Thurston House (1983)

by Steel, Danielle

  What? Sabrina looked as though she had received a massive electric shock as she sprang to her feet.

  But I do. We were married right till the end, and he built this house for me, you know.

  For God's sake, how can you say a thing like that? Sabrina wanted to throttle her. After all she had been through, now this woman wanted to take it all away. Where were you when I needed you? When I was five years old or ten or twelve? ' Where were you when my father died? When I had to run the mines for him? ' When ' There was a catch in her throat and for a moment she could not go on. How dare you come back now? I used to lie awake at night and wonder what you had been like, I used to cry thinking of how you had died, and I still remember how grief-stricken he was ' and now you come here and tell me that you went to nurse your mother and he wouldn't let you come back. Well, I don't believe a word of it, do you hear me? Not a single word! And this house does not belong to you, it belongs to me, and one day it will belong to Jonathan. My father left it to me, and I will leave it to him when I die. But none of that has anything to do with you. She was crying openly as she stood shaking beneath the dome, and Camille watched her carefully. Do you understand? This is my house, not yours, damn you! And don't malign my father to me in this house. He died here almost thirty years ago, and this was a sacred place to him ' and you're right, he built it for you, but somehow, for some reason I apparently don't know, you disappeared, and it's too late for you to come back now. Camille had been gone for almost fifty years and suddenly she had returned, but she seemed strangely calm now. She hadn't come unprepared for this, although she was startled by Sabrina's vehemence.

  You realize, don't you, that you can't force me to leave? She looked sweetly at the woman she claimed as her child and Sabrina was seized with rage.

  The hell I can't. She took one step closer to her. I'll call the police if you don't leave.

  Fine, then I'll just show them this marriage certificate, and a few papers of my own. I am Jeremiah Thurston's widow, whether you like it or not, and Jonathan and I are going to reopen his will, and after that you'll have to ask me if you can stay here, not the other way around. And in the meantime, you can't force me to leave.

  You can't be serious.

  I am. And if you lay a hand on me, I'll call the police.

  And just exactly what do you intend to do? Live here for the next fifty years? She was being sarcastic and Camiile didn't let it bother her. She was used to getting her way, and extraordinarily gifted at seeing that she did, and she had planned for this for a long time with Jonathan. For a long time, he had hesitated, but finally the time was right. She knew it would be eventually, and she had waited patiently till then. Sabrina wasn't going to get rid of her easily now.

  I'm going to live here for as long as I like. But she had another plan after that, one she hadn't mentioned to Jonathan yet. First she had to make Sabrina uncomfortable, and she had no guilt about that. Sabrina was a stranger to her after all, and what harm was there in it? She would stay with her for a few months, long enough to take over the house and make her acutely ill at ease, and then perhaps there would be a pleasant little settlement that would allow Camiile to return to the South victoriously, with dignity, and purchase a house of her own. She had no desire to live in the South again, but it suited her purposes just now perfectly. And she was indeed within her rights. She had checked extensively, Jeremiah had never filed for divorce, from what she could tell. They had still been married when he died, and if she contested his will even now, it would take quite a while to settle it. Long enough to get the point across.

  You can't just move in here. Sabrina was looking at her in horror now. I won't let you move in here. But as Sabrina spoke, Camille moved toward the door, and signaled to someone waiting outside, and he swiftly trundled in, awkwardly carrying half a dozen bags, and there were two large trunks still waiting outside. But Sabrina advanced swiftly on him. Get that garbage out of here. She was referring to both Camille and her bags, and she pointed at the door and raised her voice again. Right now! It was the tone she had used at the mines so many years before, but it didn't work on him. He was even more afraid of Camille than he was of her. Did you hear me, boy?

  I can't' I'm sorry, ma'am. He shivered in his shoes as Camille directed him nonchalantly upstairs. She still remembered everything, the master suite, Jeremiah's library, her own boudoir, and she directed the boy to deposit the bags in her dressing room, as Sabrina dragged them out again, but Camille looked deprecatingly at her as though she were indeed a child.

  It's no use. I'm staying here. I'm your mother, Sabrina, like it or not. And this was the mother she had dreamed of for so long, and so tenderly. It was beyond anything, and suddenly tears of rage filled her eyes and she did feel like a child. She couldn't believe this was happening to her. No wonder her father hadn't let her come back. She was a witch, an absolute monstrosity, but how was she going to get rid of her? She went into her father's library and frantically called Andr+! and explained her plight to him.

  Is she mad?

  I don't know, Sabrina was sobbing now, I've never seen anything like it before. She just moved right into my house as though she'd been away on a short trip. She blew her nose loudly into the phone and he was sorry that he wasn't right there to comfort her. And my father never told me anything ' She sobbed louder than before. I just don't understand ' he said that she died when I was a year old' .

  Perhaps she ran away. You'll find out eventually. Someone must know. And they both thought of the same solution at once, but Andr+! said her name first. Amelia. Call Amelia in New York! She'll tell you everything. And in the meantime, throw her out.

  How? Bodily? Andr+!, she has moved right into my dressing room.

  Then lock the door on her. I mean, she can't just march in on you like that. Can she? Suddenly he sounded nervous too, and Sabrina was anxious to hang up and call Amelia at once. At least she wanted to know what had happened between her father and this woman who said she had remained married to him. Do you want me to come in? Andr+! offered before he hung up. Now with the Bay Bridge making the trip so much easier, it was a shorter trip, but even if it hadn't been, he would have come in for her. Antoine could take care of things while he was gone.

  Don't do anything just yet. I'll call you back. I want to call Amelia, and then my attorney. But it was to no avail. Amelia had a terrible sore throat, the housekeeper said, and wouldn't come to the phone, and Sabrina didn't want to frighten her by saying how desperate she was, and her attorney was away on holiday. He'll be back in a month, the secretary said noncommittally, and Sabrina felt almost hysterical as she went to confront Camille again. Madame Pr+! ' Countess ' whoever you are, you simply cannot stay here. If indeed you have some claim on my father's estate, and that claim is still good, then we can discuss it with my attorney when he returns next month, and in the meantime you will have to stay at a hotel.

  She looked over her shoulder at her daughter as she hung up her clothes. She had already dumped an entire rack of Sabrina's things onto a chair, and Sabrina had a strong urge to strangle her. She grabbed her own clothes, pushed Camille's aside, and threw them on the floor, screaming at the top of her lungs.

  Get out of here! This is my house, not yours! But Camiile only looked at her as if she were an errant child.

  I know this is difficult for you. And we haven't seen each other in a long, long time. But you must control yourself. When Jon comes back, he'll want to find us here happily. He loves both of us, you see, and he needs a peaceful home.

  I don't believe you're doing this. Sabrina stared at her, she felt completely helpless for one of the rare times in her life. There were few things she hadn't been able to deal with before, but this was one of them. You must get out of here.

  But why? What difference does it make? It's an enormous house. There's lots of room for all of us. She looked carefully then at the murderous look in Sabrina's eyes and made a wise decision gracefully. Ail right, I'll stay in the guest room then, an
d you won't even know I'm here, my dear. She smiled cheerfully, scooped up her things, and the boy whom Sabrina had forgotten by then, ran behind Camiile carrying all the bags and trunks again. Her memory was excellent. She directed him to the correct door, and a moment later, he hurried out.

  And when Andr+! called Sabrina later that afternoon, he still detected the same hysterical tone in her voice. What did Amelia say?

  She still couldn't talk to me. She has a fever and a terrible sore throat.

  Oh my God ' of all times ' did you get the woman out? You know, she may be an impostor anyway. I thought of that after we talked before. But Sabrina shook her head silently.

  I don't think so, Andr+!. She knows this house perfectly, even after all these years.

  Perhaps someone prompted her. Some old disgruntled employee of yours. But there was another reason why Sabrina believed that she was indeed Camiile Beauchamp, and that was that she looked exactly like Jon. She told Andr+! and he didn't sound pleased for her. Why do you suppose she's come back now?

  She's made no secret of that. Tears filled Sabrina's eyes again. She wants the house, Andr+!

  Thurston House? He sounded horrified. Even in the short time he had known Sabrina, he knew how much it meant to her, and he had come to love it too. That's preposterous!

  I hope the courts think so. And my lawyer is out of town till next month. What in God's name am I going to do? She's as stubborn as a mule, and she moved right into the guest suite, as though I'd been expecting her. If it hadn't been so awful, she would have laughed. How can she do this to me?

  Apparently easily. And then he said something that he felt rather cautious about. What part exactly does Jon play in all this?

  She didn't understand that yet herself, and she didn't want to accuse him falsely to Andr+!, but just from the little she had heard from Camille, she suspected that there was something very ugly afoot. I don't know that yet. And it was obvious that she didn't want to say more about it to him at that point.

  Isn't there something I can do for you?

  Yes. Sabrina smiled miserably. Throw her out. Make her disappear, make her never have come back.

  I wish I could.

  There was a silence between them for a moment or two. You know, for so many years, I used to dream about her ' to wonder what she was like ' once I snuck into this house when I was about twelve years old, or maybe thirteen, and I went through some of her things that I found ' and now she turns up, and she's an evil, awful woman, out for what she can get. ' I wish I'd never seen her, Andr+! if she really is who she says she is.

  I hope she's not. Or perhaps it would put the ghost to rest at last. It was hard to tell. But it was too late for that anyway. She was there and she had dug in her heels, and now Sabrina had to get her out. She spent the entire night awake in her room, thinking about it, wanting to run into the guest suite and shake the woman out of her bed, but instead they met in the kitchen over breakfast the next day, and for a woman of her age, Sabrina had to admit to herself that Camille was still beautiful, and she must have been extraordinary fifty years before when her father married her ' fifty years ' or forty-nine anyway. It was amazing to think about and Sabrina sat for a moment, staring at her, wondering what had gone wrong, why she had left, why she had never come back, who Dupre was, and if perhaps that was the key. But she said nothing at all to her. She just stared at the table and drank her tea. It was impossible to believe that this had happened to her. As when John had died, she had a feeling of the whole world being upside down, and Camille floated around the kitchen happily, as though she was happy to have finally come home. Sabrina looked up at her again in astonishment and at last Camille sat down again, and the two women looked at each other, mother and daughter brought together at long last by circumstances or perhaps greed, having met the last time forty-six years before when Sabrina was a year old. What had Camille been like then, she asked herself, and then suddenly she remembered something Hannah had said a long time ago, about gold rings that Camille had used for birth control, and Hannah finding them ' and her father being irate ' and Sabrina coming along after that. She suddenly had an urge to ask her if they'd wanted her, but she knew the answer to that, and what difference did it make? She was forty-seven years old and had a grown child of her own, her father had loved her very much, and her mother was ' dead, she had been thinking to herself. But she wasn't dead. She'd been gone.

  Why did you really leave him? The words sprang from Sabrina almost involuntarily. Tell me the truth about that.

  I told you. She avoided Sabrina's eyes. My mother was sick. She died shortly after that. Camille didn't seem anxious to discuss it with her.

  Were you with her when she died?

  I was in France at the time. Why lie to her? What difference did it make now? She was back in the house. She was still Jeremiah Thurston's wife, and Sabrina was terrified. Jon had been right, Camille was tougher than Sabrina was. The fort had been taken, almost without a fight. Camille was proud of herself. It had gone much better than she had planned, and when Jon came home, it would be even easier. An ally would help her a great deal. And he had promised her all his help.

  Did you live in France for long?

  Thirty-four years.

  That's quite a while. Did you marry again? She was trying to trap Camille, but her mother only smiled at her.

  No. I did not, although I use a different name.

  You're not a countess by birth ' and the du Pr+!? '

  She looked Sabrina straight in the eye. He was my patron in France.

  I see. You were his mistress then. Sabrina smiled sweetly at her. I wonder how that affects your claim. Thirty-four years is a long time.

  During which, I was legally married to Jeremiah Thur-ston the entire time, and still am. You can't change that fact, Sabrina, no matter how hard you try.

  I just think it's interesting that you went on with your life with your ' er ' patron. ' She particularly stressed the word hoping to make Camille blush, but there was no hope of that. And now you come back for this house. It's certainly convenient at any rate. Have you made your Thanksgiving plans yet? Or are you going to redecorate? I mean after all, why waste a moment's time? There was a bitter, vicious tone in Sabrina's voice that was unusual for her.

  Andr+! arrived shortly before noon. Camille was sweeping down the main stairs, and she smiled at him. He was an extremely attractive man and she was delighted to find that he was French, although her delight lessened when she realized that he was in Sabrina's camp and he was going to do everything he could to get Camille out of there. She attempted to chat with him about France, she seemed to have lived most of the time in some very small town in the South, but she had spent a little time in Paris too, and she attempted to pretend that she had led a glamorous life there, but he knew it for a lie and brushed her off. He wanted to speak to Sabrina alone.

  Have you locked up the silverware and the jewels? She could be a very clever common thief, you know. But Sabrina laughed at that.

  'The only jewels I have were hers, or most of them anyway. At the rate she moves, she'll demand them back anyway.

  Well, for heaven's sake, don't give them to her. And I think you should call the police. He didn't like the look of her. But when he called the police himself and tried to explain, they told him that they didn't get involved in family affairs, and a call to another attorney they knew was discouraging. He said they would have to fight it out in court, and now that she had moved in, it would be almost impossible to get her out until then, unless they threw her out bodily and then she could easily sue. You shouldn't have let her in yesterday. Andr+! sounded matter-of-fact and she stared at him.

  Are you crazy? How was I supposed to know? She moved in here like a division of Russian tanks and the next thing I knew she was throwing my clothes on a chair. I'm just lucky she agreed to move into the guest suite, or I'd be sleeping in there myself.

  What? He tried to make light of it, but it was difficult to do. She's sleeping i
n my room! Get her out Sabrina laughed, but there were tears again too.

  I just don't understand, Andr+!. It had been a tremendous shock. Why didn't my father say anything?

  God only knows what passed between them. From the sound and the look of her, she's a tough customer, and I don't believe the story she told you. It's a damn shame Amelia won't come to the phone. But he tried her again and this time she did, croaking horribly and complaining about her throat, but at least she set them straight, and she told them what Camille had done about the affair with Pr+!, and that she had abandoned them.

  I'm sorry she's come back to haunt you now. She was a terrible, selfish, mean-hearted young girl then, and it doesn't sound as though she's improved with age.

  Sabrina smiled sadly at her friend's words. I don't think she has. And then she thought back over what Amelia had said about Camille's flight. My father must have been heartbroken. Now she understood even better his unwillingness to talk about her. He had never recovered from the shock.

  He was very hurt. But he had you. Amelia smiled, thinking back. You were the joy of his life. In later years, I don't think he missed her very much. He got on with his life. But for the first few years ' it was very rough.

  Sabrina decided to ask her then. Is it true that he had a mistress and maybe that was why she left?

  Not at all! Amelia sounded outraged on behalf of her old friend. He was totally faithful to Camille. I would vouch for it myself. In fact, he was very upset that you took as long as you did to come along. She didn't want to tell her about the perfidy with the rings although she still remembered that, and she didn't know that Sabrina knew. It turned out that Camille had something to do with that herself, and your father was very upset about that, but we won't discuss that now, my dear. Be a good girl now, and don't let all this worry you, just throw her out.