The Last Beaufort

CHAPTER 1  

Most girls in her position would have been beside themselves, overcome by the excitement of an upcoming marriage, but not Druscilla, or Dru as she was called. Dru was too preoccupied with the thought of returning to Argenteuil. It had been more than three years since she had been there, and the idea of bringing Giles to Argenteuil to meet her grandmother, not to mention Sal, made her sick to her stomach.

Oh, you are going to be a beautiful bride, said Peppa Lemoine, one of the four young men who had been sent by Julien Devereaux—the couturier hired by Alice Pierpoint, Dru’s soon-to-be mother-in-law—to design Dru’s wedding dress. Peppa ran his fingertips across Dru’s jet-black hair, admiring its thickness and fine, silky texture.

What do you think of this material for the bodice? Clive LeBlanc asked, chiming into the conversation.

Oh, it’s beautiful, Dru responded without noticing the material.

Clive rolled his eyes at Peppa, who was now measuring Dru’s waist.

Now listen, honey, you’re only gonna to wear this dress once, and if you want it to be just right, you gotta pay attention. I don’t know where you were just now, but I think if I’d held up purple sequins, you’d have said that’ll be just fine. Now I love purple sequins as much as anyone, but, honey, if it were my wedding dress, I’d want it to be just perfect.

I’m sorry. I was distracted. May I please see it again?

Clive proudly held the material back up so Dru could see it. She leaned down from the banquette on which she was standing and glided her fingers across the smooth ivory fabric.

Now that’s better, he said.

It’s beautiful.

If it had been up to Dru, she would have had a small wedding in a country chapel far away from Louisiana, far away from all of the social obligations that faced her in the upcoming months before the wedding. Most of all, Dru wanted to be as far away from Argenteuil as possible. But she knew she had to go through with the wedding as planned. The Pierpoints had been so generous to her, and she could not let them down. Dru was just so unused to being at the center of such a commotion and would have been just as happy marrying Giles without such an extravagant New Orleans wedding. But then Alice Pierpoint, Giles’s mother, had gone to such great expense in planning the wedding, and Dru was afraid of seeming ungrateful if she failed to go along.

Dru drifted back to her thoughts of Argenteuil, wandering through its shadowy woods, vines climbing up the two-by-fours that were nailed across the columns supporting the veranda like a giant makeshift scaffold that ran from one end of the house to the other. No one ever used the front door anymore. It was practically inaccessible, and besides, no one ever visited Argenteuil. It was too bad, because beyond its weathered boards and drooping veranda, Argenteuil remained a handsome house, which, at least from a distance, still evoked the grandeur of a former time and place.

* * * *

Dru remembered the last time she had seen her grandmother. Sal had been standing in the hallway waiting for her class to let out. Dru was so startled by the sight of him that she dropped her notebooks, causing papers to flutter across the floor. She scurried to pick them up as Sal leaned down to assist, staring at her with his coal black eyes.

Sal, what are you doing here? Why are you here?

It’s your grandmother. She’s waiting in the car. She wants to see you.

Well, I don’t want to see her, and I’m not going back. Please tell her to leave. I just want to live my life.

She just wants to see you, just for a moment. Please, Dru. Please just see her, just a second of your time.

Only a moment, Dru acquiesced.

Dru followed Sal through the corridor of Dinwiddie Hall out onto the circular driveway of Tulane’s main campus on St. Charles Avenue. She sensed the spectacle that she and Sal made as they walked toward her grandmother’s 1958 Cadillac limousine with its exaggerated black fins that swooped into the air like a pair of giant claws. But more than anything else, it was Sal’s appearance that drew the most attention, in his blue turban and soldier’s shorts and the straight-bladed sword that dangled at his side. Sal’s full name was Salmagundhi Singh. Dru’s grandparents, Honoré and Josephine Beaufort, had returned with him from India long before Dru was even born, when Argenteuil was still prosperous. According to Dru’s grandmother, Sal’s entire family died during an uprising against the Sikhs. Sal was in his teens when he came to Louisiana to work for the Beauforts at Argenteuil, where he had worked ever since. Growing up, Dru’s grandmother liked to think of Sal as their protector, although Dru had always been afraid of him, with his devilish black eyes.

Dru’s grandfather died several years before she was born, and she had never known her mother or father. Her mother died while giving birth to Dru, after which her father drank himself into the grave. At least that was what she had gathered from Sal. Dru’s grandmother never discussed her mother or father, except to say that her mother had been beautiful and that her father had come from a planter family in the Mississippi Delta by the name of Walker. After Dru was orphaned, she was adopted by her grandmother, which accounted for why she was a Beaufort and not a Walker.

Dru walked up to the limousine, and Sal opened the door.

I’ll just stand here, Sal. I’m not getting in.

Sal stepped away from the door, and Dru bent down and peered into the backseat.

Hello, Grandmother.

Hello, Druscilla. You are looking well.

Thank you, Grandmother. So are you.

Don’t lie to me, Druscilla. I look terrible. I’ve been worried sick about you.

As usual, Dru’s grandmother was dressed from head to toe in black. For as long as Dru could remember, her grandmother had never worn anything else. Even when Dru was a young girl, Josephine Beaufort seemed old with her black clothes, slightly wrinkled face, and tightly fashioned gray hair. And she always smelled like dried flowers.

Now please sit down for a moment and tell me what all this nonsense is about this Giles Pierpoint. Oh yes, don’t think you could fool me, Druscilla. I know exactly what you’ve been up to. You and I both know you can’t get married, and, more importantly, that you can’t have children. So you might as well just quit while you’re ahead. You’re cursed, Druscilla Beaufort, and that’s the end of it. If you try to bring a child into this world, it will kill you just like you killed your mother. Nothing good can come of it, nothing good. Some things just weren’t meant to be, and you, young lady, were not meant to get married. If you won’t stay with me at Argenteuil, you should become a nun, that’s what you should do. Give your life to God. It’s only in God’s grace that you can be saved. You can go off to a lovely convent. That’s the only thing that can save you.

Dru knew she would get nowhere, and realizing that her grandmother knew about Giles caused a chill to run down her spine. Undoubtedly, Sal had been spying on her again.

Giles is a wonderful man, Grandmother, and one day maybe I will marry him, if he asks me. There’s no curse that can stop me from marrying him. You can berate me all you want, but one day I will get married, and whether it’s to Giles Pierpoint or someone else, I will get married. And I hope when I do you can for once just be happy for me—that you won’t ruin it. I knew I shouldn’t have bothered. Good-bye, Grandmother. I’ve got to go.

Oh, dear God! Dru’s grandmother exclaimed as Dru stepped away from the limousine, holding tightly to the papers that were crammed into her notebook. Druscilla, wait. You know I’m just trying to look out for you. I just don’t want anything to happen. You’re all I’ve got. You mean the world to me.

Dru stopped and looked back into the limousine. I know, Grandmother, I know. But everything is going to be okay. It’s going to be fine. Look at me. I’m fine. I love you, Grandmother, but I’ve got to go.

As the limousine pulled away, Dru fought back the urge the cry.

Crazy old woman, she thought, always going on about that curse. It’s not my fault my mother died. It’s not my fault.

* * * *

Now, is this a crown or is this a crown? Peppa Lemoine asked Dru as he placed a crown of pearls on his head.

Oh, what was that? I’m sorry. I was distracted again.

Girl, I said, is this a crown or is this a crown? Hey, are you okay? You need some coffee or something? You ask me, what you need is a little toddy, and I have just the thing for you.

Peppa sauntered across the room wearing the crown of pearls and produced a fifth of Southern Comfort from a satchel.

Peppa, if Julien finds out you’re drinking on the job again, he’s going to read you like the Bible, and I’m talking Old Testament, wrath of God, hell and damnation. You hear me? Clive interjected.

This isn’t for me. It’s for my girl here. Here, dahlin’, you just put on this here tiara and throw back some of this, and you’ll be a new person.

Oh, that’s very kind, but no thanks.

You’re not pregnant, are you? Oh ’cause if you are, those measurements we just took aren’t going to be worth a damn in three months. Now what’s wrong, honey, a gorgeous girl like you getting married to a fine young man, and baby, I’ve seen him, and he is fine, ehw-wheee, fine.

It felt good to laugh amidst all of her angst about Argenteuil. Perhaps I will have some, but only if you join me. Do you have a glass?

Here, girl. Here’s some plastic ones. Ewh-whee, that man of yours is fine. You don’t have to be worried about nothing. Oh, if I had me a man that fine, I’d think I’d died and gone to heaven, Peppa continued as he handed Dru a plastic cup of Southern Comfort.

Peppa, about the only way you could ever get a man that fine would be in heaven, but what makes you think for a second you’re going there? Clive asked.

Oh, Lord, you’re probably right, who-whee, but I bet there’s some pretty good-looking ones down in the hot place too, uh huhn.

Oh, my, this is kind of sweet, Dru said, laughing.

Oh yeah, baby, Peppa said.

Peppa, you drink some too. Maybe it’ll make you sweeter, Clive chimed in.

Oh, now you’re wrong for that, Peppa countered laughing.

CHAPTER 2  

Dru stepped in front of the mirror in the guest bedroom of Alice Pierpoint’s Second Street house and ran her hands down the sides of her waist, admiring the turquoise silk dress that had been made especially for her by Balmain in New York for the luncheon. Dru had never worn such a beautiful dress. It was as if for the first time in her life she felt pretty. Perhaps it was that Dru did not know how beautiful she was that made her all the more so. She was tall and slender, with long, straight black hair, deep brown eyes, and the olive complexion of her Creole ancestors, the French and Spanish aristocrats who settled Louisiana.

At first, Dru felt uncomfortable receiving all the gifts the Pierpoints had lavished upon her following her engagement to Giles, but she gradually learned just to accept them graciously. Without explanation, it became apparent to Dru that if she were going to marry a Pierpoint, she was expected to dress and act the part. The Pierpoints were originally from New York, but Giles’s grandfather had branched away from the family and moved to New Orleans, where he amassed a fortune in the shipping container industry. Giles was his sole heir. While some thought Giles and Dru were an odd match, the Pierpoints seemed genuinely delighted to have Dru as a member of the family. After all, had it not been for Dru, Giles might have continued on his wild escapades, never to settle down and run the business.

Giles and Dru liked to say that they met over coffee, that they just struck up a conversation and that the rest was history. They preferred to leave out that they actually met after hours at a dance club on the corner of Bourbon and St. Ann streets in the French Quarter. It was not until the next morning that they actually had coffee and began getting to know one another. At twenty-nine, the Pier-points had begun to wonder whether Giles would ever settle down. He never seemed interested in the business, and even less interested in girls. The Pierpoints thought he might never get married, at least not until he met Dru.

Giles’s mother and grandmother were skeptical of Dru at first, but they soon began to see changes in Giles that they liked. He began going to the office and taking an interest in work. It had only been a few years earlier when Giles’s mother, Alice, and Giles’s fraternal grandmother, Augusta, considered selling the business. Giles had been only two when his father died, and both Alice and Augusta had long believed that if only he had lived, Giles might not have been so reckless and unsettled. In their minds, it had been the lack of a strong male influence that had ruined the boy. But after Dru’s arrival, everything seemed to change. Dru had not only provoked positive changes in Giles, but she also seemed like the daughter that Alice and Augusta had never had.

How are we doing in there? Dru heard from behind the door to the bedroom.

Oh, just fine, Alice. Please come on in.

Dru watched as the door opened, and Alice stepped into the room. Dru had never met a more elegant woman in her entire life. Alice was about Dru’s height, with thick auburn hair that she