Red paused and rolled his eyes. “She even had my mother fooled, didn’t she?”
“Maybe she was different when your mother knew her,” Mavis suggested. Her heart was still aching for her son-in-law.
“Go on reading, honey.” Darlene handed the baby to Mavis and moved beside her husband so she could hold his arm.
He began to read again.
As you know, my mother and Kay’s mother were sisters. I don’t know who my daddy was, but I have a suspicion which I’ll explain later. Kay’s daddy was a tenant farmer on a small tobacco farm about thirty miles from Durham. His grandmother lived with them for a while, but died when Kay was a baby. Kay’s daddy was killed in a tractor accident when she was a little girl. Since they didn’t own the farm there was nowhere for them to go, so she and her mother came to live with Grandpa and Grandma and Mama and me.
Kay took after her daddy’s grandmother who was a tiny woman. Kay was always petite and very fair. I took after our grandparents. I was tall and had brown mousy hair. Though I was older, I loved Kay on sight. She was the sister I never had, and boy, was she smart! She was reading teen-age books by the time she finished first grade and by sixth grade, she was doing high-school work. I was a pretty good student, but I couldn’t keep up with her. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that she would earn a scholarship to college. She graduated from high-school one year after I did. I was eighteen-and-a-half, and she fifteen.
I’m getting a little ahead of myself so let me back up. Our childhood was okay, until Grandma died. She died with a heart attack about three years after Kay and her mother came. We both loved her and we missed her. We both knew our mothers loved us, but they were busy trying to keep clothes on our backs and didn’t have a lot of time to spend with us.
Grandpa was a mean man, and he said the four of us could eat at his table, but everything else we needed had to come from their work. Kay’s mother went to work in the drugstore in town. Mom mostly worked on the farm and did ironing and some babysitting for neighbors.
I was about eleven or twelve the first time I saw Grandpa hit Mama. Kay and I were cutting paper dolls from a catalogue and I hid my eyes and cried. Kay jumped up and ran to him crying, “You aren’t supposed to do that.”
Grandpa told her she was a feisty little one and he would have to teach her a lesson. Mama begged him not to, but he shoved her aside and grabbed Kay. He turned her across his knee. I don’t know how many times he struck her, but she didn’t cry until he let her go and she came running back to me. We went out behind the barn and she boohooed for a long time. I don’t know how many times he spanked her like that, but it happened rather often.
After that first time, Grandpa went on the warpath almost daily. He beat Mama, he beat me, but Kay was the one he seemed to favor. He didn’t beat her as hard, but Mama worried about what he’d do to Kay and told me to keep her away from him as much as I could. At the time, I didn’t know she was afraid he would do something old men should never do to a child. Grandpa was worse when he was drinking. One time I ran into the barn during a thunderstorm and found him half-dressed and passed out with an empty bottle by his side. I found mama in the loft crying. Her dress was torn. She told me she caught it on a nail while feeding the cows. I believed her then, but I don’t believe her now.
When I was about thirteen-and-a-half and Kay was ten, her mother was crossing the street in town. A man came out of an alleyway, grabbed her and pulled her behind some barrels. He robbed her and beat her half to death. They never caught him, but she was never able to work after that. Mama did double duty to try to keep Kay and me in clothes. A year later, Kay’s mother died. Kay was devastated, but tried to keep it all inside.
I was sixteen when I met your father. He was a wonderful man, Red. He was kind and gentle. I fell in love with him instantly, but Grandpa said we couldn’t marry until I finished school. For the first time in my life I disobeyed him. We eloped. Of course, Grandpa was furious and threw me out of the house. Burt didn’t care. He built us a little house on the edge of the farm where Mama made Grandpa give us a piece of land. While he worked in the mill he insisted I finish school. I was so happy. I got to see Kay at school daily, and I got to sleep in your daddy’s protective arms at night.
Kay was in college when I learned I was pregnant with you. You were born in September after she had to go back for her last year, but she came to see you as often as she could.
Again, I’m jumping ahead.
A little while after I was married, Burt and I were sitting on the porch one night listening to the crickets and making plans for our future.
Kay came running up the drive. At the time, she was about thirteen. She came on the porch and fell in my arms sobbing. It took a long time to get the story out of her.
It was Grandpa’s poker night. He and his buddies were drunk on moonshine and he was losing badly. They said he’d lost about two hundred dollars and his so-called friend was demanding payment. Of course, Grandpa couldn’t pay him.
The man told grandpa he’d forget the debt if he could have Kay for the night. Grandpa agreed. Kay overheard the transaction and slipped out the back-door and came to us.
God love your daddy’s heart—he said Kay would never go back to that house again. That very night, he went up there and got all of Kay’s clothes and moved her in with us. She stayed with us until we graduated and she never went back to that house.
It was awfully hard saying good-bye to her the summer she left, but she accepted the full scholarship to a university in the west. She said she wanted to get as far away from Grandpa as she could. I didn’t blame her a bit. When she had breaks and was able to come home, she’d always stay with us.
She loved you the first time she saw you. She had come home for Thanksgiving. You were about two months old. She still loves you, Red. She was working and going to school, but she managed to always bring you presents when she visited. She told me many times she hoped someday to find a man like your daddy and have a fine son like you.
The summer Kay was in graduate school, the story goes that Grandpa fell out of the hayloft and broke his neck. I often wondered if this was the absolute truth, but when I’d ask Mama, she’d just say, “The old devil is dead. What does it matter?” Kay didn’t come home for the funeral.
As I got older I realized Grandpa was an evil man. He favored my mama over Kay’s mama and after grandma died, he made Mama take over her duties. I’m sure he forced her to do things that no parent should ever force on a child. That’s why I believe he was my father.
Though Mama never told me one way or the other, she did tell me once, “You deserve to get the farm someday, Becky. I paid dearly for it.” Mama died a few months after Grandpa, and the farm went to me and Kay, but my cousin refused her part. She said she was doing fine and wanted no part of it, so as little value as it was, it all came to me. I didn’t want to live there, so Burt and I sold the place and moved to Greensboro. He got a good job on the railroad and we were happy.
After Kay got her masters degree, she decided to go for her doctorate…I was so proud of her because nobody in our family had ever gone to college, much less got these high degrees. Most years, she was now coming to Greensboro to visit us during her Thanksgiving or Christmas break. Some years, she couldn’t afford to come both times. You and she got awfully tight. I was tickled to death.
By this time, Grandpa’s sister, Maxine, had blackened Kay’s name with the rest of the family. She told everyone that Kay broke Grandpa’s heart by taking everything she could and turning her back on him when he needed her. She also said Kay had been a loose woman and had often entertained Grandpa’s friends behind his back.
This was a lie, because Kay and I both took the pledge to remain virgins until we married. We both did it. I know because Kay called me before her wedding. She was scared to death she’d not be a good wife.
Red looked up. He had tears in his eyes. “We were wrong to judge her so quickly, weren’t we?”
Darl
ene patted his arm. “Go on, honey.”
Mavis began to cry.
Anyway, she met James Littleton when she was going for her doctorate. He was one of her professors. He was a lot older than her, but she said he was good to her and he seemed to be proud to escort her to functions. She wanted me to come to their small private wedding, but I couldn’t go. Your daddy had been hurt on the job and I couldn’t leave him at the time.
When your daddy died, Kay came to the funeral. Not many of the family would even speak to her. They said she was stuck-up and thought she was too good for the family. Of course, she wasn’t, but she held her head high and took it on the chin as they say. I was glad to have her to lean on. None of our other relatives really cared about your Daddy.
Now, Red, this is the part Kay would have a hissy fit if she knew I was telling you. After your daddy died, we were destitute. His prolonged illness had taken all our savings and our insurance had run out. We were about to lose our house. There was only one thing I could do. I called Kay. As she had done so often in the past, she said those familiar words, “Don’t worry, Becky. I’ll take care of it.”
And she did. The same amount as your father’s salary arrived every month in my checking account. When it came time for your tuition, the money for it popped into the account. When we needed extras for any reason, the money was there. I don’t know how she managed it, but she did. She always knew what we needed and when we needed it. It didn’t matter what was going on in her life, she never forgot us. When Jimmy was born, she had a rough time. She almost died, and for a while, everyone thought she would die. Yet, that same week, money arrived in the account for our needs. The first time she found out James was having an affair with one of the pages in the capitol, she was devastated, but the money arrived.
Another thing she did, which nobody knew but me, was how she saved Gilbert Fisher. Do you remember him? He was the strange teenage boy whose parents threw him to the streets because he was what you now call gay. One day, a group of rough boys took him out in the country and decided to castrate him. They cut off his male parts and left him to die and he almost did. When I wrote Kay about it, she said she’d see what she could do. It took a long time, but Gilbert lived. When he was released, Kay and James sent for him. To this day he’s probably still her housekeeper. He worships her and she treats him with respect. I tell you this just to let you know what kind of person she is.
You often asked me why Aunt Kay didn’t come home anymore. Now that Grandpa’s sister is dead, I can tell you. At your daddy’s funeral, Maxine told Kay that if she ever set foot in North Carolina again, she’d send the story of how she’d seduced Grandpa and made him do things he’d never otherwise do to not only the senator, but to the news media, as well. Kay knew the old witch meant it. She said she didn’t care for herself, but she couldn’t let such a scandal touch her husband or her child. I admire her for that.
That’s it, Red. The story of your mama and your Aunt Kay. We were cousins by birth, sisters by choice, and best friends by love.
Kay’s only goal in life has been to help and protect those she loves. Someday, she may need you, Red, and I’m depending on you to love her and protect her as she always did me. One of the last things she told me was she hoped to come back to North Carolina someday. Bring her home, Red, and see to it that her later years are her happiest.
I love you, son. Mother.
Everyone in the room was openly crying. Red looked at Darlene. “Oh, Lord what have I done to Aunt Kay?”
CHAPTER 14
The sky was gray over Washington as Kay walked out of the terminal and got into a waiting cab. She hardly noticed the buildings or the traffic as the driver zipped in and out of lanes, hurrying her to her condominium in Alexandria. When he came to a quick stop in front of her door, she paid him and got out.
Without even a smile, she went up the walk and pushed the buzzer. She would use her key, but she figured on a Thursday, Gilbert would be there. He was. “Oh, Ms. Kay, you’re back! I’m so glad you’re here. Did you have a nice trip?”
“It was fine, Gilbert.” She forced a smile.
“Well come in before you freeze to death. That wind is sharp. They’re predicting snow again, you know.”
Kay didn’t know, but she nodded. She wondered if it’d be as pretty as it was at the cabin yesterday morning. Shaking the thought away, she said, “I could sure use a hot cup of tea, Gilbert.”
“I’ll make you some of that special herbal tea you like, Ms. Kay. Leave your luggage at the foot of the steps and I’ll take it up and put your things away for you later.” He bounded off to the kitchen.
Kay did put her suitcase near the steps, then hung her coat in the closet in the small entry. Picking up her laptop, she moved to her office, which was to the right, off the hall.
Plopping it on her desk, she connected the battery to charge and lifted the screen. She might as well work. At least it would keep her mind off the torture she was feeling inside.
After leaving Red’s house yesterday, there had been no flights to Washington until today. She had to spend the night in Asheville. She would’ve loved it at any other time. The city danced with lights and the snow made it almost look like a fairy land, but she wasn’t able to absorb the beauty. She was hurting. She rented a room near the airport and went directly to bed where she cried all afternoon and well into the night.
Now, there would be no more tears. They’d all dried and she only felt a numbness and a fierce loneliness. Still in a quandary about what could’ve happened, she turned to the only thing that gave a bit of relief. Work. Even that didn’t keep her mind from drifting to thoughts of her stay in Coverton Mills and the people she’d met there.
These thoughts always culminated with memories of the night she’d finally found peace and happiness in Jude Winslow’s arms. Even that had come to a screeching halt when he’d turned on her. Now every hope, every dream she’d dared let herself have was gone. There was no hope. There would be no second chance. Happiness would never be hers again. She would have to accept that.
Though she didn’t think it possible, all the tears hadn’t dried. One slid down her cheek as Gilbert came into the office with a steaming cup of her favorite chamomile tea.
“Dear Ms. Kay, what in the world is wrong?” He looked frightened.
“Nothing and everything, Gilbert. I can’t talk about it now.”
“Oh, no. I don’t want you to be sad.” He saw the look in her eyes he’d seen on other desperate occasions. The look that often came over her since Jimmy’s death.
“I’ll be okay. I’m going to work on the education bill.”
“But, Ms. Kay…”
“Please, Gilbert, I know you care, but I need my solitude now.”
•♥ •
“I understand.” He didn’t, but he backed out of the room and left her alone. He wished he could do so much more for her. It broke his heart when Ms. Kay was sad. He knew he’d have to find a way to make her feel better again.
He went into the kitchen and began searching in the pantry. At least he could cook one of her favorite meals. Sometimes, that would bring her out of her doldrums. It was worth a try.
“I wonder if her mood is because of that nephew she’s so crazy about. Would he have said something to hurt her feelings?” Gilbert had a habit of mumbling under his breath as he worked. “Or was it someone else? Maybe some of her old relatives.”
He placed the cooking sherry and some spices on the cabinet. He then went to the refrigerator. He selected two chicken breasts from the freezer and some fresh mushrooms from the crisper. He decided to make a special chicken dish. Ms. Kay liked chicken. He was going to work hard on this one.
•♥ •
It was Saturday morning and Red called Jude. “I’ve got something you need to read, Jude.”
“What is it?” Jude was abrupt, but he couldn’t help it. He’d slept very little since Kay left. He didn’t know if he’d ever have another restful night. He didn�
�t want them to, but his heart and his body ached for her every day. It wasn’t getting any better.
“It’s a letter.”
“I don’t want to read anything Kay wrote.” His heart almost split open every time her name came up. He didn’t know if that hurt would ever stop.
“It’s not from Kay. My mother wrote the letter before she died. I want to share it with you. There are things in it you need to know.”
Jude paused a moment, then finally said, “Okay. Do you want to come here?”
“No. I’m at Neil’s house. I had other things to do and didn’t work much yesterday and I’ve got to catch up on some things today. Will you come here?”
Though everyone now knew what a mistake taking Kay into their homes and their hearts had been, he felt they all thought him the biggest fool of all. After all, he was the one who had fallen for her like a schoolboy. He wasn’t eager to face his old friends because he knew they were thinking about his bad choices of women. He couldn’t see a way to get out of it, and finally he said, “Okay. If that’s what you want me to do, I’ll come, but I need to go to the hardware store first. Why don’t I drop by there about noon?”
“That’ll be good. I’ll still be here.”
Jude made his run to the hardware store and picked up the supplies he needed. He was in no hurry to see the Parkers or Red. He’d not been face-to-face with any of his friends or his family since Kay left and he wasn’t looking forward to this first encounter. But he knew it had to be done soon, and he might as well get it over with. It was quarter after twelve when he knocked on the Parkers’ back door.
Red was at the table with Mavis and Neil. “I’ll get you a plate, Jude. Wash your hands.” Mavis stood. When he started to decline she added, “Don’t argue with me. You look hungry, so do what I say.”
Second Chance Dreams (A Coverton Mills Romance Book 2) Page 12
