Rising Tides Read Online Free PDF Page A

been thrown from side to side. Decades had passed, many more than he cared to think about, but he still remembered that moment of terror when he had realized that his life was about to be transformed, that something more than a plane had been set in motion and couldn’t be halted.
    On the front gallery, he knocked and waited. At the sound of footsteps he waved to his driver, who had al ready deposited his suitcase by the front door. The young man promptly backed down the drive and disappeared with a squeal of Spencer’s own tires. Spencer held himself erect—a considerable feat—and stood back as Pelichere Landry came outside to greet him. She was a stout woman with the dark hair of her Acadian ancestors and an unswerving and clear-eyed devotion to Aurore Gerritsen. She, and her mother before her, had taken care of the Gerritsen family for as long as Spencer had known any of them.
    “I’m glad to see you standing there,” he said. “I didn’t know who would be here.”
    “ Mais yeah, I can tell that.” Pelichere stepped away from him so that she could get a better look.
    He felt her appraising gaze and tried to stand a little straighter. “I’m fine.”
    “You don’t look so fine.”
    “Before I get any surprises, you’d better tell me. Is anyone else here yet?”
    “Dawn’s up in her room. I made her eat. Ben Towns end, he came. He went.”
    “He’ll be back,” Spencer said.
    “The others are coming? Still?”
    Spencer nodded.
    “Aurore, she always did what she thought was best. Even when it wasn’t.” Pelichere picked up Spencer’s suitcase. “Your room’s ready, and there’s coffee in the kitchen.”
    The sound of a car engine chased the lure of both from Spencer’s head. He turned as a dark, sleek Lincoln came to a halt under the oaks. “The senator,” he said, although he was sure Pelichere already knew that.
    “Me, I’ve got other fish to fry.” The door banged shut behind Pelichere, and Spencer was left alone to greet Ferris Lee and Cappy Gerritsen. He watched as Ferris got out to open the door for his wife.
    Ferris Lee Gerritsen wasn’t classically handsome. He was barrel-chested and broad-shouldered, with a high forehead and gray hair that was still thick enough to require a good haircut. His nose had been broken more than once, and the arrogant thrust of his chin had invited punches, too.
    But what was the exact shape of a nose, the cut of a jaw, compared to personal magnetism? He had eyes that crackled with patriotic fervor and a resonant voice that could stroke or destroy. Combined with a rare understanding of the hopes andprejudices of his constituents, his charisma could usher him into the governor’s mansion in 1968.
    Cappy Gerritsen, blond and petulant, was dressed as if she were setting out for an afternoon of bridge and gossip. Her white linen shift stopped just above her knees, but it wasn’t short enough to be in poor taste. Many things could be said about Cappy, but never that her taste was poor.
    Ferris wasted no time on pleasantries. He spoke be fore he reached the porch. “Maybe we can get down to business before this place is blown to Hades and back.”
    “I listened to the forecast on my trip down,” Spencer said. “There’s nothing to worry about yet. Maybe not at all.”
    “I’ve tried to reach you a dozen times in the last few days.”
    “Have you?” Spencer knew full well that a dozen was a low estimate.
    “I don’t understand the point of this. I’m supposed to be in Baton Rouge this week. Why couldn’t we read the will in New Orleans?”
    “I’d rather talk about the reasons when everyone’s here.”
    Ferris’s expression had been anything but cordial; it grew less so. “And just who’s expected?”
    “I’d like to know if my daughter’s arrived,” Cappy said, before Spencer could answer.
    “Dawn is here, though I haven’t seen her yet.”
    “Well, at least she hasn’t entirely forgotten she has a family.”
    Spencer watched