"To further complicate matters, the baby wasn't Caprice's only secret. Like others in her family across the sea, she was a witch. Recapping the situation, Caprice loves Charles and carries his unborn child. Charles has a new partner — his much-older boss — and cares nothing about Caprice. Charles and Prosperine carry on in front of the staff. Caprice claims to have seen Prosperine murder three people. It isn't difficult to see that things are getting complicated."
He asked for a restroom break. Landry went with him, waiting in the hall to make sure Empyrion returned. When he resumed, what had been an interesting story became a revelation.
"By then Charles honored his brother by calling himself Charles Richard and Prosperine nicknamed him Empyrion. 'Empyrion, my emperor,' she gloated in front of the appalled servants, who showed their disgust by concocting stories. Word spread to their counterparts working in other households. As it was retold, the story grew. Some said they heard moans and groans from the attic where the monster Prosperine chained slaves there. Her own servants came to believe their own fiction and were terrified of Prosperine and Charles.
Landry gave an exasperated sigh. "I have to interrupt once again. It may make you feel better about things to say Caprice claimed to witness the murders, and there are rumors that Prosperine chains people in the attic. We both know those aren't fanciful stories. They're facts, and the servants should have been scared as hell about Madam LaPiere."
Empyrion said one was entitled to interpret a two-hundred-year-old legend any way he wished.
"At some point the spiteful scorned lover Caprice told the other servants she watched Madam kill Elberta, Lucas and James. That word got back to Prosperine, who ordered Caprice to her bedroom. She found Charles also there, and he remained silent as Prosperine accused her of spying.
"Caprice was no match for the taller, stronger woman, who pushed her toward the balcony and lifted her into the air. Thinking of her almost full-term child, Caprice cried, 'My baby!' Charles did nothing to help her, and a moment before she fell, she cast a spell on him."
Landry looked at Jack, who nodded. The words had made no sense because they were in her native tongue.
Landry said, "What curse did she put on Charles?"
"Something that appeared to be a blessing, but for them was the worst kind of curse. She gave him infinite fertility. Almost every time he and Prosperine engaged in sexual intercourse, she became pregnant. Remember that Prosperine was twenty-four years older than he. When their affair began, he was thirty-five and she was nearing sixty. Every pregnancy ended with a miscarriage or a stillborn baby. At last she'd had enough. She left her Lothario and moved to the plantation to live out her years while he remained in the quarters on Toulouse Street. Prosperine still loved him. She commissioned that portrait you saw hanging above the mantel."
Landry said, "You know the most intimate details about his story. Can we now agree that you're Charles?"
"You will get your answers in due course, Mr. Drake. That was what I promised, and that is what I shall give you. To continue, when she fell to her death, a servant screamed, 'A baby! She's havin' a baby!' Charles was unconcerned; he ordered two servants to take them to the plantation and bury them. The child lived; he was held in loving arms during the trip and given to the field servants to raise. Prosperine never knew the child existed. Charles either, until a servant told him after her death. By then he was running the plantation. He found that baby — now his twenty-eight-year-old son — and took him into his home. Charles embraced him in a way reminiscent of the prodigal son's return."
Empyrion stopped and tented his fingers on the table.
"And?" Landry said.
"Is there more you want to know?"
"You bet. There's a lot we have to discuss. Like the little horror show in the attic, for instance. You promised to answer every question, so tell me how and when Prosperine created her secret room, and why were there corpses stacked in the cell where you impaled Jack?"
Landry sat back to watch. Empyrion had defended Madam LaPiere's actions, refusing to label her the monster she was, but in order to tell the truth, he must admit her crimes.
Empyrion had remained unemotional until now, but his body language gave away his discomfort. "She was not evil," he began.
"Tell that to the slaves in the attic."
"In those days it was customary for the master to punish unruly slaves. To maintain order, there had to be consequences for disobedience.” “Since you’re African American, I find your explanation mind-boggling. How can you justify corpses stacked in a cell as ‘consequences for disobedience’? How do you live with yourself?”
“I’m trying to explain.”
“No, you aren’t trying to explain. You’re minimizing the acts of a sadist. Here’s what happened. Prosperine created a prison in her attic. Maybe Lucas built it for her — we’ll never know that. There’s only one explanation for that secret room and what it holds. It was where she did the torturing, maiming and killing.”
“Disposing of those bodies had to be a problem, because she couldn’t simply ask the servants to haul them away. Too many questions. To keep her secret safe, she tossed them in a back room like discards. Charles either helped, or he looked
