She let herself into the house and immediately saw the spill of light from Odette's room. Even as she approached, Lena heard the quick thump-thump of Rufus's tail on the floor.

She stepped to the doorway, cocked her head. Odette was sitting up in bed, a book open on her lap, the faithful dog curled on the floor.

"What are you doing up so late?”

"Waiting for my baby. I didn't think you'd be back for another hour or more.”

"Business was light enough to spare me.”

Odette patted the side of the bed in invitation. "You took off early because you were worried about me. You shouldn't.”

"You used to tell me worrying was your job." Lena lay down on top of the sheets, her head in the curve of her grandmother's arm. "Now it's mine, too. I'm sorry she hurt you.”

"Oh, baby, I think that must be her job. God knows she's good at it." Odette stroked Lena's hair. "I got you, though. I got my Lena.”

"I was thinking what it was like for you and Grandpapa to raise a baby after you'd already raised your own.”

"You were nothing but pure pleasure to both of us.”

"It made me think about how the Manets brought your grandmama back here when she was a baby. You remember her pretty well, don't you?”

"I remember her very well. You've the look of her. You've seen the old pictures, so you know that.”

"Did she ever say how the Hall should've been hers?”

"Never heard her say anything like. She was a happy woman, Lena. Maybe happier here than she would've been in the Hall, had things been different. She had a fine hand with baking, and that she passed to me. She told good stories, too. Sometimes when I'd come spend time with her, she'd make them up just like they were real. I think she could've been a writer if she'd wanted that for herself.”

"She m/'ve thought of her parents, and the Manets. No matter how happy she was here, she m/'ve thought of them.”

"I expect so. She used to take flowers to her papa's grave. Took them every year on her birthday.”

"Did she? You never told me that.”

"Said she owed him life-hers, her children, her grandchildren. She even laid flowers on the graves of Josephine and Henri Manet. Though she never stopped there to say a prayer. And she did one more thing on her birthday, every year until she died. She took flowers and tossed them into the river. And there she said a prayer.”

"For her mother, you think?”

"She never said, but that's what I think.”

"And do you think that's where Abigail is? In the river?”

"Some say.”

Lena raised her head. "I'm not asking some. I'm asking you.”

"I know sometimes I walk along the bank, and I feel an awful sadness. And I think, sometimes, old souls search for new life. And keep searching until it comes out right. What're you searching for?”

Lena laid her head down again, closed her eyes. "I thought I'd found it. Now I'm not so sure. He loves me, Grandmama.”

"I know he does.”

"If I love him back, everything changes.”

Odette smiled, leaned over to shut off the light. "It surely does," she murmured and continued to stroke Lena's hair. "It surely does.”

As host of Remy's bachelor party, Declan felt socially obligated to stay till the bitter end. The bitter end was some dingy, backstreet dive in the Quarter where the liquor burned holes in what was left of a man's stomach lining and the strippers were woefully past their prime.

Nobody seemed to care.

In the spirit of good-fellowship, Declan tucked a final dollar in the frayed garter on a flabby white thigh, then hauled a glassy-eyed Remy to his feet.

"Let's go, pal of mine.”

"Huh? What? Is it morning?”

"Close enough.”

As they stumbled out, arm in arm as much for necessity as friendship, Remy looked around. His head bopped like a puppet's on a jerked string.

"Wherez everybody?”

"Passed out, in jail, dead in an alley.”

"Oh. Wimps." Remy grinned his rubber grin. "You 'n me, Dec, we still got it.”

"I'm starting a course of antibiotics in the morning to get rid of it." He tripped and had to wrap both arms around Remy to keep from falling on his face. "Too much gravity. There's entirely too much gravity out here.”

"Let's go find us another naked woman.”

"I think we found all of them already. Time to go home, old buddy, old pal.”

"I'm getting married in three days." Remy held up four fingers to demonstrate. "No more carousing for Remy." He looked around. The streets were nearly deserted and oily with the light drizzle. "Do we have to bail anybody out?”

"Screw 'em.”

"Damn right. Where's my girl? Effie!" He shouted it, and the name echoed back, making Declan snort drunkenly.

"Stella!" Cracked up by his own wit, he sat down hard in a puddle. "Fuck it, Remy. Let's just sleep here.”

"Gotta go find my girl, gonna make sweet, sweet love to my Effie." "You couldn't get it up right now with a hydraulic pump.”

"Bet?" Remy fumbled for his zipper, and Declan had just enough brain cells left to stagger up and stop him.

"Put that thing away before you hurt yourself. Get us arrested for decent exposure.”

"'S okay. We're lawyers.”

"Speak for yourself. Find cabs. We must find cabs.”

"Cab to Effie. Where's my blushin' bride?”

"Home in bed, like every other good woman is at …" He lifted Remy's wrist, tried to focus on the watch. "Whatever o'clock in the morning. Lena, she's in bed. She thinks I'm a woman.”

"You must not be fucking her right then.”

"No, you ass. And remind me to punch you for that later. She thinks I'm Abigail.”

"You haven't been trying on her underwear or anything weird like that, have you, son?”

"I like the little black lace panties with the roses best. They slim down my hips.”

"Pretty sure you're joking. Wait." He stopped, leaned over the curb, hands braced on his knees. Then slowly straightened again. "False alarm. Not gonna puke.”

"There's good news. Cab!" Declan waved desperately when he saw one cruising. "In the name of God. You first," he said and all but shoved Remy inside before diving in after.

"Where do I live?" Remy demanded. "I used to know, but I forgot. Can I call Effie and ask her?”

Fortunately Declan remembered, and as Remy snoozed on his shoulder, he concentrated on remaining conscious until he fulfilled the last of his duties and got his friend home alive.

At the curb, he elbowed Remy and brought him up like an arrow from a bow. "What? Where? Sum bitch, I'm home. How 'bout that?”

"Can you make it from here?" Declan asked him.

"I can hold my liquor. All six gallons of it." Shifting, Remy caught Declan's face in his hand and kissed him hard on the mouth. "I love you, cher. But if you'd been Abigail, I'd've slipped you some tongue.”

"Ugh," was the best Declan could manage as Remy climbed out.

"You're the goddamnedest best friend I ever had, and that was the goddamnedest best bachelor's party in the history of bachelor's parties. I'm gonna go up, puke, and pass out now.”

"You do that. Wait till he gets in the door," Declan told the driver, and watched Remy waver, split in two. Both of them stumbled inside the building.

"Okay, the rest is his business. You know where the old Manet Hall is?”

The driver eyed him in the rearview mirror. "I guess I do.”

"I live there. Take me home, okay?”

"That's a long way out." The driver shifted, turned, eyed Declan up and down. "You got enough for the fare?”

"I got money. I got lotsa money." Declan pawed through his pockets, came up with bills, littered the cab with them. "I'm loaded.”

"You're telling me." With a shake of his head, the driver pulled away from the curb. "M/'ve been some party, buddy.”

"Tell me," Declan muttered, then slid face first on the backseat.

The next thing he knew, clearly, a Dixieland band was blasting in his head. He was still facedown, but the beach of Waikiki had ended up in his mouth and his tongue had grown a fine fur coat.

Some sadist was hammering spikes into his shoulder.

"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners.”

"No point falling back on that now. Just roll over nice and slow, cher. Don't open your eyes yet.”

"I'm dying here. Call a priest.”

"Here now, Lena's got you." Gently and with great amusement, she eased him over, supported his head. "Just swallow this.”

He glugged, choked, felt something vile wash over the fur, through the sand and down his throat. In defense, he tried to push the glass away from his lips, and opened his eyes.

He'd go to his grave denying the sound that had come out of his mouth had in any way resembled a girlish scream.

Lena clucked her tongue. "I told you not to open your eyes.”

"What eyes? What eyes? They've been burned to cinders.”

"Drink the rest.”

"Go away, go very far away, and take your poison with you.”

"That's no way to talk to someone who's come to tend you on your deathbed.”

He slid back down, dragged a pillow over his face. "How'd you know I was dying?”

"Effie called.”

"When's Remy's funeral?”

"Fortunately, he's marrying a woman with a great deal of tolerance, understanding and humor. How many titty bars did y'all hit last night?”

"All of them. All the titty bars in all the land.”

"I suppose that explains why you have a pasty on your cheek.”

"I do not." But when he groped under the pillow, he felt the tassel. "Oh God. Have some mercy and just kill me.”

"Well, all right, honey." She applied just enough pressure to the pillow to have him flapping his hands and shoving up.

His face was flushed, his bloodshot eyes just a little wild. "That wasn't funny.”

"You had to see it from this side." And she laughed. He still wore his clothes, the wrinkled, liquor-spotted shirt half in, half out of his jeans. Another pasty peeked out of the shirt pocket. This one was pink and silver. His eyes were narrowed to a pained squint.

"You're going to feel better in a bit-not good but better. You get a shower and some food, on top of that potion I poured into you, you'll get the feeling back in your extremities in two, maybe three hours.”

Someone had shaved the fur off his tongue, he discovered. He wasn't sure it was an improvement. "What was in that stuff you gave me?”

"You don't want to know, but I laced it with four aspirin, so don't take any more for a while. I'm going to fix you a nice light omelette and some toast.”

"Why?”

"Because you look so pitiful." She started to kiss him, then jerked back, waving a hand between them. "Christ Jesus, do something about that breath, cher, before you kill someone with it.”

"Who asked you?”

"And make that a long shower. You smell like the barroom floor." She pushed to her feet. "How come nobody's around here today?”

"In anticipation of a hangover, I let it be known that anyone who came around this house before three in the afternoon would be executed without trial.”

She checked her watch. "Looks like you got a few hours yet.”

"If I have to get out of this bed, I'm getting a gun. I'll feel bad about killing you, but I'll do it.”

"I'll be in the kitchen." She cocked a brow. "Bring your gun, cher, and we'll see if you remember how to use it.”

"Is that a euphemism?" he called after her, then immediately regretted raising his voice. Holding his head to keep it in place, he eased creakily out of bed.

She chuckled all the way downstairs. Laughed harder when she heard a door slam. Bet he's sorry he did that, she thought, then stopped, looked back when she heard another two slams.

Ah well … she supposed he couldn't threaten ghosts with a gun.

"Make all the racket you want," she said as she headed back toward the kitchen. "You don't worry me any.”

The library doors shook as she passed them. She ignored them. If a surly, smelly man didn't chase her off, a mean-tempered ghost wouldn't.

He'd looked so damn cute, she thought as she hunted up the coffee beans. All pale and male and cross. And with that silly pasty plastered on his cheek.

Men just lost half their IQ when they had a look at a naked woman. Put a pack of them together with women willing to strip to music, and they had the common sense of a clump of broccoli.

She ground the beans, set coffee to brew. She was mixing eggs in a bowl when it occurred to her that it was the first time in her life she'd made breakfast for a man she hadn't slept with the night before.