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"Thank you, Aubrey. Let me check on Pearl first, Beau." I ran upstairs and found her fast asleep. Mrs. Ferrier came out of the adjoining room to tell me everything was fine. Then I went down to the office and called Paul while Beau sat on the sofa.

"It's worse than we thought," he said in a voice so low and dejected, I thought I was listening to a stranger. His words were a little distorted, too, suggesting he had been drinking. "My doctor says it's the worse case he's ever encountered. She went into severe epileptic seizures and now she's in a deep coma."

"Oh no, Paul. What does the doctor say now?"

"He told me that if she did live, he's almost certain she would have permanent brain damage and, most likely, persistent epilepsy."

"How horrible. What do you want to do?"

"What is there for me to do? For any of us to do? It's what you and Beau hoped for, isn't it?" he said with an uncharacteristic note of bitterness.

"No," I said in a small voice.

"What do you mean, no? Didn't you tell me how you once went to a Voodoo Mama to get a spell cast on her?" he said. Why did he have to remind me?

"That was a long time ago, Paul, and I regretted it immediately afterward."

"Well, apparently that spell is still working. I'm happy for the two of you," he said.

"Paul. . ."

"I have to go now. I have something to do," he said, and hung up, before I could say another word.

"What is it?" Beau asked, seeing me holding the phone and staring. My heart was pounding and I felt as if the blood had drained from my face.

I told him what Paul had said about Gisselle's condition.

"I don't understand. It's not any different than I first described to him."

"He didn't believe it. I know he was hoping he would get her cured and thus bring me back," I said.

"What's he going to do?" Beau asked.

"I don't know. He sounded so strange to me, Beau, not like Paul. I think he'd been drinking."

"He made a commitment to us," Beau said firmly. "I'm going to hold him to it."

He got up quickly to embrace me, and I laid my head on his shoulder. He kissed my hair and stroked it gently as he kissed me again, whispering soothing words into my ear.

"It will be all right. Everything's going fine. It's meant to be," he insisted, but Paul's words had made my blood run cold and drain down to my ankles.

"I can't get rid of this sick feeling in the base of my stomach, Beau. I love you and I want to be with you and I want Pearl to be with you, but it's like a dark cloud hovers above us always, no matter how blue the sky."

"That feeling will pass," he promised. "Just give yourself a chance."

"I think we better go see Paul next week, Beau. We would bring Pearl back to see him anyway, wouldn't we?"

"I suppose," he said, but I saw he didn't like the idea.

Every day for the next few days, I called Paul to see how things were. Most of the time, he was not at home. The servants told me he was at the hospital holding vigil. At first he didn't return any of my calls, and then, when he did, he sounded stranger and stranger. I almost didn't recognize his voice the last time we spoke.

"She remains in a deep coma. There's talk now of putting her on a machine to breathe," he said in a voice that seemed devoid of feeling, the voice of someone who had had all the emotion drained out of him until he was just the shell of his former self.

"Paul, you're wearing yourself down. James told me you're hardly ever home anymore. You spend day and night at the hospital."

"A man should be at his wife's side at times like these, don't you think?" he asked, followed by a chilling little laugh. "He should be at her bedside, holding her hand, talking softly to her, pleading, begging, encouraging her to snap out of the coma, if not for his sake, for the sake of their child. Everyone at the hospital understands. They all feel so sorry for me. The nurse even cried herself today. I saw her wiping the tears away," he said.

For a moment it was as if I were the one who couldn't breathe. I felt my chest turn to stone, my heart freeze within. I tried to swallow and to speak, but I couldn't. I heard him sigh.