"May I see my sister alone now, please?"
Sister Beatrice stood."Certainly. You may have use of the office for fifteen minutes. Please give my regards to Mr. Duvall and thank him on behalf of the faculty for his latest endowment. His generosity never ceases. God will bless it."
"I'll tell him."
As Sister Beatrice moved past, she paused and laid her hand on Remy's arm."How are you, Remy?"
"Very well."
"Happy?"
"Certainly."
The nun had taught Remy English literature before becoming principal of the school. She could be stern when required, but she was as kind as she was strict. Her life and her career had been devoted to education, but she might have been equally as successful as a psychologist. Or a detective. With unsettling perception, she peered deeply into Remy's eyes.
"I still think of you often, Remy. And when I do, I pray for you."
"Thank you, sister."
"Sometimes I question ..." She let the thought trail off without vocalizing it, saying instead, "I love all the young ladies God places in my charge. But I'm human. Every now and then one comes along who touches my heart in a special way. You can't be surprised to know that you were one of those select few, Remy. I doubt I hid my partiality from anyone, especially you."
"I sensed your love, yes. I'm still grateful for the attention you gave me when I needed it most."
"I wanted very much for you to be happy. I would hate to think that your life hasn't been all that you hoped it would be."
"If I seem a little out of sorts today it's because I'm upset by Flarra's latest stunt."
Sister Beatrice studied her face a moment longer, then patted her arm before releasing it."Don't worry too much about Flarra. Your sister is a delightful girl. A bit more headstrong and impulsive than you."
"Or simply more courageous." "Perhaps," the nun said with a small laugh."You came to us much later than she did. You had seen more of the world."
"What I had seen of it didn't hold much allure for me."
Sister Beatrice smiled sympathetically."Flarra regards that lack of exposure a curse, not a blessing. Her problem isn't disobedience so much as curiosity. She feels constrained." After a slight hesitation, she added, "As much as I'd hate losing her, it might be time for you to consider moving her into another school, where she'll have interaction with other young people and get a better feel for what the world is like."
"I'll think about it."
Sister Beatrice withdrew slowly, gracefully, and silently, except for the whispering of her habit and the clacking of her rosary beads.
In contrast, Flarra flounced in and slammed the door closed. Her expression mutinous, she threw herself into the chair facing Remy's and glared hard at her older sister."Well? Are they kicking me out? I hope."
"No such luck for you."
Flarra's resentment lasted only another few seconds before her hauteur collapsed and her eyes filled with tears."Remy, I can't stand it in here any longer!"
"Is that why you and three of your friends sneaked out?"
"We didn't get very far."
A policeman had seen the girls, recognized them as too young to be out walking past midnight, picked them up in his patrol car, and returned them to the school.
"Where were you off to?" Remy asked.
"The French Quarter."
"At that time of night? Don't you see what an irresponsible and crazy thing that was to do, Flarra? The Quarter isn't safe."
"I wouldn't know. I never get to go."
"Pinkie and I take you there all the time. You've eaten in the finest restaurants, shopped in the best boutiques."
"With you and Pinkie. Big deal. It's not the same as going with a group of friends."
Remy conceded that her sister had a point, and her tone softened.
"No, I'm sure it's not."
Noticing the change in her sister, Flarra looked across at her.
"Did you ever sneak out?"
"Once," Remy admitted with a mischievous smile."Two of us. But we didn't get caught. We sneaked back in before we were discovered missing."
"If you confessed to Sister Be today, she'd probably make you do penance."
"Probably." Remy laughed."Actually I wasn't so scared of her finding out as I was that Pinkie would hear of it."
"How old were you?"
"Seventeen. Thereabouts."
"You got married when you were seventeen."
"Hmm. The day after graduation."
"You're so lucky," Flarra grumbled, her chin resting on her chest."To have a man fall so madly in love with you that he couldn't wait for you any longer. All my friends think it's the most wildly romantic story they've ever heard. How he became your guardian, paid for your schooling here, then married you right away."
At the time, it had seemed romantic to Remy, too. Pinkie had been like a knight in armor who rescued her and Flarra from a squalid life and certain doom. It seemed like a lifetime ago. To be exact, her lifetime.
"One day, you'll have a man fall madly in love with you," Remy assured her.
Of the two, Flarra was prettier. Her animated eyes were the vivid light green of springtime buds. Her hair was dark and glossy like Remy's, but Flarra's natural curls were unruly and extravagant. Since they'd had different fathers, neither of which was known to them, and since their mother had no family that claimed her, it was anyone's guess where this curly gene had originated.
Flarra's young body was lithe and slender and athletic, but gently rounded where it should be. The tailored school uniform couldn't completely hide the female form beneath it. That's why Remy shuddered to think of her innocent sister walking the streets of the Vieux Carre late at night where she would be prey for rowdy tourists, drunken collegiates, and countless miscreants with depravity on their minds.
"Who'll have a chance of falling in love with me when I'm locked up in here?" Flarra whined, bringing Remy back to the conversation.
"Only another year and a half, then you'll graduate and be off to college where you'll meet many new friends."
"Remy ..." Flarra slid from her chair onto her knees and knelt in front of her sister."My spirit is dying in here. I've lived inside these walls for as long as I can remember. I want to explore and experience new places. I want to meet new and interesting people. I want to meet men. I've never even been kissed."
"You told me your date to the Christmas dance kissed you."
"That?" Her face puckered with disgust."That doesn't count. He grabbed me and sort of poked his mouth against mine when the nuns werent looking. It was gross. He was all sweaty and nervous. Rather than turning me on, it made me mad."
She inched closer and lowered her voice to an urgent whisper."I'm talking about a real kiss, Remy. I want to go on a real date without nuns watching every move. I want " "Romance."
"Well, what's wrong with that?" Reaching for Remy's hands, she pressed them between her own."Please, please, please, let me come I live with you and Pinkie and go to a coed school. Just for my senior year."
Flarra was bursting to experience Life in its capitalized form.
She was curious about men because her exposure to them was limited to Pinkie, who treated her like a father would or at least a loving uncle.
Like any youth her age, her hormones were raging. That physiological boiling pot was seasoned with Flarra's innate zest for life, her active imagination and natural exuberance, and her curiosity.
Remy could understand her sister's restlessness, but she couldn't exactly relate to it. She had been an adolescent when she was admitted to the academy, but it hadn't seemed a restricting place. It had been a refuge. For her, it had been a clean, quiet, and restful haven.
Within its ivy-covered walls she had enjoyed a sense of safety and serenity that she hadn't known was possible. Music amounted to the hymns sung at mass and benediction, not a radio blaring at all hours of the day and night. No frightening characters drifted toward the alcove where she slept. There were no sly looks to fear and avoid, no drug-related rages, no filthy language, no frantic coupling on unmade beds or on any surface that wasn't being otherwise utilized. There was no hunger, and no crying baby for which she was solely responsible.
Remy gave one of Flarra's springy curls an affectionate tug, her heart swelling with love for that sickly, crying baby who had depended on her for everything food, caring, love, and protection when she was little more than a baby herself. Despite that stunting first year, Flarra had grown into an incredibly intelligent and beautiful young woman.
Remy had protected her from harm when she was a newborn, and she would continue to protect her until her dying breath.
"I'll speak to Pinkie about it."
"Promise?"
"I promise to speak with him," Remy emphasized."I don't promise that our decision will be what you want."
"Pinkie wouldn't mind if I came to live with you, would he?"
"His favorite sister-in-law?" Remy scoffed.
In fact, Pinkie had objected to Flarra's living with them when they married. She had been living in a foster home while Remy attended Blessed Heart, he said it would be cruel to uproot the child yet again.
That was the reason he gave. The real reason, Remy knew, was that he hadn't wanted Remy's time, attention, and loyalty to be divided between him and her sister.
When Flarra was old enough to go to school, he had moved her to Blessed Heart, convincing Remy that Flarra would receive the best upbringing in the boarding school. She'd really had no choice then except to agree, and, looking back on her years of marriage to Pinkie Duvall, she realized that it had been the best arrangement for all of them.
Over the years, Pinkie might have changed his mind about having Flarra with them. Remy didn't know. She hadn't asked. Because she was the one now opposed to Flarra's living under their roof. God forbid that her impressionable and impulsive younger sister come into contact with Pinkie's nefarious associates men like Wayne Bardo.
Granting Flarra's request was out of the question, but she couldn't tell the girl that without having a battle on her hands. Nor could she tell her the reasons why she opposed it, or discuss with her matters that she wouldn't understand.
She couldn't talk to Flarra about Galveston.
For the time being Remy remained noncommittal."A lot will depend on how you conduct yourself for the remainder of this semester. Will you behave yourself?"
The sixteen-year-old took that as a definite maybe. She leaped to her feet and executed a graceful pirouette."I promise on my maidenhead."
"Flarra!"
"Don't freak. That's all that's going on with my maidenhead. What about Mardi Gras?"
"What about it?" "Last year you said that maybe this year I could come to your party." "That's right I said maybe."
"Reee-my."
"I'll bring it up with Pinkie, Flarra. You're hardly in a position to be asking for favors."
"But you'll ask him," the girl insisted.
"I'll ask." Then Flarra took Remy's hands and pulled her into a hug.
"Thanks, sis.
I love you."
Remy hugged her tightly, whispering, "I love you, too."
When they pulled apart, Flarra's face had turned sad."What do you think she would think of me? Of us?"
Flarra could only be talking about their mother."Who knows? I don't think about her at all," Remy lied.
"Neither do I."
Flarra was lying too. Naturally they thought about the woman who had given them away without a smidgen of regret. Of course if she hadn't, Flarra probably would have died before her second birthday.
As to Remy's fate, she knew what she would have become.
"I must go," she said, moving toward the door."Pinkie will be getting home soon."
"Does he make love to you every night?"
"None of your business."
"We my friends and me think he does. Completely naked and with the lights on. Are we right?"
"Instead of speculating on my sex life, shouldn't you be studying geometry?"
"Remy, are you feeling okay?"
It was customary for Flarra to switch subjects with rocket speed.
This time she caught Remy with her guard down."Am I feeling okay?
Sure.
Why do you ask?"
"The last few times you've been to see me, you look sort of, I don't know, tired."
"I am, a bit. We hosted a party night before last. I was up late."
Scrubbing offBardo's touch, she added to herself.
"If you're sick, don't lie to me."
"I'm not sick."
Flarra's eyes brightened and her voice dropped to a hush."Could you be pregnant?"
"No, I'm not pregnant."
"Damn. I thought maybe ..." She pulled her lower lip through her teeth.
"You don't have cancer or something, do you, Remy?"
"No! Of course not. Flarra, I swear, there's nothing wrong with me."
'"But if something were wrong with you, something terrible, you'd tell me?"
'"I would tell you."
"Because I'm not a kid."
"I know that."
" Cause if I lost you, I ... you, Remy."
"A herA "Wouldn't lose "You won't," Remy declared with soft urgency."I swear I'll always be here for you. If something were wrong, I'd tell you, but there's not, so don't worry. Okay?"
Flarra released a gust of breath and flashed her engaging grin.
"Okay.