'And then do what? Hold my hand? Pace back and forth thinking about all the things you could and should be doing? You would just make me nervous,' I told him. He smiled.
'Just like you to always think about someone else's feelings, even at a time like this.' He kissed me on the cheek and hugged me and I got into my car. 'Drive carefully,' he said. 'I'll call you tonight.'
''Bye.' With many trepidations, I headed for New Orleans.
I had the top down and wore a white silk kerchief. How much I had changed, I thought. All of the difficulties and troubles during the last year or so had aged and toughened me in ways I was just beginning to understand. A year ago, driving myself to New Orleans would have been the same as taking myself to the moon. Somewhere along this short but difficult journey I had undergone, I had left the little girl behind. I had a woman's work to do now and I had inherited the grit and the strength and the confidence from Grandmere Catherine to do it.
Despite my fears of it happening, I didn't get lost traveling the streets of New Orleans. When I pulled into the circular drive and saw Daddy's old Rolls-Royce parked by the garage, I gazed at the front door and hesitated. It had been years and years since I had entered this house. I took a deep breath and got out of my car. The new butler came to the door quickly. When he set his eyes on me, he blinked rapidly with confusion at first.
'Oh,' he said. 'You must be Mademoiselle's twin sister.'
'That's right. I'm Ruby.'
'My name is Stevens, madame,' he said with a slight nod. 'I'm sorry for your trouble.'
'Thank you, Stevens.'
'May I bring in your things?' he offered.
'Thank you,' I said. I had expected to see many cars in the driveway when I pulled in and dozens of Daphne's friends gathered to console Gisselle and Bruce, but the house was quiet, empty. 'Where is my sister?'
'Mademoiselle is upstairs in her suite,' he said, stepping back. I entered the great foyer, and for a moment it was as if I had never left, as if all that had happened since had been a dream. I almost expected to see Daphne come out of the office to smirk a greeting at me and question what I was wearing or where I had been. But there was nothing but silence. All of the lights were either low or unlit. The chandeliers hung like drops of ice. The grand stairway was draped in shadows as if Death itself had traipsed through the house and left his tracks over the carpets and floors.
'I'll be staying in the room adjoining my sister's, Stevens,' I told the butler.
'Very good, madame.' He hurried out to get my suitcase and I started up the stairs. Before I reached the landing, I heard a peal of laughter coming from Gisselle's open doorway. She was on the telephone. When she turned and saw me standing there, her smile quickly faded and she immediately took on the dark look of a bereaved daughter.
'I can't talk anymore, Pauline. My sister has just arrived and we have to discuss all the funeral arrangements and things. Yes, it's just horrible,' she said with a deep sigh. 'Thank you for being so understanding. Good-bye.' She cradled the receiver slowly and then rose to greet me. 'I'm so glad you've come, Ruby,' she said, and embraced me, kissing both my cheeks. 'It's been terrible, a horrible emotional drain. I don't know what's keeping me standing.'
'Hello, Gisselle,' I said dryly, and gazed around the room. Her clothes were strewn about and there was a tray of empty dishes from breakfast on a nightstand with an opened movie fan magazine beside it.
'I haven't been able to see anyone or do anything,' she immediately complained. 'It's all fallen on my head.'
'What about Bruce?' I inquired.
'Bruce?' She threw her head back with a thin laugh. 'What a wet noodle he turned out to be. And don't I know why, too?' she said, her eyes mean and piercing. 'He's lost his meal ticket. All he's been doing is going over legal papers, hoping to find a loophole, but I told him in no uncertain terms to forget it.'
'But he was her husband.'
'I told you before. In name only, and only as a servant. Daphne locked him out of everything. He's going out of here with little more than he came in with. We'll see to that. Beau has spoken with our attorneys and—'
'Beau?'
'Yes, Beau. He's been the only thing keeping me going. He's been an absolute superman. Right from the start. You don't know how horrible it was. You weren't there,' she snapped as though it were my fault I wasn't. 'She and Bruce went riding and her horse bucked and threw her. Bruce came running back to the house screaming. Beau and I were still in bed,' she inserted with a wry smile. 'We both heard Bruce shouting and threw on some clothes. We found her sprawled on the ground, a nasty bruise on her temple. Beau, who's had some medical training, told Bruce not to move her, but to send for an ambulance. He checked her eyes and took her pulse and looked up at me and shook his head. 'It looks bad,' he told me.
'I went back to the house to dress in some warmer clothes. The ambulance arrived and they put her on the stretcher and took her to the hospital, but it was a waste of time. She was dead by the time they arrived.
'Bruce went berserk, blaming himself because he let her talk him into taking the more gentle horse. At least, that was what he claimed. My guess is he never volunteered to ride Fury. He wasn't man enough.' She smirked.
'Where is Bruce now?'
'Downstairs in the office, drinking himself into a stupor, I imagine. I told him he could stay until after the funeral.'
'You mean he doesn't even have any claim on the house?'
'No. It's all complicated, tied up in what is now our estate. According to Beau, our lawyers think they might be able to accelerate our taking more direct control. That was the word he used . . . 'accelerate.' There is a great deal of money, you know. Remember how stingy Daphne was with us after Daddy had died? Well, she can't be so stingy now, can she?
'Have you noticed how long my hair has grown?' she said, shifting topics without pausing to take a breath.
