American Heroes Series - 03 - Purgatory (47 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Paul-Michel Aury would not win.

After two hours of sleep, that
was what Nash had ultimately decided and even though it was Saturday, he called
Dr. Whitney and told the man what had happened. Dr. Whitney had shown up a
little over two hours later with three other archaeologists from the State of
Louisiana, the museum curator from the University of New Orleans Cultural
Museum, and Dr. Clarke. 

Following behind Dr. Whitney in
four or five more cars were several archaeology students from LSU, an
anthropology professor, and two journalism students. Dr. Whitney wanted
everything well documented because if the discovery was anything close to what
Commissioner Aury had told him, they had a historic find on their hands.

It was late morning by the time
Nash opened the front door to admit everyone. Wolfgang danced excitedly next to
him because he knew that these people meant food in his belly, so Nash held on
to the happy dog as he told everyone to keep the noise level down if possible.
His pregnant wife wasn’t feeling well and she’d only been asleep a few hours.
With as much silence as possible, Dr. Whitney led his brigade down into the
crypt and the process of historic discovery began.

Nash produced Sophie’s journal
for Dr. Clarke, explaining to the woman where it was found, and Dr. Clarke
immediately retreated to the kitchen to not only inspect the dumbwaiter, but to
also began examining and photographing the journal. 

As a cultural anthropologist,
having an unstudied and pristine journal from early Louisiana history was a
rare honor, especially from a woman who was the mistress to a famous pirate. 
Knowing what she did of Sophie Aury, Dr. Clarke was deeply grateful to be able
to examine the woman and the truth behind the mystery for herself. For a
research scientist, it was a dream come true.

Nash spent his time between Dr.
Clarke and Dr. Whitney, explaining the conjecture that Elliot and he had come
up with as it pertained to the fate of the Aury children.  Dr. Clarke agreed
that the idea was quite reasonable as she delved into Sophie’s journal. 

Dr. Whitney was more interested
in the archaeological aspects of the find and sat down with Nash for about an
hour to write out a contract for excavation between the State of Louisiana and
Nash and Elliot Aury, owners of Sophie Plantation. Nash basically gave his
permission to excavate all four Aury crypts but reserved the right to make any
and all decisions over content. Before anything truly got started, Dr. Whitney
called his boss, Dr. Mann, and everything was set in stone.

Noon rolled into early afternoon.
The crypt was packed with students and professors while Dr. Clarke and one of
the journalism students were in the kitchen deciphering the journal.  Nash had
the dog penned up in his run but he was very unhappy with all of the activity
going on around him, barking every time he would see someone near, in or around
the house.

Nash was sure his barking had
woken Elliot, but he had checked on her several times during the morning and
she seemed to be sleeping through it all. However, when he went to check on her
around two-thirty, he found the bed empty.

Nash looked around the room and,
not seeing anyone, was about to call Elliot’s name when he heard her in the
bathroom vomiting. Concerned, he went into their newly-remodeled bathroom to
find her bent over the toilet.

“Honey?” he stuck his head in the
door. “Are you all right? Can I get you something?”

Elliot wasn’t finished retching
yet. With nothing in her stomach, it was all reduced to dry heaves and she
ended up collapsing onto the bathroom floor, miserable and exhausted.  Nash
bent down to pick her up but she resisted.

“No,” she breathed, the right side
of her face against the cold tile floor. “Just leave me here. The cold feels
good.”

Poor Nash was feeling the nausea
right along with her, distressed that there was nothing he could do for her. 
He sat down on the floor next to her.

“Honey, I can’t just leave you
here,” he said, stroking her arm gently. “Let me get you a cold cloth and put
you back to bed.”

“No,” Elliot whispered. “I’ll
start throwing up again. Just leave me here for a minute. Please.”

Worried, he ran a washcloth under
cold water anyway and knelt down beside her, wiping the cool water on her face
and neck.  Then he left the bathroom and went downstairs, heading for the
kitchen and green jello just as Penelope, Shane, Alec and Beck came in through
the front door. 

The door popped open and the four
young adults made their presence known, in Alec’s case, loudly when he stubbed
his toe on the doorjamb. Nash forgot about the green jello, surprised and
pleased.

“Well,” he put his hands on his
hips, inspecting the motley crew. “The gang’s all here. What are y’all doing?”

Penelope, with bags and backpacks
in her arms, marched right up to him.

“We’ve been talking, Nash,” she
said resolutely. “We’re here because you’re going to take Mom to New Orleans
this weekend on your honeymoon. You guys got married and came right back here
without even going anywhere. We’re going to watch the house while you go
because we know you don’t want to leave it alone.”

Nash raised his eyebrows. “Y’all
didn’t have to come home just to force us to leave,” he said. “We’ve been
talking about going for a while now, but your mom’s been feeling so bad that
she hasn’t felt like traveling.”

Alec and Shane pushed past him,
heading for the kitchen. “We just came home to eat,” Alec said, nursing the
toe. “Shane doesn’t keep anything but energy drinks in his refrigerator.”

Nash shook his head reproachfully
at his youngest son as the kid moved past him, but Shane ignored the look from
his father.

 “I hope you’ve got food in this
place,” Shane said. “Hey, why are all those cars outside?”

Nash turned to answer him but
Beck caught his attention. “Dad, just get out of here because if you don’t,
then all four of us are going to New Orleans instead, and you know what that
means.”

Nash rolled his eyes. “It means
that I’ll be bailing one or more of you out of jail for public intoxication,”
he followed Shane and Alec into the kitchen, where they were already raiding
the refrigerator. “You remember Dr. Clarke, boys? Show some manners and say
hello.”

Alec waved at the woman as Shane
pulled lunch meat out of the refrigerator.  Dr. Clarke waved back.

“Hey, why is there so much green
jello in here?” Shane wanted to know.

Nash had to move out of the way
as the hungry boys began moving from the refrigerator to the counter, preparing
to make some lunch.

“Because Ellie’s still not
feeling well,” he replied. “That’s all she feels like eating these days.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have
knocked her up,” Shane suggested helpfully as he stuck a pickle in his mouth.

Nash lifted an unhappy eyebrow at
his son, preparing to scold him, but then he just started chuckling. It was
such joyful, and sometimes irreverent, chaos when the boys were around. He put
up his hands in surrender and headed out of the kitchen.

“I’m leaving,” he announced.
“Keep it down out here. Ellie’s trying to rest.”

“You didn’t tell us who all these
people were,” Alec reminded him. 

Nash stopped and turned around.
“You’re right, I didn’t,” he said, then he tilted his head so he could see into
the ballroom where Penelope and Beck were greeting Wolfgang. “Hey, y’all come
in here. You’re going to want to hear this.”

Beck and Penelope came into the
kitchen with Wolfgang following Penelope. Nash realized he was very excited to
tell them the story of the discovery of Sophie’s journal, watching their faces
as he spoke of murderous siblings and pirate’s treasure.

 For that afternoon, the four
young people lost themselves in history two-hundred years in the making.  For
that afternoon, it wasn’t the Jentry children and the Aury children. It was
three boys and one girl, just as there had been three boys and one girl, all
children of Sophie MacGregor. 

Listening to the story of tragedy
and triumph as told by Nash, that afternoon, all of them became irrevocably
part of the history of Purgatory.

***

Between Penelope and Nash, they
were able to convince Elliot that a few days in New Orleans might make her feel
better.  It took them most of Sunday to do it, but by Sunday evening, Elliot
was looking forward to her honeymoon. 

Nash had reserved a Club Executive
Suite at the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans and already had a Marie Laveau
Lovespell couples massage booked in their exclusive spa. He was eager to get
his wife away from ghosts and plantations and murdered children, into an
environment that would be sweet and pampering to them both.  They both needed
the break.

Penelope, Beck and Shane had to
go back to school on Monday but the agreement was that they would return on
Thursday and stay with Alec through the weekend so he wouldn’t be by himself. 
As the only one of the four children living at home and going to the local
community college, neither Nash nor Elliot wanted to leave him alone with all
of the activity going on around the house.  It was activity that was only going
to get worse.

Sunday and Monday had been bad
days for Elliot physically. She had been nauseous day and night. But she woke
up Tuesday feeling much better, so much so that she got up with Nash and made
him breakfast before he went to work. She was even able to eat breakfast with
him, chatting softly over morning coffee as the sun rose.

It had been a rare and unexpected
treat to share breakfast with her. Nash kissed her and hugged her, perhaps a
little longer than usual, before heading out of the door just as the Clarke and
Whitney brigade drove up. He waved at the doctors as he pulled out of the
driveway and blew his wife a kiss.

Elliot proceeded to shower and do
laundry in preparation for their honeymoon to New Orleans.  She was feeling
amazingly well as she went about picking out the clothes she would take,
finally pulling out a pair of her favorite designer jeans just to try them on
to make sure they fit. She expected them to be snug, but she didn’t expect to
not be able to button them. Her baby bump had become so big that it was time for
the transition to maternity clothes.

Picking up her cell phone, she
dialed Nash.  As usual, he picked up by the third ring, which he always did
when she called him. It never mattered what the man was doing or who he was
with, when he saw Elliot’s name on the caller I.D., he answered as fast as he
could.

“Hi, darlin’,” he said sweetly.
“How are feeling?”

Elliot sat on the edge of the
bed. “Surprisingly good,” she said. “It looks like I won’t have to kill you
after all for getting me pregnant.”

He laughed softly. “Is that where
it was headed? I wondered.”

“Well, now you know,” she
giggled. “In fact, I feel so good that I have a proposition for you.”

“A proposition?” he lowered his
voice, grinning. “Tell me more. I’m intrigued.”

“You should be,” she said. “How
often do you get propositioned by a beautiful blond?”

“Not often enough since she found
out she was pregnant. I’m all ears, honey.”

Elliot grinned as she flipped on
the television to watch the morning news, cradling the phone against her ear as
she began to go through the pile of clothes on the bed again.

“Here’s the deal, Mr.
Commissioner,” she said. “I was doing some laundry and packing this morning for
our trip, but I came across an unfortunate discovery.”

“What’s that?”

“I can no longer fit into my pants.
The baby has taken over my body completely, so I need to do some shopping. I
was thinking about going to the mall in Baton Rouge and was further hoping you
could buy me lunch because you feel so sorry for me for outgrowing my clothes.”

On the other end of the line,
Nash grinned broadly. “That,” he said softly, “would be my pleasure. Plus, I
can introduce you to some of the people I work with around here. They’re dying
to meet you.”

“Where should I meet you?”

“Come to my office first. Call me
when you’re in the parking lot and I’ll come and get you.”

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll see you
in a couple of hours.”

“I love you.  Drive safely,
please.”

“I will. Love you, too.”

Excited at her first outing in
quite some time, Elliot went about the difficult task of trying to find
something to wear. The best she could come up with was a beautiful flowing
caftan top and leggings with strappy high heels that Nash was going to kill her
for wearing when he saw them. As she tried on shoes to see which pair went best
with the outfit, she happened to glance up at the television and saw a big
graphic next to the news anchor that said ‘Pirate Treasure’. Curious, she
turned up the volume.

Almost immediately, she could see
that the story was about Purgatory. There was video of her front gates and the
news reporter was standing across the street as she delivered her story. In
fact, there was more than one news van that she could see and she instinctively
went to the window to see if she could spy anything down the long driveway. She
didn’t see any news vans but she saw people milling about in the driveway down
below.  Her concern and confusion grew.