Sebastian shook his head and opened one of the rear doors. He gave her a grin as she sank into the soft leather seat in front of him. Jealous or not, he was clearly going to enjoy the ride.
“Thank you,” Juliana said to Barrett. “I believe this is the finest automobile I’ve ever seen. Will we really travel all the way to Charleston in this?”
“It won’t be a long ride.” Barrett grinned as he dropped into the passenger seat and cranked the motor. The entire car thrummed and vibrated.
“You don’t have a servant to drive you?” Sebastian asked. He’d clearly expected Barrett to ride in the back with him.
“I suppose I could pay a servant to drive my car for me,” Barrett said. He slid a pair of very dark sunglasses over his eyes. “I suppose I could pay someone to eat, drink, smoke, and dance for me, too, but where’s the fun in that?”
Sebastian didn’t look happy, but he moved to the center of the back seat, sprawling out his arms and legs as if pleased to have so much room to himself. He forced a smile and did a horrific attempt at an English accent: “Then drive us, good sir!”
Barrett looked back to give him an annoyed look while punching the accelerator. The car shot out of the shed at high speed, across the brick path and toward the peach orchard. Barrett didn’t even look where he was going.
“Watch out!” Sebastian shouted, ducking. Barrett laughed and wrenched the car around, kicking up grass and dirt as he fishtailed back onto the paved path, more or less, and then gave the car even more gas, charging past the house and into the circular turnaround in front of it. Juliana screamed as he slid sideways in front of the house, his back tires squealing and smoking, and then he whipped onto the driveway and roared past old magnolias and oaks on the way to the front gate.
Juliana looked back over her shoulder, her heart crashing in her chest. A cloud of dust and burnt-rubber smoke hung like a veil in front of the house. In a third-story window, Juliana caught a glimpse of a woman with a very pale, thin face and unkempt hair the color of pine straw. The face vanished quickly. Juliana wondered whether Barrett had even told his wife and son that he was leaving for the day.
The car roared through the open gate and flung up another long cloud of dust as it spun onto the road. They moved east, toward the sun and the countryside, leaving the town behind. The state highway was paved for the initial stretch, so Barrett pressed the accelerator to the floor. The Cadillac moved unnaturally fast, turning cotton fields and cow pastures into a green and white blur on either side of the road. The speed pushed Juliana back against her seat and sent her long, dark hair streaming across her face.
She looked at the round speedometer dial and saw the needle touching 100 miles per hour. She didn’t know anything could move that fast, except maybe airplanes.
Barrett swerved around the very occasional wagon or farm truck without slowing. At each turn, Juliana had to grab the door and the edge of her seat to avoid being slung back and forth, or possibly out of the car altogether. It was frightening, and far more exhilarating than any ride at the carnival. Juliana felt a little bit in love with the car.
Then the highway turned from pavement to dirt, and Barrett had to slow down because of the dips and washout gullies that bounced the car.
“That was fantastic,” Juliana breathed, her skin flush from the long, unexpected blast of speed.
“Must be one of those eight-cylinder cars like the detective had,” Sebastian said, trying to sound bored.
“Sixteen cylinders,” Barrett told him, beaming. “They don’t make many like this, because most people are too dull to want a car like this.”
“It doesn’t seem possible for a person to drive so fast,” Juliana said.
“You could do it,” Barrett told her.
“I don’t believe so! I’ve never operated any automobile before.”
“Is that true?” Barrett slowed to a stop, pulling over to the right side of the road next to a barbed-wired goat pasture. The creatures stared at them as he climbed out of his seat and motioned for Juliana to slide over behind the wheel.
“No, you don’t want to do that,” Juliana said. “I’ll wreck us.”
“I’ll drive the car,” Sebastian offered, but Barrett ignored him.
“You will not wreck us, Juliana. Take the wheel,” Barrett insisted. He crossed in front of the car, around to the passenger side.
“Are you joking?” Juliana looked at the dials and levers.
“All the things in the universe are in a state of decay,” Barrett told her. “It’s a law of thermodynamics.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.