Выбрать главу

Esther McMullen. That wasn’t the same as Essie Mae, but Essie could be a nickname for Esther.

After a few entries Cecilia mentioned her cousin again.

Cousin Esther is here and is so far proving satisfactory. She is as quiet and modest as I remembered and so pathetically grateful as to be embarrassing. I have managed to extract certain details from her about her reduced circumstances. Her mother married against her family’s wishes, and her choice was a charming but faithless Irish rogue named Mick McMullen. He abandoned Esther and her mother when Esther was only five years old! How terrible it must be not to have a father one can rely upon. Esther’s maternal grandparents turned their back on her and her mother as well. That was not the Christian thing to do!

The tale of Esther and her mother was a sad one, but not uncommon. I read further.

My cousin has settled in well, and I am quite pleased with her. She is a comfortable and unobtrusive companion. I have discovered that she prefers to be called Essie Mae, however. It was her father’s pet name for her. I should think she would find it abhorrent, given that the man abandoned her, but she clings to her memories of him. So she will be Essie Mae henceforth, though I wince at the common sound of the name every time I hear it.

So Vera Cassity was a distant cousin of Miss An’gel and Miss Dickce. I put the journal down and considered that.

I wondered if Vera suspected anything like this. If she had, that might have been why she was so determined to snoop in the Ducote papers.

But what would she have done with the proof that she was related to the Ducotes of River Hill?

She would have crowed about it to everyone she met, I decided. Her blood had a tinge of blue after all.

I didn’t think Miss An’gel and Miss Dickce would be all that thrilled to have to acknowledge the connection.

Suddenly my mind was abuzz with the possibilities.

Did they already know?

And could they have killed Vera to prevent anyone else from ever knowing?

TWENTY-EIGHT

The more I thought about it, the more I considered the blood relationship between Vera Cassity and the Ducote sisters a weak motive for murder. Miss An’gel and Miss Dickce would have to be the other side of crazy to want to kill Vera to stop her from claiming kinship to them.

Besides, I had no proof that the sisters were even aware of the relationship. They had the means and the opportunity, though. Even at their ages—early eighties, I suspected—they appeared vigorous and healthy enough to give Vera a hard shove down the stairs.

I also realized that I simply didn’t want to think the sisters would do any such thing. I liked and admired them tremendously, and I would be both horrified and disappointed if either of them turned out to be the murderer.

How could I prove that they did or didn’t know Vera was a distant cousin?

Then I realized how odd it was that Vera didn’t already know herself. She must have suspected something; otherwise, she wouldn’t have sent me the photograph of her mother. She at least had no proof, or the whole state of Mississippi would have known.

Essie Mae McMullen, later Hobson, evidently kept the knowledge of the relationship from her daughter. Why? Was she forced to do so by the Ducotes? Or did she not want to claim kinship for her own reasons?

I stared at the journal. The answers to those questions might lie within its pages. With a certain amount of reluctance I picked it up and found the last entry I’d read.

Essie Mae figured often in Cecilia’s journal. The young Mrs. Ducote relied more and more heavily on her cousin-companion, and within months Cecilia pronounced her indispensable. One typical entry summed up the situation.

Essie Mae is the dearest girl on earth. And so grateful to Dick and me for giving her a home, one where she feels appreciated and useful. She is more like a sister to me now, the sister I never had. She is only fifteen months older, but sometimes seems so much younger. For her birthday three days ago, Dick and I gave her a silk dressing gown, and she actually cried. She told us both over and over there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for us. So very sweet! She has spoken only rarely of her life before she came to us, but I suspect it was far more dreadful than I first realized.

Essie Mae had really wormed herself into Cecilia’s heart.

That thought brought me up short. Why did I think of it in those terms? I realized I was projecting backward, based on my distaste for Vera. That was not fair to Essie Mae, and I resolved not to fall into that trap again.

I returned to reading. There were occasional references to the baby, but judging from the tone of the entries, Cecilia seemed determined to be more cheerful, particularly with her husband, who still felt the loss of the child keenly.

Dick so desperately wants a child. I know he would love a son to carry on the Ducote name. He is an only child, and now that his father is gone, he is the only male Ducote left. I want so much to give him a son and am quite willing to try, but he is terrified that another pregnancy will be dangerous. I suspect the doctor told him things that neither of them shared with me about my health. I have taxed him with that, but he always evades the questions. Once I suggested that we adopt a child, but he was adamant. I don’t think I have ever seen him so furious. Only a child of his blood would be good enough to inherit River Hill. The Ducote bloodline must carry on.

I frowned. Had Cecilia been able to overcome Dick’s objections to adoption? Or was the doctor wrong after all? I began to have suspicions that the answer to both questions was no.

I skimmed through ten pages of routine journal entries, mostly accounts of social engagements. I found an amusing reference to Hester Beauchamp, who I figured must be the grandmother of Hank and Sissy. According to Cecilia, Hester was a homely frump and a vicious gossip. Neither Hank nor Sissy inherited his or her looks from Granny Hester, that much was obvious.

I turned a page, and my eyes widened in shock, even though I had begun to suspect what I read.

There is to be a child with Ducote blood after all. Essie Mae is with child, and Dick confessed shamefacedly that the child is his. I am sick over this double betrayal. Not one, but two vipers I have nursed in my bosom!!!

Poor Cecilia. Perhaps my assessment of Essie Mae’s character hadn’t been off after all.

The next entry was dated four days later.

I am trying to reconcile myself to the fact that my husband and his concubine are having a child. I tried to insist that Essie Mae be sent away forever because I can’t stand to have her near me, but Dick refused. He has grown callous in a way I never suspected he could be. He is determined to have a child. What am I to do?

I felt heartsick for Cecilia. I could only imagine the depth of her outrage and her hurt. I also realized that Essie Mae’s child had to be Miss An’gel, and that was hard to grasp. Vera and Miss An’gel were half sisters.

What about Miss Dickce? I read on.

Essie Mae and I are going to North Carolina for the next six months. Dick is telling everyone that I am “in an interesting condition,” and that I need time in the clear mountain air to be sure to deliver a healthy child. No one besides the three of us knows the truth, and we will leave before Essie Mae grows large enough with child to reveal the shameful secret. When we return, the child will be considered my own. Essie Mae has agreed to this. She is terrified, of course, that she will be sent away once the baby is born, but I will reserve judgment on that.