Tender Betrayal

by Rosanne Bittner

  Lena’s thoughts were interrupted when someone grasped her arm. “Get Toosie and come with me,” a man said quietly.

  She turned in surprise and confusion, looked up into the face of Lee Jeffreys. Her eyes widened in astonishment. “Mr. Jeffreys! What are you—”

  “Do as I said. Get your daughter and come down to the second-floor balcony. I need to talk to both of you!”

  He left her then, and Lena stared after him. She thought Lee had left Louisiana! Why on earth was he here at Audra’s cotillion? She turned and hurried past George and Henrietta to find Toosie, taking hold of her hand. “Come with me.”

  “Where?”

  “Downstairs. Lee Jeffreys is here and he has asked to talk to us.”

  Toosie followed her mother, her heart rushing with a mixture of fear and hope. Why on earth would Lee come on this of all nights?

  Lee listened to Audra’s singing, her beautiful voice drifting through the night air so strong and full that he could easily hear her from the floor below. Vivid memories engulfed him, memories of Connecticut, and the first time he had heard her sing. Her voice was just as beautiful as ever, and he wondered how he was going to leave Louisiana after tonight and never come back. He had no choice if he wanted to save Audra’s reputation, but he also wanted to save her from further harm from her husband. The least he could do before he left was make sure Richard Potter never abused his wife again. He had been waiting three weeks for this, biding his time in Baton Rouge. He had gotten to know the city quite well, but few of its citizens treated him kindly. He had seen enough to know he did not belong in the South, and he was ready to leave; but not before meeting Richard Potter and setting the man straight in the matter of how he treated his wife.

  It had been easy to get into the estate, passing himself off to servants as a business associate who purchased cotton for northern factories. He had purposely come late so that most guests would already be here. The more, the better. Outside, the driveway was lined with fancy carriages, and he supposed those who had come the farthest would be spending the night in the several bedrooms of Brennan Manor, as well as in a guest house nearby.

  Negro servants were running every which way, tending horses, taking stoles and jackets, serving drinks, emptying ashtrays and chamber pots. It had been easy to talk his way past the Negro doorman, and because he was dressed as elegantly as the rest of the guests, no one else questioned him as he made his way to the third-floor ballroom. He had not actually entered the ballroom yet, but had stood on a side balcony, where no one else had seen him. He had watched Audra and the man he was sure must be Richard Potter step out to a waltz, urged by the guests to dance alone first.

  Potter was handsome enough, well built for his age; but anyone could see the arrogance about the man, and considering his size, the thought of him abusing Audra only brought more rage to Lee’s soul. The rage was combined with a burning jealousy at picturing Richard Potter using Audra’s sweet, young body for his own sick gratification. His only comfort was noticing that Audra looked rested, healthier than when he had seen her last. Tonight she was absolutely the most beautiful woman he had ever set eyes on. Her gown was the most magnificent deep-pink color, her hair drawn up into a mass of curls and topped with diamonds. It irked him to see the way Richard Potter towered over her, his dark eyes drilling into her. He wished he could have heard their conversation as they danced. They smiled the whole time, but he knew it was a show for their guests. At one point Audra had held her chin in that way she had of showing defiance. What had the man said to her?

  It was good to see that spark in her eye that told him she’d regained some of the spirit her husband had tried to beat out of her. By all outward appearances, he decided the man had not abused her quite so badly these past three weeks. He felt somewhat relieved to see she had put on a little weight, but he had a hunch Richard had just been “fattening her up” so his wife would look her best tonight. He would want everyone here to see her glowing and beautiful, not the thin, pitiful, hollow-eyed Audra that Lee had seen three weeks ago.

  He could not think of anything more gratifying than to be able to tell Richard Potter that he had slept with his wife while he was gone, but he could not do that to Audra. It would be their secret, their last sweet good-bye. He had found it a hundred times more difficult to leave her this time, knowing the danger she was in. In some ways he felt as abusive as her husband, for he should have known better in the first place than to take advantage of her innocence back in Connecticut. If not for that act, Richard Potter might be a better husband to her, though Lee suspected that the man would have inevitably abused her in one way or another. He was a tyrant at heart, king of Cypress Hollow and now Brennan Manor—a man who clearly enjoyed the power he wielded over others. His own father was like that in some respects, and he suspected Joseph Brennan was also. They were not wife beaters, but they controlled people in other, perhaps less brutal, ways.

  He hated being controlled, and he hated the thought of controlling others, whether a wife or slaves or the poor people who worked in his father’s factories. Maybe that was why he was here, not just for Audra, but in part because Richard Potter and Joseph Brennan had destroyed his relationship with Audra. By doing so, they had controlled him, too; but after tonight, he would be the one in control. Audra might not be his, but he could at least protect her.

  “Mr. Jeffreys!” Lena called out to him in the dark.

  “Over here,” he answered, spotting them in the moonlight. They both came toward him, and Lee looked around to make sure no one was lurking nearby.

  “What on earth are you doing here!” Lena scolded. “You will get Miss Audra in terrible trouble!”

  “Get over here out of the light. I don’t want anyone to see us talking.” Lee took both women aside. “If my plan works, Audra will be a lot better off once I’m gone,” he told Lena. “But I need your help, yours and Toosie’s.”

  Toosie could not see the man clearly, as he kept to the darkness, but she smelled a stirring, masculine scent, and she could see his tall, broad outline in the moonlight. Lee Jeffreys was one handsome white man, with the bluest eyes she could ever remember seeing on anyone, male or female. She liked him better than any white man she had ever known, and she thought how happy Audra might have been with him if they had just tried to make it work. Now it was too late.

  “Audra told me Toosie is educated,” he was saying to Lena. “Is that right? Can she read and write?”

  “Yes, sir,” Lena answered, totally confused by this man’s presence, more confused by the question.

  “Good.” Toosie watched him hand her mother a piece of paper. “This is the address where letters will reach me in New York. I know enough about you and Toosie to realize that you care very much for Audra. You must both be aware that things are not right between her and her husband. If he isn’t stopped, he’s going to kill her one of these days. I intend to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  Lena frowned and shook her head. “Mr. Jeffreys, what in the world do you think you can do about it? The man is her legal husband. I don’t know if he knows about you, but if he does, and he finds out you was here while he was gone, that man could see to it that you’re buried on Brennan Manor. You’re a Yankee, Mr. Jeffreys! There ain’t one person in that crowd tonight who would come to your aid if you was to get into a tussle with Richard Potter.”

  “Don’t you worry about how I handle Potter.” Lee kept his voice low. “Both of you must know how I feel about Audra. Toosie knows better than anyone, because she was with Audra in Connecticut. I might be taking a chance telling you this, Lena, but I’ll say it flat out. I love Audra, and for the rest of my life I will probably regret not acting on that love. Now it’s too late, but it isn’t too late for me to help her find a way to live with this marriage. I can only pray I’m right in thinking I can trust both of you never to say anything to Audra’s husband or father or brother, or any of the Negroes, about what I have just told you.”

  Lena st
raightened. “I love Audra like she was my own daughter,” she answered. “I would never hurt or betray the girl. Nor would Toosie. She loves her like if she was her own sister.”

  Toosie glanced doubtfully at her mother. Certainly she loved Audra, but if Audra knew the truth, would she appreciate that love, or would she sell them off like the mere property they were, especially once Joseph died?

  “I have a plan,” Lee was saying. “It isn’t necessary for either of you to know what it is. All I am asking of you is, after tonight, if you see any sign that Richard Potter is abusing Audra, I want you to write and tell me. Can you do that? Can you send a letter without Audra’s father knowing about it?”

  “I can,” Lena answered. “There is a man comes by here every two weeks to pick up mail and take it to Baton Rouge. Joseph always goes through it first, then gives it to me to give to the man. I can easily put in another letter he don’t know about.”

  “Fine. You have Toosie write me, but don’t ever put a return address on the letter. We don’t want it coming back here if for some reason it can’t be delivered. Do you understand?”

  “But what on earth could you do to stop Richard?” Toosie asked.

  “You leave that to me. If I have to kill him, I’ll do it, even if it means I’d be hanged. But I don’t think I’ll have to resort to that, and I don’t want to create a scandal. I think I can settle it quietly, just between me and Richard Potter. After tonight I hope you won’t ever have any reason to write me, and if you don’t, I’ll be out of Audra’s life forever. I just pray her father won’t sell either of you or cause you to be separated from Audra for any length of time.”

  Lena began to wonder just how much he knew about her relationship with Joseph Brennan. Lee was a smart man. Surely he suspected something. “That is not likely to happen, Mr. Jeffreys. I have been with Mr. Brennan for twenty-seven years, since I was just fourteen myself. I have been like a mother to Audra since her own mother died, and she would never want anyone but Toosie for her personal servant.”

  Lee grasped her hand and squeezed the piece of paper into it. “I want your solemn promise to write me if you see one sign of abuse.”

  Lena nodded. “Yes, sir. I promise. But I still don’t understand—”

  “You never talked to me tonight, either one of you,” he interrupted. “God bless you both.”

  He disappeared around the corner of the house, and Lena looked at her daughter. “We had better get back upstairs. God knows what will happen tonight.”

  They both took another direction, Lena putting the piece of paper in her apron pocket. She had never told Toosie she had seen Audra go into Lee’s bedroom the night he visited. Apparently he had been good for Audra, and that was just fine with her; but she had not expected him to come back. She hoped the little bit of happiness Audra had found that night would not now be destroyed by whatever Lee had planned.

  She and Toosie made their way back to the third floor, where the guests stood transfixed, spellbound by Audra’s magnificent voice as she sang “Shenandoah.”

  Audra herself was lost in the song, singing not about a ship or a river, but about her love for a man she could never have.

  Away, we’re bound away,

  Cross the wide Missouri.

  How she wished she could sail away with Lee, leave behind all the things that stood between them.

  O, Shenandoah, I’ll ne’er forget you,

  Away, my rolling river!

  Till the day I die, I’ll love you ever,

  Away, we’re bound away—

  The words caught in her throat, and she could not finish. She stared at the man who had just entered the room, wearing a black silk jacket and a gray satin waistcoat. How wonderful he looked, but what in God’s name was he doing here, tonight of all nights! She should feel joy at the sight of him, but she felt only terror.

  Lee!

  16

  All eyes followed Audra’s gaze to stare at the stranger who had appeared in the ballroom. “Don’t let me stop you, Mrs. Potter,” Lee spoke up to Audra.

  He gave her a smile that told her he was enjoying this, but he could see her terror, and he wanted to hold her and tell her not to be afraid.

  “Since you are an uninvited guest, sir, perhaps you will introduce yourself to the others and explain your presence,” Richard spoke up. “I am Richard Potter, and this gentleman beside me is Mr. Joseph Brennan, who owns this home.”

  Lee tore his eyes from Audra and faced Richard. Never in his life had he had to call on more reserve strength to control his temper than he did at this moment. He put out his hand. “Lee Jeffreys,” he answered. “From New York City…and I have a summer home in Connecticut.”

  Audra wondered if she would faint. The room was still quiet, as everyone realized that not only had Lee come here uninvited, but he was a northern man at that. She watched Richard’s face grow dark, and her father’s begin to redden.

  Lee looked down at his empty hand, not at all surprised that Richard Potter had refused to shake it. He enjoyed the look of shock in the man’s face. “Are all you southern gentlemen so rude?” he asked. “My mother gave your wife some voice lessons last summer. She was very fond of Audra. I heard Audra had married, so I came to give you both my best wishes. I have even brought a gift. My mother would have wanted me to.”

  Richard slowly grasped Lee’s hand, realizing he had no choice at the moment but to pretend to be gracious. He reasoned that no one in the room knew that Audra had slept with this man. If he lost his temper now, though, what rumors might result? Rage seethed in his soul at the sight of Lee, much younger, terribly handsome…Audra’s first lover. Lee Jeffreys would be lucky to leave here alive, and Potter’s own desire to hurt Audra returned full force.

  The two men clasped hands, and Richard winced when Lee squeezed his in a firm grip of warning. What did this man know? What the hell was going on here? He forced a pleasant look and nodded. “Audra told me a lot about your mother. A fine woman.”

  “They don’t make them any better,” Lee answered.

  “I’m sorry for your loss.” Richard let go of his hand and turned to the others. “Ladies and gentlemen, you recall that Audra took voice lessons last summer up in Connecticut, from Anna Jeffreys, a professional concert pianist and opera singer. Audra thought very highly of the woman, but I am afraid that Mrs. Jeffreys died suddenly before Audra left. Apparently Mr. Jeffreys here felt it was his place to come to our celebration in his mother’s memory. Let us all show this Yankee what true southern hospitality is.”

  People began to relax and talk, some heading toward Lee to introduce themselves. Lee turned to Audra’s father. “Mr. Brennan. I finally get to meet you. Audra talked about nothing but you last summer—you and Brennan Manor.” Again he put out his hand, and Joseph shook it reluctantly. He tried to warn Lee with a look that told him he had better not do or say anything to embarrass Audra or Richard. Lee returned his grip as though he were himself angry, and Joseph realized Lee must know he burned his letters. The bastard! What the hell was he doing here now? Audra was married! He took a deep breath. “Welcome to our home, Mr. Jeffreys,” the man drawled. “It is a long way from New York to Louisiana, quite a trip just to congratulate someone.”

  Lee grinned, a look of victory in his eyes. “I always thought a lot of Audra,” he answered, looking back at Richard. The look that Richard Potter returned told Lee that if no one had been around, the man would have tried to kill him in an instant. I wish you would try, he thought. Give me an excuse, Richard, any excuse to knock the hell out of you! He already had that excuse, but this was not the place or time. The opportunity would present itself before the night was over. He would make sure of it.

  Others gathered around him now, introducing themselves, some with such heavy southern accents that Lee had to ask them to repeat their names. He did not miss the wariness and animosity in their eyes, their southern pride causing them to distrust and dislike anyone who came from anyplace north of Kentucky. More tro
uble was coming, that was sure. Earlier, when he had stood outside watching, he had heard some of their conversations, bitter threats against the North, vows of what they would do if Lincoln became President. Southern pride was at its peak in this room tonight.

  Audra managed to make herself move toward Lee, quickly intercepting Joey when he came into the room from outside. She saw the excited look in Joey’s eyes, and she was afraid he would say something about Lee’s first visit without thinking. She stepped in front of him. “Remember your promise,” she quietly reminded him.

  Joey frowned. He had gone outside to sneak a glass of premium wine to old George, whom he loved almost like a grandfather. He looked from Audra to Lee, confused. Audra had no time to explain, and she couldn’t if she wanted to. She had no idea what Lee was up to, or what he expected her to do or say. She only knew she would be expected to join her husband and greet their Yankee visitor.

  Joey walked with her and put out his hand to welcome Lee. He glanced at his father and greeted Lee as though he had not seen him for a year. “This is the man I told you about—Mrs. Jeffreys’s son,” he told his father.

  “So we have discovered,” Joseph answered, his cheeks still flushed. He was worried, too—worried about what Lee Jeffreys would say about the letters. If the man already knew Audra had married, why had he bothered to come here at all, he wondered, if not to make trouble for all of them?

  The orchestra began playing another waltz, and Lee turned to Richard. “I wonder if you would allow me a dance with your beautiful bride?” he asked.

  Richard did not miss the hatred in Lee’s blue eyes, nor the warning that he had better oblige. Damn him! As long as all these guests were around, Lee had him right where he wanted him. “Of course,” he answered. “I understand you and Audra struck up quite a friendship last summer. You were a great help in relieving her loneliness.”