Leonie cried out, but before she could do more than that, Blaise Mignon reached down and picked up a short length of timber. Swinging it like a bat, he caught the big man on the side of the head. Hackman staggered but did not go down. As coolly as a man casting a fly with a fishing pole, Blaise took another swing even more powerfully that hit the man again in the head. Hackman collapsed, blood streaming from his head.
“We’ll have him arrested,” Mignon said lightly.
“Is he dead?” Leonie whispered.
“Unfortunately not. He’s got a hard head.” He walked over to Sheffield, who had stumbled to his feet, and said, “You must be the good doctor.”
Sheffield was dazed, and Leonie went to him and said, “Come and sit down, Dr. Sheffield.”
Blaise left and returned shortly with two burly policemen. They hauled Hackman to his feet, and Blaise said, “I’ll be down to press charges later.”
“Your poor face,” Leonie whispered to Ransom. “Let me put some cool compresses on it.”
Slaves had gathered around to watch, and Julius said with indignation, “If I’d been here, I could have hit him my own self !”
“Just do that the next time he comes in,” Blaise said with a smile.
“Are you hurt badly?” Leonie whispered to Ransom.
Ransom Sheffield reached up and touched his bruised face.
She said, “Where are you hurting most?”
“I guess I hurt all over more than I do any particular place.” He tried to smile and said, “Ouch!” He looked up at Blaise and said, “Thank you, sir.”
“Anytime. Come to think of it, maybe I can make a living as a tough guy.”
“You need a doctor to put you together,” Leonie said to Ransom. “That eyebrow. That cut’s going to take some stitches. I’ll go down the street and get Dr. Roberts.”
As soon as she left, Blaise said, “That’s a fine young woman.”
“Yes, she is. I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“I’m Blaise Mignon, an old friend of Miss Dousett.”
“I hope that fellow doesn’t come back.”
“I don’t think he will. A few days in jail may cool him off. I’ll go along now. Tell Leonie I’ll be back later.”
“Yes, sir, and thanks for your help.” As Blaise Mignon left, Sheffield got slowly to his feet. His ribs hurt, and as he went over to look in a mirror, he said, “You were ugly enough to begin with, and you’re going to look like a gorilla now.”
“Are you all right, Doctor?”
He turned around and saw the young Creole woman, Lolean. Concern was in her face.
“I guess we’re about the same. Both of us had a beating.”
She reached up and touched his face. “I am so sorry. He is a cruel man.”
“He won’t be back anymore. I promise you.” He looked down at the young woman and smiled. “I guess we could hire a bodyguard to take care of both of us.”
Tears came to her eyes, and she said, “Thank you for taking care of me.”
Ransom Sheffield had a tender heart. “Why, that’s what I’m here for, Lolean.”
Chapter fifteen
February had passed away, taking with it the worst of the cold weather. March came in like the proverbial lamb, with warm days of sunshine and even breezes loaded with warmth from the South. The beaches of the Gulf Coast were filled with bathers, and the streets of New Orleans were packed with visitors.
Leonie had just returned from a trip into town. She greeted Lady Maria, who asked, “How was the clinic doing?”
“Dr. Sheffield looks so weary,” Leonie answered, a troubled look in her eyes. “He’s lost weight, and he works day and night. I’m afraid for him.”
“You’ve grown very fond of that physician, haven’t you?”
“Yes, I have. He’s such a good man.”
Maria sent more funds to help with the clinic and to pay for medicine for those who could not afford it.
As the weeks passed, Leonie stayed close to home, but she had little to do except take care of her duties in the house. As a result of this, she spent a great deal of time out-of-doors, wandering through the bayous. She had been confined to a city most of her life, and it began to delight her to watch the reptiles, birds, and mammals of the swamp. She became familiar with the staccato quock of the stubby black-crowned night heron, and she loved to watch the great space-loving egrets as they came to fish and nest in the swamps. She grew familiar with the small mammals, such as squirrels and swamp rabbits, who inhabited the solid land. The shy otter and the gregarious raccoons fed on the banks of the swamp, their diet fish, crawfish, and young amphibians. Once she saw a pair of black bears, shy creatures that usually stayed deep in the swamp. Many days she went out to roam the land whose only significant rises were natural ridges called levees. The cypress and tupelo gum trees were everywhere, and a green gloom in the depth of the bayous gave it a romantic image.
Flowers, even in early March, were a delight. Hibiscus, wild iris, spider lilies, and pond lilies decorated the freshwater marshes, and Leonie delighted in gathering them and taking them into the house. Sometimes a solid layer of hyacinths stretched from bank to bank on the surface of the bayou.
“You better watch yourself in that bayou, Miss Leonie,” Julius warned as she began spending more time there. “There’s bad things there. There’s alligators that could swallow you in one bite and cottonmouths most thick as my leg.” He shook his head and frowned. “It’s a beautiful place, but it’s full of death.”
Leonie was careful, and many times she did see the monstrous leviathans looking like logs for all the world. She also was careful to stay away from anything that looked like one of the cottonmouths that pervaded the swamp.
One late afternoon, as she was walking home from her wanderings, she passed through hackberry trees and live oaks and white oaks towering seventy feet above the earth. The live oaks were not as tall, but they made up for it in breadth, stretching out their branches to make crowns a hundred feet or more across.
As she made her way back to the house, she noted that the streams were muddy, the color of milk chocolate, as if the earth had melted and begun to ooze. The broad streams were lined with the oaks, and there were enormous patches of long, yellow-spiked cane and green palmettos rearing up from the banks like oversize hands, motionless in the shade. Finally she passed out of the bayou, walking down a long, winding road that led to the plantation itself. Some of the hands were out, and as she passed, she gave them a cheerful call, and they looked up from their plows to wave back at her. She had become acquainted with most of the slaves and felt a great sorrow at the plight that most of them endured.
Finally she reached the house, and when she entered, she found Mrs. Danvers in the kitchen working with the cooks. The older woman looked up and smiled. “You’ve been out in that bayou again.”
“Yes, I have. It’s such a wonderful place.”
“It ain’t wonderful to me,” Opal Dupre snorted. Opal was the cook, a heavy woman with green eyes and thick brown hair. She was superstitious. “I dreamed about that place once. I wouldn’t go out there if you gave me the city of New Orleans.”
“Oh, don’t be foolish, Opal,” Leonie replied with a smile. “As long as you stay away from the alligators and the snakes, it’s a beautiful place. What can I do to help you?”
“You can peel these potatoes.”
“All right.” Leonie sat down on a high stool and began peeling. As she did, the three women talked about the plantation, and Leonie thought again how Mrs. Danvers had become far more friendly than she had dreamed could happen. The older woman had been antagonistic when she had first come, but Leonie understood that. Mrs. Danvers now was as friendly as it was in her to be. And as she peeled the potatoes, Leonie asked, “What was Mr. Ives like growing up?”
“He was a good boy but mischievous. Always pulling a practical joke,” Mrs. Danvers answered. She was carefully shelling crawdads and preparing them for the pot. She smiled unexp
ectedly then and shook her head. “He was one for practical jokes. I had his mother paddle him more than once for some of his wild tricks.”
“Tell me about them.” Leonie listened as the older woman began to relate stories, and finally, when all the potatoes were done, she sighed, “I wish I could have known him.”
Mrs. Danvers suddenly looked at her. “He would have been proud of you, Leonie, very proud.”
Leonie’s face colored as it always did at praise. “Do you think I am his daughter, Mrs. Danvers?”
Mrs. Danvers looked at her for a long moment silently, then nodded. “You are very like him. I think you have the Augustine blood.”
“My grandmother never says anything.”
“She’s afraid of being deceived. She has been fooled many times by people, some of them in her own family.”
Leonie did not ask more, for she knew that Mrs. Danvers would never go into detail. “I’m going up to see how she is.” She left the kitchen, walked upstairs, and found Lady Maria sitting out on the balcony.
“It’s too brisk out here for you, Lady Maria.”
“No, it feels good. It’ll be sultry and hot soon enough. Where have you been? I saw you coming down the road.”
“Oh, I just went out to the bayou. I like it so much out there.”
“You be careful. That’s a dangerous place.”
“I am.”
“What have you heard about the clinic? Anything more?” Lady Maria asked.
“I got a letter from Dr. Sheffield this morning,” she said. “The clinic is full, and he’s working full-time there.”
“I don’t see how he does it. The people can’t pay.”
“He’s mentioned the money you sent, and he says he’s writing you, too, to thank you.”
“Yes, I got his letter. He writes very well for a Kaintock. He says business is slowing somewhat now.”
“Yes, so he says.” Leonie hesitated, then said, “Mrs. Danvers was telling me about my father when he was a boy.”
It was the first time that Leonie had had the courage to call Ives “my father.” She saw Lady Maria’s eyes fly wide open and expected her to protest, but she said only, “He was a good boy. What did she tell you?”
“She said when he was a boy, he played practical jokes.”
Lady Maria smiled. “Yes. Even on me. Not on his father so much.”
“Didn’t they get along?”
“My husband was too strict with Ives. I always told him that, but he would never listen.”
“That’s sad. A boy should be close to his father.”
“So I always thought, but they didn’t have the same sort of personality. My husband was a strict man, not one given to levity, but Ives was full of fun.”
“Tell me more about him.”
For a time Maria described her son and his escapades. Then Leonie asked, “Did you like my mother?”
“I didn’t at first, but I probably wouldn’t have liked any young woman Ives chose. I was very possessive of him. I see that now.”
“What was she like?”
“You’ve seen her picture. It’s very like her. I know now that she was one of the sweetest young women I ever met. But my husband was proud, and he wouldn’t listen to Ives. Ives loved her very much; he told me that many times.”
“I wonder what I would have been like if they had lived.”
“Probably as you are now. Perhaps a little more so.” Suddenly Maria asked, “What is it you want out of life, Leonie?”
“Why, to be a good woman, to serve God.”
“What about a husband and children?”
Leonie flushed slightly. “That will come if God’s wills it.”
“A good answer. I’m going to give a party for you!” she said abruptly.
“For me! What kind of party?”
“We’ll have a ball here at Belle Fleur. We’ll invite the neighbors.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that, Lady Maria.”
“It’s something I’ve been thinking about. I want to do it.”
“But I have nothing to wear.”
Maria laughed. “You’re a seamstress, aren’t you? We’ll buy some attractive material, and you can make your own dress.”
The conversation at dinner had been fairly friendly, but it fell off abruptly when Lady Maria said, “I’ve decided to give a ball for Leonie.”
Instantly Zara and Lowell glanced at each other, and then Lowell said quickly, “Why, I think that’s a wonderful idea.”
Zara quickly masked her displeasure and said, “Yes, it is. I’ll be glad to help you with a dress, Leonie.”
“That’s good of you, Zara,” Maria said, “but Leonie’s going to make her own dress. I have a feeling she can do a better job than any of those French dressmakers in town.”
Leonie said only, “It seems like a lot of trouble.” But Lady Maria affirmed again, “This is the right thing to do. It’s good for our neighbors and our acquaintances to meet you.”
Lowell and Zara met briefly after dinner outside in the garden. Lowell said, “This isn’t good, Zara. There’s only one reason why Maria would want to give a party.”
“Yes, I think you’re right.”
“If she introduces Leonie as her granddaughter, we’re sunk.”
“I know. We’ll have to do something about it.”
“I don’t know what we can do,” Lowell said miserably. “It’s out of our hands now.”
Zara was silent, and there was a steely flicker in her eyes. “We’ve got to do something, Lowell,” she repeated. “We can’t lose all this.”
Mrs. Danvers looked out the window and said, “There’s that lawyer again.”
“Lawyer?” Leonie was sewing her dress and did not get up, although she looked across the room at Mrs. Danvers.
“It’s Mr. Mignon.”
“Really? I’m surprised.”
“So am I.”
“I know for a fact that Lady Maria told him not to come back.”
Leonie was aware of this as well, and she put her sewing down saying, “I’ll let him in.”
“You better not let Lady Maria know. She’ll be displeased.”
Leonie nodded, then went to the door. She opened it and waited until Blaise came up the steps. He was wearing the suit that she had made for him, and it looked a little bit worse for the wear. He was clean-shaven, his eyes were bright, and she couldn’t smell liquor on him. “Hello, Blaise,” she said.
“Well, greetings, my dear. I suppose you’re surprised to see me.”
“To be truthful, I am.”
“Lady Augustine sent for me.”
Surprise washed across Leonie’s face. “She did? Well, come in then.”
Mignon stepped inside the door and gave her his hat. She hung it on the hall tree and said, “I’m glad to see you again.”
“Let me look at you. Why, you’re blooming. A flower on the bayou.” He took her hands and smiled broadly. “I know someone else who would like to see you.”
“Who is that?”
“That doctor friend of yours. He told me to tell you he can hardly run the clinic without you. Wants to know when you’re coming back.”
“I think I can come fairly soon.”
“Good.”
“How is he, Blaise?”
“Worn down, as usual. Of course, he’s got Lolean to take care of him. That young woman has taken over like a mother hen with one chick. I wish a beautiful woman like that would decide to take care of me.”
“She’s still there?”
“Yes, she works at the clinic now. She’s gotten to be very handy. Almost like a nurse.”
“Oh.”
Blaise gave her a wise glance. “What do you mean, ‘Oh’?”
“Nothing. I’m glad he’s got someone to look after him,” she said stiffly. “Come along. I’ll take you to my grandmother.”
“Do you call her that?”
“Not when I’m around her.”
“I’m curious as to
why she sent for me.”
“I am too. She was very suspicious of you before.”
They had reached the second floor and stopped outside of Lady Maria’s door. After Leonie knocked, they heard her say, “Come in,” and Leonie opened the door and went inside. “Monsieur Mignon is here to see you, Lady.”
“Come in, Monsieur.”
Blaise came in, stopped in the middle of the floor, and made a quick bow. “You sent for me, Lady Augustine?”
“Yes. Have a chair. Leonie, would you mind bringing refreshments for us all? I will have café au lait.”
“That will do fine for me as well, Lady Augustine.”
Filled with curiosity, Leonie went downstairs, fixed the thick coffee laced with milk, and took it back upstairs. She found Blaise telling her grandmother about Dr. Sheffield and his clinic. He seemed excited about it. “To tell the truth, no one thought it would work. And, of course, the poor chap was overflowing from the very first. So many poor people and so many sick people. He’s made quite a name for himself, and I know some of the wealthier people have made contributions to the clinic. He’s thinking now of expanding. About all he talks about.”
“I would like to see him again.”
“I’ll tell him you said so, Lady Augustine.”
Leonie took a chair and sat quietly as her grandmother and the lawyer talked for some time. Finally Lady Augustine said, “I feel that I have not been just to you, Blaise.”
Blaise was obviously surprised. “Why, what do you mean?”
“I mean that I was very suspicious when you brought Leonie here. I didn’t trust you.”
“There was no reason why you should.”
“Perhaps not, but I have now decided that you are to be trusted. I am wondering if you would like to be my man of business, as you used to be.”
Blaise’s face suddenly went pale. “Why—why, nothing would please me better, Lady Augustine.”
“Good. It’s settled then. We’ll talk about terms later.”
Blaise glanced quickly at Leonie and said, “Well, if I’m now officially your man of business, there’s one question I would like an answer to.”
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