Page 46 of Crazy Rich Cajuns

“Yes!”Adeline gushed.

Jaxon nodded enthusiastically.

Kennedy set her fork down and leaned in.

They were through the salad course and halfway through the entrée.No one seemed overly excited about the chicken cordon bleu and roasted asparagus.Fortunately, Bennett was a gentleman—and a good listener—and he’d nabbed her an entire tray of hors d’oeuvres when they’d returned to the party.The stuffed mushrooms had been divine as had the mini quiches and the crab puffs.There had been no pigs in a blanket but she’d dipped two strawberries in chocolate.And had very much enjoyed licking the chocolate off while Bennett watched.

The kids also put their forks down and leaned in.Adeline tucked her knees under her butt so she was taller on her chair.Kennedy grinned at Teddy, who gave her a wink.

So far the dinner conversation had been easy and friendly.Teddy and Bonnie Benoit were down-to-earth people.Their kids—two sons and their wives—were a little louder, laughed more, talked more, and had more of the borderline-inappropriate sense of humor that she was used to with the Landrys.But everyone was laughing and eating and drinking and seemed relatively comfortable even in the suit jackets and dresses they wore.Still, Kennedy sensed that they would be completely at ease down on the bayou gathered around her grandma’s crawfish boil pot, too, and she’d already invited them to town for swamp tours and a party.

“Okay, so the biggest pirate, the one you have to know about if you’re gonna call yourself Cajuns, was Jean Lafitte.He was a French pirate and worked the Gulf.He also loved to party.There’s stuff all over New Orleans named after him.”She grinned at the kids.“Legend has it that he and his brother buried bits of their treasure all over the Gulf Coast to keep anyone from finding it all, and people claim that there’s a lot of it still lost.People keep looking anyway.But he was pretty wily.I totally believe there’s still treasure out there, but I don’t know if anyone will ever find it.”

As the servers cleaned up their plates and started serving dessert, Kennedy went on to tell them more stories about Jean Lafitte along with the wealthy plantation owners who buried their treasures and money when they fled their homes in the Civil War.There were tons of stories around buried treasure and, even more fun, stories about the ghosts and spirits that protected the treasure.

“So if you find treasure and want to dig it up, there are some rules you have to follow to keep the spirits happy,” she said, cutting into the amazing looking strawberry cake.

“The spirits?”Adeline asked, ignoring her own cake.

Kennedy chewed and swallowed, realizing that all of the adults were also listening, as well as a few from further up the table.She didn’t know who those people were, but she suspected they were lawyers or politicians that were in Preston Baxter’s inner circle.

“Yep.According to some of the biggest treasure hunters around, there are spirits protecting all of the hidden treasures.They will only let people who are worthy get close to it.If someone who’s greedy or cruel comes to nab the treasure, the spirits scare them off.”

Jaxon’s eyes were wide.

“There’s a story that a little girl was walking in the woods one day on her way home.She got lost and wandered into an old mine shaft.Said she sawpilesof gold and jewels.She ran out and straight home to get a grown-up, but she was never able to find her way back to that mine shaft and even though they combed the area for weeks, no one else could ever find even where an old mine had ever been, not to mention any treasure.”

“So the ghosts hid it after she accidentally found it?”Adeline asked.

“Or the ghosts decided that the people she brought back with her weren’t worthy of the treasure.At least, that’s what people say,” Kennedy told her with a nod.

Honestly, that’s what Kennedy thought, too.She completely believed that there were spirits roaming the bayous and woods where she grew up, and she also believed that if you were a good person with good intentions who didn’t mess around with them or their space for any nefarious purposes, then they’d pretty much leave you alone.She even thought some of them protected people who lived there, keeping them safe from the storms and other things that made southern Louisiana a tough place to call home sometimes.

“But sometimes people do find treasure and dig it up?”Jaxon asked.

“Oh yeah.There’s a guy not too far from where I grew up who was out digging in his garden one day—now, keep in mind, this guy was in his sixties and had been living there for a long time.He’d been planting that garden every year foryears.Just like he was doing that day—and all of a sudden his shovel hits something hard.”

She paused, enjoying the rapt attention from the kids but also aware that her audience had grown.Most of the lower half of the table was now listening.And she thought she’d seen Bennett glancing her way.

Kennedy had restricted her looks at Bennett to quick glances only, but he was definitely into the conversation—whatever it was about.He might say that he didn’t want this life and wasn’t interested in what the governor was saying, but Kennedy wasn’t buying it.He was a natural.

“What was it?”Jaxon asked, his eyes wide.

“What do you think?”Kennedy asked the little boy, turning her full attention back to the story.She could do this all night.She might not be able to talk politics and policy, but she could tell all the legends and myths from the bayou.And she didn’t even have to exaggerate them.Much.

“It was a treasure chest!”Adeline exclaimed.

Kennedy laughed.“Yep.It sure was.It wasn’t very big, but it washeavy.He had to call his son over to help him pull it out of the ground,” she said, getting back into the story easily.She’d sat for hours listening to these stories from the old guys and gals who sat around her grandma’s bar.“And when they finally got it out and pried it open, it was full of silver coins.It came up to about two hundred thousand dollars.”

She glanced at the adults.There were several wide eyes.The kids wouldn’t have an idea how much that was, but the adults were impressed.Kennedy looked back at the kids.“People say that the spirits gave him that treasure that day.His wife had just died and he was sick and needed the money so that he could stay in his house.”

“So the ghosts sometimesgivethe treasure away?”Jaxon asked.

“That’s what they say.”Again, she also believed it.“But,” she said.“Sometimes you do have to earn it.Some of the hunters who’ve found treasure have had to really work for a long time to figure out all the rules.”

“What are the rules?”Jaxon had to know.

“Well, the most successful hunter says that you have to go at dusk—a lot of people think you have to hunt at night and that’s not true.You also have to go with a pure heart, and everyone who comes with you has to be a good person, too.One time when he and some guys were out, they opened up this door that led down to the cellar of a house and they started down the stairs.All of a sudden, it started filling up with water and they heard a voice whispering ‘murderer.’”

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