Twenty-nine

 

He heard footsteps and got busy with the frying pan, preparing to appear engrossed in cooking breakfast. “Tote that baaarge,” he sang. “Lift that baaale.” He’d been told he had a pleasant enough baritone, but he caught Amelia’s frown, and the sight of her peach-laden spoon suspended on the way to her mouth, and wondered if he’d lost his touch.

Celina pushed open the kitchen door and came in wearing a loose violet-colored cotton shirt over jeans. She hadn’t had nearly enough sleep, but she looked fresh and clear-eyed.

“I heard you singing,” she said to him, but she smiled at Amelia. “You sounded happy. Didn’t he, Amelia?”

He wished he were as happy as he’d like to have been. “Good,” he said. He should congratulate himself. He could almost hear a time bomb ticking, and the bomb bore his name and the names of everyone he cared about. “Amelia always tests me when I cook, just to see if she can make me feel inferior to Tilly. I insisted Tilly take the morning off. She looked so tired.”

“She’s not used to gallivantin’,” Amelia said without a trace of a smile. “You two tuckered her out. She told me.”

“Did she?” Jack asked.

“No school?” Celina said. “I didn’t know this was a holiday.”

He’d already prepared his excuse. “Conferences today and tomorrow.”

Celina didn’t comment, but neither did she look convinced. His daughter studied Celina. “You slept in Daddy’s room.” Rather than do the expected and look to Jack for inspiration,

Celina said, “Yes, I did. I expect that makes you feel funny, doesn’t it?”

Amelia managed one of her famous frowns. “Why did you? Daddy said you’d sleep in the room next to me when you came here.”

“Celina was very tired,” Jack said rapidly. “She had a very bad experience yesterday after she left you and Tilly. I want to talk to you about that. She slept in my room so that I could make sure she was all right.”

“Like I sleep in your room sometimes if I have bad dreams?”

“A bit like that,” Jack said. “Please take F.P. off the chair.”

“I can sit over there,” Celina said, starting to pass behind Amelia.

Instantly Amelia grabbed her frog and patted the seat of the chair beside her just as Jack did when he wanted Amelia next to him. “Tilly said you must be looked after. Just like when I’m sick and I have to be looked after. She said you need to be quiet and sleep a lot, and eat lots of good food. Tilly said you and Daddy will soon have something very special to tell me.”

This time Celina wasn’t quick to answer, and she did look at Jack.

“Sit down,” he told her. “Do you like French toast?”

“Daddy only knows how to make French toast,” Amelia said, sounding smug while she scooped up another canned peach.

“Then I’d love French toast,” Celina said, sitting beside Amelia. “Your frog is very handsome.”

“He’s ugly. But it’s just a disguise.”

“Because he’s really a handsome prince?”

Amelia’s disgusted expression made Jack turn away to hide his smile.

“That’s not our story,” she said. “That’s a fairy tale everyone knows. Frog Prince is a frog who is a prince. A prince who’s really a frog. And he’s really ugly. But that’s so he knows who to love, because if you love him when he’s ugly, it’s because you know he’s pretty inside. That’s the disguise. That’s right, isn’t it, Daddy?”

“Oh, it certainly is.” This daughter of his caught every word he spoke and tossed it back. He would have to be more and more careful to weigh what he said.

“Tilly said I couldn’t come in your room.”

Jack busied himself checking slices of bread to see if they were cooked.

“This is a time for all of us to get used to change,” Celina said. “I hope you’re going to like having me here with you.”

Preoccupied with listening for Amelia’s response, he slid toast onto a plate.

Amelia didn’t say anything.

He set a plate in front of Celina. “Orange juice?”

“You don’t have to wait on me.”

“Orange juice?” he repeated.

“Thank you.”

“What’s the surprise?” Amelia asked. “Are we going on a vacation?”

Jack met Celina’s eyes and raised his brows. “Not immediately, squirt.”

“Can we go to Disney World?”

It was Jack’s turn to frown. “What is this? Blackmail?”

“Jack!” Celina said. “I’d like to go to Disney World, too. Maybe we can—next year, perhaps?” She glanced at him and he turned up his palms.

“That’s a long time,” Amelia said, burying her nose in her juice glass. When she came up for air, she said, “So what’s the surprise, then?”

“You never let anything go, do you, Miss Charbonnet?” He sometimes regretted assisting her to grow much older so much sooner than she needed to. “This Friday Celina and I will be married. The wedding will be here. We’ll have a party. A small party, but it will be nice.”

Celina narrowed her eyes, and he didn’t blame her for disliking his overbearing attitude, but he had no choice.

“What will I wear?” Amelia asked, moving right along. “Can I have flowers and stuff?”

“Absolutely,” he told her, wishing Celina didn’t look vaguely sick. “Celina, while you were still asleep I called Dwayne for a recommendation. I thought he might know a good wedding coordinator. He insists you need look no farther than Dwayne LeChat. He wouldn’t hear of anyone else getting involved. He says he’s going to make this an event to remember. He knows exactly what has to be done.”

She laughed, but then, to his horror, her eyes filled with tears.

“Dwayne’s going to have some dresses brought over for you and Amelia,” he told her rapidly. “Something for Tilly too, but don’t tell her, she’ll say she doesn’t need anything.”

“It’ll be like in the movies,” Amelia said in a hushed voice. “Am I going to be a bridesmaid? I never thought I’d be one, because you don’t know anyone, Daddy.”

“Of course I do,” he said rapidly. “Just because I’m not a social animal doesn’t mean I don’t know anyone.”

“Can I be your bridesmaid, Celina?” Amelia asked in her delightfully guileless manner. At least the thought of a celebration in which she would star was deflecting her from other thoughts.

Celina had located a tissue and dabbed her eyes. “I’d like you to be my bridesmaid,” she said. “What kind of dress would you like?”

Amelia looked down at herself as if visualizing. She draped F.P. over her lap and held out her arms. “Yellow. With lots of skirts that stand out.”

“I thought you didn’t like yellow,” Celina said.

“I was being a little toad,” Amelia said, matter-of-fact. “That was before I understood that Daddy needs someone for when I get married and go away. Tilly told me, and I know it now. Otherwise he wouldn’t have anyone. I like yellow, and it’s your favorite.”

He hugged his daughter, and bumped heads with Celina, who went for the child from the other side. They held her between them, Celina with her eyes closed while Amelia smiled a wide, satisfied smile. He wouldn’t fool himself into thinking there wouldn’t be tough days ahead once the glamour of yellow frou-frou was over, but he’d take the break for the moment.

“Today we should invite anyone who ought to be here,” Jack said. “It won’t be many. Your parents, my mother-in-law—if it’s not asking too much of her. Cyrus. Dwayne and Jean-Claude. Your parents may want the Lamars here.” The idea didn’t please him.

“Not them,” Celina said at once. “Just family. Dwayne’s family—so is Tilly, I’m sure.”

“And the baby.”

Jack straightened

So did Celina.

“What did you say?” he asked Amelia.

She swung her feet, moved her plate aside, and sat F.P. on the table. “We may ask Phillymeana if we can take it to the North Pole, and if it’s very good, we won’t leave it behind when we come home.”

Jack looked at Celina over the child’s head. She screwed up her face and bit her lower lip.

“Tilly said a lot of little-kid stuff about storks and how sometimes they come fairly soon when people get married.” Amelia raised her face to Celina. “You’ve got a baby in your tummy, haven’t you? That happened to Betty Smith at school. Her daddy got married and her new mommy already had a baby in her tummy. Betty told me how you tell.” Amelia bowed her head of soft black curls and looked closely at Celina’s belly.

“Would you like to feel it?” Celina said, although she gritted her teeth. “I felt it move for the first time yesterday.”

Amelia considered, then put a small hand on Celina, and removed it again very quickly. “That’s it, hmmm? Doesn’t feel like a baby, does it?”

“I guess not,” Celina said.

“You’d better have a lot of skirts on your dress for the wedding,” Amelia said, and before they could laugh, she bounced her frog and said, “The rude ghost came again last night. He wanted me to look out of the window, but I wouldn’t.”

“Good for you.” The less he encouraged Amelia’s retreats into fantasy, the better.

“The man you sent to the school told me I shouldn’t worry about things like that.”

Jack slid his own plate onto the table very slowly and dropped into a chair. “Man? What man?”

Amelia took off the bow Tilly had tied among her curls and attached it to her frog’s leg. “The man at school. Sometimes he comes to talk at break. He’s nice. He stands by the wall down at the bottom of the hill, where we roll. But he only talks to me. Not any of the others.”

Jack didn’t remember feeling so cold. “You’ve been talking to a man you don’t know? A stranger who hangs out by the school?”

“Oh, Daddy.” Her look was pure coquette. “Don’t be silly. He told me you’d say something like that just to pretend you didn’t arrange for him to be there to keep me safe. He said I should just try it and see if he wasn’t right. And he said I should tell you he said hi, and he’s keeping a real good eye on me. If he had to, he could get me out of there before anyone knew I’d gone.”

Dwayne had called and informed Celina that dresses would be delivered later in the day. He just knew she’d be able to make a choice, and there would he a selection for both Tilly and Amelia.

While Jack sat on the couch in his bedroom and cracked his knuckles repeatedly, Celina listened to Dwayne telling her what her wedding cake would look like and who would sing “Ave Maria.” He always cried when he heard “Ave Maria,” Dwayne said. Jean-Claude would play the accompaniment. The food was all set, and the champagne-apple cider for Celina.

“Are you sure we have to go to so much trouble?” Celina asked.

Dwayne let out a huge sigh. “How many times do you intend to get married?”

“Once.”

“We’re going to go to trouble. Things you do once should be memorable, darlin’.”

“I’m going to arrange home schooling,” Jack said to the ceiling. “She’s not going back to that school. The bastards. Following a little kid around.”

“Dwayne,” Celina said. “Someone’s been following Amelia at school. A man.”

“For God’s sake!” Jack leaped to his feet. “For all you know, the phones are bugged.”

“We’ll talk later, okay?” Celina said, and when Dwayne, sounding subdued, agreed, she hung up and said, “I know you’re upset, but please don’t speak to me like that.”

“I’ve got too much on my mind.”

“We both do. And we aren’t alone.”

He didn’t apologize. He did nod and subside to the couch once more.

The phone rang and he reached for it. “Charbonnet.” He scrubbed at his face and rolled his eyes. “Hi, Charmain. Nο, Cyrus Payne isn’t here, why?”

He listened, then said, “How do you know Celina is here?”

The doorbell rang downstairs. Celina was too involved with what Jack was saying to Charmain Bienville to take much notice.

“I’ll ask her. Do you mind speaking to Charmain?” He held the receiver to Celina, who took it reluctantly.

“Is that you, Celina darling?” Charmain asked as if they were dear old friends. “You are one hard woman to find.”

“You’ve found me now. How did you do that?”

“Just a hunch. We reporters are famous for our hunches. Without ‘em there wouldn’t be anything printed in the papers. Have you got a statement?”

Celina blinked, and played with the telephone cord.

“Does the silence mean yes or no?”

“It means I don’t have the faintest what you’re talking about. A statement about what?”

Jack was on his feet again, standing over her, holding out his hand for the phone.

Celina turned her back on him. She wasn’t ready to have any man run her life. “A statement about what, Charmain?”

“Oh. don’t play that innocent game with me.” She dropped her voice. “What’s he like, Celina? Just between you and me. A lot of women would give their eye teeth—and other things—to sleep with Jack Charbonnet.”

Celina swallowed but couldn’t quite fail to grin —just a little. “Is that what you wanted a statement about?”

“Very funny. Are you telling me you don’t know what I’m talking about?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

In the silence that followed, Celina could hear Charmain tapping her pen on the mouthpiece of her phone. At last she said, “Never mind. I’ll get back to you,” and the phone went dead.

“What did she want?” Jack asked. “You should have let me deal with her.”

One stand for independence was enough for now. “Apart from inside information about your sexual prowess, I don’t know what she wanted.”

Her statement had the desired and very satisfactory result. Jack stared, and for once he was at a loss for words.

A tap on the door heralded Tilly. “Excuse me,” she said. “But your parents are here to see you, Miss Payne.”

“Here.” Celina felt disoriented. So much in so short a time. “Well—where are they?”

“In the parlor. We don’t use it much, but I thought ...” She looked at Jack, who made an approving sound. “The wedding will be in there, so that Dwayne LeChat told me on the phone. He’s coming later to decide on the decorations.” If she was delighted, she exhibited enthusiasm in an unusual manner.

“I’m sure Dwayne will make things very pretty,” Celina said.

Tilly drew herself up. “I certainly hope so. He’s hired a photographer. Amelia’s all atwitter about having a new dress and flowers and so on.”

“We’d better see your parents,” Jack said, steering Celina forward. “Please keep an eye on Amelia, Tilly. Under no circumstances is she to leave this house.”

“No, Mr. Charbonnet,” Tilly said, and Celina thought the woman turned a little paler. “Should I offer Mr. and Mrs. Payne tea or something?”

“They’ll have a drink,” Celina said, knowing her father would be well into the drinking hours by now. She dreaded facing whatever his mental state might be.

Very deliberately, Jack took her by the hand and led her down the hall to the parlor, a large, airy room opposite his study. The French windows were open to the gallery over Chartres Street, and sheer white drapes drifted in a slight breeze. Bitsy Payne in a pale pink knit with military gold braid, hovered beside her husband with her pink purse handle gripped in both hands. In a cream blazer and navy slacks with a fine cream stripe, Neville lounged in a rattan armchair, one white buckskin shoe propped on the opposite knee. Light caught silver streaks in the man’s overly long, sandy hair. He was the consummate society dandy, all the way to his diamond pinky ring and the navy and cream polka-dot cravat he wore tucked into the neck of his shirt.

“Hello, Mama, Daddy,” Celina said. She held Jack’s hand so tightly, she crunched his fingers together. “Who told you 1 was here?”

He shouldn’t like the feel of her skin on his as much as he did. but what the hell, he was sinking into this thing with her all the way up to his neck and he didn’t want to climb out anymore.

“We figured it out, girlie,” her father said, sniffing, and eyeing the drinks cart. “I could use a drink before we deal with all of this.”

“Help yourself,” Jack said, and Neville heaved his large frame from the chair and did just as he was told. He didn’t ask if anyone else wanted something, and no one made any attempt to follow his example.

“What’s going on here, then?” Neville asked, swaying forward and waving his overfilled glass of scotch. “Between the two of you. We didn’t bring up our girl to be promiscuous, Charbonnet. You might not understand that kind of moral standard, but then, you aren’t one of us.”

“Daddy,” Celina whispered.

“Hush,” Jack told her. “It doesn’t matter.”

“The hell it doesn’t,” Neville said. “Don’t you suggest you don’t need to take what I say seriously, you upstart. And you can get your hand away from my daughter now.”

Bitsy twisted the handle of her little Chanel bag, but said nothing.

“If you can’t be civil, Daddy, I think you should leave,” Celina said. “This is Jack’s home. He doesn’t have to listen to anyone insulting him here.”

“It’s also Celina’s home,” Jack said. “We’ll be married on Friday. We’d like you to be here, but we’ll understand if you can’t make it.”

“Speak to her, Neville,” Bitsy moaned. “She’ll be the end of us. Make her understand.”

“You can’t marry him,” Neville said, drinking the pariah’s scotch with no apparent ill effect—other than getting drunker by the second. “He’s not one of us. I’m not saying we’re snobs. We aren’t. Far from it. But—”

“You are snobs,” Jack said. “But there’s more to it than that, isn’t there? Why don’t you explain it all to us?”

Neville choked on the liquor. Wiping a hand across his mouth, he said, “Don’t have to explain a goddamn thing to you, Charbonnet. Father was a hood—a gangster. Not our kind. Keep to your own.”

Jack knew an instant of uncertainty. The overdressed fool spoke a degree of truth. Their backgrounds were very different. Jack never wanted to be the cause of trouble for Celina, but they were too enmeshed now. Even if he could make himself let her go, which he doubted, it wouldn’t stop his enemies from using her to get at him.

He looked sideways at her. Her cotton shirt rested softly on her breasts, like a coat of violet paint. He sucked in his gut. He’d been somewhere between vaguely tumescent and fully erect ever since he’d discovered what it could mean to be with this woman.

“Jack and I are getting married,” Celina said quietly. “At three on Friday afternoon. Will you come?”

“Show her, Bitsy,” Neville said. “Go on, show her what we’re already having to put up with.”

Shaking visibly, Bitsy opened her little bag and removed a piece of newsprint folded very small. She unfolded it, fumbling badly, until she could attempt to smooth the paper and hold it out to Celina.

Jack looked over her shoulder and let out a whistle. “Well, I’m damned. Is that…? It is, isn’t it?”

“How can they say stuff like this?” Celina said. “They don’t know Cyrus. It wasn’t like this.”

“You want to say how it was, girlie?” Neville said, even more slurred. “Just how was it?”

“It says—”

“Oh, don’t say it out loud,” Bitsy said tearfully. “I can’t believe it. Imagine the questions we’ll have to deal with. The shame of it.”

Celina said, “So this is what Charmain was calling about, and wanting me to comment on. She writes this column under a pseudonym. Everyone in town knows she does the gossip.”

“Gossip,” Bitsy moaned. “That kind of gossip, no less. Where is Cyrus?”

‘‘He’s probably at the diocese,” Celina said, her patience wearing thin. “He isn’t going to be amused by this. But he’ll be less amused if he hears your attitude.”

“What member of the Catholic Church was seen entering a well-known New Orleans hotel with a well-known senatorial candidate’s wife?” Jack read aloud. “Spurious stuff.”

“Look at the picture,” Neville said. “Tell me if that isn’t my son following that slut into the Maison de Ville.”

“It could be,” Jack agreed. “But 1 don’t see him naked in bed with her, do you? Were you aware that she had asked him to give her spiritual guidance?”

Neville guffawed nastily. “Is that what they call it now? In my time it was cutting around.”

“Sounds as if you might know, Mr. Payne.”

Bitsy turned her back, and Jack regretted his quick tongue. “Look, I’m sorry, but this is classic stuff on a slow day in gossip land. Forget it.”

Celina gave him the cutting. Α photo showed Cyrus looking back while Sally Lamar held open a door into one of the guest wings of the hotel. Celina’s glance into Jack’s eyes spoke reams on how damning the shot looked.

“I’ll talk to Charmain if you like.” Jack said for Celina’s sake, not the Paynes’. “One good thing to remember is that she never stays on one topic for long.”

“Read on,” Neville said. “The suggestion is that because of our son, the Lamars may be heading for a divorce. Says Wilson’s devastated, but that he doesn’t intend to give up the race.”

“Touching,” Jack said. “And effective. Should be good for a large female block of support.”

Celina was oddly silent, and stiff-lipped.

“Well,” Bitsy said. “I must say, you’ve been kind, Jack. Maybe we misjudge you. Would you forgive us if we stole Celina away from you for a couple of hours? We’d love to have her with us for lunch—for old time’s sake. It doesn’t look as if there will be any more opportunities for us to be together again before she’s married.”

Jack stopped himself from remarking that Bitsy made their marriage sound like a death.

“Oh, Mama—”

“Don’t disappoint your mother,” Neville said. “I’ve reserved a table for us at Galatoire’s. You know how your mother loves it there. It used to be such a treat for you and Cyrus when you were growing up.”

Jack didn’t want her out of his sight, but he couldn’t risk making too much of a deal in front of the Paynes. Surely she’d be all right with them, and once they’d left, he’d follow at a distance.

Celina was watching him. He felt her looking at him but didn’t look at her. This time he’d let her make up her own mind.

“Okay,” she said. “But I can’t be gone long. I’ve got too much to do.”

“Wonderful!” Bitsy clapped her hands. “Oh, this will be lovely. Quite like old times. We’d better go, Neville, or we’ll be late for our reservations, and you know how it can be there.”

She needn’t have prompted. Neville pushed upward from his seat, took a quick step to steady himself, and offered an arm to his wife. Waving Celina ahead of him, he proceeded to leave without another word to Jack, who waited only five minutes—long enough to give Tilly safety instructions, before setting out himself.

Galatoire’s was busily elite. Some said it was the best seafood restaurant in the Vieux Carre. The maitre d’, dapper in black evening dress, bowed graciously and showed Neville and his party to a round table in one of the restaurant’s more secluded corners.

On a small table apparently produced for the purpose, a silver vase containing dozens of perfect red roses was flanked by two bottles of champagne iced down in buckets, and several dishes of caviar surrounded by tiny crackers.

In the center of their dinner table, a low crystal bowl displayed a mass of fragrant, floating gardenias.

As Celina and her parents approached, conversation dropped to a mild buzz, and all eyes were upon them.

“Daddy,” Celina said quietly. “This is very lovely, but you shouldn’t have gone to so much expense.” She also wanted to say that it would have been a perfect opportunity to show Jack that they accepted him into their family.

Α chair was held for her, and she sat down.

Mama and Daddy took places also. That’s when Celina realized there was a fourth place. “Is Cyrus coming?”

Bitsy raised her chin as if determined to be brave. “We won’t speak of that now.”

“May not be able to avoid it,” Neville commented.

The level of conversation rose again excitedly, and Celina looked up to see Wilson Lamar coming into the room—alone. He was beautifully dressed in dark gray with very white linen. His handsome, perfectly tanned face held a remote expression. Of course, he was the wronged husband today. How could she have forgotten?

He crossed the room without making eye contact with any of the many who looked his way. Sympathy etched every face. Celina marveled at the man’s ability to work an angle.

It was then that she realized where he was heading.

Wilson arrived at their table and went around to the vacant chair, the chair that allowed a view of him to most restaurant patrons. He smiled wanly at Neville, who said loudly, “My dear fella. Terrible day for you. Terrible day. I can’t tell you how responsible we feel. Our son, and so on. Join us, why don’t you?”

“You aren’t responsible.” Wilson shook his head. “But I’m afraid I wouldn’t be very good company.”

Celina doubted there was a person in the restaurant who wasn’t hanging on every word—even if they did have to be repeated for some of the more distantly seated patrons.

“We insist,” Mama said severely. “It’s at times like this that you need your friends. And we won’t believe you don’t blame us if you turn us down.”

Wilson sighed, managed another weak smile, and sat down. He smiled at Celina and said, “I see this is a celebration for you and your parents. It’s nice of you to let me crash.”

“Nonsense,” Mama said. “You’ve always been among our dearest friends, hasn’t he, Celina?”

She was forced to nod.

A champagne cork popped and glasses were filled. Celina ignored hers, but her parents drank deeply of theirs. Wilson took a sip and set the glass down. Then he bowed his head, and, to Celina’s total, sickened disgust, fumbled across the table until he could clasp her hand in his and thread their fingers together.

“We think of you as a member of the family,” Neville said. “You can always turn to us.”

Celina was helpless to stop Wilson from taking her hand to his mouth and kissing her knuckles. “Thank you,” he said in a voice loaded with emotion. “You have been the sister I never had, Celina. I shall never be able to thank you and your parents enough for being there whenever I needed you.”

With his free hand he pushed his napkin aside, pushed it toward Neville, who slid it into his lap with as much nonchalance as he could muster.

After an interval, Celina saw her father fumbling below the table. His lips moved. He was counting. Then elation made his eyes glitter. He pushed a bulky envelope into the inside pocket of his jacket.