Midnight Rose (13 page)

“Good.” Arlene rose, signaling the conversation had ended. She was anxious to see about Ben and try once more to comfort Rosa. It was going to be a busy day, and she wasn’t feeling at all well. What she wanted to do was go back to bed and rest her weakened body.

She rang for Roscoe and told him to have Mr. Youngblood’s horse brought to the front door, then walked with him to the foyer. They stood there a moment in awkward silence, neither knowing quite what to say. Finally Ryan felt the need to compliment her. “You’re an incredible woman, Mrs. Tremayne. Not many women could’ve achieved what you set out to do.”

“It depends,” she retorted, “on how driven a person is, Mr. Youngblood.”

“Perhaps. I suppose I’ve just never encountered a woman so desperate to get her daughter married.” Bitterness rang in his voice. No matter how damn much he wanted Erin, the harsh reality was that her mother thought she’d forced him into it, and he didn’t like feeling his pride had been trampled to bits.

“Erin will make you a good wife. Just see that you don’t hold your resentment for me against her.”

“I won’t mistreat her, Mrs. Tremayne, but bear in mind I certainly don’t love her.”

“Of course you don’t. All I expect from you is to treat her well. And remember,” she couldn’t resist adding with a triumphant smile, “I can be a formidable foe.”

He chose to end the verbal warfare and hurried on out.

Arlene took a deep breath, which provoked a little cough, then leaned back against the doorframe to watch him go. She felt a warm, happy glow spread from head to toe.

It was done!

For whatever time she had left on this earth, she could bask in the joy of knowing Erin would be taken care of after she was gone. Ryan was a handsome man, and they would, no doubt, have beautiful children. Maybe the gods would smile on them, and they’d even eventually fall in love.

Smiling to herself with the assurance that when her time came, she could draw her dying breath in peace, Arlene turned, then gasped in sudden, shocked, awareness.

Erin was standing midway down the stairs, and she knew at once by the stricken look on her daughter’s face that she had heard everything.

Chapter Eight

“
How could you?” Erin raged. “How could you do such a thing? Humiliate me this way?”

Arlene reclined against the pillows as she sipped the green horehound juice to stave off a coughing spasm. She’d learned that being upset sometimes brought on the attacks, and it was only with great effort that she controlled herself now. Erin had followed her to her room and was raving like a maniac. It didn’t help that she was already upset over Letty.

“I wish you hadn’t been standing there listening. I wanted to tell you in my own way. When you calm down and think about it rationally, you’ll realize it’s all for the best. He comes from a fine family. He’ll be good to you, and you’ll never want for anything the rest of your life. I couldn’t be more pleased.”

Erin, who had been pacing wildly around, finally sat down on the edge of the bed. “Tell me everything. I’ve got to know how you ever got him to agree to this madness.”

Arlene shrugged as though it were all quite simple. “It’s a matter of honor. He tried to seduce you—”

“How do you know that?”

“It doesn’t matter how I know. The point is, he added insult to injury by asking you to be his mistress. The only way he can redeem himself, save your good name, is to marry you.”

“He probably hates me, because he thinks I was in on your little scheme. Don’t you see? I can’t marry him now. I don’t even want to.

“I’ll admit”—she got up, began to walk around once more—“that I
was
attracted to him in the beginning, but that was before I realized he was only interested in making me his mistress and wanted a little sample of what he’d be getting. The nerve!” She fumed.

“You see? That’s exactly what I mean. He’s insulted you, and now he owes it to you to marry you and restore your dignity.”

“I still have my dignity, Mother. He didn’t get what he was after. He doesn’t owe me anything, and all I want is never to see him again.”

“Be realistic, dear. You have no other options. You have to take a husband. I won’t always be here to look after you, and—”

“I can take care of myself. I’m not like you. I’d never be desperate for a husband, like you were when you married Zachary.”

Arlene winced, and Erin was immediately contrite. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” She took a seat next to the bed and wearily shook her head. “I don’t mean to hurt you. It just seems like the whole world is crashing down around me. First, Letty is dragged off to be sold, God knows where and to whom, and then I find out you’re arranging for me to get married…to a man I happen to loathe.”

Arlene hurried to explain. “I tried to save Letty. I told Zachary you’d promised to end the friendship, and I begged him to give you another chance. I dared to think maybe he would, but I see now his mind was already made up.”

She rushed on, “But please, give up the idea of looking for her. It’s dangerous, and it’s a waste of time. He takes all his slaves he wants to get rid of all the way down into the Carolinas, to make sure they won’t be anywhere around here. If you keep the others stirred up with hopes of going after her, he’s just going to have them beaten when he gets back to settle them down. The thing for you to do now is convince Ben to just keep his mouth shut. It’s over. I’ll do what I can to comfort Rosa.”

Erin said nothing, not about to admit she had no intentions of considering the matter closed.

“And please,” Arlene went on, “reconsider your feelings about Ryan. He’ll make you a good husband.”

Erin saw the desperation mirrored in her mother’s eyes, the way she fought to hold back her tears, but she remained staunch in her avowal. “No. I won’t marry him. I know how much it means to you, but I’m sorry. I just can’t. Not after finding out he never thought I was good enough to be his wife,”
she added bitterly.

Erin spent the remainder of the morning helping tend to Ben’s injuries. His nose was terribly swollen, probably broken. He had a nasty gash on the side of his face, and Tulwah, the old root doctor the slaves depended on to care for them when they were sick or hurt, came to stitch him up expertly with a needle and fine strands of horsehair.

Ben sorrowfully said he couldn’t remember anything. He had awakened only when Rosa started screaming, he explained, and that was when he realized he’d been injured. He figured they had knocked him out so he couldn’t make a fuss when they took Letty. “I’d have fought tooth and nail,” he fiercely assured Erin. “They’d probably have had to kill me.”

“He knew we’d all have tried to stop him,” Erin was quick to point out. “That’s why he did it in the middle of the night. With others, he just marches them off in broad daylight, but Letty was special, and he knew it.”

“Ain’t there nothin’ we can do?”

“We’ll have to wait till Zachary comes back, and then I’ll try and find out where he took her. Till then, just don’t make any trouble, Ben. Take it easy and let your wounds heal.”

She left him to see about Rosa. Tulwah had already given her one of his potions. She had stopped crying and lay in a drug-induced stupor, pitifully calling out, not only for Letty but her long-lost sons as well. Erin couldn’t do anything except sit beside her for a while, holding her hand to let her know she was there if needed.

Time passed miserably as Erin worried over Letty’s fate. She blamed herself for what had happened, for underestimating just how cruel Zachary could be. She longed to be able to tell her mother everything, how he’d tried to force himself on her those years ago, and her fear that he would try again. If only they could leave, go somewhere else to live, make a new life. He was getting meaner. There was no telling what he’d do next. But she was afraid telling her mother would have a calamitous effect. Not only would it crush her, but more and more lately, Erin was becoming concerned about her mother’s declining health, which she was obviously trying to conceal. Perhaps, Erin thought, that was her mother’s real motivation in trying to persuade her to marry Ryan Youngblood. Well, too bad. Erin resolved there had to be another solution to their sad situation.

Anxiously, she waited for Zachary to return. There were always papers signed, exchanged, between buyer and seller when a slave transaction was made. No doubt he would have a record for his files. All owners kept a registration list of their slaves, to prove ownership, and she knew where Zachary kept his. As a child, she had been playing in his study one day, behind his sofa. He had come in with one of his overseers and didn’t know she was there. The men had shared a few drinks as they discussed the slaves bought that day. Erin had peeked out to watch Zachary write in a ledger book, then saw him place it, along with several papers, in a wooden box. He had put the box in the bottom drawer of his desk. So, when he returned from selling Letty, all she had to do was find the papers, and she would know where Letty had been taken and who had bought her.

Arlene continued to beg Erin to change her mind about marrying Ryan. “He said he was going to make arrangements for the wedding. He thinks he’s going to marry you.”

“It’s not my problem. I never agreed to anything, and I wasn’t the one who talked him into it.”

Arlene refused to give up but knew she couldn’t go on letting him think everything was settled. Toward the end of the week, she decided to pay him a visit and explain Erin’s reluctance. By no means, she would emphasize, was he to think the marriage would not eventually take place. Erin was willful and stubborn, she’d point out, and her feelings had been hurt by his insulting behavior. Eventually, she’d get over it.

She made it a point to tell Erin exactly what she planned to say. “I’m still hoping you’ll come to your senses.”

They were having lunch. The day was hot and sweltering, and Erin had no appetite. She toyed with a bowl of sliced peaches and sipped at mint tea. Irritably, she said, “I told you, Mother. I’m not going to be a part of your scheme.”

Arlene sighed and shook her head. “You’re making a mistake, and I’m praying you realize that before it’s too late. I don’t think I have to point out no other young man has come to call on you.”

“Neither did Ryan Youngblood, Mother. He asked me to meet him elsewhere, remember?”

As Rosa came in with dessert neither of them wanted, Arlene wearily said, “Have Roscoe bring my carriage around. Tell him to bring a water jug, because we’ll be gone till evening. I’m going to the quilting circle at the church, and then we’ll be visiting at Jasmine Hill.”

Erin wondered, as always, why her mother helped out with making blankets for the poor with the ladies at the church. They only tolerated her because she made generous donations now and then; they didn’t really want her there. She’d be much better off helping out in other ways, without subjecting herself to their condescending attitude.

Erin was in her room reading when Rosa came running in, wild-eyed and frantic.
“He’s back, Missy. Mastah Zachary just came into the house. I rushed up the back steps to tell you.”

Erin tensed, then sat up. “Where is he?”

“He went in his study with Mastah Frank.”

Frank was one of his favorite overseers, and Erin figured they were having a drink, something Zachary always treated his men to when they returned after a trip. He would, no doubt, also file away his papers on Letty’s sale.

Anger was a knot in her throat as she struggled to remain composed for Rosa’s sake. “Now listen to me,” she quickly advised. “I want you to go to your cabin and stay there. You’re too upset to be working in the house, and you’re liable to make him mad. If you see Ben, tell him to be calm, that I’m going to try and find out where they took Letty, and I’ll let him know later if I succeed.”

“Oh, child, do you think you can?”

She got up to give her a comforting hug. “I hope so. I’ll try my best. Now go, please.”

Erin waited for what seemed like forever, keeping a vigil at the window for Frank to leave the house. Zachary usually passed out from his drinking, and hopefully would make it to his room first. If, instead, he lay down on the sofa in his study, as he sometimes did, she’d have to wait till later to search his desk.

At last she spotted the two of them, crossing the side yard and heading for the path that led to the distant cabins that housed the overseers. She saw Zachary was staggering a bit, which meant he was well into his cups.

Curious, she watched as Zachary sent one of the slaves to ring the iron bell in signal for the overseers to gather. Something was going on, but she didn’t take time to wonder about that, wanting to take advantage of having him out of the house to look for the papers.

She hurried down the back stairs. The first floor of the house was composed of four large rooms, divided by the entrance foyer and the main stairs. To the left of the foyer was the parlor, adjoining the dining room. On the other side was Zachary’s study, with her mother’s sewing room behind that. The back hall ran the length of the house, with a few small rooms beyond for storage and a preparation room for food brought from the kitchen.

Erin went directly to the study, hurried to the desk, and pulled open the bottom drawer. Taking out the wooden box with trembling fingers, she lifted the lid. The ledger was not there, only a sheaf of papers, but none with Letty’s name on them. Frantic, she turned the box over to dump the contents and began to look through once more. It didn’t matter if Zachary knew she’d been through his things; she would worry about that later.