Passion's Fury (56 page)

“It’s a part of legal records,” she explained, lowering her heavy body into a nearby chair. “And
the records are probably still at the courthouse. And Poppa left a will, I’m sure. He wanted to make certain that Vanessa would never have a claim.”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about.”

“I’m worried about my sister and what will become of her,” she whispered, blinking back tears.

“She’ll get by. Don’t worry about her. Now then, I’d like for you to get that ring right now. I’ll feel a lot better once I have it in my hand.”

“Then follow me,” she told him, talking the hand he extended to help her to her feet “We need to go before it gets dark.”

They walked out the front door, and Rance paused to instruct Jessie about unloading the supplies. She nodded eagerly, knowing that she would soon have her first decent meal in months.

The sky had turned to a purple haze, and silver clouds skipped across the sky. The smell of rain was in the air, and the wind was picking up. They would have to hurry, she knew, to be back in the house by dark.

She saw the wistful expression on Rance’s face as she led him around to the path. He was thinking, she knew, of the wonderful, purebred horses he had once cared for there. She prayed that he would someday know once again pleasure in the animals he loved.

They moved down the sloping hill. The dogwoods had long since bloomed but were still lush and green. The azaleas had also put forth their glory for the season.

“April, you’re going to the cemetery,” Rance exclaimed. “What on earth for?”

She did not answer but kept on walking. The graves at the front of the burial grounds were now overgrown with weeds, and some of the stone monuments had cracked and fallen. That, she decided at once, was something they would take care of as soon as possible—the restoring of her ancestors’ graves.

She walked to the red brick building with its double iron gates across the doorway, staring up at the scrawled “J” in the ironwork. Anguished memories came flooding back, and she stopped and trembled, not wanting to go on.

“It’s in there, isn’t it?” Rance squeezed her hand. “The ring.”

She nodded mutely, then forced herself to move to the little niches built into the brick that still held tiny marble statues. Pointing, she whispered, “There. The statue of the kneeling angel. There is a chipped brick there that will slide-out. There’s a key hidden there.”

Rance moved swiftly to follow her directions, then, without hesitation, inserted the key in the lock and swung the gates open, a loud, grating sound filling the air. “Now where?” he asked brusquely.

“You aren’t afraid, are you?” She stared at him in wonder. “I was always afraid to come here, but you don’t seem to mind. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you show fear in all the time I’ve known you.”

“When a man has to live in fear, April, then it’s time for him to die,” he sighed. “Now where is the ring hidden? I want to get you back to the house, fed, and in bed. It’s been a hard trip, and a nasty homecoming, thanks to your sister.”

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then opened them. “There. That bier on the end.”

“You hid it in a coffin?” he asked incredulously. “I thought you were scared of this place. Who’s buried in there?”

“No one. It is where I am to be buried one day. I didn’t think the Yankees would like it here any better than I do. And if they came, they wouldn’t desecrate a coffin. All you have to do is slide that marble slab to the side and reach inside. It’s at this end, wrapped in a piece of cloth.”

Effortlessly, he moved the slab, reached in, and brought out the ring, sparkling in the twilight. He gave her a crooked smile as he tossed it up in the air and caught it. “You were lucky, April. The Yankees have been desecrating graves, just like the Rebels, when they realized that people thought they were safe hiding places.

“This mausoleum would have been the first place they’d have looked if they had come plundering through here. You have something to be thankful to your sister for, after all, because she welcomed them with open arms. They didn’t do any damage because she welcomed them.”

He tucked the ring in his pocket. “Let’s go home, blue eyes,” he whispered. “It’s all over now.”

Arms about each other, they walked through the purple night to the house.

Lieutenant Gant leaned forward in the buggy, one hand holding the horse’s reins, the other popping the whip across the animal’s rump. It was getting darker, and rain drops were starting to fall. He was anxious to get back to Montgomery, eager to forget he had ever been fool enough to become involved with that strange woman.

She had been good in bed. There was no denying that. She was also quite beautiful. But he had always sensed something peculiar about her, and the scene a short while ago had borne out his suspicions.

He was well rid of her. And damn it, he thought, popping the whip harder, if she wanted to jump out of the buggy and go running off into the woods just as darkness fell, then let her.

He was glad to wash his hands of the whole mess.

Chapter Thirty-Five

April awoke and stared about, blinking rapidly, bewildered. Then, slowly, happily, it came to her. Home. She was home in her own bed. It was too good to be true.

She turned, smiling, arms outstretched to reach for Rance. That side of the bed was empty.

She heaved her swollen body up, crying out for him. Where was he? What time was it? Padding quickly to the windows, she jerked open the heavy drapes to see that the sun was already high in the sky. Why, it was probably almost noon, she realized with a start. Why had Rance let her sleep so long? They were supposed to be going into Montgomery first thing.

She reached the stair railing, clutching it as she leaned over to call. “Rance, where are you?” Desperation made her voice tremble.

Jessie appeared in the foyer, a dust cloth in her hands. “Well, good mornin’, Miz April,” she called up pleasantly. “I thought you was gonna sleep the day clean away.”

“Jessie, where is Mr. Taggart?” she asked, making her way carefully down the stairs.

“Well, he left early this mornin’. Said you was sleepin’ so good, he was just gonna let you alone. Said he was goin’ into town on some business, and he’d be back later on. He told me to just let you rest, ’cause he knowed you was tired, and he told me to start cleanin’ things up.”

“Damn,” she swore under her breath, reaching the landing and looking about. Jessie had been busy. The parlor was spotless. Vanessa, she and Rance had realized the night before, had not attempted to keep the house clean once the servants ran away.

“I got some eatin’ waitin’ for you in the kitchen,” Jessie smiled. “Fried some of that fatback Mr. Taggart bought in town, and I boiled some beans. You need to eat and keep up your strength. Ain’t gonna be long ’fore you birth that baby.”

“I’ve several weeks,” April said absently, but then her stomach rumbled slightly and she admitted, “I’ll have a small portion, Jessie. Bring it to my room,
please. I’m going to lie back down.”

“Yes’m,” she nodded, hurrying away. “You just get all the rest you want. Mr. Taggart, he told me it was my job to look after you, and that’s sho’ what I’m gonna do.”

She stopped, a sudden strained look appearing on her plump face. April prodded, “Yes, Jessie, what is it?”

Jessie looked down at the floor, sucked in her lips, then said, “Well, it ain’t none of my business, I know, but that woman what ran outta hear screamin’ yesterday…”

April felt a stab of alarm. “Have you seen her? Has she been back?”

Jessie shook her head quickly. “No’m. Mr. Taggart said if I saw her not to let her in. I was just wonderin’, is she as mean as she sounded? I mean, I need this job, and Lord knows I need a roof over my head, but that woman scared me, and—”

“Jessie, I think we have seen the last of Vanessa,” April told her, hoping it was true. “There have been family problems, but the business Mr. Taggart is taking care of today will eliminate them. Someday, quite honestly, I hope my sister and I can make peace between us, but that will be up to her.”

“Yes’m. I just don’t want no trouble. Like I said, she scared me somethin’ fierce, and I seen enough trouble for my lifetime.”

“So have I, Jessie.” April forced a smile. “Don’t worry.” She made her way slowly back up the stairs. God, she hoped Vanessa did stay away until she was ready to make peace. Rance had said the night before that he doubted she would ever change. He had asked what it would take for April to realize just what an evil person her twin really was.

There were no words to make him understand. Despite everything, Vanessa was still her sister, her twin sister, and if there were any way at all they could get along, then she wanted to find that way.

She lay down across the bed. How many weeks till the baby would be born? She placed her hand lovingly on the swollen mound of her stomach as the baby gave a kick. She smiled. God, she loved the child already, almost as much as she loved Rance. And
despite the South losing the war…despite the hard times that were sure to lie ahead, life was good, and she was grateful to be alive.

“My, don’t you look like the regal queen.”

April sat bolt upright in terror, a silent scream gushing from her trembling lips. Vanessa stood in the doorway, her dress tattered, her hair matted with leaves. There were bruises on her face.

But it was her eyes that stunned April the most. Never had she seen such hatred. They seemed to bulge from their sockets a brilliant blue sparkling with red and gold fires.

“Did you really think I would give up so easily?”

April was too terrified to speak.

Vanessa gave her long hair a toss, lips curling back in a snarling grimace. “So he married you, did he? I suppose you’re real proud of that. And
you’re going to have a baby. Isn’t that sweet?”

She took a step forward. “I suppose you’re lying there thinking what a grand life you’re going to have here after you rebuild Pinehurst into the finest plantation in Alabama. You’re thinking how wonderful everything is going to be.

“But you forgot one thing,” she cackled, the sound chilling. “You forgot about
me
!

“I jumped off that wagon last night,” she whispered, eyes still glittering, “and fought my way through the woods all night long to get back here. Did you think you could get rid of me so easily? Did you think all you had to do was have that sonofabitch order me off
my
land? Oh, no. I’ve been through too much to give up.”

April choked as she struggled to speak, “Please…please, Vanessa…hear me out…”

“Hear you out!” she mimicked, sneering. “You cunning little harlot! I don’t want to listen to your lies. You can’t wheedle around me the way you do men. I know you for what you are!

“And I know something else—” She took another step forward. “I know Rance took that goddamned ring into town. I was hiding outside the kitchen window this morning when he told that nigra where he was going. He’s going to file a claim to this place. I tried to change them, but it’s in the records that the rightful heir must have possession of that goddamned ring. I couldn’t change those records.”

“We can share—” April was slowly forcing her terrified body to move from the bed.

Vanessa laughed shrilly. “Share? Oh, no, dear sister. You and I aren’t going to share anything. If I can’t have this place, then neither shall you.”

That was when April saw the gun she had been hiding in the folds of her skirt. “No…” she whispered, shaking her head from side to side in horror. “No…you wouldn’t…you couldn’t. Please, God, no—”

In that instant, Jessie appeared in the doorway and screamed. Vanessa whirled around.

“Lawdy, Lawdy!” The Negro covered her face with her apron and began to back out of the room. “Don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me. I ain’t got nothin’ to do with none of this.”

“Get out of here,” Vanessa hissed. “I’ve no quarrel with you.”

Slowly, she turned back to face April, lowering the gun and pointing it straight at her. “Now, damn you, I’ll be rid of you once and for all.”

April used every ounce of strength within her to leap to one side, trying to move quickly enough to dodge the bullet.

The gun exploded in a blinding flash.

She felt a hot, searing pain…but that was nothing compared to what she saw on her sister’s face. The last vision she had before oblivion swept her away was of her sister’s twisted, insane face.
God forgive her,
April thought as she gasped for air.
God forgive my sister. She has lost her mind.

From far, far away, someone was calling. April whirled around and around in a spinning pool of light…grays, blues, reds, yellows. It was pretty here. She did not want to leave. Couldn’t they leave her alone? Why did they want to bring her back? She wanted to stay. Peace was here, not there.

“April, can you hear me?”

Her eyes opened, closed. Was that Rance? So handsome. So dear. God, how she loved him. But couldn’t he allow her to remain here, where it was so nice and calm? No one hated her here. No one wanted to hurt her. And there was music. She could hear singing. Such a pretty sound.

“April, honey, wake up, please—”