Page 29 of Nineteen Eighty

“Thank you…” Joseph waited for the name.

“Johannes,” he replied. “I work with Evangeline.” He smiled and shook his head. “I love her.”

Evangeline’s chest ripped in half once more. Tears sprang to her eyes, blinding her. When Johannes folded her into his strong frame, she not only allowed it, she welcomed it, disappearing into the comfort and safety of someone else.

“Come, darling,” he whispered and led her back to the pew, next to Joseph. “Let us pray some more for Cassie, and then we can do what is needed of us.”

After, the three of them sat in a private room to discuss what came next.

None of them had any experience with this. When Joseph’s wife had died, her mother had swooped in to make the arrangements. Evangeline had been too young to deal with any of the deaths that had come her way. Johannes still had both his parents, and all his siblings.

“Do you… do you have a place for her?” Evangeline asked. Her voice cracked under the pressure of the day. She drew a sip of water, and when she set it down, Johannes laid a steady hand over her shaking one.

“A place?”

“A family plot or anything?”

Joseph shook his head.

“Okay. That’s okay.” An idea jumped into Evangeline’s head, and to her it was lovely and perfect, but she couldn’t guess how Joseph might take it. “I have a family tomb in New Orleans. We have a few, actually, but the one I’m talking about is everyone in my immediate family and our ancestors. There’s room… there’s always room, with the way these are set up, which is interesting, really, but maybe not a topic for today.” Evangeline tore at her wild hair. Why was she rambling? “Cassie was my sister. She has a place there, if you’d be comfortable with that.”

Joseph looked off into the corner of the strange conference room, with wood paneled walls and matching tables and chairs. It seemed a good place to lose one’s mind. “I would, Evangeline. That’s very thoughtful. Thank you.”

“And I’m taking care of the expenses,” she said in a rush. “I won’t take no on that. I know she didn’t have life insurance, and she never let me help her when she was here, so I get to do it now, when she can’t say no to me this time.”

Joseph glanced up. He surprised her when he chuckled. “I might even have a mariachi band play. She’d just love that, wouldn’t she?”

Evangeline returned the laugh. Cassie loved everyone and everything, but she had some strange exceptions, and mariachi music was among those things she couldn’t abide. That, cheese on salads, and Ronald Reagan.

Imagining a Second Line down St. Charles with the band playing mariachi instead of jazz gave Evangeline the first real joy since she’d landed in Washington.

“I’ll make the calls,” she said. “Where are you staying?”

Joseph gestured around. “I was staying here. In her room.”

Evangeline shook her head. “I’ll book you at the Four Seasons. With us.” She turned to Johannes. “You have to get back?”

“No. I’m here as long as you’ll have me.”

“It might be a week or two. We need to get Cassie to New Orleans, and then the service, and—”

Johannes lifted her hand to his mouth. “As long as you’ll have me. Tell me how I can help.”

“When we go… it will be secret. I’m not planning to tell my family I’m there. I can’t… not right now. Not on top of all of this.”

“Okay.”

“I want you to meet them, but not like this.”

“Not amidst the chaos and the grief.”

Evangeline nodded. “Yes.”

“Whatever you need.” Johannes looked at Joseph. “And you. I am at both of your service.”

CHAPTER 10

Love Will Tear Us Apart

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