The Witching Hour

  "Because I've done it before," he said. "And I know it's not time."

  She gave a little bitter laugh. "Very funny," she said.

  "I'm completely serious."

  "Don't go over there anymore alone. Don't give it any opportunity to do this to you."

  "Bullshit, Rowan! I'm not scared of that damned thing. Besides, I like going over there. And ... "

  "And what?"

  "The thing is going to show itself sooner or later."

  "And what makes you so sure it was Lasher?" she asked in a quiet voice. Her face had gone suddenly smooth. "What if it was Langtry, and Langtry wants you to leave me?"

  "That doesn't compute."

  "Of course it computes."

  "Look. Let's drop it. I only want to be straight with you, to tell you everything that happens, not to hold back on something like that. And I don't want you to hold back either."

  "Don't go over there again," she said, her face clouding. "Not alone, not at night, not asking for trouble."

  He made some little derisive noise.

  But she had risen and stalked out of the room. He'd never seen her behave in quite that manner. In a moment she reappeared, with her black leather bag in hand.

  "Open your shirt, would you please?" she asked. She was removing her stethoscope.

  "What! What is this? You gotta be kidding."

  She stood in front of him, holding the stethoscope and staring at the ceiling. Then she looked down at him, and smiled. "We're going to play doctor, OK? Now open your shirt?"

  "Only if you open your shirt too."

  "I will immediately afterwards. In fact, you can listen to my heart too if you want."

  "Well, if you put it that way. Christ, Rowan, this thing is cold."

  "I only warm it in my hands for children, Michael."

  "Well, hell, don't you think big brave guys like me feel hot and cold?"

  "Stop trying to make me laugh. Take a slow deep breath."

  He did what she asked. "So what do you hear in there?"

  She stood up, gathered the stethoscope in one hand, and put it back in the bag. She sat beside him and pressed her fingers to his wrist.

  "Well?"

  "You seem fine. I don't hear any murmur. I don't pick up any congenital problems, or any dysfunction or weakness of any kind."

  "That's good old Michael Curry!" he said. "What does your sixth sense tell you?"

  She reached over and placed her hands on his neck, slipping her fingers down inside his open collar and gently caressing the flesh. It was so gentle and so unlike her regular touch that it brought chills up all over his back, and it stirred the passion in him to a quick, surprising little bonfire.

  He was one step from being a pure animal now as he sat there, and surely she must have felt it. But her face was like a mask; her eyes were glassy and she was so still, staring at him, her hands still holding him, that he almost became alarmed.

  "Rowan?" he whispered.

  Slowly she withdrew her hands. She seemed to be herself again, and she let her fingers drop playfully and with maddening gentleness into his lap. She scratched at the bulge in his jeans.

  "So what does the sixth sense tell you?" he asked again, resisting the urge to rip her clothing to pieces on the spot.

  "That you're the most handsome, seductive man I've ever been in bed with," she said languidly. "That falling in love with you was an amazingly intelligent idea. That our first child will be incredibly handsome and beautiful and strong."

  "Are you teasing me? You didn't really see that?"

  "No, but it's going to happen," she said. She laid her head on his shoulder. "Wonderful things are going to happen," she said as he folded her against him. "Because we're going to make them happen. Let's go in there now and make something wonderful happen between the sheets."

  By the end of the week, Mayfair and Mayfair held its first serious conference devoted entirely to the creation of the medical center. In consultation with Rowan, it was decided to authorize several coordinated studies as to the feasibility, the optimum size of the center, and the best possible New Orleans location.

  Ryan scheduled fact-gathering trips for Anne Marie and Pierce to several major hospitals in Houston, New York, and Cambridge. Meetings were being arranged at the local level to discuss the possibility of affiliation with universities or existing institutions in town.

  Rowan was hard at work reading technical histories of the American hospital. For hours she talked long distance to Larkin, her old boss, and other doctors around the country, asking for suggestions and ideas.

  It was becoming obvious to her that her most grandiose dream could be realized with only a fraction of her capital, if capital was even involved at all. At least that is how Lauren and Ryan Mayfair interpreted her dreams; and it was best to allow things to proceed on that basis.

  "But what if some day every penny of that money could be flowing into medicine," said Rowan privately to Michael, "going into the creation of vaccines and antibiotics, operating rooms and hospital beds?"

  The renovations were going so smoothly that Michael had time to look at a couple of other properties. By mid-September, he'd acquired a big deep dusty shop on Magazine Street for the new Great Expectations, just a few blocks from First Street and from where he'd been born. It was in a vintage building with a flat above and an iron gallery that covered the sidewalk. Another one of those perfect moments.

  Yes, it was all going beautifully and it was so much fun. The parlor was almost finished. Several of Julien's Chinese rugs and fine French armchairs had been returned to it. And the grandfather clock was working once again.

  Of course the family besieged them to leave their digs at the Pontchartrain and come to this or that house until the wedding. But they were too comfortable there in the big suite over St. Charles Avenue. They loved the Caribbean Room, and the staff of the small elegant hotel; they even loved the paneled elevator with the flowers painted on the ceiling, and the little coffee shop where they sometimes had breakfast.

  Also Aaron was still occupying the suite upstairs, and they had both become extremely fond of him. A day wasn't a day without coffee or a drink or at least a chat with Aaron. And if he was suffering any more of those accidents now, he didn't say so.

  The last weeks of September were cooler. And many an evening they remained at First Street, after the workers had gone, having their wine at the iron table, and watching the sun set beyond the trees.

  The very last light caught in the high attic windows which faced south, turning the panes to gold.

  So quietly grand. The bougainvillea gave forth its purple blooms in dazzling profusion, and each newly finished room or bit of painted ironwork excited them, and filled them with dreams of what was to come.

  Meantime Beatrice and Lily Mayfair had talked Rowan into a white dress Wedding at St. Mary's Assumption Church. Apparently the legacy stipulated a Catholic ceremony. And the trappings were considered to be absolutely indispensable for the happiness and satisfaction of the whole clan. Rowan seemed pleased when she finally gave in.

  And Michael was secretly elated.

  It thrilled him more than he dared to admit. He had never hoped for anything so graceful or traditional in his life. And of course it was the woman's decision, and he hadn't wanted to pressure Rowan in any way. But ah, to think of it, a formal white dress wedding in the old church where he'd served Mass.

  As the days grew even cooler, as they moved into a beautiful and balmy October, Michael suddenly realized how close they were to their first Christmas together, and that they would spend it in the new house. Think of the tree they could have in that enormous parlor. It would be marvelous, and Aunt Viv was finally settling in at the new condominium. She was still fussing for her personal things, and he was promising to fly to San Francisco any day now to get them, but he knew she liked it here. And she liked the Mayfairs.

  Yes, Christmas, the way he had always imagined it ought to be. In a magnificent house, with a s
plendid tree, and a fire going in the marble fireplace.

  Christmas.

  Inevitably, the memory of Lasher in the church came back to him. Lasher's unmistakable presence, mingled with the smell of the pine needles and the candles, and the vision of the plaster Baby Jesus, smiling in the manger.

  Why had Lasher looked so lovingly at Michael on that long-ago day when he'd appeared in the sanctuary by the crib?

  Why all of it? That was the question finally.

  And maybe Michael would never know. Maybe, just maybe, he had somehow completed the purpose for which his life had been given back to him. Maybe it had never been anything more than to return here, to love Rowan, and that they should be happy together in the house.

  But he knew it couldn't be that simple. Just didn't make sense that way. It would be a miracle if this lasted forever. Just a miracle, the way the creation of Mayfair Medical was a miracle, and that Rowan wanted a baby was a miracle, and that the house would soon be theirs was a miracle ... and like seeing a ghost was a miracle--a ghost beaming at you from the sanctuary of a church, or from under a bare crepe myrtle tree on a cold night.

  Thirty-nine

  ALL RIGHT, HERE we go again, thought Rowan. It was what? The fifth gathering in honor of the engaged couple? There had been Lily's tea, and Beatrice's lunch, and Cecilia's little dinner at Antoine's. And Lauren's little party downtown in that lovely old house on Esplanade Avenue.

  And this time it was Metairie--Cortland's house, as they still called it though it had been the home of Gifford and Ryan, and their youngest son, Pierce, for years. And the clear October day was perfect for a garden party of some two hundred.

  Never mind that the wedding was only ten days away, on November 1, the Feast of All Saints. The Mayfairs would hold two more teas before then, and another lunch somewhere, the place and time to be confirmed later.

  "Any excuse for a party!" Claire Mayfair had said. "Darling, you don't know how long we've been waiting for something like this."

  They were milling on the open lawn now beneath the small, neatly clipped magnolia trees, and through the spacious low-ceilinged rooms of the trim brick Williamsburg house. And the dark-haired Anne Marie, a painfully honest individual who seemed now utterly enchanted by Rowan's hospital schemes, introduced her to dozens of the same people she had seen at the funeral, and dozens more whom she'd never seen before.

  Aaron had been so right in his descriptions of Metairie, an American suburb. They might have been in Beverly Hills or Sherman Oaks in Houston. Except perhaps that the sky had that glazed look she had never seen anywhere else except in the Caribbean. And the old trees that lined the curbs were as venerable as those of the Garden District.

  But the house itself was pure elite suburbia with its eighteenth-century Philadelphia antiques and wall-to-wall carpet, and each family portrait carefully framed and lighted, and the soft propitiatory saxophone of Kenny G pouring from hidden speakers in the white Sheetrock walls.

  A very black waiter with an extremely round head and a musical Haitian accent poured the bourbon or the white wine into the crystal glasses. Two dark-skinned female cooks in starched uniforms turned the fat pink peppered shrimp on the smoking grill. And the Mayfair women in their soft pastel dresses looked like flowers among the white-suited men, a few small toddlers romping on the grass, or sticking their tiny pink hands into the spray of the little fountain in the center of the lawn.

  Rowan had found a comfortable place in a white lawn chair beneath the largest of the magnolias. She sipped her bourbon, as she shook hands with one cousin after another. She was beginning to like the taste of this poison. She was even a little high.

  Earlier today, when she'd tried on the white wedding dress and veil for the final fitting, she'd found herself unexpectedly excited by the fanfare, and grateful that it had been more or less forced upon her.

  "Princess for a Day," that's what it would be like, stepping in and out of a pageant. Even the wearing of the emerald would not really be an ordeal, especially since it had remained safely in its case since that awful night, and she'd never gotten around to telling Michael about its mysterious and unwelcome appearance. She knew that she ought to have told, and several times she'd been on the verge, but she just couldn't do it.

  Michael had been overjoyed about the church wedding, everyone could see it. His parents had been married in the parish, and so had his grandparents before that. Yes, he loved the idea, probably more than she did. And unless something else happened with that awful necklace, why spoil it all for him? Why spoil it for both of them? She could always explain afterwards, when the thing was safely locked in a vault. Yes, not a deception, just a little postponement.

  Also, nothing else had happened since. No more deformed flowers on her bedside table. Indeed the time had flown, with the renovations in full swing, and the house in Florida furnished and ready for their official honeymoon.

  Another good stroke of luck was that Aaron had been completely accepted by the family, and was now routinely included in every gathering. Beatrice had fallen in love with him, to hear her tell it, and teased him mercilessly about his British bachelor ways and all the eligible widows among the Mayfairs. She had even gone so far as to take him to the symphony with Agnes Mayfair, a very beautiful older cousin whose husband had died the year before.

  How is he going to handle that one, Rowan wondered. But she knew by now that Aaron could ingratiate himself with God in heaven or the Devil in hell. Even Lauren, the iceberg lawyer, seemed fond of Aaron. At lunch the other day, Lauren had talked to him steadily about New Orleans history. Ryan liked him. Isaac and Wheatfield liked him. And Pierce questioned him relentlessly about his travels in Europe and the East.

  Aaron was also an unfailingly faithful companion to Michael's Aunt Vivian. Everybody ought to have an Aunt Vivian, the way Rowan figured it, a fragile little doll-like person brimming with love and sweetness who doted on Michael's every word. She reminded Rowan of Aaron's descriptions in the history of Millie Dear and Aunt Belle.

  But the move had not been easy for Aunt Vivian. And though the Mayfairs had wined and dined her with great affection, she could not keep up with their frenetic pace and their energetic chatter. This afternoon she had begged to remain at home, sorting through the few items she'd brought with her. She was beseeching Michael to go out and pack up everything in the Liberty Street house and he was putting it off, though he and Rowan both knew such a trip was inevitable.

  But to see Michael with Aunt Viv was to love him for a whole set of new reasons; for nobody could have been kinder or more patient. "She's my only family, Rowan," he'd remarked once. "Everybody else is gone. You know, if things hadn't worked out with you and me, I'd be in the Talamasca now. They would have become my family."

  How well she understood; with a shock, she had been carried back by those words into her own bitter loneliness of months before.

  God, how she wanted things to work here! And the ghost of First Street was keeping his counsel, as if he too wanted them to work out. Or had her anger driven him back? For days after the appearance of the necklace she had cursed him under her breath for it.

  The family had even accepted the idea of the Talamasca, though Aaron was persistently vague with them about what it really was. They understood no more perhaps than that Aaron was a scholar and a world traveler, that he had always been interested in the Mayfair history because they were an old and distinguished southern family.

  And any scholar who could unearth a breathtakingly beautiful ancestor named Deborah, immortalized by none other than the great Rembrandt, and authenticated beyond doubt by the appearance of the unmistakable Mayfair emerald on her breast, was their kind of historian. They were dazzled by the bits and pieces of her story as Aaron revealed them. Good Lord, they'd thought Julien made up all that foolishness about ancestors coming from Scotland.

  Meantime Bea was having the photograph of the Rembrandt Deborah reproduced in oil so that it would be hanging on the wall at First
Street on the day of the reception. She was furious with Ryan for not recommending the purchase of the original. But then the Talamasca wouldn't part with the original. Thank God that after Ryan's guess as to the inevitable price, the subject had been dropped altogether.

  Yes, they loved Aaron and they loved Michael and they loved Rowan.

  And they loved Deborah.

  If they knew anything of what had happened between Aaron and Cortland or Carlotta years ago, they said not one word. They did not know that Stuart Townsend had been a member of the Talamasca; indeed, they were utterly confused about the discovery of that mysterious body. And it was becoming increasingly obvious that they thought Stella had been responsible for its presence.

  "Probably died up there from opium or drink at one of those wild parties and she simply wrapped him up in the carpet and forgot about him."

  "Or maybe she strangled him. Remember those parties she used to give?"

  It amused Rowan to listen to them talk, to hear their easy bursts of laughter. Never the slightest telepathic vibration of malice reached her. She could feel their good intentions now, their celebratory gaiety.

  But they had their secrets, some of them, especially the old ones. With each new gathering, she detected stronger indications. In fact, as the date of the wedding grew closer, she felt certain that something was building.

  The old ones hadn't been stopping at First Street merely to extend their best wishes, or to marvel at the renovations. They were curious. They were fearful. There were secrets they wanted to confide, or warnings perhaps which they wanted to offer. Or questions they wanted to ask. And maybe they were testing her powers, because they indeed had powers of their own. Never had she been around people so loving and so skilled at concealing their negative emotions. It was a curious thing.

  But maybe this would be the day when something unusual would happen.

  So many of the old ones were here, and the liquor was flowing, and after a series of cool October days the weather was pleasantly warm again. The sky was a perfect china blue, and the great curling clouds were moving swiftly by, like graceful galleons in the thrust of a trade wind.

  She took another deep drink of the bourbon, loving the burning sensation in her chest, and looked around for Michael.