She was singing loudly:
"Gloria! Gloria! In Excelsis Deo!"
"Where'd you pick up that hymn?" I asked. "Is everybody around here committed to driving me to madness?"
"Well, of course not," she said. "What would make you say a thing like that? That's a Catholic hymn, don't you know that? Grandma's been singing it in the kitchen all day. Says it's from the Latin Mass in the old days. Says she saw Patsy in a dream singing that hymn. Patsy all dressed in pink cowboy clothes, with a guitar."
"Mon Dieu!" A shiver passed through me. No wonder Julien was leaving me alone tonight. Why not?
She poured two cups of the steaming coffee. She set down the carafe. Then she kissed me on top of my head.
"You know what Aunt Queen said to me last night in my sleep?" she asked in a cheery voice, her hand on my shoulder. I kissed her satin cheek.
"No, what?" I asked. "But please break it to me gently. I teeter on the brink."
"She said she was tickled you were sleeping in her bed, said she always wanted a man handsome as you in her bed. She laughed and laughed and laughed. Grandma says when the dead come laughing and laughing in your dreams that means they're in Heaven."
"I think it does mean that," said Stirling very sincerely. "This coffee is perfection. How do you do this?"
"Drink up," I said. "You have that powerful little MG TD with you, don't you?"
"I certainly do," he said. "You could see it right out there in front of the house if you had eyes in the back of your head."
"I want you to take me for a ride in that thing. I have to deliver this saint here to Oberon."
"Can you hold this carafe and this cup for me while I drive? Jasmine, you mind if I borrow them?"
"Don't you want the saucer? That's Royal Antoinette, the saucer's the prettiest part. Just look at it. Come in a big package from Julien Mayfair, this pattern, service for twelve, present for 'La Famille.' "
Zap. "No," I said. "Not from Julien Mayfair."
"Oh, yes, it did!" she said. "I have the letter. Keep forgetting to give it to Quinn. Was Julien Mayfair at the wake? I never met a Julien Mayfair."
"When did this package arrive?" I asked.
"I don't know. Two days ago?" she shrugged. "Right after Mona Mayfair came to join the menagerie. Which one is Julien Mayfair? Julien Mayfair been out here?"
"What did the letter say?" I asked.
"Oh, something about if he was going to be visiting Blackwood Farm all the time, he wanted to see his favorite pattern of china. What's the matter with you? That china's beautiful!"
I hadn't the slightest intention of explaining to her that Julien Mayfair was a spirit, and that this very pattern had figured years ago in a spell created by Julien in which he'd entertained an unsuspecting and all too human Quinn with hot chocolate and cookies and a long tale of how he, Julien, had coupled with Quinn's great-grandmother. Damn the infernal spirit.
"You don't like it?" Jasmine said. "I just really do think it's a lovely pattern. Aunt Queen would have been thrilled with it. This is Aunt Queen's style, these roses. You know that."
Stirling was concentrating on me too steadily. Of course Stirling knew Julien Mayfair was a ghost. Or dead. Why was I concealing the activities of this demon? What was I ashamed of?
"Yes, it's very quaint," I said. "Has an old-fashioned delicacy to it. Stirling, what about you drink all you want and then we take a ride?"
"I'm quite fine," Stirling said. He was on his feet.
So was I.
I clutched Jasmine to me with reckless abandon and kissed her madly. She shrieked. I held her face in my hands, looking into her pale eyes. "You're a lovely woman," I said softly.
"What are you so sad about?" she asked. "Why you look so miserable?"
"Do I? I don't know. Maybe because Blackwood Farm is a moment in time. Just a moment. And it will pass. . . ."
"Not in my lifetime," she said smiling. "Oh, I know Quinn's going to marry Mona Mayfair and she can't have any children. We all know that. But Jerome's growing up here. That's my boy, and he's Quinn's son, and Quinn has put his name on the birth certificate. I never asked Quinn to do that. Tommy's growing up here. And he's Tommy Blackwood. And Nash Penfield will grow old taking care this place, he loves it so