Landry 04 Hidden Jewel Read online




  Hidden Jewel

  Landry #4

  V.C. Andrews

  Copyright (c) 1995

  ISBN: 0671873202

  .

  Prologue

  .

  It always begins the same way. First I hear him

  singing the lullabye. He is carrying me in his arms, and we are walking over marshland where the grass is so tall that neither he nor I can see his feet, only the tops of his high boots. He is wearing a palmetto hat so the brim puts a mask of shadow over his eyes and nose. I wear my pink and white bonnet.

  Behind us, the metal monsters do their monotonous drumming. They resemble giant bees drawing the black nectar from the earth. When I look back at them, they raise their heads and nod at me and then raise their heads again. It frightens me and I know he realizes it does, because he holds me tighter and sings louder.

  Then we come upon a flock of rice birds. They rise out of the grass with grace and beauty, but they are so abrupt and they come so close that I can feel the breeze stirred up by their wings. He laughs. It's a soft, smooth laugh that glides over me like cool water.

  Before us, the great house looms against the sky.

  The house is so big it looks as if it swallowed up the sky and can block the sun. I see Mommy coming down the stairs from her art studio. She sees us and waves, and he laughs again. Mommy starts toward us, walking quickly at first and then running. With every passing moment she grows younger and younger until . . . she's me!

  I'm standing before a mirror and looking at myself. I am so amazed at the blue in my eyes, the flaxen color of my hair, and the pearlescent luster of my complexion that I smile and reach out to touch my image in the glass, but as soon as I do, I fall backward. I fall and fall until I hear the sound of splashing water and open my eyes to look at a school of fleeing fish. Their absence reveals the twisted roots of an upturned cypress tree. They look like the gnarled fingers of a sleeping giant. They frighten me, and I turn away, only to come face to face with him.

  His eyes are wide, his mouth open with just as much surprise that he is down here. I try to scream, but when I do, the water comes rushing in and I gag.

  And that's when I wake up.

  When I was younger, my gagging would bring either Mommy or Daddy or both of them. But for years I have been able to catch my breath and regain the courage to lower my head to the pillow in the darkness in search of sleep again.

  Tonight Mommy must have anticipated the dream, because she was in my doorway moments after I cried out.

  "Are you all right, Pearl?" she asked.

  "Yes, Mommy."

  "The dream?"

  "Yes, but I'm fine, Mommy," I assure her.

  "Are you sure, honey?" she asks coming closer. Why does it worry her so? I wonder. Is it because I still have the dream?

  "When will it stop, Mommy? Will I have the dream forever?"

  "I don't know, honey. I hope not." She looks at the doorway. "I can try another candle," she whispers.

  "No, thank you, Mommy."

  Once, she was so desperate about my dream that she, tried one of the old voodoo remedies she had learned from Nina Jackson, my grandfather Dumas's cook, and Daddy got angry.

  "I'll be fine, really," I say.

  She wipes some strands of hair from my forehead and kisses me.

  "What's going on in here?" Daddy demands from the doorway in his pretend gruff voice.

  "Just woman talk, Beau."

  "At three in the morning?" he asks amazed. "It's a woman's prerogative."

  "To drive a man crazy, you mean. That's a woman's prerogative," he mutters and goes back to bed.

  We laugh. In some ways we are more like two sisters than mother- gild daughter. Mommy looks so young, hardly thirty-six, even though everyone says caring for twin twelve-year-old boys has to be an age maker.

  "Dream of good things, honey. Dream about tomorrow. Your wonderful party. Dream about going to college and doing all the things you've wanted to do."

  "I will, Mommy. Mommy," I say and quickly grab her hand as she stands.

  "What is it, Pearl dear?"

  "Will you tell me more? Maybe if I know more, the nightmare will stop."

  She nods reluctantly.

  "I know you think it's painful for me to hear and you don't want to do anything to hurt me, but I have to know everything, don't I, Mommy?"

  "Yes," she admits. "You do." She sighs so deeply, I'm afraid her heart will crack.

  "I'm old enough to understand, Mommy. Really I am," I reassure her.

  "I know you are, honey. We'll talk. I promise." She pats my hand.

  I watch her go off, her shoulders slumping a little now. I hate to make her sad, even for a moment, but I am drawn to the dark past almost as strongly as a moth is drawn to a candle flame.

  I hope--no, I pray--that, unlike the moth, I will not be consumed and destroyed as a result.

  1

  The Future Beckons

  .

  I woke to the sound of shouting just outside my

  window. The extra workers Daddy had hired to spruce up our house and gardens for my graduation party had arrived and were being assigned their jobs. It had rained the night before and the damp, sweet scent of green bamboo, gardenias, and blooming camellias floated all around me. After I ground the sleep from my eyes, I sat up and saw that the sun was nudging aside whatever clouds remained and dropping golden rays over the pool and the tennis courts. It was as if someone had lifted a blanket off precious jewels. Our gardens were dazzling, our blue and mauve Spanish tiles glittering. Could there be a more beautiful beginning to one of the most important days of my life? In seconds all the webs of confusion, shadows of darkness, and childhood fears were washed away.

  I was seventeen and about to graduate from high school. And I was the class valedictorian, too! I sighed deeply and then let my eyes move over my room. Long ago Mommy had returned it to the way it had been when she had first arrived in New Orleans. I slept in her actual dark pine queen-sized canopy bed, the canopy made of fine ivory-colored silk with a fringe border. My pillows were so enormous and fluffy I felt as if I sank a foot whenever I lowered my head to them. The bedspread, pillowcases, and top sheet were made from the softest and whitest muslin. Above my headboard was a painting of a beautiful young woman in a garden feeding a parrot. There was a cute black-and-white puppy tugging at the hem of her full skirt.

  On either side of my bed was a nightstand with a bell-shaped lamp, and in addition to a matching dresser and armoire, my room had a vanity table with an enormous oval mirror in an ivory frame decorated with hand-painted red and yellow roses. Mommy and I had often sat side by side and gazed at ourselves in the mirror while we did our hair and makeup and had our girl-to-girl talks, as she liked to call them. Now, she said, they would be woman to woman; but soon they would be few and far between, for I was about to go to college. I had been so anxious to grow up and so excited about reaching this day, but now that it was finally here, I couldn't help feeling somewhat melancholy too.

  Good-bye to my Huckleberry Finn days, I thought. Good-bye to sleeping late on weekend mornings; good-bye to not worrying about tomorrow. Good-bye to wasting time and cramming for tests at the last moment. Good-bye to sitting outside in the garden for hours, dreaming away the afternoons. With a sweep of its hand, the clock would thrust me and my fellow graduates forward into the real world, the world of work and serious study in college where the only one looking over your shoulder was your own conscience.

  As my eyes retreated from the mirror, I looked at my door and discovered it was partly open. A further investigation revealed my brother Jean on his hands and knees peering in at me and my brother Pierre on Jean's back peering in as well. The two duplicate fac
es with their cerulean blue eyes under their golden bangs gaped with curiosity and anticipation. What they expected I would do the moment I woke up on my graduation day I did not know, but I knew they were waiting for me to say or do something that they could tease me about later.

  "Jean! Pierre! What are you doing?" I cried. The two stumbled sideways. Laughing and squealing, they scurried back to their room, the room that had once been our great-uncle Jean's room, my mother's father's brother. I heard them slam their door shut and all was quiet for a moment.

  Most of the time the twins were like two puppies sniffing and poking where they didn't belong. Usually it got them into some sort of trouble, and Daddy, despite his apparent reluctance to do so, had to discipline them. He was very fond of his twin sons, very proud or them, and full of expectations for them, too.

  Between the two of them, they did seem to mirror Daddy. Jean had his athletic ability, his love of sports and hunting and fishing. Pierre had his inquisitiveness, his sensitivity and love of the arts, but neither looked down on the other. Rather, my twin brothers were like halves of one brother, a hybrid called Pierre-Jean. What one couldn't do, the other did for him, and what one didn't think, the other thought for him. They were already the Two Musketeers and didn't need a third.

  What was amazing to everyone, even the most skeptical, was the way they both came down with the same childhood diseases at just about the same time. If one got a cold, the other was sure to have it minutes later, and I swear, whenever Jean bumped his head or his knee, Pierre grimaced with just as much pain, and vice versa.

  They liked to eat the same things and almost always ate the same amount, although Jean, who was growing faster, was beginning to eat more.

  "What's going on out here?" I heard Mommy say. She listened for a moment and then came to my door. "Good morning, Pearl honey. Were you able to go back to sleep?"

  "Yes, Mommy." "Were your brothers here waking you up?" she asked with a scowl.

  I didn't want to tell on them, but she didn't need me to testify.

  "I swear they're like two muskrats getting under everyone's feet these days. I don't know what to do about them. One will swear the other's innocent and do it with the sweetest, most innocent eyes himself." She shook her head. She was complaining, but I knew how happy she was that they were so close. It had been so different between her and her twin. Whenever she talked about her sister Gisselle, she did so with a deep sigh of regret, still blaming herself for not being able to get Gisselle to become the sister she should have been.

  "I should be getting up anyway, Mommy. There's so much to do, and I want to help."

  "I know," Mommy said, her eyes small and dark. For both of us, but maybe more for Mommy, this was one of those happy-sad days. If she could have kept me a little girl forever, she would have, she said. "It all goes so fast," she had warned me. "Why rush it?"

  Mommy always said she didn't want me to lose a day of my childhood. She claimed she had skipped her childhood completely. She blamed the hard life she had for making her grow up so fast.

  "I want to be sure you don't struggle and suffer like me," she told me often. "If that means you'll be a little spoiled, so be it!"

  But I knew she couldn't keep me a little girl forever, not if I had anything to say about it. Although I'd loved growing up here, now mostly I couldn't wait to leave and explore the world outside.

  "I think I'm more excited today than you are," she said, her eyes beaming. She looked radiant, despite the early hour. Mommy was never one to wear a great deal of makeup or pamper herself the way the mothers of some of my girlfriends did. She hardly ever went to the beauty parlor and was not one to flit from one style to another, although she always looked chic and elegant. But maybe that was because Mommy was one of those special people who set the style. Other women were always interested in what she chose to wear, what colors, what fashions. She was a highly respected artist in New Orleans and her appearance at an art gallery or an exhibition would be noted, photographed, and printed on the society pages.

  Mommy rarely cut her rich ruby hair, her namesake. She kept it long and when she wore it down, she had it curled or twisted in a French knot. She told me that simplicity was the keynote to being attractive.

  "Women bedecked in expensive jewels and caked with makeup might attract attention, but often they are not attractive, Pearl," she advised. "A pair of earrings, a necklace, should be used to highlight and not overwhelm, and the same is true for makeup. I know that girls your age think it's fashionable and exciting to dab on the eye liner lavishly, but the trick is to emphasize the positive, not smother it."

  "I don't know what's positive about me, Mommy," I said, and she laughed.

  Then she fixed those emerald-green eyes on me and shook her head. "If God had come to me when I was pregnant and said, 'Paint the face you want your child to have,' I couldn't have done better or thought of someone more beautiful than you, Pearl.

  "And you have a wonderful figure, the sort of figure that will make most women green with envy. I don't want your good looks to go to your head. Be modest and grateful, but don't be the insecure little person I once was. That's when people take

  advantage," she cautioned me, and her eyes grew smaller and darker so I knew she was remembering one of the sadder or uglier events of her life.

  Of course, my brothers and I knew that Mommy had been born and brought up in the bayou. Until she was sixteen, her father, after whom my brother Pierre was named, didn't know she existed. He thought her twin sister, Gisselle, was the only child born out of his love affair with Gabriel Landry. He was married at the tithe, but his wife, Daphne, accepted Gisselle and pretended she was her own when my great-grandfather Dumas purchased her from the Landrys and brought her to New Orleans as soon as she was born. My mother's surprise

  appearance on their doorstep sixteen years later nearly exposed the grand deception, but the family concocted the story that she had been stolen immediately after she was born and had returned when the Cajun couple who stole her were struck with a fit of conscience.

  From time to time, Mommy described how difficult life was living with a twin sister and a stepmother who resented her, but Mommy hated speaking ill of the dead. She had been brought up by her grandmere Catherine, who was a Cajun traiteur, a healer who combined religious, medical, and superstitious methods to treat the sick and injured. She believed in spirits. She told me that her grandmere Catherine and Nina Jackson, the Dumas family's old voodoo-practicing cook, would warn her that if she dragged up the dead with these stories, they could haunt us all.

  Mommy didn't try to get me to believe in these things; she just wanted me to respect people who did and not take any chances. Daddy sometimes reprimanded her and told her, "Pearl is a woman of science. She wants to be a doctor, doesn't she? Don't fill her with those tales."

  But when it came to keeping my twin brothers in line, Daddy wasn't above trying to scare them with Mommy's stories. "If you don't stop running up and down those stairs, you'll wake up the ghost of your evil aunt, and she'll haunt you when you sleep," he warned. Mommy would turn a twinkling eye of reprimand at him, and he would go sputtering off, com. plaining about a man's home no longer being his castle.

  "I wish you and Daddy hadn't decided on such a big party for me, Mommy," I said as I rose to get washed and dressed for the work ahead. Daddy had hired one of the famous New Orleans jazz bands to play on the patio. He had a pastry chef from one of the finer restaurants to make desserts, and he had employed waiters and waitresses. He had even contracted with a film company to record the affair. He was doing so much for my graduation, I couldn't imagine what he would do for my wedding.

  But then, I couldn't imagine getting married, either. I couldn't envision having my own home and raising my own children. The responsibilities were so enormous. But what I really couldn't imagine was falling so deeply in love with someone that I would want to spend the rest of my life with him, see him every morning at the breakfast table and in the ev
ening at the dinner table, go everywhere with only him, and be so beautiful and so desirable all the time that he would want to be only with me. I had had boyfriends, of course. Right now I was going steady with Claude Avery, but I couldn't envision spending my life with him, even though he was one of the handsomest boys at school, tall with dark hair and silver blue eyes. Many times Claude had told me he loved me and waited for me to say the same about him, but all I could muster was "I like you very much, too, Claude."

  Surely love had to be something different, something more special, I thought. There were many mysteries in the world, many problems to be solved, but none seemed as impossible as the answer to the question What is love? My girlfriends hated it when I challenged their dramatic declarations of affection for one boy or another, and they were always accusing me of being too inquisitive and looking at things with microscopic eyes.

  "Why do you have to ask so many questions?" they complained, especially my best friend Catherine Didion. Catherine and I were different in so many ways, it was hard to understand why we were so close, but perhaps it was those very differences that attracted us. In a way it was our curiosity about each other that kept us so interested in each other. Neither of us fully understood why the other was the way she was.

  "It's not such a big party," Mommy said. "Besides, we're proud of you, and we want the whole world to know it."

  "Can I see my portrait this morning, Mommy?" I asked. Mommy had painted a picture of me in my graduation gown. She was planning to unveil it tonight at our party, but I had yet to see the finished work.

  "No. You have to wait. It's bad luck to show a portrait before it's completed. I have a little touching up to do today," she said, and I didn't protest. Mommy believed in good and bad gris-gris, and never wanted to tamper with fate. She still wore the good-luck dime that Nina Jackson had given her years ago. It was on a string around her right ankle.

  "Now I'd better go speak to those brothers of yours to be sure they don't make a nuisance of themselves around this house today."

  "Will you help me decide what to wear and do my hair later, Mommy?"

 
    The Heavenstone Secrets Read onlineThe Heavenstone SecretsWillow Read onlineWillowHouse of Secrets Read onlineHouse of SecretsSecrets in the Shadows Read onlineSecrets in the ShadowsDelia's Heart Read onlineDelia's HeartFalling Stars Read onlineFalling StarsOlivia Read onlineOliviaMidnight Flight Read onlineMidnight FlightMidnight Whispers Read onlineMidnight WhispersPearl in the Mist Read onlinePearl in the MistDarkest Hour Read onlineDarkest HourSecrets of the Morning Read onlineSecrets of the MorningHidden Leaves Read onlineHidden LeavesBrooke Read onlineBrookeRuby Read onlineRubyHeartsong Read onlineHeartsongMusic in the Night Read onlineMusic in the NightFlowers in the Attic Read onlineFlowers in the AtticMayfair Read onlineMayfairThe Forbidden Heart Read onlineThe Forbidden HeartHidden Jewel Read onlineHidden JewelButterfly Read onlineButterflyGathering Clouds Read onlineGathering CloudsGates of Paradise Read onlineGates of ParadiseCeleste Read onlineCelesteDark Angel Read onlineDark AngelShattered Memories Read onlineShattered MemoriesTarnished Gold Read onlineTarnished GoldSecret Whispers Read onlineSecret WhispersHoney Read onlineHoneyEye of the Storm Read onlineEye of the StormDonna Read onlineDonnaScattered Leaves Read onlineScattered LeavesThe Mirror Sisters Read onlineThe Mirror SistersCat Read onlineCatChild of Darkness Read onlineChild of DarknessRunaways Read onlineRunawaysDark Seed Read onlineDark SeedChristopher's Diary: Secrets of Foxworth Read onlineChristopher's Diary: Secrets of FoxworthBlack Cat Read onlineBlack CatApril Shadows Read onlineApril ShadowsRaven Read onlineRavenRain Read onlineRainPetals on the Wind Read onlinePetals on the WindAll That Glitters Read onlineAll That GlittersTwisted Roots Read onlineTwisted RootsWeb of Dreams Read onlineWeb of DreamsRose Read onlineRoseChristopher's Diary: Echoes of Dollanganger Read onlineChristopher's Diary: Echoes of DollangangerInto the Garden Read onlineInto the GardenJade Read onlineJadeSecrets in the Attic Read onlineSecrets in the AtticSecret Brother Read onlineSecret BrotherWhitefern Read onlineWhitefernFallen Hearts Read onlineFallen HeartsHeaven Read onlineHeavenWhispering Hearts Read onlineWhispering HeartsSeeds of Yesterday Read onlineSeeds of YesterdayDawn Read onlineDawnCinnamon Read onlineCinnamonBroken Wings Read onlineBroken WingsStar Read onlineStarBeneath the Attic Read onlineBeneath the AtticIf There Be Thorns Read onlineIf There Be ThornsRoxy's Story Read onlineRoxy's StoryMy Sweet Audrina Read onlineMy Sweet AudrinaThe End of the Rainbow Read onlineThe End of the RainbowDelia's Crossing Read onlineDelia's CrossingForbidden Sister Read onlineForbidden SisterBroken Glass Read onlineBroken GlassCloudburst Read onlineCloudburstDaughter of Darkness Read onlineDaughter of DarknessTwilight's Child Read onlineTwilight's ChildMelody Read onlineMelodyIce Read onlineIceOut of the Rain Read onlineOut of the RainLightning Strikes Read onlineLightning StrikesGirl in the Shadows Read onlineGirl in the ShadowsThe Silhouette Girl Read onlineThe Silhouette GirlCutler 5 - Darkest Hour Read onlineCutler 5 - Darkest HourHidden Jewel l-4 Read onlineHidden Jewel l-4Cutler 2 - Secrets of the Morning Read onlineCutler 2 - Secrets of the MorningWildflowers 01 Misty Read onlineWildflowers 01 MistySecrets of Foxworth Read onlineSecrets of FoxworthHudson 03 Eye of the Storm Read onlineHudson 03 Eye of the StormTarnished Gold l-5 Read onlineTarnished Gold l-5Orphans 01 Butterfly Read onlineOrphans 01 ButterflyDollenganger 02 Petals On the Wind Read onlineDollenganger 02 Petals On the WindSage's Eyes Read onlineSage's EyesCasteel 05 Web of Dreams Read onlineCasteel 05 Web of DreamsLandry 03 All That Glitters Read onlineLandry 03 All That GlittersPearl in the Mist l-2 Read onlinePearl in the Mist l-2Casteel 01 Heaven Read onlineCasteel 01 HeavenHudson 02 Lightning Strikes Read onlineHudson 02 Lightning StrikesCasteel 04 Gates of Paradise Read onlineCasteel 04 Gates of ParadiseThe Umbrella Lady Read onlineThe Umbrella LadyDollenganger 04 Seeds of Yesterday Read onlineDollenganger 04 Seeds of YesterdayRuby l-1 Read onlineRuby l-1DeBeers 02 Wicked Forest Read onlineDeBeers 02 Wicked ForestDeBeers 05 Hidden Leaves Read onlineDeBeers 05 Hidden LeavesDark Angel (Casteel Series #2) Read onlineDark Angel (Casteel Series #2)DeBeers 01 Willow Read onlineDeBeers 01 WillowAll That Glitters l-3 Read onlineAll That Glitters l-3The Unwelcomed Child Read onlineThe Unwelcomed ChildShadows 02 Girl in the Shadows Read onlineShadows 02 Girl in the ShadowsWildflowers 05 Into the Garden Read onlineWildflowers 05 Into the GardenEarly Spring 02 Scattered Leaves Read onlineEarly Spring 02 Scattered LeavesLogan 02 Heartsong Read onlineLogan 02 HeartsongShadows 01 April Shadows Read onlineShadows 01 April ShadowsShooting Stars 02 Ice Read onlineShooting Stars 02 IceSecrets 02 Secrets in the Shadows Read onlineSecrets 02 Secrets in the ShadowsGarden of Shadows (Dollanganger) Read onlineGarden of Shadows (Dollanganger)Little Psychic Read onlineLittle PsychicCasteel 03 Fallen Hearts Read onlineCasteel 03 Fallen HeartsShooting Stars 01 Cinnamon Read onlineShooting Stars 01 CinnamonCutler 1 - Dawn Read onlineCutler 1 - DawnLogan 05 Olivia Read onlineLogan 05 OliviaFallen Hearts (Casteel Series #3) Read onlineFallen Hearts (Casteel Series #3)Dollenganger 05 Garden of Shadows Read onlineDollenganger 05 Garden of ShadowsHudson 01 Rain Read onlineHudson 01 RainGemini 03 Child of Darkness Read onlineGemini 03 Child of DarknessLandry 01 Ruby Read onlineLandry 01 RubyEarly Spring 01 Broken Flower Read onlineEarly Spring 01 Broken FlowerBittersweet Dreams Read onlineBittersweet DreamsDeBeers 03 Twisted Roots Read onlineDeBeers 03 Twisted RootsOrphans 05 Runaways Read onlineOrphans 05 RunawaysShooting Stars 04 Honey Read onlineShooting Stars 04 HoneyWildflowers 04 Cat Read onlineWildflowers 04 CatHeaven (Casteel Series #1) Read onlineHeaven (Casteel Series #1)DeBeers 06 Dark Seed Read onlineDeBeers 06 Dark SeedDeBeers 04 Into the Woods Read onlineDeBeers 04 Into the WoodsShooting Stars 03 Rose Read onlineShooting Stars 03 RoseOrphans 03 Brooke Read onlineOrphans 03 BrookeA Novel Read onlineA NovelSecrets 01 Secrets in the Attic Read onlineSecrets 01 Secrets in the AtticLogan 04 Music in the Night Read onlineLogan 04 Music in the NightCutler 4 - Midnight Whispers Read onlineCutler 4 - Midnight WhispersGemini 01 Celeste Read onlineGemini 01 CelesteCage of Love Read onlineCage of LoveEchoes in the Walls Read onlineEchoes in the WallsLandry 02 Pearl in the Mist Read onlineLandry 02 Pearl in the MistCasteel 02 Dark Angel Read onlineCasteel 02 Dark AngelDollenganger 03 If There Be a Thorns Read onlineDollenganger 03 If There Be a ThornsEchoes of Dollanganger Read onlineEchoes of DollangangerOrphans 04 Raven Read onlineOrphans 04 RavenBroken Wings 02 Midnight Flight Read onlineBroken Wings 02 Midnight FlightWildflowers 03 Jade Read onlineWildflowers 03 JadeLandry 05 Tarnished Gold Read onlineLandry 05 Tarnished GoldCutler 3 - Twilight's Child Read onlineCutler 3 - Twilight's ChildCapturing Angels Read onlineCapturing AngelsLogan 03 Unfinished Symphony Read onlineLogan 03 Unfinished SymphonyOrphans 02 Crystal Read onlineOrphans 02 CrystalWildflowers 02 Star Read onlineWildflowers 02 StarGates of Paradise (Casteel Series #4) Read onlineGates of Paradise (Casteel Series #4)Hudson 04 The End of the Rainbow Read onlineHudson 04 The End of the RainbowDollenganger 01 Flowers In the Attic Read onlineDollenganger 01 Flowers In the Attic