The Seven Boxed Set Read online

  The Seven Series Books 1-3

  1970, 1972, and 1973

  Sarah M. Cradit

  Copyright © 2018 Sarah M. Cradit

  All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, at “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

  * * *

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Design by Sarah M. Cradit

  Editing by Lawrence Editing

  * * *

  Publisher Contact:

  [email protected]

  www.sarahmcradit.com

  Preface

  Welcome to the Seventies. A time many would call the most formative and pivotal of the last hundred years, where the world was on the verge of everything. If you’re my father, you’d say these first few years of the decade were the best time for music—ever. If you’re a reader of my House of Crimson & Clover series, then you’ll know that the ’70s is when the mothers and fathers of the Crimson & Clover generation came of age themselves. Where they made the decisions that would shape a future full of love and pain in equal measure.

  You don’t need to have read The House of Crimson & Clover to read The Seven Series. This series stands on its own merits, a snapshot in fascinating time. In fact, I might even say that I’m envious of those readers who get to experience Colleen, Charles, and the others for the first time as the individuals they were before they were leading their own families. If you have read HoCC, you’ll see how the characters you love in the present became who they are.

  In full disclosure, I was not alive in the ’70s. Although I was raised on the remnants of the era, including a steady diet of Crosby, Stills, & Nash, I did not live through this fascinating period in our history. To stay as true as possible to the era, I consulted people who did—including my own father, George Klepach, who was truly a man of his time. Another valuable resource for me was photographer and author Deborah Burst, who not only came of age in this era, but in New Orleans, where this series comes to life. Also, to the many others I solicited in my crowd-sourcing who helped me to get the slang, clothing, food, and other things dialed in—I sincerely thank you. The internet was sometimes a great help, and other times not helpful at all, when it came to searching for what stores were on what streets, in what neighborhoods, in certain years. If there wasn’t a Schwegmann’s on Tchoupitoulas in 1970, for example, well, that’s entirely my bad. I researched everything, but not everything had information available, so I made some educated guesses within context. As such, I want to be clear that any errors are my own.

  Since the day I penned the histories of this fascinating family, I’ve wanted to write this series. The origins of the seven Deschanel children, each distinctive in their own ways, has long been a part of the series canon, and now I’m sharing it with you. I adore origin stories, and hope you’ll love this one as I do. Then again, I’m the reader who wishes J.K. Rowling would write that series about The Marauders already…

  With all that said, enjoy the ride.

  Also by Sarah M. Cradit

  Kingdom of the White Sea

  The Kingless Crown

  The Broken Realm

  and more

  THE SAGA OF CRIMSON & CLOVER

  * * *

  The House of Crimson and Clover Series

  The Storm and the Darkness

  Shattered

  The Illusions of Eventide

  Bound

  Midnight Dynasty

  Asunder

  Empire of Shadows

  Myths of Midwinter

  The Hinterland Veil

  The Secrets Amongst the Cypress

  Within the Garden of Twilight

  House of Dusk, House of Dawn

  * * *

  Midnight Dynasty Series

  A Tempest of Discovery

  A Storm of Revelations

  * * *

  The Seven Series

  1970

  1972

  1973

  1974

  1975

  1976

  1980

  * * *

  Vampires of the Merovingi Series

  The Island

  * * *

  Crimson & Clover Lagniappes (Bonus Stories)

  Lagniappes are standalone stories that can be read in any order.

  St. Charles at Dusk: The Story of Oz and Adrienne

  Flourish: The Story of Anne Fontaine

  Surrender: The Story of Oz and Ana

  Shame: The Story of Jonathan St. Andrews

  Fire & Ice: The Story of Remy & Fleur

  Dark Blessing: The Landry Triplets

  Pandora's Box: The Story of Jasper & Pandora

  The Menagerie: Oriana’s Den of Iniquities

  A Band of Heather: The Story of Colleen and Noah

  The Ephemeral: The Story of Autumn & Gabriel

  Banshee: The Story of Giselle Deschanel

  For more information, and exciting bonus material, visit www.sarahmcradit.com

  Contents

  1970

  The Seven in 1970

  Spring 1970

  Prologue: Irish Colleen and the Seven

  1. The Altruist and the Adherent

  2. Fortunate Son

  3. Daydream Believer

  4. A Night to Remember

  5. The Heir, the Spare, and the Affair

  Summer 1970

  6. The Lines of Blanche and August

  7. Fire & Rain

  8. You Stupid Girl

  9. It Only Stops When it Hits the Wall

  10. Huck, What Have You Done?

  Fall 1970

  11. Disappearing

  12. The Protector

  13. White Rabbit

  14. One Less Witch

  15. The Measure of a Man

  Winter 1970

  16. But Then What?

  17. Through the Chasm

  18. We Are Not Partners

  19. Dream a Little Dream of Me

  20. The Letter

  Epilogue: Irish Colleen and the Seven

  1972

  Preface

  The Seven in 1972

  Spring 1972

  Prologue: Irish Colleen and the Seven

  1. Love is the Answer. What was the Question?

  2. A Curse by Any Other Name

  3. Virgins and Super Freaks

  4. The Odd Bird

  5. Everything is Changing

  Summer 1972

  6. I See You

  7. Sleeping Dogs and All That

  8. I’m Gonna Marry Him One day

  9. Everyone Just Dies

  10. I Know What You Did

  Fall 1972

  11. Prepare For the Worst

  12. A Careful Dance of Words and Intentions

  13. The Mighty Steed

  14. Nights in White Satin

  15. Peace is at Hand

  Winter 1972

  16. She Needs Her Sister

  17. You Can Close Your Eyes

  18. Two Sides of the Coin

  19. Never That Simple

  20. Stairway to Heaven

  Epilogue: Irish Colleen and the Seven

  1973

  Preface

  The Seven in 1973

  Spring 1973

  Prolog
ue: Irish Colleen and the Seven

  1. Elizabeth Has An Idea

  2. A Major in Dance

  3. Why Wait?

  4. #1 Guy

  5. To Change the Future

  Summer 1973

  6. Made in the USSR

  7. Friend of a Friend

  8. For the Sake of All

  9. Only Lunch

  10. It’s That Time

  Fall 1973

  11. Tantra

  12. Strange Bedfellows

  13. The Necklace

  14. The Agreement

  15. The Walk

  Winter 1973

  16. The Attempt

  17. The Compromise

  18. The Assault

  19. The Answer

  20. I’m Giving it Back

  Epilogue: Irish Colleen and the Seven

  Also by Sarah M. Cradit

  The Family

  Homes & Properties

  Crimson & Clover Connections

  About the Author

  1970

  The Seven Book 1

  The Seven in 1970

  Children of

  August Deschanel (deceased) &

  Colleen “Irish Colleen” Brady

  * * *

  Charles August Deschanel, Aged 20

  Augustus Charles Deschanel, Aged 19

  Colleen Amelia Deschanel, Aged 18

  Madeline Colleen Deschanel, Aged 17

  Evangeline Julianne Deschanel, Aged 16

  Maureen Amelia Deschanel, Aged 14

  Elizabeth Jeanne Deschanel, Aged 11

  For Madeline

  SPRING 1970

  * * *

  NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

  Prologue: Irish Colleen and the Seven

  Colleen Deschanel, known as Irish Colleen to her family and friends, peeked her head into the bedrooms of her seven children at Oak Haven, one by one, as she did every night of her life.

  When she swung the door open into the room of her oldest, Charles, she was met with an empty room and unmade bed. Of course he was gone. He was always gone, even when he was here. At what point would the shock of his perpetual absence become less acute? Would it ever not feel like disappointment, like failure? She sighed with her whole body. Whatever indiscretions littered Charles’ life on this night, they weren’t happening under this roof. Sometimes she wondered if it was simply better not to know.

  Next, she checked on Augustus, whose face, softly glowing under a dim lamp, was pressed into one of his many business textbooks. He flashed her a brief, sweet smile before returning to his work. Augustus, who was far more like his father than Charles, who should have been the heir, but tradition reigned over reason.

  Her boys, her only boys, could not be more different. Her heart ached for them both, for those differences, for much more.

  At Colleen’s room, she was not surprised to see her eldest daughter turned in for the night, her bedtime set to perfect precision. She didn’t have to wake her to ask if her homework was finished, because she wouldn’t be sleeping with any tasks uncompleted. Colleen, her easy one. Too easy. Easy lightened the stress, but it did not always find a path to happiness.

  Madeline was next. Irish Colleen paused before knocking. If August were still alive, he would understand her hesitation. He would feel her fears and read them without word, fully understanding how one day she expected to open the door and find Madeline gone, never to return. Her late husband could read a person like that, and sometimes Irish Colleen hated the intrusion, but mostly she grudgingly appreciated how it meant she rarely had to explain herself.

  But Madeline was there, sitting cross-legged on her bed, flipping through a stack of records. Still dressed, her bell bottoms sagged over the edge of her comforter, long past her gaudy platform heels. You’ll break your neck one day. Madeline acknowledged her with a quick, sharp look, but the wounds of their last fight still burned too hot, and she dropped her eyes again.

  Evangeline’s snores carried into the hallway, echoing off the ancient oak of the old Victorian. Evangeline always slept like a rock, and Irish Colleen suspected it was because her daughter’s brain exhausted her. She was a genius, tested and all, and Irish Colleen was not, so she did not know how to handle her curious, high-wired child with the wild hair and thoughts. There was no one to ask. No one to help.

  Irish Colleen’s hand paused on her bedroom door, and then she went on, to Maureen, who, like Madeline, was also not speaking to her at present. That God had blessed her with five girls was undoubtedly penance for her sins, but she loved them all, even when they couldn’t find it within themselves to love her back.

  Maureen was mercifully asleep, but Irish Colleen still blew a kiss across the air. Their thing, when they weren’t too angry with one another to have a thing.

  As always, Irish Colleen stopped last at Elizabeth. Her youngest, Lizzy, fell into the role of the consummate baby of the family without much effort. Her need for solitude troubled Irish Colleen, but not near as much as the moments Elizabeth clung to her, helpless and afraid. Every night was a roll of the dice as to what awaited when she came to tuck her in.

  All her children possessed peculiar gifts, but none as potent or as tormented as Elizabeth’s.

  Moonlight spilled through the dormer window and onto the floor before her youngest daughter’s room. This nightly sight often put Irish Colleen’s anxious heart at ease. As a devout Catholic, she knew there were signs everywhere, and this was God telling her he would pick up in protecting Elizabeth where Irish Colleen’s limits stretched beyond their earthly capability. God punished, but he also provided. Protected.

  Irish Colleen slipped inside the bedroom. Her heart seized at the sight of Elizabeth sitting bolt upright in her bed, drenched in her own sweat. Her hair and nightgown clung to her, hitching in weird places. Her hands twisted in her lap as she rocked.

  Lord, she is too young to carry such burdens. She’s only eleven. This is no childhood.

  But Elizabeth’s burden was not a gift from God, and Irish Colleen knew that, just as her other children’s abilities were not. An eleven-year-old who could divine the future was no blessing, but it was surely a curse. If Irish Colleen spent too long considering this, she knew precisely who sent such gifts.

  “Mama.” The words fell from Elizabeth’s lips with hardly a sound.

  “Baby.” Irish Colleen gathered her sweet girl in her arms. With one hand, she lifted the soaking nightgown off Elizabeth’s body, and with the other, she felt around in the drawer beside the bed for a clean shift. Elizabeth sat in limp retreat as her mother changed her like an infant, despite that her body had begun to shift beyond the innocence of childhood.

  There was nothing she could do to dry the hair quickly, so she pulled in behind Elizabeth and went to work on braiding her long, thick hair. “Why didn’t you call me in?”

  “I knew you’d come.” Elizabeth sagged in front of her.

  Of course you did. “Do you want to talk about what happened today? At school?”

  Elizabeth tensed. “Charles is in trouble.”

  Irish Colleen held her sigh. Diversions were common with Elizabeth, a defense mechanism that proved perpetually troublesome for her both in school and at home. “When is Charles not in some kind of trouble?” she said. “Unless you’re telling me he’s in immediate danger? Right this moment?” She stopped her fingers. “Is that what you’re saying?”

  Elizabeth hung her head. “No, Mama.”

  “No, I didn’t think so.” Irish Colleen resumed her plaiting. “I can tell, Lizzy, the difference between when you really see something and when you want me to stop asking questions. Right now, you want me to stop asking questions. Don’t you?”

  Elizabeth’s chest heaved with a heavy sob.

  “But we both know I would never be angry with you for something you can’t control. Your teachers, the kids at school, they don’t understand. But I do, Lizzy.” August, damn you. You died and left me to cultivate who they are, and when you were alive you never
wanted to talk about it. You passed these gifts to them, and you should be the one having these talks. Guiding them through the pains.

  “Mrs. Larsen told me…” Elizabeth swallowed down her emotion and pulled her shoulders back. Irish Colleen’s brave girl. “She said I could tell her anything.”