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"If all children are like my sister's, I think I'll check into a nunnery," I said. It was almost as if Gisselle had crawled inside me to make these remarks. Beau formed a smile around his lips and his eyes danced with impish delight.

"Yes, well, I think we should go into the dining room. Our dinner is ready," his father said.

"What exactly happened to this Cajun girl?" Beau's mother asked as we walked to the dining room. Beau explained as much of it as he could.

"And you don't expect she will recover?" his father asked.

Beau shot a glance at me before replying. "It doesn't look promising," he replied.

"Well, what do you intend to do with the child? Why don't you just send her back to her father?" his mother suggested. "It was bad enough Daphne and Pierre tried to keep a Cajun girl in their home before."

"He's in a pretty bad way emotionally at the moment, Mother."

"Isn't there any Cajun family to look after her? Really, Beau, you and Gisselle will have your own family someday and--"

"For the time being, it's all right. Isn't it, Gisselle?"

"For the time being," I said. Beau's mother seemed to like that.

"Tell us about your European trip," Beau said, and most of the evening was filled with their descriptions of sight-seeing. Before the evening ended, Beau and his father got into a business discussion and his mother asked if I would like to see some of the things she had bought in Europe.

"Okay," I said with little enthusiasm. If they weren't things bought for Gisselle, she wouldn't care about them. I followed his mother to the master suite, where she showe

d me the elegant new gowns she had bought in Paris, the hats and the shoes. She told me proudly how she had bought things that were only going to come into fashion here in New Orleans this year and then she handed me a present.

"I thought you might like this," she said. "We got it for you in Amsterdam. It's the best place to buy something like that."

I found a diamond tennis bracelet in the box. It was exquisite and I knew quite expensive, but I remembered that Gisselle never really appreciated how expensive these things were and took most everything for granted.

"It's nice," I said, putting it over my wrist.

"Nice?"

"I mean. . . beautiful. Thank you, Mother," I said. Her eyes widened. Apparently Gisselle had never referred to her as Mother. She stared at me curiously. I swallowed hard, my nerve ends twanging.

"Yes, well, I'm glad you approve," she finally said.

"Let's go show Beau," I said, eager not to be alone with her too long. Goose bumps had come and chicken-skinned my arms.

"That's very beautiful!" Beau exclaimed with proper enthusiasm. His father nodded and his mother looked more satisfied.

I felt relieved when the evening finally ended and we left to go home.

"I think I made a faux pas upstairs," I told Beau immediately. "I called your mother 'Mother,' after she gave me the bracelet."

"Yes. Gisselle never called her anything but Madame Andreas or Edith. My mother isn't the type of woman who warms up to other women easily, and Gisselle made no effort to be a real daughter-in-law. But I think you did very well."

"I hardly said a word at dinner."

"Which was the way Gisselle behaved. My father's very old-fashioned. He doesn't mind quiet women, with one exception. . . . He didn't mind Daphne because she was so astute about business. Actually, he was quite taken with her. I think my mother was a little jealous."

I didn't want to say it, but I thought Daphne and Beau's father would have made a good pair.

"Anyway," Beau said. "Another test passed." He squeezed my hand, his eyes happy and shining.

He was right: We were getting away with it. But when we arrived home, we had a message waiting to call Paul.

"He said it was urgent, madame," Aubrey explained.