Within seconds, the world quieted around them. Catherine lay fast asleep. Anne got up and arched her back before joining everyone around Catherine.
“What did you do?” Xavier asked.
“Trust me, abbé, there are things you don’t want to know, even if you’re a vampire.”
“Vampire? What are you talking about?” Jérémie asked, sending Anne into peals of laughter.
“Now isn’t that the question. You ask Catherine, if we can get her back to sorts, but for now let that alone because I need all of your help.”
Anne slowly removed the horrid white paste from Catherine’s face. She had Xavier apply damp towels to her head as Jérémie watched in utter confusion. Thomas knelt beside Catherine in case she woke and struggled but, instead, she opened her eyes slowly and looked around as if lost. She first saw Xavier.
“Xavier, how did I get here? What’s going on?” she asked.
Anne quickly answered. “Catherine, listen to me. We don’t have much time and these three gentlemen are terribly worried about you. How is your head? Is your thinking clear?”
“Yes, of course. What’s this about?”
“’The spell, Catherine, the spell that I’ve been trying to tell you about for a long time. You’ve got to listen to me now, you hear? We don’t have much time. I used a powerful counter-measure, something so powerful I dreaded doing it, but it doesn’t last forever and I have to have your cooperation if this is to work.”
The three men stepped aside and allowed Anne total control. Catherine looked bewildered but there was no defiance as Anne leaned over and stared at her, then walked around her, mumbling in a mystical language until she at last sat Catherine up and seated herself opposite.
“I got that medicine out of you. I got the demons away. It’s temporary because you have to want to continue it. Those headaches will come back if you won’t take this last bit of medicine, and then you have to stay away from the potion he gave you. Stay away from him because these are powerful demons. He controls forces that would frighten Jesus himself.”
Catherine just nodded and drank an elixir that Anne had brewed over the fire. She wrinkled her face at the taste.
“My God, what have I done? What did he do to me?” Catherine finally asked.
“He put a spell on you, but nothing else and you’re safe now.”
“I lost all my dignity.” Catherine gained her feet. “Can you forgive me?”
“We all forgive you.” Xavier reached over to hold her. She collapsed into his arms in convulsions of sorrow.
“Dear God.” Catherine pulled away from Xavier and looked at each of them. “Xavier, you told me that he killed Michel. Is that true?” Xavier stood frozen in place and shot a glance at Thomas. Catherine spun to look at him. Thomas knew that Xavier would never do this to his sister, but she had to know. Thomas needed to reveal it for both of them. With but a slight nod of his head, he told Catherine what he imagined she never wanted to learn. She fell back into her brother’s arms and wept, whispering over and over that she had killed her brother.
Thomas could hardly stand observing this emotional scene. He realized that they had not really mourned their brother together until that moment, with all the truth in the open. Xavier still often told Thomas that he blamed himself for allowing Marcel to murder Michel, and now Catherine’s words took the burden on as well. Despite the sorrow, a profoundly beautiful family love showed through, something Thomas thought Michel would be proud of.
Xavier and Catherine cried themselves into exhaustion, with Jérémie eventually joining them. Thomas thought that they quit finally because the human spirit forced them to move on, to return to the relief of having saved Catherine. He wondered if his resistance to such fortitude came from being a vampire or simply because of his personality.
“I suppose this makes it even harder for you to forgive me,” Catherine said to Xavier.
“You’ve done nothing wrong. No transgressions need forgiving.”
Catherine began acting more like herself. She straightened her posture and regained her air of authority.
“Transgressions.” Catherine smiled at Xavier and wiped away the last tear. “A vampiric priest.” Everyone laughed except Jérémie. “So you’re not angry? I don’t deserve exoneration. My God, I thought I loved that scoundrel.” Her voice dropped lower. “That murderer.”
“You can’t be hard on yourself.” Xavier rubbed her arm. “It’s magic he uses.”
“But I was so stubborn.”
“Just promise you won’t do this again,” Xavier said.
Thomas nodded agreement but Catherine had turned her attention elsewhere, her eyes wide but not afraid, as if she had had a profound revelation. Xavier noticed, too, for he stopped talking and looked to see what she watched. Then it came to Thomas, for Catherine glanced at Jérémie before quickly looking away.
“I’m awfully tired,” Catherine said. “Anne, thank you. I’m sorry to go, but I need to sleep.”
“No problem, no problem. You take care of yourself and we’ll be seeing each other soon.”
Then Catherine strode to Jérémie. “I owe you just as much for saving me.” Jérémie’s face turned red as Catherine grabbed his hand. “Join me for dinner tomorrow night, please.”
“Of course,” he answered.
Catherine issued more orders. “And you two—” she pointed at Xavier and Thomas, “will escort me home at once.”
When they had returned to the road, Xavier asked if she wanted them to take her quickly.
“I prefer a slow speed to that of your inhuman quickness. It unsettles my stomach. Besides, you’ve kept a secret long enough and I need confirmation regardless of what promises you made to others. This is a bond between sister and brother, so no priestly protesting.”
“What is it?” Xavier asked.
“You can still be incredibly naïve despite this new state of being. I’ll bet that Thomas knows.”
Xavier shot a look at Thomas, who only smiled.
“You do know. Tell me.”
“Each time I think I begin to understand the minds of men you confound me all the more.”
“What?” Xavier exclaimed.
“Michel began this little charade, no doubt at the behest of the one he represented. But why not come to me? Why not tell me the truth? Did anyone consider that a woman could help in these matters, instead of having men blunder about in secrecy, one of them entirely miserable, and now I know why. And two of the principle players must be the meekest men I know, and yes, Xavier, you’re one of them.”
“Thomas, will you explain this? I don’t understand.”
“Didn’t you hear her? It’s up to the lady now.”
“Catherine, I’ll pick you up and run if you don’t tell me,” Xavier threatened.
“This mysterious suitor that Michel first attempted to present—I know him.”
“How did you find out? Do you really know?” Xavier asked.
“The question isn’t how I found out but why it took me this long. The spell had to have kept me from knowing. It’s Jérémie.”
Xavier smiled at Thomas, sending the vampire into laughter as the three walked back to Paris.
7 November 1793
CATHERINE RECTIFIED HER tragic mistake with Marcel the very next morning after Anne had saved her. She regretted everything, and the humiliation was still raw, but to move beyond the mistake she had to admit it, repair the damage, and continue without regret.
She first wrote a note of apology to Thomas and Xavier to reiterate what she had told them the night before. No doubt Xavier would scold her for groveling, but she felt better letting them know one more time that she had learned her lesson and appreciated their love. Then Catherine unpacked. She had spent an entire week secretly collecting things to take to New Orleans, and now sneaking around to unload her trunks embarrassed her more than anything. She could not hide from herself and how stupidly she had acted.
That task completed, she drafted a curt, one line letter to Marcel, in which she explained that she knew about his deplorable deeds and therefore terminated their engagement. She signed off with a hope that he suffer. Next she dashed off a note to Jérémie. It, too, was succinct, reminding him of their dinner appointment.
After she sent someone to deliver the letters, she gathered her small staff and explained her dinner plans. She outlined the menu and requested that they prepare the dining room as if for a formal party. The servants eyed her suspiciously, so she lifted her eyebrow playfully and said, “Was I unclear?”
They laughed and went away without further inquiry.
Catherine pondered throughout the day all that she had learned and, as embarrassed as she felt about Marcel, she felt even worse about Jérémie. He was her closest friend. She had known him all his life and usually understood him easily. Yet her determination blinded her to the one thing that could answer her prayers for independence and at the same time deliver something she had relegated to fairy tales—love.
It seemed like months passed before the butler finally came into the dining room and announced her guest.
“Jérémie,” she greeted warmly.
“Catherine,” he responded rigidly, his face full of anxiety.
“Come, sit.”
“Are we dining alone?” he asked.
“Yes. I need to discuss something with you.”
“What?”
“You look like you’re going to faint. You and I have talked alone before.”
He was stiff throughout dinner. They talked as usual, but his language was reserved. Worse, his wide eyes gave away a certain fear or trepidation, which heightened her anxiety and caused her to talk even faster, covering the awkward periods of silence with the most trivial of matters as he sat quietly. With dinner completed, Catherine pulled him into her study and closed the door. Jérémie sat nervously at the edge of the couch and scooted away when Catherine sat next to him.
“Afraid of me?”
“Catherine, really,” he half-scolded.
“I brought you here alone for a reason. I thanked Xavier and Thomas last night,” she began but he interrupted.
“What’s going on with those two, anyway?”
“I’ll explain that and more than you ever wanted to know, but for now I need your attention.”
He nodded, solemn.
“Are you well?” she asked.
“I’m fine. But I’m uncertain what you wish to discuss.”
“That’s what I’m trying to explain if you’ll stop interrupting. I thanked Xavier and Thomas more than once last night when they brought me home. But I wanted to thank you for worrying about me while I foolishly pursued Marcel. It took a strong person to stand up to me and you literally saved my life. You’re my dearest friend.”
“Thank you,” he said, obviously relieved. “I feel the same. There was no need to prepare this special meal and get us alone simply to thank me.”
“We have something else to discuss, too, don’t we?”
“What do you mean?”
“Come now, Jérémie. We’ve always been honest with each other, but I think that you’ve been hiding something from me for far too long.”
Jérémie paled.
“Is there something you need to tell me?” she prodded.
Jérémie lurched off the couch, red with anger. “I won’t be mocked. You’ve had your fun and it’s been pure torture. Isn’t it enough that I’ve wasted my life on it already? If you’ll excuse me, I must leave.”
Catherine chased him as he headed toward the door, grabbed his arm, swung him around, and held him tightly in her grasp. “You can’t leave like this. I wasn’t ridiculing you. I delayed because I was afraid my being forward would offend you.” She took a huge breath and yanked Jérémie back into the room. “In no way was this evening supposed to mock you. I was blind. I never knew it until last night. I’d no idea that you were the suitor Michel mentioned.” Now his eyes filled with tears, as did hers. She smiled. “I was so petrified that Michel had picked some domineering man that it blinded me.”
“May I please go?” Jérémie asked quietly.
Catherine shook her head. “You still don’t see it, do you? After all of this, after I planned this dinner, I’ve so hurt you that you can’t see what I want to say.”
He looked at her blankly.
“Jérémie, I adore you. More than any other man. I love you. No matter how preposterous it seems that it took me this long to realize it, I love you.”
“You mean—” He hesitated. “What does this mean?”
Catherine ran back to him and grabbed both of his hands. “I love you. Will you marry me?”
Catherine’s boldness stunned even her. Jérémie’s confusion and meekness had pushed her to the ultimate test of their relationship. Could he accept this role reversal? After a moment of silence, a grin spread across his face. Then he softly laughed. “Yes. Yes, Catherine, I’ll marry you.”
Catherine flung herself at him and the two clung to each other tightly.
“Does this mean that you forgive me?” she asked.
They pulled apart and sat side by side on the couch.
“I’m speechless,” he said quietly. “All this time I thought you avoided talking about it because you didn’t feel the same way. And how appropriate that you acted the part of a man in asking for my hand in marriage.” He chuckled.
Catherine marveled at the moment. She had fretted since she first came of age about the expectation that she marry, fearing some man telling her what to do for the rest of her life. Finding an equal partner always seemed like some silly dream. But here was a man who loved her—her beauty, her charm, and even her independence. And she loved him, the grandest gift of all.
10 November 1793
THOUGH XAVIER HAD grown accustomed to his vampire life, his heart reminded him that in the process he had lost dear things from his human life. Thankfully, Thomas and Anthony allowed him to stay in contact with Catherine, and he had, relatively speaking, said goodbye to a number of acquaintances with ease. But he had intentionally ignored close friendships that had to end because it hurt too much to say goodbye. Now he had no choice but to confront those.
So he sat near a fire, next to one of his dearest friends, talking about life and faith as they had so often. These two had so little in common: different sexes, races, faiths, and classes. Nothing linked them except respect for these very differences and a deep caring. Xavier delayed saying goodbye to Anne for too long because this emotional scar might never heal. When she had first seen him that night, she told him that she knew he had come to say goodbye. But she never mentioned it again, and now the sun neared and forced the inevitable.