I nodded, even though I detested the thought.
'Good,' he said. 'We're going to be a wonderful family, even more highly respected than we are now, and you and your sister will be the creme de la creme of New Orleans. That's a promise,' he said. 'I'll let you go back to your wonderful work. We'll speak later.'
I watched him leave and then sat down because my heart was still thumping so hard, I thought I might faint.
Despite Bruce's promise, nothing more was said about Uncle Jean during the days between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Feeling trapped by Daphne's offer, I tried on a number of occasions to get Gisselle to reconsider her demand to remain in New Orleans.
'You've made new friends, and they all look up to you and depend on you now,' I told her just before we were about to go to sleep. It was the night before New Year's Eve. 'You're their leader.'
'You can have that honor,' she replied.
'But think of what you can do now that you'll be walking. And there's the Valentine's dance coming up too.'
'Peachy. The Valentine's dance. Don't get too close and don't hold hands too long. And just when you get to meet someone, you have to say goodbye. And that stupid curfew, even on the weekends.'
'Daphne's going to permit us to go off the campus. We'll meet boys in the city.'
'You wouldn't do that,' she said. 'You're too head over heels in love with Beau. Wait a minute.' She scrutinized me with her suspicious eyes. 'Why are you trying to get me to go back to Greenwood? What's going on?'
'Whenever you want, I'll take trips into Baton Rouge with you,' I promised, ignoring her question.
'There's more to this, Ruby. What is it? You better tell me. One thing's for sure, I'll never go back if you don't tell me the truth.'
I sighed and leaned back against her door jamb.
'I asked Daphne to move Uncle Jean back to his private room. He's nothing more than a vegetable now. He's lost all desire to live, to communicate. He's retreated into his own world.'
'So what? He was nuts anyway.'
'He wasn't. He was making progress. If he had a loving family around him again . . .'
'Oh, stop being Miss Goody Two-Shoes. What does that have to do with my returning to Greenwood?'
'Daphne said if I got you to go back, she would return Uncle Jean to his room.'
'I thought there was something behind your sweet-talk. Well, you can forget it,' she said, turning away to look at herself in her vanity mirror. 'I'm not going back to Greenwood. Right now I'm enjoying John, and I don't intend to give him up just so my crazy uncle can have his own room in a nut house.' She smiled. 'Daphne's going to let me stay for sure then. She doesn't want me to upset the apple cart. Good. Thanks for telling me.'
'Gisselle . . .'
'I said I'm not going back. That's final,' she hammered. 'Now stop thinking about sad things and help me plan out our New Year's Eve party. I've invited nearly twenty friends. Claudine and Antoinette are coming over to help decorate the living room tomorrow. For refreshment, I thought we'd have those twelve-foot po'boy sandwiches. We'll work up a fruit punch and wait until Daphne and Bruce leave. Then we'll spike it with rum. What do you think?'
'I don't care,' I said glumly.
'You better not be a lump of swamp mud around here tomorrow night. I'm warning you not to spoil the fun.'
'That's the last thing in the world I would want to do, Gisselle, spoil your fun. Heaven forbid,' I spit out, then left her room before I pulled out each and every strand of hair on her head.
16
A Brave Front
Despite my gloomy feelings, I tried not to walk about with downcast eyes and let everyone know just how unhappy I was. Gisselle's friends were very excited about the New Year's Eve party, and I had never seen Daphne so friendly and outgoing toward them. She came into the living room in the afternoon and made suggestions for the decorating. Of course, all the girls were in awe of her. I could see from the way they gazed at her that they thought she was akin to a movie star: beautiful, rich, elegant, and full of style.
But Gisselle kept herself the center of attention, revealing the miraculous recovery of her limbs and promising to dance for the first time since the accident. She got Edgar to bring in a ladder and then had the girls string streamers from one side of the ceiling to the other. They blew up balloons and placed them in a net to be released at midnight. While they worked, they gossiped about the boys who would be attending the party, and Gisselle described the girls of Greenwood, bragging about the things she had taught them concerning sex and boys. From time to time, she shifted her eyes toward me to see if I would contradict her, but I was barely listening after a while.
I was looking forward to spending the evening with Beau. I took my time choosing my dress and settled on a strapless black velvet gown with a deep, sweetheart neckline. The dress fit snugly at the waist and then had a full skirt that ended about six inches above my ankles. I had planned to wear a string of pearls around my neck but decided at the last minute simply to wear Beau's chain and ring, excited by the way the gleaming jewelry heightened that part of my bosom and cleavage. When I closed my eyes, I could almost feel his fingers softly gliding down, over my collarbone toward my breasts.
I put on a pair of delicate gold and pearl hoop earrings and decided to wear the ring that Louis had given me.
