Blackwood Farm (42 page)

“I burst into tears. I just cried like a little kid. I cried and cried. I just sat there not caring who thought what and I cried. So what if I was eighteen. I cried.

“Nash came over to put his arm around me and Aunt Queen cooed to me and called me her poor darling.

“ ‘I never wanted anything so badly in all my life,' I said. ‘I just love her.'

“ ‘Oh, my precious Little Boy,' said Aunt Queen. ‘Why on earth does it have to be a Mayfair!'

“ ‘But what's wrong with them, Aunt Queen?' I asked. ‘Good Lord, we went to their hospital! We go to their church. Fr. Kevin is a Mayfair. I don't get it.'

“Nash gave my neck a firm squeeze and went back to his chair.

“ ‘Jasmine, give Nash a fresh plate,' said Aunt Queen. ‘And you, Little Boy, please eat something. How can you be six foot three and not eat something?'

“ ‘I'm only six foot one,' I explained, ‘it's Nash that's six foot three. Nash, thank you for your moral support. Aunt Queen, I don't understand this.'

“ ‘Well, my boy,' she said, lifting her glass of white wine for Jasmine to refill, ‘I'm not sure I understand it myself, but the Mayfair family has always been viewed with suspicion. Dr. Rowan Mayfair, the genius behind Mayfair Medical, is perhaps the most universally admired of the clan, and she has immersed herself in public life and public service.

“ ‘But even Dr. Rowan is a mysterious figure. At one point she was so severely injured that all hope was given up, and then she made a miraculous recovery.'

“ ‘Well, you can't blame her for that, surely,' I interjected.

“ ‘Can't I?' said Aunt Queen. ‘I can tell you it wasn't through the intercession of a saint that she came back from the dead. That much is true.'

“ ‘But what are you saying?'

“ ‘As you saw, she's very restrained and sure of herself by nature,' Aunt Queen said. ‘And perhaps she is a good person, perhaps she is a very good person. But the rest of the family is another matter.'

“ ‘But what do you mean? The lawyer was like a loaf of white bread.' (Of course I was stealing Mona's words, but so what?)

“ ‘He's quite well respected,' Aunt Queen admitted, ‘though his practice is mostly dedicated to the family. I'm speaking of other things. And surely you haven't forgotten that he manages our money. But there has been talk for years of congenital madness in the female line. Well, and in the male line as well. Mayfairs were drugged, locked in padded cells, even let their house on First Street fall into ruin at one time, though now that Mr. Michael Curry has come it's wonderfully restored, or so they tell me. Then there's the matter of Michael himself, almost drowned once in the swimming pool.'

“ ‘But what could that mean?'

“ ‘I don't know, darling, I'm only trying to convey that they're shrouded in mystery. It's a family with its own law firm and its own priest. Rather like the Medici, don't you think, and you know how the people of Florence used to rise against them and throw all their artworks out of the palazzo windows!'

“ ‘As if the people of New Orleans would riot against the Mayfairs!' I scoffed. ‘You're not telling me everything.'

“ ‘I don't know everything,' she replied. ‘They're a haunted family and some say they're cursed.'

“ ‘You met Mona,' I said. ‘You know she's lovable and brilliant. Besides, we're a haunted family, too.'

“ ‘Something's wrong,' said Aunt Queen. She hesitated.

“I saw her eyes veer off. She looked at the place where Goblin sat watching her very steadily. She knew he was there, and as I turned to him I saw that he was locked to her.

“She went on, eating tiny bits of chicken daintily as she talked:

“ ‘There are many old stories about Mayfair women having unusual powers—an ability to call spirits, an ability to read minds, to know the future. But more than anything else there is this question of hereditary madness.'

“ ‘Mona can see Goblin, Aunt Queen,' I said, glancing at him and then back to her. ‘She has that power. Where in the world for the rest of my life will I find a beautiful brilliant woman who can see and love Goblin?'

“I glanced at him again. He stared coldly at Aunt Queen. And she was staring at the spot where he sat. I knew she was seeing something.

“ ‘You know anyone who marries me,' I went on, ‘is marrying Goblin.' I took his right hand and squeezed it. But he didn't respond.

“ ‘Don't be sad, Goblin.'

“Aunt Queen shook her head. ‘Jasmine, more wine, please, darling. I think I'm getting drunk. Be sure Clem's on alert to help me to my room later.'

“ ‘I'll help you to your room,' I said. ‘Those breakneck shoes don't scare me. I'm about to be married.'

“ ‘Quinn,' said Aunt Queen, ‘did you see how they have taken Mona home? Now please forgive my candor, but it seems to me that they are very afraid of Mona forming any alliance that can lead to her getting pregnant.'

“Nash asked if he should excuse himself. Aunt Queen said absolutely not, and I also nodded to it.

“ ‘Nash, if we're all going to Europe together,' I said, ‘you have to know who we are.'

“He sat back nursing his soda quietly.

“ ‘Quinn, am I being unfair,' Aunt Queen asked, ‘if I suggest that something intimate might have happened between you?'

“I was stunned. I couldn't answer them. I couldn't tell them all that Mona had told me—the story of the strange child, that it had been a mutation, that it had been taken away. I couldn't pass on these confidences.

“ ‘Maybe we are crazy,' I said, ‘both of us. She being able to see Goblin, imagine that. And both of us seeing ghosts. She talked of it all from a scientific point of view. I felt like I wasn't a freak. I felt like she and I were of the same ilk. And now it seems this person, this precious person whom I so loved is being stolen from me.'

“ ‘Darling, it's only for one evening,' said Aunt Queen patiently. ‘You've been invited there tomorrow afternoon.'

“ ‘And you're not dead set against my going?' I asked. I started cleaning up the chicken and rice on my plate. I was hungrier than ever. I wonder what trauma could have shaken my appetite. ‘I thought you'd feel just the opposite.'

“ ‘Well, this may surprise you,' said Aunt Queen, ‘but I think you might accept this invitation for a very good reason. Few people outside the family ever get to see the interior of that mysterious Mayfair house, and you ought to take advantage of the privilege. Also I have a hunch that when you see Mona again, some of this fire will burn itself out. Of course I may be wrong, the child's gorgeous, but it's what I'm hoping for.'

“I was plunged into misery but eating like a pig. ‘Listen,' I said, ‘if I can get her away from there, with her passport, can we set out for Europe immediately?'

“I could see the continued amazement in Nash's otherwise placid and dignified face, but Aunt Queen looked a bit provoked.

“ ‘Tarquin,' she said, ‘we're not stealing the girl. Jasmine, more wine please. Jasmine, you're not yourself. When have I ever nagged you so much?'

“ ‘I'm sorry, Miss Queen,' she said. ‘It's just those Mayfairs scared me. The stories people used to tell about their house, it was awful. I don't know if a boy Quinn's age—.'

“ ‘Bite your tongue, beautiful!' I said, ‘and you can pour me some wine, too. I'm going tomorrow.'

“ ‘They had a ghost!' Jasmine said, quite belligerently. ‘It used to scare off any workman who ever tried to work on that property. You remember my cousin Etienne, he was a plasterer, and they called him to that house, and the ghost pulled the ladder from under him.'

“ ‘Oh, stuff and nonsense,' I said. ‘And Etienne used to tell fortunes in the cards.'

“ ‘I can do that too, Little Boss,' Jasmine sent back. ‘I can read your cards, if you want, and tell you what your fate is.'

“She took my plate and heaped it with a second helping. The chicken was really delicious now, and the gravy was thick.

“ ‘Jasmine's telling you the truth, darling,' said Aunt Queen. ‘They're a haunted family, as I said.' She paused. ‘Before Dr. Rowan came out from California, no one would go near that house. Now they have big family get-togethers there. They are an immense clan, you know. And that's what I fear when I think of them. They're a clan, and a clan can do things to you.'

“ ‘The more you say, the more I love her,' I responded. ‘Remember, I got my passport in New York, when I was there with you and Lynelle. I'm ready to rumble. But what do you mean, they're a haunted family?'

“ ‘For years,' she said, ‘it was a dreadful ghost, just as Jasmine described. He did a lot more than push people off ladders. But he's gone now, this illustrious ghost. And what surrounds them is talk of genetic mutations.'

“I had to be quiet. But it didn't work. She went quiet too.

“ ‘What happened to the dreadful ghost?' I asked.

“ ‘Nobody knows except that something violent occurred. Dr. Rowan Mayfair almost lost her life, as I mentioned. But somehow or other the family got through it. Now Mona, Mona came down from an intensely inbred line of the family. That's why she's been named the Designée of the Legacy. Can you imagine? Being chosen because you are inbred? If there are genetic problems, you might guess that Mona has them.'

“ ‘I don't care,' I said. ‘I adore her.'

“ ‘Mona didn't grow up at the house at First and Chestnut. She grew up on St. Charles Avenue, not very far from Ruthie's house, and her people went back to a plantation house in the country. There was a murder. Mona wasn't a rich little girl, by any means.'

“ ‘Mona told me all this. So she wasn't rich. Do I have to love somebody rich? Besides—'

“ ‘You keep missing the point. The child is now in line to inherit the Mayfair fortune.'

“ ‘She told me that, herself.'

“ ‘But Quinn, don't you see?' she persisted. ‘This child is under intense scrutiny. The Mayfair Legacy involves billions. It's like the capital of a small country. And here she's gone from an unstable family to inherit an unimaginable fortune. Nash, you explain it. The girl's rather like an heir to the throne of England.'

“ ‘Exactly,' said Nash in a very mild professorial manner. ‘In the sixteenth century it was an act of treason to court young Elizabeth or Mary Tudor because they were in line for the royal crown. When Elizabeth finally became queen, the men who had dallied with her were executed.'

“ ‘You're implying the Mayfairs might kill me?' I asked.

“ ‘No, indeed not, what I'm trying to say,' Aunt Queen returned, ‘is that they will reclaim Mona no matter where she goes or how. You saw for yourself. They were quite prepared to pick her up bodily and carry her to that limo.'

“ ‘We should never have let her go,' I said. ‘I have a terrible feeling about it.'

“I glanced at Goblin. He looked solemn and remote, his eyes on those opposite me.

“ ‘When you see her tomorrow . . .' Aunt Queen began, but then she broke off.

“ ‘Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,' I murmured. ‘How long must I endure until I see her? I want to go to the house now and climb the vines to her window.'

“ ‘No, darling, don't even contemplate such a thing. Oh, we never should have gone to Mayfair Medical, but how did I know that the little heiress would be in the Grand Luminière Café?'

“Jasmine refilled my plate with plenty more of the chicken and rice. I started eating again.

“ ‘I don't trust anybody now except Mona,' I said. ‘I love you, you know that, but I'm in love with her, and I know, positively know, that I will never love anyone as I do her. I know it!'

“ ‘Quinn, dear, it's time for the worst tidbit of gossip.'

“ ‘I can take anything,' I said between forkfuls.

“ ‘They've already arranged a husband for Mona,' said Aunt Queen gently. ‘It's her cousin Pierce.'

“ ‘She told me that, too,' I said, fudging just a little. I gestured to Jasmine for more wine.

“ ‘Did she tell you that Pierce is her first cousin?'

“Even I was shocked by that. But I didn't answer.

“ ‘Oh, darling,' Aunt Queen said with a sigh, ‘I want to set our course for Europe right away, but we're not going to be able to take Mona Mayfair.'

“ ‘Well, I can assure you,' I said, ‘I'm not getting on any plane for anywhere without her.' ”

28

“THE NIGHT HAD
too many hours, and surely the following morning would be an agony, or so I thought. Aunt Queen, Nash and I parted at about ten o'clock—after more insubstantial and agonizing conversation about the Mayfairs—with my promising to consider the European trip even if Mona's family wouldn't allow her to go, and my promising that if I remained behind, I would accept Nash as a new teacher.

“That part was easy for me. I liked Nash completely, and I believed his firm assurances that he would be entirely happy at Blackwood Manor if we were meant to stay there.

“When I went upstairs I found Big Ramona awake and the window open near the fireplace and a brisk breeze blowing through the room. Now, it was our custom to sleep with the air-conditioning on during warm nights such as these, so I was a bit surprised by this, and by the fact that Big Ramona climbed out of bed and came a-whispering to me as soon as I closed the door.

“ ‘It's Goblin!' she said. ‘He opened that window! I'm telling you, it's the God's truth. I shut it twice and he opened it twice. He's down there! Look at the screen on your computer. See what he wrote!'

“ ‘You saw the keys move?' I asked her.

“The words were ‘COME DOWN.'

“ ‘The keys move! Boy, I saw the window open and shut, are you listening to me! Do you see what's happening to you with Goblin? He's getting stronger and stronger, Quinn.'

“I went to the window and looked down over the east lawn. I saw him standing in the glow of the floodlights on the side of the house. He was dressed in a long flannel nightshirt, as was my custom by this hour, but I, of course, was still in my pants and shirt.

“ ‘Quinn, you go to Confession,' said Big Ramona. ‘You tell the priest what you've done with this ghost! Don't you realize he's from the Devil? Now I know he was the one who broke all that glass.'

“I didn't bother to argue with her. I went downstairs and out to him by the cemetery where he was wandering barefoot like a lost soul.

“ ‘You go to Europe with Mona, you leave me,' he said. His lips were scarcely moving, but I could see his hair mussed in the breeze.

“ ‘I won't leave you. Come with me,' I said. ‘Why can't you? I don't understand.'

“He didn't answer.

“ ‘I'm worried about you,' I said aloud and under my breath, ‘worried about your feelings. You've become closer to me ever since you attacked the mysterious stranger. You've learned more things.' Again there came no response whatsoever.

“I tried to hide my fear, reminding myself that no matter how sophisticated he had become and how at odds with me he might be, he couldn't read my mind.

“As for me, I was restless and only partially focused on him. I was too in love with Mona to be focused on him. It was so wicked! After all these years. Did he know it?

“ ‘Come on, let's walk out of this light,' I said to him.

“I walked on back past the shed and onto the west side of the property, where the wicker patio lay in its own bath of electric light. He followed me, and when I glanced over to him, when I slipped my left arm around him, I saw that he had become my duplicate in clothing again. It seemed such a simpleton thing.

“ ‘Will you try to take me with you?' he asked. ‘When you go to Europe? Will you hold my hand?'

“ ‘Yes,' I said. ‘I'll do it. You'll be right next to me on the plane. I'll hold tight to your hand all the way.' With all my soul I meant it but I was speaking to a faded love when it was my blessed Ophelia to whom my soul belonged. I was her Hamlet and her Laertes and perhaps her Polonius as well. But I must not forget my Goblin, and it was not fear of him but loyalty that goaded me now.

“I had other things on my mind too. The Hermitage, for example, and how I meant to reclaim it from its wilderness neglect. I had already spoken to Allen, the supervisor of the craftsmen among the Shed Men, about running electricity out to it, and there were other things I meant to do.

“Of course the mysterious stranger was a real problem, more real than the Shed Men knew. But I was drawing pictures in my mind of how splendid I could make the place. And of how wonderful it would be to take Mona to the island, and how exciting it was that Mona wanted to see it and wasn't afraid.

“Dreaming of all this, conniving and planning, dreaming of Mona tomorrow and whether we could escape to Europe, I struggled to be true and faithful to Goblin, when quite suddenly he stiffened and, squeezing my hand, said in his telepathic voice:

“Be careful. He comes. He thinks I don't know him and he means harm.

“At once he vanished. Or at least he was gone from my vision, and at the same time the floodlights went out as if someone had tripped the switch. I found myself plunged into relative darkness.

“Instantly, an arm came up and hooked around my neck and a hand grasped my left arm behind my back tightly. I struggled but it was useless. My free right hand couldn't do a thing against either grip, and the voice of the stranger spoke in my ear softly.

“ ‘Call for help and I'll kill you. Turn your spirit friend loose on me and I'll kill you. You and all your dreams will be gone.''

“I was in a rage. ‘I fought you once,' I growled. ‘I'll fight you again.'

“ ‘You're not listening.' His voice was low. It had no sound of menace. ‘If your familiar strikes out at me again, you'll die here now.'

“ ‘So what's holding you back? Why don't you break my neck now?' I was furious.

“ ‘Really,' he said in my ear, ‘you are the thinking man's victim.'

“ ‘I'm nobody's victim,' I responded.

“ ‘Of course not, because you're going to do what I want.'

“ ‘Which is what?' I asked. Remembering some advice from long ago, I tried to turn my head to one side so he wouldn't have full pressure on my larynx, but he only tightened his grasp on both my neck and my arm. I was in pain.

“ ‘Stop fighting me and listen,' he said in the same calm near-caressing voice. ‘I'll leave you like a broken dove on the ground here for your Aunt Queen to find in the morning.' He went on in his reasonable way, just above a whisper. ‘You know she comes out for a stroll before dawn, don't you? Old people don't sleep well. They don't need the full hours of the night. She comes with Jasmine and Jasmine is still dopey, but they make their little constitutional while the stars are still clear.'

“ ‘And you're watching,' I said. I was horrified. ‘What do you want of us?'

“ ‘You're going to be enormously impressed with my generosity, but I have been eternally known for my generosity and my cleverness.'

“ ‘Try me,' I said. I was almost too angry to talk sense.

“ ‘Very well,' he said. ‘I've done a great deal of thinking about you, and this island which we both claim. I've come to the conclusion that I want to share the Hermitage with you. That is, I'll allow you to use it by day and I shall use it by night as has been my custom.'

“ ‘By night? You come there only by night?' This was almost unendurable.

“ ‘Of course. Why do you think you found the candles, and the ashes in the fireplace? I have no use for it by day, but I don't want others troubling it ever. I'm to find no evidence of others when I come. Except for evidence of you. Your books, your papers, things like that. Now for the most important part of the bargain. You're to improve the Hermitage. You're to take it to a new level of excellence. Do you follow me?'

“He had loosened the grip just a little. I could breathe without it hurting. But he had me as firmly as ever, and my left arm, my good arm, was aching. I was paralyzed with fury.

“ ‘The improvements are key,' he said. ‘You're to take care of them, and then we will both enjoy it happily. You'll never know I'm there perhaps. Oh we can share the books we read. We can grow to know each other. Who knows, we may come to be friends.'

“ ‘What improvements?' I said. Obviously the creature was insane.

“ ‘First off I want it thoroughly cleaned,' he said, ‘and the gold on the sarcophagus, it has to be cleaned and polished.'

“ ‘Then it is gold,' I said.

“ ‘Most assuredly,' he responded. ‘But you may tell your workmen it's brass if you like. Indeed, tell them anything about the entire island which will keep them away.'

“ ‘But who was the grave intended for?'

“ ‘You need never concern yourself with that, and never open it again either.' The voice came soft as breath. ‘Now let's return to the Hermitage. You're to have electric wiring installed throughout the place.'

“ ‘You've been reading my mind, haven't you?' I asked.

“ ‘Then I want glass fitted in all the windows, glass that opens and closes. I'm not particular as to the design, just so that the night can be seen and felt and the rain kept out of the interior. The flooring should be laid both in the first and second story—something of marble tile like the tile in your entranceway would be most excellent, though I think that it should be all white with a dark grout.'

“ ‘Good God,' I said, ‘you
have
been reading my mind. Who are you?'

“ ‘Have I? I do have a gift for it. And handsome lamps should be purchased as well as marble tables such as that which is there already. And fine gold chairs in the Roman style, and couches. You know. I leave it to you, the taste of such things—you've been born to and bred on fine things—and you shall see that it's all correct.'

“ ‘This is a game to you, isn't it?' I asked. I was breaking into a cold sweat.

“ ‘Not entirely,' he said. ‘I want these improvements. And I want the privacy afterwards. I want it all from you.'

“ ‘And you're serious.'

“ ‘Well, of course I am,' came the low, hushed voice. ‘Now what else do I propose? Ah yes, a better fireplace, don't you think, for the bitter cold Louisiana nights in winter of which outsiders know so little.'

“ ‘How did you manage to spy on me? From what vantage point?'

“ ‘Don't be so sure that I did. I'm cunning. You wanted to reclaim the place. I know the style in which you live. I want to be friends with you, don't you see? It's nice having my arms around you. I offer peace if you do these things. If you needed wealth for it, I'd oblige.'

“ ‘And your part of the bargain is to leave the place entirely alone by day?'

“ ‘Yes,' he said, ‘and not to kill you. That's the most impressive part—that I'll let you live.'

“ ‘Who are you?' I demanded again. ‘What are you? Were those human bodies I saw you dumping in the swamp? They were, weren't they, and the chains on the second floor. Did you never ask yourself what had happened with those chains?'

“I struggled. He tightened his grip.

“There came a dark slow laugh from him, a laugh I'd heard before though I couldn't place it. Or could I? Was it only in the swamp that night when I had seen him in the moonlight? I was too caught up in his strength and in my own sense of peril to know for certain.

“ ‘You can take away the chains if you like,' he said. ‘Have it all cleaned as I told you. Have made a new stairs from first floor to second. Have it made of bronze. And caution your workmen not to speak of the place. Caution them to frighten others away. If and when they hire outsiders, let them choose from those at a distance rather than from those who are close at hand.'

“ ‘Like it was in Manfred's time,' I said.

“ ‘Like you tell it on your tours of the house and property,' said the voice. ‘Now, I have a piece of advice for you.'

“ ‘What piece of advice?'

“ ‘You can see spirits and you've become enamored of a spirit named Rebecca.'

“ ‘How do you know?'

“ ‘Suffice it to say that I do know and I'm warning you against her. She wants a vengeance from you against those who have harmed her, and she'll settle for your life. You're a Blackwood and that's what matters to her. Your happiness fascinates her. It gives her strength. It causes her pain.'

“ ‘You've seen her yourself?'

“ ‘Let me humor you on this score. I have made myself privy to those dreams of yours in which she visits. And through those dreams I have come to know her tawdry desires.'

“ ‘She was tortured in the Hermitage,' I said. ‘She was tortured with those chains.'

“ ‘You defend her to me? What is that to me? Allow me to suggest you remove the chains and put them with the casket of her remains which you've buried in the cemetery.'

“ ‘You spy on me night and day,' I said, my teeth clenched with anger.

“ ‘I wish I could,' he answered. ‘Now I'm going to let you go and you can turn and you can look at me just as you please, and you keep your part of the bargain and I'll never hurt you or your family or your darling love with the red hair or her clan of witches.'

“His arms were removed. I spun around. He stood back.

“He was as I remembered. Six feet in height. Thick jet black hair pulled back from a square forehead with high temples and big black eyes with dark eyebrows that gave him a determined expression, and a long line of a smiling mouth, all very impressive, and a square jaw. Eyes positively flashing in the light. He was dressed in a fine black suit, and for one instant I saw all of him, and then he was turning, sporting the long thick black ponytail of hair—and gone as surely as if he'd dematerialized like Goblin.

“Goblin was immediately by my side, and Goblin said aloud, ‘Evil, Quinn, evil. He doesn't disappear. He uses speed.'

“ ‘Hold my hand, Goblin!' I said to him. ‘I knew you were near but you heard his threats.' I was shaking violently.

“ ‘Had I come between you, Quinn, he would have crushed you. He was too ready for me, Quinn. He wasn't afraid.'