«Well, it should be. For heavens sake, Serena, think about it!» Shelby insisted. She moved around the room with short, brisk strides, compulsively straightening things that didn't need straightening. «The place will have to be sold eventually. Here we have a buyer ready to hand us money on a platter, and I can tell you as a real estate professional, they don't come along every day. There's nothing but good in this for everyone, and Gifford is standing in the way just to be stubborn!»
«He's worked this land all his life,» Serena pointed out calmly, playing the devil's advocate out of habit and necessity. «He doesn't want to see it all wiped away.»
Shelby stopped her fussing and shot her sister a narrow sideways look, her mood flashing from businesslike to petulant to shrewd. «He's manipulating you.»
Serena didn't argue the point; it was true. She was too caught up watching her sister's chameleon qualities, at once fascinated and horrified by the rapid changes. They pointed toward problems Serena found herself wanting to deny.
«He's just that way,» Shelby went on, absently rearranging things on the dresser to suit her own tastes. «He's in his glory now, holding all of us hostage. He's a stubborn old man.»
«Would you give up your children for the sake of someone else's livelihood?» Serena asked.
Shelby turned toward her, offended and incredulous. «Give up my children? Don't be ridiculous! Of course not, but it's hardly the same thing.»
«It is to Giff. This land is as much a part of him as we are. Why should he be expected to give it up?»
Shelby's face flushed and she stamped her foot on the rug. Her hands balled into fists at her side. «Because it's what everyone else wants! Because it's going to happen anyway. For pity's sake, why doesn't he just give in?»
«Because he's Gifford.»
«Well, something has to be done, Serena,» she announced vehemently as she resumed pacing. «He's just being unreasonable and it's hurting us all. I told you I thought he was going senile and I believe it. And I'm not the only one who thinks so.»
Serena thought back to Burke's threats of a competency hearing and frowned at her twin. She refrained from pointing out that a man who had the ability to manipulate so many people so neatly couldn't possibly be senile. Instead, she simply said, «I will not see Gifford declared incompetent, Shelby. Don't even think about suggesting it.»
«It would serve him right,» Shelby said sourly, her lower lip jutting forward in a pout.
Serena was appalled by the suggestion and the attitude that accompanied it. She may not have been especially close to or fond of her sister, but still she didn't want to believe her own flesh and blood, her own twin, capable of such callous selfishness. She stared at Shelby now, disgust and disbelief stark on her face. «I can't believe your greed would push you to something so ugly.»
Shelby's eyes flashed wildly. Serena thought she could almost hear her sister's control crack. «Greed? Greed!» Shelby shouted, stepping toward Serena. Her lovely ivory complexion turned a mottled red. Every muscle in her body seemed to go rigid. «How dare you accuse me of greed! You're the greedy one! You and Gifford. Greedy and selfish! I want only what's best for everybody!»
Right, Serena thought. Businesswoman of the Year. Mason in the legislature. A healthy bank account and the unending gratitude of those who would profit from the deal. She didn't say any of those things, however. She stood silent, staring at her sister, a sick churning in her stomach.
Shelby paced back and forth along the length of the bed, huffing and puffing like a toy train. «Isn't this just like you?» she said bitterly. «You waltz in from Charleston and take Gifford's side just to please him and then you'll waltz back out and not give a damn that you've ruined everything for everyone else. You won't have to deal with it. You don't live here. You don't care. The rest of us have responsibilities here.»
«You don't seem to feel any responsibility toward Gifford or your family home or the environment,» Serena pointed out, knowing she would have been better off saying nothing. But she couldn't seem to find the cool restraint she used when confronted by an overwrought patient. She couldn't maintain objectivity with her own family, and the only way she could distance herself from them was in the physical sense. The minute she came back here she felt sucked into an emotional maelstrom, a thick familial quicksand that pulled her down from her safe perch above it all. It was a humbling experience and an exhausting one. She gave in to it now as her temper rose and her control slipped away.
«You know what the petrochemical industry has done down here already,» she argued. «Fouling land and water-«
«Feeding people, providing jobs, keeping towns alive-«
«-elevating the cancer rate, destroying animal habitat-«
«Oh, for the love of Mike!» Shelby threw her hands up in exasperation. «You sound like those lunatics up in Oregon, or wherever they are, harping on the loggers for scaring off a bunch of owls that don't have sense enough to go live someplace else. And all for a place you hate to begin with!»
Serena pulled herself back from the ragged edge of anger and sighed, crossing her arms defensively. «Just because it's not a place I like to be doesn't mean I want it wiped off the face of the earth. There are people who still make their living out there, you know.»
Shelby sniffed indignantly. «Poachers and white trash. If you ask me, Tristar would be doing us all a favor getting rid of them.»
Serena rolled her eyes. «A very charitable attitude.»
«Practical. Practical,» Shelby reiterated with a decisive nod. She calmed visibly as she put on her businesslike persona again, folding her hands primly in front of her. «It's the practical thing, Serena. And if you have no interest in staying here anyway, I don't see why you don't just side with us and get it over with. It's best for everyone. It's best for Gifford, if you come right down to it.
«He's seventy-eight years old and he's got a heart condition, for heaven's sake,» she said, warming to this new angle of showing concern for someone else. «He shouldn't be out in the cane fields. He shouldn't have to worry himself sick over the weather and the insects and the price of diesel fuel and whether or not that old John Deere is going to make it another season. He should be taking it easy. He shouldn't have to think about anything but going fishing with Pepper and swapping stories with the men down at Gauthier's.
«He almost went bankrupt last year, you know,» she added, looking genuinely saddened. «Many more things go wrong this year and he will. What good will all his stubborn pride do him then? It would kill him to go under. He can avoid it now, go out with dignity.»
Serena said nothing. Her sisters arguments were valid. They made perfect sense. They were neat and tidy and left no loose ends-except Gifford's hearts desire and the fate of Lucky's swamp. And how did one compare those things to the fate of a town? Was two hundred years of heritage more important than two hundred fifty jobs? Were a few jobs worth ruining a delicate wilderness that could never be replaced?
«I don't know,» she murmured half to herself.
She sat down on the foot of the bed and leaned against a slender post, twining her arm around it like a vine. She stared at her reflection in the mirror above the dresser, looking for answers that weren't forthcoming. She felt as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, and all she wanted to do was shrug it off and walk away, but she couldn't. She couldn't walk away from Chanson du Terre or her need to please Gifford or her complicated relationship with her sister.
«I don't know what to do,» she whispered, a feeling of bleak desolation yawning inside her like a cavern.