Fool's Gold - Prologue

New Orleans. February, 1851
         The smell of sickness hung heavy in the air of the dimly lit room. Emma cowered further into the shadows behind her mother’s dressing screen and watched the tall figure entered the room. A black cloak of fear threatened to strangle the twelve-year-old as the man approached her mother’s bed.
         Please don’t let him hurt her.
         He placed the tea tray on the table and sat down next to her mother. His fingers gently stroked the damp hair of the sleeping woman. Leaning down, he kissed her lightly on the forehead.
         “Why couldn’t you have left well enough alone?” The raw emotion in the usually stoic voice startled Emma. A tear slid down his cheek and fell onto her mother’s face.
Maybe she had been wrong. Maybe her imagination really had gotten the best of her. No one was poisoning her mother. She was sick just like the doctor said.
         She was about to give up her hiding place when he pulled out the white powder. Emma froze in panic. Powerless to do anything, she watched him carefully measure the arsenic and stir it into the tea. Then he woke up her mother and offered her a cup of the poisoned brew.
         No! Don’t drink it!
         Emma choked back the scream. She dug her teeth into her trembling lower lip and prayed that the drumming of the rain on the window would drown out the thunderous pounding of her heart.
         A long time after he left, Emma climbed into the bed next to her mother and wept.