American Heroes Series - 03 - Purgatory (31 page)

Beck’s attention turned to the
woman. She was really very lovely and in observing her for the past several
minutes, he could see that she was sweet and intelligent.  She had already
managed to tease Shane about something and had her brother nearly as enamored
with her as their father was.  Sure, he wanted to see his father happy and if
pressed to admit it, Elliot Jentry was a worthy candidate.  She seemed okay.
But he was still struggling with the speed of things.

“I went to LSU, ma’am,” he
answered. “My undergrad is in American History.”

Elliot smiled at him. “Did you
always know you wanted to go to law school?”

“Yes’m, as far back as I can
remember.”

“What form of law are you going
to pursue?”

“Criminal law.”

Elliot was listening intently, as
if he was the only other person in the room.  “So your dad will throw them in
jail and then you’ll get them out? Don’t be surprised if he leaves you out of
his will.”

Everyone laughed at the tease and
Beck actually smiled. “With any luck, I’ll be richer than my dad and won’t need
his money.”

Elliot laughed softly and Nash,
who had so far only sat next to her but did not try to touch her in any way,
put his hand affectionately on her shoulder. He just couldn’t help himself.
Beck watched the interplay, realizing that he was coming to like the woman.
There wasn’t one thing about her not to like.  But still, he didn’t want to
accept her, not yet. His acceptance was going to have to be earned.

“Well,” he glanced at his watch.
“How about if Shane and I come back over in the morning to meet Alec and Penny?
It’s getting late.”

Nash sat back in his chair. “You
can stay here,” he said. “There are several bedrooms upstairs to sleep in.”

Elliot began to get up from the
table. “I’d better go see if I can find those blow-up mattresses I have. I
think they’re packed in Alec’s room somewhere.”

Beck gave his father an odd look.
“We’re not heading back home?”

Nash shook his head. “No,” he
replied. “There’s been a lot going on around here, namely with the Loreaus, so
I’ve been staying here just to make sure everything stays peaceful.”

Elliot was already heading up the
back stairs from the kitchen, disappearing into the upper story. Beck waited
until she was gone before answering his father.

“So you’ve been sleeping here?”
he asked. “I’m assuming with her.”

Nash cooled when he saw the look
on Beck’s face. “Yes,” he said honestly. “I told you, we’re getting married. I
don’t see….”

Beck cut his father off, outrage
in his voice. “Are you nuts?” he hissed. “Dad, if Shane or I did something like
this, you’d hog-tie us until we came to our senses.  You just met this woman a
week ago and already you’ve moved in with her? What in the hell are you
thinking?”

Nash remained calm. “I’m thinking
that I didn’t raise my son to speak to me like that,” he replied evenly. “Beck,
I understand where you’re coming from. I really do.  But I’m an adult and I can
think for myself. It’s not like I’ve shacked up with some woman that I’m going
to be tired of next week. I don’t operate like that and you know it. I’m with
the woman I love and we’re getting married….”

Beck threw up his hands, getting
up from the table. “You keep saying that, but do you hear yourself? You’re
making excuses because you met a beautiful woman and you wanted to have sex
with her, so you’re making excuses by saying ‘we’re getting married anyway’ so
that makes it all okay. Well, it
doesn’t
make it okay. It makes it
cheap.”

Nash bolted to his feet, as did
Beau and Shane.  As Shane went to his brother, Beau went to Nash.

“Cool off,” he said quietly.
“He’s just upset. He doesn’t mean it.”

Truthfully, Nash wasn’t sure what
to say.  He was afraid that he was actually going to strike his son so he
turned away and disappeared into the darkened ballroom just to get some breathing
space.  Beau followed Nash as far as the door, pausing as he watched his
brother wander over near the floor to ceiling windows.  With a heavy heart, he
turned to Beck.

“That was really uncalled for,”
he told the young man. “Your dad has finally found the love of his life and all
you can do is berate him for it? What’s wrong with you?  I’ve spent a lot of
time with Ms. Ellie and I can tell you from experience that you wouldn’t find a
finer woman anywhere, ever. She’s so good for your dad, you don’t even know. 
Now, if I were you, I’d think hard on what I just said to him and figure out
how to apologize.”

Beck was furious, being held in
check by Shane as Beau left the kitchen. Realizing that his brother would
probably be better off if he was away from their dad and out of the house,
Shane started pulling Beck towards the front door just to get him outside and
get some fresh air. Just as they walked past the graceful main staircase,
Elliot descended the stairs and ran right into them.

“Hi,” she said, holding a
deflated air mattress. “Do either of you happen to have a bicycle pump in your
trunk?”

It was a perfectly innocent
question but Beck flared. “Look, lady,” he spat. “I don’t know what spell you
cast over my dad, but I don’t have to stay here and watch. Why don’t you leave
him the hell alone and go back where you came from.”

Shane was yanking his brother
towards the front door. “Shut up,” he hissed at him, looking at Elliot and
smiling wanly. “Thank you very much for the cake, ma’am. It was nice to meet
you.”

Shocked, Elliot stood at the
bottom of the stairs as Shane practically threw his brother out of the house.
She had no idea what had just happened as Nash appeared beside her.

“I’m sorry, honey,” he murmured,
putting his arm around her shoulders. “He’s not very happy with me right now.
I’m sorry he took it out on you.”

She looked up at him, baffled. 
“What happened?”

Nash sighed heavily. “He… oh,
hell, I don’t know. He’s just upset because of what’s happened between you and
me.”

Elliot faced him, deeply concerned.
“Go after him and resolve it. Don’t let him leave like this.”

Nash shook his head. “No,” he
said quietly. “He’s too fired up and he’s going to get me fired up. We both
need to cool down.”

“Nash,” she grabbed his arm
firmly. “He’s your son. Don’t you dare let him leave in anger. Hash it out,
punch each other out or whatever you have to do, but for Heaven’s sake, don’t
let him leave angry.  Don’t ever let someone walk away from you in anger.”

He gazed down at her, realizing
she was probably right.  He cupped her face and kissed her, bolting out after
his boys.  Elliot stood there a moment, shocked and hurt by the direction the
evening had taken. As she stood there wondering what had Beck Aury so angry,
she felt someone standing beside her.  Looking over, she saw Beau.  He smiled
weakly.

“Beck isn’t usually so
hot-headed,” he said. “He’s a good boy. He’s just very protective of his
father.”

“I understand,” she said softly.
“I think Alec and Nash have had their run-ins, too, although neither one of
them will talk about it.  It’s all about growing up and accepting change.
Sometimes that’s hard, especially with a parent involved.”

Beau smiled at her as he followed
his brother’s path out of the front door, thinking that perhaps he should be a
part of the discussion in case Beck and Nash’s argument went from bad to
worse.  Nash was very emotional about Elliot and Beck was very emotional about
the situation in general, which could mean disaster if things went wrong.  Beau
thought he should hang around, if for nothing else, than to support his
brother.

Elliot sighed as all of the Aury
men walked from the house.  She was feeling very bad about the whole thing, not
at all offended by Beck’s harsh words. She understood about children being
protective over their parents. 

As she turned to take the
inflatable mattress up stairs, she heard commotion in the dining room and stuck
her head in. Dr. Whitney and Dr. Clarke were emerging from the crypt passage,
their arms laden with notepads and books.  Elliot set the mattress on the
ground and went to help them.

“Let me have that,” she took a
laptop from Dr. Clarke. “Are you getting internet access down there?”

She sounded so incredulous and
Dr. Clarke laughed. “Not at all,” she replied. “I have a flash drive with
research data on it we were using.”

Elliot watched Dr. Whitney barely
squeeze through the narrow passage. “Are you finished for the night?”

As Dr. Clarke nodded, Dr. Whitney
spoke. “For the night,” he confirmed. “We’ll be back tomorrow morning.  Ms.
Jentry, I have to tell you that I’ve never seen anything like it down there.
It’s the most amazing room I’ve ever seen.”

Elliot smiled at his enthusiasm.
“Forgive me for my uneducated observations, but I read that no one builds
anything underground in Louisiana because of the high water table. Why on earth
would the Aurys build a crypt beneath the house?”

Dr. Whitney wiped his
handkerchief over his sweaty face. “Oh, that’s not the original purpose of the
room,” he told her seriously. “It’s my belief that it was the house’s original
kitchen.  That means there’s a secondary access somewhere, perhaps long filled
in or overgrown.  There is no way they could have moved those coffins down into
that room with this passage being the only access.  There had to be another
way.”

“Really?” Elliot was fascinated.
“Is an underground kitchen uncommon?”

He shook his head.  “Not at all,
but they’re more common on the east coast where the water table is lower and
the climate is colder,” he replied. “For the house’s owners to turn the kitchen
into a burial crypt… well, I’ve just never heard of anything like that before.
I need to go back to the office and do some research.”

Elliot thought about the room
below her feet with four children buried in it. “What are you going to do from
this point?”

The intern pulled herself from
the narrow passage, looking disheveled, and Dr. Whitney began to move to the
front door.  Everyone followed.

“We’re going to clean up and
study every one of those crypts,” he said. “We’re also going to study the house
and possibly do some ground radar scans to see if we can come up with the
secondary access. I’d really like to publish all of this work in Archaeology
Review Magazine because I think it’s a very important piece of information on
regional history. It really gives us unusual insight into a forgotten way of
life here in the bayou.”

Elliot nodded. “I think it’s a
great idea,” she said. “After the crypts are studied, what then?”

Dr. Whitney had reached the front
door. “Well, then we may want to talk to Sheriff Aury and see if he wants to
relocate his ancestors.”

Elliot nodded in agreement,
thanking everyone for their time.  As the people from the State wandered out to
their cars, Elliot looked over to the south side of the driveway where she
could see Nash and Beau facing off against Beck and Shane.

If body language said anything,
there was still a lot of tension there.  Dr. Whitney and Dr. Clarke were
pulling out of the driveway and she was thinking seriously about retreating
upstairs and making herself scarce when she heard movement behind her.

Casually turning, she heard
something bang softly in the dining room. Thinking it was the secret door that
was hanging loose, she went to go secure it for the night.  But no sooner had
she taken a few steps than she looked up and saw something passing from the
dining room, into the central stair hall, and disappearing into the ballroom.
It was wispy and shadowy, like a fog blowing through, but the fog was in the
unmistakable shape of a child.  It undulated and rolled back into the darkness.

It took Elliot a moment to
realize she had just seen a ghost, something she hadn’t even thought about
since her arrival.  In fact, she had pretty much forgotten about the stories
with everything that had gone on.

As quickly as it appeared, it
vanished, and Elliot let out such a whoop of surprise that it resonated
throughout the entire house.  She shot out of the front door just as Nash and
Beau were running for the house.  Nash caught her when she was out in the
driveway, heading for her car.

Elliot was startled and
terrified, but not particularly in a bad way.  She was laughing uncontrollably
by the time Nash grabbed her.

“Ellie,” he had his big arms
around her. “What happened, honey?”

She was gasping, shrieking,
pointing and laughing all at once. She sounded as if she was going crazy.

“In there,” she jumped up and
down as he tried to contain her. “I saw… Nash, it was a ghost! I saw it coming
from the dining room and disappear into the ballroom!”

He had his hands full with her
squirming.  “A ghost?” he repeated. “Are you sure?”

She held on to him for support,
laughing. “Yes,” she gasped. “It looked like… like a fog of some kind that
drifted from the dining room into the ballroom and disappeared.  I saw it plain
as day. It looked like a child.”