The Sun Rises (Southern Legacy Book 4) (22 page)

Cullen hurried into the house and was greeted with silence. Taking off his coat, he saw Penniford round the corner.

“Mister Cullen.” Penniford extended his hand to take his coat and gloves. “It is good to see you home.”

“Thank you, Penniford. The house seems quiet, too quiet.”

“Your parents are out for the evening. We weren’t expecting you home.”

“I took the train today. Is my wife in our room?”

“I haven’t seen her since this afternoon. I assume so. The children are asleep in the nursery.”

He headed upstairs to their room. He opened it to a dark stillness. The book he had given her lay on a chair, with a throw blanket lying on the floor.
Strange
. He walked through to the nursery where Madeline lay sound asleep. He tucked the blanket around her curved little body.

Outside the room, loud voices echoed in the hall. Cullen made his way to the noise. The door to his son’s room was open. Looking in, he saw the room cluttered with toys littered on the floor, the bed covers thrown off the bed.

Percival stood in the middle of the room and stomped his foot. “I can’t go to sleep until Momma kisses me. She always kisses me good night.” His voice ranted with an inflexible determination.

“It is late. I have told you that your momma will kiss you when she returns. She wants you in bed.” Mrs. Finnegan’s exacerbated voice railed.

“I want Momma!”

“Percival?” Cullen walked into the room. Immediately on the sight of his father, Percival ran and flung his arms around him.

“Father, they won’t let me see Momma. I want to see Momma.” Tears flowed down his cheeks.

“Of course, you can see your mother.” Cullen stared over at the nanny. “Why is my son so upset, Mrs. Finnegan? Where is his mother?”

Mrs. Finnegan looked at him with tired eyes and then looked at Percival. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, sir, but I haven’t a clue where Mrs. Smythe has gone.”

****

“Josephine, where are you?”

Cullen walked the house, pausing at doors to check all the rooms. Holding Percival’s hand, he halted in the foyer when he saw Penniford strode toward him.

“I’m afraid Mrs. Smythe is not in the house, sir. Mary said the last she saw Mrs. Smythe was with Miss Elizabeth, walking down the servant stairs.”

“I told ya. I told ya. The bad man took her!” Percival wailed to the point his small body shook.

“Percival, calm yourself. I will find your mother,” Cullen assured his son, but fear grew within him.

Mrs. Finnegan stood behind him. “For the life of me, I wish I had asked Miss Elizabeth where she was going, but I didn’t think Mrs. Smythe was with her. The last I saw of Mrs. Smythe, she was reading, having promised the children they could stay up an extra half hour. She never came to put them to bed.”

“Did you not think that odd?” Cullen pressed
. Where…where could Jo have gone?

“Mr. Cullen,” Mary said in a timid voice.

Occupied with his thoughts, he hadn’t even noticed she had walked up. “Yes, Mary.”

“I have been racking my brain with where she could have gone. I heard her talking with Miss Elizabeth. She said something about Miss Hazel. Does that help?”

Cullen felt the first sign of relief. “Penniford, send a note over to Heyward and Miss Hazel and see if Mrs. Smythe is visiting.”

“I have already taken the liberty of sending messages to Mr. Heyward’s home and also, your father at the dinner party he is attending,” Penniford said.

He nodded. Josephine’s visits with her former mammy had not gone unnoticed by the servants. In truth, the servants probably knew their lives better than anyone.

“Father,” Percival said with growing frustration. “I saw ’em from the window. I saw Momma get in with Auntie ’lizabeth. I saw his gun.”

“Percival, what gun?” Now his son had his full attention. Cullen knelt to his level.

“The man who drove the carria’. He climbed back on top and pulled back his coat and patted it. The men who took Momma before had guns, Father.”

“Listen, carefully, Percival. I will find your mother. You go back to your room with Mrs. Finnegan and go to sleep. I will have your momma back in the morning.” Suddenly, he hugged his son, tightly. He pulled back, mussing his son’s disheveled hair. “You can sleep in our room with Madeline. Will that make you feel better?”

Percival nodded, but eyed his father questionably. “But, Father, why did Auntie ’lizbeth said she was going to be my new momma?”

A chill shot through Cullen. “When did Aunt Elizabeth tell you that?”

“Not to me, Father. She talks to herself. She’s funny, ex’pt she’s been talking that everyone will be happy when it’s done.”

The gnawing fear turned to panic. 
Lord, Kathleen had gotten to Elizabeth and caused her to betray her family!
 
What was happening?
 He knew only he was going to find out.

Cullen stood and turned to Mrs. Finnegan. “Take him into my room and lock all the doors…Madeline’s also between the connecting rooms. Only open it to my parents or myself. Do you understand? Do not leave them!”

“Yes, sir.” Mrs. Finnegan nodded. Water welled in her eyes, telling of her own worries. “Don’t worry about the children. I won’t let anything happen to them.”

He swallowed hard. “Penniford, tell Father everything that has happened when he arrives.” He paused to watch Mrs. Finnegan rush up the stairs. “Follow me.”

In the study, Cullen pulled out a tin box and unlocked it. He checked to make sure it was loaded and handed it to Penniford. “Take the pistol and guard my children’s door. Don’t let anyone in except Father or myself, especially not my sister. Do I make myself clear?”

Conscious only of the need for haste, Cullen withdrew the other pistol.
God, what had happened to Josephine?
He didn’t even know where to start. No, that wasn’t true. He knew exactly where to go—straight to Kathleen.

With his loaded pistol in hand, he headed for the door. Grabbing his coat, he pushed his hat on his head. Briefly, he glanced up the stairs. Suddenly, he heard rapid footsteps pound into the foyer. Turning, he saw Heyward hurrying to catch him.

“Mr. Cullen, I received a note asking if Miss Jo was visiting. Figured something must be wrong. Ma sent me to check. Seems we were right.” Leaning over, Heyward drew in a deep breath. “Do you want help?”

“I don’t know what we face.”

Heyward straightened himself up to full height. “Don’t matter.”

For a brief moment, he stared at the man, grateful for his offer. “Let’s go.”

Josephine woke to a repugnant odor mingled with musty, stale air. Lying on the floor of the cavernous room, she looked about, but saw little. It was dark and dank. Groggily, she crawled to her knees. Slowly, her eyes focused to make out shapes and forms.

Rising to her feet, she felt her way around and bumped into a table, a chair, and finally curtains. She jerked back on the material, desperately trying to get any light into the room.

A moment later, a sliver of light from the streetlamps streamed through. It wasn’t much, but the dim light allowed her to see her prison. Frantically, she pushed against the window, but it wouldn’t budge. She needed something to break the glass.

Turning around, Josephine surveyed the room. In the dim light, she surmised it must have been a parlor, but the covers over the furniture told that no one had entertained lately. On her left was a fireplace with a mantel; looking straight ahead, French doors led to another room. Then her eyes lit to a sofa and a couple of chairs to her right.

There had to be something in the room she could use. Large and heavy enough to break the window, yet easy enough for her to lift. She stared at the French doors. Her heart pounded madly. She hadn’t much time before her cousin would return…of that she had no doubt.

Feeling her way around the room in the faint light, she tripped over something soft and bulky and fell down on top of it. Pushing back off it, Jo rolled over to the floor. The stench overwhelmed her…until she saw what she had fallen upon…and then terror gripped her soul.

Jo could not tear her eyes off the figure. A woman…dead…laid in a pool of dried blood. She was dressed in an evening gown, but it was ripped and torn. Her throat had been slashed; Jo could make out the cut where she could now see maggots moving within it.

Oh, God! Oh, God!
 She crawled to her knees and recoiled against a table. Covering her mouth with her hand…
Oh, Lord, it was sticky with blood!
Clutching her stomach, she threw up.

Jo wiped her hand with her sleeve.
I have to get out of here! I have to get out of here!
 Rising, she stepped back from the body, only to feel another object on the floor. Turning ever so slowly, she looked down. Another body. She screamed…and screamed.

Suddenly, the French doors opened wide. Light filtered in, illuminating the room with an eerie glow. Jo could see everything clearly—she was living in a nightmare.

“Cousin, I see you have met your roommates,” Harry Lee sneered derisively and closed the gap between them. “It has been a long time. You don’t know how I have lived for this moment. When I thought I couldn’t take another breath, I thought of you and found strength again to live.”

“You’re mad!” Jo shivered uncontrollably. Frantically, looking all around, she did the only thing she could…she bolted toward the open doors.

Harry Lee caught her and spun her around to face him. He slapped her with enough force to send her reeling had he not had hold of her.

Tasting blood in her mouth, Jo twisted and turned, fighting desperately to get free. His fingers bit into her soft flesh and yanked her up, so close she felt his foul breath against her skin. She cringed.

Laughing, he withdrew a long knife from his belt. “Don’t think this is going to be quick. Oh, no. I haven’t waited this long not to enjoy every minute of what lies ahead for you. I’m supposed to wait for your sister-in-law. She will be in shortly. She wanted to see you die in front of her, but it doesn’t mean I can’t begin my fun.”

“Elizabeth?” Jo’s mind reeled.
Timid, shy Elizabeth wanted her dead?
She didn’t believe it. “You lie!”

He took the knife and ran it along her cheek, nicking her skin. She felt warm blood run down her neck. His uproarious laughter drowned out the horrid gasp that trembled out from her.

“Damn you to hell!” Josephine burst out.

“I suppose,” he mocked. “But you will be there long before me.”

He pushed Jo back against a table. She watched as he took off his coat and rolled up his sleeves. “I had better get comfortable. This is going to take awhile. I owe you so much, Jo.”

“I don’t understand,” she stuttered, gripping tight to the table’s edge to hold herself up. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

“Do I look dead?” He chuckled. His head nodded in the direction of the dead man. “Colonel Reginald Holly, a physician for the Union army, stationed at Fort Delaware. Didn’t do much except sign death certificates. For a price, he signed mine and smuggled my 
dead
 body out of that hellhole.”

“That makes no sense. Why on earth would he do such a thing?”

“Ask Elizabeth. She was the one who found him after she overheard your husband say I was in a Yankee prison camp. Seems Kathleen and your devious little sister-in-law set in motion a plan to get me out.” Harry Lee snickered. “I didn’t care. Didn’t listen to half their tale about how hard it was to find me. All I cared about was that it got me out of there…got me back to you.”

Harry Lee stepped toward her, swiping his knife one way, and then the other. “I hated you from the beginning. Imperious little tramp. Remember when you first showed up in Charleston, down at the Battery—you tried to save Gillie after I dropped her over the railing. Did you ever figure out that I could have pulled you out easy enough? I laughed and laughed as you tried to grab hold of my hand. Could you not tell I kept easing it back just out of your reach? I watched you fall backward, struggling to remain afloat, watching you go down and then…You have had all the luck, Jo. What with both Wade and Cullen coming to your rescue.”

He tilted his head to the side and licked his lips. “There won’t be anyone to rescue you this night…you should have never refused me, Jo. You should have married me.”

“I would have never married you! All you wanted was my daddy’s money.” She spat at him.

He slapped her again. His eyes narrowed with hatred. “You hypocrite! You act so righteous and moral. You are no better than I am, cousin. You enjoyed the wealth and status your father’s money gave you. You reveled in our family’s demise. You stood along the side of the Confederacy until the tide shifted and you ran back to your Yankee lover.”

“I’m nothing like you! Nothing!” She wiped her bleeding nose with her sleeve.

“No, you are worse. You are a God damn nigger loving bitch!” he countered with a scoff. “Besides, your daddy was a bastard! What will your loving husband say when he learns he has married white trash?”

Her face flamed.
He knew about Papa
. Why would he not have told the world? She stopped herself. She knew the answer: because his name would have been tainted as well. She retorted, “He already knows you are my cousin.”

His eyes flamed his anger. His hand gripped the knife tighter.

Jo ran. This time she got around him, but he lunged at her and knocked her down. Sprawled on the floor, Harry Lee straddled her, boasting a triumphant laugh.

Her pounding heart caused a cold sweat to soak her body. Staring up at the knife, she realized she was trapped.

“Mr. Haynes, I thought we agreed to wait until I returned.”

Harry Lee eased off Jo and stood. Jo frantically got to her feet and stared, unbelieving of the sight before her. Elizabeth smiled.

“Why on earth is she still in that dreadful room, Mr. Haynes? Please bring her out here. I’m sure she has plenty of questions.”

****

Elizabeth was stark raving mad.
There was no other explanation. Feeling helpless in her plight, Jo had no choice but to listen to the woman’s incoherent rantings.

“Elizabeth, Elizabeth,” Jo repeated, anguish riddled in her voice. “Tell me why…why did you trick me? What have I done to you?”

“Done,” Elizabeth jeered and strolled across the room. Her eyes raked over Jo. Shaking her head, she said in a wistful tone, “Such a beautiful woman. No one should ever have been allowed all you have been given. Kathleen and I wondered why God favored you so. Two men who loved you dearly. Not one, but two?

“I suppose Kathleen was jealous. I, myself, had my fill of men after Jeremiah. He betrayed me, told me he loved me then left me. He should have never left me, but I had my baby to comfort me until Kathleen.” She shrugged with a bizarre, creepy smile. “I don’t know where he went…Mother said he went West with his family. He left me without a word. They paid him off…he used me for money and left me with shame…I loved him...”

Jo gripped her flailing emotions with grit determination to survive. She couldn’t die. Not yet. She reached for anything to bring Elizabeth back to sanity. “You didn’t deserve him. You need someone to love you and all will be forgotten. I will help you. Cullen will help you. But we need to go home to the children…”

”Ah, but that’s the trouble, Josephine. The children.” A nasty smile twisted her lips. “They are the reason you are here. Percival and Madeline need a good mother who concentrates solely on them. How could you choose to stay in that dreadful prison and leave them alone?”

“I had no choice,” Jo stated adamantly. “I love my children and have done everything I can to protect them.”

“You should have never left them alone,” Elizabeth said, as if Jo had not spoken. She went on. “They can’t have two mothers. I thought when you arrived that everything would have been set. Madeline, sweet Madeline, she didn’t want you. You should have left well enough alone, but no! You set upon yourself to reclaim her, trick her into thinking you loved her, but you don’t love her as I do.”

Elizabeth’s voice rose and then abruptly she halted. She looked around Jo into the parlor. Walking over to the doors, she closed them soundly. “We don’t want to disturb Kathleen. She isn’t happy as it is.”

“It’s Kathleen in that room! Your best friend. You killed Kathleen?” Jo asked, losing her grip on her own sanity. The woman was insane! She had to get out of here…she took a step back.

“You sound like Kathleen,” Elizabeth scoffed. “She had to be punished. She killed my baby. She took me to that god-awful place and they killed my little girl…it would have been a girl, you know. She came to me in a dream and told me she was coming to me. And she did. I had to protect her from Kathleen.”

Jo’s eyes widened with horror
. Elizabeth thought Madeline was hers? Oh my God, she’s crazy!
Jo shook her head. “No, Elizabeth. Madeline is my daughter. She needs her mother. She loves you, but—”

“Shut up!” Elizabeth screamed. “You don’t deserve them. I can’t have you stealing my child from me.” She winced. “I do regret what I must do, but it’s for the children’s sake. I’m afraid Cullen has to die also. He could marry again and then…” Her words faded, as if she thought of something else. “Regrettable. Rest assured I will tell them even through your faults, you loved them.”

“Elizabeth, you can’t do this.”

“In that you are quite wrong, my dear sister-in-law. I have thought it all the way through. When Kathleen came up with this far-fetched idea of saving Harry Lee from being a prisoner of war, it all fell into place. She believed she could manipulate Harry Lee into doing her bidding like she did before, but I knew…I knew he must have hated her. She left their child with Andrew. Kathleen could never understand the connection a real mother has to her child.”

Jo glanced over at Harry Lee.
Fannie had been his?
She felt faint. She uttered in a low voice, “Kathleen plotted against me all this time.”

“Don’t tell me that you didn’t suspect her,” Harry Lee snickered. “She was in on my little plot from the time I got to Philadelphia to stop your wedding to that sniveling little coward, Andrew. She wanted to marry Andrew and I you. Of course, you would not have survived long enough to see the end result after I inherited all that was yours. Kathleen thought I would marry her afterwards and she was going to be the belle of Charleston.”

“She was married!”

“Minute details, I can assure you.” Harry Lee shrugged. “Besides, I never planned on marrying her. Just needed her help to get at you… See all the trouble you have caused?”

Jo stumbled backward, shaking her head. This couldn’t be happening!

“Elizabeth, listen to me. You can’t trust Harry Lee,” Jo pleaded in a mild, almost soothing voice. “He killed Kathleen…Kathleen is dead, Elizabeth. When he has what he needs, he will kill you…and Madeline.”

Elizabeth appeared less than pleased. “No! No!” she cried. “Madeline is safe…safe.”

Jo saw before Elizabeth. The barrel glistened in the room light. Harry Lee didn’t utter a sound. He cocked the pistol and fired once. Immediately, Elizabeth clutched her stomach and collapsed to her knees. In shock, she looked down. Blood oozed out between her fingers.

Harry Lee strolled over even before the smoke cleared and aimed once more at Elizabeth’s head.

“Don’t,” Jo cried. “For God’s sake!”

Harry Lee slowly turned back to her. His eyes had turned dark; his smile caustic. He gave her a nasty look.

Jo wasted no more time. Not looking back, she rushed toward the door Elizabeth had entered. Falling against the door, her hands desperately sought her escape. Trembling, she tried to turn the handle
. It has to open…it has to
…