“It’s because I know my husband will give me a reward.”
And he did, until she filled the kitchen with husky cries of pleasure.
A tired but ecstatic Eli entered the mayor’s office and whistled as he took his seat behind the desk. His next stop would be the Gazette office, but first he wanted to scan the mail he’d picked up from Miss Edna. While he did, Jewel came to mind; and he was savoring the memory of his hot little wife twisting with passion on the tabletop when he heard what sounded like cheering. “Now what?” he asked the silence.
Going to the door, he stepped out onto the walk, and the sight of his cousin Nate, Viveca, and their children coming up the street in a wagon Nate was driving filled him with joy. The cheers were coming from the folks on the walks. Nate and his family were waving like participants in an August First parade, and the townspeople were waving back, and no one was happier to see them returning than Eli.
He stepped down into the street. His nieces, Magic and Satin, spotted him first and suddenly Magic jumped from the back of the wagon and ran in his direction. “Cousin Eli!” she screamed.
Nate was barking at her, of course, but the fifteen-year-old Magic didn’t slow. She ran into Eli’s outstretched arms with such force she almost knocked him over, and he hugged her with all the love he felt. “How are you?” he asked laughing.
“I’m fine. Oh, it is so good to be home! And we had such a wonderful time!”
By then, the wagon had reached the office and as Nate, Viveca, and the remaining three children stepped down, they were swallowed by the crowd of well-wishers.
Once the return celebration ended, it was Eli’s turn. He greeted them all with strong hugs. “Come on inside and tell me about the trip. It’s good to have you all back.”
Nate, who favored Eli enough to be his brother, nodded. “Good to be home.”
They all looked weary but happy, and the children spent the next little while telling him about California, a place he’d yet to visit.
Joseph, who was older than his twin brother, Jacob, by two minutes said, “Cousin Eli, we saw a lion and a tiger and a elephant.”
“Really? Your abuela took you to Mother Africa?”
Jacob laughed. “No, we went to a circus.”
“My,” Eli responded, sounding impressed.
Satin, younger than her sister by a year, had always been a very elegant child growing up. Her family looked disheveled and hot from the heat, but she didn’t have a wrinkle anywhere. “We missed you, Cousin Eli.”
“I missed you all, too. Very much.”
Magic, knowing the adults wanted to talk, asked, “Can we go see Miss Edna? We won’t stay long.”
Viveca, smiling at her children, nodded her approval, and the brood trooped out. Nate said, “I see my town is still standing.”
“Barely.”
Nate peered at him through his spectacles. “What’s that mean.”
“It means, I have a whole new respect for you and what you do to keep this town running, cousin.”
“What went wrong?” Nate asked suspiciously.
Viveca cracked, “Did somebody finally tie the Widow Moss to the train tracks?”
“No, I wish,” Eli chuckled. “Have a seat. Do I have a story to tell.”
So he began with Cecile, but he didn’t get to tell it all because Nate interrupted, shouting, “Cecile was here!”
“Just long enough to turn the town upside down, then she was murdered.”
“What?” Nate and Viveca yelled in unison.
“If you don’t stop interrupting I’m never going to finish.”
Nate shared a wide-eyed look with his wife, then said to Eli, “Go ahead.”
Eli continued the tale by relating the circumstances of Cecile’s death, and then Jewel’s encounter with Creighton Wilson, and both Nate and Viveca looked stunned.
Viveca said, “Poor Jewel. How is she?”
“Doing much better.” Eli dropped the next bombshell. “She and I married while you all were away.”
“What?” they shouted again.
So he told them about that and how it came to be.
Viveca said with a small smile, “I’m surprised she didn’t shoot you and Adam.”
“We were as well. Oh, and hold on to your seats for this one—our Maddie is getting married.”
Of all the shocking news Eli had related, this last tidbit left them speechless and with their heads spinning.
“How about I finish the rest of this later, after you all get settled in at home?”
Nate asked, “There can’t possibly be more, can there?”
Eli playfully touched his chin, “Let’s see, Jewel and I had a house built. The Reverend Anderson had to give up his job at the church. Jim Wilson has moved away. Yep, there’s more.”
Viveca shook her head. “We may have to leave town more often.”
Eli replied, “Oh, no. I’m not sitting in for Nate ever again. My hair’s turning gray from all this excitement.”
Nate chuckled. “It’s good to be appreciated. Stop by the house later so I can hear all of it. Not sure my heart can stand any more, but I want to know.”
“Will do, and I’ll bring Jewel, too.”
“Congratulations on the marriage, Eli,” said Viveca.
Nate cracked, “Not sure this family can handle another Crowley, but my congratulations as well.”
Maddie and G.W. married a week later. Half of the people in the county turned out to view the outdoor ceremony, mostly because they didn’t believe the rumors of her marrying were true. Viveca and Jewel stood up with Maddie, while Eli, Vernon, and Blue did the same for G.W.
After the wedding festivities, Eli and Jewel drove home just as dusk began to roll in. “It was a nice wedding,” Jewel said.
“It was. G.W. didn’t seem to mind taking the ring box from Blue.”
She smiled at the memory. “I guess he and the dogs have finally come to an agreement.”
“Looks that way.” He turned to her. “Speaking of looks. I like the looks of all those buttons on your dress, Mrs. Grayson.”
“I purchased it especially for that reason.”
“Did you now?”
“Yep. And do you know what else? I figured out my last two wishes.”
“And they are?”
“That the babe I’m carrying not be a lunatic and cheater like her father.”
Eli pulled back on the reins so hard, the horse almost tripped. “What?”
“And my last wish is that her father keep loving me as much as I love him.”
Eli’s wide eyes were eclipsed only by his stunned, dropped jaw.
Jewel laughed. “Never seen you speechless before, Eli Grayson. You might want to drive, though, you have a lot of buttons to open before the sun comes up in the morning.”
He looked into her eyes, saw the love for him shining there, and said, “Yes, ma’am!”
Later, the sun was coming up when the sated and very satisfied Jewel said to her husband. “I love you, Eli.”
He kissed her softly. “And you are the jewel of my heart.”
“I’m glad we got married.”
“So am I.”
As Eli and Jewel cuddled close and drifted off to sleep, they were at peace with themselves and their future life together in Grayson Grove.
Author’s Note
Eli Grayson and Jewel Crowley first appeared in my second Avon historical romance Vivid. It has taken me thirteen years to return to Grayson Grove so I hope their story was worth the wait. The Black press has always played an integral part in the African-American community, second only to the churches in importance and influence. Although their numbers have decreased in the past fifty years, they continue to beat the drum for justice. If you do not own a copy of David Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, I suggest you get one. No Black history collection can be complete without it. It is truly a remarkable work, not only for its fiery intellectual rhetoric but because it serves to dispel
the Hollywood myth that members of the race spoke only in dialect. According to historians, Walker’s Appeal was widely read and discussed by the free Black population in the North. It was also well known in the South and secretly read in the slave quarters by those who could read, to those who could not. As a result, slave owners were so alarmed by the Appeal’s calls for armed rebellion that bounties as high as ten thousand dollars were put on Walker’s head. The legislatures of Georgia and Louisiana passed laws against its circulation, promising imprisonment or death, and in North Carolina, teaching a slave to read became a crime. The race would not see the likes of Walker again until Malcolm Little changed his name to Malcolm X.
For readers interested in the historical sources I used for Jewel, here is a partial list.
Dann, Martin. Ed. The Black Press: 1827-1890.
New York: Putnam, 1971.
Fields, Harold B. “Free Negroes in Cass County Before the Civil War.” Michigan History, 44 (December 1960) 375–383.
Giddings, Paula. When and Where I Enter.
New York: William Morrow, 1984.
Sterling, Dorothy A. We Are Your Sisters: Black Women of the Nineteenth Century. New York: Norton, 1997.
Walker, David A. David Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. Baltimore: Black Classics Press, 1993.
Vennum, Thomas, Jr. American Indian Lacrosse: Little Brother of War. Washington, DC. Smithsonian Institution, 1994.
I’m finishing this book in 2007, and it has been a good year. Avon graciously published a tenth-anniversary edition of Topaz, and the cover was so beautiful I cried. I traveled to places like Baltimore, Austin, Dallas, St. Louis, and Houston. I met with many book clubs, and in August toured Indianapolis and Chicago, along with eighteen other African-American authors, courtesy of book distributor Levy and the good folks at Wal-Mart. Thanks, Pam! In October, Ava and Gloria headed up another outstanding BJ PJ Party, and almost a hundred fans attended. Later that month, I was invited to speak and sign books at Detroit’s Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History, the largest museum in the world devoted to African-American history, and I was truly honored. As I said, it was a good year, but the best part of all was seeing you, my readers. From Valeria and her book club ladies at Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor, to Donna and her girls in Houston, to the women in Baltimore who came to see me at Sepia, Sand and Sable—one of the few African-American bookstores still operating—to the Ft. Lauderdale chapter of the National Coalition of Black Women. Bless you. You fuel me with your love and support. For those of you I didn’t meet on the road in ’07, here’s hoping I see you in ’08. Thanks, everybody. Until next time. B
About the Author
BEVERLY JENKINS has received numerous awards, including three Waldenbooks Bestsellers Awards, two Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times magazine, and a Golden Pen Award from the Black Writer’s Guild. In 1999, Ms. Jenkins was voted one of the Top Fifty Favorite African-American Writers of the Twentieth Century by AABLC, the nation’s largest online African-American book club. To read more about Beverly visit her website
at www.beverlyjenkins.net.
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Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
JEWEL. Copyright © 2008 by Beverly Jenkins. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition March 2008 ISBN 9780061737312
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