Echoes in the Bayou (13 page)

She
marveled at his extensive knowledge of the place.
"So is this what it’s like being a writer?" She asked. "No
wonder you’re a best-selling author, you seem to know so much about well…
everything," she told him.

Magnus
let out a laugh. Besides the occasional fan, he’d forgotten what it felt like
to be compl
imented. Sure he’d received countless
letters from fans all around the world, some proclaiming to be the one for him
while others simply wanted to thank him for producing such a romantic story
while keeping the historical aspects honest and true.

He told Ava
that he never liked to fluff when it came to referring to his settings, he’d
always tried to describe the setting to a tee and even then sometimes he would
feel as if he wasn’t giving the location or setting of his stories justice. He
was however, known for making his readers feel as if they had stepped back in
time. And that was exactly what he wanted; he wanted to take the reader with
him on a romantic journey.

"And
are your stories written from experience?"

Magnus
let out
a snicker. "Far from it Ava,"
he said and reached for her hand. "I simply write what I think people want
to read. At first I just wanted to try my hand at it you know? See where it
leads me but after my first book, "Love in the highlands," hit the
New York Times Best Seller list I was ecstatic. I mean I couldn’t believe that
a story that I made up could find itself on the Best Seller list. How crazy is
that?" He squeezed her hand tighter.

"And
then when my agent called and told me that both my readers and critics enjoyed
how I stayed true to the setting and locations, well that pretty much
solidified things for me. I was no longer going to be Magnus DuPonte, business
man. From then on I became William Nomiuet. At least that's who I am when I
write," he joked.

Ava
stared at him in disbelief, the entire time that he was telling her his story
she wondered how he could be so blind.

 
Magnus saw her blank gaze and grew concerned.
"Ava, what is it? What’s wrong?" He asked.

"
Magnus, your pen name."

"
Yeah, what about it?"

It was
clear to her that he hadn’t given it a second thought, and why would
he? No one would think to put two and two together.
But she was quite good at solving brainteasers and if one played around with
the words, they could quite easily figure it out.

"
Ava, what about my pen name?" He asked again.

"
Magnus look," she said and fished inside her
purse for a pen and paper.

"
You’re pen name is William Nomiuet."

"
We’ve established that Ava."

Ava let
out an e
xasperated sigh. "Magnus don’t you
see, William Nomiuet is William Montieu," she all but shouted at him from
across the table.

Magnus
sat dumbfounded for a moment. He’d thought of the name right before he
submitted his first book and that was several years ago. He hadn’t even thought
of buying the plantation and had never even heard of the name.

"
Magnus, you buying that plantation is no
coincidence," she said.

He knew
that she was right. How many nights had he lain awake wondering what his pe
n name should be? But then one night he’d had a dream,
he was in love with a beautiful woman, and she with him but every time he’d
reach for her something kept pulling him back. And by the time he broke free of
his invisible restraints, the woman would disappear. Strange how he couldn’t
remember the woman’s face though, but he knew that she was beautiful and
that  they were in love. What he did remember was that the surroundings
were not of this time or place. And it was shortly after he’d awoken from that
dream that the name William Nomiuet came to possess his mind.

 
Once he told her about his dream, Ava began to pull it
all together. "Magnus, first of all I  think it’s amazing that you
still remember that dream, especially since it was years ago. I mean most
people try to remember but can’t because it quickly escapes the mind.  But
you’re remembering and holding on to it only solidifies what Sinta told us.
William Montieu came to you years before and planted the seed in your mind. And
from then on you were destined to not only buy Montieu Plantation but to take
on Will’s name, sort of like an alter ego.

"How
could I have been so stupid? I mean all these years and there it was staring me
right in the face and I was completely oblivious to it." He swallowed down
what was left of his wine and politely asked the waitress for another bottle.

"
Magnus, it’s nothing to get upset over," she
reassured him. "Now we can understand more of the story."

"
Yes we figured something else out Ava, but I could
kick myself for not figuring out that my own pen name was the name of the guy
who killed himself in that house. I mean I'm a writer for Christ’s sake, I
investigate things; I do research." 

"Magnus
you’re overreacting, you were commissioned to buy
that house by the spirit of Will Montieu and you bought it, end of story. We
know what we have to do and we are going to do it, and when we get back we’ll
finish reading the diaries. Hopefully we’ll be able to put an end to this
horrible curse. But for now let’s enjoy our time here in New Orleans for
goodness sake and leave the worries of Montieu Plantation behind," she
smiled at him.

"
You’re right, let’s finish up our lunch because I’ve
got something special planned for you," he said with a boyish grin.

"
You’re just full of surprises aren’t you?" Ava
smiled. It was the first time in a long time that she felt special.

When they
had finished their lunch, Magnus led her by the hand out of the restaurant and
into an awaiting horse and carriage.
"I
thought we’d take our tour in this," he said and helped her into the
carriage.

 
Ava smiled at the female driver of the carriage as she
introduced herself to them. Once the mule named Ella got going, the driver
began telling them about the real New Orleans and how the locals stay away from
Bourbon Street. She then proceeded to Frenchman Street. "This is where the
real party is," their driver Jackie told them.  Ava marveled at the
sights and listened intently as Jackie told them all about the nitty gritty of
New Orleans.

As they
approached an old slave hospital, both Ava and Magnus
glanced at one another, they were both thinking about the slaves that
had worked at Montieu Plantation and how many had died on the property.
"Probably is no record of it at all," Jackie told them when they
inquired if there were any records of slave deaths from the Montieu Plantation.

 
"So that’s where you all are from? Corinth?"
She asked out of curiosity. When they replied yes, Jackie went on to tell them
that although the Montieu Plantation was further away from the more popular
ones such as Oak Alley that it didn’t stop the various stories about the place
being haunted from going around. "And what kind of stories have you
heard?" Magnus asked.

And
as Ella trotted down the 700 block of Decatur Street
at Jackson Square, Jackie went on to tell them the story of how once, the year
Katrina hit, she and a couple of friends were out joy riding and happened upon
the old plantation. They had barely made it to the front steps of the abandoned
place when one of her friends suddenly became racked with stomach pains while
another swore that she saw a woman standing in one of the bedroom windows.

"
Now the place was completely abandoned and over grown
with nothing but a bunch of dead weeds but off to the side of the house, was
the most amazing Gardenia shrub you have ever seen. The scent was almost
overpowering and it seemed to get stronger and stronger the closer we got to
the house. Mind you, we all knew that we was being confronted by some very bad
spirits. Spirits who obviously did not want us around and before anything else
sinister came after us, we high tailed it out of there and haven’t been back
since."

By the
time Jackie had finished with her story, they hadn’t realized that she had
stopped at Laffite’s bar and a waiter was there ready to take their drink order
curbside. Ava and Magnus sat in awe while Jackie took it upon herself to order
them two hurricanes, the drink was the house specialty and something told her
by the looks on their faces that they needed a stiff drink.

After
their tour, Jackie graciously thanked them for the generous tip and she and
Ella trotted back towards Canal Street.

"Magnus,
do you realize that we’ve probably gotten more clues from this trip than we did
searching the entire house?" Ava was still stunned at hearing Jackie’s
story. "Poor Will has been stuck in that house since the day he died
Magnus." She was saddened by the thought of him loving Celeste so much
that he couldn’t find the peace that he so obviously needed. "It’s as if
without her he couldn’t even move on, it’s so incredibly sad," she told
him.

 
Magnus tried his best to comfort her, he told her that
the moment they return to the house he would get Sinta to perform a séance; it
was the only way that they would be able to communicate with Will.
"Perhaps after we hold the séance we’ll find out who this woman is. But I
think we already know the answer to that question," he said looking at her.

"
Yes," Ava replied. "The woman is Amelia
Montieu."

This is
not how Magnus had envisioned his weekend away with Ava; he had wanted
everything to be perfect. He didn’t want her mind on anything else but the
sights and sounds of New Orleans. He was thankful that the awards ceremony
wasn’t until tomorrow night, for the evening that was approaching, he planned
on taking her with him to a pre ceremony mixer down at a local bar on Bourbon
Street.  "I hope that the mixer will give us a chance to talk,"
he said hoping that she would get his implication.

"
I'm sure it will Magnus." Her response let him
know that she read him loud and clear.

 
While she showered and dressed for her evening date
with Magnus, Ava thought about his mention of the two of them talking. It
wasn’t as if they had never talked, so she knew what he meant. He wanted them
to talk about things other than Montieu plantation. Lately it seemed that the
big house was dominating their conversations and she got a sense that Magnus
had wanted to further those thoughts from his mind, at least for the weekend
anyway. She had no problem with that, she enjoyed his company immensely and
wanted to know everything there was to know about him and tonight would be the
night that she would tell Magnus everything that happened between she and Gavin.

Chapter
Eleven

Magnus stood outside her door at
precisely eight o’clock. He was nervous, he wasn’t sure how Ava felt, but for
him it was like starting anew. Even though he felt a strong connection to her,
he still couldn’t get the nervous knot out of his stomach. Before he could even
knock, Ava opened the door as if she was expecting him. "How did you know
I was here?" He asked her, his voice a nervous tremble. She looked
incredibly sexy in a red form fitting tank style dress. "I just had a
feeling," she smiled at him. " Don’t you look handsome."

"
So
do you," he said before realizing his mistake.  "I'm sorry Ava,
I mean you look beautiful, sexy… Ava why am I so nervous all of a sudden?"
He questioned her.

She
couldn’t help but laugh. "Maybe it’s because this is the first social
situation that either of us has had in a long time. I mean the both of us have
been so used to communing with the dead, as Sinta would say. That we forgot
what it’s like to commune with the living," she joked.

"
You’re right," Magnus grinned. "Leave it to
good old Sinta to tell it like it is. Now shall we partake in some good old
fashioned fun among the living?" He asked and reached for her hand and she
gladly took it. "Yes we shall."

 
The Maison Bourbon was a corner bar located on Bourbon
Street. When they walked in Ava could feel the warm, jazzy atmosphere. It
seemed to be soulfully oozing out of the walls, and the wonderful sounds coming
from the live band told her that the bars reputation lived up to that of the
sign posted outside that read,
Dedicated to the preservation of Jazz
.
Inside the walls were covered with photographs
of jazz singers and players from the past and present. Smoking was still
allowed and the smoky haze all but added to the amazing atmosphere.