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“Is your mommy up in her room?” Horace asked.

Tippy nodded. “She’s been in dere an awf’wy wong time, too. Unca Twey was up dere, and dey was yewwing at each udder. Unca Twey can yeww pwetty woud, just wike Mommy.”

Horace snorted, and Tippy giggled. Horace must have made a face at the child, An’gel guessed.

“I hope you didn’t pay too much attention to all that yelling,” he said. “Grown-ups shouldn’t be making all that noise when you’re trying to play.”

Tippy nodded. “Yewwing is wude, Gwanny Miway says.
I went in my cwoset and pwayed so I didn’t hear dem so much.”

“That’s good, darlin’. I’ll have to talk to Uncle Trey and your mommy about making all that noise when you’re around.” He held out his arms. “Now, who around here would like to ride on my shoulders while we go in the kitchen and see if Miss Estelle has any treats?”

Tippy squealed and clapped her hands together. “Me, Gwanpa. I want to wide on your showders. And I want a tweat, too.” She hopped down the remaining treads, and Horace scooped her up, then flipped her around and set her on his shoulders, one leg on either side of his head. He bounced her lightly, and Tippy laughed.

An’gel watched them disappear down the hall and then turned on the lights in the parlor. She went back to the sofa and sat, pondering what she had learning from eavesdropping.

First, she knew that Horace did have financial problems. There was no other construction she could put on Horace’s conversation with “Bubba” that made much sense. How serious those problems were remained to be discovered. Horace’s money woes weren’t really her business, she realized, but she worried about the implications for her goddaughter, of whom she was extremely fond.

Second, she had learned that Sondra and Trey, as stepsiblings, had an apparently rocky relationship. From the exchange between Horace and Tippy, she gathered that they yelled at each other often. An’gel smiled. As Tippy would say, they “yewwed” at each other. The child’s lisp was adorable, she thought.

Trey’s relationship with Sondra piqued her curiosity.
According to Richmond Thurston, Sondra had only ever treated Trey as a brother. Trey, on the other hand, had been “mooning” after Sondra for quite some time.

Considering the threat Trey had made, An’gel wondered just how far the young man would go to keep Sondra from marrying Lance.

CHAPTER 13

T
he storm cleared out around eleven, and Dickce and Jacqueline returned to Willowbank shortly after noon. Mireille was still stable, they reported, and Jacqueline intended to go back to the hospital and spend the rest of the day and the night there. When An’gel suggested she have something to eat before she drove back to Baton Rouge, Jacqueline shook her head.

“I’m not hungry right now,
Tante
An’gel. I want to get back to
Maman
as quickly as I can.”

An’gel gave her a quick hug. “If there’s anything we can do, let us know, my dear. Would you like me to come back with you?”

“No, I’ll be fine,” Jacqueline said. “There really isn’t much any of us can do except wait and pray. I can only go in to see her at four and eight.” She shrugged. “I just want to be there
in case . . .” Her voice trailed off, and for a moment she looked as if she would burst into tears.

“We will be praying for her,” Dickce said, giving Jacqueline’s arm a quick squeeze. “We’ll look after things here.”

“Estelle has been letting people know that the wedding is postponed,” An’gel said. “We’ll deal with anything that comes up.”

Jacqueline clapped a hand to her mouth in a gesture of dismay. “I completely forgot about the wedding. Have you talked to Sondra?”

“No, I haven’t, but Richmond Thurston did. Not long after, your stepson came in, and he went up to talk to her, too.” An’gel didn’t want to worry her goddaughter by telling her about Trey’s behavior. If she had to, she would deal with Sondra later herself, or surely Horace could. Jacqueline’s place at the moment was with her mother.

“I wish Trey would leave Sondra alone,” Jacqueline said after a heavy sigh. “He’s convinced he’s in love with her, but Sondra has never given him any encouragement. I guess I’ll have to ask Horace to talk to him again.”

“Don’t worry about that now, honey,” Dickce said. “You go on and leave things to us.”

Jacqueline flashed them a grateful smile. “You’re right. I need to get back to the hospital. Thank you.” She turned and trotted up the stairs.

As Jacqueline moved out of sight, An’gel took her sister’s arm and led her into the parlor. “Tell me about Mireille,” she said when they were seated on the sofa.

Dickce shook her head. “Sister, it just about broke my
heart to watch her lying there in that bed. She looks so frail right now. It’s hard to see how she’s going to recover from this.”

An’gel felt a chill creeping over her. What should have been a joyous occasion for a family gathering had now turned into a potential tragedy instead. Her heart ached for her cousin and the turmoil in the family. All due to the utter self-absorption of one person and her vindictive actions when she was thwarted.

“I know.” Dickce squeezed An’gel’s hand. “That child has so much to answer for.”

An’gel’s tone was brisk as she responded. “Best not dwell on that, or else I’ll march up those stairs and yank every single hair out of her head.”

“And I’d help,” Dickce said. “I hate to say this, Sister, but I’m starving. We never did finish breakfast, and I need something to eat. Have you had any lunch?”

An’gel nodded. “I finished not long before you and Jacqueline got back. Estelle made bacon-and-cheese quiches and a salad.”

“That sounds fine to me.” Dickce rose. “Guess I’ll go to the kitchen and ask for some.”

“Go right ahead,” An’gel said. “Benjy came up for his lunch a little while ago, but he took it back with him to his cottage. Peanut and Endora have been jittery with the storm, and he didn’t want to leave them alone too long.”

“He’s such a sweet, caring boy,” Dickce said. “Will you be in here? I guess I’ll eat in the kitchen, if it’s okay with Estelle. Seems silly to eat in the dining room.”

“That’s what I did.” An’gel stood. “I’m going to make a run into town and buy a few things for our dinner. With
everything that’s going on, I’d just as soon fix something in our cottage tonight. There’s supposed to be another line of storms moving in later this afternoon or early evening.”

“All right, then,” Dickce said. “I’ll see you back at our cottage.” She headed for the kitchen.

An’gel picked up her purse, checked to make sure she had her keys and her wallet, and then let herself out the front door to make her way carefully through the wet grounds to where the Lexus was parked.

She returned an hour later with several bags, and Benjy came out to assist her with them. She thanked him, then said, “I overheard a woman at the grocery store talking about the weather. Apparently the next wave of thunderstorms that’s headed our way will be more violent than what we’ve had already.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Benjy said. “I checked the forecast on the Internet a little while ago, and it was saying the same thing.” He took all but one of the bags from her, and she let them into the cottage.

“How are Peanut and Endora doing?” An’gel asked as they walked into the tiny kitchen area off the small living room.

“They were pretty restless earlier.” Benjy set the bags on the counter and began unpacking them. “They’re still a little on edge, I guess because they can sense there’s more to come. Funny how animals can tell things like that.”

“I feel a bit edgy myself,” An’gel confessed. She opened the compact refrigerator and put the eggs, milk, and cheese inside.

“I’m sorry about your cousin,” Benjy said. “I know you’re worried about her.”

“Yes, it’s a bad situation,” An’gel said. “All we can do now is pray.”

In his quietly efficient way, Benjy had finished putting things away. He rolled up the plastic bags and stowed them in a drawer. “If there isn’t anything else I can do right now, I guess I’ll go back next door and read. I don’t like to leave the kids alone too long.”

“You go right ahead,” An’gel said. “And if you want something to snack on, help yourself.” She knew Benjy was often hungry between meals, and she had bought extra fruit and a few snack items for him.

Benjy grinned. “Thanks. I’ll take a couple of things with me.” He chose an apple, a banana, and a package of cheese and crackers. “See you later.”

After the door closed behind him, An’gel went to Dickce’s bedroom and quietly opened the door. Her sister lay on her side on her bed, evidently asleep, so An’gel pulled the door shut and moved away. She might as well nap herself, she decided, because she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep with a violent storm going on around them. Best take advantage of the lull in the weather and get some rest.

An’gel quickly disrobed and slipped on her nightgown, then lay down on the bed. She prayed for several minutes for her cousin, and then dropped off to sleep not long after.

She jerked awake several hours later, thanks to the crash of thunder. Moments later, lightning flashed, and she counted the seconds until the next boom. Four seconds. The storm was about four miles away.

She dressed quickly and left the bedroom. She found Dickce in the living room, sitting in a chair with its back to the inside wall.

“I was going to wake you up in a minute if the storm didn’t,” Dickce said. She, like An’gel, hated thunderstorms. Their mother had been terrified of weather like this and would hide herself and her daughters in a first-floor closet at Riverhill whenever storms threatened. The sisters had conquered the worst of their fears of bad weather, but their mother’s legacy lingered.

An’gel retrieved a chair from the kitchen area and brought it to sit beside Dickce. For a few minutes, An’gel shared with Dickce the events of the morning at Willowbank, while Dickce was at the hospital in Baton Rouge. Once the storm was overhead, however, neither of them spoke. For the longest time, it seemed to stall right above them. They huddled together, their breathing ragged, until after an eternity the storm began to move away.

An’gel got up, intent on fetching a bottle of water for each of them from the fridge, but a knock on the door halted her. She opened the door to find Benjy, with Endora on his shoulder and Peanut at his side, standing there. Peanut looked frightened, and Endora had her head against the side of Benjy’s face.

An’gel motioned them in and shut the door behind them. “Is everything okay?” she asked.

Peanut loped over to Dickce, woofing happily, but Endora remained on Benjy’s shoulder.

“We’re okay,” Benjy said with a faint smile. “But the guys were really spooked by the weather. Peanut spent the whole time under the bed with Endora.” He chuckled. “A couple of times I was tempted to join them.”

“Poor babies,” Dickce said as she rubbed the Labradoodle’s head. “I don’t blame them. It was a pretty fierce storm.”

“It certainly was,” An’gel said.

“The bad thing is,” Benjy said, his face darkening, “it’s not over. I checked the forecast, and there’s another wave of it moving right at us. Should be here within the next hour.”

An’gel shuddered. She wasn’t sure her nerves, or Dickce’s, could take much more of this scary weather.

“From what I could see, there are a lot of limbs down, and the ditches are overflowing,” Benjy said. “I guess Willowbank is high enough up it’s not in danger of flooding, but we’re considerably lower here.”

“Do you think we should move up to Willowbank then?” An’gel asked. Benjy’s evident uneasiness made her even more nervous.

Benjy nodded. “Yes, ma’am. The radar showed a big system, and it’s probably packing a lot of rain and high winds. I think we’d be safer up there.”

“All right then.” An’gel nodded decisively. “Let’s pack up quickly what we need for the night, and put it in the car. We’ll drive up there. I don’t want to leave the car here and have it washed away.”

“I’ve got my stuff and the guys’ food and everything ready,” Benjy said. “Just need to load it.”

An’gel found her handbag and dug out her keys. She gave them to Benjy. “We’ll be out right away.”

Twenty minutes later they were all safely inside Willowbank, with the Lexus stowed in the old stables that had been transformed decades ago into a multicar garage. Estelle was grumpy but grudgingly agreed to get a couple of bedrooms ready for them.

“I don’t want those animals on the bed, though.” She shot a dark look at Benjy. “You make sure they stay on the floor.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.

An’gel, Dickce, along with Benjy and the animals, trooped upstairs after Estelle. She showed the sisters to a bedroom on the second floor, then led Benjy up to the third floor. When she returned to the sisters’ room, she carried fresh linens.

“We’ll make up the bed,” Dickce told her. “I’m sure you have enough to do.”

“And we certainly appreciate the hospitality,” An’gel said. “We’re concerned about the storm that’s coming, and we thought Willowbank would be safer than the cottages.”

Estelle shrugged. “Don’t expect much in the way of dinner. We’ll be lucky if the electricity stays on. It was flickering on and off earlier.” She walked out of the room.

An’gel and Dickce exchanged glances, then Dickce shrugged. “Even if the lights do go out, I’d rather be here,” she said.

“Me, too.” An’gel started stripping the bed.