With One Look (28 page)

An eternity or two passed.

"Again, my Jade Terese? Shall I love you again?" "Yes. Again."

Passion rekindled and desire sparked anew and their bodies moved together to this timeless music, love burning bright through the long dark hours of the night.

Murray sat beneath the tall, longleaf cypress trees. His old medical book was spread across his lap, and he skimmed, then read. He knew he'd read that case years ago at Science Academy in London. He was sure of it. It must be in his other books, left in the house in New Orleans. He'd send for them.

The morning sun made its way across a cloudy sky. The air stirred with a slight breeze. The day felt pleasantly cooler, though still muggy and humid. A storm must be headed in from the Gulf.

Murray noticed none of it.

Carl appeared with some lemonade and mentioned that, unbelievably, no one else was up yet. "I do hope the two couples find the strength to make it down for supper."

Murray chuckled and said something about being glad for his sunset years, no longer being kept up all night, and anyway, not ever remembering having been kept up this long by anyone. Carl readily agreed with such sentiments.

"Carl, when's the next trip back to New Orleans?"

"Well, Tripoli just arrived this morning with Victor's business affairs and I should think he'll be leaving again this afternoon, as soon as it's cool enough to travel."

"I need some books at the house. They're buried in the library there. They'll have to be searched for." The doctor gave specific instructions and then said, "I want them back as soon as possible. Send someone out on a special trip if necessary."

Murray returned to his troubled thoughts of a blind young lady who suffered from terrible seizures at the mention of an accident, and a murderer still at large, the perplexing puzzle of just how a seizure could wipe away a memory ...

"I'm going to have to get Luke to help me cut down that tree today," Victor said as he came up behind the doctor, carrying Jade's puppy and noticing the tree Murray sat beneath for the first time. "I never noticed how close it was to the house. A good lightning storm will send her into flames."

"Well, you finally saw your way to getting up."

"I had a very long night," he said, as he smiled in reply.

Victor looked relaxed for the first time in long weeks. He sat down beside Murray and let little Wolf Dog run free on the ground, grinning as the puppy bounced down the hill, then back to his arms, then away again. Carl returned with coffee, more than his usual amount of insolent comments, and presented Victor with a stack of letters and envelopes from the city. "Carl, find Luke and tell him I need him to help ax that tree there, fetch the axes and the saws. I don't think I want to wait a day."

Victor began going through the mail. Most of it was commodity bills for his company, but there was also a letter from John, who was overseeing the hiring, what little of this there was. John had managed to find only six men. They needed five times that many. If things didn't get any better he'd soon be forced to purchase indentured servants.

"No news," Victor said after perusing the contents of the last envelope. He quickly read through Jade's stack of letters. He scanned them, searching for something, anything unusual or suspicious. Most all were from her faithful students and the convent sisters, the Reverend Mother, a

lengthy letter from Monsieur Deubler and his wife. He read the one from Madame Lucretia, the mayor's wife, more carefully.

The letter said she was soon debarking for Paris for a long-denied visit to relatives and friends. She would be gone until the next season, almost a year. There were instructions on where Jade should forward her address, so as to arrange a visit

Jade had more than enough time before she had to answer the letters. Mercedes had devised an elaborate calendar for Jade's correspondence in order to maintain the appearance of Jade's residing in France. Jade would have nothing to do with it. " “'Tisn't just that I find it so difficult to deceive my friends, and I am quite certain it is all so unnecessary ..."

If you only knew, Jade Terese

Victor wondered how the mayor could possibly get by without his wife, wondered if there was anything more odious than a hen-pecked husband. The man probably had trouble putting on his pants without her careful instructions. Claighborne often complained that it wouldn't bother him so much if he could just present the situations that required a joint effort between New Orleans and the Louisiana legislature directly to Madame Lucretia, instead of first presenting them to her husband and then having to wait for that poor bastard to get his wife's authorization. He had never liked the woman. Less because she kept so many lovers and more because she pursued them so flagrantly, often as her husband watched, appearing as if he didn't have a clue what she was doing.

The woman certainly seemed to like Jade. He supposed that was not unusual.

He leaned back against the thick carpet of needles. "No news and for some reason, I don't care. I don't care about anything today."

Perspiration glistened from the two masculine frames, one bronzed, one black. The task was difficult and dangerous, and Luke was one of the few men Victor trusted with the arduous, backbreaking labor.

They finally set the saw aside and picked up axes. Victor swung back as Luke swung forward, each man slamming his ax into the meat of the tree, pulling out, and then slamming back again. They moved in a perfect, exacting rhythm, and when Carl called, neither man stole a glance up, though Victor called back, "Not now, Carl!"

Carl turned inside and passed Jade on her way to the patio. He took her arm and guided her to the door, commenting on how pretty she looked in that color. Jade thanked him, not bothering to

mention she had no idea what color it was she looked so pretty in. She vaguely remembered Tessie saying it was an apricot dress, but she could not be sure. The new clothes were still new.

Carl, always thoughtful, took a moment to explain what the men were doing and cautioned her to stay on the patio and not to interrupt their work. In anticipation of their thirst, he had just brought out water, and he asked Jade to tell them when they were through that it was on the table. "Don't interrupt them now."

Jade shook her head, smiling, a smile that seemed to light up her eyes. She felt lost in a dreamy bliss spun from Victor's lovemaking last night, wrapped in the security of his love. She thought she would try to start Wolf Dog's leash training. The wide-open space of the patio, its smooth tiled floor and clearly defined, familiar limits, seemed the best spot to begin training Wolf Dog.

Victor, assuming Carl was still there to see the thunderous crash, ordered in between swings, "Fetch some water."

Jade stiffened, alarmed and alerted. Had she heard right? Yes. He wanted water and he told her to fetch it. It was the first time he had ever asked her to do anything. He was finally beginning to trust her ability to do things!

Carl had said the water was on the table.

Jade set Wolf Dog to the ground and, knowing it was about fifteen paces to the wall, she turned with an outstretched arm and walked until she reached it. Using a hand on the wall to guide her, she walked the next twenty or so paces to the right, first hitting the serving tray and then the table.

Her hand moved over the table and found the large crystal container and two glasses. She was debating whether to take only the glasses, or both the container and glasses on a tray. She decided on the latter and lifted the tray into her hands just as Luke yelled, "Timber!"

She stopped, waiting patiently for the great crash. The wood cracked and cracked, followed by a long whooshing sound of wind, and finally the huge trunk crashed to the ground. Jade smiled as she moved toward them carrying the tray, listening to their hearty laughs, self-congratulations and slaps on backs.

Jade had learned to carefully slide her feet over the ground to discover any object that might cause her to fall. She wished she had remembered to put on some slippers! The tiles were hot. She lifted to tiptoes to escape the burn.

A long, neatly coiled rope lay directly in her path.

Victor and Luke spun around on their heels at the sound of a halted scream, glass smashing against the tile, and in a flash of an instant, they were running. She had fallen facedown, her bare arms catching her fall and taking the worst of the shattered glass. Glass stuck in her. There was a brief glimpse of white skin before blood, dark red blood, covered everything.

"Don't move. Just don't move," Victor said, and then to Luke, "Get the doctor." The calmness in his voice pacified her, pushing both panic and fright away. She didn't move and felt no pain, felt only slight stinging sensations.

She heard Wolf Dog's whimper and felt his anxious nuzzling of her face but Victor reached under her and lifted her, carrying her inside. He lay her carefully on the hard tiled floor in the house. In the same calm voice, he instructed: "Don't move an inch. Hold your arms up. It's going to sting, sweetheart, but try not to flinch."

He began taking pieces of glass out, starting with a tiny jagged piece sticking into her neck mercifully far from her jugular vein, trying unsuccessfully to control his raging emotions, trying not to look at her small quivering lip.

"Is it very bad?" she asked in a halting voice. The sensation of warm blood streaming down her arms flooded abruptly into consciousness, and with it came the magnitude of what had happened.

"It's pretty bad but you're going to be all right. Don't speak now."

Murray, Carl and Tessie, followed by everyone else in the house, came flying into the room. "Oh, my God!" Murray cried, almost sliding into her. "Carl, I need hot water, bandages and my bag. I'll need a needle and thread, she's going to have to be stitched up. Tessie, fetch a pillow for her."

The doctor had plenty of experience with all manner of accidents and he worked methodically, his manner efficient and competent, while at the same time his gentle instructions and explanations helped calm her. Victor worked on the other side, both men pulling out the glass shards first.

"It's a darn good thing you don't see, lass. You're a sight, all right, but believe me, these glass cuts always look a fright worse than they are." All the glass was finally pulled and the bandages were brought. "Vic, wrap this around her arms tight now and hold your hands around the worst cut until it stops bleeding."

Victor and Murray each took an arm, wiped it with a wet cloth and then began wrapping.

Tessie was at her head, gently and lovingly wiping her forehead. "What the hell happened to you, lass?" Murray asked. "I fell—"

"What were you doing carrying a tray of glass, Jade?" Victor asked, attempting to keep emotion from sounding in his voice.

"I was bringing you the ... water you asked for."

"You were what?" He stared incredulous, but just as he fully grasped what had happened Murray shot him a warning glance that could not be ignored.

"Now, lass, you're going to be fine, just fine. I'm going to have to stitch you up on this one arm. It's a lot better than it first looked. I'll try to do the tidiest job possible on you. How are you feeling?"

"I really don't feel very much. It stings a little in places but that's all." "These kind of cuts sometimes don't hurt much."

"I was so surprised when I heard you ask me—me!—to fetch water for you, Victor," Jade said. "I knew you were finally beginning to trust me and it meant so much. You're always so worried and cautious about me and ... and now this. I'm so sorry."

Hearing this, Victor's expression seemed to hold the anguish of the world. Murray shook his head sadly, then whispered kind words of comfort to Jade, seeing that Victor could not trust himself to speak.

Jade sat up in bed with Wolf Dog on her lap. She had been told to rest, sleep if she could. No one was permitted to disturb her. One cut had required stitches, that was all. There were many smaller cuts on each arm and one tiny prick on her neck. All in all, she felt fine now, certain too much fuss had been made about it.

She wanted to explain and apologize again to Victor. She needed to assure him she was fine. Accidents were bound to happen. Why, they should even be expected! She was always fine in the end, wasn't she?

Victor's respect for her ability to get around sightless meant everything to her. She could not help but be proud of her accomplishments, accomplishments that might seem small to some, but ones she knew only too well required patience, determination and strength. How hard she

worked to lead as normal as life as possible! And she did; she did far better than most. Surely his trust would not be ruined by one foolish accident.

Musing over these concerns for the better part of an hour, Jade finally decided to make her way downstairs, hoping Victor wasn't too busy to talk to her. Tessie had spread her clothes over the bed and she stood up and dressed, moving carefully. The tight stitches pulled her skin if she moved too quickly. Once dressed and with the faithful wolf puppy at her side, she made her way through the door, down the hall and stairs to his study.

Victor's voice raised with anger as she slowly approached. What was it? She paused outside the open door to determine if she should wait for another time. Victor's anger surfaced quickly, he spent it even more quickly, and it was over within minutes, and she thought—

"It's not just that she's blind. Though God knows, that in and of itself is bad enough. It's that she insists on pretending, acting as though she's a normal woman. I could not believe she pulled a stunt like that—carrying a tray full of glass, thinking that I—I—asked her to!

"God, I came so close to shaking her, forcing her to accept her utter, damnable helplessness. The worst mistake of my life was allowing myself to fall in love with her. The agony that girl causes me every blessed day ..."

Jade slowly leaned against the wall.

At first she didn't feel anything. To save herself, mind, body and soul went numb. It was like taking a leap into frigid and cold waters. She knew only one thing. She must retreat, first from the hall, then from the house and then from him, forever. Retreat.