Then, like a wildcat, she challenged me. “And what did you give me? A few dresses? Some baubles when you remembered I was here? What about Dominick? All he thinks of is pleasing you, and you don’t seem to notice him. It’s like we are the ghosts, Mother!” She froze. “What do you mean, took me in? What are you saying, Mother?”
“You are my daughter in every way that matters,” I said, my heart crumbling as I spoke. I could see awareness dawn in her eyes. She was beginning to see the truth. Oh, Annalee! You are my own!
“You have your freedom, and that’s more than I ever had! You weren’t born a Serene, born destined to be a placée! That’s not what I want for you. I won’t allow it, and I’ll fight both heaven and hell to keep you safe, Annalee!”
“Then it’s true that I’m not your daughter. Whose daughter am I? Who do I belong to?”
“Your mother was my friend Flower. I never knew who your father was. He didn’t want a girl-child, but I did! I wanted you, and Flower gave you to me. I wanted to love you and save you from a life I would not wish for my Minette.”
In a steely voice, she yelled back, “You don’t know what you’re talking about. How can you be so cruel? These are lies! You tell so many lies!” She was on her feet, sobbing now. I thought she might attack me or throw herself in my lap and weep her life away, but she did neither.
“And what about your lover, Mother? What about him?”
“He…he’s dead now. He’s dead, and he can’t touch you.”
She was close now, so close I could smell her honeyed breath and feel the warmth of her skin. She’d grown so much this past year. All traces of the plump child I’d held and rocked had vanished. She was a woman now.
“But he does touch me. He calls me by your name. When I swim in the pond, he is there. If I go to the garden, he stands and watches me. If I walk down the path to the gazebo, he comes. Why? What does he want?”
I gasped, and my hands flew to my mouth. “That can’t be. He’s dead, Annalee. He can’t harm us anymore.”
“I am leaving this evil place. You may have your ghosts, but they won’t have me. I am going to Thorn Hill. Champion says I can stay there. No matter what you say, I am and always will be his sister, and he’s eager to shower me with affection. Dominick will be home in a week. Tell him he can find me there.”
“If you must go, then leave. But don’t go to Thorn Hill, Annalee. He is there. If you go to him there, you’ll never be able to escape. And I can’t protect you,” I said desperately.
“You aren’t protecting me here, Susanna.” Hearing her say my name was like a slap in the face. She’d never called me Susanna before. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“If you leave Sugar Hill, daughter, you won’t be welcomed back.”
“Daughter? I know precious little about whose daughter I am, but I am glad I am not yours!” Kicking away a pile of clothing, she stamped her foot and stared at me with unforgiving green eyes. “Goodbye, Susanna. I hope you and your ghosts are happy together.” In a swirl of silk and unbound hair, she spun out of the room.
I ran after her, pleading with her. “Annalee, please listen to me. You shouldn’t go there. I can’t explain it all, but you just can’t. Only tragedy waits for you there. If you don’t want to remain at Sugar Hill, stay with the Jardines at Red Oaks. I would be happy to write letters for you, and I know they would welcome you.”
“I’m going to Thorn Hill. I will stay with Champion,” she said as she stomped down the staircase, her gown rustling as she walked.
“Go to your brother, Annalee. I know Dominick would love to have you visit. Think of the surprise he’ll get when he sees you.” I couldn’t hide the desperation in my voice.
“Dominick is with his placée, Susanna, or did you not know that?” She smirked, showing the dimple above her left lip. “And for the last time, Champion is my brother too. Goodbye. I’ll send for my things later when you’ve had a chance to calm down. Olive is coming with me.” Annalee climbed into the carriage, and Olive crawled up beside her, wringing her hands. She couldn’t look me in the eye.
“Olive, watch out for her,” I called as Annalee shot me one last disapproving look out the small window. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where Ingrid had gotten to.
What should I do about her, Chase?
As the carriage rolled away, I swallowed my tears. I wanted to run after her and demand she come back, but what good would that do? Now Annalee knew my secret—her secret—and she was determined to do what she wanted. I stood unmoving in the cloud of dust the carriage had left behind. Perhaps I should leave too. Leave this unhappy life. Yes, I could go and be with my Chase, if he’d have me. I didn’t know whether to cry, scream or throw myself off the roof.
I noticed a solitary figure walking up to the house. She wore a faded blue cotton dress and a ragged hat that barely covered her thick, twisted braids. She had dark skin, so dark that it gleamed in the sunshine. Something about her captivated me. This was no slave. This was a free woman. I could always tell. I held my breath as I watched her quickly close the distance between us.
When she got about ten feet from me, she stopped and surveyed me, then watched the departing carriage without fear. I blinked against the heat. The dust settled, and I blinked again. Surely I was seeing things, for I would have bet my soul that I was looking into the face of my own mother, Sulli! Only a darker version of her.
“Sulli? Mother?”
“No, girl. I am not a ghost. My sister, Sulli, is long dead. I am very much alive. As are you. You may call me Minnie.” She shook a bag of beads, or bones, that she pulled from her pocket, just as Sulli would have done. “Keeps the ghosts away. You can become one just by saying that word too much.”
“Why are you here, Minnie?” I was certain she wanted something.
“I can see I have waited too long. Well, that can’t be helped. But I am here now.” She stood next to me and stared me in the eyes. Oh, such a familiar face. How badly I wanted to see my mother, and it was almost as if she were here now.
“You’ve been with the spirits too long. I see them stealing your light, Susanna. Time to let the ghosts go.”
And at those words, I cried. She held out her arms, and I fell in them, sobbing as if I were lying on my mother’s breast.
“There now. Minnie is here. We’ll fight the ghosts together.”
We walked back into the cool halls of Sugar Hill and left the heat and dust behind us.
Chapter Three
Handsome Cheever
Handsome scrubbed at the splattered love bugs that covered the grill of the old Cadillac. What would happen if they called him from the big house and the car looked like this? That wouldn’t do at all. Not at all. He couldn’t drive the lady around with a car covered in bug guts. Thankfully, it was Friday. He always washed the car on Fridays.
Somehow, Lucas didn’t understand that. His son had surprised him today by showing up and declaring that he was cooking Handsome dinner. It wasn’t even five o’clock yet! Lucas had brought his wife and son, Alice Marie and Arnold Lee. Handsome was happy to see his grandson, but after a few seconds, the boy hugged his legs quickly and then ran past him to the cow pasture behind the house with his ragged kite rattling in his hands. The boy was always building a kite, trying new designs. Arnold Lee had smarts, like his father. Not like Handsome. Handsome felt certain he didn’t have too many smarts, but he sure knew how to keep the car clean.
And he knew a few other things too. Like how to keep the ghosts of Sugar Hill calm, and how to hear Miss Billie, even on days when she was quiet. And she’d been real quiet recently. It had been so long since he heard her singing, he was beginning to think he’d never hear her lovely, raspy voice again. He needn’t have worried. He could hear her loud and clear this afternoon. She was singing, and that could only mean one thing.
Handsome smiled as Arnold Lee ran up and down the pasture tugging at his kite. The boy never managed to launch his kites by himself. T
here wasn’t much of a breeze today, and even if he could get the kite up, it wouldn’t stay up. Not in this dead heat.
“Dad, did you hear me? I’ve got hot dogs, and Alice Marie made macaroni salad. And she brought you some peach tea. Wasn’t that nice?”
“Oh, very nice. Let me rinse these here bugs off, and then we’ll have some of that tea.” Lucas wanted Handsome to stop what he was doing immediately—he knew his son well enough to know that—but Handsome had no mind to quit in the middle of the job. That just made more work for later. These love bugs weren’t going to come off by themselves, and their smashed bodies got like cement if they stayed on the car’s grille and windshield overnight.
After a few seconds of hesitation, Lucas said, “I’ll start the grill, Dad.”
Handsome didn’t hear him. Instead, his mind was focused on the sweet, lingering notes that began to swell loudly in his ears.
All of me…why not take all of me…can’t you see…I’m no good without you…
“Yes, Miss Billie. I hear you. I’m no good without you, neither.”
Handsome glanced at Lucas, who was tossing charcoal into the clean but rusty grill. He only used that grill when Lucas came to see him. Most of the time, he just picked up something from Chester’s Chicken or one of the burger joints on Jackson. There were so many to choose from nowadays. He could see Alice Marie in the kitchen window. With a frown, the one she always wore, she watched Handsome and clucked her tongue over something that didn’t please her. Who knew what that could be? Probably mad because he hadn’t washed the breakfast dishes yet. Didn’t she understand this was his house? She was just a visitor here. He could leave the dishes undone if he wanted to.
Take my lips…I want to lose them…take my arms…I’ll never use them…
That wasn’t Miss Billie’s voice he was hearing. That was a child. A child singing Miss Billie’s song. But he could hear her too. Miss Billie sang. The child sang. Handsome sang too.
He dropped his sponge and stared in the direction where Miss Billie’s singing was coming from. He strolled past Lucas, who was arranging the briquettes in the grill tray. Such a tidy boy. He’d always been a tidy boy.
Your goodbye…left me with eyes that cry…how can I go on, dear, without you…
Arnold Lee ran right past Handsome as fast as he could, but Handsome heard the words. He plainly heard the words. The boy was singing Miss Billie’s song, and then Lucas was beside him. “How long he been singing with Miss Billie?” Handsome asked.
Lucas tossed the red and white checkerboard cloth over his shoulder. His hands were on his hips, and he watched Arnold struggle to get the kite off the ground. “Does it matter? Alice Marie thinks he’s got something wrong with him. She thinks he inherited a mental disease from you. She says if I don’t get him to the doctor, if I don’t get him fixed, she’ll leave us.”
Handsome tore his eyes from his grandson and looked at his boy. “Lucas, he’s not crazy. I’m not crazy, either. It’s not something you can fix. He’s just special, is all.”
Lucas wiped his eyes. Handsome couldn’t be sure, but he thought maybe he was crying just a little. If Handsome was married to Alice Marie, he’d cry too. “The world isn’t kind to special people, Dad. I thought maybe you could talk with Arnold Lee. Tell him how to make it stop.”
Handsome glanced over his shoulder at Alice Marie’s sour face in the window. He wanted to tell his son that if she left, good riddance, that Lucas would survive and could do so much better. But he didn’t. Handsome couldn’t deny that she loved Arnold Lee, and she even loved Lucas in her own way. Although Alice Marie and Handsome had never been friends, he had some softness toward her. But not much. “I can’t tell him how to do that because I don’t know how to do that. What’s wrong with hearing a little singing? Don’t you hum tunes from the radio? Can’t you call up a song you like, remember the rhythm and the words and sing it back? The boy is just like that. Like a radio, only there’s just one singer, and that’s Miss Billie.” Handsome rubbed his nose against the dust the boy was kicking up. “It is just Miss Billie he hears, right?”
“I’m not sure, Dad. Maybe you can talk to him?”
“Maybe. But he’s having some fun right now. Why don’t you let him stay the night? He can help me make my rounds tomorrow, and we can talk then. I’ll tell him what I know. What he should know.”
“Would you, Dad? That would be perfect. That means a lot.”
“Sure thing, son.”
You took the part…that once was my heart…so why not take all of me?
“All of me…” Arnold Lee sang as he finally caught some wind. “Look, Dad! I got it! I caught a cloud, only it’s invisible! You can’t see it, but it’s there! I found it!” Arnold Lee let out a whoop, and Handsome and Lucas clapped for him. “I did it by myself!”
“Good job, Arnold!” With one last worried look, Lucas walked back to the grill while his wife covered the picnic table with a red and white checkered tablecloth. She must have brought it with her because Handsome didn’t recall having one. He rinsed the car one last time and turned off the water hose. He checked his phone to make sure he hadn’t missed a call from the Big House. Nothing yet, and he’d expected to get a call.
There was a gathering today. Handsome had watched the cars speeding up Jackson all day. Danforth, Pepper, Mr. Jack, and the others. Some of the cars he recognized, some he did not. That could mean one of two things. There was a homegoing or a homecoming. In this case, it was a homecoming. Bray Dufresne and his wife were returning to Sugar Hill. And from what Handsome heard, they planned to stay awhile. Miss Summer asked him to pick them up from the airport, and he had been glad to do it. Even gladder to drop them off at Sugar and leave.
The sad thing was, ever since Handsome dropped that man and his wife there, Miss Billie had been singing up a storm. The spirits were stirred up, and Miss Billie knew all about it. Handsome popped the trunk to make sure he had what he needed. Yes, it was there. Four ten-pound bags of salt. He was going to need every one of them and more, probably. He closed the trunk quickly before anyone saw.
Your goodbye…left me with eyes that cry…How can I go on, dear, without you?
“Never, Miss Billie. You’ll never be without Handsome. We’ll go up together tonight. After the boy goes to sleep. It’s going to be all right, Miss Billie. You’ll see.” Handsome placed the chauffeur cap on the dashboard just in case he needed it. He locked the car and dropped the keys in his pocket, humming as he smiled at Alice Marie.
“Now that looks mighty tasty.” Handsome hummed a bit but remembered to keep his singing to himself. Arnold Lee looked at Handsome and grinned. Lucas pretended not to see either of them. But that was the way it was with Lucas. That was how he coped with it all. Handsome guessed he felt bad that he didn’t hear the music too.
But Arnold Lee did. And that was something.
Chapter Four
Avery Dufresne
“Avery, I think you are making a terrible mistake. If you leave now, you’ll only be adding fuel to the fire. Bray doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Despite what he says, your DNA has nothing to do with your being Matrone.” Reed ran his hands through his dark hair and followed me around the bedroom, putting my clothes back in drawers.
“Stop that, Reed. It will matter to some of them. Let’s stop pretending it doesn’t. It all boils down to which is my relative, Athena or Susanna, doesn’t it?”
“It only matters to them. The family covenant is for all of Chase’s children, all of them, from both wives. He made provisions for all of them, and you are his descendant.”
“You don’t need to lie to me. It’s about Susanna. I have her ring. Am I her relative or not?”
“I don’t know for sure. Aunt Anne never revealed the results of those tests to me, but…”
“But what?”
“I know for a fact that Summer is Athena’s descendant.”
That stunned me into silence. What could that mean? Was Summer behind this move
? I couldn’t imagine my cousin would betray me like that, but did I really know her?
“I don’t need your help right now. And if DNA didn’t mean so much, then why on earth did Miss Anne have us tested? What’s the big deal? The board obviously thinks it’s a big deal. I mean, look out the window. All of them are circling Bray like he’s the next big thing, so they can have it. I’m sick of them all!”
Reed touched my arm and gave me his I’m-being-so-patient-with-you look.
Summer tapped on the door with a glass of tea in her hand. What was it about this family? Everyone thought a glass of iced tea could fix anything. I found that hard to believe. I didn’t really like it anyhow. She said sweetly, “Hi. I brought you something to drink. If you don’t stay hydrated, you might pass out again. And I hope you aren’t taking Bray too seriously. Hey, what’s all this?”
I closed the suitcase and fastened the lock. It was a struggle. I had no idea what I had just packed, but I was pretty sure it was just my underwear and sock drawer. I was not good at packing on the fly. I learned that from my reporter days. Other journalists got a call for an assignment and headed out immediately. Not me. I needed at least twenty-four hours to plan my packing list.
“I’m leaving. I’m done with these ungrateful bastards. If Bray thinks he knows so much, let him be Matrone.”
“What? You can’t just leave. You are the Matrone.” She pointed to my finger with wide eyes. I had been ignoring the warm feeling, and now I tugged on the ring. It would be so perfect if it actually came off and I could throw it at someone. No such luck. It was stuck, as always.
“I don’t give a damn about any of it. You know what really ticks me off, Summer? It’s not Bray. It’s that the entire board is down there hanging on his every word as if I don’t mean a damn thing to them. Like we haven’t done great work together! It’s infuriating, and quite frankly, I’m done with it all.”
The Hauntings Of Sugar Hill: The Complete Series Page 39
