'I hope so. Gisselle would certainly never bring anything like this. She made fun of these things,' he reminded me.
'Still, I had to do it, Beau.'
'All right. Let's not stay too long, Ruby,' he said nervously. 'We should return to New Orleans before it gets too late.'
I held Gisselle's hand for a moment, said a silent prayer, and touched her forehead. I thought her eyelids fluttered, but maybe that was my hope or my imagination.
'Good-bye, Gisselle. I'm sorry we were never real sisters.' I felt a tear on my cheek and touched it with the tip of my right forefinger. Then I brought it to her cheek and touched her with the wetness. Maybe now, maybe finally now, she's crying inside for me, too, I thought, and turned quickly to run out of the room and rush away from the sight of my dying sister.
Paul had still not risen when we returned, but Pearl was up and playing with Jeanne and Toby in the study. Her eyes brightened with happiness when she saw it was me. I wanted to rush to her and hold her dearly in my arms, but Gisselle wouldn't have done that, I told myself, and I kept a check on my emotions.
'We've got to get back to New Orleans,' I said abruptly.
'What was it like at the hospital?' Toby asked. 'Like talking to yourself,' I said. Ironically, that was the truth.
The two sisters nodded with identically melancholy faces.
'You can leave the baby with me,' Jeanne suggested. 'I don't mind.'
'Oh no. We couldn't do that,' I said. 'I promised my sister I would look after her.'
'You? Promised Ruby?'
'At a weak moment,' I said, 'but I have to keep the promise.'
'Why? You're not crazy about children, are you?' Toby asked disdainfully.
I looked at Beau for help.
'We've already hired a nanny,' he said. 'Everything's arranged and in place.'
'An aunt is better suited to look after her than a nanny, isn't she?' Jeanne retorted.
'What do you think I am, chopped onions?' I snapped. When it came to holding on to Pearl, I could be as firm and as stinging as my sister.
'Well, I just meant . . . it's no problem for me.'
'And it's no problem for me,' I retorted. 'Pearl.' held out my arms and she ran to me. 'Tell Paul we'll call him later,' I said.
I hurried out with Pearl in my arms and Beau at my side before there could be any further discussion. My face was flushed, my eyes wide with near hysteria.
'Take it easy,' Beau said when we were all in the car. 'You did fine. Everything's all right.'
I didn't calm down until we were well on our way. The rain that had hovered in the clouds all day kept its promise and fell in a constant downpour during the whole trip back to New Orleans. The sky over the city was ripped with seams of lightning and the thunder rolled so loud and hard, it shook us even in the car. I was happy when we finally arrived at the house. Aubrey greeted us with a list of phone calls and we saw that Bruce Bristow had called frequently.
'I see I'm going to have to get tough with him to get him off our backs,' Beau said, and crumpled the messages in his fist angrily. At the moment I couldn't care less about those problems. Pearl was too groggy from the ride to eat anything, and I was emotionally exhausted. I put her to bed and then took a hot bath and crawled into bed myself. Hours later, I heard Beau come up, but I barely acknowledged him when he crawled into bed beside me, and minutes later, he was asleep, too.
I was filled with nervous tension and great anxiety during the next few days. For me the hours were like days and the days like months. I would stop myself and gaze at the clock, shocked that only minutes had ticked by. Every time the phone rang, I jumped and my heart skipped beats and pounded, but it was usually one or another of Gisselle's friends calling. I was short with all of them, and soon most of them stopped bothering to call. One afternoon Pauline phoned to tell me I was losing all my friends, driving them away one by one.
'Everyone says you've become more stuck-up than ever,' she informed me. 'They say you think you're too good to speak to them on the phone and you haven't invited anyone to the house.'
'I have more important things to worry about right now,' I snapped.
'Don't you care if you lose all your friends?'
'They weren't really my friends anyway. All they care about is what they can get from me,' I told her.
'Does that include me?' she asked petulantly.
'If the shoe fits, wear it,' I said.
'Good-bye, Gisselle. I hope you're happy in your own world,' she said with disgust.
In weeks I had driven away most of Gisselle's friends, people I never liked anyway, and I had done it in character so no one thought anything unusual about it. Beau was amused and happy. It was practically the only bright spot in the gloomy days that followed our visit to Cypress Woods.
Whenever I called, either Toby or Jeanne came to the phone. Paul was always unavailable. They were very short with me, too. Gisselle's condition remained unchanged. Toby, who could be more caustic than Jeanne, said, 'It's only a matter of time. I hope your sister's death doesn't interfere with anything you've scheduled. I know how important your social calendar is to you.'
I thought to myself that Gisselle deserved such reprimands, and kept my lips sealed, but it hurt nevertheless.
