Ask a Shadow to Dance (10 page)

Lisette nudged Aunt Portia’s elbow. “Thank you, Lieutenant, for your time. I pray we shall not require your services again.”

The lieutenant nodded, then turned to Andrew. “My suggestion to you, sir, is that you finish your business here in Memphis, just as Mrs. Westmoreland said, then return to New Orleans at the first opportunity. Her safety will be of the utmost importance to me, personally, and to the department, from this day onward.”

Lisette’s spirits lifted. Could it be the officer believed them? “Thank you, Lieutenant. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your understanding in this manner.”

“Good day, ma’am. Miss Morgan.”

Andrew started to follow them out.

The lieutenant cleared his throat noisily. “Mr. Westmoreland, I wonder if I might trouble you to fill out a report of what you saw last night?” He pulled a sheet of paper from beneath the counter.

“I told you everything. I have business—”

“It won’t take long, sir. Fifteen minutes or so.”

Lisette smiled and nodded thanks to the Lieutenant. He was giving them time to get home safely. God bless him.

They left quickly. Seth had been watching for them and brought the carriage straight away. Once inside, Lisette took a deep breath. “We’re going to have to be careful, Aunt Portia. Andrew will seek revenge for what we just told that officer.”

“I know, child. We’ll have to be cautious and prepared every minute until that man is gone from this city for good. Let’s get home now and see to your father. Seth’s mother, Sedonia, can handle him for a short while, but then he decides I’m lost and goes to search for me. When that happens, Sedonia can’t handle him at all.”

Lisette patted Aunt Portia’s hand lovingly. “You’ve given up your whole life to care for us. I want you to know—”

“Hush, child. I haven’t given up anything. You and your father are as dear to me as any husband and child of my own would have been. Land sakes,
child, you
are
my own!”

They held each other for a moment. Together, they would meet Andrew’s threats and defeat him if they could. But she knew they would need help.

“Aunt Portia, can we leave Papa alone just a while longer?”

“Why, child?”

“The last time I saw Doctor Stewart, I promised to meet him today at the Peabody Hotel at noon.”

“Who is Doctor Stewart? Where did you meet him?”

“On the
Cajun Star
. He was kind and thoughtful, and I think he might help us if we ask him.”

Portia tipped up the watch she had pinned to the left shoulder of her dress, opened the cover and read the time with a frown. “It’s ten past noon now.”

“Then we must hurry.” She leaned forward. “Seth, take us to the Peabody Hotel. Quickly!”

“Yessum.”

Seth turned the carriage around at the first opportunity and headed for the hotel. Once there, they got out and went inside while Seth went to find a place to wait with the carriage.

The lobby bustled, as usual, with guests and with the riff-raff that frequented the lobby, gambling, drinking and creating an awful din.

Lisette made her way to the fountain, where Doctor Stewart had suggested they meet. Aunt Portia sat down at a nearby table, glancing around the room with a troubled expression on her face. Lisette joined her.

“What’s wrong, Aunt Portia?”

“I don’t know. Something about this place doesn’t feel right. I can’t explain it more than that.”

“Surely you’ve been here before.”

“Child, I’ve been in this lobby more times than I could count. Jacob used to meet business associates here. I suggested bringing them to the house, but he said the Peabody was a neutral place where they could talk without being distracted by what he called domestic interference. Most of the time he would come alone, but occasionally he’d want me along. Why, I don’t know. I’ve spent many an hour sitting in this lobby, waiting for your father to conclude a business deal.”

“And today?”

“Something isn’t right.” She hugged herself, as though suddenly cold, casting around for the cause of the odd feeling. “Tell me about this doctor you’ve come to meet. Is he handsome?”

“Yes. He’s traveled all the way to California, just as I’ve always wanted to do. In fact …” She hesitated, wondering if Aunt Portia would find her frivolous if she admitted what had transpired between herself and the doctor.

“What, child? You know you can tell me anything.”

Lisette knew it was the truth. It always had been. “He said he would take me anywhere in the world I wanted to go.”

Aunt Portia’s expression surprised her. Instead of disapproving of the forward remark, she appeared fascinated and touched. “He said that to you? How long had you known him?”

“Hardly an hour.
I know it sounds improper for a man to say such a thing to a woman he hardly knows.”

“Yet there seemed to be something between you, am I right?
Something special?”

She could hardly believe how Aunt Portia expressed the situation so completely in only a few words.
“Yes, exactly. But, a woman in mourning has no business—”

Portia gripped Lisette’s hand. “You’ve suffered enough during the past eight years, having to put up with Andrew. You miss James. No one doubts that.”

Lisette didn’t correct her. There was no need for her to know James’s death had been an enormous relief, and she would never miss him.

“No one doubts you mourned his passing. But did you ever love him?”

Lisette thought about it a moment. Should she admit the truth? She couldn’t lie to Aunt Portia any longer. “No. Never.”

“Just as I suspected.
Although you never said an ill word against him, any man who could raise a son like Andrew would not have been as kind as you indicated in your letters.”

She started to say something, but Portia held up one hand and wouldn’t let her reply.

“I read more in those sad letters than you thought I would. It’s best buried with James. In truth, you’ve been mourning for eight years—mourning the life you lost when Jacob forfeited your future and your well-being in a game of poker in this very room.” Her eyes misted with tears. “Jacob never forgave himself for what he’d done. And I have to admit, I never forgave him either, until you walked through that front door last night.”

Lisette’s throat tightened. It must have been the hardest thing Aunt Portia had ever done to write cheery letters and never let on she’d guessed what Lisette had not been able to admit.

“It’s time for you to stop mourning, time for you to find some happiness. Do you think you might find it with this Doctor Stewart?”

Lisette thought about it for a moment. “I have no idea what his intentions are. To assume, after speaking to him only three times, that he is serious about pursuing a future with me would be presumptuous. He did ask to call on me, though.”

“Well, there you are.” Aunt Portia smiled and patted her hand tenderly. “If you should find a man with whom you can share the rest of your life—a man who will treat you with respect and kindness—don’t let anything stop you. No one will fault you for it. If anyone has the nerve to say a word against you, they’ll have to answer to me.”

“Thank you, Aunt Portia,” she whispered. “I don’t deserve you. I only hope my being here in Memphis won’t cause us all grief and pain.”

Lisette left the table and went back toward the fountain. Aunt Portia was right. Something about this hotel felt different, odd. She turned slowly, surveying the room. No one else seemed to notice how the temperature had dropped in the last few minutes.

Something incredible was about to happen …

Chapter Five

“Wait a minute.” David held up one hand to stop Joe and Candy. This was happening too fast and getting out of control. “Jacob Morgan and his daughter Lisette lived in Memphis in the 1880s? It can’t possibly be the same people I’m looking for.”

Joe shrugged. “Candy hasn’t found any other references to Morgan Enterprises or a Morgan family with those names. And don’t forget Westmoreland.”

Candy leaned back. “We’re way beyond coincidence here, guys. Too many people with the right names and a business too. I have to admit it sounds like Loony Tunes, but I don’t have another explanation.”

Joe touched his arm. “Whadya think?”

David’s mind was a war. He shook his head, hoping they’d give him some time to absorb, to sort it all out. He paced across the room and back a couple of times, then sat down again. “My impression of Lisette from the beginning has been that she seemed different. She doesn’t have a telephone and seemed surprised that I did. Called it a new invention. When I asked if I could call her, she said I could call
on
her. That sounded old-fashioned, but—”

Candy’s eyes widened.
“Really old-fashioned, maybe?”

“There’s more. When I asked her if she worked somewhere in Memphis, she got angry, as though I’d insulted her.”

Candy nodded. “In the 1880s, it would have been humiliating for a woman to work if she came from an affluent family. Where did you say she lived?”

“Adams Avenue, past the Neely House.”

“Millionaire’s Row. The name given to those huge Victorian houses in the nineteenth century. The Neely House has twenty-five rooms and just under sixteen thousand square feet of living space on four floors. That’s a mansion in anyone’s book. There were several millionaires living on that street. If Morgan lived there, he was affluent all right. Being a millionaire a hundred years ago doesn’t really have a valid comparison now, unless you consider the national debt. David, I know this sounds crazy, but—”

Joe stopped her. “Not yet. Let’s not jump to conclusions. We sound like Steven Spielberg plotting a new movie. People don’t just go from one century to another. Traveling through time is a theory, and that’s all.”

Candy grinned. “Einstein’s theory said that all times exist at the same time. It’s like a winding river—the Mississippi is a good example—and all we can see is where we happen to be. The past is just around the bend behind us and the future around the next bend. Getting from one time to the other is the only obstacle. Let’s say, just for the fun of it—we can send it to Spielberg later—Lisette somehow stepped from 1885 into our time at the dance the other night.”

“She came into the ballroom, looking confused, as though—”

Joe finished it for him. “—as though she didn’t recognize anyone and didn’t know where she was.”

“Exactly.
She went back out to the landing. I followed her up to the next deck, asked if I could call her—”

“—then she disappeared when you went back down to the ballroom. That could mean she popped back to her own time again.
If she really did come from the 1880s.” Joe shook his head. “Are we seriously considering this?”

Candy didn’t appear convinced either.
“Again, no jumping to conclusions.”

Joe picked it up.
“Right. Let’s examine the facts before we go leaping into la la land. This requires deductive reasoning and cool heads.”

Joe’s wanting
to stay calm and logical was amusing. Growing up, Joe was always the first to latch onto a hare-brained scheme. Now the roles were reversed. David let Joe continue without interruption. For once in their lives, they were in complete agreement. They had to have absolute proof of something this wild or, better yet, a logical explanation within the realms of believability.

Joe did some pacing of his own. “When Lisette called to you on the deck—?”

“In my dream. Which she seemed to know right down to the last detail, as though she’d dreamed the same thing.”

“Right.
She knew what you were talking about when you mentioned the telephone didn’t she?”

Candy this time: “The telephone had been invented by then, but they weren’t installed in people’s homes until the late eighties, early nineties. Having easy access to one would puzzle her.”

“She said it would be years before her family would have a telephone at home.”

“There weren’t any cars back then, were there? So why did she ask David to drive her home?”

“Come on, Joe,” Candy said. “Carriages have to be driven too. Even so, there’s still no hard evidence that this woman traveled through time. She may just lead a simple life, home-schooled maybe, old-fashioned and from a family where women don’t work outside the home—and don’t have telephones because they’re outside the service area. There are places like that in the United States today. Places in Tennessee!”

“She’s right, Joe. We’ve jumped to a wild conclusion instead of looking for a logical explanation.”

Candy nodded. “The only thing making sense is that we’ve found ancestors of people who are alive today and who have a thing about family names.”

“Except for Morgan Enterprises and this guy, Westmoreland.”

Joe sat down again and reached for Candy’s notes. “That has to be the biggest coincidence in this story. It’s fantastic, but life can be fantastic.”

“If you tried to write down real life events and sell them to an editor or a movie producer, he’d scream, ‘Coincidence! Contrived!’ and laugh at you.” Candy chewed on the end of her pen for a moment. “No, I don’t think we have a coincidence here.” She gathered her notes and turned off the computer. “Let me do some poking around. I could’ve missed something. I don’t have the whole history of Memphis. Just the most important families and their businesses during the time frame I studied. There has to be a logical
explanation for all this.”