With One Look (24 page)

She loved teaching in the mornings, loved the afternoons spent in leisure—swimming, picnics and long walks—and most of all, she loved the evenings when Victor and Sebastian returned, and they all dined together. Sebastian was building his own country estate on the property bordering Victor's. He was just settling the land purchase this week and construction would begin within the year, and until then Sebastian and Mercedes would live at Shady Manor. Sebastian was to take Mercedes back to Austria to marry her—Mercedes kept saying she woke from a long terrifying nightmare to find herself in a fairytale dream. All her anxieties and horrible obsessions were gone, dissipating beneath the love and security Sebastian gave her.

Mercedes, Sebastian, Murray, Carl and Tessie became the family she had lost, filling an empty part of her heart again, an emptiness she only now realized had been there. Thinking of it, Jade's fingers tightened around Tessie's hand as they walked back. Tessie smiled at her, seeming to know her thoughts. Tessie's carefree, lively and unrestrained personality complemented Jade's, and as her maid and helper, they were nearly constant companions.

The best part, unfolded more each day, was this love blossoming in her heart, arching like a bright warm sun over her life.

As they gathered on the patio to await the evening meal, Murray thought Jade sparkled with a cat's contentment. Wearing a pretty cotton rose dress and with flushed cheeks, she sat on the ledge of the patio, her fingers flying through her knitting. Mercedes and Sebastian sat at the table playing a game of chance together, while Murray completed his book work.

Still fascinated with Jade's gifts, he called out long series of numbers to her. Without interrupting her knitting, Jade totaled the numbers in her head and called back the answer. After a shake of his head, he wrote the figure down without even checking it, having learned she rarely, if ever, made mistakes.

Victor surveyed the pleasant scene of domestic tranquility and, before anybody could jump up with excited exclamations, he motioned them still.

"Forty hundred and three," Jade said unaware. She heard Mercedes and Sebastian stop their game and she lifted her head, listening, alerted. "Victor!"

Everyone laughed and after setting the box down, he came to her side and kissed her affectionately on the forehead. It was all he permitted himself to do. "How have you been?" he asked, brushing his hand over her face.

"Fine! But I'm so glad you're back. I've missed you." "What's this?" he asked.

"Knitting," she guessed.

"No, this bruise," he said eying a nearly black bruise on her thin arm. The bruise covering at least six square inches around her elbow.

"What bruise?" she asked, confused. She felt his hand gently touch her elbow. She hadn't known there was a bruise there.

"How did that happen?"

"I don't really remember ... I suppose I just turned into something—"

"I think that's when you slipped from the carriage step," Murray suggested.

"No, it wasn't that." She touched Victor's face, finding a frown and said, "Don't worry so. It doesn't hurt at all."

"I do worry." Last week she had been climbing a ladder to reach the hay loft in the stables to "see" a new litter of kittens when she fell over ten steps to the ground, bruised but miraculously unhurt. Before that she had slipped in spilled water in the kitchen, spraining her hand. "You must be more careful."

A number of servants came outside, forming a circle around them, to see Jade when he gave her the gift. Victor finished a quick exchange of greetings to the others and after briefly relating recent events in the city, he turned back to Jade.

"I've brought you a present." "Me?" she always asked.

"Yes, you." Alarm lifted on her features and he chuckled. "Don't tell me I've found a woman who doesn't like presents?"

"Oh, why no ... I'm sure I'll like anything you might give me," she lied, not at all sure actually. He had given her too much already. A single gift more would be too many. She also felt a little apprehensive about what he might choose to give her. "What is it?"

"Guess," he said. "A new sun hat?"

He was going to enjoy this. "No." "Is it something to wear?" she asked. "No."

She thought it must be jewelry then and somehow, jewelry seemed the worst kind of present he could give her. "It's not a piece of jewelry, is it?"

"No."

"Well what is it?"

Victor reached behind him and lifted the puppy out to the whispered murmurs from their audience. He set it on her lap. Jade's hands come over it and she gasped. Victor chuckled with the others at the heart-stopping look of astonishment and joy on her face.

Jade brushed her hands over the smooth, soft fur, then lifted him to the air and buried her face into his fur. And when the puppy answered her with a small whimper and a kiss, tears filled her eyes.

Victor watched, first with disbelief, then damning himself for his thoughtlessness. "I should have known it's too soon after Hamlet. Oh sweetheart—"

Jade managed to shake her head.

"Victor," Mercedes interrupted with a tender smile. "These are happy tears, joyful tears."

Victor stared at her for a moment and when he saw it was true, he chuckled, feeling a swift rush of emotion. He stood up, swung his leg around her on the patio ledge, drawing both Jade and her puppy onto his lap to the happy applause of the crowd.

Jade held the puppy to her face. "He is the best, most wonderful present I've ever received," she whispered because she couldn't manage anything more. "I can't believe you thought of ... Oh Victor, thank you."

Everyone gathered around to take a close look at the new puppy, throwing possible names back and forth. But Luke, one of Victor's best workers, took one look at the face, eyes, ears and knew. "Ah, you made a big mistake Vic. That's no dog."

"What do you mean? This is a golden mastiff puppy, the man said he was one of the best dogs in the world."

Luke chuckled as he shook his head. "I never heard of that, but that pup there, ain't no dog.

That's a wolf cub if ever there was."

"A wolf?" Jade asked. "He's a wolf?"

"Yes ma'am, that be a wolf, though I ain't never seen such in Louisiana Territory." "How do you know?" Victor asked cautiously.

Luke pointed, "Look at them eyes, them ears. If that ain't a wolf, then he sure got wolf in

him."

"He's right," Sebastian said, petting the puppy's head. "He does look rather wolfish." "Now that you mention it..." Murray mused out loud.

Victor took the innocent looking bundle from Jade and held him up for closer examination.

The old man had said it was a Golden Mastiff. He thought back over his interaction with the old man. He suddenly saw it in a different light. He laughed, "I think I've just been had."

Jade wasted little time in taking the puppy back. "It doesn't matter, he's still the cutest, sweetest—"

"Sweetheart, I can't let you keep him. Wolves aren't domesticated. He's a wild animal. I'm sorry, but—"

She stood to her feet. "Wild now, but I shall tame him—" "Jade ..."

He said her name in that tone, an unpleasant one. Intuition spoke to her, suggesting the tactic that could not fail. Holding the puppy against her bosom, she stepped forward and silenced him with a gentle finger to his mouth. She ran a finger over his chest, looking up at him with wide eyes and while she didn't see anything, those eyes were perfectly capable of pleading her case.

Victor found his fingers suddenly twirling a loose strand of her hair. Mercedes winked at Tessie, knowing well the signs of a man weakening.

"Please," Jade whispered. "If you take him from me now, you'll break my heart, I swear it.

Just look at him, does he look like he would ever be mean?"

Victor's gaze lowered to the bundle of fur held against her bosom. She heard a groan, a pause, a deep sigh and finally a chuckle.

"I relent," he said. "But reluctantly and on the condition that if he does become too rough for you, you turn him over without a protest."

Jade threw her free arm around him and laughed before kissing him with gratitude. The women left for the kitchen to fetch food for the puppy. Watching them march away in triumph, Murray sighed, "Women will never stop believing in their God-given ability to tame what's wild."

Sebastian smiled, "And it's a good thing, too, for if they ever did, civilization would grind to a halt and we'd all soon be the savages we once were."

Victor shook his head. "Sometimes, I think I'd prefer those good old savage days." "By the way, when's the grave diggin'?"

"Wednesday night. Next week."

Late that night Jade stretched out on the bed, still fondling her tiny wolf as he basked in his new, tender and loving care. Victor's cook, Chachie, had taken one look at the puppy's teeth and said he had been too young for weaning, but if he lived—something of which Jade was certain— the puppy would consider Jade his mother. Jade smiled at the idea of being a wolf's mother.

The room where she slept was large and spacious. Tessie said the bed clothes, the velvet coverlet and the gossamer draperies were colored dark blue, with a green and maroon paisley pattern, that it matched perfectly the adjoining room, Victor's bed chambers. She saw it perfectly in her mind. She had felt around the dark mahogany furnishings: the dresser and vanity, the bed posts, the sitting chairs and table, and she had known immediately it was the work of old man Lamana.

Old man Lamana had a shop off on the corner of Chartres and Beinville and there was no finer artisan in the city. He gave large monthly stipends to the Negro girls' charity school, and all because he had gained his freedom by learning to read. When he was a boy, his master kept finding him staring at the words in the Bible and had jokingly promised him freedom if he could ever read a page in the Bible. That was all it took. The young boy went to every prayer meeting, memorizing the passages and verse, later looked them up and studed and matched the words until he could read. His master had been so dumbfounded and surprised, he had kept his word, signing his papers and paying for his apprenticeship.

She heard Victor enter his adjoining bedroom. Murray had been sleeping in the room while Victor was away, and though it was never mentioned, she knew someone always shared the adjoining bedroom in the event she had a seizure. Thankfully, she had not suffered another. She felt safe again.

Intent on demonstrating her puppy's progress to Victor, she swept him into her arms and carefully, slowly made her way through the adjoining dressing room. She paused outside the open door and asked softly, "Victor? May I come in? I want to show you something."

Undressing, Victor smiled to himself. Since she received the puppy, Jade was not to be seen; she had even missed supper. "Come in."

Jade came through the doors. He took one look at her and froze. She wore only a thin, white cotton night dress; the transparent material merely shaded the slender shape beneath. The short sleeves and neckline barely covered her shoulders, while the long dark hair had been lifted back, and plaited, revealing every part of her to his scrutiny.

"Watch this." She smiled. "Oh, I'm watching."

Jade set the puppy down, retreated four steps back and then knelt on her hands and knees.

The gown dropped an inch or so from her person, displaying what he often found himself imagining, and with her in a pose so provocative, he stiffened, drew a sharp breath and released it in a groan when he could not turn away.

"No, wait," she said, misinterpreting his groan. "Come on, Wolf Dog, come on!" she called excitedly. The little wolf dog rose unsteadily to his feet, wobbled the four paces, and she laughed as she swept him back into her arms. "See, already he'll come to me! Are you impressed?"

"Very."

"Oh, I know he's going to be a fine dog!" she continued excitedly, superlatives gushing from happiness. "He is the very best present I ever received in my whole life, and, oh, Victor, if only there was some way to thank you enough."

This made Victor shake his head with a chuckle.

"I still can't think of a name for him," she admitted, petting the furry head. "I'm having a great deal of difficulty thinking right now as well," he confessed.

"Oh?" She looked suddenly confused. "Are you tired? Yes, of course, you must be after the day's travel. I didn't mean to keep you up—"

That did it. Victor fell back on the bed and roared with laughter; it was too much, it was just too much. His laughter brought Jade a quick understanding, a blush went to the roots of her hair and she could not leave fast enough.

Vintage Jade, he thought.

The rain pounded on the balcony outside. Jade stepped quietly into her room. She set Wolf Dog in his small basket, petted him until he fell asleep and before undressing, she lay down on the bed to listen to the rain fall against the windows.

She loved the sound of rain against windows....

Victor turned off the lamp in his bedchamber. Darkness surrounded him. The light from her room seeped through the door, and yet he was suddenly listening to the rain against the house.

Haunting images of their first night together took shape in his mind. Without fully knowing his intentions, he found himself moving through the door, the adjoining dressing room, and then just standing in the doorway. She lay on the bed, seemed lost in her thoughts.

What was she thinking?

He remained motionless, watching, studying her, unable to turn away and yet unable to go

to her.

Jade sat up with a sad kind of sigh and began undressing. Confidently, she moved to the

closet, though one arm remained outstretched as necessary protection. He smiled as she struggled with the buttons, buttons he could undo so easily. She hung her dress, removed her petticoat, and when he saw the chemise coming off, he grasped the danger and forced himself away.

Lured by the soothing sound of rain, she soon fell asleep. Perhaps an hour or so passed before she drifted into the now familiar dream that wreaked havoc on her sleep. It was always the same dream, spun from a memory of a hot afternoon by a lake. Some nights the dream became so startlingly vivid that it woke her.