by Linda Conrad
“Damn you!” she continued, shrieking toward the shadows. “I gave my word that you would receive your heart’s desire. You think this has all been good luck? Bah! Your heart’s desire was to be loved. But no one deserves love until they can open their own heart. And you will receive nothing until you accept the truth.”
Passionata paced under the willow and fumed. “You tell yourself you haven’t missed anything where the woman is concerned,” the gypsy mumbled angrily to herself. “Severin, you fool! You say you love her? Idiot! You crave her. That is not nearly good enough.
“No,” she repeated aloud. “You are on the wrong path.”
The old gypsy woman needed a better plan. She had given her word. Her ancestors expected the right result.
Passionata struggled to find the way. Her heart had already gone out to the woman. That would be where the answer was to be found, she was sure.
In a flash of thunder and magic, the correct answer came to her then. She saw the proper way at last.
Picking up her crystal, Passionata waved her arm out toward the old plantation. The magic was in the wrong hands.
It was time to set things to rights.
Chase’s mind was reeling and his heart aching, as he leaned his forehead against the locked door and tried one last time. “Please tell me what’s wrong, Kate. I don’t understand.”
Things between them had been deteriorating for the last ten days, since she’d agreed to the marriage. He had believed their problems were due to the onset of Kate’s bouts with morning sickness. Chase was sure he would’ve had a rough time being happy and contented while living with anything as bad as that.
They were supposed to be married tomorrow, but something else was wrong. Very wrong. And she wouldn’t talk to him about it.
“Go away, Chase,” she called out through the closed door. “It’s over. We’re not getting married tomorrow.”
“Stop saying that and talk to me,” he begged. But his pleas were met with silence, the same as they had been for the last hour.
Rubbing a hand over his jaw, Chase felt bruised. It was almost as if she had actually slapped him.
He didn’t get it. What could possibly be so wrong?
Her sickness was only temporary. The doctor said so.
The construction on the outside of the house and on the mill appeared to be progressing too slowly, but still not that far off track. The town seemed genuinely pleased about changing from a mill town to a tourist destination. Their world was good.
Chase was so close to getting everything he had ever wanted that he could just taste it. But none of it would mean a thing without Kate. She was the key to his acceptance on the right side of town. Money and power meant nothing without her.
Without her? Oh God. How could she turn her back on him? Even though she had never told him she’d loved him, he knew she did. They shared a history. They would be sharing parenting duties for their child. And they were more than compatible in each other’s arms.
That last thought took him to a place where erotic longings and staggering needs threatened to bring him to tears. She couldn’t turn away from what they shared. It wasn’t fair and would kill him.
Frustrated and hurting, Chase decided to try another route to discovering the answers. He headed down the stairs to find Shelby. If anyone would know Kate’s heart, she would.
As usual, he found Shelby in the kitchen. He’d bought brand-new professional appliances for her to use, and all the stainless steel gleamed under the newly replaced lighting.
But Shelby wasn’t cooking this afternoon. She was sitting at the long kitchen table working on the new laptop she’d bought after her last catering job. Maddie was napping beside her in a portable playpen.
Shelby looked up when he entered the room. “Is Kate okay? She told me to stop working on the reception and to begin contacting the guests to say the wedding’s off. But I…”
“Don’t,” he said. “Not just yet, anyway.”
He joined Shelby at the table. “Kate won’t talk to me,” he confessed. “I don’t know if she’s okay. I don’t know what’s wrong. Did something happen this morning that would’ve brought this on?”
Shelby shrugged one shoulder. “It didn’t seem like much at the time, but I guess it must’ve affected Kate deeply. She’s been getting more and more weepy every day. I thought it was just her raging hormones and the nausea. But this, well…”
“What?”
“Kate went down to the bayou at the edge of Live Oak property to collect Queen Anne’s lace for the centerpieces. I’d told her we could order some from the florist in New Iberia, but she wouldn’t hear of it.”
Chase nodded. That did sound like Kate, but so what?
“She came back in a little while without any flowers. Her face was drained of all color, and her hands were shaking and cold. She looked scared to death.”
“Why?” he interrupted. “What happened?” He would kill anyone or destroy anything that would upset her this way.
“I asked. She didn’t want to talk about it. I finally got her to say she’d seen a swamp ghost, but then she said something like ‘It was all her fault.’”
“A swamp ghost? That’s just an old superstition. Was she hysterical or something?”
“No. She wasn’t even crying at the time. I asked her what this ghost looked like and she said it was the gypsy…and then she mumbled something about a curse.”
“The gypsy? Crap.” He couldn’t believe that the woman he loved, who usually seemed so in control and smart, would let her imagination run away with her like that. It had only been a fanciful story. Hadn’t it?
“Do you know what she was talking about?”
“Maybe.” He stood and squared his shoulders. “Can you tell me exactly where Kate was when she saw this gypsy? If I go there, perhaps I’ll prove she was seeing swamp gas. Then I can convince her it was just a coincidence.”
Shelby told him what she could about where the Queen Anne’s lace grew. He stormed out of the house determined to make this right. His life would not be derailed by any old gypsy curse.
When he spotted the Queen Anne’s lace growing next to the swamp, he thought he had the mystery solved. Sure enough, eerie green swamp gas was rising from the coffee-colored water.
The mist swirled around his ankles, and Chase couldn’t help but wonder how a woman like Kate, who had been raised in bayou country, could make such a mistake. He’d known Guidry’s tale had upset her, but this was carrying things too far.
As he peered out over the bog, Chase caught sight of something bright. Whatever it was, it seemed to be wavering in and out of view. Aha. Perhaps this would be what Kate had seen that frightened her into believing she’d seen a gypsy ghost.
He picked his way closer to the ancient willow where he’d spotted the object. When he got closer, he saw that it was a deep-purple and bright-red silk scarf, caught on a limb and waving like a flag in the wind.
However, somewhere way in the back of his mind, he knew there was no wind.
At first, Chase was really delighted with his find. He could take the scarf back and prove to Kate that she had not seen a ghost. But when he reached out and touched it, things changed.
Delight turned to confusion, and fear crept around the edges of his mind like the ghostly mist surrounding his body.
He’d seen this same scarf once before—on the old gypsy who’d given him the lucky egg. Chase’s mind suddenly began to imagine strange things. He tried to ignore the odd sensation in his chest and the sudden ache in his temple.
But as if blinded by desire, Kate’s face became all that he could see. Weird ideas popped into his mind unbidden.
No wonder Kate had been so unhappy, he thought absently. He hadn’t given her a wedding gift yet.
Well, he could fix that right now. Without a second’s hesitation, he reached into his pocket for the golden egg. Kate needed this much more than he did.
Pleased that he’d had such a fine idea for
a gift, Chase stuffed the wildly colored scarf into his pocket, fisted his hand around the egg and headed back to the house. Smiling to himself, he just knew that soon everything would be as it should be.
Kate wasn’t sure why she’d opened the door to Chase. But the sound of his voice when he’d come back upstairs had changed. Before he had sounded confused and annoyed. Now his voice was smooth and certain. She’d been intrigued to find out what had changed him.
Before she could ask, Chase pulled her into his arms and crushed his mouth on hers. Oh no, she begged him silently. Don’t fog my mind, my love. I have to stay strong to save you.
He raised his head to take a breath and she pulled away. “What do you want, Chase? I’m not going to change my mind if that’s what you think.”
“I have something for you, chère. Please, let’s sit down.”
There wasn’t anywhere to sit in this guest bedroom, save for the bed. And that seemed like taking a big chance.
But he slid his arm around her waist and pulled her down beside him on the edge of the bed. “Are you feeling well now? You’re not sick, are you?” he asked with great concern.
She shook her head but stayed quiet. There was no sense upsetting him again. She felt okay now, but Kate was positive her good health was only temporary.
When she’d seen the ghost of that old gypsy, Kate had finally figured it out. The curse was not over.
As much as she wanted to be a mother. As much as she vowed never to leave her child the way she’d been left. It was not destined to happen.
She would lose this child the same way as she’d lost the one before. It didn’t matter that the doctor said she was fine. The sickness she was experiencing now was exactly the same as long ago.
It was happening all over again. Seeing the gypsy’s ghost proved it. They were cursed.
Chase would be devastated. Kate knew she deserved to be miserable for hiding the whole truth. But he didn’t deserve that kind of pain.
She’d been racking her brain to find a way to make him go away. To save him. Maybe she should be the one to leave. Perhaps she could disappear.
“Shelby told me about you seeing the gypsy in the swamp, Kate. I’m sorry you were frightened.”
“I didn’t… I wasn’t…”
Chase interrupted her by taking her hand and placing a tender kiss against her palm. “I have a wedding gift for you.” He put his lucky golden egg in her open hand.
“But that’s yours. Your good luck charm. Your inheritance.”
“I want you to have it. It will bring you good luck. Protect you from bad luck and old curses.”
He closed her fingers around the egg. “Feel how warm it is? That’s the good luck seeping into your body.”
“It doesn’t feel warm to me,” she told him. Kate was curious about it, though. What was different about this egg?
She peeled her fingers off and proceeded to study the design and the jewels. “Well, that’s interesting. You didn’t tell me the egg opened up. What’s inside?”
Chase looked puzzled. “It doesn’t. At least, I’ve never known it did.”
Feeling a little chill of anticipation, Kate twisted the egg and it popped open. Immediately soft music began to play.
“It’s a music box,” she said, though that was obvious.
Chase’s expression clouded over as he stared down at the egg in her hand. Kate’s attention suddenly had been captured by the familiar notes coming from the open egg.
The song was a lullaby and it swept into her soul. Something half-remembered tugged at her heart. Dry tears were forming in her eyes and clogging her throat.
A vague voice inside the music urged her to finally do the right thing. Kate found she could not refuse.
She felt possessed. But deep down she was glad to at last be facing the truth.
“I have something to tell you, Chase,” she began. “Remember when I said that my father had somehow found out about us, and we had been fighting that last afternoon?”
He nodded but kept his eyes trained on the egg.
“It was me,” she confessed. “I told him. I…I had just taken a pregnancy test and knew I was going to have your baby.”
Chase looked up sharply. He simply stared at her.
“I planned on telling you about the baby that night. Really I did. But I never got the chance.”
Pain shot into his heart. His brain fogged over. He couldn’t breathe.
A picture came into the back of his mind of her looking up from underneath him and saying, I have something important to tell you.
Oh, hell. He’d always believed she’d planned to tell him she loved him that night. But now he knew different.
He wanted to hit something. “Whatever would possess you to tell your father before telling me?”
“I explained that before, Chase. I was young and petrified. I would’ve had to leave high school. You had just graduated. How were we to live and support a baby? I thought he would help us. Give you a good job at the mill. Pay for the doctors.”
She dropped her chin so he couldn’t see her eyes. “I should’ve known better,” she mumbled. “He demanded that I get rid of it. Said a Severin-Beltrane child had no business in this world.”
In a blind rage Chase gripped her shoulders. “You didn’t?” he growled.
Kate’s head whipped up and she glared at him. “I can’t believe you would ask me such a thing.”
She was right. He knew better. Knew her better.
He dropped his hands. “Then where is the child? My child. Did you give it away?”
Kate stood and turned her back to him for a moment. She seemed to be composing herself. When she turned around, she looked stricken and sick. He wanted to help her. Hold her. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t even help himself.
“When you left town, I cried for days. I was so lonely and scared. Then the morning sickness came and I panicked.
“I had to find you,” she continued sadly. “To tell you. To…make you help us. I borrowed some money from Robert Guidry and got on a bus.”
“Guidry loaned you money?”
Kate nodded. “Five hundred dollars. It took me nearly eight years to repay him. But he was the only one I trusted. I knew he wouldn’t ask me to explain why I needed to find you.”
Something inside Chase was cracking. He felt as if he was breaking in two and both halves were rolling toward the edge of a dangerous cliff.
He didn’t want to the hear the rest. Couldn’t stand to hear it. But he was frozen in place. He could see the edge of that abyss coming up fast.
“I searched for you everywhere I could think of,” Kate told him. “For almost three months. I…I was desperate. So desperate, I forgot to eat, sometimes for days at a time. And when I did eat, it was junk. I didn’t have much money.
“Then there were the nights I slept curled up in an alleyway. But I couldn’t find you anywhere.”
No. He couldn’t bear it. The image of his Kate scared and so alone out there in the dark bore a hole into his soul. Chase stood and paced away from her.
“What happened to the baby, Kate?” He had to get her to finish the story so he could breathe again.
“Oh, Chase. I’m so sorry. Our baby…our little girl died. It was all my fault. I should’ve taken better care. The emergency room in that hospital in New Orleans tried to save her. But it was too soon.” Kate covered her face with her hands and sobbed. “It was all my fault. Everything was all my fault.”
The back of Chase’s head exploded in a flash of truth. His whole body throbbed with the searing pain, it doubled him over and blinded him.
“Oh my God.” His chest was constricting. He couldn’t accept what she’d said. But he knew she would never lie.
Someone please stop the pain, he begged silently. No, he thought crazily, instead, make it hurt much worse. Make it so bad that he could forget everything else.
In a fit of agony, Chase went to the closed window and put his fist right through the glass.
He had been such an ass. An arrogant, self-righteous bastard. He deserved to burn in hell and much worse for this.
“Chase! What..?” Kate came over, reaching for his bleeding hand. “You’re cut. Let me help you.”
Ignoring her, Chase collapsed to his knees. He grabbed her around the waist and buried his face in her belly. “I left you behind,” he gasped through the pain. “And just walked away. I was so hurt that I didn’t stop to think. I can’t believe I just didn’t think.”
Chase wished he could roll up in a ball and disappear. “I should’ve been with you. I left you to face your father and the pain all alone. Forgive me.”
“It’s… I…” Her voice was tight with emotion.
All of a sudden something even more horrible occurred to him. “After…afterward you came back here. Why, Kate?” Chase dreaded hearing her answer. He tilted his head to look up at her and held his breath.
“It was pretty stupid of me, I guess,” she told him with chagrin. “But I thought you might come back for me. And I wanted to be where you could easily find me.”
His mouth dropped open but no words came out.
“Took me two years to finally get it in my head that you weren’t coming right back,” she continued. “By then it was also clear that the town needed me as the one sane Beltrane, acting as a buffer between them and my father.”
Ten long years she had suffered alone with that bastard Beltrane. His darling had lived a miserable existence, while he basked gleefully in his anger and self-pity.
The hurt and sorrow in his heart grew so bad now Chase thought dying would be a better option. But he refused to die. Dying meant he would have to leave her all alone, and that was never going to happen again. Never again.
He stood so he could see her face. “I don’t deserve you, my love. But I beg you not to leave me.” He swiped the back of his uncut hand across his eyes to clear the tears, trying to see her better. “If you can’t love me…or marry me…I understand. But give me a chance to make it right.”
She’d been staring at his bleeding hand, but she raised her chin to gaze up at him. “I do love you, Chase. I always have. I said we couldn’t get married because I’m scared. Afraid for our baby. Afraid of the curse.”
