In the Dreaming Hour

by Kathryn Le Veque

  Finally, after the fifth ring of the bell, it was clear no one was home and Lucy was resigned to the fact that she wouldn’t be meeting Ruby any time soon. They’d driven an hour from Pea Ridge and she didn’t want to give up so easily, so maybe she could talk Beau into taking her for breakfast somewhere nearby and then they’d come back to try again. Just as Beau was coming off the porch and heading for the car, a small white sedan pulled into the driveway.

  Lucy perked up, straining to catch a glimpse of who was in the driver’s seat. Beau politely stood on the walkway, not wanting to go near the car and possibly scare whoever was driving it, so he simply stood there as the sedan door opened.

  A woman climbed out with a bag of groceries in her hand and Lucy took a very good look at her; she was elderly, thin and well dressed, and her white hair was cropped very close against her head. Lucy saw clearly when she spoke to Beau, although she couldn’t hear what was being said, and Beau held out a business card to the woman so she would know he wasn’t a masher. The woman took the card from him and read it.

  As Lucy watched from the car, heart in her throat, she saw as Beau spoke to the woman. Mostly, she found herself watching the woman and realizing how much she looked like Mamaw. The high cheekbones, the long jaw… everything about the woman screamed of Victory Hembree and Lucy found herself getting very emotional. Her eyes filled with tears at the realization of who she was looking at – Ruby Ransom in the flesh.

  The baby, finally, had been found.

  Lucy found herself praying that Beau was at least able to convince Ruby to listen to what she had to say, but as she watched, Ruby began to shake her head, holding up her hand to Beau as if to silence him. Then she was moving away from him, towards her house, carrying her groceries and shaking her head.

  No, no, no….

  Before she even realized what she was doing, Lucy grabbed her grandmother’s picture from her purse and yanked open the car door, rushing towards Ruby as the woman headed to her porch. Ruby was saying something to Beau that Lucy couldn’t quite hear but she could tell simply from the body language that it wasn’t good. Her composure left her as she rushed towards the woman, close enough to speak with her.

  “Wait,” she said quickly. “Wait, please. My name is Lucy Bondurant and it was my father who chased you away from Glory. Ruby, he’s so sorry he did that. He regrets it terribly. But you have to understand that….”

  Ruby, startled by the appearance of a young woman rushing at her, took a hasty step onto her porch. “Hold on, there,” she said, holding out a hand to her. “Now, Miss Lucy Bondurant, you can get right back in that car and go back to Pea Ridge. I was very clear with Dr. Latling that I had no interest in speaking with you or your family. I already tried that a few years ago and got yelled at for my efforts, so you can just get on out of here.”

  Lucy shook her head, feeling desperate. “You don’t understand,” she said. “My dad told you to go away because he thought you were his grandfather’s bastard. He had no idea you were….”

  “A black bastard,” Ruby said loudly. “I understand perfectly. No Hembree wants a black bastard as part of the family, so you just go back to your white folks and forget about me. I won’t be bothering you again.”

  Lucy looked at Ruby as if the woman had physically struck her. “Is that what you think?” she said. “That he chased you away because you were black? That’s not it at all. He had no idea you were his mother’s daughter – he thought you were one of his grandfather’s many bastards and he was just trying to protect his mother, who was ill at the time. It had nothing to do with black and white.”

  Ruby snorted; she wasn’t buying it. “Honey, this is Mississippi,” she said. “No old white family wants to acknowledge any black relations.”

  Lucy stared at the woman, seeing the walls of defense up, feeling her pain in a sense. It was enough to bring tears to her eyes again. But it also brought tremendous outrage.

  “That’s the most ignorant statement I’ve ever heard,” she said hoarsely. “If you had any idea of the love between your biological parents, a black man and a white woman who happened to be my grandmother, you wouldn’t say that. Look at this –” She held up the picture of Victory, taking a step or two towards Ruby as she extended it for the woman to see. “This is your birth mother, Miss Victory Jewel Hembree Bondurant. Take a good look at her because she risked everything for you.”

  Ruby stared at the picture of a woman she shared similar features with. She seemed to falter. “I don’t need to see that,” she said, averting her eyes as if beholding something horrendously painful. “I don’t want to see that. You need to leave now.”

  Lucy was trembling with emotion. “I’ll go,” she said. “But you’re going to hear me out first. Victory Hembree fell in love with a colored man in nineteen hundred and thirty-three, a man she loved with all her heart. This man wrote her poetry the likes of which you’ve never seen and she loved him until the day she died. They wanted to marry but biracial marriages were illegal in Mississippi back then, so her father kept her locked in her room until she delivered you and then a doctor risked his life to take you to safety. A white doctor, Ruby. You want to make this all about black and white? Then let’s do that.”

  Ruby’s eyes were closed, her hand on her front door knob. “Stop!”

  Lucy wouldn’t; it was all coming out now and she couldn’t control it. “For God’s sake, a black man was even murdered because of you,” she said passionately. “A man who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He died because of you. You don’t know the half of your story, Ruby Ransom, but I am telling you it has nothing to do with being black or white. It has everything to do with a love that has withstood the test of time. Damn you for walking away from this. You’re not worthy of the people who risked their lives for you if you think this all boils down to race.”

  With that, the tears streamed down her face and she turned around, heading back to car. She was sobbing by the time she climbed back into the vehicle, slamming the door and weeping bitterly with Victory’s picture clutched to her chest.

  The silence she left behind between Ruby and Beau was palpable. It was full of grief and sorrow. Beau, his heart aching for Lucy and the dead end she’d come to, simply dipped his head at Ruby in a silent farewell and headed back to his car.

  As he pulled away from the curb, the last he saw was of Ruby still standing on her front porch with her grocery bags in hand. But he didn’t look any more than that. He was more concerned for Lucy at the moment. Gently, he put a hand on her lowered head.

  Truthfully, he didn’t know what to say. He simply stroked her lowered head, tenderly, knowing how heartbroken she was.

  “I’m so sorry,” he finally said. “I wish I could have done more.”

  Lucy grasped his hand, holding it tightly. “You’ve done so much already,” she said, struggling to regain her composure. “I can’t believe that everything Mamaw hoped for is at an end. She wanted to find her baby, she wanted the baby to have her locket, but I’ll be damned if I give that bitter old woman that locket. She’d probably throw it in the trash.”

  He squeezed her hand. “You tried,” he said. “You did everything you could, Lucy. You fulfilled what Ms. Victory asked of you. Don’t beat yourself up over an angry old woman.”

  Lucy was huddled back against the seat, holding his hand tightly, still clutching Victory’s picture against her chest. “She thinks this is really about race?” she said. “Honest to God, that never even occurred to me. Where I come from… we just don’t see race like people do here. I went to school with African Americans and count several among my close friends, so this kind of attitude… I just don’t get it. I don’t like it.”

  He sighed faintly. “Old prejudices die hard,” he said. “Especially down here. California is a little more liberal, but here in Mississippi, things are just different. In fact, when I went away to college, I met a girl who just lit me up. She was smart and beautiful and funny. She was also
Japanese. We started dating and I brought her home for Thanksgiving my first year away and although my parents didn’t say anything about her race, other family members did. She knew it, too. We didn’t date for too much longer after that, needless to say. That was a truly heartbreaking moment for me.”

  Lucy was looking at him as he spoke. “I’m so sorry,” she said, sniffling. “That just sucks.”

  “Yes, it does.”

  Lucy remained huddled against the car seat as the car sped along the highway back to Pea Ridge, still holding Beau’s hand, her thoughts drifting back to Ruby Ransom and the sadness she felt at the animosity from the woman. But as she pondered their encounter, one thing became clear to her.

  “You know what?” she finally said. “I’m glad this happened. I’m glad we found out what kind of woman Ruby Ransom really was. I don’t want her being part of my family. We don’t need or want that kind of intolerance. But I have to say that considering where she came from and the people who risked everything to make sure she came into the world, I am really disappointed for Mamaw and Lewis and Aldridge and Dr. Latling. Hell, Aldridge died because of that woman – is that fair to him that she behaves like that?”

  Beau shook his head. “No,” he said quietly. “But everything happens for a reason. Remember what we’ve been saying? Maybe we can’t see that reason now and maybe we don’t know why Ruby is as embittered as she is, but there’s got to be a reason for it all.”

  “Even for the trip to Cleveland?”

  “Even that,” he said firmly. “Had you never come, you would have never known.”

  “That’s true.”

  He glanced over at her, smiling encouragingly and squeezing her fingers. “So how about if I take you over to my folks’ house and let my mom make you pancakes with bourbon and Xanax?”

  She smiled weakly, knowing he was trying to cheer her up. “Maybe tomorrow,” she said. “Right now, I’d really like to go back to the hotel and take a hot bath. I’ve got a lot of thinking to do.”

  He nodded. “Sure,” he said. “I have a few things I could be doing, too, considering I’ve ignored my work for the past few days. I’ve got paperwork on my desk like you can’t believe.”

  Lucy looked over at him, the smile still on her lips. “I can believe it,” she said, “because that same paperwork is piling up on my desk back in Los Angeles.”

  He shrugged. “If you never go back, someone else will do it.”

  “Who says I’m never going back?”

  “Me. You’re buying Glory and restoring it, remember?”

  Lucy laughed softly. Truth was, she didn’t have the heart to refute him this time and she realized, as she looked at him, that she was finished resisting him. He was kind, and attentive, and all shades of sexy. Impulsively, she leaned over and she deposited a warm, gentle kiss on his right cheek, but it wasn’t any kiss – she lingered on his skin a moment, her lips against his flesh, kissing him twice before moving to his jaw and kissing him there, too. It was as alluring as it could be, moist and lingering.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, her lips against his flesh. “For everything you’ve done for me, thank you.”

  Beau groaned. “Sweet Baby Jesus,” he hissed. “That’s just not fair. I’m driving and I can’t reciprocate.”

  “Do you want to?” she asked breathlessly.

  “If you let me pull the car over, I’ll show you how much.”

  She laughed softly and pulled away from him, settling back in her seat. “I don’t think it would look too good for the Sheriff of Tallahatchie County to be seen making out in his car,” she said. “We can revisit this when you take me back to the hotel.”

  He looked at her, then. “Seriously?”

  Lucy could see that he was all shook up, a glittering look to his eye that she hadn’t seen before. Gone was any self-restraint she put on herself because the truth was that Beau Meade was hot as hell and she wanted a piece of him. She had since the first time they’d met, but he’d never been sexier than he was now when trying to comfort her about Ruby. That moment, in of itself, was enough to finally break her down.

  She was ready for him.

  “Seriously,” she said, a twinkle in her eye. “You’ve flirted and charmed your way enough so that I’ve received your message loud and clear.”

  He grinned. “It’s about time.”

  “I just didn’t want you to think I was easy.”

  “I thought you were dumb and blind. Either that, or I’d lost my touch.”

  She shook her head, giggling. “You haven’t lost your touch.”

  “Care to test that theory out?”

  When they got back to the hotel, they did. All afternoon.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  ~ Evil Is as Evil Does ~

  “Mama? Daddy? I’d like to ask you something.”

  It was suppertime at Glory on a fine evening in May when the air was starting to warm for the onslaught of summer. Victory was seated at the big dining table with her father on one end and her mother on the other. Laveau was well into his second bourbon while Caroline had hardly touched her stew that contained chicken, pork, and butterbeans. Laveau looked up from his bourbon when his daughter spoke.

  “What is it?” he asked, none too eager to know.

  Victory was nicely dressed for dinner in a soft white dress with her auburn hair pulled back. She had been genuinely trying to make an effort as of late because she wanted something from her parents. Therefore, she was putting on a show of being a good, obedient girl.

  “I would like to go to the Gore Springs Girls Academy in the autumn,” she said politely. “It might be better, you know… not returning to a school like Pea Ridge where all the girls are talking about me. It would be better to start at a school where I don’t know anyone. I’d like to make new friends.”

  Caroline looked at her, puzzled. “But I thought you loved Pea Ridge and Mr. Franklin,” she said. “In fact, I saw the man at the market last week and he asked to your health. I told him you were just fine and that you’d be going back to school in the fall.”

  Victory shook her head. “I don’t want to go back there, Mama,” she said, appealing to her father. “Daddy, Dell told me that they’ve said all kinds of terrible things about me there. I can’t go back and face those horrible girls. Can I please go to Gore Springs?”

  Laveau actually seemed interested in what she had to say, but considering the man was bothered by anybody who said anything about him or his family, it wasn’t surprising.

  “What are they saying?” he asked.

  Victory thought that she needed to be truthful with him to emphasize her point. “Awful things,” she said. “The girls over there are saying I’m crazy and that’s why you won’t allow me back at school. But some of them… Daddy, they’re saying terrible things about you and why you like to keep me here at home, and if I go back to school, I’ll just slap them all silly. Please let me go to Gore Springs. No one knows me there and it will be much better for me.”

  Laveau scratched his chin. “They’re saying terrible things about me, are they?”

  “Yes, Daddy.”

  “Dell told you that?”

  “Yes, Daddy.”

  “But she didn’t tell you what?”

  Victory shook her head. “Not really,” she said. “All I know was that they were not very nice things.”

  Laveau looked at his bourbon a moment. Then, he took another drink. “I must say that I’m disappointed to hear that Mr. Franklin is allowing that school to become a hotbed of gossip,” he said. “I thought he had a better school than that.”

  “Then I don’t have to go back?”

  Laveau moved to pour himself more liquor. “Your mama will go see to the school in Gore Springs,” he said. “If she likes it, then you can go there.”

  Victory smiled with relief. “Thank you, Daddy,” she said. “I promise to work hard and get good grades. I’ll make you proud.”

  Laveau didn’t look at her as he lifted his
glass to his lips again. “That would be a first,” he muttered. “But I don’t like that those girls over at Pea Ridge are spreading gossip. That disturbs me.”

  Deeply hurt by his comment, Victory lowered her head and went back to her food. It wouldn’t do to cry or cause a scene, not when she had what she wanted. New friends and no gossip. Girls who didn’t know her or her family. Gore Springs was about an hour away, but it didn’t matter. It would be a much better place for her to get an education. Her father was known to go back on his word, so she kept her mouth shut and finished her stew, relieved that she would be starting a new school in the fall.

  “Don’t bother yourself with those girls, Laveau,” Caroline said from across the table. “They’re just children. It doesn’t matter what they say.”

  Laveau looked at her. “They have parents who may hear what they say,” he said. “That just won’t do. After supper, you get Dell over here. I want to hear what those girls have said.”

  Victory knew what that meant. Poor Dell would now have to face Laveau and tell him what she’d told Victory. Not that Victory felt too sorry for her gossiping cousin. Maybe it was time to put the fear of God into her a little bit so she’d learn to keep her mouth shut in the future.

  Dell and her mother, Sedelia, came over about an hour later. Up in her bedroom, Victory could hear Dell crying as Laveau interrogated her. The questioning went on well into the night and Victory even heard slapping sounds, and Dell screaming, and she knew that Dell was being spanked. By Laveau or by her mother, she didn’t know, but she was very glad she wasn’t Dell Alexander that night.

  But the night passed, Dell and her mother went home, and Laveau never said another word about the Pea Ridge Female Academy until four days later when she heard him mention that it was a tragedy that the school had burned down the night before. Everything had been lost, Laveau told Caroline, and it was truly a shame that so fine a school had been reduced to ashes.

  Victory had a feeling she knew how Mr. J. Duncan Franklin’s school was no more.