Carolina Mist (33 page)

* * * * *

“
H
ow’s Gran?” Alex asked for the third day in a row when he called on Wednesday evening.

“Not well at all, I’m afraid,” Abby told him. “I’m thinking about giving her doctor a call, Alex. She is listless, distracted, hardly
eating…”

“She is mourning the loss of someone she loved,” he said softly.

“It’s more than that, Alex. Belle insists she hears the dog crying.”

“What do you mean?” he asked warily.

“I mean, she’ll call me into the morning room and say, ‘Abigail, can’t you hear her? I hear Meri whimpering.’ Then she gets up and proceeds for the eight-hundredth time to look behind the furniture.” Abby sighed deeply. “I’m really worried, Alex.”

“Go ahead and call the doctor first thing in the morning. This doesn’t sound good.” Alex sounded worried. “If sh
e is starting to hallucinate…”

“Alex, she is so adamant that I’ve even thought once or twice that
I
heard the dog. But, of course, it was the wind. We had a storm yesterday and another one today.”

“Well, if you could call her doctor, I’d appreciate it. I’d call myself, but I’ll be in court again tomorrow.”

“How is that going?” Abby tugged the phone line into the morning room, stretching the cord as far as it would go so that she could curl up on the love seat.

“It’s actually going quite well,” he said hesitantly. “I expect we will win the case.”

“ ‘But’?” she asked. “I hear a definite ‘but’ there.”

“We’ll win because our client has more money to defend the case than the plaintiff has to pursue us. He can’t afford the caliber of experts that we have. He can’t afford a panel of high-priced lawyers. He can’t afford all that it would take to prove that our client’s product was responsible for his son’s death.”

“That’s a very sad commentary on our legal system.”

“I see it every day of my life.” He seemed to shrug through the phone.

“But I guess winning is everything, right?”

“It’s the only thing, as Vince Lombardi once said. So
metimes I think maybe I’m…
” He stopped in mid-thought.

“You’re what?”

“Nothing. This is where the money is, defending the big corporations.” He laughed, but to Abby, it had sounded forced. “Not exactly what I thought I’d be doing when I first entered law school. I always thought I’d be the defender of the little guy.”

“I remember,” she said softly. “You were going to hang out your shingle right up there on Main Street and take care of Primrose’s legal business in the morning and fish in the afternoon.”

“Actually, it was the other way around.” He laughed again, but this time it was natural. “Fish in the morning and practice law in the afternoon.” There was an overlong silence, then he said, “Unfortunately, there’s no money in that kind of lifestyle.”

“Small-town lawyers do get paid, don’t they?”

“Not like they do in this firm. I’ll bet I make in one day what old
…
wha
t was Leila’s attorney’s name?”

“Tillman.”

“What old Tillman makes in a week. Maybe two weeks.”

“Well, I guess that’s the bottom line.”

“Absolutely. I worked hard to get where I am in this firm,” he said, although Abby was uncertain if he was telling her or convincing himself. “I have a great future here. I’ll be offered a partnership soon, I expect. Maybe my own branch office.”

“Where would that be?”

“Who knows? The point is, I worked hard through law school, and I’ve worked my butt off since I
got out—
sixteen-hour workdays are not unusual for me—but I’m lucky to have the type of opportunity that a firm like this can offer. And I mean to take advantage of everything they send my way.”

“Well, I do know what that’s like,” she admitted. “I know what it’s like to work harder than anyone else, to want to be
the best at what you do. I’ve always done the same thing. I always had that drive.” Even as she spoke the words, her lack of fervor lent a quiet protest to the sentiment.

Of course, she had always felt that way. Of course, she would again. She still had resumes out there. Her corporate life was not over. Alex wasn’t the only one who’d be going places. She’d be back on track soon enough.

And when she got back on track, she would leave Primrose behind. It would mean leaving Alex behind as well. Though he obviously had his own plans, too. His own agenda included making partner and eventually heading up one of the branch offices. Unless the fates would decree at some future time that they would end up in the same city at the same time, they would part company when Abby got a job or Alex made partner. Until then, he was hers, and she was his.

She had survived losing him once before and would survive it again, she assured herself, but this time she would have memories to last a lifetime. Memories enough to live on. He would be back on Friday night, and there would be more memories to make to warm her through some future time when the only love in her life would be found in the images of these very days and nights in Primrose.

37

“
A
bby, I hate to leave you to deal with all this,” Sunny said as she tucked Lilly’s Minnie Mouse suitcase into the trunk of her Mercedes.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’ve been wonderful. I don’t know what I would have done without you and Lilly these past few days. Sunny, I can’t tell you how terrible I feel about your ring.”

“Abby, don’t.” Sunny hugged her. “We’ve gone over that
enough times. It wasn’t your fault, and I don’t want you feeling guilty about it. Besides, it would appear that Belle’s loss is actually greater than mine. I sure hope the doctor is right.”

Susannah slid behind the wheel of her car, and Abby closed the door. They had all said their good-byes in the morning room, and the business of getting in the car and actually going was almost anticlimactic.

“Come back again,” Abby told them as Sunny turned the key in the ignition.

“We will, won’t we, sugar?”

Lilly nodded enthusiastically.

“Good luck next week,” Abby called as the car began its descent back down the drive. “Let me know how it goes.”

Abby watched the little sports car as it rounded the curve toward the end of Cove Road and disappeared someplace past the old Lawrence house. She kicked a stone with the toe of her sneaker and sighed. She would miss Sunny and Lilly. They had almost seemed to belong here, as they, too, had been woven into the tapestry of all she loved best—all she would miss most—of Primrose. She hoped that Justin would keep his word and be pleasant when they appeared in court the following week to formalize Lilly’s adoption.

The front door needs something,
she noted as she walked back toward the house. Something to make the house appear less foreboding. She frowned as she crossed the porch and entered the hall. Of course, the inhospitable appearance hadn’t deterred their burglar one bit.
Damn whoever it was,
she silently cursed.
D
amn them for taking Meri and creating such heartbreak for a dear old woman.

“Let her grieve,” the doctor had told Abby when she called him on Monday morning and explained what had occurred. “She has lost something that was vitally important to her. Just let her mourn her loss, Miz McKenna. Of course, if she still appears despondent in another week or so, give me a call back.”

On the phone the previous night, Alex had suggested buying Belle a puppy, but Abby felt it was perhaps too soon.

Belle wasn’t ready to concede that her beloved pet was gone for good. The doctor was right. Belle needed time to mourn the loss of her friend.

“Abigail! Come quickly!” Belle called from the morning room.

“Belle, what is it?” Abby raced into the room to find Belle standing near the fireplace wall.

“I hear Meri,” Belle told her with frantic eyes.

“Oh, Belle.” Abby sighed sadly. “Oh, Bell, Me
ri
isn’t here.”

Belle pointed a finger slightly crooked with arthritis in Abby’s direction. “I tell you, I hear her.”

“Belle, if you hear her, then why can’t we see her?” Abby asked gently. “Belle, the doctor said you think you hear her because you want so badly to have her back.”

“Dr. Ellrick is a fool. I know what I know, Abigail,” Belle said sternly,
“
and I know that I hear my dog.”

“How about I make us some tea, and
we sit down and we discuss…
” Abby stopped mid-speech.

There
was
a sound.

“You hear her, too, don’t you?” Belle said triumphantly.

“I
…
I hear
something. I
do. But where is it coming from?” Abby turned her head this way and that, trying to discern the direction from which the faint whimpering sound was coming.

“I’ve been trying to figure that out all week.” Belle glared. “While you and everyone else were insisting that I wasn’t hearing anything.”

“Hush.” Abby waved a hand in Belle’s direction as she pressed the power button on the remote control to turn off the television.

Standing in the middle of the room, Abby strained her ears and concentrated on the barely audible cry.

“Meri?” Abby called softly, then louder. “Meri P.?”

A muffled bark from someplace far away answered her.

“Oh, my stars!” Belle exclaimed. “She
is
here!”

“But where?” A puzzled Abby shook her head. “It almost sounds as if she’s in the walls someplace.”

“But, of course, Abigail, that’s exactly where she is.” Belle beamed.

“How could she get into the walls?” Abby began to feel along the wall near the fireplace, where Belle had been standing when Abby had first entered the room. “Belle, do you suppose there is some passageway
…
”

“I know there is. Unfortunately, I do not know exactly where it comes out in this house.” Belle’s eyes shone with the joy of finding Meri. “I know that there is a passage from someplace in the carriage house into this house. It leads to a tunnel that runs under Cove Road into my old house.”

“The Underground Railroad?”

“Exactly so. People would be brought up this far by river and, from the river, would come through the back of the Cassidys’ carriage house. There was a tunnel from there into this house, and from here to the house across the street. Sometimes people who’d been brought up this far north by other means would go the reverse route, from the house across the street to this one to the river, depending on which route was the safest at any given time.”

“You don’t know where in the carriage house?”

“No, but I know where it comes out over there.” Belle motioned across the road with her head. “Josie used to hide there sometimes.”

“Where?”

“Under the stairwell in the back hallway is a closet. Along the back wall of the closet is a loose floorboard. Pull up the board, and the last panel on the right side will slide away. It’s not a real big space until you get inside, as I recall. I mean, you have to sort of crawl in, but, once inside, you can stand up.”

Abby was already on the phone to Naomi.

“She’s bringing the kids over here to stay with you,” Abby told Belle. “Naomi doesn’t want the kids to know about this just yet.”

“Don’t you think she should call Colin?”

“She’s doing that. He’ll meet us there.”

Naomi was at the door in a flash, her eyes sparkling with anticipation, her children in tow. She planted Sam and
Meredy in the morning room with Belle—“Y’all just sit here and keep Miz Matthews company for a few minutes while Mommy and Abby look for something”—and the two excited women made a beeline for Naomi’s house.

“Did you call Colin?” Abby asked as they flew up the front steps.

“Yes, but he’s on the road. I left a message for him to call home as soon as he gets the chance.” Naomi closed the front door behind them and practically ran to the back hallway off the kitchen. “I cannot believe what a dunce I am not to have thought of the tunnels. Anyone who grew up around here knows about them.”

Naomi unlatched the closet door with excited fingers. “Help me get this stuff out, Abby. I swear, I am such a damned pack
rat
…
well, here’s my old tennis racket. I was looking for that a few weeks ago. And Lord have mercy, Colin’s old hip boots. He had to buy new ones when he went duck hunting last year because we couldn’t find these. Never thought to look in here
…
”

They tossed items this way and that in their haste to clear a path to the back of the deep closet.

“What am I looking for? A loose floorboard?” Abby asked.

“Yes. Right along here someplace.”

Abby’s fingers searched along the baseboard in the dark. “Naomi, this is silly. Go get a flashlight.”

“Right. A flashlight.” Naomi backed out of the narrow closet.

She was back in less than a minute with two long black-handled flashlights, one of which she handed to Abby.

“It’s here. Right here,” Abby whispered. “Hold the light for me while I see if I can pull this back.”

“Abigail.” Naomi leaned forward and whispered in Abby’s ear.

“What?”

“Why are we whispering?”

“What? Oh!” She laughed. “I guess it just seems apropos, looking f
or secret panels in an old…
oh!”

The side of the wall slid away to reveal a black hole.

“Give me the light.” Abby put her left hand over her shoulder to take the flashlight from Naomi. In the dark, she found the switch and turned it on, sending a bright beam of light into the darkness that had opened up in front of them.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Colin?” Naomi asked as Abby inched into the hole.

“One of us should, I guess.”

“Oh, no you don’t, Abigail McKenna.” Naomi watched Abby disappear into the open wall. “If you think I am going to sit here and wait while you have an adventure, well, you are sadly mistaken.”

Naomi followed Abby into the wall.

“Wow, this is something.” Abby shined her light along the wall, where dozens of names had been scratched into the stone that lined the passageway on one side. “I’ll bet these are the names of the escaped slaves who passed through this very spot.”

“I doubt that they’d have wanted to leave such a record. More likely than not, it’s the names of the town kids who made it through the tunnel. It was sort of a badge of distinction, you know, to make it through this far. Oh, my golly, would yo
u look here,” Naomi exclaimed.
“
‘
Sharon Dare.’ Looks like my sister was a little bit more of a daredevil growing up than we knew.”

“Watch your step, Naomi, the landing here is a little weak.” Abby sent the stream of light downward to illuminate the stairwell, which seemed to descend forever into the earth and end somewhere in darkness far below. Without thinking, she began slowly to follow the wooden pathway down. Seeing that Abby had gone exploring, Naomi fell in step behind her.

“Oh, my God, Abigail, what was that?” Naomi cringed as something fat and furry passed over her ankle.

“You probably don’t want to know. Oh!” Abby shrieked as the hairless tail of something flicked at her leg.

“Don’t look down at it,” Naomi told her. “Maybe it’s not what we think it is. Just keep going.”

“How’s your leg holding up on the steps?”

“Okay. If I fall, I’ll just be sure to land on you.”

“Please, feel free to do
that
…
oh, God, Naomi, I hate spider webs
…
oh, this is creepy.”

“Maybe we should wait for Colin.” Naomi paused on the steps. “Nah. Keep on going, Abby. This little adventure is all ours. You know, after you’ve had children, your life really changes—oh, Lord, what do you suppose
that
was?—
and you sort of settle into this nice, safe routine
…
did you hear that?”

“Don’t think about it. We’re almost to the bottom.”

“Then what?”

“We’ll soon find out. Oh, l
ook, there’s a sort of bunkbed-
type thing. People must have stayed over here when it was too dangerous to travel.” Abby flashed her light around the room which was a widened section of a long passage. A brass candle holder, its candle long since burned away, stood atop a small wooden table. Wooden bowls and tin cups were stacked on another.

“Look.” Abby pointed her beam of light straight ahead to a long, narrow pathway. “This goes right under Cove Road. Right to Aunt Leila’s.”

She took off toward the passage with Naomi close behind. They followed the path for about three hundred feet before coming to another flight of wood steps that led upward at a steep angle.

“Almost home,” Abby muttered as she started up. “Literally and figuratively.”

“Wait up, Abby,” Naomi pleaded. “Going up is always harder than coming down.”

“Want to stop and rest your leg for a few minutes?”

“No.” Naomi shook her head. “I don’t want to stand in one spot that long, Abby, something’s bound to crawl on me. No, I just want to slow down.”

Abby held in check her natural inclination to run up the rest of the steps and slowed her pace for Naomi’s sake.

“We must be inside Aunt Leila’s house,” Abby told her. “There can’t be too much farther to go.”

From deep in the darkness above them came a low growl. “Meri?” Abby called out hopefully.

Tiny doggy toenails began to tap-dance on the wooden landing as Meri heard her name.

“Meri Puppins!” Abby laughed, and the dog barked happily. “Oh, my stars, as Belle would say, someone is going to be so happy to see you!”

Abby picked the dog up in her arms and was immediately rewarded with dog kisses on her neck, her chin, and wherever else the little dog could reach.

“Belle?” Abby called as loudly as she could. “Belle, can you hear me?”

“Yes! Yes, Abigail.” Belle’s reply was muffled.