Pearl in the Mist (Landry 2)

"Louis! What did he want?"

"He wanted to speak to you. I told him why you couldn't come to the phone and he became very . ."

"Very what, Mrs. Penny?"

"Nasty," she said, with obvious amazement. "I tried to explain how I had no control over the situation, how it wasn't in my power to change things, but he . ."

"But he what?"

"He just started to scream at me and accuse me of being part of some conspiracy headed by Mrs. Ironwood. Honestly," she declared, shaking her head, "1 never heard such talk. Then he slammed the phone down on me. It's given me the shakes," she said, embracing herself.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Mrs. Penny. As you said, you don't have any say in the matter."

"Of course, I've never heard him speak before. I. . ."

"Just forget about it, Mrs. Penny. After my period of punishment, I'll try to reach him and see what it was he wanted."

"Yes," she said, nodding. "Yes. Such anger. I feel . . . so shaken," she concluded and walked off.

"What do you suppose he wanted from you?" Abby asked.

I shook my head. "I can understand why he feels it's all a conspiracy. His grandmother and the Iron Lady control every moment of his life, especially whom he sees. Mrs. Ironwood made it clear to me she wasn't happy that I went up there for dinner," I said.

But whatever control Mrs. Clairborne and Mrs. Ironwood had enjoyed over Louis seemed to be weakening, for early the next morning, Mrs. Penny returned to my room to announce a new turn of events. She was obviously very impressed and excited about it. Abby and I had barely finished dressing for breakfast when she was at our door.

"Good morning," she said. "I had to come right down to tell you."

"Tell me what, Mrs. Penny?"

"Mrs. Ironwood has called me directly to tell me you will be permitted to go out for two hours this morning."

"Go out? Go where?" I asked.

"To the Clairborne plantation house," she said, her eyes wide.

"She will let me go out and she will let me go to the plantation?" I looked at Abby, who seemed just as amazed as I was. "But why?"

"Louis," Mrs. Penny replied. "I imagine he's insisting on seeing you today."

"But maybe I don't want to see him," I said, and Mrs. Penny's mouth dropped. "I could never get permission to see my boyfriend, who won't be able to come up here now for two weeks and who would have had to drive for hours, but I can be permitted to go up to the plantation house. These Clairbornes play pretty fast and loose with other people's feelings--picking people up and putting them back down again as though we're only pieces on their personal

chessboards." I complained and sat back on my bed.

Mrs. Penny wrung her hands and shook her head. "But . . . but this must be very important if Mrs. Ironwood is willing to bend the punishment somewhat. How can you not want to go? It will only make everyone even angrier at you, I'm sure," she threatened. "They might even blame it on me."

"Oh, Mrs. Penny, they can't blame anything on you."

"Yes, they can. I'm the one who didn't tell them that you had left the campus in the first place, remember?" she reminded me. "That's what started all this," she wailed.

The cloud of fear under which everyone at Greenwood lived disgusted me. "All right," I relented. "When am I supposed to go?"

"After breakfast," she said, relieved. "Buck will have the car out front"

Still unhappy and annoyed, I changed into something more appropriate and went to breakfast with Abby. When Gisselle heard where I was going after breakfast, she threw one of her temper tantrums at the table, stopping all other conversation and drawing everyone's attention to us.

"No matter where you go or what you do, you become Little Miss Special. Even the Iron Lady makes special rules for you and not for everyone else," she complained.

"I don't think Mrs. Ironwood is doing anything for me or is very happy about it anyway," I replied, but Gisselle only saw one thing: I was being permitted to break out of my imprisonment. _