Master Of Paradise (12 page)

Mandy arrived wearing vivid yellow that emphasized her dark tawny hair and golden brown skin. She sank into an elaborate curtsy before Nicholas and her eyes danced warmly.

"I thought you were opposed to the principle of curtsying," he murmured.

"Please don't encourage her, Mr. Peacock," Jennifer said coolly. "What you think quaint, others find distinctly peculiar."

One of Mandy's eyelids dropped in a droll wink that brought a smile to his lips.

Aunt Billie floated in like a ship in full sail and lowered her stern thankfully onto a dining chair.

The meal was a culinary masterpiece of roast pork, baked apples, candied yams, with mounds of fluffy white rice grown right on the plantation. There were two different flavors of succulent gravy.

When Billie helped herself to two helpings of desert, Nicholas fancied she indulged herself because of Bernard's absent eagle-eye. She still spoke very little, excused herself the moment the meal was over and disappeared as if she had been spirited away.

The next evening, Miz Caroline did not appear and Nicholas learned that it was one of her 'poorly' days. He noted the changed behavior at table with a cynical eye. Jennifer Joy was using him to practice her coquettish tricks. She was seventeen, but the flirtatious way she used her body to tease him, made her seem much older and worldly-wise.
She knows she looks attractively saucy in the red dress and wouldn't have dared such a bold color if her parents were present.

Nick hid his amusement as he recognized the invitation in her warm little glances.
Last night she was cold; tonight she is hot. It's a trick females love to use to keep men off balance, and it almost always works.

Jenny knew Nicholas had a powerful body that would undoubtedly respond, but here in front of her family and the servants, he was only latently dangerous.

Aunt Billie also acted like a different person. She began to chatter, quite enjoying this male company that was a rarity without the constraining presence of her half-brother.

Nicholas motioned for Charles, the head dining-room servant, to refill Aunt Billie's glass with bourbon, and sat back to listen to what revelations she might make.

"On Saturday we have been invited to a musicale evening at the Hampden Plantation. Mother is sending our regrets today because Daddy is unable to accompany us." She smiled at him, and he knew what was coming.

"Everyone will be there and I'll simply die if we all don't attend. I feel emboldened to ask if you will accompany us, Nicholas?"

"Ha." Billie's raucous voice cracked out loudly. "No mistakin' Wade Hampden." She leaned toward Nicholas and whispered hoarsely, "Randiest male ah ever encountered!"

Nicholas tried to keep his face straight as he struggled with the vision of Billie attracting a man.
Perhaps before the folds of flesh took over, she possessed some allure.

"Son takes after him." She winked at Nicholas.

At this reference to Beau, Jennifer said, "I don't know what you mean, Aunt Billie."

Billie's laugh was crude and suggestive. "You will girl. You will if you keep flutterin' them eyelashes at him, to say nothin' of other anatomical parts."

Jennifer looked shocked. Ladies did not indulge in coarse conversation. Amanda was enjoying the unusual repartee immensely. Nicholas smoothly steered Aunt Billie into another channel of conversation. "I am told New Orleans is comparable to Paris."

She cocked an eye at him. "It is a city of contrasts, enjoyed alike by the very poor and the very rich. But whatever their status, the men and women of N'Orleans have sophisticated tastes in all things. Are you a Francophone, Mr. Peacock?"

"Your mother would not approve of this conversation, and speaking of your mother, I think it would be kind of you both to go and sit with her for an hour." He turned to Aunt Billie. "Don't run off. Join me in a bourbon and branchwater out on the verandah."

He mixed the drinks himself and escorted the large lady to a comfortable wicker chair. As the aroma of the glass's contents reached her nostrils, she put her head on one side. "Ah feel it is only sportin' of me to warn you that ah am aware of what you are trying to do."

Her raucous laugh rang out. "It won't work. Ah can hold my liquor like a man. Drink most of 'em under the table in fact. You are most perceptive, Mr. Peacock. When you look at me, ah feel pinned to the wall like a butterfly. Well, perhaps not a butterfly-- let's say a very large moth."

"You seem to know a lot about men," he prompted.

"Ah am an expert, nay a
connoisseur
of men. Ah'll tell you-- you've probably guessed anyway. Ah ran a house in N'Orleans." She smacked her lips over the bourbon. "Ah tell you suh, it was the most respectable whorehouse in the whole of Lousianna."

"Most men want a body, preferably a pretty one, and a touch of the exotic is always appreciated. Best money makers ah ever had were a pair of identical twins. They did a sister act. Charged triple for the two of them; would have been a right shame to break up the set. Pretty little blonde things. Got them when they were thirteen. Had them five years an' passed them off as thirteen all that time." She said confidentially, "Gentlemen like their girls young, you see. In a way though, that's what did me in." She shook her head.

"The twins?" he ventured.

"No, Giles Gregoire, stood high in government. Used to issue me orders for girls. '
Nothin' over eleven!'
he'd say. Politicians are the worst you know. Anyway, the old fool got himself shot. Managed to do it in my place, the son-of-a-bitch! The ensuing scandal was hideous. Authorities closed me down and forced me out of N'Orleans. Ah decided to visit my dear half-brother until things cooled down. Found life here so pleasant and indolent, why work for a livin'?"

"This county thrives on gossip. Are you accepted among the hostesses who guard our morals so zealously?"

Her raucous laughter cracked out. "Truth is that although most of the men hereabouts have visited my place in N'Orleans, not one wife has ever heard tell of Madam Billie."

Nicholas returned to Paradise each day at dawn, unwilling to let the work of his own plantation slide. One morning he was surprised to see Amanda ride into the stables.

"Hell's afire!, she began, "you wouldn't believe the song and dance I've just been through at our stables. Nathan, our head groom, refused point blank to put a regular saddle on Miss Louise. Says no mistress of his is riding about the countryside astride no horse from his stables. Damn servants anyway, they think they own you!"

The Jackson carriage was ordered up for the visit to the Hampden's. Because Miss Caroline was still feeling indisposed, it was decided that Mammy Lou would accompany the girls. Their crinolines and hoops took up so much space that they had to sit on opposite seats, with Nicholas next to Jennifer Joy and Mammy squashed in beside Amanda Virginia. Jenny wore a delicious confection of apricot lace with brown velvet ribbons, while Mandy was in white ruffles, the traditional color for a young girl's first party dress. Nicholas watched as she stuffed her fan down behind the seat cushion to get rid of it.

"Thass no way to accept a compliment from no genlmans," reproved Mammy, warming to the task of pointing out Mandy's shortcomings. "Young girls has to wear white, leastwize 'till they's sixteen."

"It would be considered eccentric to do otherwise," Jennifer pointed out helpfully.

"An' when we gits der, don't go runnin' off wiv dat young Hamden boy, catchin' snakeses and suchlike unseemly things," Mammy warned.

Nicholas had agreed to this evening, mainly to get a good look at the Hampden's Plantation.
It's one of the richest in the county, known as a 'thousand baler' in cotton talk.
Nicholas calculated they were cotton rich to the tune of at least a hundred and fifty thousand a year.

When they arrived, Mammy Lou went off to the regions of the kitchen and the servants' hall, which was overflowing this evening with visiting servants from Magnolia, Twinoaks, Summerhill, and Greenpond Plantations.

Jennifer joined the flower-like group of belles who kissed and shrieked and giggled, in fact anything to draw all eyes, especially those of eligible men.

Nick knew most of the young men who were present from the card sessions. Stuart Beverly was away at military college along with Brandon, but Tyler Caldwell, Wesley Davis, and King Vickers were very much in evidence. Beau Hampden lost no time singling out Jennifer for his undivided attention, while his brother Clay, about fifteen, made a bee-line for Amanda. Nick smiled to himself as he saw Clay pull something from his pocket for Mandy to admire.

Nicholas introduced himself to Wade Hampden and was surprised at the man's youthfulness. He didn't seem a day over thirty, yet his son Beau must be at least eighteen. Wade showed off his lovely home and Nick, noting the paintings, chandeliers, heavy ornate silver, and deep-piled carpets, realized it had all been imported from England. For a moment he regretted that he was not in the shipping business.

Nick slipped outside to observe the workings of such a successful plantation. He noted they had facilities for ginning their own cotton, and decided that would be the next improvement at Paradise.
I'll build the mill right next to the stables.

He returned to the house, and as he passed the library door, he saw Mandy and Clay with a decanter of bourbon. He was just in time to see her toss back a shot and triumphantly pick up a silver dollar from the table.

The moment he stepped into the library, Mandy looked as if she wanted to sink through the floor. The look Nicholas gave her was so darkly forbidding, she stepped back in fear.

Nicholas led Amanda back to the other ladies. They were just in time to take their seats for the entertainment. Miss Heather Claremont of Magnolia Plantation began her solo. Her voice was small, but very sweet and the piece she had picked was appealingly nostalgic. It was a song designed to bring a tear to the eye of anyone who was inclined toward the sentimental.

All at once there came the most intrusive sound that repeated itself at regular intervals. Necks craned and heads turned, albeit surreptitiously until one by one they realized Amanda Virginia Jackson was hiccuping loudly.

The audience tried to keep a straight face, but gradually the murmur turned into a ripple of laughter, and the singer, now mortified, could not be persuaded to give an encore, no matter how enthusiastic the applause. After a hurried consultation, Mrs. Hampden persuaded a gentleman to sing his repertoire for them. He was obviously a baritone, but Nicholas missed his name entirely. Before his third selection, Nick noticed that Mandy was yawning openly, and by the time Miss Charlotte Davis played her piano piece, Mandy had fallen asleep, curled up in her chair. No one disturbed her as they all filed past into the buffet supper.