Cry Wolf

"I never should have come back," she whispered.

"Baby, don't say that!" Sava

Laurel caught her sister's hand and kissed it and hung on tight while Sava

"I-I d-didn't mean for Mama to c-catch me! I-I thought she was g-gone to her m-meeting!" Laurel clutched at her sister, crying, miserable, desperate, her cheek still stinging and burning from the slap of Vivian's hand.

She'd done wrong. Mama was furious with her. Heaven only knew but that she might end up having a spell. And it would be all my fault, Laurel thought. She knew she wasn't supposed to have the pictures of Daddy out in the parlor, 'cause if Mr. Leighton saw them, he wouldn't like it. She winced again as the memory swooped down on her like a hawk…

Vivian stepped into the room with a smile on her face, a smile that vanished as she saw what Laurel was playing with. The photo album, the crawfish tie pin, the bass tie Sava

" Laurel, what are you doing?" Vivian asked, drifting across the room. She'd been to her hospital auxiliary meeting. She always wore her double pearls to the hospital auxiliary. They clicked together like teeth chattering as she came toward Laurel, her face turning red beneath her perfect makeup as her gaze settled on the collection of mementos. "Where did you get these things?"

"Um… um…" Laurel 's fingers curled around the edge of the photo album, and she pulled it protectively against her, but it was too late. Vivian jerked the book away from her and gasped.

"Where did you get this? What is it doing out here? Shame on you for dragging this out!" She slammed the album closed and tossed it onto the seat of the old red leather wing chair that had been Daddy's favorite.

She pressed her hands to her cheeks and paced in a short line back and forth, back and forth, as nervous as a racehorse, her eyes flashing with something like panic. "Shame on you for bringing that out! Mr. Leighton is new to this house, and you're dragging out all this! What would he think if he saw this?"

Laurel didn't really care what Mr. Leighton thought. She didn't like him. Didn't like his staying in Daddy's room. Didn't like the way he patted her head. Didn't like the way he looked at Sava

"I don't like him!" she blurted out, popping up from her seat on the floor, anger making her feel like she could grow to be ten feet tall and mean as an alligator. "I don't like him and don't care what he thinks!"

The slap came hard and fast and turned her head. Tears rushed up from deep inside and poured down her face, her cheek stinging and half numb. Vivian grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a shake.

"Don't you ever say that!" she said fiercely, her eyes bright with temper and tears. "Your father is dead. Mr. Leighton is head of this house now, and you will be a good girl and mind him and show respect. Do you understand me, Laurel Lea

Laurel stared at her, wishing she didn't have to say yes. Wishing she could dare say no and still have Mama love her. But she couldn't, and she knew it. Mama already didn't love Sava

"Do you understand me?" she repeated, her voice trembling, on the verge of the kind of hysteria that always came before one of her spells.

"Y-yes, Mama," Laurel stammered, anger and sorrow tumbling together inside her like a pair of fighting cats. "I-I'm sorry, Mama."

That quickly, Vivian's temper cooled visibly. Her hold on Laurel 's arms eased. She bent down awkwardly, so as not to wrinkle her new hot pink dress, and stroked Laurel 's hair back from her forehead again and again, wiping tears into it. A trembling smile wobbled across her perfectly painted mouth. "That's my girl. I know you'll be a good girl. You know what's important, don't you, Laurel? You're always such a good girl," she whispered, sniffling. "Mama's little pet. You run along now and play elsewhere."

And Laurel had run. She had run out to find Sava

So many things had changed so fast. Daddy gone. Ross Leighton taking his place. Some nights it just scared her so to think of it that she couldn't sleep, and she tried to sneak into Sava

"I wish we could take the boat and float all the way to New Orleans," she mumbled against her sister's shoulder. "I wish we could run away."

"We can't," Sava

"We could go and live with Aunt Caroline."

"No," she whispered, staring out at the water. "Don't you see, Baby? There's no getting away."

The way she said it made Laurel scared all over again, and she shivered and looked up at her sister, feeling all hollow and achy inside at the sadness in Sava

"But we can go out on the bayou and pretend we're shipwrecked on a jungle island," she said, twisting around to untie the bâteau from its mooring.

And they let the boat drift out of the old cypress shed that looked like a junk heap and smelled like fish, and headed up the bayou to a place where they could pretend the world was perfect and Ross Leighton didn't exist.

"Dat Armentine Prejean, she kin cook, her," Mama Pearl declared, shaking her wooly head as she snapped beans into a plastic bucket wedged between her tiny feet. "She don' cook nothin' good for Vivian, but she kin cook, I tell you. If she wasn' cookin' for Vivian, you would'a ate her di

Laurel glanced up from the shrimp salad she was picking at. She had changed out of her skirt into a pair of faded denim shorts and a loose purple cotton blouse, and was feeling comfortably inconspicuous again with her glasses perched on her nose. Everyone had trailed out onto the back gallery of Belle Rivière and settled in, cocooned in the quiet of the courtyard and the warmth of the afternoon. "The meal was fine, Mama Pearl. I just didn't have much of an appetite, that's all."

Pearl snorted, her fleshy face folding into creases of supreme disapproval. "Nothin' but bones, you. You go

Sava

Pearl snorted again. "Sa c'est de la couyonade."

Caroline twirled the ice in her glass of tea, her dark eyes carefully fixed on Laurel. "We saw you on the news last night, darlin'. Standing toe to toe with that televangelist."

Pearl cackled and slapped her knees. "You give him good, talk about! Even knowed your Bible verse! Ma bon fille! I tell ever'body at church dis mornin', dat's my girl!"

Laurel made a face that was a cross between a smile and a frown and said nothing. What little appetite she had managed to work up for the shrimp salad fled, and she laid her fork across the plate.

"The Delahoussayes are good people," Caroline said evenly. She let that hang in the air while she recrossed her legs and arranged the hem of her slim pale yellow skirt. "Would it be difficult to stop Baldwin from harassing them?"

Laurel shrugged. "Maybe not. They could talk to Judge Monahan. But that doesn't stop Baldwin from waging his war against sin in other ways."

"A little action is better than a whole lot of talk," Caroline said. She took a sip of her tea and set it back down, tracing a fingertip down the side of the sweating glass.

"Lord knows, action is right up the Revver's alley," Sava

Mama Pearl flung a bean down and scolded Sava

Laurel quelled the urge to go after them. She could feel Caroline's gaze weighing on her.

"You still belong to the Louisiana Bar Association, don't you?" her aunt asked i

"Yes, but I'm not ready to take anything on," Laurel argued, her fingers curling into fists on the glass table-top. "I don't need the trouble."

Caroline rose, brushing an imaginary crumb from her loose-fitting chocolate silk tunic. She moved a step toward the house, glancing at Laurel as if in afterthought. "Neither do the Delahoussayes."

Laurel ground her teeth as her aunt sauntered through the French doors that led directly into her study. "I came here to rest," she muttered, crossing her arms and sitting back in her chair. "I came here for peace and quiet."

No one answered her. Mama Pearl had gone off to the realm that was her kitchen. Even as Laurel thought of seeking out Sava