He did surprise Rosette when she arrived at the café that morning. His frock coat, folded in half, made a pillow of sorts over his crossed arms, and he was sound asleep.
* * * * *
“Have you contacted André yet?” Nathalie was counting the inventory of plates and cups so they could place an order for more when the addition was ready.
Gabriel scraped a new cone of sugar into several little hills of granules. “André?”
“Remember, yesterday you were forging a trail to Paris, leaving the city behind?” She stuck the pencil into a fold of her tignon.
“Yes, I remember that.” He already sounded defensive.
“You had another change of heart overnight?”
He returned the cone to the sugar box and handed Nathalie the key. “And if I did? You seem upset. Is it because I may stay here? Or is it because I may not?”
“Did what I tell you yesterday have anything to do with your sudden reversal?”
He hesitated, and for Nathalie that was as good as a response. She narrowed her eyes and stared. He wondered if she might be trying to read his mind. “What are you thinking?”
“That you’re hiding something.” She wagged a finger at him. “You know I’ll find out. I always do.”
Gabriel wanted to tell her that he hoped she did find out, because that would mean he would be with Lottie.
* * * * *
Gabriel could not recall a time when he had seen his mother this angry.
He walked into the house that evening to find a bawling Serafina on the sofa and his mother walking back and forth, her fingertips pressed against her temples and her face mottled. A barrage of unfamiliar French expressions, which meant they must have been highly volatile, filled every space she entered.
“Eighteen years. You have just destroyed eighteen years. People’s lives are at stake here. What were you thinking?”
Tonight Gabriel made sure to close the door without shaking the walls. “What happened?”
Between his mother’s rants and Serafina’s hiccupping sobs, he pieced the story together. And after he did, he understood his mother’s fury.
Thinking she would help the process along, Serafina had told Paul the truth about Lottie’s mother.
“Why would he choose to marry a free woman of color when he already has me? I thought he would be so angry that he would call off the wedding,” Serafina said.
But he didn’t.
What he did tell her was that his intentions for the property he would get in the dowry had nothing to do with the warehouse his father wanted to build. He had to have that property because he spent too many nights at the racetrack and the gambling halls—and he wanted to build his own. Even a Bastion did not have unlimited privileges when it came to debt. He said the wedding might not even be soon enough, but he had some money in the bank. “I asked him why he needed money if he had some already. He told me his slaves were his money in the bank.”
Now it was Gabriel’s turn to seethe. This lying, manipulative man was to marry Lottie?
Serafina gulped some air. “But he said he loves me. That he’s only going through with this wedding for that land. He promised me he’s going to take care of me and his child.”
“I want you to look at me when I say this so you will remember.” Rosette leaned toward Serafina and placed her hand on the woman’s arm. “If you believe that Paul Bastion has any intention of following through with what he says, then you are truly a couillonne. You and your child deserve more than this selfish—and that’s the kindest word I can use to describe him right now—man.”
“I thought I was going to make it easier for everyone. I am not stupid. I know Paul, and once he settles his debts, he will be back in my house.” Serafina refused to believe otherwise.
“Well, if he is, then keep him there. No one else wants him,” said Rosette as she opened the door for Serafina. “Your carriage is here.”
After seeing her out, Rosette sat, her hands trembling as she reached for her coffee cup. She managed a sip by holding it with both hands.
“Where are Joseph and Alcee?”
“I sent your sister to her room. If I strangled Serafina, I didn’t want a witness.”
Gabriel smiled. His mother did not.
“I don’t care that Alcee heard, but I didn’t want Serafina to have a set of eyes that might show sympathy. As for Joseph, he had a meeting with clients. He said he would stop by tomorrow,” Rosette said.
“I have heard people say ‘I am at a loss,’ and until now, I did not understand how someone could have nothing to say. What she did…” Gabriel sat, his head in his hands.