I ran to Meredith Mae and took her in my arms. As I held her, I whispered that I was going to attempt to move Ursula’s soul into Jeanne Elemont’s flesh.
“No!” she cried. “She cannot move her soul. She is not one of us.”
“You must trust me, Meredith Mae. Elizabeth will guide her spirit and you will send Jeanne Elemont’s soul to hell. Jeanne Elemont does not have enough power to fight the three of us. I am so glad that you are here.”
“How do you know Jeanne will die?” she asked.
“This cross. If I press it to her chest while I am taking her, I am sure she will never again walk the earth.”
“But you will doom Ursula to the devil’s wrath.”
“Urbain Grandier cannot harm us. Together we are all too powerful. But if he does return, we will protect her.”
“How?”
“Julian Rouvrey is more powerful than Urbain Grandier. I do not know how I know that, but I do.”
“I cannot let you risk Ursula’s life to gain back Father’s money.” Meredith Mae was adamant but I knew I had to convince her.
“She is over seventy years old. Would you not prefer her young and beautiful?” I asked, as Ursula stood and walked to us.
“I agree to it,” Ursula said. “I will sell my soul to look like that again, and she is not even that young, but she is still every bit the rose in the garden, isn’t she?”
Meredith Mae sighed and went to the old woman. I knew we did not have much time for the statues had begun to close in on us, and the five-pointed star had begun to turn.
Meredith Mae took Ursula’s hand and looked into my eyes.
“This is not revenge, is it Grandmamma?” she asked.
I shook my head slowly. “No, not anymore.”
“You do not know the whole truth,” she said.
“No, I do not,” I said. “Why don’t you tell me?”
Meredith Mae then proceeded to explain how she and Ursula had staged her death and how Ursula handed over all but twenty percent of the entire estate to Jeanne Elemont.
“Ursula risked her life to keep Jeanne from killing me,” she said.
“Why?”
“It was the only way to get rid of her, Grandmamma. I knew I could avoid Jeanne Elemont behind the flesh of Eugenie Anderson. Jeanne had to believe I was dead. Ursula took my identity immediately after my death in order to get the money for Jeanne.”
“No one recognized the truth? What about those awful twins?”
“Jeanne Elemont’s children never saw me until they were much older. Gillian came to visit us many times when she needed money, and we always gave it gladly, but by that time I was already in Eugenie’s flesh. It was through Gillian that we knew what Jeanne was up to. We could always stay one step ahead of Jeanne. It was Gillian that told us that her mother hated Brooklyn and only visited in order to berate Luther for spending his money. We knew that Jeanne was usually far too busy traveling the world with her husbands and lovers to care whether or not she ever saw Ursula again. However, she did think rather highly of Ursula for being so crafty, and that is just the way we wanted it: absent admiration. It is a pity to shatter her illusion, but I shall do just that, I’m afraid.”
“So it was you who came to church with Ursula and sat in the back?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes, Elizabeth.” Meredith Mae nodded.
“If only I had paid attention, I might have seen you.”
I watched as Meredith Mae left the old woman’s side and went to where Jeanne Elemont lay bound. She leaned over her and kissed her cheek.
“I will soon have my way with your ageless form,” I heard her whisper.
“How did you do it?” I asked as Jeanne Elemont struggled desperately to free herself.
“I went to a hospital ward to search for a body. I came upon Eugenie Anderson. She was a nineteen-year-old girl dying from encephalitis.”
“Why didn’t you just go back to France or hide somewhere?” Elizabeth asked.
“We knew that my body would have to be identified as my own in order for Jeanne to believe that I was really dead. I could not just disappear and get away with it. Jeanne is too smart for that. She knew Ursula loved me. As long as she thought me alive, I was a threat to the estate, and to her, I suppose.”
“Besides,” Ursula interjected, “Jeanne insisted on seeing Meredith Mae’s corpse for herself. She would not have taken my word alone.”
“I see.” Elizabeth made the sign of the cross.
“I did not know if it would work, my taking on a dying body, but I had to try. I knew that if we did not stage this death quickly, that surely Jeanne Elemont would lose patience and murder me herself so that she could inherit my trust. I had no other heirs then, and even if my will decreed my money to charity she would have fought it. She kept pressuring Ursula to do it, so we had to act fast. I did not know if I had your gift, Grandmamma, but I took the risk that I could indeed, transport myself into a dying body.”
“You might have gone to God and not to this poor girl,” I said. “There is no guarantee.”
“I know.”
“It was like the time I took Elizabeth Sue, Annie,” Elizabeth said as she came to my side. “The baby was dying, but when I entered her flesh the disease died with her. It was her time. It was that simple. Fate, so many people call it.”
“Oh, Elizabeth, we were so angry at each other then that I never knew you took the child. I never looked that seriously at little Elizabeth Sue’s face, I was so distraught,” Meredith Mae said.
Elizabeth reached out and took her hand. I noticed that the chanting increased in volume and Jeanne Elemont was murmuring softly.
“We went to the girl’s room and told her we were going to end her suffering. I had two vials of cyanide in my hand. The girl begged me to relieve her. I swallowed the vials and died in a fair amount of time, but I did not regain consciousness in the girl’s flesh for several hours. I believed that the dying girl would find peace when I took her but she fought me despite her tragic fate. Fortunately for me, she eventually accepted death and her soul left quite blissfully. It was when I took over her new flesh that I realized that the disease was no longer present. It was Ursula and Jeanne that put my old body in a trunk and sunk it to the bottom of the Hudson River, even before I fully became Eugenie Anderson, the medical miracle. For years I was written up in all the newspapers, how I had defeated death through prayer. Thank God Jeanne Elemont never suspected. Ursula became Meredith Mae Guyon without much effort; Papa was already dead and there was no one to doubt Ursula’s identity.”
“What about Rachel?” I said.
“Rachel has always loved us and trusted our decisions.”
“How much money did the bitch receive?” I asked.
“We kept only twenty percent of my estate in order to get rid of Jeanne Elemont forever, and it worked. She is worth a fortune. She had no further use for Ursula after I vacated my flesh. She had all the money she could take from us. It was not Ursula who had harmed me. Ursula saved me, Grandmamma. Ursula has always loved me.”
I put my arms around my grandchild and held her. I told her we had to begin our ritual before Jeanne successfully called the devil to aid her, but I did not apologize for doubting her devious friend.
Meredith Mae went to her lover and whispered something to her that I did not hear. I called to Elizabeth and we made a circle around Ursula and Meredith Mae. I called out my incantations and clutched my cross. I whispered prayers that I cannot reveal to you. They are very powerful prayers, and I knew as I uttered them that I had only scratched the surface of the magic they held. Elizabeth called on Jesus and clasped her rosary. Meredith Mae took the pistol and held it to the back of Ursula’s head as she prayed on her knees in her native French to the abandoned Virgin of her childhood.
After I had chanted twenty minutes, I left the circle and lay myself over the body of Jeanne Elemont. I picked up the rotting smell I had detected earlier, and I heard the mutterings of the evil gods e
mitting from the stone statues as pieces of the stones began to fall around me. I ignored their intimidation. They came from a dimension that Jeanne had successfully brought to the surface, but I was not afraid to defy them. I removed the rag once again from Jeanne’s mouth and covered her with my lips so that she could not scream. I felt her tongue forcing itself down my throat, nearly choking me. I held the cross to her chest as I pushed my flesh into hers. I felt her struggle. I did not wish for my soul to enter her body. I only wanted to make the space in order for Elizabeth to direct Ursula’s soul into the flesh of the dying Jeanne. I kept my mind focused. I feared that the powerful Jeanne would not allow her soul to exit. I remembered my failure with Ursula’s body, caused, no doubt, by Jeanne’s interjection.
Suddenly, I felt a snap in my veins and blood seemed to gush from my skull. I sensed the opening I needed. I had forced Jeanne out by the weight of my magic, and I knew I had succeeded by the sense of nothingness I felt around me. The demon fought hard but I was too strong. I lifted myself out and away from her organs and blood vessels just as I knew that the consciousness known as Jeanne Elemont was beginning to dissolve. It was the most incredible emptiness I had ever felt. I yelled out to Meredith Mae.
“Shoot her now!” I called.
I heard the shot ring out and felt Ursula’s soul fly past me. I felt the immediate impact of the body being taken. I jumped off Jeanne quickly.
“It has happened. Her soul crumpled into nothing,” I whispered.
Meredith Mae and Elizabeth came to the altar and watched as I untied the wrists and the feet of Jeanne Elemont. She seemed to be in a deep sleep and her eyes remained closed. I looked around me as the chants from the evil wooden statues grew louder and I caught the fleeting reflection of a large blond man in the ominous glow of a dying candle. His eyes seared into my back, and I could hear a low growl, like that of an angry cat, reverberating off the stones like fading echoes.
Chapter Forty-Eight
The growl and the chanting stopped abruptly the moment Ursula opened her eyes in Jeanne’s flesh, sat up, and stared at us. Meredith Mae held her breath. The body of the old Ursula lay in a heap, the blood from her wound still ran from her head and the silver-gray hair was matted and wet. Ursula, now in the body of Jeanne Elemont, sat upright and touched her face with her fingers. She kissed the palms of her hand and then began to sniff the fur on her cape. Meredith Mae went to her, and Ursula, in all the glory of her new body, showed off her perfectly aligned teeth with a coy smile.
“It worked, my precious,” she uttered and threw her arms in the air.
“We must make haste,” I commanded and took the pistol from Meredith Mae.
“What are we to do, Annie?” Elizabeth ran to my side and grabbed my arm.
“Do you know where Matthew is buried?” I asked them.
“Evergreen,” the two said in unison.
* * * *
Luther was quite startled when we entered the house. He must have assumed we had taken his mother hostage, for Ursula, clothed in Jeanne’s presence, entered with us.
“What the hell?” he said as we stood before him. What an odd parade of characters we must have seemed.
Gillian immediately broke into tears when she saw Ursula’s old body in Calvin’s arms.
“Sit down!” I ordered and revealed my pistol.
“Good God!” they gasped and quickly did as they were told.
“Take Ursula’s body to one of Luther’s carriages,” I said to Calvin. He did what I asked and left the room.
“Take the old Clarence,” Luther called after him. “I will not have blood on my new runabout. And don’t touch the new Timken, either.”
After Calvin left, I noticed that Gillian had fainted. I asked Elizabeth to attend to her. Luther, on the other hand, had become accustomed to us by now and was quite furious.
“Just what wretched charade are you playing, passing yourself off as a priest? Who the hell are you to threaten my family?” he commanded. “What was that nonsense about a message from my father? What do you want of us?”
I placed my hand around his throat and forced him in to a chair. His fleshy legs hung over the side and he looked ridiculous, but he sat there and glared at me.
“Be still!” I bellowed.
“Mother?” he said and looked to Ursula, who now appeared to be his mother, of course.
Ursula ignored him and sat herself in a comfortable chair.
Gillian had finally regained a semblance of composure by the time Calvin returned. But when I began to point the pistol and order them all outside and into the carriage, she started to cry again and beg for her life. I calmly assured her that we meant her no harm.
“Then why have you murdered my half-sister? You are degenerates. That was Meredith Mae’s body Calvin carried in his arms.”
“Ah ha!” Ursula suddenly exclaimed. “I forbade you to see that woman.”
To my surprise, Ursula’s French dialect was tempered by her transformation, and she spoke more like Jeanne, whose origin of birth seemed indiscriminate.
The girl made an ugly scowl. “You do not understand my intoxication for the theater, Mother. You are too pedantic. Meredith Mae understood. She always acted a role when I went to see her, and I had to guess who she was. She could do a marvelous French accent, as well. She used it all the time to please me. I loved it so.”
“Ha! Intoxication for the theater? Why yes, one would have to be intoxicated to bastardize Ibsen, turn Shaw’s comedies into high drama, and Strindberg into farce. Weren’t those your very reviews? Yes, yes. That makes sense. Ha!”
Gillian threw her face into a pillow and began to wail once again. Ursula raised her eyebrows and winked at Meredith Mae.
“Of course, I knew that you managed to talk your poor half-sister into throwing money into your flops after you went through your own funds. Ah, you are absolutely wretched,” Ursula said in Jeanne’s voice.
Ursula was treating the twins with so much disdain that they did not detect the truth. Still, I ordered Ursula quiet, and told them all to get into the carriage.
Calvin had covered the body with a blanket and had put it on the floor of the back seat. I told Ursula and Meredith Mae to drive up front with Calvin while I sat behind them with the twins, and Elizabeth. Unfortunately, we had to put our feet on the body and sit quite close together. Gillian was practically in my lap, and Luther and Elizabeth sat to my right. It was a very tight squeeze and we had to keep the horses at a slower trot for fear poor Elizabeth would fall out the door.
We drove to the Evergreen Cemetery, and it took us nearly an hour to arrive. The rain was falling quite heavily and the night sky was covered by a black cloud. The moon shone through, from a listless indifference, as the clip-clop of the horse’s hooves splattered the carriage in a spray of mud.
It did not take long to find my son’s grave. Both Elizabeth and Meredith Mae went right to it. Calvin, Luther, and I, began to dig up the dirt. Luther worked slowly, and after a good hour or so he began to quiver. He looked to his mother for help before he finally collapsed and began to whine.
“Why is mother allowed to sit where it is dry?”
“Keep digging, Luther,” I ordered.
“No, I cannot do this anymore. I won’t. Shoot me if you will,” he cried and threw his shovel down.
“It is all right, Luther. We are almost there,” I told him as I felt my shovel hit something that felt too big to be a rock. I could see the wood of the coffin and reached down to shake off the dirt with my hands.
Gillian was sobbing loudly and sat on an old cement slab in the ground with the hood from her cape up over her face. The rain had let up considerably by this time, but the chill was causing an ache in Julian’s poor bones.
“You are all crazy,” Gillian suddenly cried out. “What will you do with us? Throw us in the ground with my dead father? Bury us alive?”
I ignored her outburst and had Calvin help me lift the coffin up. Elizabeth had remained back in t
he carriage with Ursula and Meredith Mae, but when she saw the coffin being raised from the ground she ran to me.
“Wait!” she called.
I removed as much of the dirt as I could from the wood and watched as she stopped near the hole in the earth and fell to her knees. Meredith Mae followed closely behind and stopped just behind Elizabeth. Ursula remained in the carriage and watched us carefully.
“What do you hope to find, Annie?” Elizabeth cried out.
“I am not sure,” I said as I handed the pistol to Calvin and told him to watch the twins.
The coffin was easier to open than I had thought and took only a few thrusts from the shovel. The top creaked as I lifted it. I could see that even Gillian had ceased her wailing and stared at me with owl-like eyes.
“What is it, Annie?” Elizabeth whispered and clasped her heart. “Dear God, what do you see?”
I let out a horrifying sound as the bones of my dead son stared back at me.
They all stood and watched as I sobbed. Finally, Meredith Mae came to my side and held me. I pulled myself together enough to tell Calvin to bring the old woman’s body and put it in the hole in the ground, and we would put the coffin back over it and re bury it.
Elizabeth was sobbing as well. “What did you hope to find, Annie?”
“The dream was so real; he beckoned me to him…I thought he might have escaped death, somehow, as he did in Salem,” I cried.
I stood up on my feet and threw the shovel down. Luther was speechless, and Gillian simply stared out into the night sky, quietly whimpering. I looked over at Ursula. She appeared dumbfounded and kept preening her head to see what we were doing, but remained warm and dry in the carriage.
“Matthew!” I called and fell to my knees. I watched as Elizabeth’s concerned face stared back at me. I felt exhausted, but I knew what I had to do. I remembered my dream so vividly, the boy motioning for me to follow, the painting I had seen at Luther’s, so like the dream. I stepped back and looked at the moon.
Annabel Horton, Lost Witch of Salem Page 38