With One Look
Reviews
"This was an excellent read, one of my all time favorites! It is the most different of all the romances I have read, mostly because the heroine suffers from hysterical blindness and the hero decides to force her to remember her parent's gruesome deaths in order to restore her vision. I won't say what happens, but it kept me turning the pages. It was also pretty steamy in parts—sizzling hot love scenes. Jennifer Horsman's books are wonderful and I wish that she'd continue writing such great stories."
"Couldn't put it down. That's all I have to say."
Summary
Set in New Orleans in the early 1800 just as Americans began influencing trade and culture, here is Jennifer Horsman's most intense and compelling story. Jade Terese Devon is a green eyed enchantress; one of this famous city's most beautiful, charming, vivacious and well loved citizens. Tragically, since the day she witnessed her beloved parent's gruesome and mysterious murder, she is also blind. The murderer was never apprehended. Every time something reminds her of that day, she is struck with a painful seizure and upon waking, she has no memory of it.
Now someone is trying to kill her.
Only Jade Terese could have captured the handsome young shipbuilder Victor Knolte's heart. Strong, willful, richer than a king, only Victor can save Jade Terese, first from an unthinkable slavery and then from dark and threatening past. Yet Jade Terese will never be truly safe until Victor forces her to see again, a violent process that first endanger Jade's very sanity and then imperils the precious love and passion, a passion that began with one look...
The downfall of this book is... too many erotic, love scenes, but readers can just skip them. Too steamy! Otherwise, it is suspenseful page turner!
Excerpt
Chapter 1: A Vision of Horror
New Orleans, 1818
White women were so ridiculous! Abe rolled his eyes with a sorry shake of head as his mistress, Madame Pearl Williams, stepped down from the carriage in front of the inauspicious brick town house in the fashionable district, Vieux Carre. "Oh, I do hope I look well enough," the plump woman said nervously as she patted her neatly chignoned red hair, the hand staying in front of her face to fan it. Gracious! The sun had set and 'twas still so hot. Her face powder was bound to cake if she perspired. "Abraham, I'll just be an hour. You may wait right here."
"Yes'm," Abe said, but with a contemptuous look. Wait right here, she says, as if he was gonna hightail it away and start chasin' the north star to freedom. Visitin' a voodoo queen! Wastin' hard-made monies on a colored woman's flattery and fortune-tellin'.
White women were so ridiculous....
A pretty serving girl led Madame Williams through the flower-filled sitting room to the back, where Marie Saint greeted her warmly. The tall, exotic woman sat regally upon her throne—an ornately carved wooden bench beneath the opened window of her parlor.
Marie Saint's beauty was exceptional, the kind of loveliness that had made New Orleans's quadroons famous. She had a voluptuous figure, always meticulously outfitted in the finest silks and latest fashions. Today she wore yellow silk, trimmed in creamy lace, the pale colors complimenting her flawless skin. She had the perfect diminutive nose and provocative mouth, a stunning smile that lifted easily and often. Her beauty was given a considerable depth by soft, liquid brown eyes. These eyes were almond shaped and deep-set, emphasized by unusual straight brows, and in her presence, one always felt their benevolent scrutiny.
A servant indicated the cushioned seat opposite, and as Madame Williams settled her voluminous weight and silk skirts into the seat, a beautiful Negro girl approached with a giant peacock feather fan. Slowly, rhythmically, she began fanning the air. Another servant stepped forward with a tall cool glass of spiced tea. Madame Pearl smiled widely, and as soon as pleasantries were dispensed, she launched into an explanation of her most current trouble.
Of course, Marie knew everything about Madame Williams, the wife of Monsieur Sam Williams, a landed American gentleman. Madame Pearl's concerns centered on the constant flux and ebb of her social standing, less frequently her family's health. Tonight the Madame's question concerned whether or not to attend the soiree at the neighboring Triche plantation. The problem, it seemed, lay in that it had been less than a year since the youngest of the Triches' daughters had scandalized the parish by running off to Kentucky with a young riverboat man.
A riverboat man! Filthy, uncivilized barbarians! Madame Williams still felt tremors every time she thought about it. She could not imagine a worse fate!
Madame's hand went to her heart as she conveyed this dilemma of potentially devastating social consequences, consequences which depended entirely upon who would accept the invitation and who would not. Like many, she was particularly concerned with Madame Lucretia Josset, the wife of Mayor Etienne de Bore.
"You understand if Lucretia doesn't go, well! 'Twould look very bad on all those who did...."
As the clairvoyant listened intently to the many nuances of the Madame's difficulties, she projected an aura of absolute stillness and calm, much like the glass surface of the sea on a summer's dawn. A surface that concealed a boundless depth. Few could escape the sensation of intense, and yet somehow charitable, attention. Madame Williams found the sensation similar to what she felt in the confession booth, and though she would not want to admit it, she found her monthly visits to Marie Saint's far more beneficial.
Madame Williams was the third woman to consult Marie on this question of the Triche gala. Marie told all of them the same thing: the soiree would be a success; to miss it, an injurious social faux pas, as the entire parish was finally willing to show support for the Triche family and their well-known trials.
The matter had been decided some time ago. Madame Triche, the mother of the riverboat man's wife, had wisely solicited Marie Saint's help before a single invitation had been issued. She had presented the dilemma to the famous seer first, asking if Marie saw the soiree as a success or no—this after mentioning a sizable contribution to the Negroes' charity hospital to one of Marie Saint's most trusted servants. Pleased with Madame Triche's generosity, Marie Saint had assured the Madame her gala would be an enormous success, that she foresaw her neighbors and friends hastening to her side in a demonstration of their love and sympathy.
Once settled, Madame Williams proceeded to solicit a directive on the important question posed by the new tailor in town—Marie's fashion advice always proved as helpful as her health amulets and charms. The beautiful mulatto seemed to direct half of all traffic heading to the tailors, hairdressers, shoemakers and hatters, and always with explicit directions religiously adhered to: "Marie Saint said only Spanish lace would do ..." "Marie Saint swore bodices will be falling and hems will be rising—I want to be the first ..." and so on.
The superficial banality of her patronesses' concerns never elicited a comment from New Orleans's most famous prophet, at least not directly. Such was not Marie Saint's way. Rather, Marie might remind Madame Williams—and the numerous women owning similar sensibilities—of someone who might benefit from the Madame's well-known kindness. She might mention her knowledge of a cruel overseer, or an aging field hand who needed easier work, or the benefits of Sunday passes for their whole slave population. Last month she mentioned that the young Negress Monsieur Williams meant to sell at the market the next Saturday was meant to be the Madame's favorite house servant, who would: "Yes! Mercy but, Madame, I see her one day saving the life of a cherished grandchild ..."
"Oh, my heavens!" the Madame had declared, and before the sun had set, her husband was listening to a lengthy and barely sensible explanation of why his wife must have the young girl in the house...
Marie knew well that every soul forged its own path home. And hers was a difficult road. Especially at times like now, when she saw the tragedy waiting for the good woman before her. Madame Pearl's second and favorite son, Jared, would die in an outbreak of yellow fever. Marie saw Madame's tear-washed face as the dirt fell over the coffin placed forevermore into earth; she felt the woman's grief and its lesson. Madame Pearl would never again worry over an invitation. Her grief would drive her to serious reflection; it would sharpen her understanding, soften her heart as it led her to the true comfort of the Church.
Presently the more benign dilemma was between Lacroix, the four-year dictator of New Orleans fashions, and Dumas, the newer, more innovative tailor in town. Marie decided the matter with a pleased smile. "Dear Madame Williams, I have been made aware that Monsieur Dumas has just received four new fashion plates from Paris—"
Marie stopped mid-sentence and froze as suddenly the third eye opened to the future. Of all the myriad ways her sight worked—the elaborate network of friends and servants who constantly brought information and news to her attention, or the feeling of the emotional content of an event, the dreams and trances, the numerous spirits who spoke to her—the third eye always proved the most significant, powerful, the rarest. A circle of vision opened on her forehead with a startling clarity.
Alarm changed the handsome features of Marie's face; she looked a hairbreadth from screaming. She saw the famous young lady, Jade erese, a look of heart-wrenching terror as a hand reached from behind her, a cloth came over her mouth. Who was it? Who was doing this? The young lady desperately struggled for breath as she frantically sank her nails into the hand and fought with all her strength. Yet Jade was sinking, falling into a blackness.
Flames rose in the blackness and through them Marie saw the gris-gris. Death. The voodoo sorcerer's amulet of death.
Fear had changed Marie's beautiful face and her hands had risen to her cheeks with a silent scream. Then the vision was gone, vanished, and she looked about her familiar surroundings, bewildered. Two servants stepped forward in alarm. Ignoring her patron, Marie whispered: "I must warn Mother Francesca immediately! Jade Terese is in danger!"
