Rice, Anne - The Witching Hour

by Greyspid

  Cortland stopped by every evening after work. ‘The lady of the house didn’t want him there, I don’t believe,’ said one of the nurses. ‘But he came. Without fail he came. He and another young gentleman, I believe his name was Sheffield. They sat with the patient every night for a little while and talked.’

  Family gossip said that Sheffield had read some of Antha’s writings from the New York days, and that Antha was’very good.’ The nurses talked about the boxes from New York - crates of books and papers, which Antha examined but was too weak in general to truly unpack.

  ‘I don’t really see anything mentally wrong with her,’ said one of the nurses. ‘The aunt takes us out in the hallway and asks us the strangest questions. She implies the girl is congenitally insane, and may harm someone. But the doctors didn’t say anything to us about it. She’s a quiet, melancholy girl. She looks and sounds much younger than she is. But she’s not what I would call insane.’

  Deirdre Mayfair was born on October 4, 1941, at the old Mercy Hospital on the river, which was later torn down. Apparently the birth presented no particular difficulty, and Antha was heavily anesthetized as was the custom in those days. Mayfairs packed the corridors of the hospital during visiting hours for the entire five days that Antha was there. Her room was full of flowers. The baby was a beautiful healthy little girl.

  But the flow of information, so dramatically increased with the involvement of Amanda Grady Mayfair, came to an abrupt halt two weeks after Antha returned home. The cousins found themselves turned away by the black maid, Aunt Easter, or by Nancy when they came for their second and third visits. Indeed, Nancy had quit her job as a file clerk to take care of the baby (‘Or to lock us out!’ said Beatrice to Amanda long distance) and she was adamant that the mother and the baby not be disturbed.

  When Beatrice called to inquire about the christening, she was told the baby had already been baptized at St Alphonsus. Outraged, she called Amanda in New York. Some twenty of the cousins ’crashed’ the house on a Sunday afternoon.

  ‘Antha was overjoyed to see them!’ said Amanda to Allan Carver. ‘She was simply thrilled. She had no idea they’d been calling and dropping by. No one even told her. She didn’t know people gave parties for a christening. Carlotta had arranged everything. She was hurt when she realized what had happened, and everyone changed the subject at once. But Beatrice was furious with Nancy. But Nancy is just doing what Carlotta told her to do.’

  On October 30 of that year, Antha was officially declared the recipient and full manager of the Mayfair legacy. She signed a power of attorney naming Cortland and Sheffield Mayfair as her legal representatives in all matters concerning the money; and she requested that they immediately establish a large trust for the management of the’restoration’ of the First Street house. She expressed concern about the condition of the entire property.

  Legal gossip says that Antha was stunned to discover that she owned the place. She had never had the slightest idea. She wanted to redecorate, paint, restore everything.

  Carlotta was not at Antha’s meeting with her uncles. Carlotta had demanded of the law firm of Mayfair and Mayfair that they provide her with a complete audit on behalf of Antha of everything that had been done since Stella’s death, saying that the present records were inadequate, and she refused to participate in any sort of legal discussion until she received this audit ’for review.’

  Sheffield told his mother, Amanda, later, that Antha had been deliberately misled with regard to the legacy. She seemed hurt and even a little shocked as things were explained to her. And it was Carlotta who had hurt her But all she would say was that Carlotta had probably had her good in mind all along.

  The party went for a late lunch at Galatoire’s to celebrate Antha was nervous about leaving the baby, but she seemed to have a good time. As they were leaving, Sheffield heard her ask his father the following question: ‘Then you mean she couldn’t have thrown me out of the house if she had wanted to? She couldn’t have put me on the street?’

  ‘It’s your house, ma cherie,’ Cortland told her. ‘She has permission to live there, but that is subject entirely to your approval’

  Antha looked so sad. ‘She used to threaten me,’ she said under her breath. ‘She used to say she’d put me in the street if I didn’t do what she said.’

  Cortland then took Antha away from the party and drove her home alone.

  Antha and the baby went to lunch a few days later with Beatrice Mayfair at another fashionable French Quarter restaurant. A nurse was, on hand to take the baby walking in its beautiful white wicker buggy while the two women enjoyed their wine and fish. When Beatrice described it all to Amanda later she told her Antha had really become a young woman. Antha was writing again. She was working on a novel, and she was going to have the First Street house completely fixed up.

  She wanted to repair the swimming pool. She talked about her mother a little, how her mother had loved to give parties. She seemed full of life

  Indeed, several contractors were approached to give estimates for ’a complete restoration, including painting, carpentry repairs and some masonry work.’ Neighbors were delighted to hear this from the servants. Dandrich wrote that a distinguished architectural firm had been consulted about rebuilding the carriage house

  Antha wrote a brief letter to Amanda Grady Mayfair in mid-November, thanking her for her help in New York She thanked her for forwarding the mail from Greenwich Village. She said that she was writing short stories, and working on her novel again

  When Mr Bordreaux, the mailman, passed on his regular rounds at nine a.m. on December 10, Antha was waiting for him at the gate. She had several large manila envelopes ready to go to New York Could she buy the postage from him? They made a guess at the weight - she said she couldn’t leave the baby to go to the post office — and he took the packages with him. Antha also gave him a bundle of regular mail for various New York addresses

  ‘She was all excited," he said. ‘She was going to be a writer Such a sweet girl And I’ll never forget. I made some remark about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, that my son had enlisted the day before, and now we were in the war at last. And do you know? She’d never heard a thing about it She didn’t even know about the bombing, or the war. Just like she was living in a dream.’

  The ‘sweet girl’ died that very afternoon When the same postman came around with the afternoon mail at three thirty, there was a cloudburst over that area of the Garden District. It was raining ’cats and dogs ’ Yet a crowd was assembled in the Mayfair garden, and the undertaker’s wagon was in the middle of the street The wind was blowing’something fierce.’ Mr Bordreaux hung around in spite of the weather.

  ‘Miss Belle was on the porch sobbing And Miss Millie tried to tell me what was happening but she couldn’t say a word Then Miss Nancy came to the edge of the porch and shouted at me "You go on, Mr Bordreaux We’ve had a death here. You go on and get out of the rain."’

  Mr Bordreaux crossed the street and sought shelter on the porch of a neighboring house. The housekeeper told him through the screen door that it was Antha Mayfair who was dead. She’d apparently fallen from the third-floor porch roof

  The storm was terrible, said the mailman, a regular hurricane Yet he remained to watch as a body was put into the undertaker’s wagon Red Lonigan was there, with his cousin Leroy Lonigan. Then the

  PART TWO

  wagon drove away Finally Mr Bordreaux went back to delivering the mail, and very soon, about the time he reached Prytania Street, the weather had cleared up When he passed the next day the sidewalk was littered with leaves

  Over the years, the Talamasca has collected numerous stories connected with Antha’s death, but what actually happened on the afternoon of December 10, 1941, may never be known Mr Bordreaux was the last ’outsider’ ever to see or speak with Antha The baby’s nurse, an elderly woman named Alice Flanagan, had called in sick that day

  What is known from the police records and from the guarded talk emanati
ng from the Lonigan family and the priests of the parish is that Antha jumped or fell from the porch roof outside the attic window of Juhen’s old room some time before three p. m.

  Carlotta’s story, gleaned from these same sources, was as follows

  She had been arguing with the girl about the baby, because Antha had deteriorated to such a point that she was not even feeding the child.

  ‘She was in no way prepared to be a mother,’ said Miss Carlotta to the police officer Antha spent hours typing letters and stories and poetry, and Nancy and the others had to beat on the door of the room to make her realize that Deirdre was crying in the cradle and needed to be given a bottle or nursed

  Antha became ’hysterical’ during this last argument She ran up the two flights of steps to the attic, screaming to be left alone Carlotta, fearing that Antha would hurt herself which she often did, according to Carlotta persuaded her into Juhen’s old room There Carlotta discovered that Antha had tried to scratch her own eyes out, and indeed had succeeded in drawing considerable blood

  When Carlotta tried to control her, Antha broke away, falling backwards through the window, and on to the roof of the cast-iron porch She apparently crawled to the edge of it, and then lost her balance or deliberately jumped She died instantly when her head struck the flagstones three stories below

  Cortland was beside himself when he learned of his niece’s death He went immediately to First Street What he told his wife in New York later was that Carlotta was absolutely distraught The priest was with her, a Father Kevin, from the Redemptonst Parish Carlotta said over and over that nobody understood how fragile Antha had been ‘I tried to stop her1’ Carlotta said ‘What in the name of God was I expected to do1’ Millie Dear and Belle were too upset to talk about it Belle seemed to be confusing it all with the death of Stella Only Nancy had frankly disagreeable things to say, complaining that Antha had been spoiled and sheltered all her life, that her head was full of silly dreams

  When Alice Flanagan, the nurse, was contacted by Cortland, she seemed afraid She was elderly, and partially blind She said she didn’t know anything about Antha’s ever hurting herself or becoming hysterical or anything like that She took her orders from Miss Carlotta Miss Carlotta had been good to her family Miss Flanagan didn’t want to lose her job ‘I just want to take care of that darling baby,’ she told the police ‘That darling baby needs me now’

  Indeed she took care of Deirdre Mayfair until the girl was five years old.

  Finally, Cortland told Beatrice and Amanda to leave Carlotta in peace Carlotta was the only witness to what had happened And whatever had gone on that afternoon, surely Antha’s death had been a terrible accident What could anyone do?

  No true investigation followed the death of Antha There had been no autopsy When the undertaker became suspicious after examining the corpse and concluding that Antha’s facial scratches were not self-inflicted, he contacted the family doctor and was advised or told to let the matter drop Antha was insane, that was the unofficial verdict All her life she had been unstable She had been committed to Bellevue and St Ann’s Asylum She had depended upon others to care for her and her child.

  After Stella’s death, the Mayfair emerald was never mentioned in connection with Antha No relative or friend ever reported seeing it Sean Lacy never painted Antha with it No one in New York had ever heard of it.

  But when Antha died she had the emerald around her neck.

  The question is obvious Why was Antha wearing the emerald on that day of all days7 Was it the wearing of the emerald that precipitated the fatal argument? And if the scratch marks on Antha’s face were not self-inflicted, did Carlotta try to scratch out Antha’s eyes, and if so why?

  Whatever the case, the house on First Street was once again shrouded in secrecy. Antha’s plans for a restoration were never carried out. After furious arguments in the offices of Mayfair and Mayfair — Carlotta stormed out once, actually breaking the glass on the door - Cortland went so far as to petition the court for custody of baby Deirdre. Clay Mayfair’s grandson Alexander also came forward. He and his wife, Eileen, had a lovely mansion in Metaine. They could officially adopt the child or just take her informally, whatever Carlotta would allow.

  Amanda Grady Mayfair told our undercover society man, Allan Carver, ‘Cortland wants me to go home to take care of the baby I tell you I feel so sorry for that baby. But I can’t go back to New Orleans after all these years.’

  Carlotta all but laughed in the face of these ‘do-gooders,’ as she called them. She told the judge and indeed anyone in the family who asked her that Antha had been gravely ill It was a congenital insanity, without question, and might well surface in Antha’s little girl. She had no intention of allowing anyone to take Deirdre out of her mother’s house, or away from darling Miss Flanagan, or from dear sweet Belle, or darling Millie, all of whom adored the child, and had time on their hands to care for her day in and day out as no one else could.

  When Cortland refused to back down, Carlotta threatened him directly. His wife had left him, hadn’t she? Wouldn’t the family like to know after all these years just what sort of a man Cortland was? Cousins pondered her slurs and innuendoes. The judge in the case became ’impatient.’ To his mind, Carlotta Mayfair was a woman of impeccable virtue and excellent judgment Why couldn’t this family accept the situation? Good Lord, if every orphan baby had aunts as sweet as Millie and Belle and Carlotta, this would be a better world.

  The legacy was left in the hands of Mayfair and Mayfair, and the child was left in the hands of Carlotta. And the matter was abruptly closed.

  Only one other assault on Carlotta’s authority was ever attempted It was in 1945.

  Cornell Mayfair, one of the New York cousins and a descendant of Lestan, had just finished his residency at Massachusetts General. He was training to be a psychiatrist. He had heard ‘incredible stories’ about the First Street house from his cousin (by marriage) Amanda Grady Mayfair. And also from Louisa Ann Mayfair, Garland’s eldest granddaughter who went to Radchffe and had an affair with Cornell while she was there. What was all this talk of congenital insanity? Cornell was fascinated. Also he was still in love with Louisa Ann, who had gone back to New Orleans rather than marry him and live in Massachusetts, and he could not understand the girl’s devotion to her home. He wanted to visit New Orleans and the family at First Street, and the New York cousins thought it was a good idea

  ‘Who knows?’ he told Amanda over lunch at the Waldorf ‘Maybe I’ll like the city, and maybe Louisa Ann and I can somehow work things out’

  On February n, Cornell came to New Orleans, checking into a downtown hotel. He begged Carlotta to talk to him and she agreed to let him come uptown

  As he later told Amanda by long distance, he remained at the house for perhaps two hours, visiting with little four-year-old Deirdre alone for some of that time ‘I can’t tell you what I’ve found out,’ he said ‘But that child has to be removed from this environment And frankly I don’t want Louisa Ann involved I’ll tell you the whole thing when I get back to New York’

  Amanda insisted that he call Cortland, that he tell Cortland all about his concerns. Cornell confessed that Louisa Ann had suggested the same thing

  ‘I don’t want to do this just now,’ said Cornell. ‘I’ve just had a bellyful of Carlotta I don’t want to meet any more of these people this afternoon’

  Trusting that Cortland could be of help, Amanda called him and told him what was going on Cortland appreciated Dr Mayfair’s interest. He called Amanda later that afternoon to tell her he had made an appointment with Cornell for dinner at Kolb’s downtown He’d call her after they had talked together, but as things stood now, he liked the young doctor He was eager to hear what he had to say.

  Cornell never kept the appointment for dinner Cortland waited for an hour at Kolb’s Restaurant and then rang Cornell’s room No answer The following morning, the hotel maid found Cornell’s dead body He lay fully dressed on a rumpled bed, eyes half open, a
half full glass of bourbon on the table at his side No immediate cause of death could be found.

  When an autopsy was performed, at the behest of Cornell’s mother as well as the New Orleans coroner, Cornell was found to have a small amount of a strong narcotic, mixed with alcohol, in his veins It was ruled an accidental overdose and never investigated further Amanda Grady Mayfair never forgave herself for sending young Dr Cornell Mayfair to New Orleans Louisa Ann ’never recovered’ and is to this day unmarried A distraught Cortland accompanied the coffin back to New York

  Was Cornell a casualty of the Mayfair Witches7 Once more we are forced to say that we do not know One detail, however, gives us some indication that Cornell did not die from the small amount of narcotic and alcohol in his blood The coroner who examined Cornell’s body before it was removed from the hotel room noted that Cornell’s eyes were full of hemorrhaged blood vessels We now know that this is a symptom of asphyxiation It is possible that someone severely disabled Cornell by slipping a drug into his drink (bourbon was found in the glass on the table), and then smothered him with a pillow when he could not defend himself.

  By the time the Talamasca attempted to investigate this case (through a reputable private detective), the trail was cold No one at the hotel could remember if Cornell Mayfair had had any callers that afternoon Had he ordered his bourbon from room service7 No one had ever asked these questions before Fingerprints7 None had been taken After all, this wasn’t a murder

  But it is now time to turn to Deirdre Mayfair, the present heiress of the Mayfair legacy, orphaned at the age of two months and left in the hands of her ageing aunts.

  Deirdre Mayfair

  The First Street house continued to deteriorate after Antha’s death The swimming pool had by this time become a rank swamp pond of duckweed and wild irises, its rusty fountain jets spewing green water into the muck Shutters were once again bolted on the windows of the northside master bedroom The paint continued to peel from the violet-gray masonry walls.