard movement on the front gallery. Emerging from the sanctuary of mosquito netting, Amanda made out René’s tall figure leaning against the railing as he stared thoughtfully across the fields.
“A penny for your thoughts,” she said, sliding an arm about his waist and resting her head against his right shoulder.
René instantly pulled her close and planted a kiss on the top of her head. Amanda snuggled, taking in his manly scent and brushing her cheek against the soft white cotton of his shirt. The world could disappear at any moment, she thought, and I would be happy staying in this position forever.
“I have to tend to the horses,” René whispered.
Amanda closed her eyes, dreading letting him go. “I know, but promise me you won’t race horses today simply because it’s cooler.”
A deep laugh emerged from his chest while his fingers raised her chin up so that his smiling eyes met hers. “Wild horses couldn’t drag me away from you today. I shall feed them and return immediately.”
“Couldn’t you ask T-Emile to go?”
René’s smile deepened. “What did you have in mind Madame Comeaux?”
A deep, fiery blush spread about Amanda’s face, but before she could respond, René cupped her cheek and kissed her passionately. Amanda took the opportunity to reach an arm around his neck and pull herself tightly against his broad chest. The horses would have to wait.
Just then, someone coughed. Amanda and René moved apart to find an embarrassed Alcée walking up the front path.
“Well, isn’t that a sight,” he said.
“I’d say the same for you,” René quickly rebutted. “You look like you slept in the stables last night.”
Alcée averted his eyes and began beating the hay and dust from his clothes. For a moment, Amanda thought he looked guilty.
“I fed the horses,” Alcée said, still refusing to look up at them. “You can go back to bed. I’m going to start the coffee.”
When he disappeared inside the house, René turned and kissed Amanda again, hoping to pick up where they left off. But Amanda’s thoughts were elsewhere.
“Alcée was acting strange, don’t you think?”
René moved to her neck and began nibbling. “Uh-huh.”
“Why would he be so dirty if he only fed the horses?”
Reaching her earlobe, René took a friendly bite. “Don’t know.”
“You don’t think he was in the stables with Marguerite?”
René stopped and looked up. Amanda could almost see his logic at work as he deliberated the past conversation. When a side of his lips turned up in a sly grin, Amanda knew she was right.
“I’m going to talk to him,” she said, leaving the gallery.
René tried to grab her hand but she was too fast. “Can’t it wait?”
Amanda stuck her head back over the threshold sporting an equally sly smile. “No, it can’t.”
When Amanda finally finished her toilette, pulled on all the necessary garments and arranged her hair in an acceptable fashion, she quickly left for the back kitchen. René was close behind in his dressing; he had insisted on lying on the bed while she completed her wardrobe. The wicked man watched her every move with a satisfying smile. Remembering the moments made her breath quicken.
Still, she was on a mission. She had to know.
“So, what happened?” she immediately asked Alcée as she turned the corner into the kitchen.
Alcée laughed before he acknowledged her. “You don’t waste time, do you Madame Comeaux?”
Amanda liked both the sound of her name and the congeniality of his voice. She hoped he was finally accepting her as family.
“Did you talk? Is anything resolved?”
Alcée smiled. “She did ask what things I had been saying about her to René’s new wife.”
“I’m guilty. Did it help?”
Again, Alcée laughed, this ti
me nodding his head. “Yes, it helped.”
He turned away, continuing to gather up the cups and saucers for breakfast until Amanda grabbed his arm. “Alcée, do I have to beg it out of you.”
Alcée sighed, placed the cups down and wiped his hands on a kitchen rag. “We are going to be married in a month’s time.”
Amanda let out a soft squeal of delight and threw her arms about him. She immediately realized how improper the action was, but Alcée returned the hug.
“I always wanted a little sister,” he said with an affectionate squeeze.
“I always wanted a big brother.”
The two held each other for a brief time until footsteps were heard on the cobblestones leading from the house. “From one man’s arms to another,” René exclaimed behind her. Amanda turned to find her husband staring at them accusingly, a sly glint in his eye. “And to think you were the one who said American girls were nothing but trouble,” he teased his uncle.
Alcée grinned and placed a loving hand on each of their shoulders. “I wish you both the best of happiness.”
Amanda moved toward René, who wound his arm about her. “He’s getting married!”
Amanda watched as René’s eyes lit up, a smile exploding across his face. He grabbed Alcée and hugged him tightly.
“Now, don’t get too excited,” Alcée said, breaking away. “She’s still in mourning and we have to keep this a secret for another month.”
“I shall not breathe a word,” René agreed, still beaming from the news. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
“What secret?” Colette asked as she appeared in the doorway.
Before Alcée could interject, René announced proudly, “Alcée’s marrying Marguerite.”
Alcée cringed as Colette gave an ear-splitting shriek.
Breakfast with the Comeaux and Dugas families was just as Amanda imagined. Everyone talked at once, each one trying to be heard over the noise, and the food continuously made its rounds about the table. The children ran excitedly around the room until they became disruptive and then Colette quickly shooed them outside. And every few minutes, a pause would descend on the group and most of the eyes would fall on the newlyweds and Alcée. Then almost instantaneously, everyone would begin talking about René and Amanda’s future and the upcoming wedding.
Amanda always wanted a big family. Staring at the faces surrounding her, the people who graciously accepted her as their own, Amanda realized she had finally received one.
A gentle hand softly caressed her cheek. “What are you thinking about?” René asked, pulling her back to the present.
“How much I like your family,” she whispered.
René smiled proudly and leaned in closer. “You may be surprised at this, but I like your father too.”
“My father?” Amanda asked, clearly surprised. Then, looking up at the figure in the doorway, repeated, “My father?”
Everyone momentarily stopped talking to gaze at the Judge standing before them, his hat held politely in his hands. Etienne Comeaux immediately stood, followed by the other men, and introduced himself. But if the Judge’s presence at the house wasn’t shocking enough, his response clearly was.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, monsieur,” James replied in French, accepting the man’s hand.
Etienne then introduced Marie and James bowed, offering a cordial sentence or two of introduction, again in French. Amanda glanced toward René and found his reaction mirroring her own. Alcée, too, had dropped his jaw in amazement.
When Marie invited him to coffee, James accepted, and Amanda wondered if there would be no end of surprises. The Judge extended a hand to René, who introduced him to Alcée, Colette and T-Emile.
“I’d like to offer my apologies, my boy,” he said to T-Emile, who seemed frozen to the spot. “I behaved rudely the other day. My daughter’s family is always welcome in my house.”
James planted a kiss on Amanda’s cheek before he sat down next to René’s parents. Amanda finally closed her mouth and swallowed, but she still wondered if she were dreaming.
“My daughter is in shock,” he admitted to them. “She has not heard me speak French in ten years.”
“I must say I am surprised as well,” Marie said. “I didn’t know you spoke both languages.”
“I studied in France as a youth,” James explained, “and worked for many years in a Paris exporting firm. When they expanded overseas to New Orleans, I helped them open the business.”
“I thought you were in government work,” Alcée said.
“I came to New Orleans around the time of statehood,” James answered, accepting a steaming cup of coffee from Marie. “American and French businesses were having a difficult time getting along. The municipal government hired me to be an intermediary since I was familiar in trade and spoke both languages.”
“That must have been quite a challenge,” Etienne said.
James laughed good-naturedly, a sound Amanda hadn’t heard in years. “More than you know.”
Suddenly, tears welled in Amanda’s eyes. This was the father of her youth, the laughing man with a hundred stories to tell, the affectionate man who adored his daughter. A man who braved the scorn of a prominent Creole family and his own, yet returned home smiling every day with kisses, chocolates and humorous tales.
If she could find a better life, then so could he. Perhaps a score of grandchildren would help erase the pain. A man could be born again from the ashes of rejection and grief.
“Tell them about the Marquis,” Amanda said, trying to keep the emotions from her voice. “Tell them how you met General Lafayette.”
James gazed lovingly at his daughter. Amanda knew meeting Lafayette, George Washington’s aide de camp during the American Revolution, had been the highlight of his life. She remembered how proud he had always been recounting the story.
“You met Lafayette?” Marie asked, amazed.
“I was part of the dignitaries who welcomed Lafayette to New Orleans,” James began. “I only spoke with him briefly, but it was an honor I will never forget.”
“Tell them about his sword,” Amanda urged.
James relaxed into his chair. “Lafayette was never seen without his sword during all the festivities. While we were dining at the banquet in his honor at the John Davis Hotel, Lafayette told me it was the same sword given to him by Benjamin Franklin.”
Amanda tapped René lightly on the arm to get his attention, then whispered, “He was one of our founding fathers.” René resumed listening to James’ story, but Amanda could see the smile curling at the sides of his lips.
“Laced within the sword’s ironwork were illustrations depicting the fraternal union between France and America,” James continued. “When he visited the United States in 1825, Lafayette showed it with pride to anyone who asked. As we dined, he told me it represented the invaluable friendship that existed between France and America, a friendship he held dear to his dying day. Did you know he named his only son George Washington Lafayette?”
“Yes, I had heard,” Etienne said.
“I told him that despite our differences, and our stubbornness to get along, the Americans and the French did possess a remarkable force when they worked together. If it hadn’t been for the French influence in the American Revolution, we might not have won. And I believe the French were inspired by our actions to establish liberty in their own country.”
“And the Battle of New Orleans,” Amanda interjected.
“Yes,” James said, patting her hand. “I told Lafayette not to worry about the difficulties between our cultures here in Louisiana. I gave the War of 1812 as an example. It was immediately following the Louisiana Purchase and the Americans and French were distrustful of one another, to say the least. But there was one thing they despised more than each other, the British. Together, we posed an indomitable enemy.”
“And here we are all together,” Alcée said with a twinkle in his eye. “One big happy family.”
He hadn�
�t meant any harm, but Amanda feared her father would not see the humor in his statement. To her added amazement, James raised his coffee cup and offered a toast.
“To Amanda and René,” he said, and the others followed his lead.
“To Louisiana,” Etienne added, “and the freedom of us all.”
The Judge stayed for more than an hour, enjoying the hot coffee, baked bread and fresh fruit. Most of the conversation revolved around Etienne and Marie, but Amanda was thankful to merely sit and watch. She had never seen him in such good spirits.
When James finally said his good-byes, he asked if she and René would escort him to his buggy.
“It was a pleasure meeting your parents,” he said to René as they left the house, “but I must confess I came here with another purpose.” James’ smile disappeared as he placed his hat on his head. “I have some bad news.”
What could possibly be bad news after the week she had experienced, Amanda wondered? What more could have happened?
“Katherine Blanchard was found murdered last night.”
Amanda shuddered involuntarily and placed her hand over her mouth.
“Katherine Blanchard?” René asked. “The American friend who visited?”
While Amanda nodded, James continued, “Apparently, she was a friend of Henry Tanner’s. She was seen coming and going at the plantation this past week.” James sternly looked his daughter in the eye. “Did you know about this?”
“Sally Baldwin said he had once escorted her to a ball,” Amanda practically whispered. The fear of Tanner had abated during the past twenty-four hours but now returned full force. “The day I rode with her to the church, she spoke to him as if they were on cordial terms.”
“You saw Tanner this past week?” the Judge asked.
Amanda cringed. “Friday morning.”
“Friday morning,” James began to shout, then thought better of it. Trying to keep his anger at bay, he asked, “Was this the last time you saw Katherine?”
“Yes.”
James grew silent, starring thoughtfully at the ground.
“Do you suspect Tanner of this crime?” René asked.
A Cajun Dream (The Cajun Series Book 5) Page 25