Vivid (41 page)

"If I weren't so sleepy, I'd fuss,
but I am sleepy, so I'm going back to bed. 'Night, Nate."

She kissed him.

"Night, princess."

After his descent into his grandfather's
tunnel, Vivid repositioned the rug and padded back into the bedroom for a few
more hours of sleep.

The next morning Vivid came out into the
yard to find Nate, Magic, and Abigail all shading their eyes against the sun
and peering up into the sky.

Vivid did the same, but having no idea
what she was supposed to be looking for, she gave up and walked over to
investigate.

At her approach, Magic said happily,
“Look, Viveca, your idea worked. Hector is flying!"

Vivid put her hand up to shield her eyes,
and sure enough she spied Hector soaring above the trees. Magic had been at her
wit's end trying to coax Hector into trying out his angle-shaped wings. She'd
tried tossing him gently off the front porch steps, she'd tried showing him by
flapping her own brown arms, all to no avail. Vivid had watched Magic on a
couple of occasions flapping her way around the yard while Hector stood
silently on the ground, slowly cocking his head this way and that, looking for
all the world as if he were trying to determine if his surrogate mama had gone
insane.

Vivid's musings were broken as Hector
whizzed by just above his audience's heads and everyone ducked.

Magic scolded her pampered pet.

Hector resumed his bullet-fast flight back
to the sun. Adam walked up. He sounded astounded as he asked, "Was that
Hector?"

"Yes," Magic replied, continuing
to view the sky with irritation.

Abigail, viewing the sky with a warning in
her eyes, said angrily, "He could hurt someone doing that."

Magic agreed, saying, "Just wait
until he gets back here."

“Magic—'' Adam began, but the bird
whizzed by at eyebrow level again, making everyone crouch defensively as he
screamed past.

"Stop it, Hector!" Magic
hollered.

"I'm going back inside," Abigail
declared. "That bird should be in a cage."

Vivid had to agree and sought safety among
the trees lining the drive. She'd been terrorized enough for one day. Nate and
Adam joined her and they all turned their eyes to the sky.

Hector dove and rose, dove and rose. Adam
exclaimed, "That's no ordinary hawk she's been raising, folks. Hector's a
nighthawk. See that white band on his wings?"

"Are you sure?" Nate asked.

"Sure as I can be until he slows down
long enough to get a good look at him."

"Aren't they supposed to hunt at
night?"

Adam shook his head. "When they're
raised in the nest, yes. Hector doesn't know any better probably."

They could see him circling against the
sun.

Vivid asked, "Do they make good
pets?"

"Doesn't look like it." Nate
chuckled, seeing his daughter duck under Hector's latest pass. Nate had never
seen a bird fly so swiftly.

Vivid laughed, watching Magic angrily
shaking her small brown fist at the sky, then remarked, "I really pity
that bird should she ever get her hands on him."

After a shared laugh, Nate asked Vivid,
"How did you get him to fly?"

"I told Magic to drop him off the
barn roof. Hector would either fly or break his neck. It was all I could think
of."

The focus in the yard shifted to the wagon
driving up. Vivid recognized Vernon, but not the older White woman or the small
golden-skinned girl seated by her side.

"Who do you think that could
be?" Adam asked.

Nate shrugged. He stepped out from the
shelter of the trees, took a quick look up at the sky, then walked across the
yard to the wagon, Vivid and Adam following.

Vernon was helping the large woman from
the wagon.

"Are you Nathaniel Grayson?" she
asked in an Irish brogue.

Nate didn't answer for a moment. The
little girl sitting so quietly on the seat held his complete attention. She and
Majestic favored each other so keenly they could be twins.

The woman's voice brought him back.
"My name is Holly Rand, Mr. Grayson. Did you receive my letter?"

"What letter—" he began,
then paused. He stared into the woman's black eyes. Holly Rand. "You sent
the message about my daughter being in danger?''

She nodded grimly. "I apologize for
being so cryptic, but I thought it would be better to explain the situation in
person."

Nate looked at the child once more, then
at Magic, now walking over to join them with Hector perched atop the leather
pad on her shoulder. He thought if not twins they could be sisters.

Holly Rand, seeing Majestic, said, "I
didn't know they would favor each other so much."

Nate's head snapped around.

"They're sisters, Mr. Grayson."

"Sisters?"

"Yes. This is Miss Satin. I brought
her to you because I didn't know where else to go."

Stunned, Nate scanned the girl's small
face. Sisters? He saw that Viveca and Adam appeared just as shocked. Nate
realized he didn't want Magic to hear this conversation, at least not until he
found out what this visit meant, so when she walked up, he said,
"Majestic, go tell Aunt Gail we have guests."

Satin reared back from the sight of
Hector, frightened.

"Don't worry," Magic told her,
"he only eats rabbits and field mice. Do you want to put him on your
shoulder?"

The girl shook her head violently.

Magic looked up at her father and said
sagely, "I think she's scared, Pa."

"I think so, too," he said
gently. "Now run along and tell Aunt Gail about our guests."

As Magic and Hector departed, Holly Rand
said, "She's a lovely child, Mr. Grayson. Somewhere up in heaven her mum
is surely smiling."

Later, after Nate and Holly put the girls
to bed in Majestic's room, the adults gathered around the kitchen table to hear
Holly Rand's story.

"I brought Satin to you because I
believe she will be safe here."

"From whom?" Nate asked.

"The girls' distant cousin, Evan Cole.
They are standing between him and his late aunt's money."

Nate went still. "How much money are
we speaking of?"

"More than I'll ever see in a
lifetime, that's for sure," she said. "He's an evil man, Evan Cole.
Evil."

Nate looked around the table at the
others.

Mrs. Rand said, "Let me start at the
beginning. "The girls' mum was a woman named Delia Cole. She was a poor
lass with no family when I first met her in Philadelphia. I owned a seamstress
shop then and she came to me for a job. She worked for me for over a year. She
was a fine seamstress and a fine woman."

She paused a moment as if she was
recalling those early memories, then continued. "A man came into the shop
one day and you could tell by the cut of his clothes he was wealthy. Delia
helped him pick out a shawl as a present for his mother. His name was Garth
Cole and he returned every day for the next week to buy gloves, shawls,
whatever I had, just so he could see her. Delia was a beautiful woman, and a
good girl. She wasn't like some of the shop girls who went with any man who
promised them something pretty. To make a long story short, he courted my Delia
and eventually married her. His rich mum carried on something awful when she
heard the news. She swore never to speak to him again for marrying so low.
Garth and Delia moved away and I lost track of her after that."

According to Mrs. Rand, in September 1867,
Garth was murdered and robbed while coming home from his job as a store clerk.
Delia, mother now to a nearly year-old Majestic, stretched their meager savings
for as long as she could, but six weeks after her husband's ignoble death, she
and her baby were forced out onto the streets. To add to her woes, she learned
she was carrying the baby who would be Satin. Out of desperation she went to her
husband's family, only to be turned away from the door by Garth's cousin Evan.

Delia went back to the streets. Finding
work became increasingly difficult; she had a small child and another on the
way, few employers found that combination appealing. Delia tried to find Mrs.
Rand, who had since closed her shop and moved away, but in a city as large as
Philadelphia, she might as well have been looking for gold in the streets. With
winter closing in, she had few options. The charity houses were full. She added
her name to the lists with all the others waiting, but she held little hope.
She begged on the corners for a while, but the older and more seasoned
panhandlers ran her off. She came to a decision. Majestic needed food and
warmth or she would surely die. Delia refused to let that happen; Majestic
would have a future even if Delia and the unborn child did not. So Delia placed
the sleeping baby on the steps of the hospital. Crying silently, she kissed the
cold little brow farewell and faded back into the night.

Mrs. Rand paused and looked into Nate's
eyes and quietly asked, "Can you imagine the desperation she must have
felt, the anguish of knowing she'd left her dear child with strangers so she
wouldn't starve to death? My Lord, I wish I had been there to help her."

Mrs. Rand then told how Garth Cole's
mother went into decline after learning of her son's death. While Garth and
Delia were married, Garth's mother had never once contacted them. She'd never
seen Delia, hadn't cared whether there were grandchildren. The prospect of
impending death must have changed her mind because she hired a Pinkerton to
find Delia, and when he did, Mrs. Cole moved her son's widow into her home.

Vivid asked, "Did she know Delia had
come to the house before?"

"No, because Evan didn't tell
her."

"Sounds like a real nice
fellow," Adam remarked in a voice thick with sarcasm.

Delia was afraid she would be turned back
out onto the street should her mother-in-law ever learn Delia had abandoned her
elder child, so she never told her of Majestic's birth.

Nate interrupted the narrative to ask,
"How long after Majestic's abandonment was Delia found by the
Pinkerton?"

"Three weeks later."

Nate shook his head sadly.

Mrs. Cole died a few months before Satin's
birth. Her will settled a small pension on Delia and left the bulk of her
wealth to the unborn child. Evan Cole was furious. His aunt had bequeathed him
a reasonable sum, but he felt entitled to it all.

"After her death the terror
began," Mrs. Rand said quietly. "Every day, during Delia's last month
of confinement, Evan would come into her room and tell her how easy it would be
to dispose of her infant. He talked of strangling and arsenic-laced milk and
suffocation."

"Oh, my Lord..." Abigail gasped.

"Horrible, horrible things,"
Mrs. Rand said.

To try and save her child, Delia used some
of her funds to hire a Pinkerton to find Mrs. Rand.

"I went to the house and Delia asked
me to be her midwife. She knew from working in my shop that I'd done it
occasionally so I said I would. But she wanted me to say the baby had died in
hopes of throwing Evan off the scent. I did just as she asked. After she gave
birth to Miss Satin, I wrapped the little body completely in a blanket and
announced to Evan the baby was dead. You should have seen that little toad
grin. I hated him for life at that moment; for life."

"So where'd you go?"

"Boston. I have a sister there. Miss
Satin and I lived with her until six months ago. Delia sent money for her care
all these years and I kept her safe."

"Did Delia ever visit?"

"Never. She was too afraid Evan would
somehow find out."

"So she never saw either of her
daughters again," Vivid said.

"No."

A silence settled over the kitchen. Vivid
could see tears in Abigail's eyes.

Nate asked, "So why did you send the
note to me?"

"I'm dying, Mr. Grayson, and Evan
knows Satin is alive."

Nate stilled. "How?"

"When Delia died unexpectedly six
months ago, Mrs. Cole's old butler wrote to tell me of her death. He said Evan
handled the burial and the disposal of her things. In the process he found her
ledgers. Written in them were the recordings of the payments she'd been sending
all these years. Delia must have taken the butler into her confidence because
he warned me Evan was on his way to Boston. I packed, and we left the next
day."

"Will he come here?" Abigail
asked.

Mrs. Rand said, "I believe he will.
The bulk of her estate went to charity, but if he can produce Satin for Mrs.
Cole's solicitors, he will be declared guardian until she comes of age and they
will turn the money over to him."

"But how will they be sure the Satin
he produces isn't a fraud? The baby supposedly died."

Mrs. Rand asked, "Does Majestic have
a strawberry birthmark on her left shoulder?"