Tender Betrayal

by Rosanne Bittner

  Eleanor suddenly stopped her crying and stared at Audra, surprised at her low, raspy voice. Albert, too, was stunned. He studied her gaunt look. Audra Potter had lost a considerable amount of weight. She looked as though she would blow away in a strong wind, and there were dark circles under her eyes. “What in God’s name has happened to you, Audra?” the man asked, looking truly concerned.

  “I will explain, if you will let me inside.”

  “Never!” Eleanor fumed.

  “For God’s sake, Eleanor, she’s your cousin!” Albert argued.

  Audra was grateful for the man’s compassion. She looked boldly at Eleanor, refusing to crumble under the woman’s venomous glare. “I was caught in the fighting that night in Baton Rouge,” she told Eleanor. “I was attacked by Union soldiers, and I had been injured. Lee took me in only because I had no place else to go. If you will remember, your mother tried to shoot me that night. I tried to come home, but she would not let me, and I certainly didn’t know someone would set fire to the house that night.”

  Eleanor pouted, folding her arms haughtily. “Maybe so, but—”

  “Eleanor, can’t you see something terrible has happened to Audra? She fared no better than anyone else, maybe worse. At least I managed to save my hotel and my savings and this home. If Audra was a traitor, she certainly hasn’t received any special treatment for it. Look at her!”

  The remark embarrassed Audra, but she held her cousin’s eyes, showing no shame.

  Satisfaction shone in Eleanor’s eyes when she looked down her nose at her cousin. “What do you want? And what happened to your voice?”

  “It’s a long story. May I please come inside?”

  Eleanor looked her over again, apparently relishing the little victory of presently being the one who was better off than Audra. “I don’t know.”

  Audra took a deep breath. It was so hard to utter the words. “Eleanor, Joey is dead.” Immediately the look on Eleanor’s face changed to true sorrow and concern. “He was shot trying to escape Union soldiers who had captured him,” Audra explained. Her voice broke on the last words, and Eleanor stepped aside.

  “Come in,” she said.

  Audra looked ready to pass out. Albert took hold of her arm and led her into the parlor, ordering a maid, who Audra noticed was white, to bring some hot tea. He led Audra to a satin-covered settee and helped her sit down.

  “I’m sorry, Audra, I really am,” Eleanor told her, sitting down beside her. “I liked Joey. Everybody liked Joey.”

  Audra took a handkerchief from her handbag, wondering if she would ever get over losing her brother. No one’s death, not even her mother’s and father’s, had affected her this way, for Joey was truly all she had left. “My knowing Lee…as you can see…did not keep me from suffering. I was not a traitor, Eleanor, and right now…if I could find a way…I would kill every Yankee who ever walked.”

  Albert took a chair nearby and pulled it close to the settee. He reached out and touched Audra’s shoulder with a bony hand. “Tell us all of it, Audra. Why are you dressed this way, and who are those Negroes out there? Why did you come here in that shabby buckboard?”

  Audra wiped at her eyes and spilled out her story. She had never even told Eleanor that Joseph Brennan had died. She told them about March Fredericks’s attack, but she added that she had managed to get away and get hold of Joseph’s rifle herself and had shot him. She never wanted anyone to know that it was Toosie who had killed the man. She told them about Lena’s and Henrietta’s deaths, how she lost her voice, and Eleanor gasped with horror.

  “Both the mansions at Cypress Hollow and Brennan Manor are gone,” Audra explained, “burned by the Yankee outlaws.” She was still unable to comprehend fully all that she had lost. Joey’s death had numbed her to the rest. Nothing mattered now, not even Brennan Manor. Without Joey, she did not care anymore about trying to hang on to the only home she had ever known. “There is nothing left but the land, just the land. Even the guest house and the chapel are gone. All that’s left are a few outbuildings and the Negro cabins. That’s where I live now, in the Negro camp.” She met Eleanor’s eyes as she took a moment to sip some tea. She saw the shock and horror there, followed by disgust.

  “Audra! You should move here with us. You can’t be living with those nigger people! It just isn’t proper, nor is it fitting for my own cousin!”

  “They are just people, Eleanor, and they have become my only friends. They have sustained me, even saved my life after I was injured.” She pulled away the scarf she had tied at her neck, showing them the scar March’s knife had left. It was white and puffy, and it ran from just under her chin down the right side of her trachea, almost to the end of her collar bone.

  Albert frowned sorrowfully, and Eleanor literally cried out with shock and turned away. Audra replaced the scarf and kept her attention on Albert. “I nearly died, but Toosie and the others nursed me and kept me alive. They have been very good to me, fed me, gave me shelter. They could just as easily have let me die, either by bleeding to death or burning up in the fire. They had no reason to save me, except that they are good people who for the most part hold no hatred for those who once owned them. I owe them, and that is part of the reason I am here.”

  Albert ran a hand through what was left of his hair. “What can we do, Audra?” the man asked.

  “Wait!” Eleanor interrupted, looking at both of them. “I am sorry, very, very sorry for what happened to you, Audra. It was a terrible thing, and it must be awful for you to have lost your beautiful voice, let alone losing Joey. But the nigger issue is another thing. I won’t do anything for those niggers, and it’s wrong for you to try to educate them. They wanted their freedom. Let them find out the hard way that it is not all so grand and glorious as they thought, having to fend for themselves, learning to—”

  “Be quiet, Eleanor!” Albert demanded, surprising Audra. The man had always seemed so timid. “Audra has been through hell, and those people out there helped her more than her own family has! Now if there is any way we can help, we’ll do it! I am your husband, and I’ll make the decisions. Let’s hear her out.”

  Eleanor stiffened, her face reddening slightly. “As you wish,” she said. Audra could almost hear the thunder, but she did not care what problems her request might cause between Eleanor and Albert. She cared only about helping Toosie and the others, and she had to get away from Brennan Manor and all the ugly memories or go crazy. If she could have at least buried Joey there, it would be a reason to stay; but her poor brother was buried someplace in Georgia, far from home. She would never even get to kneel beside his grave. All she had was that precious last unfinished letter.

  She looked pleadingly into Albert’s dark eyes. “Toosie and the others want to go to Kansas,” she told the man. “They have heard even Negroes can settle there, claim land under the Homestead Act. It’s their chance to start new, to have something of their very own. I am going with them.”

  “Audra!”

  Audra kept her eyes on Albert, paying no heed to Eleanor’s shock. “They’re good people,” she said. “I can help them, get started, help teach the children. I have no place left to go, anyway. Brennan Manor is gone, and I have no means to rebuild it or to farm it. I was waiting for Joey to come home. I thought maybe he and I could save it, but without Joey, I don’t even care anymore, Albert.” She twisted her handkerchief in her hands. “I was hoping…hoping you might be able to give me some cash so that the Negroes can buy the necessary supplies to go west. I’d be willing to sign over the deeds to both Brennan Manor and Cypress Hollow. The buildings are gone, but there is always the land, Albert, and land is always valuable and can’t be destroyed. An enterprising businessman like yourself can surely find a way to make money off that land again.”

  Albert sat back in his chair, rubbing his chin in thought. Eleanor rose, walking to look out a window at the Negroes in the wagon. She looked back at Audra. “You would sell Brennan Manor and Cypress Hollow, just to help niggers?”<
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  Audra rose. “They are my friends, Eleanor, and I wish you would stop calling them niggers. They are Negro, but more than that, they are just people, like you and me. They are going to survive this. They just need a little bit of help.” She looked back at Albert. “And money to get started. Can you buy the plantations, Albert? The deeds burned up with the houses, but I will go with you to see an attorney and draw up whatever documents you need to prove I have sold the land to you.”

  Albert also rose then, towering over her. “I managed to hang on to my hotel, Audra, and my savings; but with things the way they are, and the possibility I would have to pay some kind of taxes on that land to keep it, I have to be very careful. I know we’re talking about several thousand acres, but I couldn’t give you more than a thousand dollars; and I would hardly feel right giving you such a paltry sum for so much land.”

  Audra felt sick inside. The man was right. It was a paltry sum for thousands of acres of rich farmland. There was a time when her father would pay more than a thousand dollars for just one good Negro farmhand. Now she was expected to take a thousand dollars for all of Brennan Manor and Cypress Hollow.

  She watched Albert’s eyes, knew he was an honest man and probably telling her the truth. She really had no choice. They could not continue to survive where they were, even if she deeded the land over to the Negroes. As long as they stayed here in Louisiana, they were going to have a hard time of it. They would get no help, and already groups of whites were banding together to harass and murder Negroes, blaming them for the problems that had now befallen the South. They had to get out, many of them simply because there were too many bad memories on the old plantations.

  “I’ll take the thousand, but it has to be United States money, not Confederate. We both know the value of Confederate money by now.”

  “I have a safe in my hotel with Federal money in it. I can get it today and we can go to my lawyer’s office and have something signed.”

  “Fine.” Audra put out her hand. “It’s a deal then.”

  Albert shook her hand, but he did not look as happy as a man should look when he had just stolen a fortune in property. “I’m sorry, Audra. Are you sure you want this? I feel like I have robbed you.”

  “This is what I want. I just need to go away, Albert. I don’t know if I’ll always stay with Toosie and the others. Right now I just take things a day at a time. I can’t think about tomorrow.”

  The man sighed and leaned down to kiss her cheek. “I am sorry about Joey. I never even knew him, but from talk of him, I can imagine what a fine boy he was.”

  Audra turned away. “Thank you.”

  “Just give me a moment to change and get the keys to the safe.” The man left Audra and Eleanor standing in the parlor. Eleanor came closer, again a victorious look in her eyes.

  “Now I will own Cypress Hollow, after all,” she said, her chin raised high. “Richard would be happy to know that.”

  Audra ignored the remark. “I sincerely hope Albert can rebuild, Eleanor. I would be very happy to see homes at Cypress Hollow and Brennan Manor again. I would like nothing more than for that land to be a beautiful plantation once more, as elegant and peaceful as it once was, even if it means that you will get to be the one who owns it.” She touched her throat, which still got sore whenever she had to talk much. “I don’t care anymore, Eleanor, and I am tired…just terribly tired. You can hate me, feel victorious, whatever you want to feel. As for myself, I am tired of fighting and hatred of all kinds. I just want to leave and start over someplace new. I might never see you again, so let’s just part friends.”

  Eleanor seemed to soften a little. She sighed, and her eyes actually filled with tears. “I truly loved Richard,” she said.

  “Yes, I believe you did,” Audra answered. “And I truly loved Lee Jeffreys.”

  Eleanor nodded, swallowing and wiping at a tear. “Do you still?”

  Audra shook her head. “I honestly don’t know anymore. It isn’t likely I’ll ever see him again, so it really doesn’t matter. I told him never to come back here when the war was over. Too much has happened for us to be able to pick up the pieces. Now, if he does come back, I won’t be here. That part of my life is over, Eleanor. I have to go on to new things.”

  Eleanor nodded. “I suppose, but you shouldn’t go off with those Negroes, Audra. Albert would give you whatever you need to go someplace else.”

  “Where would I go? I certainly can’t go North and live among Yankees. Most major cities in the South are gone, burned. Right now there is no opportunity here for a single woman. There are no jobs, and there won’t be for a long time to come. I can’t farm the plantations all by myself, and I don’t have the money to rebuild. I have friends among those Negroes, and they need my help. Besides, I need to keep busy however I can.”

  Albert came back into the room, coming up to take Audra’s arm. “Would you rather rest here awhile first?”

  “No. I’m all right.”

  “You are terribly thin, Audra,” Eleanor told her.

  “I wasn’t able to eat much because of my throat. Actually I have gained back a little weight, but ever since hearing about Joey, I’ve lost my appetite again. I eat only because I have no choice if I want to live.”

  “It will get better,” Eleanor assured her. “Time heals.” She walked closer and embraced Audra, but Audra sensed her awkwardness, as though part of her wanted to care and love, and another part would never stop hating.

  Audra put her arms around her cousin’s hefty body and embraced her in return. “Be good to Albert,” she told her. “He is a kind man.”

  Eleanor pulled away, tears in her eyes. “God be with you, Audra. You shouldn’t be going off like this. You could stay right here.”

  Audra shook her head. “No. I have to do this. Goodbye, Eleanor.” She took Albert’s arm and the two of them left.

  Eleanor sighed. “Good-bye, Audra.” She began to smile a little, and she picked up the skirt of her dress and whirled about the room, imagining she was dancing with Richard at Cypress Hollow. Now she would own it! She, Eleanor McAllister Mahoney, mistress of Cypress Hollow and Brennan Manor! At last she would hold the position she once thought would always be Audra’s. Poor Audra, so thin, penniless, her voice gone. Part of her truly did feel sorry for her cousin, but another part of her could not help celebrating.

  She stopped dancing and hurried to a desk to take out paper and ink. She must make a list of what they would do first to begin rebuilding. The house must come first, for she intended to live on the plantations part of the time. Yes, Albert would rebuild. He always did anything she asked. Once a house was finished, she could vacation there, remind Albert how much she loved the country. It would be a way to get away from Albert, maybe take lovers there. It would be absolutely delightful, except for one thing. Richard would not be there. If only she could have spent those last few months with him, but Audra had stolen that from her, and that was the one thing she could never forgive.

  “Go on to Kansas with your niggers,” she muttered as she dipped the pen into an inkwell. “I’m sorry for what happened to you, Audra, but you’re getting what you deserve for keeping me and Richard apart.”

  Ballroom, she wrote. Yes, they must have a ballroom. No proper rich southern woman had a home without a ballroom, where she could hold grand parties; and there would be grand parties again, wouldn’t there? Somehow life would return to the way it used to be. It just had to.

  August 1865

  Bennett James looked up from his desk, and he immediately sent three other men out of his room when he saw who was standing in the doorway. “Lee!” he exclaimed, coming around from behind his desk to shake his hand. “My God, man, I can’t believe you’re really back! It’s been four years!”

  Lee shook the man’s hand firmly, and in the next moment they embraced. “How have things been, Bennett?”

  “Fine, just fine! Oh, there are a few businesses that will have to make some adjustments now that the war is
over, but that only means more business for us. Come and sit down!”

  Bennett walked over to pour some whiskey for them both, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Lee had a slight limp. “I’m sorry about your father and brother, Lee. And that you’d been wounded.” He turned, taking a good look at the tall, handsome young man who had left the firm to go off to fight for the Union. He had definitely aged some, and now was thirty-five. He was a little thinner, and there was a haunted look to those blue eyes. He had seen other men come back from the war with that same look, and from the horrors he had read about, he could not blame any of them for being deeply affected. It was reported that some had returned mentally unstable, alcoholics, some with wounds and diseases that were sure to plague them the rest of their lives.

  “So,” he said, taking Lee a glass of whiskey, “are you through with the army, Colonel Jeffreys?” he asked, putting on a smile and trying to bring a little cheer to the moment. Lee took the glass, and Bennett noticed he gulped the whiskey like water.

  “Major General,” Lee answered. “General Sherman gave me another promotion two months before the war ended. I spent the last three months since then in Washington, helping muster out other volunteers, making sure they got the proper pay and such, kind of a fizzle after all the cannon and shooting and fires of the last four years. It seems strange to know the damn war is over. I’m glad, but I don’t really see what the hell was accomplished by all those men losing their lives.” He handed out the glass. “Pour me another.”

  Bennett frowned, taking the glass and filling it again. “Yes, well, it’s a sad thing. War never does make much sense. Just a bunch of men battling it out to prove they’re right about something. Have you been to see your brother Carl?”