Winds of the Storm

  Sincerely,

  Wilma

  Archer sensed Zahra was withdrawing from him. There’d been nothing specific really but she’d seemed preoccupied and distracted for the past few days. A week had passed since her rescue and return to his life, but he wasn’t sure how long she planned to remain, and he cared for her too much to broach the subject without cause. At dinner in his apartments that evening, she said, “I’ve sent all of my people back to their homes.”

  “Even Alfred?”

  “No, he’s going to stay around for a few more days before heading off.”

  “I’ll miss having your giant around.”

  “As will I.”

  He studied her. She’d gone silent and was looking off in the distance in a way that made him think her thoughts were far away. “Zahra,” he said softly.

  She met his eyes.

  “If you’re leaving, I need to know.” Archer hadn’t wanted to press the matter but knew the time had come.

  Zahra had hoped to not have this conversation but knew that had been unrealistic. She’d never been one to not meet a situation head on, but she’d never been in love before. Her feelings for him were making her walk in unfamiliar territory. “I am going, Archer.”

  The declaration twisted both their hearts.

  “I’m going first to Washington and then home to South Carolina.”

  “And then?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I need you in my life, Zahra.”

  The pain made Zahra look away. She needed him as well, but she couldn’t be his mistress and watch him marry someone else. She also had to go home. Crete and his people had planned to try her, find her guilty and end her life. While locked up in that room awaiting her fate, wanting to see her parents just one more time had been as important to her as seeing Archer again. As it stood now, James and Marie Lafayette didn’t know whether their only child was dead or alive, and with all the turmoil going on in South Carolina, she wasn’t sure if they were still living either. She could take the easy way out and send a letter, but in her heart, she knew she needed to go and see for herself. “I have to see my parents, Archer.”

  “I know, but will you return to New Orleans?”

  “I can’t say.” They were the hardest words she’d ever had to utter. Another consideration had to do with Araminta, Henry Adams and his spiders. What if her services as a dispatch were needed again. Upon her return here to New Orleans, she’d had the opportunity to talk with Juliana and had been assured that the network would remain in place so that the information the race needed would continue to flow. Yes, Archer had been an agent and he knew its inherent dangers, but how might he handle the woman in his life having to disappear for long periods of time to do lord knew what.

  Archer slid his disappointment at her answer beneath his love for her. He wanted to ask her how or when she might make the decision to come back to him, but he knew badgering her would only lead to bad feelings neither of them wanted. So after dinner, he made love to her slowly, torridly, and as completely as he could because he sensed it might be their last time.

  Filled with a singular sadness, Zahra slipped from the bed and silently gathered her clothing. With movements that echoed the quietness in the room, she dressed and prepared to disappear from his life. Leaving this way was better, she’d decided. Were he awake and aware of what she was about, he’d be doing his best to make her change her mind and she would undoubtedly acquiesce for a time, but he would still be a man who didn’t believe in love, and she would remain a woman who did.

  Dressed now, she stood by the bed and watched him sleep. The urge to touch his cheek was strong, but she forced herself to remain still. She was certain that some women would declare her foolish for opting to turn her back on the comfortable life his wealth could provide, not to mention his talents in bed, but if she stayed she’d be his mistress and Zahra had no desire to be a Lynette. The Lynettes of the world were easily replaced by others of their kind. What if one day he did discover love—with someone else. Her heart would break even more than now. She viewed him tenderly. If she never found another man to replace Archer in her heart and mind, she would still have her memories.

  Giving him one last look, she slipped from the room and softly closed the door.

  Archer waited until he was certain she was gone before tossing aside the covers. Picking up a robe, he hastened to his study where the windows looked down on the back of the hotel and gently pulled back the drapes. Illuminated by the light from the street lamps he saw Alfred waiting on the seat of a small coach. A few minutes later she appeared below, her form all but hidden beneath a hooded cloak, and his heart twisted with pain. Seemingly sensing his presence, she looked up at the window and her eyes met his. She slowly pulled back the hood as if wanting him to see her face one last time, and that too added to his pain. There seemed to be a sadness about her that matched his own and it took all he had not to throw open the windows and beg her to stay, but he respected her enough to respect her decision, so he simply nodded farewell, letting the gesture say all he could not, and she nodded solemnly in reply. Their gazes held for a few moments more, then she disappeared inside the coach and Alfred drove away.

  On the train ride to Washington, Zahra thought about Archer day and night. What was he doing? How was he faring. How soon would he find someone else? She shied away from that one, but all of her questions and more mingled with the memories of their time together. She’d begun missing him as soon as she left his bedroom, and it would probably take a lifetime to stop doing so.

  For the next few weeks, Archer moved through life as if a voodoo spell had rendered him a zombie. He ran the hotel with his usual efficiency, but it seemed as if all the color had been stripped from his world, leaving everything varying shades of gray. He missed Zahra so much, his heart ached like an open wound.

  The night she left, he began consoling himself with cognac. By the end of the month, he’d stopped shaving or going to work thus making André responsible for the day-to-day management of the Christophe. Archer was such a mess that Juliana sent Raimond and the Brats over to intervene. She knew Archer was the most sensitive of her sons and that Zahra’s leaving had hit him hard, but she was worried he’d never get over it unless someone made him hold up a mirror to himself and force him to take a good long look.

  A drunken Archer was seated on his sofa in the dark when Raimond and his brothers filed in. “What do you want?” he groused in a slurred, sullen voice.

  A lamp was lit and as if in answer to his question, he watched Drake and Beau go over to the armoire holding his liquor and begin taking down the bottles. They placed the bottles in a carpetbag.

  “What the hell are you doing!” He got up and wobbled for a moment before gaining the momentum he needed to cross the room. “Put those back.”

  Raimond drawled, “They will when you come to your senses.”

  “Got to hell, Raimond. Nobody likes you anyway.”

  Philippe came out of the back carrying Archer’s dirty bed linen. “I’ll take these to the laundress.”

  Raimond nodded.

  Archer stared around in drunken confusion. “Who invited you here? Everybody out!”

  Next he knew, the stern-faced André appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Behind him looked to be a line of people holding buckets, but Archer was so inebriated he wasn’t sure what he was seeing.

  “Water’s ready, Rai,” André announced.

  Raimond turned his attention to his brother. “We have plenty of hot water here. Do you want to take a bath and start resembling a person again, or do I have to give it to you?”

  “The only thing you can give me, Raimond His Majesty Le Veq is the sight of you leaving me the hell alone. Now like I said, everybody out before I put you out.”

  An amused Drake said, “Did he just say he was going to put us out?”

  Beau replied, “I believe he did.”

  Raimond said, “Archer, every minute I’m here fooling with
you is time away from Sable and my children, so don’t test me.”

  “Kiss it, Rai.”

  “Get him!” Raimond snapped.

  Because the odds were five to one and the one was too drunk to be much of a challenge, the cursing and twisting Archer was summarily carried into his bathing room. He was stripped of his dirty smelly clothing and dumped into the tub where six buckets of ice cold water were poured without mercy over his head. His howls of rage were ignored.

  Two days later, Raimond returned to find Archer packing his bags.

  “Going somewhere?”

  “Yes.” Archer was still angry at his brothers for their visit even though he understood why they’d been sent to do what they’d done. He was also grateful. Because of them he was his self again, well almost. “I’m going to find Zahra.”

  A grin split Raimond’s dark face. “Good for you, brother.”

  “Whether you think it’s good or not, I have to see her and let her know how I feel.”

  “I knew you’d figure out what to do.”

  “If she turns me away, so be it, but this has to be resolved one way or another, so we can both get on with life.”

  Archer then looked to his brother and said solemnly,” Thanks Rai. Without you I’d be still on the sofa drowning my sorrow in cognac.”

  “Thank Juliana. She was the one most worried.”

  “Will you let her know I’m gone?”

  “You’re not going to see her before you leave?”

  “No. My train leaves within the hour.”

  Raimond assessed his brother and, upon seeing the determination in his face, said, “I will. Do you need a ride to the station.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I’ll take you.”

  When Archer stepped off the train in Columbia, South Carolina, it was raining, hard, but he didn’t mind. He was there and that much closer to finding Zahra. He hailed a cab, was driven to a local boardinghouse that catered to folks of color and got a room. Because the house had no other boarders upon his arrival, Archer sat down in the dining room to enjoy a simple meal of collards and pork. The landlady, a gregarious woman named Miss Opal, joined him at the table after he finished. “What’s a fine bred man like you doing in Calhoun County?”

  Archer smiled, “Who said I was fine bred?” He was dressed as a common laborer in order not to draw untoward attention. Supremacists often targeted well-dressed travelers of color.

  “Table manners will a give a person away every time.”

  He chuckled. “Very astute, Miss Opal.”

  “You here visiting kin.”

  He saw no reason to lie. “No, ma’am. I’m looking for a woman.”

  “Is she from here or did you just stop here for the night so you can travel on in the morning.”

  “She’s from here. Her name’s Zahra Lafayette. Do you know her? Or someone who does?”

  Miss Opal studied him with her creek green eyes. “Maybe. Why’re you looking for her?”

  “Going to ask her to marry me.”

  Surprise flooded Miss Opal’s face. “Truly?”

  “Sure as my name is Le Veq.”

  “Marriage, huh?”

  Archer nodded.

  “We’ll go in the morning.”

  The grin on Archer’s face matched hers.

  “This is as far as I can take you, Mr. Archer.”

  The time was just past dawn. The small track of road they’d been following for the last two hours had petered out into nothing and he was seated on the wagon looking at the dense forest ahead.

  Miss Opal said, “Trees too thick for the wagon from here on, so you’ll have to walk.”

  Archer wasn’t pleased by the knowledge, but he’d not come this far to turn back now, so he grabbed his travel bag and got down from the wagon. “Thank you, Miss Opal.”

  “You’re welcome, son. You got a long walk ahead of you, so I wish you luck. Remember what I said. Those Lafayettes been in this swamp for generations, they have all kinds of tricks and traps to keep their place hidden. A city man like you needs to be careful.”

  “I will, and thanks again.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  She turned her wagon around and headed back. Archer watched her go then headed into the trees.

  Miss Opal had drawn him a crude map. Armed with that, Archer was fairly confident of his ability to be able to find the place she called Sanctuary, but he hadn’t taken into account the heat that began rising the moment the sun came up or the vast undeveloped expanse of Zahra’s home.

  After a few hours of falling into bogs, fighting off bloodthirsty insects large as his hands and sweating in his too warm clothing, he was pretty certain he was lost. He never saw the twin oaks Miss Opal described as the gateway to Sanctuary, nor had he found the small creek she suggested he follow. It occurred to Archer that maybe this hadn’t been such a sound plan after all. He was surrounded on each side by heavy vegetation and the soft filtered light inherent in a place like this, but he had no idea which way to go. Above his head the towering trees offered no help nor did the ever present insects. Smacking one feeding on his neck, Archer began walking again.

  Another two hours passed and still no sign of anything resembling a community. He was hungry, tired and mad at himself for not having planned this better. He blamed it all on love. He obviously hadn’t been thinking straight to attempt this but he had to find Zahra. Had to. He took a seat on a mossy green fallen log and pulled the two sandwiches Miss Opal had given him this morning out of his pack. He’d lost his prized pocket watch earlier in a fall down a slippery ravine so he had no mechanical way of determining the time. The sun which had been playing peek a boo with the clouds most of day appeared to be on the wane so he estimated the time to be long past noon. He ate the sandwiches, washed them down with the water in his canteen and set out again.

  The world was alive with the sounds of bird calls and the incessant buzzing of insects. He saw a few deer, rabbits and heard something growling off in the distance that sounded for all the world like a big cat. He had his pistol in his pack but hoped he wouldn’t have to use it.

  Miss Opal had warned him to stay alert for the traps set by Zahra’s people but he’d been walking for so long and was so tired he didn’t see the noose of the ground snare until it was too late. The thick vine immediately tightened fast around his ankle and he cried out with alarm as he was yanked up into the air and left dangling upside down amongst the trees. Breathing hard from shock and surprise he fought to calm himself so he could think. The ground looked to be a good fifteen feet down, and even if mangaged to cut himself free he’d probably break several bones when he fell back to earth and he wanted to avoid that. The blood was rushing to his head, he was angry, wet and in desperate need of assistance.

  Assistance arrived a short while later in the form of a tall Black man with bushy gray hair. He was carrying a walking stick and a rifle. “Well hello there!” the man called up. “Looks like you’re in quite a pickle there, son.”

  “Can you get me down?” Archer was so dizzy from hanging upside down he was on the verge of blacking out.

  “Have to ask you questions first about who you are and what you’re doing here.”

  “Whatever you want. Just find a way to get me down!”

  “Name?”

  “Le Veq. Archer. I’m from Louisiana.”

  “Well, Mr. Le Veq Archer, why are you sneaking around here?”

  Biting back his anger, Archer gritted out, “I’m not sneaking. I lost my way. I’m looking for someone.”

  “Who?”

  “A woman I want to marry. Zahra Lafayette.”

  “Oh really?”

  “Sir! Can we please have this interrogation on terra firma?”

  “Answer me this first. Why would a swamp girl want to marry a fancy pants like you?”

  Archer knew that if he got out of this he was going to strangle the man with his bare hands for his lack of sympathy for Archer’s upside down plight.
“Because I love her! And I’m hoping she loves me!”

  Then he heard a voice that was as familiar as his own heartbeat. “You love me?” And to his anger and yes, extreme delight, Zahra Lafayette stepped out of the trees. Even as his heart swelled at the sight of her he swore, “Dammit, woman. Cut me down!”

  Zahra and her father James had been out hunting and she’d been trailing him by a few yards. She’d heard him talking up ahead but had no idea he was talking with Archer until she stepped out of the bush. Knowing the man she loved more than anything else in the world was here filled her heart with joy. He certainly looked comical hanging up there twisting gently though, and she didn’t have to see his face to know that he was also furious. But her surprise at finding him here paled in comparison to what she’d just heard him say.

  He barked, “Zahra, if you don’t cut me down, I’m going to make you wear corsets and shoes every day for the rest of our married life!”

  She chuckled, then said to her father. “Let’s get him down, Papa.”

  James looked down into his daughter’s happy eyes and asked, “You sure?”

  “Positive.”

  Once they lowered him to the ground, Archer was too dizzy to do anything more than lie there. When she came to kneel at his side, he took in the simple patched dress she was wearing and the beauty of her face and he felt his world right again. He smiled and asked. “Will you marry me?”

  Zahra looked down at him in his dirty clothes, the profusion of raised insect bites on his golden face and replied, “Yes, Archer. I will marry you.”

  Relieved and satisfied, Archer gave in and blacked out.

  Epilogue

  Zahra and Archer were married a month later at Saint Louis Cathedral. Her parents were in attendance as were dispatches from across the nation. That night as Archer carried her over the threshold of his suite above the Christophe, he asked, “So, what ever happened in Washington? Did you give the Death Book to the president?”

  Zahra was the happiest woman in the world and kissed him to show him how much before replying, “No. He was in Boston, and I wasn’t leaving the book with his secretary and maybe have it disappear, so I gave the man my written report and left. Araminta has the book now.”