Chapter 12 #2
She would kill him once they reached his home. Or maybe when they got into his car. How could he make the situation worse than it already was?
“Now, Rose, don’t you get any ideas,” her mother said.
“Nope. Not me. I’m going to meet some guy named Fenton, and he will be my one and only. Right, Sascha?” Rose asked.
Did Rose really believe her now?
“Hopefully. At least you’ll be happily dating him for a while.”
“Who is he? And what happened to Marvin?” Mrs. Landry asked.
“He’s behind bars,” Sascha said. The words just slipped out, even though it was true. As soon as she heard Marvin’s name, she saw him behind bars.
“You said bars,” Rose said, her face a little pale. “I thought you meant like clubs.”
“What’s wrong, dear?” Mrs. Landry asked Rose. “And why is Marvin in jail?”
Sascha concentrated on the image of Marvin, but shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Everyone was watching her. She suspected Rose was coming to the conclusion that she was the real deal. Even her mother was looking at Sascha as if she wondered if maybe there was more to her comment than that.
When they finished the meal, his mother ushered them into the den again. “We’ll have a bottle of champagne to celebrate your engagement.”
While the maid fetched the glasses and bottle, Gregory wrapped his arm around Sascha and pulled her close as they sat on the loveseat. “I’m not sure she has quite gotten used to the idea yet.”
Mrs. Landry nodded. “Well, I must say, this is really sudden, but certainly a pleasant turn of events. I’d seen Camden, and he told me about Sascha entertaining at the Worthingtons’ party.
I guess she made all the winning moves with you all right.
I thought maybe the way he discussed her, he wanted to ask her out instead. ”
“He prefers blondes.” Gregory gave Sascha a light squeeze.
Sascha’s cheeks heated again. When would the visit with his parents ever end? Then she figured she needn’t wait for her Aunt Meg to place a curse on Gregory. She could do it on her own, soon, if he antagonized her any further.
Then Sascha’s thoughts turned to the business with the attempts on Gregory’s life, and she wondered if the family had any ideas about this. “I’m sure this has nothing to do with anything, but I saw the newspaper clippings about Louis Landry and his heroics.”
Everyone waited for her to say more.
“Well, I know this is really far out there, but what if a descendant of Louis’s best friend, Sam Fontenout, had a grudge against Louis for having eliminated Sam? I mean, I know it’s a lot of years since then, but sometimes people carry on generational hate for something that happened in the past.”
Still, no one said anything.
Sascha cleared her throat. “It happened with my family. We actually had a family member who was working for the Germans during WWII. He implicated some of the family who were working with the Danish resistance and paid for his traitorous services. The ones he named were rounded up and shot. One of my ancestors who was involved in the resistance, took the traitor out and shot him before he had any more of my ancestors eliminated.”
“Did the traitor’s descendant come back and try to harm any of your family members?” Mr. Landry asked.
Sascha saw that Mr. Landry was very interested in the story, since it was the first time he had really spoken.
“Yes. He was an uncle, seventeen at the time. His side of the family had told every generation about the situation, saying that they were family, and he should never have been shot.”
“But the traitor got your other family members shot,” Mr. Landry said.
“Yes, but I think their version was different than reality. The truth of the matter was that the traitor had written documents that outed several of my family members to the Germans, but it was never delivered. It sits in a museum in Denmark now. So it’s proof he was a traitor to the family.”
Mr. Landry slapped his hands on his knees and frowned.
“That’s what happened to our family. Sam wrote several of the resistance members’ names on a piece of paper, extolling the greatness of the Gestapo, and was going to turn it over to them.
It ended up in a museum, proof that the resistance had been right in stopping the traitor from divulging the information that would have killed several members. ”
“Exactly!” Sascha was glad Mr. Landry knew about the family history and could see the correlation.
“What happened in your uncle’s case?” he asked.
“He killed one of my other uncles, his brother. My uncle was found guilty of premeditated first-degree murder and put away for life. My uncle’s family said they had nothing to do with any of it.
That, though they didn’t believe their ancestor was a traitor, that was the past and they should let bygones be bygones. ”
Mr. Landry scoffed.
“Exactly. The proof was on our side. But it made me wonder if someone in your family tree from Sam’s family felt Sam had been wronged and was going to avenge his death?”
“But why Gregory?” Mrs. Landry asked. “And why was your other uncle targeted?”
“My Uncle Tobin wrote an article on the resistance and our family’s involvement in it. He was on a local news station in San Antonio. Because of that, his brother, who was the black sheep of the family and always said the traitor had been wronged, shot and killed him.”
“That’s horrible,” Mrs. Landry said.
“I agree. Now with your ancestor’s case, if this has anything to do with what’s going on with Gregory, it seems that it would have been done sooner, or with someone closer to the resistance member.
” She paused. “Okay, I had another far-out thought. What about the situation with the baby mix-up at Memorial Hospital?”
Mrs. Landry frowned. “That was proven not to be the case.”
“Exactly. But what if the parents of the other baby never believed he was their son? And the son resented it. Like I say, it’s really farfetched, but I saw the newspaper clipping, and I began wondering.”
Everyone remained quiet for a moment.
Then Gregory said, “That’s why I need you to help me with this dangerous mystery. You think out of the box.”
“Let the police handle it,” Mrs. Landry repeated.
At least no one laughed at Sascha’s wild ruminations.
After they finished the champagne, Mrs. Landry saw them to the door. “Now, be sure and let me know soonest when the wedding will take place and what you want me to help you with.”
Rose said, “Me too,” though she glanced at Gregory as if she knew this was more his idea than Sascha’s.
“Of course, Mother, as soon as we can agree on a date.”
She embraced Sascha warmly, then turned to her son and did the same. “Maybe we could have lunch on Saturday.”
“I’ll be at a show all weekend, Mrs. Landry.”
“A show?”
“Yes, I have a booth as a fortune teller.”
“Ah, of course. Some other time then.”
Mr. Landry gave her a hug, and then Rose did. “Text me.”
“I will.” Sascha figured Rose wanted to know the truth about the so-called marriage arrangements.
Gregory took Sascha’s hand and led her to the car. “You can’t go to the fair this weekend, Sascha. Not with this maniac on the loose.”
“For your information, Mr. Landry, I am going, and we’re not engaged to be married. Even if we were, you can’t tell me what to do.”
He opened the car door for her and smiled down at her as she climbed in.
“I can’t believe…,” she started to say. He closed the door, cutting off her speech. She growled in annoyance.
When he sat in the driver’s seat, she said, “Take me home.”
“Sure thing, but there’s this business of getting an engagement ring first.”
“Listen, Gregory, I’m not marrying you.”
He smiled. “Sure you are, but we can hold off on buying the ring. Home, it is then.”
When he headed for his place, she tapped her fingers on the console. “You’re getting really close to having a curse cast on you, Gregory Landry.”
His face split into another Texas-sized grin. “You’re not mad at me, really. Besides, you’re not the usual kind of woman I date. I didn’t think the typical, kneeling-on-one-knee kind of proposal would work with you.”
“You’re right. Nor would groveling in the dirt or any other type of action cause me to accept your offer of marriage.”
“Right.”
She folded her arms in defiance. “You’re the most irritating man I know.”
“Yeah, and you love me too.”
“Listen, if Aunt Meg even learns of this crazy scheme of yours, she’ll have a fit.”
“Why Aunt Meg?”
Sascha stared out the window. “She and Uncle Jimmy raised me. Well, they raised Katrina too. They only had a daughter, Lucy. Kat and my parents don’t have our special abilities. Often, a related family that does will raise the children who have powers.”
“Okay, so I need approval from your Aunt Meg and Uncle Jimmy.”
“No! You are not my soulmate. Not being the proper one for me, I would lose my powers all over again if we made love. We can be friends, nothing more.” She turned to glare at him.
“I can’t believe you would tell your mother this hogwash about us getting married.
When you have to explain that you made it all up, what will she say?
Poor thing. She has her heart set on having grandchildren. What you did…”
He pulled into the circular drive of his home. “The only thing I could do under the circumstances.”