Master Of Paradise (15 page)

The doctor returned from his carriage to the house. After a quick examination, he said briskly, "Let's get her upstairs to bed. It's all been to much for her, I'm afraid."

Bernard picked his wife up out of her chair and carried her carefully up the stairs. Jennifer followed, pale as death, and Mammy panted after, wringing her hands with alarm.

Nicholas went outside and made a quick search of the stables and the out-buildings. He called Mandy's name, but there was no answering response. He knew then she had gone to her favorite place on Paradise Hill, and he set out with grim determination to find her, and shake some sense into her silly head.
Running off in the middle of the night is such a dangerous, childish thing to do.

His footsteps quickened as he left Jackson land behind for his own acres. He called her name, but there was no response. Nicholas was filled with apprehension, a feeling quite alien to him. Where in hell would he begin to look, he wondered wildly. Then he saw the white dress in the purple shadows of the trees. She was on the edge of the riverbank, her knees drawn up under her chin, one hand trailing in the black water.

He knew without a doubt that she had heard him calling and had chosen to ignore him. Anger flared within him, while at the same time the relief he felt at finding her safe, almost overwhelmed him.

"God damn it, you deserve a beating for this!" he exploded.

She didn't move. She acted as if she hadn't heard him, which only goaded him to a fresh outburst.

"Look at me, Mandy! This running wild without thought or care for others must cease. What an irresponsible, childish thing to do. Don't you have any comprehension of what could happen to you going off alone in the dark?" he demanded. When he still received no response from her, he grasped her by the shoulders and roughly lifted her to her feet.

As she lifted a tear-stained face to him, her plight pierced his heart. He gathered her to him. "My honeysuckle, my little lamb, what is it?" he soothed.

"Nicholas," she whispered, heartbroken, "why do you treat me like a child?"

Very gently he took her chin in his fingers and lifted her face so they could look into each other's eyes. "Listen to me very carefully and I will explain. I treat you as a little girl because you
are
a little girl in everyone's eyes, save mine. To me you are ageless, wiser and older than time, but in reality you are
fifteen.
Try to understand that my only salvation is in treating you as a child. If I did not, I would be lost. You know how I feel about you without my putting it into words."

"But if you love me, why did you kiss Jennifer?"

He said lightly, "Men kiss lots of girls they don't love. Come now, your mother has been taken ill, and we must get you home."

She was stricken. "Oh, God no! What have I done?" Her body began to tremble with fear for her mother. "I don't mean to be wicked-- why do I always hurt her?"

"Mandy, no. Get these ideas out of your head. It was a debacle from the start. Brandon being expelled, Jennifer insisting on this birthday ball, King Vickers shooting his brother, as well as certain things between your parents you know nothing of. These brought on your mother's collapse. Only Mammy Lou knows you were missing, and she had enough good sense to come to me about it."

A single tear slipped down her cheek, and he brushed it away with his thumb. His lips brushed her temple. "Come, we'll hold hands around the dark corners then your fears and apprehensions will scatter before our courage."

Caroline Jackson had suffered a stroke that summer night, and during the next year her condition deteriorated monthly. Her sister Virginia, who had married into one of the wealthiest families in Charleston, came to stay for a lengthy visit, then took her nieces back home with her for a month in an effort to lighten the burden the Jacksons were experiencing. Virginia was married to a man whose famous ancestor had signed the Declaration of Independence, but more importantly to Virginia, had built the beautiful Greek revival mansion in which she was now fortunate enough to reside.

Amanda Virginia had been named after this aunt, much to the older woman's chagrin. She was a social snob of the first water, who pushed her own daughters relentlessly to cultivate only those who had 'connections'. Mandy's unconventional behavior appalled her and after a month she was relieved to pack the girl off home. Jennifer Joy was another matter altogether. Why had they named the wrong child after her?

Chapter Eight

Nicholas Peacock and Rafe Collins made such rich profits from the fine furnishings they imported, they immediately filled two ships with lumber and tobacco and dispatched them to England so they could bring back more luxuries for the lucrative Charlestonion market. The cotton crop was harvested, and though Nick found it impossible to sail for England as he had promised himself, he and Rafe decided not to let the cotton go for less than twenty cents a pound, even if they had to store it in Liverpool warehouses.

At last Nicholas had the money he needed to finish the house on Paradise Hill. It began to take shape from the plans that had been meticulously drawn up. Two sweeping wings rose from a center hall. The outside was completely white with four gracefully fluted columns rising to the second story, supporting a lower and an upper balcony.

The gardens had been going in bit by bit for almost two years before the house was started. A cathedral-like avenue of live-oak trees marked where the driveway would be laid down, and the flowers and shrubs had been chosen so that some of them would always be in bloom, no matter the season. Hundreds of camellias came into their full glory during the short winter and kept blooming through spring. Then came the azaleas, which burst into a riot of color beneath the stately moss-hung oaks. Summer brought forth roses, fragrant mimosa, and hibiscus so exotic in color and size, they looked transplanted from some tropical jungle.

Amanda found the building of the house fascinating. She had watched it from the moment the foundation went in and she marveled each time she saw it change and grow. She could not keep herself from falling in love with it, and she coveted it with a passion.

Mandy rode into the stables at Paradise, quickly stripped Miss Louise of the saddle she had borrowed and replaced it with her own side-saddle. "Oh, Nicholas, there's a pair of blue herons in the cypress swamp. I think they're nesting. Do saddle up, and I'll show you where."

He smiled at her enthusiasm. "I've been saving a surprise for you. Back here." He indicated a large wooden box. "I didn't want to uncrate them until you were here." He unfastened the lid to reveal a pair of birds. The hen was plain brown and unremarkable, but the cock was magnificent.

"Make enough racket to raise the dead. Terrific watchdogs. The place wouldn't be complete without peacocks, would it?" He threw them a handful of corn and they left the crate and made themselves at home as if they'd been born on the place.

"They have to come out. Rice is going in there for our own table. We could transplant some though. At the center of the maze there's to be a fountain and a pond."

"That sounds beautiful. I wanted to wade in and pick some, but I'm afraid of the 'gators."

"I hear them bellowing at night, and the odd time I've seen them sunning themselves. They look docile enough, but I know they can take a man's leg off."

As they rode side by side, Nicholas took a close look at the girl beside him. She would soon be sixteen and growing more lovely with each passing day. Her hair flew about, wild as a dark cloud caressing her shoulders, and sun-streaked at the temples. Her wide-spaced golden eyes glowed with mysterious secrets that made him long to have her whisper them in his ear. She was like a sorceress, and Nick knew himself susceptible. She had the same fascination for him as a fictional creature from some strange forbidden place. She was part illusion, part girl, part woman, with so much allure, she held him in thrall.

They skirted the marshy ground and stopped their horses on the bank of the cypress swamp. The blue herons heard them and rose up with a single cry. "Aren't they lovely? They'll come back down as soon as we leave," she assured him breathlessly.

About twenty yards out from the bank, pale pink and dark red waterlilies bloomed, floating on their round green pads. Nicholas dismounted and removed his boots. "I'll get you some," he offered, "before Brute rips them all out."

She watched him wade out, knee-deep in the black water. Suddenly the happy look left her face and was replaced by one of horror as she saw the streamlined ripples cross the water behind him. She screamed, "Nicholas!" For a sickening moment the world stood still. She couldn't breathe, or move, and then the water snake struck, sinking its fangs into his thigh.

Nicholas roared, "Brute! Brute! Help me."

Mandy jumped from her horse and splashed through the water to him as fast as she could. Only thigh-deep on Nicholas, the water reached up past her waist. Brute got to him at the same time as Mandy, and she cried, "Water-snake... got him in the leg... quick get him up on the bank. Give me your knife!"

Brutus hauled Nicholas, none too gently, out of the black water and eased him up onto the bank.

A feeling of unreality washed over Nicholas. "This can't be happening."

Mandy slit his trouser leg up to the groin and with feverish fingers examined the muscular thigh until she found the two little red dots she'd been searching for. She knew exactly what to do, and knew also that each second of delay could be fatal. She gashed an X-shaped cut across the fangs' point of entry and went on her knees to him between his legs. She squeezed the blood from the wound, and when no more would come, she put her mouth over it and sucked hard. She spat out the blood and poison, and put her mouth down again to draw out the venom.

Nicholas knew very well the danger he was in, but as he looked down at her and felt her mouth on his thigh, he was overcome with the eroticism of her actions and he began to swell and harden uncontrollably.

Mandy heard him groan. "Am I hurting you?"

He gazed at her between his legs and saw the black lashes tipped with gold sweep against the delicate cheeks. Her young breasts, so unbelievably high and round swelled from the neckline of her gown as she bent low to him. Her hands on his bare flesh brought him dreamed of pleasure, but the thing that held the center of his attention was her mouth. The mouth that he had never dared to touch with his, was upon him now in a manner that was so intimate, he feared he would lose control of himself if she didn't cease sucking him.

Desire for her flooded through his veins and he could feel the heat spreading.
Perhaps it's the venom doing strange things to me.
He clamped an iron will on his emotions, and his lust slowly drained away, leaving him white and shaking.

"That's just a reaction to the shock," she reassured him. "Brandon was bitten like this two years ago, and I saw Daddy draw the poison from the bite. I think you'll be all right." She got to her feet. "Brute, let's get him to his bed. I'm sure Samuel will be able to look after him. I'll send Dr. Caldwell over as soon as I get home. It's his afternoon to see Mother."

Mandy knew she had sounded very sure that all would be well, but inside she was terrified. With each heartbeat she had repeated over and over inside her head,
He can't die! He can't die!

Now, in rhythm with Miss Louise's quick gallop, she whispered, "Please live! Please live!"

Mandy found Dr. Caldwell discussing Miss Caroline's failing condition with her father. She threw herself headlong between the two men, upsetting the doctor's glass of bourbon. "Nicholas has been bitten by a water moccasin. He needs you quickly Dr. Caldwell!"

"I did. I mean... Brute was with him, and... and I told him exactly what you did to Brandon." Mandy was quite used to lying to conceal her conduct.

"Thank God," the doctor said. "I'll get right over there."

"I'll come with you." Bernard turned to his daughter. "I don't want you over there. It's not fitting." Then his voice softened a little as he saw how frantic her fears were. "Don't worry child, I'll be back directly and report on his condition."