Chapter 8

Day 2

Beauregard Mansion
Breakfast

 

True gratification.

 

 

 

Ethel Beauregard was still outwardly mourning the deaths of her two sons, her father-in-law, and the subsequent murder of her husband, which she herself committed. The dining room was such a painful memory that she closed it off and forbade anyone to go into the room or even open the doors. Whenever she ate, she had Katherine, her faithful Negro cook and friend, bring her meals to the east terrace, which faced the Mancini mansion. The memory of the day they had all died like actors in a Shakespearean play haunted her dreams and continued the pursuit during her waking hours.

A little more than a month had passed, and as far as she was concerned, that was sufficient time for a refined Southern Christian lady to get past her feelings over the profound loss of her favorite son, Beau.

She and Beau had a special bond from the moment she birthed him. Even though he and Blue were identical twins, Beau had always been her pick, just as Blue had always been her husband’s pick. Beau had been such a precious kid. Unlike Blue, he was obedient to a fault and did whatever she asked, with one exception—he married Piper Carrington, whose reputation for being easy was legendary among the blue blood New Orleans aristocracy. She had begged Beau not to marry the rich tart, but she knew there was no chance of him ever giving her up the day she heard them making love in the bed she slept in.

While she had never known sexual pleasure other than by self-stimulation, Ethel was very familiar with the throaty sounds that touched bedroom walls everywhere. It always puzzled her that other women received what sounded like indescribable pleasure when she never did. Not one time. The first time she’d heard a woman’s howl was when she was six years old. Nearly every night, her mother’s moans found their way through the walls and echoed in her ears. She didn’t know what her father was doing to her mother at the time, but she knew her mother enjoyed it nevertheless. So when she heard Beau’s throaty sighs that day, she knew her boy would never give up whatever Piper was doing to him in her bed.

Ethel had tried to disrupt the relationship from the very beginning. It all started in church one Sunday morning after Beau had delivered a particularly stirring sermon about the evils of fornication, and how far reaching its destructive force was. After the concluding prayer, an invitation to become one of Jesus’ disciples was extended, and Piper Carrington sauntered down the center aisle. She was wearing a white dress and veiled sunbonnet when she gave her life to Jesus. The members of Grace Holiness Church applauded politely, but no one believed her conversion was sincere.

Ethel thought Piper was seeking respectability, something that true believers like herself received as long as they demonstrated their conversion with righteous living. But when she warned Beau of her suspicions, he rejected her motherly intuition and wisdom. The more she tried to steer him away from the Jezebel, the more he was drawn to Piper’s seductive wiles. Piper constantly maneuvered Beau into having church picnics and barbeques, and a myriad of church functions she created: All were carefully constructed to elicit his presence, where she could worm her way into his heart.

Ethel was so troubled by Beau’s decision to ask for her hand in marriage that she decided to do some maneuvering of her own. She knew of Blue’s ability to seduce silly women, and began speaking glowingly of Piper in his presence, knowing full well that Blue was rotten enough to bed her, which was what Ethel wanted. When she saw how Piper looked at Blue when she thought no one was looking, Ethel knew he was close to bedding her, and set up a situation where Beau could walk in on them. Once Beau caught her howling with his brother, she believed that revelation would turn his blind heart from Piper and back to her. Ethel had already picked a lovely young Christian woman who would be the perfect wife and mother her favorite son needed. And it didn’t hurt that the woman came from a refined, well-to-do family of aristocrats with old money.

Ethel’s plan worked marvelously. Blue had bedded Piper. She noticed that during family gatherings, of which she made sure there were plenty, the secret lovers tended to disappear for twenty minutes or so, and then all of a sudden, they were both back at the family gathering, smirking like honeymooners who had saved themselves for marriage. Ethel let it go on for a couple of months, long enough for them to get stupid and take crazy chances to be together. She let them believe they were smarter than everybody else.

On a particular Fourth of July weekend, Ethel made sure Piper would have to be in the house by assigning her the task of baking the potato rolls. She believed they would think it was a providential opportunity to devour each other. When she saw them sneak off to the house, she knew what they were up to. After waiting for what she thought to be sufficient time to begin the sordid intertwining, she sent Beau into the house to get her fan, which was in the basement—their supposed love nest.

But as Beau approached the house, Ethel saw Morgan, their college educated Negro butler, coming out the back door. She watched Morgan and Beau talk for more than ten minutes, laughing about something Morgan was saying. While the two men continued their exhaustive chattering, Piper came out of the back door. Ethel watched Beau say something to Piper, and she went back into the house and later came out with her fan.

Ethel often wondered if Morgan knew what was going on and thought he was doing Beau a favor by stopping him from catching the two lovers in the act. She never found out if Morgan knew about the affair, but it made no difference because Piper and Blue never tried to sneak off again at a Beauregard family function. None of it mattered now, though. All the Beauregard men were dead—Piper too. And while she would never acknowledge it aloud, with the exception of Beau, she was glad they were all dead because they were all good for nothing fornicators that got what they deserved. True gratification.