A Treasure of Gold
Page 21
“Oh yeah. As I will ever be. Thanks for standing up for me.”
“You’re welcome. You know, Doc will come around sometime.”
“Well, he’s here, even if he doesn’t approve.” Jay was not in control of other people’s feelings about his marriage—just his own. He knew what was in his heart.
Asa clapped him on the shoulder. “And Mags is sorry that she isn’t here. So sorry. But she understands you don’t want to delay your marriage for much longer. She knows why.”
“Well, I think giving birth to a beautiful new Sadie, or shall I say Sarah Edyth, is a good reason to miss her sister’s wedding.” Jay nodded back at Asa. “But I’m glad she understands. I can’t wait to start my new life with my bride.”
“That’s exactly what I hoped to hear. Let’s go.”
He had hired a friend to play the piano. They’d pushed it out into center field from his office.
He walked through the visiting archway of the park with Asa, to the center of the field. Sister Jane waited there, dressed in gorgeous robes of purple.
The men arranged themselves next to her.
Sister Jane squeezed Jay’s bicep one more time. “For luck,” she whispered, and turned to the other archway where the home team usually came through.
All of the Bledsoes, except for Mags and her new daughter, were gathered around Sister Jane, most of them looking happy, and some of them—Lona and Ruby—pointedly weeping into handkerchiefs. The Marshes stood there, too, their round faces reflecting such joy he thought their grins would split their faces.
He knew just how they felt.
A fanfare played and Goldie, dressed in a pristine white-silk dress and pinafore, with white Mary Janes, came dancing though the archway, spreading white rose petals. Goldie marched up, stood next to father and winked.
He winked back.
“Wait until you see her, Daddy.”
Another fanfare played and Nettie came through the archway, dressed all in white, with a long white veil attached to the bandeau surrounding her head. Her white dress was sleeveless and went toward the ground in a ragged hem, showing off high-heeled Mary Janes.
Dear Lord.
His heart pounded. Nettie made for the most beautiful bridal jazz baby he had ever seen. When she came and stood next to him, he took her hand and put it tightly into the crook of his arm.
Sister Jane held up her arms. “This beautiful couple has asked me to stand here and perform the ceremony. I have married many a couple in my time, but this here’s Pennsylvania. It was a Quaker state, so you all can marry yourselves. Go on ahead now.” She stepped back.
Jay spoke first. “Now, we start our lives together.”
“Yes, now.”
“I’ll love you forever, no matter what.”
“I will as well.”
“And be your faithful husband, no matter the illness, pleasure or pain.”
“And your faithful wife, no matter the illness, pleasure or pain.”
He reached down and kissed his wife, thankful that because of Pennsylvania’s Quaker origins, he did not have to waste one single minute more in the wedding ceremony. They were married.
He and Nettie would spend the rest of their lives loving one another, treasuring each and every moment as if it were pure gold.
Author’s Note
The decade of the 1920s represented a sea of change after the end of World War I. Many social changes flourished during this time period. The passage of Prohibition meant an increase in crime and a change in the family dynamic. Women found new social freedom as well. A Treasure of Gold tells that story. Still, what was seen as criminal acts in the larger society appeared differently in segregated communities like the Hill in Pittsburgh.
Some of my sources and inspiration for Jay and Nettie’s story follow:
Wylie Avenue Days, documentary, WQED Pittsburgh.
Burns, Ken, Baseball.
Burns, Ken, Jazz.
Runyun, Damon, Guys and Dolls and Other Writings.
Sims, Patsy, Can Somebody Shout Amen!
Thompson, Nathan, Kings: The True Story of Chicago’s Policy Kings and Numbers Racketeers.
Trotter, Joe, and Eric Ledell Smith, eds., African Americans in Pennsylvania.
About the Author
Piper Huguley—named the 2015 Debut Author of the Year by Romance Slam Jam, Breakout Author of 2015 by the AAMBC and a top ten historical romance author in Publishers Weekly, by Beverly Jenkins—is a two-time Golden Heart® finalist. She is the author of Migrations of the Heart, a five-book series of historical romances set in the early twentieth century, featuring African American characters. Book 1 in the series, A Virtuous Ruby, won the Golden Rose contest in historical romance in 2013 and was a Golden Heart finalist in 2014. Book 4, A Champion’s Heart, was a Golden Heart finalist in 2013.
Huguley is also the author of the Home to Milford College series. The series follows the building of a college, from its founding in 1866. On release, the prequel novella to the Home to Milford College series, The Lawyer’s Luck, reached Amazon’s “#1 Best Seller” status on the African American Christian fiction charts.
Piper blogs about the history behind her novels at www.piperhuguley.com. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and son.
Look for these titles by Piper Huguley
Now Available:
Migrations of the Heart
A Virtuous Ruby
A Most Precious Pearl
A Treasure of Gold
Don’t miss the other titles in the Migrations of the Heart Series!
They’re cut from different cloths…but their hearts are a perfect fit.
Migrations of the Heart, Book 2
Asa Caldwell returned from the Great War with nothing to show for it—as in nothing below his left knee. Forget about the journalism career he loved. His story is over. Done.
Yet he finds the strength to journey to Winslow, Georgia, to get Ruby Bledsoe Morson’s sister out of trouble. Before he can bring Mags Bledsoe home, though, a spate of mysterious attacks reawakens his investigative instincts.
During the war, Mags did her duty to God and country by stepping into a management role at the textile mill. Now she’s been shuffled back to the rank and file—and Asa has her hard-earned job. Not only is the infernal man doing everything wrong, her plan for revenge against the mill owner who lynched her childhood sweetheart is farther out of reach than ever.
As they clash over almost everything, Mags begins to set fire to Asa’s soul, bright enough to dim the memory of the killing fields of France. Enough to give him a new mission in life—to make her feel the same way.
Warning: Contains a wounded warrior who’s done with fighting…and one feisty woman who makes him snap to attention.
An unexpected love in a small, Southern town.
Migrations of the Heart, Book 1
After fifteen months of hiding from the shame of bearing an illegitimate child, two words drive Ruby Bledsoe to face the good citizens of Winslow, Georgia. Never again. She vows to speak out against injustice. For her sisters. For her parents. For her infant son, Solomon.
When she comes to help an injured mill worker, she bristles when a tall, handsome man claiming to be a doctor brushes her aside. Despite his arrogance, Ruby senses he’s someone like her, whose light skin doesn’t quite hide who he is.
Up north, Dr. Adam Morson easily kept his mixed race a secret. Now that he’s in Georgia, summoned by his white father, he can feel restrictions closing in around him.
Something powerful draws him to the beauty whose activist spirit is as fiery as her name. And soon, Adam wants nothing more than to take Ruby and her child far from Georgia’s toxic prejudice. But Ruby must choose between seeking her own happiness and staying to fight for the soul of her hometown.
Warning: Contains a do
ctor learning there’s more to healing his patients than stitching a wound, and more to a woman than knowing her place—and it’s not in the shadows with her head down. Sorry, Buckeye fans, this hero’s a Wolverine—but we won’t hold that against him.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
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A Treasure of Gold
Copyright © 2015 by Piper Huguley
ISBN: 978-1-61922-743-9
Edited by Latoya Smith
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: November 2015
www.samhainpublishing.com