Page 69 of The Lady on Esplanade
I nestled my face into his chest.“You smell good.Can I stay here all day?”
Cooper’s chest rumbled against my cheek as he carried me out of the room, lights and faces passing in a blur through the slits of my drooping eyelids.I tried to raise my hand in farewell, but I managed only a slurred“Byyeeeee.”
“Over here,” Jolene said.
I smelled leather and old paper, and a distant memory of Mimi saying that she’d fixed up a bed in the library flashed through my head, along with an even older memory.I’d slept in a library before, when I was little—because I didn’t know where my mom was and Ididn’t have a key to our apartment.I’d slept, huddled against a back shelf of thick volumes, until I’d been discovered and asked to leave.But this was different.I wasn’t cold or scared, even when I’d felt Cooper lowering me onto a soft mattress and I had to leave the warmth of his arms.
“I’ll go get extra blankets.She’s really cold natured.”Beau’s voice again.
“I’ve got it,” Cooper said, his voice close.“There’s a pile here.”
I felt the weight of a heavy blanket being placed on top of me.“There are more if you need them.I’ll put one at the end of the bed to keep your feet warm.I know how you hate it when your toes get cold.”
A tense undercurrent that had nothing to do with Adele or the evil spirit in the back of Cooper’s car seemed to be circulating in the room.Whatever it was had its own energy, and I was too tired to acknowledge it, much less analyze it.
Gentle hands carefully lifted my leg beneath the covers and then slid pillows under my feet.“She needs to keep her foot elevated,” came Jolene’s voice.And then, closer to my face, she said, “I know you don’t like sleeping on your back, but if I come back here and see you on your side and your foot off those pillows, there will be consequences.”I tried to smile when I felt her kiss me softly on top of my head.“Sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
Despite the soft mattress and warm blankets, there was definitely something missing.I let my hand fall to my side, touching only cool sheets.“Mardi,” I managed.
“I’ll get him,” Cooper said.
“You don’t have a car, and don’t you have a plane to catch?”Beau’s voice carried a note of smug satisfaction that I picked up on even in my extreme sleepiness.“I’ll go get him and bring him back.I know where his food is kept, so I’ll bring it, too.”
“Don’t forget his sweaters and bandannas,” Jolene loudly whispered, as if I were asleep.“I’ve already packed his things in a littleduffel bag for his trip to Mississippi.You might want to take out the Ole Miss football jersey, since he won’t be needing it now.The bag has his monogram on it, so you can’t miss it.”
I stopped fighting to keep my eyes open and let them close completely, shutting off all light.The room might once have been the domain of a man whose benign spirit I’d encountered a few times, but at this point I doubted that anything would disturb my sleep even if all the restless spirits in New Orleans came to visit.
“Good-bye, Nola.I’ll call as soon as I land.”Cooper kissed me on the forehead, his lips lingering.I felt him straighten, sensed his absence before he’d stepped back.
Another familiar set of lips settled on the other side of my forehead.“Have a good rest,” Beau said.“I’ll be back shortly, with Mardi.”
The room fell quiet before I heard the tapping of Jolene’s heels, and then the flick of the light switch before the door softly snapped shut.And then, just before I fell into the oblivion of a drugged sleep, I imagined I could hear the soft humming of a woman’s voice, the tune’s words flitting past my drifting consciousness, the sound almost masking the soft footfalls of wet feet.
CHAPTER 21
When I awoke the house seemed to have fallen as silent as a mausoleum, the only light that of the streetlamps peering around the sides of the louvered blinds.My gaze skittered around the unfamiliar room, gradually becoming aware of a ticking sound from the small brass carriage clock on top of the mantel.Mardi’s reassuring snores came from beside me, his warm weight pressed against me.
The memory of the sodden footsteps returned, along with a numbing fear.I wasn’t afraid of Adele, I told myself.But I was terrified of the spirit that I’d seen in the rearview mirror before I’d crashed the car.
I tried to sit up, suddenly alert to an uncomfortable pressure in my bladder, but managed only to wedge my head and neck into an awkward position against the headboard.I recalled, in my semi-lucid state, Jolene placing a silver bell on a small table by the side of the bed, with instructions to ring it if I required assistance.I turned my head and spotted the glint of a reflection of the slender light from the window, highlighting the just-out-of-reach bell.
A noise like that of an animal rustling in the trash came fromoutside my door.The image of the creepy baby doll moving stealthily toward me on its stiff hands and knees left me paralyzed.I held my breath, wanting to hide my presence, but my heart hammered loudly enough to block out the soft ticking of the clock.Using my elbows, I inched my shoulders higher on the headboard, being careful not to dislodge my splinted leg from the stack of pillows it rested on.In desperation, and needing to draw a breath, I threw my hand out toward the bell.My fingers brushed the cold metal, knocking it from the table, causing it to crash to the floor with a sharp clang.
Mardi lifted his head as the door flew open and the blinding overhead light snapped on.“Get out!”I shouted, hoping the anger in my voice hid the terror.
“Nola, it’s me.Beau.”
The overhead light shut off right before the bedside light flipped on, revealing his familiar face, albeit with bed head and chin stubble.Although I’d need to have my feet held over a fire to admit it out loud, I’d never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life.
“Beau,” I managed.
“Are you okay?”He touched my face with both hands before moving them down to my shoulders, his eyes doing a check of the rest of me, his concern turning my insides into warm putty.
“I heard something, and then I knocked over my bell trying to ring it.”
He returned the bell to the table, a sheepish grin spreading across his face.“That was probably me.I set my pillow and blankets up on the floor outside your door so I could hear you if you needed anything.”
“You were sleeping on the floor?”
