Pauline beamed at her. "She does have a gift, doesn't she?"
Exact blends of perfumes didn't interest Drake at all, but Saria's penchant for traipsing around in the swamp alone was of paramount interest. "So your brothers just left you alone?" Drake couldn't get over the fact that she had five brothers and none of them were looking out for her. "And you went out into the swamp to take pictures."
"Well, Lojos might have been around, but I didn't see him," Saria said, obviously unconcerned. "And they aren't just any pictures."
Drake had the urge to reach across the table and shake Saria. She didn't understand how much danger she was in with a leopard killing people. The killer was most likely watching her every movement. "You put yourself at risk for pictures?"
The marks on her back meant a male leopard was already staking a claim--a male she wasn't interested in. Saria wasn't the type of woman to lead a man on and she was definitely attracted to Drake. He wasn't misreading signals. Her brothers should have been protecting her. They had to know she was close to the Han Vol Dan, yet none of them were guarding her and they just allowed her to run around at night alone where anything could happen to her. He was beginning to form a very low opinion of her brothers.
"I attended this lecture once, a woman who photographs the swamps and gets paid for it. I showed her some of my photographs and she gave me a couple of connections, places to sell my photographs." Saria lifted her chin and gave him a look that basically said he could go to hell if he didn't like it.
He studied her stubborn chin. Yeah. That chin was going to be a problem in the coming years. She lifted it just so and his heart melted. The woman was going to get just about anything she wanted from him if he was ever stupid enough to let her know how much she affected him. He was going to have to work very hard to keep a balance between her wild spirit and his need to protect her.
Saria ignored him and leaned toward Pauline. "When I contacted them, they both said they would pay for my photographs. I've made quite a bit of money. A lot is ridin' on these photographs and I want to get them just right. One of the places wants a year-round pictorial of the swamp and if I can get it the way they want, it means a lot of money for me. I won' have to hunt gators."
Drake groaned and put his head on the table. The thought of her hunting alligators was beyond his imagination. What the hell was wrong with the men in her family?
"Can I see the pictures you took last night?" Pauline asked.
The innkeeper was smooth, Drake decided. He sat up straight and speared another rice cake, looking casual, not letting on that he was considering shaking Saria and accusing the innkeeper of being a blatant liar. Pauline hadn't missed a beat, but she wanted to know if Saria had been taking pictures in the swamp during the leopard fight. He would bet everything he had that Pauline would insist on seeing the photographs and she'd take care to examine the time stamp.
Saria looked pleased. "Really? My brothers never want to see them. I wait for hours to get the right shot and when I do I'm so excited, but it's kind of a letdown with no one wantin' to see them. If you mean it, I'll show them to you when we get back this evenin'."
"I'd love to see them too," Drake said. "Since you grew up on the edge of the swamp, you probably have seen some very unusual things others have never had the privilege of seeing." He leaned toward her. "You're a very fascinating woman, Saria. How did you get into photography?"
The warm admiration in his voice caused Saria to blush and Pauline to look at him again with open speculation, but he didn't care. Everything about Saria fascinated him and he wanted to know more. The fact was, he was feeling very possessive of her and he didn't much care who knew, not when she was managing to be so blase.
Saria sent him another mischievous smile. "I wasn't exactly the type of child who loved school. I wasn't used to anyone tellin' me what to do and on beautiful days, I wanted to be in the swamp, not in a stuffy school room. Photography was the only thing that kept me there."
"You were a wild childthe," Pauline confirmed. "No one knew what to do with you. Your pere paid no attention to business after your mere died. We all despaired of you comin' to your senses."
Saria laughed. "You know what she means by that, don' you, Drake? Every good Cajun girl should get married and have babies. Lots of babies. And they should cook and clean and do whatever their man tells them."
"What else do you want, Saria?" Pauline asked, genuinely confused. "Gettin' married is a good thing. Your pere definitely needed to talk some sense to you."
"Too late now," Saria said with a strained smile. "He didn't have anything to say before he died and he sure doesn't now."
Drake glanced at her. Her lashes were lowered, veiling her eyes. Her tone had been even enough, but there had definitely been an estrangement between Saria and her father.
"He should have tanned your hide every now and then," Pauline stated.
Saria smirked, her good humor instantly restored. "I wouldn' cook for him if he'd done that and he liked to eat every once in a while."
"She was tendin' bar when she was thirteen," Pauline sniffed. "And runnin' the family store. It wasn' right."
"So you all told me--and mon pere." Saria's laughter spilled out. "Not that it did you much good. Even Father Gallagher was upset about the bar."
"Thirteen." Drake was shocked. "How is that possible? There must be a drinking age."
"Of course, there is," Pauline said. "The bar is out in the swamp. No tourists or police."
"I thought you had brothers." Drake was outraged on Saria's behalf. He couldn't imagine a young girl surrounded by drunk men. Her absent brothers had a lot to answer for. He might just teach them a lesson himself.
Saria shrugged. "They were gone most of the time. And I grew up around the various men who were regulars at the bar. They looked out for me."
Pauline gave a dramatic sniff. "No one looked out for you. You didn' like somethin' you just disappeared into the swamp and no one could get you out."
Drake raised his eyebrow. The accents were getting thicker as the women grew more animated. "You really were a wild child."
"I didn't like anyone tellin' me what to do." Saria made it a statement of fact, without apology.
"Oh, she worked, that one did," Pauline said. "She did all the cookin' and cleanin' in that house. She was a little thing, barely able to stand up to the stove."
"I used a stool," Saria explained.
Pauline gave another sniff. "And she did the fishin' and trappin' as well."
"You make it sound terrible, Pauline. I loved my life. It was my house and my swamp, my world. And it still is."
"See?" Pauline appealed to Drake. "She's always been like this. It never mattered what anyone said to her, she did what she wanted. We all got together to try to talk to her pere, but he wouldn't listen. Told us to mind our own business."
Saria blew her a kiss. "I appreciated it."
"Is that why every single one of the women who tried to intervene ended up with a baby alligator after they interceded on your behalf?" Pauline demanded. "She snuck into their homes and left them all a present--a very pointed present. I received one as well."
Saria threw back her head and laughed. Drake had the sudden vision of a precocious child with gleaming white-gold hair, mischievous and running wild. He found her more fascinating than ever. His Saria had to have a backbone of steel if she was standing up to an entire community at such an early age.
"Did you really sneak into houses . . ."
"Eight houses," Pauline pointed out. "All in one night and no one caught her."
Drake shook his head, unable to keep from laughing. "You broke into eight homes and left each one a baby alligator?"
Pauline nodded, beginning to laugh at the memory. "She's very inventive, this one. She tied a bow around the necks of the alligators with a little rolled-up note, like a scroll, and left one in each bathroom, either in the tub or shower. All women of the church and very proper."
"I'll bet t
hat went over well."
"Mind you," Pauline added, "these were town women. They lived on the river, but they weren't like those of us in the swamp. Can you imagine the ruckus those ladies made findin' gators in their fancy bathrooms? I think everyone heard the screams up and down the Mississippi."
Saria burst out laughing again and Pauline, shaking her head, joined with her.
"What did the note say?" Drake asked.
"Wait, I still have mine," Pauline jumped up so fast the chair wavered for a moment.
Drake steadied the chair while Pauline left the room to retrieve the note.
"Remind me not to get you upset with me," Drake whispered. "You believe in revenge."
"Good thing to know about me," Saria said. "I don' like people pushin' me into anything, even ma famille. I had to be an adult and no one was goin' to come into my home and tell me what I could or couldn't do."
"We were tryin' to give you a childhood," Pauline pointed out as she plunked the note down on the table in front of Drake.
"I know that now, Miss Pauline," Saria said. "That's why I said I appreciated the intervention. Later, when my temper cooled, I sorted it out and realized it was done because you all cared. I left an apology at each house a few weeks later."
Drake glanced down at the note expecting to see a childish, angry scrawl. He was shocked that the note was done in calligraphy. He looked up and met Pauline's eyes.
"Do you see why I kept it? That note was such a work of art. She gave us all a baby to take care of because we had too much time on our hands and she didn't need our concern. She said to pour our lonely feelings out to the new baby." Pauline ped herself another cup of coffee and took a beignet. "Of course it was a baby alligator, but so clever to think of it."
"And what did you do for an apology?" Drake asked, more fascinated than ever. Clearly there was quite a lot to learn of Saria and he wanted to know everything.
"I baked them a rare Cajun bread, a recipe that's been in ma famille for years. I wrapped each loaf up with a beautiful tissue paper my mom had kept for years in case something important came up and I snuck into their houses and left it on their tables. That was much easier than putting the alligators in the bathrooms."
Pauline beamed at her. It was obvious they had great affection for one another. Drake could understand why. Pauline had no children and Saria had no parents. Naturally they would gravitate toward one another.
"You have to remember, I had a lot of time on my hands to do anything I wanted, so the subjects that interested me, like cookin' and art and photography, I spent a great deal of time on. Things I didn' like . . ." She trailed off with a rueful shrug.
"Saria has hunted alligators during the season by herself. Most of the men won't do that," Pauline added a little slyly.
Drake knew the woman was baiting him. She had thrown that out to test his reaction. He forced down the first explosive reaction and took a quieting sip of coffee. "Why? Do you have a death wish?"
Saria shrugged. "When I was really young, I went out with mon pere. Everyone does it when they need money. You get so many tags and they buy them by the size. I happen to be a good shot and you don' have a big target on an alligator. It's about the size of a quarter. The gator is usually rollin' and fightin' and you have to have good reflexes. Mon pere took me when my brothers were in the service or workin' on the river. When he got sick and couldn't go out, there was no one else." She shrugged her shoulders. "I rigged a pulley to help me pull in the gator after I killed it."
Drake closed his eyes briefly, drawing in his breath. Saria was matter-of-factly detailing her childhood. To her, it was a way of life, not a bad thing at all. She did what had to be done and she didn't waste time wishing things were different. More, she was proud of things she had accomplished and he--or anyone else--could go to hell if they didn't like it.
Saria took life head on and refused to be intimidated by it. The more he knew of her, the more he found her courage both terrifying and alluring. A woman like Saria would stand beside her man, fight for her children and for the relationship, no matter how tough it got.
"Of course you rigged a pulley," he said and took another bite of the trout. He had to admit the dish was incredible. "I wouldn't be surprised if you walked on water, Miss Boudreaux."
Pauline burst out laughing. "You aren't the first to say that. The Lanoux boys are intimidated by her. I was talkin' to them at the post office and they said courtin' her is like grabbing a gator by the tail." She leaned her chin into her hand. "And didn' you run off Elie, Amos Jeanmard's boy? He looked like a broken man when he left to join the service."
"I was fifteen, Miss Pauline," Saria said, rolling her eyes. "I hardly broke his heart. I hit him over the head with a flower pot and told him if ed to put his hand down my shirt again, I'd shoot him with my gun. He was such a dog. He was always feeling up poor Charisse as well."
Pauline looked outraged. "You should have told your brothers."
Saria made a face. "Really? Because they were home so much and paid such attention to me? They sent money home and figured that was enough. They were not goin' to deal with pere, no one was." She gave Pauline a mischievous smile. "By that time I'd gotten over childish resentments and fantasies of five brothers dotin' on me, and realized it was far better not to be noticed by them. Otherwise they'd be tryin' to boss me." She wrinkled her nose. "Sort of like they do now."
Pauline nodded her head. "It's true, cher, your pere was a mean drunk."
Drake suppressed a groan. If her father was such a mean drunk, why did everyone think it was okay for Saria to cope with him alone? What the hell was wrong with everyone?
Saria's gaze met his. "He never laid a hand on me."
There was underlying humor in her tone. She wasn't lying exactly, but she sure wasn't telling the entire truth.
Pauline glanced at her sharply. "He switch you, child?"
"Only when he could catch me, which wasn't often, and then I left for days. He didn' get to eat much. He learned quick not to bother, no matter how mad he was." Saria grinned at her, uncaring that her father had taken a thin branch to her.
"It's a little late to be asking her that now," Drake said, making no apologies for the anger and accusation in his voice. Damn them all, leaving a child alone with a drunken father in the swamp. "Where the hell were the churchgoing women?"
Saria leaned across the table and put a hand over his. "Don' be upset. I'm not. I had a great childhood. Pere loved me. He drowned in sorrow after ma mere died. I wasn't the easiest child to try to raise."
No, Drake had to agree she probably hadn't been easy to raise, not with her need for independence and her iron will. Saria Boudreaux was one of kind. She hadn't thought to complain to anyone about her father or her workload. Loyalty was a big part of her makeup, even to her absent brothers. She hadn't told on Elie Jeanmard when she could have gotten him in deep trouble. If her father cared as she said he did, and he was leopard, as he had to have been--Elie would have gotten beaten within an inch of his life for touching Saria against her will.
"You should have been protected." Any leopard lair knew that their women were of paramount importance.
"My father taught me to take care of myself," Saria said, "and I'm grateful to him."
"I heard Elie and his sister, Danae, are home for vacation," Pauline said. "My sister told me they came into the post office when she was working. Iris said Elie is very handsome and of course Danae is beautiful." She leaned close and lowered her voice, as if revealing a great secret. "Danae is seeing a boy in college and Amos and Elie are very unhappy about it. They think it's serious."
"Poor Danae," Saria sympathized. "I much prefer mon pere to hers."
"Saria," Pauline hissed her name.
Saria just laughed as she reached for another beignet. "You have a crush on that man," she accused. "I heard a rumor that Amos has been stoppin' by for dinner, but I didn' believe it until now. Tell me everything, Miss Pauline."
Twin flags of c
olor lit Pauline's cheeks. She fanned herself. "Amos Jeanmard was the handsomest boy in school. Well . . . he and Buford Tregre. Iris was so madly in love with Buford. We planned to marry, but their families objected--strenuously." She shrugged her shoulders. "Buford dumped Iris and she was devastated. She sat in her room for days sobbin' and then Bartheleme Mercier began callin'. Bartheleme defied his pere and married Iris, but Amos couldn't go against his family. They were big and very devout and his entire world."
She looked so sad, Drake wanted to comfort her. Her love for Amos Jeanmard had obviously never faded.
Pauline managed a rueful smile. "Very Romeo and Juliet. I never married. Amos did and had two children. He was very true to his wife, but he visited me often and we'd sit on the porch and talk. We didn' dare come in the house. After his wife died, he began courtin' me again. I enjoy his visits, but we're both set in our ways. He loves the swamp and I love my home here." She shrugged. "I'm too old to change my ways now. We missed our time together, but I have no regrets."
"I always wondered why you never married," Saria said.
"I loved him. I still do," Pauline said simply. "There was no other man for me."
She wasn't leopard, but she'd been the woman Amos had loved. Could she have been leopard in another life cycle? It was possible. If the families were old and could trace their lineages hundreds of years, they might have intermarried, as Bartheleme Mercier obviously had done--marrying outside the shifter species. It would stand to reason without a large genetic pool available.
Drake sighed. The world was a big place and there were few shifters left. To find one's mate was difficult at best. Pauline could have been Amos Jeanmard's true mate, but her soul was now in the body of a nonshifter and Amos had chosen to put his species before his own needs. Drake didn't know if that was a good thing or not. What about Jeanmard's wife? Leopards scented lies. She very well could have lived a very unhappy existence knowing he didn't really love her.
He looked across the table at Saria. He could see the compassion and empathy for Pauline in her eyes. He wanted to take her into his arms and hold her.
"It's nice to think about growin' old with someone," Saria pointed out. "Maybe he'd be happy sittin' on your porch with you. He could still go out in the swamp anytime he wanted. You might discuss it with him before you make up your mind."