Midnight Bayou

cutting it.
    The noise level was amazing. Voices, radios, power tools. As much as he enjoyed people, he’d have given a thousand dollars for five minutes alone in his house.
    “Jim Ready? I want those windows sparkling, you hear? How’s it going to look in the wedding pictures if those windows are dull? Put your back into it, boy!”
    The sound of Mrs. Renault’s voice had Declan turning sharply on his heel and changing direction. He all but bowled over Odette.
    “Hey, sorry. You all right? I didn’t see you. I was running away.”
    “You got a houseful.”
    “You’re right about that. If this place isn’t fixed up enough to suit General Renault by D Day, we’re all going to be shot.” He took her arm as he spoke and, thinking only of self-preservation, hustled her into the library. Shut the doors.
    “Can I come live at your house?”
    She smiled—a curve of lips that didn’t reach her eyes. “You’re such a good boy, Declan, doing all this for your friend.”
    “I’m not doing much more right now than staying the hell out of the way.”
    “And you’d rather all these people go back where they came from, and leave you be so you can play with your house.”
    “Yeah, well.” He shrugged, pushed his dusty hand through his dusty hair. “There’ll still be plenty to do once they go. We’re not touching the third floor or the servants’ area, and only doing one other room on the second. Tell me what’s wrong, Miss Odette.”
    “I gotta work up to it.” She set down the shopping bag she carried, then walked over to look at some of his books. There were still boxes of them to be shelved, but she saw what it would be. Towers of words, some old and worn, some fresh and new. Small treasures, deep colors.
    “You got vision,” she said at length. “You picture what you want, then you make it happen. That’s a fine skill, cher. ”
    “Some people call it single-minded.”
    “You’re anything but. You’ve got a lot of channels in that head of yours. Working on one at a time till it’s done shows character to me. I’m awful fond of you, Declan.”
    “I’m awful fond of you, too. I wish you’d sit down, Miss Odette. You look tired.” And troubled. “Why don’t I get us a cold drink?”
    “No, don’t you trouble and risk getting shanghaied by Sarah Jane Renault. Now that’s a single-minded individual, and I don’t fault her for it.”
    “She told me to get a haircut by the end of the week so I don’t look shaggy or freshly shorn for the wedding.” Sulking over it a little, Declan ran a testing hand through his hair. “And that she’ll be putting fancy soaps, towels and so on in all the bathrooms the day before thewedding. I’m not to use them under penalty of death. And I’m to get more green plants inside the house. A house can’t breathe without green plants.”
    “She’s just nervous, honey. Effie’s her baby. Her youngest daughter.” Odette pressed her lips together. “Declan, I’m shamed to say what I have to say to you, and I won’t blame you if, after I’m done, you ask me not to come back in your home again.”
    The words alarmed him, nearly as much as the pain in her eyes. “There’s nothing you can say that would make you unwelcome in my home, Miss Odette. Who hurt you?”
    “Oh, mon Dieu, if this spoils what I see between you and my Lena, I’ll never forgive myself. My daughter stole from you,” she blurted out. “She came in your house and took what was yours.”
    With a heavy heart she reached into her bag, took out his carved box. “This was in her room. I knew it was yours even before I looked in and saw a set of cuff links with your initials. I don’t know if it’s all here, but that’s all there was. If anything’s missing—”
    “Let’s just see. I want you to sit down now. I mean it.”
    She nodded, sank into a chair.
    He chained down his rage as he set the box on a table, opened it. He saw the ring box first, opened it, and felt the worst of the anger fade when the stones glittered up at him.
    “Okay.” He breathed out. “The most important thing’s still here.” As was, as far as he could see, everything else but the couple thousand in twenties he kept secured with the money clip that had been his great-grandfather’s.
    “It’s all here.”
    “You’re not telling me the truth,” Odette said dully.
    “A little cash, that’s all.”
    “I need to know how much so I can pay it back.”
    “Do you think I’d take money from