Sara remembered the bottle of absinthe in her hand. Alex must have brought it as a gift. “Oh, did you want me to give this to Gabriel?”

But Alex just shook his head and studied the bottle. “I didn’t bring that. It was sitting on the doorstep when I got here.”

“Oh.” She wished he had. The alternative was too disturbing.

“And Sara, just a little warning. There will be others.”

“Other what?” Gripping the green bottle and her purse, she just blinked at him, her mouth and face hot, palms sweaty. She really needed to lie down.

“Other girls. Women. They can’t resist Gabriel. They all want to coax a smile from him, and they all want to be the one who is special, who manages to get a reaction from him. None of them can though, and they become obsessed with him.”

There had been others, besides Rochelle? With that kind of intense reaction? That was a disturbing thought. Yet she could understand it. She herself had been drawn to Gabriel from the beginning, intrigued by his solitary life, his lonely eyes, his physical beauty. Didn’t she want to think she was special, that he let her in, and her alone?

Alex added, “Don’t let that happen to you, because it really is pathetic.”

She felt a stab of humiliation. Of course it was. As was what she had done on the couch in front of him the night before.

Alex reached out and flicked the label of the absinthe bottle. “I didn’t know Gabriel was back on this shit. Interesting.” He pulled the attached card out to read it. “ ‘In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.’ That’s not a very sexy label for alcohol. It doesn’t make me want to drink a drop. And it’s wrong. Sins are never forgiven, and never forgotten.”

Giving her a smile and a wave, he headed toward the door. “Have a good one, Sara.”

Then he was gone and Sara was left wondering what the hell had just happened.

And with the knowledge that she knew much less about Gabriel than she had thought she did.

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

From the Court Records of
the Willful Murder Trial of Anne Donovan,
State of Louisiana v. Jonathon Thiroux
January 14, 1850

ATTORNEY FOR THE DEFENSE, MR. SWIFT: Mr. Thiroux, describe to us what the room surrounding Miss Donovan looked like when you regained consciousness and discovered her dead.

MR. THIROUX: It was hot in the room and there was a sweet, sickly odor. It was dark, except for moonlight. Anne was lying on the sheet. She must have remade the bed with the intention of going to sleep because I had actually taken the sheet off earlier.

MR. SWIFT: Why did you do that?

MR. THIROUX: It was tattered.

MR. SWIFT: Tattered?

MR. THIROUX: Yes. She had hosted a visitor in her room prior to my arrival and I was offended by the evidence of that.