The room grew hushed as they began. A woman called Fanny Coutelier operated the board with an insipid blonde who gasped every time the pointer reached a letter.
“Geh zurück,” the insipid blonde gasped. “What nonsense is it speaking?”
“It means go back,” Mr. Thorne replied. “It’s in German. Perhaps there is someone here for whom that language makes sense.”
The message was for Severine. That was clear enough. She’d spent the past several years speaking as much German as she had English in the convent.
She wasn’t, however, shocked that spirits were warning her. No, it was someone else, probably in this room, sending a message, most likely with a bribe to the two women touching the planchette.
Given Mr. Thorne knew she’d been living in an Austrian nunnery, the comment was for those who might not have known. Though it had been no secret where she’d been sent. They all knew and as one, they turned to her.
Go back? She smiled slowly and took the merest sip of the doctored wine. Her reply was for whoever paid. “It seems the spirits are doomed to be disappointed.”
Chapter Six
“Who do you think was behind that, ‘Go back?’” Lisette wiggled her fingers and then moaned like a ghost. She was wearing dark glasses and a hat low over her head as she hadn’t been warned about the wine as Severine had. The effect of whatever she’d partaken had left Lisette dehydrated, irritable, and wincing at loud noises and bright lights.
They had made their way to New Orleans City Park and were wandering under the Spanish moss-covered trees.
“Was this what the forests in Austria were like?” Lisette asked.
“These old trees with grass under and trails of Spanish moss? In Austria the trees were massive with a thick undergrowth that made it almost impossible to walk through the wood off the trails. The colors were different and the forests were thick with different types of trees. It was just me and the animals, no people anywhere.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I could walk for a whole day and not see another soul. Occasionally I’d come across a woodsman or a hunter, but almost always it was just me.”
“And did you walk that far? Was that what you did for fun?”
“Often,” Severine said. “I’d take a book, perhaps an apple and some cheese, some bread, and I’d leave for the day with Anubis. I’d take a basket for the purpose of gathering truffles or berries or greens, but I rarely bothered.”
“Did you like that?” It wasn’t the first time Lisette tried to discover what Severine actually enjoyed.
Severine thought about it. “I did at the convent. I don’t know I would wish for such a day here.”
“If you weren’t worried about your parents,” Lisette asked easily, as if it were possible for Severine to ignore that weight pressing on her, “and you could do anything, what would it be?”
Severine closed her eyes, thinking that after dressing as her opposite, Lisette deserved the most honest answer Severine could give. Not that she intended to lie, it was just—she didn’t know. Slowly Severine said, “If I were to spend a day just doing anything, I think I would like to have coffee and beignets.”
“And? What else?” There was a snappish edge to Lisette’s voice. That must be from the pain, Severine thought, and ignored the tone.
“And oysters. I would get those with Father sometimes.”
“You never talk about what you did with your mother,” Lisette accused.
Severine considered. “We never did anything.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I would come back from school and I would have a tea with Mother and Grandmère and then I would be excused. Mother would appear again when I needed more clothes.”
Lisette’s jaw dropped. “That was it?”
Severine wished she had another answer, but yes. That was it. “I wasn’t what she wanted.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was quiet, always. I’m not pretty like she was. She was always laughing and playing. I’ve always had a serious side. It didn’t suit women, Mother said, and I should have tried harder. Only I didn’t know how to try harder or be different. I couldn’t decide to be giggly or blonde.”
Lisette had stopped walking and pressed both hands to her temples. “So you were quiet?”
Severine nodded.
“And she didn’t like you.”
“I don’t think she thought much about me.” Severine found her hand was pressed to her chest and she glanced down at it. It seemed that those feelings still hurt. She swallowed thickly and then focused on the sound of birds until the pain faded.
Lisette had moved from holding her head to looking at Severine over the top of her lowered glasses. Her hand was lifted to shade her eyes, but Severine noted the fist that matched an anger she also felt under all that hurt.
“Beignets,” Lisette said gently. “Coffee. Oysters. What else? We’re doing something else!”
Severine followed Lisette to Cafe du Monde. They ordered all the different kinds of coffee and a near mountain of beignets. Severine got powdered sugar on her black dress and she knew it was on the edges of her mouth when Grayson Thorne walked in.
She cleared her throat and then followed it with coffee to wash away the doughnut and powdered sugar.
Grayson came over, then looked down at their loaded table and at the two of them, Lisette giggling from their sugared energy. “This looks fun.”
Severine licked her lips nervously and then wiped them. She introduced Lisette to Mr. Thorne and asked, “You’re coming to the big house?”
“Your grandmother’s house? Yes, she invited me. She said there’s been…activity.”
Severine lifted a brow and glanced at Lisette, who was irritable enough to say, “Severine’s house.”
Mr. Thorne glanced at Severine, who shrugged at the unspoken question. “It was my father’s house.”
It didn’t answer the question, but Severine waved him to join them.
“I don’t want to intrude,” he said.
“Don’t worry about it,” Lisette said. “You can tell me what was in my wine.”
“I have no idea,” Mr. Thorne said, ordering a chicory coffee and accepting
