The interior of the cabin was as neat and beautiful as the yard. Multi-colored rag rugs were scattered on a pine floor, and lace-edged white curtains were drawn back from the windows. Plants had been placed around the room, and the furniture consisted of a sofa between matching cypress wood end tables, two arm chairs, and a rocking chair in front of a small fireplace. Though not a large area, the scheme and light from the windows gave it a spacious appearance.
Little Jim led her through a door at the rear of the room, into the kitchen area, which was almost as large as the other room. The wall on the right had two windows, and beneath them sat a table draped in a snow white cloth. A centerpiece of flowers from the yard decorated it, and the place settings were already laid out. Tana stood at the stove on the left, stirring a huge iron pot. The spicy odors in the rising steam intermingled with the smells of various herbs and other dried plants hanging from the ceiling.
Alaynia’s stomach growled loudly, and Little Jim giggled. “You hungry, Miss ‘Laynia?”
“Well, I must be,” she told him. “Or my stomach’s just reacting to those delicious aromas.”
Bobbing his head, he led her to a chair at one end of the table and pulled it out. “Mama’s cooking makes my stomach growl, too,” he said conspiratorially as she sat down and he gently shoved the chair beneath her. “And just wait ‘til you taste it!” He glanced up at Shain. “You sit here, Shain. By me. I got to help Mama serve.”
Shain took his seat and reached under the table, grasping Alaynia’s hand and giving it a squeeze. “Huh,” he muttered. “Guess we’re not feeding you well enough at Chenaie. I never heard your stomach grumble like that in anticipation of the meals served there.”
“Why, sweetheart,” she drawled. “I wasn’t focusing on the food there. It was the company that kept my attention.”
He smirked in masculine satisfaction at her comeback, and she kicked him under the table. Before they could continue their teasing repartee, Little Jim carefully carried a bowl of gumbo over and set it in front of Alaynia. She sniffed and had to force herself not to dive in immediately. Little Jim placed bowls at each setting, then added a basket of fresh-baked rolls, a dish of butter, and plates heaped with crispy salad greens. Finally, Little Jim and Tana sat down, and after a brief blessing, led by Little Jim, Tana began passing the rolls, butter, and dressing for the salad.
Conversation flowed innocuously during the meal. Alaynia voiced her admiration of the beautiful landscaping around the cabin, and Little Jim beamed. Tana gave Alaynia some pointers on caring for some of the plants in the house, and told her what herbs did well in certain Southern growing seasons. When Alaynia asked for her second bowl of gumbo, Little Jim jumped up to fulfill her request, while Tana listed the spices she used in her recipe.
“If you do not have filè,” Tana said, “no sense making gumbo. It is just not the same.”
Alaynia laughed gaily, and Shain frowned at her. “What’s so funny?”
“I can just see me waltzing into the kitchen house at Chenaie and shaking my finger at the cook,” Alaynia replied, “telling her to make sure she uses filè in the gumbo. Why, she’d probably chase me out of there with her broom.”
“Yeah,” Shain agreed with a chuckle. “Or pack her bags and say she was going to work for somebody else, who appreciated her.”
“You can come here and eat gumbo whenever Mama makes it,” Little Jim said seriously, placing the bowl in front of Alaynia without spilling a drop. “We like company, don’t we, Mama?”
Alaynia caught the frown on Tana’s face, but she quickly covered it up. “Yes, son,” she said. “Alaynia and Shain are always welcome.”
Nodding happily, he took his seat and they finished the meal. As soon as Little Jim realized everyone’s bowl was empty, he jumped up and hurried to the stove, opening the oven and drawing out a pan.
“We got peach cobbler for dessert,” he said as he set the pan on the countertop. “And real cream. I milk the cow for Mama, and work the churn when we make butter. But we kept the cream this time, for the cobbler.”
Alaynia groaned under her breath, but she didn’t have the heart to spoil Little Jim’s excitement and tell him that she was way too full for dessert. However, instead of bringing the dessert dishes to the table, he placed them on a tray and turned as Tana rose to her feet.
“We can have our cobbler in the other room,” Tana said. “My son will bring it in.”
“Oh, but I should help you clear the table,” Alaynia protested.
“No, no, Miss ‘Laynia,” Little Jim said, shaking his head. “My job. Mama cooks and I clean up.”
Shain stood and stepped behind Alaynia’s chair to pull it out, and the three of them filed into the living area, sitting in the various pieces of furniture. After Little Jim served them the cobbler and cups of steaming coffee, he went back into the kitchen.
“Isn’t Little Jim having his dessert with us?” Alaynia asked.
“He will have his for a treat after he cleans up,” Tana said with a tolerant smile. “He says it makes the work easier, knowing he has a sweet waiting.”
“He’s a fine boy,” Alaynia said. “And he must be a lot of help to you.”
“He is everything to me,” Tana said. “He fills my days with joy.” She glanced at Shain. “I know you will care for him well, if it ever becomes necessary.”
“You’ve had my promise for years on that, Tana,” Shain replied. “He’ll always have a home at Chenaie, and my care, should he need it.”
Alaynia set her coffee cup on the end table beside the settee and dipped her spoon into the cream-covered cobbler. After one bite, she sighed in pleasure. “This is delicious, Tana. I thought I was too stuffed to eat another bite, but I think I’m going to be able to finish every morsel of it.”
“I am glad you are enjoying your meal,” Tana replied. “Zeke brought the peaches to me, but as always, he only left them on the porch. He did not stay to talk.”
Alaynia frowned, the bite of cobbler in her mouth suddenly losing some of its delicious tang. She swallowed, then said, “Tana, I’ve been wondering about Zeke. I’ve been trying to make friends with him while I work on Jake’s house. But he avoids me like he thinks I’m going to cast a spell on him or something. I’ve never had anyone afraid of me before. It’s very awkward.”
Shain slipped an arm around her shoulders in comfort as Tana said, “Cole has told me you are building a grand house for Jake. And it is the same with Zeke, when he is near me. He still remembers how we had to depend upon each other before Shain came home, but he cannot forget what happened the day Cole’s home was burned, when I fled to Chenaie.”
“Tana,” Shain cut in forcefully. “I don’t believe that damned story. You said yourself that you don’t remember it happening either.”
“Zeke has no reason to lie about it,” Tana said mildly. “And the occurrences since then have borne him out ...”
Shain surged to his feet, a glare forming on his face, although he appeared to be trying to be polite. “Tana, I know Alaynia wants to talk to you about some of these things, and I’m a guest in your house. But I think I’ll go help Little Jim.”
“Sit, Shain,” Tana ordered. “You have avoided this long enough.”
Instead of complying, Shain’s glare deepened. “I’m not interested in discussing this.”
“That’s not what you told me earlier,” Alaynia said. “You agreed that we had to get to the bottom of what’s been going on. How I got here and—”
“Damn it, we’re married now,” Shain almost snarled. “You’ve made a commitment to me—to being my wife. I’ve gone along with you on your idea of helping Jake with his house. Even though it’s an embarrassment, I’ve allowed—”
“Allowed?” Alaynia sprang to her feet, negligently setting the dish of cobbler on the side table. “Embarrassment? You listen here, Shain. You knew before you asked me to marry you that I wasn’t the type of woman to ask your permission every time I needed to use that darn ch
amber pot under the bed. I’ve compromised just about enough with you. I’ve let you or someone else hover over me every time I step a foot outside the manor house. I’ve let you dictate to me what I have to wear. I’ve even discussed my wanting to investigate the experiences I’ve been having with you, but I did not ask your permission to do so. During our discussion, you appeared to be agreeable, and said you’d help.”
“I said for you to be careful and not put yourself in danger. I said for you to keep me informed.”
“You’ve just been humoring me, haven’t you? You figured as soon as you got that ring on my finger, I’d turn into a docile, obey-my-husband type. When were you going to order me to find someone else to work on Jake’s house, huh?”
Shain’s guilty look fired her indignation into anger. “You were, weren’t you? That’s what you drew Jake off to the side to talk about this morning, wasn’t it? You thought maybe between the two of you, you could talk me into letting the carpenter build the house alone. Then I could decorate it.”
“When it comes time for the interior work—”
“Damn waiting for that! Damn sitting around twiddling my thumbs, until you come in out of the fields every day. I’ve told you how much my work means to me.”
“Evidently, more than being a wife!” Shain snapped. He turned away from her and bowed briefly to Tana. “Tana, I’m sorry we disrupted your wonderful lunch. I hope you’ll come to Jeannie’s party this Friday and let me try to make it up to you. For now, I think we better leave and continue this ...” He shot Alaynia a forbidding look. “This discussion in privacy.”
Alaynia plopped down on the settee and crossed her arms. “I apologize, too, Tana,” she said with a glance at the other woman, whom her anger had made her forget was in the room. “But, unless you’re kicking me out, I’d like to stay and talk for a while.”
“You are welcome until you wish to leave,” Tana replied with a faint smile. “My son and I will escort you home whenever you wish.”
“You’re coming with me, Alaynia,” Shain ordered.
She reached over and picked up her cobbler. “I’m staying to finish my dessert and visit with a friend. I’ll be home after a while.”
She flicked him a taunting glance and scooped up a spoonful of cobbler to dish into her mouth. He stood there for a few seconds, a towering package of suppressed, masculine rage, then swung on his boot heel and stormed out of the house. The cobbler turned to ashes in her mouth, and Alaynia set the dish aside once again, swallowing the tasteless mass as tears misted her eyes.
“It won’t work,” she choked out. “Oh, Tana, I’m sorry we made such a scene, and please forgive us. But, darn it, trying to change someone after you marry them is one of the most destructive things to any relationship. Can’t he see that he married me for who I was—not who he wanted me to be?”
Tana rose and moved over to the settee. Sitting beside Alaynia, she placed an arm around her shoulders and squeezed gently. “I did not have much time with Little Jim’s father. We jumped the broom, which was the only ceremony two people who wanted to wed were allowed to have back then. After our son was born, and the master saw he was not right, he sold us. My husband was sent to a plantation in Georgia, and Cole’s father bought my son and me. After he heard my story, Cole’s father tried to find my husband. But James had already been shot, when he tried to run and come back for us.”
“Oh, Tana.” Alaynia swiped at her eyes and raised her head. “I’m so sorry. And here I am crying on your shoulder. You’ve had it much worse than I have.”
“No,” Tana denied with a shake of her head. “I have had friends, and I have my son. You have been alone until now.”
“How do you know that? We haven’t talked about my life.”
“I do not know how—I just know. I know you are a strong woman, and that you have become what you are through your own doing.”
“Then you think I’m right in standing up to Shain? Not letting him take away some of the important things in my life?”
“I do not give advice,” Tana said with an enigmatic smile. “As I say, you are strong. Strong women make their own decisions—and their own compromises.”
Alaynia sat silently for several moments, eyes on the open front door. She hadn’t heard Shain ride away yet, but now she heard the squeak of saddle leather and immediately after, the sound of hoofbeats. They galloped away instead of walking, scattering the shells from the pathway. The shells showered the front porch, ticking against the wood as they fell. In her mind, she imagined a twenty-first-century man, flinging himself in his car and taking off after a fight with his woman, tires squealing.
And she was his woman, despite everything—despite his domineering attitude, which she had to somehow find a way to contradict. He had claimed her body and soul. She could never leave him. He would haunt her forever, here at the Chenaie of the past, or should she return, at the Chenaie of the future.
Why couldn’t he understand? She had to make sure she would stay with him. There were so many unanswered questions. Would she be allowed to stay, or was her destiny back in the future? Would her staying here cause some twist in time, which might alter everyone’s life for the worse? Did the force she sensed at Chenaie have something to do with her arrival—and her uneasiness at times, as well as her determination to have her questions answered? Was it all intertwined?
Pain stabbed her inner cheek as she unconsciously bit down on it, and she quickly slackened her jaw muscles. She briefly closed her eyes, then took a deep breath and opened them to face Tana.
“I want to know what’s happened to me. And I want to know what you were alluding to—your own experience, which Shain didn’t want you talking about. I w-want to kn-know ...” She took another steadying breath to stabilize her faltering words. “I want to know who the spirit is at Chenaie. Why he keeps contacting me and what he wants of me.”
Tana’s deep brown eyes studied her intently for several long seconds. Finally she said, “I will tell you what I know—and what I believe. The two things are not the same. I think Zeke could tell us more, but he will not speak of it. At first, he was very afraid. He would discuss what had happened then, perhaps in an effort to handle his fear by talking about it to someone. But when Shain returned, he ordered Zeke not to speak of it again. Shain does not lose his temper easily, but when it happens, it is better to get out of his sight until he calms.”
“I’ve seen him come close to losing control,” Alaynia murmured. “But never actually go over the edge. And he’s sure had enough problems at Chenaie to make him ragged.” A flash of doubt and worry filled her. “Oh, Tana, maybe this isn’t the time for me to push on this. All I’m doing is adding to Shain’s burdens. He’s got so many things to worry about at Chenaie right now, and I should be helping him bear those worries, instead of adding to them.”
She shifted on the settee, trying to sort through her thoughts as she spoke. “Not that I’m going to give up my work on Jake’s house,” she continued. “But maybe I could leave this other stuff until later—after things are working better at Chenaie.”
“I believe you have come here today to speak of these things for the good of Chenaie,” Tana replied. “Perhaps your being there is part of the whole picture. I ...”
A clap of thunder split the air, followed immediately by a spattering of rain on the roof. Alaynia jumped to her feet, staring worriedly out the window. “It’s raining. Shain will get soaked.”
“Perhaps it will cool his temper,” Tana said with a tolerant smile as Little Jim came into the room.
“Mama, I better put Shain and Miss ‘Laynia’s horses in the barn, ‘for they get wet,” he said, then stared around the room. “Where’s Shain?”
“He has already left,” Tana told him. “But, yes, put Alaynia’s horse in the barn. She will wait here until the rain has stopped.”
Little Jim nodded, but his lower lip protruded. “Shain didn’t even say ‘bye,” he murmured as he crossed to the door. “Mama says
it’s not polite to not say ‘bye, when a person leaves.”
Tana shook her head, then reached for Alaynia’s arm and drew her back onto the settee. “Would you like some more coffee or something else to drink?”
“No, I’m fine. Tell me what you know—and also what you believe might be. Tana, there have been times when I’ve tried to tell myself this all has to be a dream—that this can’t be happening to me. And I fell in love with Shain so darned fast, I felt like this had to be my destiny. But the truth is, just a week ago, I was driving down a back road in a Louisiana Parish in the year 2005, trying to find Chenaie. I saw what looked like a huge heat wave in front of me. I jammed on my brakes, but the car just slid right on down the road. The next thing I remember, I was on a dirt road and Shain was standing across the road, under a tree. Within a couple hours after that, I was finally at Chenaie, but it was Chenaie in 1875.”
“You do not remember how you made this journey through time?” Tana questioned. “I ask this, because in my vision I saw you tumbling through the air. I did not sense any danger to you, just much confusion on your part.”
“Confusion’s a heck of an understatement,” Alaynia replied with a half-hearted grin. “I’ve thought and thought about it, of course. There’s got to be some thread of connection having to do with Chenaie, since Chenaie was where I was headed to begin with. You see, I was distantly related to the woman who owned Chenaie in the future. She was my Great-Aunt Tilda, but I’d never met her. She had traced me, however, and left her estate to me when she died. The estate consisted of Chenaie and a few thousand dollars—enough, I thought, to restore the manor house and open a B and B.”
“B and B?” Tana asked with raised eyebrows.
“It’s short for bed and breakfast,” Alaynia explained. “Rather like ... ummm ... a hotel. Only there’s not a complete staff and twenty-four-hour service, like in large hotels. The guests are welcome to stay the night and have breakfast the next morning, but then they’re on their own to go sightseeing in the area.”
“The house is opened to strangers, then,” Tana murmured. “Always new people—who are curious, rather than a part of the house.”
Witch Angel Page 29
