Creole Fires (35 page)

Working to set events in motion, Nicole sent a note of invitation, and a few days later Michele came to call.

Though Nicki dreaded the favor she must ask, she was excited to see her friend. Seated on the ice-blue brocade sofa in front of a slow-burning fire, they talked and laughed just as they had when they were children. Michele spoke often of Thomas, confiding that he had been calling on her almost every day.

“Alex thinks a great deal of him,” Nicki told her.

“Yes, he is a very honorable man. But more than that, he is gentle and kind.” She fluttered her cream lace fan, her smooth cheeks turning a faint shade of pink. “I think I am falling in love with him.”

“I’m happy for you,” Nicki said, though the words brought thoughts of her own unfortunate circumstances.

“He hasn’t spoken of marriage, but I think he will soon.”

Nicki glanced away. Even though she needed Michele’s help dearly, she hadn’t been certain she could ask for it. Now, at her friend’s talk of marriage, she felt she had no choice.

“Today has been fun,” Nicki said, “just like old times.”

“Out
, it has been.”

The last of Nicki’s soft smile faded. “In truth, Michele, as much as I’ve enjoyed our time together, I asked you here for more them conversation.”

Michele seemed unsurprised. “I feared it was so.”

“I’ve got to get away, Michele. I can’t stay here after Alex is married. Will you help me?”

Michele’s slender fingers covered Nicki’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You know I will. What can I do?”

“I need some money. Not too much. Just enough to give me a fresh start someplace else.”

“But Alexandre owns your contract. Will he not come after you?”

“Not if I plan well enough. I intend to book passage on a ship headed north. I’ll leave in the middle of the night and sail with the tide. If I’m careful and no one sees me, I’m certain it will work.”

Michele looked hesitant. “I do not know, Nicki. M’sieur du Villier does not seem a man who gives up easily. He will do his best to bring you back.”

“I have to try. Could you be with Thomas if he were married to someone else?”

Michele sucked in a breath. “
Mon Dieu
, no! I love him. I could not share him with another woman.”

“Then you know why I must go.”

Michele squared her slender shoulders, her pretty green eyes determined. “I will ask Thomas for the money. I am certain he will give it to me.”

“But surely Thomas will want to know what it’s for?”

“I will tell him it is for my sister. I do not think he
will ask many questions. Thomas is very careful of my feelings.” She smiled tenderly at thoughts of the man she loved.

“It’s a great deal to ask of you,” Nicki said. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I am sure. If Thomas and I marry, his money will be mine, too, so it is the same as borrowing from me. If we do not, then I shall pay him back.”

“I will pay him back,” Nicki said with quiet determination. “It may take a while, but I will, I promise you.”

Michele leaned over and hugged her. “The money will be yours before the end of the week.”

Nicki blinked back a well of tears. “Thank you.”

From that day forward, Nicki’s hours were filled with making the final preparations. Alex sent several messages, explaining how busy he was and asking her to be patient. Though she missed him terribly, thought of him even when she tried not to, and still fought passionate dreams, Nicki thanked God for every moment he stayed away.

As promised, Michele brought the money three days later, and Danielle secured passage for Nicole on a ship bound for Charleston, South Carolina, on the Wednesday morning tide. From there she would take a ship farther north.

Tuesday night, if all went well, she would be free.

On Monday, while Danielle played chess with the Ram, as was their now established routine, Nicki had a visitor.

It might not have happened if she hadn’t been standing in the foyer speaking to Frederick when the soft knock came at the door.

Frederick excused himself and pulled it open to reveal a small, dark-silhouetted figure hidden in the folds of her cloak. Trembling on the stone steps out front, the woman fought to keep the breeze from blowing the satin-lined hood from her head.

“I am sorry to bother you,” came the woman’s heavily accented soft French voice, “but I must speak to Alexandre. Is ‘e at ‘ome?”

“I’m sorry,” Frederick said, “but he’s in residence at Belle Chêne.”

The woman sagged against the door frame, her composure giving way to sobs. “I am sorry to ‘ave bothered you.” She turned to leave, but Nicole stepped forward and stopped her with a gentle hand on her arm.

“Come in, Lisette. Alex isn’t here, but I am. Please tell me what’s wrong.”

Lisette raised her tear-stained face and shook her head. “I could not.”

“Alex would want me to help you.”

“If I ‘ad listened to Alexandre, none of this would ‘ave ‘appened.” But she let Nicki lead her inside, each step measured and so stiff that Nicole’s uncertainty changed to alarm.

“Are you injured?” she asked with a sideways glance at Ram and Danielle, who had just stepped into the foyer.

Lisette wet her lips, which looked brittle and pale. “I … I …” Ram caught her up in his powerful arms just as she sagged unconscious to the floor. Her cloak fell away, freeing the mass of glistening black hair that tumbled loose around her shoulders, and exposing a dark purple bruise beside her eye. Effortlessly, Ram carried her upstairs to the guest room.

Danielle turned down the sheets while Nicki removed Lisette’s heavy black cloak.

“Gently,” Nicki instructed Ram, though she needn’t have bothered. “I’ll take care of things from here.”

As soon as the big Turk had settled his small burden and left the room, Nicki went to work removing Lisette’s blue serge dress. She gasped at the angry marks on the woman’s smooth, dark skin. There were teethmarks along Lisette’s shoulder, angry purple bruises on her ribs, back, hips, and legs.

“Valcour,” Nicki whispered. “How could he do such a thing?”

Danielle made the sign of the cross. “Such a wicked, evil man. All the stories about him must be true.”

“Yes,” Nicki said, the word no more than a breath of air.

“I hate the thought of René working for such a man,” Danielle said staunchly. “Once we are married, I will beg
M’sieur le duc
to give him a position at Belle Chêne.”

Nicole didn’t remind Danielle that
she
might well not have a position, once Alex discovered the part she had played in her mistress’s escape.

A movement on the bed caught her eye. Lisette moaned softly, and her wide, dark eyes fluttered open.

“Do you feel like talking?” Nicki asked as Danielle applied a thick gray salve to the wounds on the Frenchwoman’s shoulder, then carefully secured a bandage.

Lisette smiled feebly, her long black hair spilling in
soft, dark waves around her face. “You are very kind to ’elp me. I can see why Alexandre loves you.”

“He doesn’t love me. Alex doesn’t believe in love. You of all people should know that.”

“Maybe ‘e does not know it yet, but love is not something ‘e can control.”

“No,” Nicki softly agreed, “it isn’t.”

“Even after what ‘e has done to me, I still love Valcour.”

“But he beat you!”

“‘E’ did not mean to.” Lisette gazed off in the distance. “It started as a game of seduction—Valcour is a man of great passion.” She smiled weakly. “When ‘e came to me tonight, ‘e was angry. Something ‘ad ‘appened at Feliciana, some problem with the ‘arvest …. It was nothing unusual, but ‘e was upset. We made love fiercely, violently. Still, it was not enough.”

Nicki kept silent, urging Lisette to continue by a look that held no rebuke.

“‘Let me show you the pleasure there can be in pain,’ ‘e said. By then I wanted ‘im so badly, I would ‘ave agreed to anything.” Lisette shuddered with the memory. “Val knew exactly what to do with the leather. Not ‘urting me, just teasing, and warming me in a way I ‘ad not known.”

Nicki drew a strand of thick black hair from Lisette’s tear-stained cheek.

“At first it was exciting,” she continued. “Val looked fierce, and ‘e was wild with desire for me. Then something ‘appened. It was as if ‘e lost track of time. ‘E started ‘itting me—’arder and ‘arder. I begged ‘im to stop, but ‘e wouldn’t. ‘E is so strong ….”

Lisette’s tears began anew, her soft sobs touching Nicki’s heart. ‘Over and over, ‘e called me Feliciana. Called me whore and a dozen other vile names. Then ‘e took me. Roughly, cruelly. By the time it was over, Val was crying. Begging me to forgive ‘im. ‘E is such a tortured man.”

“I’m sorry,” Nicki said. “For both of you.”

Lisette’s sobs quieted. Nicki sat beside her, smoothing her wind-tossed hair until she fell into an exhausted sleep, and Nicki was able to get a few hours rest as well.

The following morning, Lisette sought her out in the dining room.

“You’re sure you feel well enough to go home?” Nicki asked, sliding back her heavy carved wooden chair and coming to her feet.

“I am fine now, thanks to you.”

“I’m glad I could help.”

“And I am glad Alexandre was not ere,” she told Nicki, who looked at her in surprise. “‘E would ‘ave gone after Valcour and I do not want that. Alexandre is still a friend, and I love Valcour. I do not want either of them ‘urt.” She turned dark, pleading eyes on Nicki. “Promise me you will not tell ‘im.”

“Aren’t you afraid Valcour will hurt you again? Surely something should be done.”

“Promise me,” Lisette pressed.

“All right. I won’t tell him.”

Lisette smiled. “Thank you again for ’elping me. I ‘ope you will find ‘appiness. Alexandre deserves it. I ‘ave come to believe you do too.” With a sweep of her blue serge skirts, she was gone.

Another problem laid on Alex’s doorstep.
Nicki
prayed this one would not reappear—for Lisette’s sake as well as Alexandre’s.

In a way she was glad she wouldn’t be there to find out.

“So far everything is going smoothly,” Danielle told Nicki, who stood in front of the oval mirror in her chamber. It was Tuesday night and all was in readiness.

“Good. I’m just about ready.” With her hair pulled back and hidden beneath a wide-brimmed bonnet, and dressed in a simple brown wool dress, Nicki felt sure she could pass through the streets unnoticed.

“You had better keep your head down. If someone should notice your eyes, they will not soon forget you.”

Nicki nodded. “Where’s Ram?”

“He is setting up the chess board. He says I am a rapid learner. I told him he was being far too modest, that my game was improving because he was such a good teacher.”

Nicki grinned. “Use that kind of approach with Alex and maybe you’ll be able to appease his temper.”

“I shall weep and wail and throw myself at his mercy.”

“That should do it.”

“Do not worry for me. I will be fine.”

Nicki hoped so. “I’m going to miss you.”

“I will miss you too.” The two women hugged. “Give me at least half an hour,” Danielle said. “By then the sleeping potion will have had time to take effect.”

They had amended the plan from a blow on Ram’s
head to a draft of sleeping potion obtained from Marie Gabardet, an infamous voodoo queen who lived in the Quarter. Everyone knew of her special elixirs—from love potions to curses to death charms. A simple powder added to Ram’s nightly goblet of wine was no problem at all.

“He is supposed to sleep from sunset to sunset,” Danielle told her.

Twenty-four hours. She would need every second. “You’d better get downstairs.”

Danielle nodded but made no move to leave. “I have saved this news till last,” she said with a grin. “René and I have set a date for our wedding. We will be married in just two months.”

Nicki squealed with delight and hugged her. “That’s wonderful, Danielle.”

“We talked about it on Sunday.” Danielle’s day off. “He says he has missed me every day since I have been gone.”

“I guess it worked out just the way you planned.”

“Oui,”
Danielle said. “Now it is time we finished what
we
have planned.” With a last brief embrace, Danielle headed downstairs.

Since Frederick’s mother had fallen ill just that morning and he had returned to Belle Chêne, their plan was progressing even better than they’d hoped. Now all Nicki had to do was make her way to the docks and board the ship. Even if her arrival at this hour seemed odd, it was unlikely the captain would investigate, and they would be gone by morning.

A little over half an hour later, Nicki headed downstairs. Danielle stood over the Ram who was slumped on his face in the middle of the chess board, snoring
loudly, the pieces scattered beneath his massive arms.

Wordlessly, they headed toward the rear of the house and Danielle pulled open the door.
“Bonne chance,”
she whispered. Nicole waved and slipped silently away.

Clutching her heavy woolen cloak around her, she glanced up at the cloud-covered sky. Not even a moon lit the way. Tiny drops of rain had begun to fall, and the wind whipped her cloak and sent a chill through her veins.