Evil's Niece (24 page)

Yet, if Cleopatra and Cinderella weren’t here to assist me…with Antoinette acting as myself, and her loyalties uncertain…and if Dewel and Monique — those traitors! — had also appeared…

But I couldn’t stop now. Unless I acted without hesitation, my plan would fall flat, leaving me even more vulnerable to Chapin’s wrath than before. I paused in the arched doorway to peruse the crowd, to get my nerve up while everyone was still unaware of my presence.

Chapin and his redheaded companion were the centre of attention, stepping with heart-stopping precision around the dance floor as the music quickened. As Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoinette, they made a stunning couple, resplendent in flowing silks and velvets of regal purples and greens, adorned with gold braid and brilliant detail. It didn’t escape me that hours — years — of practice made them such expert partners, for I’d never seen my husband dance as though his feet were guided by nimble spirits. And the way he was gazing at his partner with those intense blue eyes, the audience assumed he was desperately in love with his wife. The devoted husband, the successful businessman from an old-money family; the perfect man to be the next mayor of New Orleans.

It was time to set them all straight.
My
moment, after seven years spent with a total stranger who’d made me live his lie.

The music rose to a giddy pitch, and I scanned the crowd for Dewel and Monique — the friends who’d caught me up in their seductive instruction without telling me Chapin’s secret. I spotted a tall, handsome gypsy king near the punch table, imperially fit in his sleek black pants and a poet’s shirt open to the centre of his chest. With a mysterious wisp of a black mask above a pencil-thin moustache, the heir to the Proffit plantation could have stolen the show. But it was the lady beside Dewel who made me gape.

She was the very image of Maria Castalantez, as though she’d stepped from that painting above the mantel at Bayou Belle.

Her dark hair fell lushly around shoulders bared by a peasant blouse, and gold hoops glimmered in her ears. In fact, the entire effect was rendered so perfectly, Monique had to be wearing the clothes in which Dewel’s mother posed for her portrait. The couple’s proud stance made me wonder if Robert E. Lee Proffit had appeared at a ball in this roguish guise with Maria beside him. And wouldn’t it be too sweet if Chapin’s mother Virgilia had dressed as Bo Peep and discovered those two black sheep among her flock of socialite admirers?

As though my thoughts had travelled across the noisy, crowded ballroom, Dewel and Monique both focused on me as I paused in the doorway. He had the nerve to lightly blow me a kiss, while the minx beside him flashed a wicked grin — as though nothing had come between us. As though they, too, planned to beat Chapin at his own game.

Well, they could do as they wished! This colossal joke had been on me, and it was my turn to shine! I stepped aside as someone stopped beside me with a large tureen of spicy gumbo, and then heard a gasp.

Fanny Frike — the poor housekeeper now tending the buffet tables alone — was staring at me as though she’d seen a ghost.

I smiled, more confident now, as the orchestra brought the folk dance to a close. ‘Thank you, Fanny,’ I murmured. ‘It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for.’

Crook in hand, I cut through the crowd towards the dais. Chapin and his redheaded queen had whirled to a brilliant finish in the centre of the room. Basking in the crowd’s applause, they clasped hands and gazed at each other with an expression of utmost accomplishment. Perfect. As the musicians were preparing for the next number, I coaxed the conductor aside by saying I had to make the evening’s most important announcement. For I did.

‘If I might have your attention!’ I called out, thumping my crook on the hardwood floor. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention,
please
?’
Tap, tap, tap.

While the guests turned my way, I prayed for the right words at the right moment, in the right tone of voice. After all, it was my word against Chapin’s; my entire future at stake here. A society wife didn’t challenge her husband in public without severe repercussions — but what had I left to lose? Discovering my husband’s double identity — the damage it had done to my soul — goaded me to take this last chance. It was either escape, by defaming Chapin, or suffer whatever fate he’d conjured up for Judd Schuck to carry out.

I could only hope that his despicable valet was now bound to the bedpost where I had been: in the arched doorway stood an Egyptian queen and a princess in powder blue, cheering me on with their smiles.

Chapin, however, let out a strangled gasp. His face changed from a sickly shade of pale to an unbecoming flush when he recognised my costume, and as he stepped towards the dais, I too moved forward.

‘And what are
you
staring at, Mr Proffit?’ I demanded boldly. With another
tap, tap, tap
of my shepherd’s crook, I forestalled his interruption. ‘Feeling
sheepish
, now that your mama’s here? As well you should!’

A murmur arose as the guests speculated about who was portraying the white-faced Bo Peep. This crowd wasn’t accustomed to a woman’s voice ringing out to challenge a man — but I was only just beginning my tirade!

Chapin recovered, slipping an arm around Antoinette to keep up his ruse. ‘Who do you think you are, wearing my mother’s —’

‘And who do you think
you
are, Mr Proffit? Tying your wife to her bedpost so you can cavort with this — this
floozy
,’ I retorted, flourishing my crook at Antoinette. ‘Bringing a
spy
into this household — and then threatening to dispose of the wife you’ve deceived all these years!’

The guests shifted, their whispers slithering around the room at this too-delicious turn of events. At the buffet table, Fanny Frike’s grin widened. When she saw the gypsy king and his Creole consort moving up behind Chapin, she signalled for the two maids in the doorway to get closer as well.

Chapin, however, had focused on me — possibly for the first time in our marriage. ‘I don’t know who you are,’ he bluffed, for how could he not recognise my voice? ‘but if you continue this ridiculous display, I’ll ask these gentlemen to escort you out. I believe the chief of police is present —’

‘Shall we have him tell everyone about Honore Delacroix?’ Antoinette spoke up. She raised a whole new fit of whispers, for she was speaking in a male voice while dressed so exquisitely as a French queen — and she wouldn’t let Chapin out of her embrace. ‘I believe he has a son at the School of Domestic Endeavor —’

‘Ah, yes, Miss Delacroix!’ I chimed in, my heart dancing with the sissy maid’s loyalty. ‘Didn’t I see her sneaking across the gallery and out through the garden last week? Are those her clothes you’re hiding in the attic? Chapin, you’ve been a very bad boy! Mama really should take you over her knee, this minute!’

‘A spanking, ah
oui
,’ cried Monique. ‘Let me fetch the birch rod —’

‘You’re going nowhere, you little bitch! It’s your fault all this got — got —’

Chapin paled again when he saw she was dressed as Dewel’s beautiful mother. He pointed, blinking and backing away as though he couldn’t believe his eyes. ‘It’s been a plot all along! You and my bastard half-brother have — how
dare
you dress like that whore who tore our family apart?’

The guests sucked in their breath, but no one moved towards the door: even the men were now watching every cue, every nuance, as though the mud-slinging had become serious enough to be interesting.

Chapin realised his future as the mayor of New Orleans — perhaps even his credibility as a cotton factor — was at stake, so he shook himself free of Antoinette’s grasp. He marched up to the dais, as though to reclaim his place as the man of the house. The man of the hour.

‘Come up to take your punishment — like a
man
?’ I taunted, playing to the ladies’ twitters. ‘Bare that backside and bend over. You deserve a spanking and you know it!’

Shaking with rage — or was it something else? — Chapin whipped off the oversized wig of yellow curls and then yanked the mask from my face. While I didn’t like being seen with my hair crushed against my head, I revelled in the fact that my husband was finally paying full attention to me…and that the city’s golden boy had lost his almighty control.

‘Please excuse us,’ he commanded in a more courtly voice as he steered me in front of him. ‘My wife has taken leave of her senses, and I must remind her of her place.’

The crowd parted. The males nodded approvingly, some of them applauding — or turning to their wives with a similar warning. It was the most ignominious moment of my entire life, being marched out like an errant child dressed to enact a nursery rhyme. Yet I’d never felt better, or more alive. I had taken a stand in my own behalf, consequences be damned. And I wasn’t nearly finished.

We entered the schoolroom, which adjoined the maids’ quarters and had stood empty since Chapin himself took lessons there. The door slammed with an echoing finality. ‘Have you gone totally berserk?’ he demanded in a stage whisper. ‘I will not —’

‘No, I’ve finally seen the light, Chapin. And don’t tell me this doesn’t excite the hell out of you!’ I exclaimed, pointing with my crook. ‘I haven’t seen you this hard since — well, never. Now
there’s
a story!’

His breath escaped in a rush, while his attempt at covering his fly looked suspiciously like a caress. ‘This is not the time nor the —’

‘But it’s the only time I’ve got! You’re going to throw me out without a penny, remember?’ I challenged loudly. ‘Maybe I understand your needs now, dear husband. Maybe you ought to drop those pants so I can dish it up the way you like it. Nothing satisfies like a good spanking, right? Cleanses the conscience and purges the soul!’

My pulse was galloping like horses with the finish line in sight, so I didn’t dare lose my momentum. I had to strike while the iron — or in this case, my husband — was hot, and hope the maids would step in when I needed them.

‘Your
girls
have told me about Honore’s naughty little habits. About how she gets so wild and hard while caning them, it takes all three of them to smack her ass afterwards,’ I cajoled.

I situated myself in the teacher’s chair, patting my lap. ‘How was I to give you what you really wanted, when I didn’t
know
? Instead of cursing Monique — who certainly got your pecker pumped during your damned home visit — you should thank her for teaching me her technique!’

Chapin was growing more agitated by the moment, looking at me as though I couldn’t be his prim, proper Miss Eve — as though I were too good to be true. ‘You mean you’re not…you would really take your hand to my —’

‘You want my hand, you’ve got it!’ I crowed, motioning him over. ‘Right across the softest, most tender part of your pretty little ass. But you know how it works, Chapin. You must show your penitence by taking down your pants and assuming the position, like a good boy. You must
want
this spanking more than anything I’ve ever given you!’

His taut expression gave way to a sigh of utter submission as he fumbled with his buttons. ‘Miss Eve, I’m so sorry,’ he mumbled as his pants fell about his knees. ‘Not only have I humiliated you in front of our guests, but I’ve sorely misjudged —’

Whack
went my hand upon his backside! It felt so good, I had to give him another one before he fully fell across my lap. ‘Damn right you’ve humiliated me! Prancing around town as a gorgeous woman — all these years just using me as a
cover
for your double life. And then —’

‘And then tricking my Tommy Jon as well!’ A familiar cry entered the room. ‘Grab him, girls! Miss Eve must have her way with him,
non
? High time Proffit paid his dues for deceiving her. For using
all
of us!’

Rushing from the door of the servants’ quarters, Cleopatra and Cinderella took hold of Chapin’s legs while Monique and Antoinette approached him from the front. The redheaded queen glowered at him as she grabbed his hands between her own, while the Cajun dressed as Dewel’s mother slapped his face.

Chapin shook as though trying to awaken from a nightmare. ‘You think this is funny now, but when I tell Judd —’

‘Sorry, boss,’ Cinderella twittered, ‘but Stud Fuck is tied up at the moment. Dripping from both holes, because he didn’t think two
girls
could get the best of him!’

‘So you’ll just have to take what’s coming to you, and then explain all this to that crowd out there.’

Dewel strode in, closing the door behind him, the powerful gypsy king taking control. He stopped in front of his struggling half-brother, shaking his head. ‘The way I see it, you have some decisions to make in these next few seconds, Chapin. If you grant your wife a quiet divorce tomorrow, you can get on with your political campaign by regreasing some palms, and giving some tall explanations to your constituents. That won’t include me, however. I’m withdrawing my financial support.’

Chapin blanched, poking my thigh with his prodigious erection. ‘You can’t do that! If you think for one minute —’

‘I think your goose is cooked no matter what you do,’ Dewel continued with a shrug. ‘Because if you
don’t
release Miss Eve from this marriage — which was a farce from the start — I’ll tell everyone out there you are indeed Honore Delacroix. And New Orleans will
never
elect a female mayor.’

Dewel crossed his arms, smirking at his half-brother’s reddened, bared, quivering butt. ‘You’ll lose all respect around town, and at the Cotton Exchange. And your school will soon close, because those parents who’ve paid you to take their pretty little boys will be afraid of this same sort of exposure. So what’s it going to be?’

‘You have no right — who’s going to listen to
you
?’ he demanded shrilly. ‘All your life, you’ve been nothing but —’

‘Our daddy’s favourite,’ he replied, leaning low enough to look Chapin in the eye. ‘The true heir to real Proffit property; the plantation owner who works the land while
you
live in this fancy mansion. Just bugs the hell out of you that I’ve always pulled my weight, while you prissed around in your mama’s clothes as a kid, and then couldn’t handle being a man!’