«When you knew I was coming to visit?» Serena pushed the hurt away with an effort and gave an unladylike snort. «Since when are you a tired old man?»
«Since I figured out I don't have an heir who gives a rat's ass about everything I've broke my back for.»
«Oh, for heaven's sake, Gifford!» she snapped. «What are you talking about?»
«I'm talking about you living eight hundred miles away and your sister ready to sell the old place at the drop of a hat. That's what I'm talking about.»
«What is this nonsense about Shelby wanting to sell Chanson du Terre?» she demanded irritably. «I've never heard anything more ludicrous in my life. Ever since we were little girls she's talked about growing up and getting married and living on the plantation. She wouldn't dream of selling it!»
«Well, that just shows how out of touch you are with your own family, young lady,» Gifford announced piously.
«Oh, for the love of Mike!» Serena cut herself off abruptly, not trusting herself to say anything more until she reined her temper in a notch. She clamped her mouth shut and paced back and forth along the base of the stairs, her arms banded tightly across her as if to keep herself from exploding.
«Honestly, I don't know what to think,» she muttered more to herself than to Gifford. «People telling me Shelby's lost her senses and wants to sell Chanson du Terre. Shelby tells me she thinks you've gone senile-«
«Senile!» Gifford launched himself off his step like a rocket, shooting up to his full height. His craggy face turned an unhealthy shade of maroon. «By God, that tears it! Is that what you've come out here for, Serena? Is this a professional visit? You out here to see if the old mans lost his marbles? Then y'all can get that candy-ass lawyer husband of Shelby's to have me declared incompetent, sell the old place, and live off the sweat of my carcass- By damn- By God-I won't have it!»
He clutched the railing with one hand and the shotgun with the other and hissed a breath in through his teeth, struggling suddenly for air.
Serena rushed up the steps, her own heart thundering in alarm. «For God's sake. Gifford. sit down!»
He complied without argument, his knees buckling, backside hitting the old step with a thump. The tension went out of his muscles. His wide shoulders sagged and he drew in a ragged deep breath. He fished around in his shirt pocket for a pill, pulling out the shotgun slug and tossing it carelessly aside.
Serena kneeled at his feet, shaking all over. She pressed her hands against her lips and struggled not to cry, realizing for the very first time just how old he was, just how mortal. She watched him stick a little pill under his tongue and held her breath as his color faded slowly from red to pale gray. He seemed to age twenty years before her eyes, his incredible inner fire dimming like a flame that had been abruptly turned down.
«You all right, Giff?» Lucky said, his dark voice shot through with tension. Serena realized with a start he was on the step right behind her. He leaned down to get a look at Gifford's face, laying a hand on her shoulder in a manner that might have been intended as comforting.
Gifford muttered one of his more virulent oaths.
Pepper stuck his head in under the stair railing and flashed a smile of relief. «He kin cuss like dat, he all right. He stops cussin', him, den you ax him if he be dead.»
«Smartass,» Gifford growled.
Pepper gave a hoarse laugh and withdrew to snatch the squirming bag of crawfish away from the inquisitive coon hounds that were sniffing and pawing at it.
Serena felt herself sag with relief. She couldn't stop herself from reaching a hand up to touch her grandfather's knee, just to reassure herself. «You ought to go in and lie down, Giff. We can talk later.»
«I don't need to lie down,» the old man snapped. «Just a little dizzy spell, that's all. Christ, I don't know who wouldn't be dizzy with all this going on around them. It makes me so damn mad, I can't see straight half the time. I make one remark about selling, and your sister, who couldn't sell ice water in hell, runs right out and finds a buyer. Judas H. Priest. And where are you? Off shrinking heads in Carolina, as if there aren't enough lunatics in Lou'siana to go around.»
«We can talk about it when we get home,» Serena said softly.
There were a hundred questions to be asked. Why hadn't Shelby called her when Gifford had left? Why had she denied knowing the reason Gifford had left? Why would Gifford ever have mentioned selling the plantation and why would Shelby agree to it, much less find a buyer?
Feeling a little like Alice waking up in Wonderland, Serena pushed herself to her feet and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes. The questions would have to wait. She wouldn't quiz Gifford now and run the risk of giving him another attack. It could all be sorted out once they were back home. And the sooner the better.
She turned around to look back at the dock. Gifford's bass boat was tied up on the side opposite Lucky's pirogue. «Pepper, would you please get the boat ready?'
Pepper shook his head, smiling at her much the way Lawrence Gauthier had earlier. «Oh, no, chere. Me, I kinda like bein' alive. You ax Giff 'bout it, he don' wanna go nowhere.»
Serena turned back to her grandfather. He refused to look at her. «Gifford, please. You can't stay out here.»
«I sure as hell can.»
She turned to Lucky.
He shrugged and physically backed away from the conversation. «It's a free country.»
«I don't believe this,» Serena said angrily, raking her hair back from her face with trembling hands. «Dammit, Gifford, you nearly had a heart attack right before my eyes. You can't stay out here!»
«I can do whatever I damn well please, young lady,» he said, forcing himself to his feet. He swayed a bit, but gripped the rail with a white-knuckled fist and locked his knees. «I won't have you or your sister or anybody else trying to run my life.»
Serena cast one last glance at Pepper and Lucky, looking for help but finding none. Pepper shuffled his feet and dodged her gaze, staring down at the bag of crawfish. Lucky merely stared back at her, saying nothing, offering nothing. She shook her head. «I think you've all gone mad.»
«Well then, why don't you just go on back to Charleston, where you won't have to worry about all your crazy relatives,» Gifford said coldly. «Outta sight, outta mind. You don't care what all goes on down here.»
Serena held up a hand to cut him off, pressing her lips together and blinking hard to ward off more tears of frustration. «I won't discuss this with you now, Gifford. I won't.»
«Fine. Then go on and get out of here. Leave me in peace.»
«I'm not going anywhere,» she announced. «I'm staying right here until I convince you to come home.»
«The hell you are. I won't have you,» Gifford barked. «Lucky, you take her on back to Chanson du Terre.»
Lucky backed away another step, brows drawing together ominously low over his eyes. «Forget it. I ain't running no goddamn ferry service. I'm not takin' her all the way back to Chanson du Terre. It's gettin' dark. I've got things to do.»
«Then she can stay with you at your place, 'cause she sure as hell ain't staying here,» Gifford declared. «I came out here to get away from ungrateful women.»
«Stay with him!» Serena said with horror.
«Stay with me!» The idea nearly made Lucky choke.
They regarded each other with a land of terror that didn't go unnoticed by Gifford. The old man raised an eyebrow.
«She's not stayin' with me,» Lucky said emphatically. «It's out of the question. Absolutely out of the question.»
His house was his sanctuary. It was the space he had created for himself to heal in, to have some measure of peace. It was his private refuge, the last stronghold of his sanity. The last person he wanted breaching those walls was this woman, a woman he wanted beyond all reason, a woman whose face haunted his mind with memories of the pain and betrayal of another.