Family Reunion (29 page)

"I don't think Clarence Winston will be gotten rid of that easily. He's being paid by my father. I doubt if he will like being denied a chance to finish the job."

"Then I will pay him whatever fee he requires."

Lena objected. "I can't let you do that!"

"Nonsense! You can and I will! I feel that most of what I have is only rightfully yours anyway. I would have none of this, including my life, were it not for you. Ah ah ah! Don't you dare argue with me! For once Lena, I can repay you at least a fraction of all that I owe you and that my dear, is that!"

"Well, you will simply have to go to my Island with me, and there, I will have my father repay
you
!
Ah ah! I wish to hear no further argument from you Sandra Sinclair. That my dear, is that, so there!" Lena nodded, smiling. Sandra chuckled shaking her head.

"Oh Lena, do you know how much you've come to mean to me? Even your smile,
which
never used to be. I look forward to seeing it now. Can you please, do more of it?"

Lena nodded, "Yes, I will try."

"Good…now let's go get rid of this buzzard!"

Clarence Winston stood with a dubious glare as he listened while Sandra informed him that they would seek passage themselves without his assistance. If he would be so kind as to inform her of the amount he was due in payment, she would gladly settle his fee immediately.

His answer was to throw his head back in laughter. "Ladies, ladies please, enough of this. There is no need for us to discuss anything more tonight. As I said before, the arrangements have been made and they will be followed through on as I have planned them!" He dictated firmly.

Lena grew startled by his persistence. ''I do not wish to inconvenience you Mr. Winston but I would much prefer using my own means for getting home."

Clarence's eyes narrowed on them both,
'Do they think I am stupid! That I would take a mere hand out when a treasure awaits? Perhaps the Princess has told her of the treasure and they think I am not fully aware of its value?! On no my dear, that treasure is mine and no female is going to cheat me of it! I found you! I shall claim the reward!'

Lena's palms were sweaty seeing the determined gleam in his eyes.

Clarence turned a sinister smile to Sandra. "I think it is late ladies. The shock of the news I've delivered has to be properly digested before any final decision can be made. I will be returning tomorrow with a few crewmen who will aid you with whatever things you may need to pack for the trip. And Princess…know this, you will be departing in my care." His tone and look left no doubt that she not dare cross him. Sandra was shaken and appalled.

"Mr. Winston, I think it is time that you left my home!"

She
barged past him and yanked the double doors open leading to the hall and yelled. "Sheldon… Rollo! Your assistance is needed please!" She turned back and away from the opened doorway and crossed her arms over her breasts, her look boldly expressing her displeasure at his audacity. He smiled sardonically as Sheldon and Rollo came quickly to the doorway.

"Sheldon please retrieve Mr. Winston's hat, gloves and his coat so that he may leave. Rollo, make sure he can find his way through the door to the other side once Sheldon has it open for him."

Sheldon was quick to return with Winston’s articles of dress. Rollo, who was of considerable size, stepped up beside Clarence in case he needed an added incentive to depart. Unable to mask his disdain Clarence spared each of the men only a glance, walking past them he put on his hat, gloves and coat as he made his way to the door. Lena and Sandra followed at a distance. Upon reaching the foyer and front door he stopped, turning back to say, "Tomorrow Princess, tomorrow. Do have your things ready."

"You send your men here tomorrow Mr. Winston,” Warned Sandra. “And they'll leave as empty handed as they came. Goodnight!"

The door closed soundly behind Winston as he angrily strode down the wide steps, around the curve of the sidewalk to the C shaped driveway and his waiting coach. He snatched open the door and stepped inside, throwing his weight back into the cushioned seat.

"Well? Was she the same Lena we tracked down in Mississippi?" Derek Greyson asked. He refused to get overly excited, as Winston had, when reading the court minutes and seeing her name on the private document, while on the public one, the name for the Negro female was Dina. Clarence immediately suspected she was one and the same, while he was not convinced she was.

"Absolutely, I knew that I was right, I never doubted it for a moment."

"Then why the anger?"

"Because they wish to evade my plans! No one will stand in the way of my collecting that treasure for returning her. That is why I want you to get three of your best men to guard the Sinclair House. I don't want her out of their sight. I haven't, as of yet, figured out how - but at the first opportunity, we will take possession of her and place her on the ship. There she will be bound and kept with someone guarding her until we're off to Makia Island. And Greyson, make sure they know…to kill anyone who gets in their way ... I do mean anyone!"

Derek sat back and sighed. Even now that she was located, he
could not get excited, over confidence had a way of backfiring. He refused to count the treasure over that woman again until it was in his hands. His search for her had cost him his father's business and caused him stomach problems. Only when his percentage of the treasure was in his grasp, would he cry out in triumph. He sat watching Clarence Winston, his feeling was that he was up against more than he realized.

Maynard Webster was searching for her as well; he knew that it was so because a few of his men had reported back to him, that there were various ones belonging to Ramsey shipping hanging out in bars, asking about the princess and the treasure. He wasn’t so arrogant or stupid to believe they had any advantage on him. As far as he could see, it was down to the man who actually took possession of her again that would determine who the winner would be.

"If I was you, I would set that mansion afire, kill all within and take possession of her now." Greyson advised.

"Don't be absurd, such drastic measures are unnecessary. And I for one, would not like that kind of attention. We will wait. They will plan for the journey as all women do, and leave themselves open to us, then we will have her."

* * *

Sandra sat across from Lena on her bed, finally after all this time; she listened as Lena began relating the entire truth of her past. From the moment she was abducted from her Island at fourteen and switched hands through sales, until she was transported to America and handed over to a slave trader. She’d turned fifteen by then and became the possession of one Maynard Ramsey Webster after his father had won her in a poker game.

Hearing his full name, Sandra felt a spark of memory. Keeping that name in mind, she continued listening. Lena told her of the love they shared, and the children she bore him. Sandra sat stunned to learn that there was indeed, not only Rory but a Michael Ramsey Webster as well a Golden Hope Webster. Speaking of them for the first time after so long turned on the tears. Lena related the life of a slave in the South and the trauma of having her child torn from her arms, her loss of Michael. Determined to protect Hope from Manny’s wife, she told of the plan that had failed and her daughter too was lost to her. To hear all that she'd gone through was agony to know what hell living with her had added to Lena's life.

"My God! How could you have survived so much? I don't
understand it; I would have never made it after loosing that wonderful little girl. I had no idea you had other children. I never knew!"

"You wouldn't have since I never spoke of them."

"Is it any wonder!"

"I sometimes question my mind on where they are. How might they be and … do they still remember me? If that is, they're still alive. I'm sure Michael would remember me. He loved me so, my son. Sandra, he was such a beautiful child. Like his father, he had blond hair and blue/green eyes." Lena smiled, "Manny was so proud of him, but, my Hope...I don't know. She was just three and a half years old when I was taken away from her that night." Lena looked at Sandra who was on the verge of bursting into tears.

"Oh Sandra, don't get upset. I've accepted it now... in a way but they were my reasons for being so afraid to love Rory. I always loved him. I figured that it was only a matter of time before he too would be taken from me. As it turns out, I'm to blame for pushing him away."

"You have to tell him!" Sandra blurted. "Everything! Everything you've told me, about his father, about his brother and sister, that woman Katherine. Everything, and then he'll understand!"

"I wish I knew where he is now…Manny. He was starting a business in shipping. Silly me, I never asked where. So much time between us was spent loving and dreaming, that I never really knew. I know he went to Charleston a lot…" Lena shrugged. "I even tried to get a letter to him three times, but nothing ever came of it."

"Don't worry about that right now, focus on Rory." Sandra advised.

Lena shook her head. "I doubt if telling him will do any good, he's ashamed of me you know, of what I am, what I stand for."

"You're a Princess! And he should know!"

"I want my son to love me because I'm his mother and I love him. Not because of what I once
was
. Anyway, it is time I told him the truth, come what may, he should know. Tonight, I will tell him everything."

"He'll understand, you'll see." Sandra assured her as she rose from the bed. "I think I'm going to bed early tonight. Goodnight, and believe me, everything is going to be okay."

Smiling sadly, Lena nodded. "I'm going to lie down until I hear him come in."

"That's a good idea... see you in the morning." She said, reaching the door of Lena's room, standing a moment and gazing with admiring eyes.

"Goodnight Sandra and thank you."

As soon as Sandra closed the door she made a dash down the
hallway towards her own room. With her heart pounding rapidly, she closed her door and ran to her writing desk. Once there, she plopped down in her seat. Breathless and excited, she lit her desk lantern and turned it up full.

Shaking, she snatched one drawer out after the other in search for what she knew was there. It had come months ago while Lena was out getting Rory from school. She had opened it, read it and put it aside; now she needed to find it. Finally she spotted it at the back of a drawer; she snatched the invite up and reopened it. Tears rushed to her eyes and rolled down her cheeks as she read the script. "Oh God…I knew it, I knew it." She closed her eyes a moment, wiping her cheeks before reading it out loud.

After reading it for the fourth time, especially focusing on the name Maynard Ramsey Webster, she smiled and held it to her heart. He was right here in New York. She couldn't believe it. She folded the invite and put it away. For the first time in such a very long time, overwhelming joy filled her. She decided that the first thing on the agenda for the next morning was to track down Manny. She had to do it for Lena. She also had to be sure that their feelings were mutual before she brought them together. If for some reason he did not wish to see her, she would keep her silence and go about making plans to take her home, sparing her the pain of having to face him.

"Heavenly Father please, it is not often that I pray. Yet I pray to you this night, do this for her I beg you…I beg you, make this right for my Lena." She hoped it was not too late for them. She wondered, as she was falling asleep, about his first wife Katherine, and what had happened to her. For all that had transpired, it really didn't matter to her what had happened, she was out of the way.

All that stood now in the way of Lena's happiness was Maynard Ramsey Webster's response to hearing about her again. She knew he was engaged to marry someone by the name of Gloria West.
'Oh but not if I can help it, not if it's left up to me.'
Was her last thought as she dropped off to sleep.

Lena tried her hardest to stay up and wait for Rory, but for some reason, he was coming home later and later. With no idea why, she hoped that all would be cleared up. Reading in bed to pass the time, she fell asleep and missed his return home.

The next morning he was already up and gone before she had a chance to speak with him. Sandra found her at the kitchen table, sitting worriedly over a cup of tea.

"What's wrong? He wouldn't listen, he didn't believe you? What happened?" Sandra asked worried.

"I fell asleep before he returned home last night, and this morning,
he left right away. Something's going on with him Sandra, I fear instead of things getting better between us, they’re getting worse."

"You know what?!"

Lena glanced up at her without answering.

"What you need is a breath of fresh air. It just so happens, that outside at this very moment, Mother Nature has put together for us, one splendid day, promising sunshine. You and I are going to show our appreciation for it, by spending our day, in it…shopping…we must prepare for Makia island."

Lena didn't look so excited by the prospect of spending a day out. She needed to get a hold of Rory so that they could talk. Now that she'd made up her mind to tell him all, it was all she could think about. "Why don't you go and enjoy it, I'm going to ask Rollo to find Rory for me so we can talk."