Echoes in the Bayou (15 page)

"Magnus
this is all wrong, I can't do this. I'm so
tired
of being hurt and for what? Why is it always me who ends up getting hurt when
all I wanted to do was have a good time, forget about the damn ghosts for the
weekend and maybe fall in love.

But
something always happens. Look you go b
ack to
the party, have fun with Jeanette, it seems like she cannot be without you. I
will say this, don’t you think it's funny that after all the time you two spent
apart from one another that now, tonight she decides that she needs to support
you. Yeah, she must really care about you Magnus huh? Enjoy the rest of your
evening, I'm leaving."

"Ava
please, I won't let you do this. Are you going back to the plantation?" He
wasn’t sure if by leaving she meant that she was going back to the plantation
or leaving him for good, but he had to find out.

"I'm
going back to the plantation Magnus, I am going to pack up the rest of my
belongings and then I'll figure out what to do
next. There's talk of a storm coming and I don’t want to get stranded there but
do me a favor, call and let me know if you plan on bringing Jeanette back home
with you tomorrow alright? I want to make sure I'm gone by then."

"Ma'am?
Excuse me but your taxi has arrived," the desk clerk interrupted.

"Thank
you," she said and
pulled her arm out of
his grasp. Just as he was about to go after her, a group of faithful fans had made
their way over to him and began bombarding him with questions. Ava heard one of
the ladies tell him that a nice young woman had sent them over to find
him. Ava knew that the nice young woman that the fan was referring to had been
Jeanette.

By the
time Magnus had managed to excuse himself from his admirers, Ava was gone
.

Chapter
Twelve

The taxi
ride back to the plantation was a long one, but the driver must have sensed
that she was in no mood to chat because he kept quiet during the entire trip.

"
You stay out here by yourself chère?" The driver
asked as he pulled up in front of the house. Besides the porch light that was
illuminating the front door, the house was pitch black.  Ava was a bit
taken back by the sheer size of the house and how intimidating it looked at
night.

"No,
just for the night," she said and paid him.

"Be
careful now chère, ther
e's a storm brewing. Not
a big one mind you but a storm none the less and you don’t want to get stranded
here. What with the bayou being so close and all, so take care," he said
and drove away.

Ava stood
at the bottom of the steps and watched as the headli
ghts of the taxi illuminated a dismal ghostly streak throughout the
dark bayou. The red of the tail lights disappearing into complete and utter
darkness.

It feels good to be back at the big house
,
she thought to
herself as she made her way up the soaring staircase. Even though she had been
there for over a month now, it seemed like she could never get used to the old
place, it was a place that although it was larger than life seemed to always
make her feel like she was right where she was supposed to be.

Jeanette changed al
l
that now didn’t she
? She
told herself.

 
She didn’t want to deal with having to pack up
everything tonight, all she wanted to do was get out of her gown, take a hot
shower, make herself a cup of tea and curl up in bed with the diaries. 
She figured she'd take them with her when she left in the morning. It was then
that it hit her, she had no place to go. "This is the perfect time to
start a new life somewhere else," she sighed. She'd hoped that the new
life would include Magnus, but it was obvious that his ex, Jeanette had other
plans.

At leas
t
I have the
luxury of being single, having no kids, no drama, and I've got enough money
that I can go where ever I want. Then why the hell are you so miserable
?
Her conscience asked. She knew the answer; she wanted
to stay at the plantation with Magnus. She was enjoying searching for clues
with Magnus and Sinta, everything that had gone on in that house was something
out of the ordinary but she liked it, she liked the unpredictability of it all
and during one weekend away, it had all turned to shit.
I should have
never accepted his invitation
, she
thought to herself.
If only I had stayed here nothing would have happened
.

While she
waited for the water to boil, Ava's thoughts wandered bac
k to Magnus and the way he had turned her on just the
night before. Sure she'd gone out dancing before with Gavin but every time they
danced, it was nothing compared to the way Magnus made her feel. It was as if
she was living in a dream, a fantasy was more like it. The way he touched
her made her feel enchanted and her body now ached at the mere remembrance of
it. She wanted him to do it again, she needed him to.

The
whistling of the kettle brought her back as did the sound of footsteps walking
out
side. The sound frightened her as it was
coming from just outside the kitchen window. Her heart racing, she tiptoed
towards the back door of the kitchen and stood behind it.
Better to
take whoever it is by surprise,
she
thought to herself. There was nothing about this sound that felt supernatural,
the only people that came inside the house were the living. But at this hour,
she knew whoever it was, wasn't invited and it certainly wasn’t Magnus.
He did have a
key to the front door and he wouldn’t dream of scaring me,
she told herself.

The door
handle jiggled and finally gave way, she cursed when she realized that it was
unlocked. She readied herself to pounce on whoever it was, and if they had a
weapon? Well she would put up one hell of a fight. Hands raised,
ready to strike she snatched open the door.

"Whoa
chère! It
jus
'
me," cried Sinta. "You told me to keep an eye on the big house so
when I sees the light on in da kitchen I come."

Ava
rested a hand on her chest. "Sinta, you startled me," she said
.

"I'm
sorry; I forgot that Magnus asked you to look in
on the place. Here, come in and have a cup of tea with me."

"Where
Mister Magnus?"

"He's
still in New Orleans I guess." Ava busied herself with making the tea. She
was on the verge of crying but
didn’t want Sinta
to see.

"Miss
Ava? You alright?" Sinta asked and led her over to a chair. "Lets me
fix da tea Miss Ava, you don’t look so good.
"

With two
cups of hot tea in front of them, Ava proceeded to tell Sinta everything that
had happened between M
agnus and she.

"Miss
Ava that otha woman ain't nuttin' to Mister Magnus no more. You got to fix
this, he in love
wit
you and you in love
wit
him. Now trust me, I don' seen a lot of bad things happen
to folks in mines lifetime and I am telling you now, you was meant to be wit
'dat man."

Ava wa
s confused. "Sinta how is it that you seem to
know so much about us? I mean this entire situation feels like a façade. 
It can't all be real, can it?"

"Oh
Miss Ava it all real, ain't no façade as you say. I knows 'dis to be true becuz
I done seen it before. Same thing happen 'tween Will and Celeste, you see one
time 'da massa try set his son up
wit
a rich man's
daughter. You
jus
' sit back and relax Miss Ava, Sinta
'gon tell you all about it.

 
You see, Massa Montieu done make plans for Massa Will
to marry Cecelia Burke, now 'da Burkes owned a sugar' plantation 'oer yonder
some miles and miles away. Now when 'da Burkes come a callin' fo dinner one
evenin' old Massa Montieu make sure 'dat his son Will was extra nice to 
Cecelia.  Now 'dis particular night Mistress Amelia make sure 'dat
Celeste is serving. Why ever' time she come out da kitchen, Miss Amelia make
sure she say a smart remark about Will and Miss Cecelia makin a beautiful
couple and how they family can't wait to be join as one."

Ava
snickered, she knew from reading both diaries that Amelia had it out for
Celeste.

"Now,
Celeste can't take much mo' and her hands start shakin' and she getting' mighty
angry.
So's Miss Amelia sees 'dis and right in
front of
they
company, slaps Celeste hard, right
cross 'da face. Tears start rollin' down Celeste face and Massa Montieu take
pity on her and send her back to 'da kitchen. But later on Celeste and Will got
into an argument cuz Celeste don’t know why Will Jr. ain't stick up fo' her but
Will Jr. tell Celeste, he say,
If I wuld
have defend you Celeste
,
my momma wuld have thrown you out 'da house
. And what he was sayin' wasn’t no lie.

He knew
that Miss Amelia was up to no good and after he 'xplain to Celeste she forgive
him. Now I knows 'dat 'dis ain't the same but it almost 'da same. You mad at
Mister Magnus cuz he don' talk to another woman but in 'da end he come back to
you. You sees Miss Ava, marks my words, he come back to where his heart lie,
and his heart lie
wit
you, whether you wants to
believe it or not."

Magnus
was almost home, he'd left the ceremony as soon as he could. He would have been
able to leave sooner had his agent not shown up keeping him until the very last
minute. Between signing books and taking photographs he was lucky to have
gotten out of there when he did. The further he drove away from New Orleans the
better he began to feel. He wanted to get back home to Ava. He needed to stop
her from leaving. Besides the fact that a storm was coming, he didn’t want her
to leave without knowing the truth.

 
He was going to tell her all about he and Jeanette's
rocky relationship and how right before she broke it off, he had sensed that
she was seeing someone else. He also wanted to tell her that he made sure
Jeanette knew that he wanted nothing more to do with her and that their
relationship had been over long before she decided to break it off. "Don’t
ever interfere in my life again," he'd told her after the ceremony.
"I've moved on with my life Jeanette and you need to do the same."
When Jeanette tried hard to convince him otherwise, he'd simply hailed her a
taxi and sent her on her way.
I've got to get home and tell Ava everything
,
he thought to himself.
I just hope
that I'm not too late.

  After
Sinta left, Ava felt a little better.  She at least had decided to talk to
Magnus before leaving
. I owe him at least that much
, she told herself.
But he better damn well have a good
explanation about everything that happened tonight because if he doesn’t, curse
or no curse, I'm leaving.

The
headlights of Magnus's car burst through the darkness of the kitchen. Ava had
just finished cleaning up and was he
aded off to
bed when he returned home.
He came back just for me
,
she told herself and hurriedly made her way to the sitting room.
She wanted to appear as casual as possible.
Don’t want him thinking that I've been
up waiting for him to arrive home
,
she thought to herself. She wished that she had brought the diaries downstairs
with her now as she reached for a random book.

 
When he saw the lights on inside the house, he got
nervous. He'd hoped that she would be asleep, because if she was it meant that
she wasn’t going to leave until the morning, at least he'd have a chance to try
and talk her out of it. But if she was leaving tonight, there'd be no
convincing her to stay
; her mind must be
made up
.

He was
surprised to find her sitting quietly in the sitting room. She was thumbing
through a
book, it was one of his books.

"Ava,
please tell me that you've decided to stay," he said.

She
closed the book and turned to face him
. He was
still in his tuxedo and he looked absolutely delicious. "Magnus I was
prepared to leave this place first thing in the morning before the storm but
before I do I need to know, was it just me who felt a strong connection? Or did
you feel it too? I mean was I being silly in thinking that the reason you asked
me to be your date was because you were actually interested in me?"