Chapter 7
Show Me the Magic……Chocolate?
I woke up just as the sun started to slip under the lace curtains. My body felt as if it had been in an extensive boxing match, and sitting upright proved to be quite a challenge. The first thing that greeted me was the sound of Sabrina snoring; which indicated that either she had found her way back to our room, or Lucus had brought her there sometime during the night. I couldn’t help but shudder at the thought that Lucus had been here while I was sleeping. What if I had been snoring? There I went again. Why did I care?
After taking a quick shower, I blow-dried my hair to relieve some of the inevitable frizz and let it fall free in loose waves that were almost down to my waist. After last night’s elaborate updo, my hair was hurting. Yes, not my head but my hair, a rather strange phenomenon that happened every time I wore it too tightly. Looking into the bedroom mirror, I saw a very tired version of myself. The least I could do was slap on some tinted moisturizer and concealer to spare the guests any possible trauma. After doing so, I found our day-to-day Darkwood uniforms in the closet. As far as uniforms went they were what I had expected. A navy blue skirt that was slightly above the knees and a white cotton shirt with the name Darkwood embroidered on the right-hand side.
Even though we didn’t need to go until nine, and it was only seven, I hoped to catch Ms. Mae before the guests started coming down for breakfast and the day got going. When I got downstairs, I could hear my stomach growl. I was craving a blended, iced chocolate coffee and a chocolate chunk scone from Lola’s. It was my usual breakfast whenever I had to work the morning shift, one of the only perks of the job.
“Ms. Mae,” I called. I entered the already buzzing kitchen, which was filled with the delicious smell of Creole calas, corn fritters, cinnamon rolls and pain perdu. My stomach growled louder as my nostrils were filled with the tantalizing aroma. Seeing that Ms. Mae was nowhere in sight, I decided to help myself to a cinnamon roll, an action that annoyed the baker who was arranging the batch in a woven basket. I didn’t care. As the roll made its way to my stomach, the only thing I could think about was how fantastic it tasted.
“Someone is hungry this morning, what did you do last night?” Ivan asked in his usual condescending tone. His eyes were bloodshot, and his hair looked like he had jumped straight out of bed and rushed downstairs. He was clearly not used to getting up early.
“Nothing, not that it’s any of your business.”
“Did Lucus keep you up all night with his incessant rambling?”
“Okay, what exactly is your problem with Lucus, do you guys have some sort of history or something? Are you secretly in love with him?”
“Hardly.” Ivan took a piece of pain perdu from the counter and started to nibble on it.
“Arelia, I thought you’d be up early,” Ms. Mae entered the room, wearing a flowing green dress and layers of beaded necklaces. She interrupted my attempt at stealing another piece of pain perdu. “Ivan, you are supposed to look presentable for the guests. No one is going to be willing to take any food from you if you run around looking like that. Child, go on upstairs and wash that handsome face of yours. Put on your uniform and take off that ghastly black t-shirt. I can see three holes in it from here.”
“Sure,” Ivan grumbled as he exited the kitchen, leaving Ms. Mae to focus her attention on me.
“Good morning.” I quickly moved my hand away from the pain perdu, but Ms. Mae had already caught on.
“We’re hungry this morning, aren’t we?” she laughed. “I figured as much. Come with me.” She led me through the kitchen’s back door and to a small garden filled with red chrysanthemums. “Sit,” she ordered pointing at a white, square table where breakfast was laid out.
“What are these?” I asked, noticing a stack of boxes in the middle of the table.
“Those are for you,” replied Ms. Mae with a smile on her face. “Go on, have a look.”
Curiosity got the best of me as I grabbed the first, brown box tied with a pink ribbon. “Chocopologie?” I ripped off the bow and opened the box. Inside, there were rows of dark, chocolate truffles laid on a white silk cloth.
“But who?” I asked, already reaching for the next box, which was identical on the outside but filled with white-chocolate truffles in the inside. In less than two minutes, I opened the remaining boxes and found myself surrounded by every sort of chocolate I could imagine, ranging from caramel-shaped hearts to strawberry-truffle seashells. Without even thinking about how they had appeared, I grabbed a fist full and hungrily shoved them in my mouth. I closed my eyes and let the delightful flavors slide down my throat. After I had eaten almost an entire box, I opened my eyes to find Ms. Mae staring at me in amusement.
“I take it that you really have a passion for chocolate?”
“I’ve never tasted any this good before, who sent them? Did you make them? Can I learn how to make them too or maybe you can teach me so that they magically appear?” I stopped talking when I realized what I had said.
“So, you are interested in learning more about your powers, are you now?” Ms. Mae was getting way too excited over something that slipped out.
“After what happened last night, I guess they can come in handy.” I went on to describe what had occurred with Ben and how I had cured the snake bite. Ms. Mae listened in silence while nodding her head occasionally and widening her green eyes as I revealed the details.
“I know what voodoo queen means, but I don’t know what any of this means,” I said as I finished the story.
“It means that you are a very powerful voodoo queen, that’s what it means,” she explained. “For some, it takes extensive offerings and rituals to heal, but you did it so easily.”
“I guess that’s what happened,” I shrugged.
“Are you willing to learn how to develop your powers?” she asked me directly.
“I am if you tell me where these chocolates came from.” I popped another chocolate into my mouth.
“Here, this came with them.” She handed me a small, white envelope which I tore open in a split second. Inside the envelope was a hand written letter that read:
I know it’s not Wonka’s chocolate factory, but I truly apologize if I offended you in any way. That was not my intention. I hope we can start over since you will be spending the summer at Darkwood.
Lucus.
“Typical, a rich kid trying to buy an apology,” I groaned as I threw aside the card, but that didn’t stop me from eating another piece of chocolate.
“Why all of this hostility towards Lucus?” Ms. Mae interrogated.
“It’s nothing.” I didn’t want to get into the disagreement we had last night.
“Well, it must be something to get you all worked up like this.” She had picked up on my angst. “Lucus is a good man with a good heart. He has been through a lot over the years.”
I snorted. “Sure, it must be difficult being Lucus LaPlante.”
“Not everything is as simple as it appears.” Her velvety voice took on a menacing tone which made what she said sound even more cryptic. “Promise me that you will at least attempt to get along with him. He may just surprise you.”
“Okay, sure. I guess. I do work here after all.” What was with all of the mystery around this place?
“So, I take it that I can now trust you with this.” She handed me a thick book with a brown leather cover and the words LaRue written on it.
“What is it?” I eyed it suspiciously as she handed it to me.
“All of the spells and potions that us LaRue women have used over the years. I want you to read through it. I expect you to be down here every day at seven sharp, so we can start your training.” She was joking right?
“Training? This isn’t Hogwarts, is it?”
“Very funny, Arelia. By the way, a school like Hogwarts does exist in Scotland. One of my best friends attended it.”
“Are you kidding?”
“I assure you, I am not.” He
r smile vanished, and her normally soft expression turned severe.
“Okay. I’ll take your word on that and see what this training thing is all about.” Her pretty face broke out in a smile and in an instant she looked years younger.
“Fantastic. I will put this book in your room for you, so you don’t have to carry it around.”
“Grand-mere Bea isn’t going to be happy about this though.”
“Your grand-mere will understand. She can’t protect you forever; you are strong enough to protect yourself, anyways,” counseled Ms. Mae.
“I guess.” I couldn’t help feel like I was somehow betraying her, though. If she hadn’t spoken to Ms. Mae for years, she must have had a pretty good reason. Although, your sister secretly asking the voodoo spirit of love to bless your grand-daughter and your grand-daughter ending up with weird powers are pretty solid reasons.
“You go on and finish your breakfast, have some fruit and drink some freshly squeezed orange juice to balance out all of that chocolate you just ate,” Ms. Mae advised as she rose from the delicate wired chair. “Guests will be down any minute for breakfast, and I need you girls to keep an eye on things and accompany them on the plantation tour. Where is Sabrina this morning?”
“Probably still sleeping,” I answered, remembering her Hurricane and lingerie-fueled attempt at seducing Lucus last night, which may have worked.
“No, I’m not, I’m right here,” chirped Sabrina walking into the garden. It wasn’t even nine, and the girl had on four layers of makeup complete with fake eyelashes and cherry red lipstick. She had cut our uniform skirt so it was at least four inches shorter and accessorized it with her favorite cheetah print booties even though it was already oppressively hot and humid.
“Child, where are you off to?” Ms. Mae was not aware of Sabrina’s quest to conquer Lucus.
“Oh, you know, just trying to look my best for the guests,” Sabrina replied as she grabbed a cinnamon roll from the table.
“Are you sure you’re going to be comfortable walking around in those all day on these grounds?” Ms. Mae was skeptical because she didn’t know the distance Sabrina would go to get what she wanted.
“Please, I do it all the time. In fact, these were the booties that accompanied me to Japan, when I went up Mount Fuji.” What she meant was when she took a helicopter tour around part of Mount Fuji.
“You girls have ten minutes before you need to greet the guests for breakfast. Henri will meet you on the front lawn. Since it’s such a hot day, we decided to host breakfast outside.” Ms. Mae left us and went back into the kitchen.
“Last night was amazing,” Sabrina’s voice was muffled as she gobbled down her roll.
“What happened?” I asked, even though I knew the answer.
“We just talked all night, and then,” she giggled, “let’s just say that my plan worked, and I know he feels the same way about me.”
“Really?” It was clear that she was lying. I had been there, and when I left she had been passed out. “What did you talk about?”
“You know: the places we’ve traveled to, our favorite brands. Things you find boring.”
“Must have been an intense conversation,” I ignored her comment. I didn’t think traveling was boring; I just never had the money to go anywhere.
“Oh my God, where did these come from,” she noticed the boxes of chocolates on the table. “I love Chocopologie.”
“I don’t know, they were there this morning,” I lied.
“Lucus must have sent them for me. Was there a letter?” Her eyes frantically searched the table.
“No letter.”
“Awww, he wanted to surprise me,” she opened a box and ate a handful of my chocolates. “You can have some too, Arelia.”
“Thanks.” Why was I keeping the fact that I had been there last night a secret? I guess I didn’t want to embarrass Sabrina and call her out on passing out in Lucus’s bed. That was all I rationalized. Besides, Sabrina deserved happiness, and if Lucus was the one to bring it to her why should I interfere.
“We have to go,” I advised as I gulped down the rest of my orange juice and coffee, a strange but satisfying combination.
“But I’m not done eating,” she whined. I gave her an annoyed glance. “Fine.” She gobbled down the rest of the pain perdu, and we made our way to the front lawn.