“Nice to meet you!” said everyone in one way or another, and then Old Jim ushered the grown-up people inside and through the house to out back, where the not-a-wedding was going to start.
The girl named Byrd sat on the bottom step of the staircase and put her chin in her hands. Sippie looked at Jack, who seemed, lost … under a spell. “What’s gotten into you, Jack?” she whispered, trying not to laugh.
“Don’t pay him no mind,” said Byrd. “He just done gone and fell in love with me. And honestly? I’m sittin’ right here just thinkin’ on how I looked at him and felt all sorts of crazy rise up in me. I guess we just gotta grow all the way up and see. What you think, Jack?”
Jack just nodded, gazing at her. Sippie laughed.
Byrd stood up. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t even want to come to this shindig. But with Grant and Danny old pals, and that other layer of distant Amore relations, I got curious. Now, I’m glad I came. You two got strange ways, don’t you? And this house? It’s got spirits. Too damn many of them. Seems like a lot of work. I like the saint garden, though. That your idea, Sippie, makin’ those roses come right out of Mary’s eyes?”
“I can’t remember … maybe. It was a long, short time ago. A lot of things have changed.”
“I know,” Byrd said as if she were one hundred years old and knew everything there was to know about everyone. And by the end of the night, Jack and Sippie thought maybe she did.
The house and gardens were bathed in the bayou sunset as Danny and Frances made their unvows. And as night fell, the lightning bugs sparked in and around the paper lanterns and candles set out all over the Sorrow Estate. Danny had taken down the gnarled, overgrown wisteria trees that blocked the view from Sorrow Hall to the cottage where Frances lived. Now the saint garden and family cemetery could also be seen, and everything the eyes could look upon had some sort of decoration, lamp, or lantern, making the entire property glow with warmth and deep, rich colors.
The party went late into the night, and when everyone was finally gone, Sippie and Jack climbed out onto the roof of the back gallery and looked out over the moonlit night.
“I’ll never forget that girl, Byrd. I swear, Sip. I think I fell in love. Don’t tease me; I’m mad at myself enough. Weak. I’m gonna be a weak man.…”
“I once knew a weak man, Jack. And he was one of the best men I’ll ever know. But, it’s no matter. You’re not gonna be weak. And you shouldn’t forget her; this family has to stop forgetting everything. You remember her, Jack, and when you’re older, we’ll go find her. See, we just found ourselves number two on our list of quests.”
Jack pulled out the notebook again.
2. Find Byrd.
“Hey, little brother, look!”
Danny and Frances were out on the small island in the middle of Sorrow Bay, inside the lighthouse. The golden light from candles lit inside created silhouettes of the newly unweds.
They were dancing. And down on the lawn, under the moon, the Sorrow sisters, and Egg, Edmond and Helene and Rosella, they were dancing, too.
And in the shadows, off on the banks of the cypress grove, they both thought they saw Mr. Craven … who straightened his tie and crouched down low, drinking water from the bay, and as he stood up, he flew away, high into the sky. As crows so often do.
Epilogue
Millie Bliss’s Confession
To: Frances Green Sorrow
Sorrow Hall, Serafina’s Bayou
Tivoli Parish, Louisiana
From: Millie Bliss
Somewhere off the Coast of Ridiculously Freezing Massachusetts and … very, very drunk.
Dear Frances,
I thought long and hard about writing to you. I thought maybe it’d be easier if I left things messy, like a nice juicy question mark. Do you remember when we were little and I used to tell you about how life should always remain a question? Well, I guess I’m breaking that rule. I’ll never understand how it’s somehow infinitely more painful to find what was lost than to live thinking it would never be found. I’ve decided to stay safely ignorant of that pain. I’m sorry for the suffering I caused you. But I’m glad that it brought you home to your magic, your son, and the love you’d thought was gone but was simply too hard to feel. I suppose it would be selfish of me to take credit for that, but I’m selfish, so I do. I never meant to hurt Jack or to steal away your life. I only wanted to borrow it for a little while and got caught up. If things had turned out different, and I’d had my way, I wouldn’t have been brave enough to hold on to that kind of joy. You are the brave one. You’ve always been the bravest girl I know. And if it makes me feel a little less evil, convincing myself that what I did was some kind of backwards way of leading you home, well then … that’s what I’ll do.
Dance, Frances. Dance through the rest of your days. Love loud and cry, too. Kiss Danny in the rain. And when you get scared, trust the shelter offered to you. I never did, and look how well that went.
And on the off chance you ever want to throw it all away, there’s this lovely little cottage on a remote island off the coast of Fairview, Massachusetts. The place Old Jim grew up, the place I was born. There’s plenty of whiskey, and magic, too … a stuffy sort of magic, though. All controlled. I’m teaching them a little voodoo. What the hell, right?
All my love,
Your soul sister forever,
Even if I did try to steal your life. Love is love.
Millie Bliss
Discussion Questions
1. Throughout the book there are two narrative lines, that of the Sorrows of 1902 and of those living under their shadow in the present. In what ways do the plot lines and/or characters mirror one another? Do you think the present-day Sorrows fixed the mistakes of their ancestors in some way? If so, how?
2. This novel and Palmieri’s first novel, The Witch of Little Italy, both use memory and family history and lineage to unravel the lives of her main characters, allowing them to find and understand themselves. Why do you think the author uses this storytelling technique?
3. All of Palmieri’s novels have a narrative thread that focuses on interracial relationships in the present and, sometimes, in the past. How does this add to the complexity of her work? Do you think she is making a social statement? If so, how?
4. The author holds a master’s degree in sociology, the study of human behavior. How do you think this aspect of her background informs her character development?
5. A major theme in the book is forgiveness of oneself. Could Frances have ever been able to truly forgive herself if Sippie had not returned? Why?
6. Frances and Danny have an intense but less than perfect relationship. How do you feel their relationship evolved over the course of the book? Do you feel like this was directly related to the return of Sippie? Why?
7. How do you think the evocative setting of New Orleans and the bayou contributed to the narrative? Could the story have been different if the Sorrows lived elsewhere?
8. Much like the Big House in The Witch of Belladonna Bay, the Sorrow Estate is very much a character of its own. In what ways do you think the “life” of the estate mirrored the journey of the Sorrow family?
9. In A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway wrote: “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” How is this reflected in Palmieri’s characters and the things and people they love? Do you think being broken and then put back together made them more interesting, more beautiful somehow? Why?
10. As a woman of the church, Sister Vesta Grace is devout in her beliefs of what is right or wrong. However, when tragedy befalls the Sorrows of 1902 she is forced to confront life’s ambiguities. Was she right to think what she did regarding her role in the Sorrow murders? Why or why not?
St. Martin’s Griffin
About the Author
SUZANNE PALMIERI is the author of The Witch of Little Italy and The Witch of Belladonna Bay. She also writes as Suzanne Hayes and lives in a haunted farmhouse in North Branford, Conne
cticut, with her husband and three daughters. You can sign up for email updates here.
Also by Suzanne Palmieri
The Witch of Little Italy?
The Witch of Belladonna Bay
I’ll Be Seeing You (as Suzanne Hayes)
Empire Girls (as Suzanne Hayes)
Praise for The Witch of Belladonna Bay
“Murder, mystery, and magic meld in a novel of absolute enchantment.… Palmieri’s book is a stunner.”
—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and Is This Tomorrow
“If you’re a lover of Southern fiction, magic in its many forms, and the kind of storytelling that keeps you turning the pages, you’ve come to the right place, y’all.”
—Lesley Kagen, New York Times bestselling author of Whistling in the Dark
“Palmieri delivers a rich and magical story about the two most powerful forces in life: family and love.”
—Elin Hilderbrand, author of Beautiful Day
Praise for The Witch of Little Italy
“Enthralling … It’ll keep you on the edge of your seat until the end.”
—RT Book Reviews
“A magical story of family, secrets, loss, and rediscovery written in beautiful prose and sprinkled with effervescent characters you won’t soon forget.”
—Karen White, New York Times bestselling author of The Beach Trees
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Entrances and Exits
Epigraph: Crow
1. Sister Vesta Grace’s Confession
2. Frances the Great
3. Simone Sings the Blues
The Waxing Moon
Epigraph
4. Jack’s Great Idea
5. As the Crow Flies
6. Frances Tells Her Secret
7. Sippie and the Meat Boys
8. Jack Hides with Ghosts
9. Daniel Amore & Old Jim Green
10. Frances and Her Daughter
11. Sippie at Sorrow Hall
12. Sippie and Frances Cast a Spell
13. Day by Day
The Full Moon on the Eve of the Summer Solstice
14. “I Should Have Stayed Fishing”
15. Clever Jack Gets Out-Clevered
16. A Not-So-Festive Solstice
17. Shall We Gather at the Voodoo
18. Betrayed by Bliss
19. Finding the Bones
20. A Sorrow Solstice
The Sorrow Papers
21. Reflections and Revelations
22. Heathens and Hoodoo
23. Albert Monroe
The Waning Moon
Epigraph: The Waning Moon
24. Frances and Sippie and Nothing but Time
25. Jack Meets the Sorrow Echoes
26. Sippie Faces Her Past
27. Rescue Me
28. The Shell Seekers
29. Missing Pieces
30. Rosella’s Defense
31. Renovation and Restitution
Epilogue
Reading Group Guide
About the Author
Also by Suzanne Palmieri
Praise for the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE WITCH OF BOURBON STREET. Copyright © 2015 by Suzanne Palmieri. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Olga Grlic
Cover photograph: woman © Jetrel / Shutterstock; street © Mikell Herrick / ImageBrief.com
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Palmieri, Suzanne.
The witch of Bourbon Street: a novel / Suzanne Palmieri.—First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-250-05619-1 (trade paperback)
ISBN 978-1-4668-7773-3 (e-book)
1. Young women—Louisiana—Fiction. 2. Families—Louisiana—Fiction. 3. Witches—Fiction. 4. Domestic fiction. I. Title.
PS3616.A353W58 2015
813'.6—dc23
2015013349
e-ISBN 9781466877733
First Edition: July 2015
The Witch of Bourbon Street Page 27
