So several days later than I expected to get back to our hotel room, I was officially liberated from confinement at Belle Amour and returned to the second floor of the Chez Natchez. I was still getting used to the crutches that Doctor Jackson had Bonnie fetch for me, and it took both Dominique and Bret to help get me up the stairs.
Then we had to figure out the sleeping arrangements. Bret and I switched bedrooms because his room was bigger, and there was a settee large enough to use as a bed in it. Other than the fact that my brother mumbled to himself the entire time he and Domino were switching closets, it all went pretty smoothly. Even though I'd been made to feel more than welcome at Belle Amour, it was much more comfortable back at the suite.
"Well, now that we've got you back where you belong, what's the first thing you want me to do?" Domino asked me.
"I want you to go shopping with Bret," I told her, and she turned to stare at me in surprise.
"Whatever for?"
"Bret!"
In just a minute my brother appeared in the doorway to the bedroom. "Whatta ya need, son?"
"I need you to take Domino shopping. She needs some clothes – if she's gonna be my assistant for a while, she needs to look the part. Plus two or three different evening gowns for dining here – and elsewhere. You know how she should be dressed. There was a fancy dress store right next to the tailor – take her there. You can see how they're doin' on our clothes."
Bret looked at my new 'assistant.' "Dominique, would you excuse us for just a minute, please?"
She nodded and left the room, Bret moving inside and closing the door. "What are you doin'?" he asked me.
"Gettin' Domino appropriately attired," I told him.
"You're gonna spend all that money on somebody you barely know?"
"Use your head, man. If I'm gonna sell Belle Amour I have to look like I don't need to sell it. And if my assistant is wearin' the kind of clothes Domino's got now, I'm gonna look like I do need to sell it. That'll cost me money in the end. Besides, she's a beautiful girl. She should have beautiful things at least once in her life. You know how she should dress. Do this for me, huh?"
I could see the doubt in Bret's eyes. I also knew that I'd he trusted my judgement when it came to business decisions, and that's what this was. Strictly a business decision. Finally, he gave in.
"Alright, I'll do this. Then I'm out of it." He grabbed the doorknob and left the room. There was the attitude he'd exhibited the first time he told me he wouldn't go back to Belle Amour. What was going on with Bret? Now that I was back I had to find out.
Domino came back into the bedroom. "Bart, I can't let you do this. You can't buy me clothes."
"Why not?" I asked her in all seriousness.
"It isn't proper."
I almost laughed, then thought better of it. Domino had accepted a job at a parlor house, a bordello, but it wasn't proper for me to buy her clothes. I knew that this was a lady and I would do everything in my power to keep her from working for – me, actually. "Come here and let me explain my reasoning to you, Domino." She sat down next to the bed and I thought about something that hadn't crossed my mind before. "I never asked – do you mind that I call you Domino?"
She blushed a little, for the first time. "No. I think it's . . . . . . sweet."
"While we're here, I want to present a particular – image. Part of that is this hotel suite. Part of it is lookin' affluent – and that includes my assistant. You need to dress the role – and Bret knows what that looks like. It's business, alright? I don't mean to be improper." I was being as vague as I could get away with. For the time being I didn't want to reveal to any of the ladies, including Lonnie, that I was looking to sell Belle Amour. Fortunately, Domino accepted my explanation.
She finally nodded her understanding. "Alright. When you put it like that, I understand. I'll go on one condition."
"What's that?"
"You let me get you some coffee before I go."
XXXXXXXX
They were gone for two hours, and I got both some reading and some thinking done. If I was going to sell Belle Amour (you notice I said if) then I needed to get acquainted with the financial statements and find out who had their hand in the till, because I had the nagging feeling somebody did. Lonnie? For some reason, I didn't think so. Hollister McCann? A much more likely suspect. Maybe even Oscar Wharton himself? If so, it wouldn't be the first time a business owner had 'stolen' from himself.
By the time Domino and Bret returned I was more than willing to try and negotiate the stairs again to get some dinner. Bret was laughing and sounded a whole lot happier than he'd been when he left. Domino seemed quiet but looked pleased. She came in and showed me the 'assistant' clothes that Bret had bought, and they were exactly the type of thing I was looking for.
"What about the gowns?"
"They'll be ready tomorrow. They have to be taken in by the seamstress. We got two black and one – no, I think I'll make you wait until you see it."
Bret ducked his head in the doorway. "You ready for dinner?"
"More than ready."
"I'll go order it."
"No, let me," Domino interjected. "I'm the assistant, remember?"
So Bret and I told her what we wanted and off she went. "She's a sweet girl, Bart. You gonna try . . . . . "
"To talk her outta workin' there? You bet I am."
"I checked with the tailor. Our clothes'll be ready in a couple days."
"Good. By then I might start to look human again."
He sat down and carefully grabbed my chin, turning my head this way and that. I was surprised, it wasn't near as sore as it had been before. "You've looked worse," he so generously told me.
I'd been waiting for a good time to bring this up, and it seemed to have suddenly presented itself. "Bret, somethin's not right with you. And it's got to do with Belle Amour."
"You mean besides the name of the place? Momma's name?"
"Yeah, besides that."
He fiddled with the blanket on the bed and acted like he didn't want to answer me. And in a way, I guess he didn't. I didn't mind that he had something I wasn't privy to, everybody's entitled to their secrets; their own private life. I certainly had mine. It was the fact that it bothered him enough to let it affect our relationship. Except for those few months that I had Caroline, my brother was the most important person in my life, and if something bothered him enough, then it bothered me, too.
I think he was just about ready to tell me, too, when Dominique returned to the suite. She was back quicker than I'd expected. Bret let out a sigh of relief and got up from the chair, ceding it to her. I guess I'd have to wait to find out.