Blackwood Farm (37 page)

“I drew back, and in the small interval of silence I felt exposed in this crowded restaurant and maybe downright ridiculous. I had thought that Nash would be difficult to win over, but it was turning out to be Goblin. And I was out on a limb in this place, talking to what seemed to be nothing and no one, talking in fear because I knew what that invisible person could do and no one around me could even guess it. Not even Aunt Queen really had a guess at it.

“And then there came one of the rarest moments of my life.

“I was gazing from Nash to Aunt Queen when suddenly I noticed at the next table, behind them, a beautiful red-haired girl who was staring at me fixedly. It was as if Fr. Kevin Mayfair had been metamorphosed into his own divine sister.

“She had his same clear skin with a natural blush to the cheeks and the same rich red hair; and though she had breasts large enough to please any man, she wore ribbons on either side of her hair as if she were still something of a little girl in spirit.

“We locked eyes, the two of us, and then she looked from me to Goblin.
She could see Goblin!

“ ‘Dull-witted Quinn,' he said to me in his icy loveless voice. ‘She has been watching us from the beginning.'

“Of course. He had been staring at her, not at Nash, not at Aunt Queen; he had been staring past them at this person—the first person I had ever known, other than me—who seemed able to completely see him.

“The shock left me speechless. I knew Aunt Queen was asking me questions, and that Nash had just spoken up. But I made sense of nothing. And as I watched, a man who was seated beside this amazing young girl stood up and came towards us. He looked right at me as he approached.

“He was gray-haired, informal yet dignified in a blue blazer and slacks, and very vivacious of expression and of voice as he spoke to me.

“ ‘You'll forgive my intrusion, please,' he said. ‘My name is Stirling Oliver. I'm a member of an organization. It's called the Talamasca. I want to introduce myself to you. We study the paranormal, you see, and I couldn't help but notice your companion.'

“ ‘You mean you can see him too?' I asked. But I saw at once he was telling the truth, and Goblin's eyes moved to his, but Goblin said nothing.

“ ‘Yes, I can see him very well,' said Mr. Oliver as he presented me with a little card. ‘We're an old, old Order,' he went on. ‘We've existed for perhaps a thousand years. We study ghosts and those who can see them. We offer assistance. We offer information. I am so very impressed with your friend. Do forgive me.'

“ ‘Goblin, talk to Mr. Oliver,' I said.

“Goblin neither moved nor spoke.

“Aunt Queen interjected. ‘I really must ask you to stop,' she said with uncommon force. ‘You see, my nephew in spite of his prodigious height is only eighteen, and you really must go through me if you want to establish any sort of relationship at all with him. I don't entirely approve of those who believe in the paranormal.'

“ ‘But Aunt Queen,' I said. ‘How can you say this! All my life I've seen Goblin! Please, I beg you, let me talk to this man.' But it was to the red-haired girl I looked, and then abruptly I rose, excusing myself to nobody, and I went to her table.

“She looked up at me with Fr. Kevin's green eyes. The little ribbons held back beautiful tresses of her long thick wavy hair. She smiled. She beamed. She was exquisite.

“ ‘I want to marry you,' I said. ‘I'm in love with you. You can see Goblin, can't you?'

“ ‘Yes, I can see him, and he's an egregious whopper of a spirit,' she said, ‘but I don't think I can marry you.'

“I sat down, probably taking the chair which Stirling Oliver had vacated, barely casting a glance at him to discover he was in fast discussion with Aunt Queen, and only now did I realize that Fr. Kevin and Dr. Winn were both seated at the table facing us.

“ ‘My name's Mona Mayfair,' the girl said. She had the most crisp lively voice. ‘These are my cousins—.'

“ ‘I know them both. Fr. Kev, please, properly introduce us.'

“ ‘Quinn, you are so strange,' said Fr. Kev with the flash of a warm smile. ' ”Properly introduce.” Next you'll want me to announce the banns on Sunday. Mona, this is Tarquin Blackwood, he's eighteen, and he takes his familiar with him everywhere.'

“ ‘That ghost is no familiar,' Mona said. ‘He's much too strong for that designation.'

“Oh, I loved her voice, the lilt of it, the easy way she laughed.

“ ‘I want to marry you, Mona, I know it,' I said. I stammered. I had never beheld anyone as purely lovable as Mona, and I never would, I was totally aware of that. The world hung by a thread, and I had to seize the world and snap that thread. ‘Mona, come away with me. Let's just talk together.'

“ ‘Slow down, Tarquin, please,' she said. ‘You're really cut and cute, but I can't just go off with you. I've got so many people watching me you wouldn't believe it.'

“ ‘Oh, it's the same way with me, every decision is made by committee. Mona, I adore you.' I looked at my hands. What rings had I put on for the odious meeting with the psychiatrists? I had a diamond-studded band on my right ring finger. I pulled it off. I offered it to her.

“ ‘Quinn,' said Fr. Kevin, ‘cease and desist. You can talk to Mona in normal fashion. You don't have to be offering her a ring. You don't even know her.'

“ ‘And look,' she said, pointing over at the table. ‘Your ghost is standing up and staring at you. He knows I can see him and he doesn't know what he thinks about it. Look how he's looking down at Stirling.'

“ ‘Stirling, the Talamasca, that's what he said, right? I have to learn about it. You know this Talamasca, Fr. Kev?'

“ ‘About as much as a priest of the Church of Rome can ever know it,' he answered easily. ‘Quinn, Stirling's a decent man. I can't endorse the organization, but he's been a good friend to Mona and to me.'

“ ‘You need somebody like him,' said Mona. ‘Not me. I'm too ruined for you.'

“ ‘What on earth are you talking about?' I said. ‘Ruined! You're gorgeous. I want to . . . I'm going mad. I knew I'd go mad today. First it's a panel of psychiatrists, and then it's Goblin acting sullen and weird, and now you're telling me you won't even think about marrying me! Let me just call on you, let me just bring you a bouquet of flowers and sit with you in your parlor with your mother, all right? I swear, I'll be a perfect gentleman.'

“Her smile broadened and I could see the most shadowy humor in her quick green eyes. I could see secrets, I could see cleverness and sweetness.

“ ‘I wish to God, if I wasn't who I am—' she said. ‘Mayfairs like me always marry other Mayfairs. We have no choice. Nobody else understands us.' She sighed.

“ ‘I understand you. You've seen other ghosts, haven't you? You knew Goblin for what he was immediately.'

“ ‘I've seen plenty of ghosts,' she said soberly. ‘Maybe you and I could just play for a while.'

“ ‘No, I don't think this is a good idea,' said Fr. Kev. ‘Quinn, your Aunt Queen is getting pretty heated over there.' He rose to his feet. ‘I think it's time for me to step in and restrain Stirling. I've never seen Stirling play it quite this way. I think Stirling thinks you need him, Quinn. And you come back with me now.'

“ ‘But I don't even know where you live!' I said to Mona.

“I stared at Dr. Winn. His cold blue eyes and impassive face told me nothing.

“ ‘Come on, Quinn,' said Fr. Kev.

“ ‘First and Chestnut Streets,' said Mona. ‘Can you remember that? Riverside downtown corner. That's the Garden District—.'

“ ‘I know it totally,' I said. ‘My grandma grew up on Coliseum Street. I'll come to see you.'

“I let Fr. Kev direct me back to my table. Stirling Oliver was in my chair talking heatedly to Aunt Queen.

“ ‘We only mean to help people,' he said. ‘A person who sees spirits can feel very isolated.'

“ ‘You're right,' I said, ‘you're so right.'

“And there stood Goblin staring down coldly on the proceedings and then looking over to the blossom of loveliness that was Mona.

“Stirling rose. He put a white card in my hand. ‘Take this. Call me if you feel you need to talk to me. And if your aunt, Mrs. McQueen, will allow it.'

“ ‘I despise having to be rude,' said Aunt Queen, ‘but I do not think this is a very good idea, Mr. Oliver, and I do prevail upon you to leave my nephew to his destiny.'

“ ‘His destiny,' said Mr. Oliver. ‘Oh, but that has such a ring to it.'

“ ‘Yes, indeed it does,' I said. ‘Aunt Queen, I'm in love. I'm in love with that girl. Turn your head. You won't believe your eyes.'

“ ‘Good Lord,' she said, ‘it's a female Mayfair.'

“ ‘What kind of remark is that!' I said.

“Fr. Kevin chuckled under his breath. ‘Now Miss Queen,' he said, smiling, ‘you've always tolerated me very well. I know you've had your driver bring you all the way over the lake just to hear me say Mass at St. Mary's Assumption.'

“ ‘You do say Mass with a lovely flair, Fr. Kevin,' she responded, ‘and you are a priest of God, as we well know, and a consecrated priest of the Roman Catholic Church, no dispute on that matter—but we are talking about your cousin Mona, if I'm not mistaken? Yes, Mona, and that is entirely another matter. Darlings, I think it's time for us to go home. Quinn, dear, you've been discharged and your room packed up. Nash, you don't mind too terribly—.”

“ ‘Aunt Queen, what is happening?' I asked.

“ ‘We're leaving, darling. Mr. Oliver? I wish I could say that it has been a pleasure. Your good intentions have been acknowledged.'

“ ‘Please, keep this,' he said as he gave her his card again.

“I still held the one he'd given me. I put it in my pocket.

“I looked back at the radiant girl. And as our eyes connected I heard the message, clear as if Goblin had spoken it to me:
First and Chestnut.

“Goblin vanished. I was being rushed out of the restaurant. Never had I felt such angry bewilderment!

“Only when we reached the car did I demand that we stop.

“ ‘Goblin,' I cried. ‘Don't you see? He's off plaguing her now. Goblin, come back to me.'

“Then came the cold murmured reassurance I required, like a gnat at my ear. ‘You are a fool, Quinn. I don't want to be with her. She doesn't love me. I'm not hers. I am with you. I am yours. Quinn and Goblin one person.'

“ ‘Thank God,' I whispered.

“The big stretch limousine pulled out of the porte cochere, and I started to cry like a little boy.

“ ‘You just don't understand,' I said. ‘She saw Goblin. And I'm in love with her. She’s the most radiant gemstone of a creature that I've ever seen.' ”

22

“THAT NIGHT
I connected with Nash as I have connected with few people in my life, and we forged a bond which lasted for my mortal lifetime and beyond it. He sat up with me for hours, comforting me as I poured out my soul, as I agonized over my fatal glimpse of Mona Mayfair.

“I made him privy to every nuance of the panic I'd been experiencing since Lynelle died, and I even dared to tell him in profound words and circuitous sentences of how I feared the recent shifts of emotional temperature in Goblin.

“Of course I told him about the stranger, the stranger in whom no one believed, apparently, and that I expected in short order to be accused of having actually written myself the stranger's letter to me.

“I positively raved about Lynelle's loss. I could do no less when I thought of it.

“Nash's deep voice, his strong arm around my shoulders, his gentle hand on my knee, it was beyond comforting. And there was something about him that was so proper yet relaxed, so inherently gentlemanly yet natural, that I felt I could trust him with my whole soul—even with the erotic adventures I'd had with my beloved Goblin and my terrifying Rebecca. I even told him about my sleeping with Jasmine.

“What did Nash really believe? Did he think I was insane? I didn't know. I only knew that he was being very honest with me in every word that he spoke and in every gesture. I knew that he respected me, and this respect counted for everything.

“I knew that he felt compassion for me just because I was young, yet he took me seriously, and he said time and again as the night wore on that he understood and remembered what it had been like for him at my age.

“We started our marathon conversation in the front parlor, thankfully deserted early by our few guests, and we ended at the kitchen table, drinking coffee like fuel, though I kept lacing mine with luscious amounts of cream and sugar.

“Only when Big Ramona ran us out did we walk down to the old cemetery, and I told him all about the spirits I'd seen. I told him the things I wanted to tell Mona.

“We were under the big oak when the dawn came with its soft silent and shimmering light, and it was there that I told him I would always love him.

“ ‘You know, whatever happens with us,' I said, ‘as teacher and pupil, as friends, whatever comes to pass—whether we go to Europe eventually, or we study here—I'll never forget you listening to me tonight, I'll never forget your inveterate kindness.'

“ ‘Quinn, you're a battered soul,' he said to me. ‘And probably the better for it. I can't deny how compelling you are to me, and the challenge that you present to me. Yes, I want to be your teacher. I'd be honored to be your teacher, and I do think there are things we could achieve together. But you don't know me yet, and you may come to change your mind about me when certain things become clear to you.'

“ ‘Nothing will ever change this love, Nash,' I responded. ‘Any more than anything will change what I feel for Mona Mayfair.'

“He gave me the most reassuring smile.

“ ‘And now you need to go in and get dressed,' he said. ‘The reading of your grandfather's will, remember?'

“How could I forget?

“I bolted down a huge breakfast in the kitchen and then went up to shower and change, half afraid of what I might find in the bathroom in the way of patchwork repairs, but everything was done to perfection.

“Feeling lightheaded and like a conquistador of grand emotions, I piled into the limousine with Aunt Queen and Patsy, who looked like deliberate and absolute trash in her red leather clothes, and Jasmine, dressed to the teeth in a gorgeous black suit and stiletto heels, and off we went to the lawyer's office in Ruby River City. Big Ramona and Felix were supposed to have come too, but there was no way the house could spare them. Clem, who was driving the limo, had also been alerted to come inside when we got there. And Lolly, who was up front with Clem, was also included.

“In short order, we settled down in one of those generic legal places of which I've seen several in my time, outfitted with blackberry leather chairs and a big glass-covered mahogany desk for the man who reads the document that is bound to make somebody feel rotten.

“Our pleasant-voiced lawyer, Grady Breen (Gravier's old and dear friend, and a relic of some eighty-five years in age), made all the appropriate offers of coffee or soft drinks, which we all in our anxiety declined, and then we were off and running.

“Last time it had been Patsy who was so brutally hurt with a trust-fund inheritance that didn't amount in her mind to a pittance. And everybody was silently betting it was Patsy again who would get scalded and leave the office yowling.

“But what unfolded surprised everyone. The smaller bequests—one hundred thousand dollars each to Clem, Felix, Ramona, Lolly and Jasmine—were no great shock. And that Pops had left them handsome annuities for retirement as well made everyone a little less nervous. In fact, I'm understating the case. This part of the will made Clem and Jasmine and Lolly jubilant. Jasmine started to cry, and Lolly held tight to her arm, tearing up as well, and Clem just shook his head at the marvel of it.

“But then there came the real meat of the feast and no one could have been more amazed than Patsy. It seemed that Great-grandfather Gravier had left a trust fund to Pops which was bound by its original terms to go in its entirety to Pops' only child, Patsy. The principal of the trust was in the high double-digit millions, and the income so handsome that Patsy positively screamed with astonished laughter.

“As to Pops' remaining trust funds, also enormous, one went to Aunt Queen until her death and then to me, and the other was mine immediately. It was a dizzying amount of income.

“In summary, Pops had disinherited Patsy, but it made no difference because he couldn't stop Grandpa Gravier's trust from going to her. And his frugal ways over the years, his paying himself a pittance of a salary and rolling back into the big trust its earnings, had even increased Patsy's fortune. Of course Patsy couldn't touch the principal of the big trust, and when she died I would inherit it.

“Patsy was so delirious that she threw her arms around Aunt Queen, squealing and giggling and stomping the floor with her red leather boots.

“And even I felt happy for her.

“Aunt Queen kissed her cheek and told her warmly that it was indeed wondrous news, and now Patsy could buy some new clothes with her newfound money.

“ ‘Oh, am I going to buy new clothes!' she declared. She ran out of the lawyer's office before anyone could stop her. How she found transportation without Clem I couldn't guess, except that she had her cell phone with her always these days, and Seymour was back at the house with her van. Whatever the case, never sensing the irony of Aunt Queen's gentle words, she vanished.

“I sat there absorbing the fact that I now had a substantial income in my own right, some one hundred thousand dollars a month immediately available to me, though it came with strict and nonbinding advice that I take Aunt Queen's guidance in everything.

“There was some fancy language pertaining to all that, something to do with Aunt Queen's advanced age, and my precocity, and I interpreted from it that I was being entrusted with my income now because of my obedient nature and the fact that my mother could not be relied upon to provide the proper guidance.

“I was given two credit cards on the spot, each with a line of credit of a hundred thousand, a checkbook for a checking account which would carry a rolling balance of twenty thousand dollars a month, a money market account into which would be deposited eighty thousand a month, and I filled out some important papers, signed bank forms and cards, signed the credit cards as well, slipped them into my wallet, pocketed the checkbook, and my part of the transaction was over. I was intoxicated with new-funded manhood.

“What followed had to do with the various other employees who were left handsome amounts, of which they would soon be apprised, as Aunt Queen, appointed executrix for these, had some six months to make them available to the designated persons. It was wonderful to hear of this. The men were going to be mighty pleased.

“Then came the description of the household trust, which had been established by the Old Man himself, Manfred. It had grown enormously over the years, and its sole beneficiary was Blackwood Farm. And try as I might I could not understand all its complications.

“That Blackwood Farm couldn't be divided, that its house could never be pulled down, that any architectural changes must be in keeping with its original designs, that all who were employed in the management and maintenance of Blackwood Manor and Blackwood Farm were to be well paid—all this was rolled out in complex language, spelling security for the estate that I loved, and making it very clear that the income we received from our paying guests meant absolutely nothing.

“There was also considerable language about the responsibilities for the farm trust now falling upon Aunt Queen, and then passing on to me, but this was also too complicated to follow. That Patsy would never own or control Blackwood Farm was the gist of this, and of course Patsy wouldn't give a damn about it.

“As for the present, the pure ownership of Blackwood Farm itself, including all buildings, swamp and land, passed from Pops to me, with a grant of usufruct to Aunt Queen, meaning she could live there throughout her lifetime.

“This left me astonished. But immediately Aunt Queen explained the wisdom of it. Were she to marry, she said, her husband might try to bring a claim of ownership against the land, and this was what Pops wanted to protect against. Of course, she was seventy-eight (or so she said) and she wasn't going to marry anyone, she remarked (Except perhaps the charming Nash Penfield. Laugh.), but Pops had to do it this way to protect me.

“But I couldn't help but note that Patsy didn't even have the right to live at the property, which Aunt Queen did. I kept quiet about it. Patsy would never know. And I certainly wasn't going to put her out on the porch with her bags packed.

“Besides, with her high monthly income—some half a million—she wasn't likely to be around much.

“What funded all of our trusts were enormous investments in such diversified instruments as railroads, international shipping, worldwide banking, precious metals and gems, foreign currencies, U.S. Treasury bills, pharmaceutical companies, mutual funds of every imaginable name and description and random stocks of all kinds, from the most conservative to the most speculative, the entire holding administered by the investment firm of Mayfair and Mayfair, in New Orleans, an arm of the law firm of Mayfair and Mayfair, which managed only a handful of very select private fortunes.

“It was quite impossible to find anyone superior to Mayfair and Mayfair when it came to investing, and it was also impossible to solicit their services today. The deal had been struck with them in 1880 between Manfred Blackwood and Julien Mayfair. And nothing but good luck and high profits had followed down to the present time.

“Since I was in love with Mona Mayfair, all this made a very favorable impression on me. But in the main it was over my head. I had always known I was well-off, and how well-off had never been a matter of concern.

“Now, when all this was complete and done, came the biggest shocker. Pops had confided to his lawyer something of which we didn't even dream. But before we were asked to hear it, Jasmine, Clem and Lolly were invited to excuse themselves.

“Aunt Queen, on what instinct I'm not sure, asked Jasmine to remain. Lolly and Clem seemed unperturbed by this and went out immediately to sit in the parlor. Jasmine moved closer to me as though to protect me from whatever was coming.

“Our lawyer, Grady Breen, laid aside the many documents he had before him and started to speak to us with a note of sympathy in his voice that seemed genuine.

“ ‘Thomas Blackwood' (this was Pops) ‘confided in me a secret before he died,' he said, ‘and he made a verbal request of me as to this secret, that I advise you of it and ask of you that you do right by it. Now, as you may or may not know, there is a young lady in the backwoods hereabouts, name of Terry Sue, who has about five or six children.' He glanced at his watch. ‘Probably six children.'

“ ‘Who on earth hasn't heard of Terry Sue?' asked Aunt Queen with a faint smile. ‘I'm ashamed to say every Shed Man on the property knows Terry Sue. She just had another baby—.' Now Aunt Queen looked at her watch. ‘Didn't she? Yes, I believe she did.'

“ ‘Well, yes, she did,' said Grady, slipping off his wire-rimmed glasses and sitting back. ‘And it's a well-known fact that Terry Sue is one beautiful young woman, and a young woman who likes to have babies. But it's not that new baby that I want to discuss now. It seems that Terry Sue had a child by Pops about nine years ago.'

“ ‘That's impossible!' I said. ‘He would never have been unfaithful to Sweetheart!'

“ ‘It wasn't a thing he was proud of, Quinn,' said Grady. ‘Indeed, he was not proud of it, and he was deeply concerned that the rumors about it would never disturb his family.'

“ ‘I don't believe it,' I said again.

“ ‘DNA has proved it, Quinn,' said Grady. ‘And Terry Sue of course has always known it, and out of affection for Sweetheart, for whom Terry Sue did baking, you know—.'

“ ‘Those big Virginia hams,' I said. ‘She'd soak them and scrub them and bake them.'

“ ‘What tenderness,' said Aunt Queen. ‘Seems she soaked and scrubbed something else. But Grady, you have a point to make with this revelation, don't you, dear fellow?'

“ ‘Indeed, I do, Miss Queen,' said Grady. ‘Pops was in the habit of taking an envelope of cash over there to Terry Sue every week or so, and though whatever man she's with tends to run off the old ones, no one was ever tempted to run off Pops with his envelope. It was about five hundred a week that he gave her. And this keeps the boy in a good Catholic school—St. Joseph's over in Mapleville—and that was the one term exacted for it, as far as I know. The boy's nine years old now, I believe. He's in the fourth grade.'