Chapter Sixteen
Laffite found her note while rearranging his
pillows looking for the cause of the jasmine scent working havoc with his
desire. He drank too much wine and stayed talking to his men too late. The
dinner itself was strained as his men were trying to ignore the recent goose
chase on which they had been led.
They were weeks in the Atlantic before they
realized there was no English merchant ship carrying gold bullion into the
Carolinas. Lafitte excused it as bad
timing… they had missed the ship or possibly it had passed un-notice in the fog
one night. Lafitte knew though… he knew
he had been duped and by whom. The man
who told him of the ship was a good man and not up for mischief, otherwise
Lafitte would never have sailed into the unfortunate lie. Sadly, Lafitte discovered after the fact, the
man was told by a very worthy source in Port-au-Prince. A merchant Captain with an outstanding reputation
had not realized he was talking to one of Laffite’s men when he stupidly let
the news drop about the gold. He was the Captain of Le Celestine. The Captain
was very distraught and swore the man to secrecy when he realized his ‘mistake’
in talking out of school.
That
son of a bitch, muttered Laffite to himself. Dubois may get the rooster out of his henhouse, but he couldn’t get
the rooster out of her head that easily.
Then insult to injury, he found she was in his very bed and his men had
not seen or heard her come or go. She left her scent on his pillow, and it
spoke volumes, that would have to be enough for now. He opened the note:
Jean dear,
My husband is
home and I find I will be too busy pleasuring him every day, and every evening
to visit with you.
Our time was
nice and you were kind to keep me from boredom, but I have my man now.
Au revoir.
Mme. Captain
Maurice Dubois.
She was bloody magnificent. He would have
trouble sleeping for days.
Between the two of them, he should give up,
but it is not over until someone’s dead and he had plenty of time. He would not tweak the captain again, he had
met his match and it could cost him his lively hood and the respect of his
crew. Captain Dubois’ wife,
however… well… he would wait… her coming
into his world alone and pressing her face to his pillow was not something a
woman did out of anger, no matter how much she tried to convince herself. She could tell herself whatever she wanted,
but he knew her better than she knew herself. He had loved, angered and
placated his fair share of women, and she was one of the best.
He was home a week when he ran into Captain
Dubois in a saloon on rue Royalle-Bourbon.
They were standing at either end of the long bar and neither knew the other was
there until the patrons standing between left.
“Captain Laffite.” Maurice acknowledged the man. Several customers witnessed the exchange and
rushed from the bar. The whole town knew
the rumors of the handsome pirate and Dubois’s beautiful wife.
“Captain Dubois.” Laffite did not like
awkward moments in his life, he lived an organized existence and planned his
every move. It was one of the reasons he
could run his illegal businesses and not be caught and jailed… except for once,
and he felt that was political.
“How do you find our weather, sir?” Maurice would play with him a while, the news
would get back to his wife before he returned home, so he wanted to give the
messengers time.
“It’s a bit too warm for me, Captain. May I buy you a cool drink?” He would be
careful here. He never confronted a
powerful husband, most of his bedroom adversaries were milksops who could not
or would not keep tabs on their wives, or powerful husbands it amused the
pirate to make a cuckold. He had no intentions of getting into hand to hand
combat with this man as he was powerful, but had no intentions of being a
cuckold.
“No, thank you, I’m wanted home to… dinner…
with my wife. Maybe another time, sir?”
“Of course.” Laffite picked up his hat.
“Captain Dubois?”
“Yes.” He stopped to turn back to the
pirate. It was all he could do not to ram his fist into the man’s face.
“Are we even, then?”
“I’ve no idea what you mean, sir.” His smiling blue eyes said he did indeed know
what he meant. Maurice certainly was not
going to admit to the Terror of the Gulf that he had put the man’s ship in
harm’s way to keep him out of his wife’s bed. That was so revealing on so many levels,
it was ridiculous.
Laffite had never envied a man as much as
he envied this pompous ass, and he did not like the feeling. It was not over until a death. Laffite could wait. He was much younger than
Dubois.
Maurice loved taking Celestine and little
Philippe for walks around the city. They
would visit all the shops and buy things they needed, with Maurice introducing
his son with the pride of all new papas.
He never told his wife, but these outings were his statement to Jean
Laffite that the Dubois family would never buy the contraband products of a
pirate. His money would only go to the
New Orleans’ businessmen’s purses.
These were some of the dearest days for
Celestine. It became their custom when
he was in port, to do their afternoon shopping and visit with people on the
street. Maurice carried Philippe until
he got so big, he insisted on walking.
Exchanging news and gossip with neighbors and friends was a delight for
her husband after spending long months at sea.
He was known as a loving husband and the perfect family man with a
beautiful wife and an adorable little boy.
My dear readers, I hope you have enjoyed the first 16 chapters of Celestine. Please continue reading this novel by going to www.Amazon.com and order either the paperback or a kindle, ebook version.
There are many are seventeen more chapters full of Celestine, Maurice, Jean Lafitte and her growing family of misfits in the big house on rue du Maine
Thank you for following my blog. Once you've had time to finish Celestine, I will post many chapters of "The Hornet Slayer". The second book in the series.
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