“She is delightful.”
“Certainly, a bright light in the universe beside her newly betrothed,” I said. “I’ve yet to understand her attraction to Mr. Raye. Most clearly a case of opposites attracting, I suppose.”
Hanna looked at me then with the most endearing smile and with an expression that always seemed to have me completely at her mercy, she kissed me on the cheek. “I can only imagine how charming your parents must be to have raised such a marvelous daughter, in spite of their efforts with this wayward son.”
I pulled her close and felt the smooth softness of her cheek on mine. “You will have to reserve judgment until you meet the older son, my brother Jess.” When I looked away I saw my mother through the crowd talking with a group of women who I recognized as her close ring of friends for cards and tennis at the club and relentless gossip on the latest Atlanta scandals.
“That must be your mother,” Hanna said, following my line of sight.
“And how would you know?”
“The resemblance is remarkable. Anyone could see it.”
I turned and looked at Hanna Wesley and those wonderful brown eyes. I squeezed her hand more tightly. My heart began beating faster in nervous anticipation of the introductions to the matriarch of our family and all of her friends. My mother, the former Victoria Lancaster, was from an old Atlanta family that dated back well before the War. That would, of course, be the Civil War. The Lancaster’s had made their money in land speculation and shipping mostly and there were now members of the family spread all across the South in prominent families and businesses. One of her brothers was on track to be the next governor of Georgia.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
“Of course, I’m ready. She’s so beautiful, Mathew.”
I nodded and listened to the music from the band play in the back of my mind as I tried to quickly gather my composure.
“Shouldn’t we go over?” she asked, wondering about my hesitation.
Chapter Three
Hanna’s smile gave me new courage and we made our way through the crowd at the party. As we approached, my mother saw me coming and held up a hand to break the flow of conversation with her friends. She could best be described as regal, always dressed elegantly and on this night holding court again among the elite of Atlanta society.
“Oh Mathew, I’m so glad you’ve finally arrived,” she said. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Her friends parted to make room for us. My mother then noticed Hanna on my arm and her expression changed ever so slightly. Only if you knew her well would you be able to detect the subtle change in mood and expression. She stood up slightly more erect, even though her posture and bearing were always impeccable. “Well Mathew, you have a new friend,” she said, and I could tell from the frosty tone this would be the difficult exchange I had anticipated.
I knew her friends were assessing Hanna and her dress and shoes. The first impressions seemed to be somewhat positive from the looks on all of their faces. “Mother, ladies,” I said, acknowledging all of her friends around us, “this is Hanna Wesley from Chicago.”
My mother held out a white-gloved hand and the two women greeted each other politely, but tentatively. I knew my mother would try to behave in front of all of her closest acquaintances, but I could tell from the look in her eyes she was less than pleased.
“Hanna… Wesley, is it?” she asked.
“Yes, Mrs. Coulter.”
“Miss Wesley, welcome to our home. It is really so nice of you to join us and I hope you’re keeping an eye on my son. There are so many eligible young women here tonight who would just love to sweep him away.”
The other ladies giggled and exchanged knowing looks and whispered comments. My mother’s tone and intent were very clear, but Hanna continued to smile. She pulled me closer and said, “I’m keeping a very short leash on him.”
“I can see that, dear,” my mother said, the corners of her mouth pursing the way they always did when she was trying to remain calm.
“Mother, I sense you’re right in the middle of something,” I said, and then nodded to the other women. “When you get a moment I would like to have you spend some time with us tonight.”
“Of course, dear. I’ll find you a bit later.” She took a surprisingly long drink from a glass of champagne. “Miss Wesley, really it was so nice,” and she reached for Hanna’s hand again. “Make yourself at home and enjoy the wonderful food Chef Robert has prepared. I’ll catch up with the two of you, I promise.”
I pulled Hanna away and tried my best to smile at my mother and her whispering group of friends. I could see in her eyes we would have one of our typical disapproving mother and barely tolerant son discussions in the very near future. I thought it would be even more interesting when she learned of my intentions for Miss Hanna Wesley. A waiter came by with a tray of glasses filled with white and red wine and we both took a glass of cabernet that had been acquired by my father through his connections in Europe. When we were far enough away from my mother I stopped and held up my glass to Hanna’s. “Thank you for enduring that. I’m sorry. My mother can be quite a handful, particularly when she’s with the girls.”
“It’s fine really, Mathew. Clearly, she loves her son and wants only the best… one of these Atlanta debutantes, I’m sure,” she said and smiled, looking around at the other young women throughout the crowd.
The pace of the music from the band slowed. I took the glass from Hanna and placed it with mine on a table next to us. “Would you like to dance?”
At first, I assumed because of my bad leg, she seemed surprised at my invitation, but then she nodded and we moved across the grass to the tile patio around the long pool where a cluster of people were moving with the rhythm of the music. She came close in my arms and I felt the brush of her hair against my face. All of the stress and worry about the evening seemed to float away on the warm April breeze. As we turned slowly together I tried to keep some sense of rhythm and grace, in spite of a leg that I had almost left behind in a smoldering muddy shell hole in Europe. I could see my mother standing across the lawn, looking past her friends directly at us. Her expression was strained at best.
“Mathew, this is a lovely evening,” Hanna said. “Thank you for bringing me. Your home is just magnificent.”
Her soft voice in my ear was soothing and seemed almost a whisper under the sounds from the band. I pulled back and looked at her face. “You’re being awfully brave in front of all these people you’ve never met,” I said.
In our short time together, we had not become intimate, as my sister Maggie would describe it. My big brother, Jess, would be more likely to say I hadn’t gotten laid yet. There had been a couple of times when emotion and lust between the two of us had risen to a precipitous level, but a little voice in the back of my head always reminded me that Hanna Wesley was not just any girl and that our first time together should be special, not some heated thrashing about on the seat of my car. I could tell over recent days that Hanna was beginning to get impatient with my reluctance to seal the deal as my old college friends would drunkenly suggest. Her gaze seemed distracted. I turned to look and saw my brother was coming through the dancing couples toward us.
“And that would be brother Jess,” I said.
My brother came up and stood next to us. “May I please have the honor,” he said in his most affected southern gentleman flourish.
“Hanna Wesley, please meet my much older and rarely wiser brother, Jess.”
They shook hands and Jess pulled her away. “Just one dance,” he said as they moved away into the crowd. Hanna looked back at me with a helpless expression. I was standing there watching Jess take her in his arms when I felt a tap on the shoulder. I turned to see my father behind me.
Samuel Coulter was a commanding figure in any gathering, standing as tall as I, but 50 pounds heavier from his years of plentiful food and drink. His flowing hair had grayed and his face was deeply tanned from his
many hours on the fairways of the East Lake Country Club and atop one of his horses riding up in the hills in the country north of Atlanta. The Coulter family was “Old South” and “military” which was the ideal lineage among those who mattered in Atlanta. My grandfather had been a colonel under Jackson in the Confederate Army and my father had risen to the rank of captain in the Army before turning to a career in business.
“Good evening, son,” he said in his imposing voice. He took my arm and led me across the lawn toward one of the bars. I looked back over my shoulder to see if I could spot Hanna and Jess, but they were lost in the crowd. My father asked for two glasses of Scotch whiskey on ice and handed one to me. He held his glass up to mine and we both took a drink. I noticed Charlie Watermann and the two bodyguards standing a few feet from us, looking the other way.
“So, tell me about this new girl?” he asked. “She’s quite striking, Mathew.”
“She’s a new friend, actually more than a friend,” I said, my confidence rising for some reason at that moment. “Her name is Hanna Wesley.”
“I’ve wondered where you’ve been off to so much lately,” he said.
“She’s a special girl.”
His face hardened some and he looked at me with piercing eyes. “Now son, let’s not get too caught up here. How long have you known this Miss Wesley?”
“For just a few weeks, but it seems so much longer,” I said. “She is just incredible…”
He interrupted by leading me off across the lawn away from the bar. He smiled at people as we walked through the crowd, occasionally acknowledging someone with a quick nod or comment. We reached a cluster of azaleas along the side of the yard, lit up in their spring colors of brilliant white and red.
“Mathew, please tell me you’re not getting too serious about this girl.”
His words cut through me like razor wire. “You haven’t even met her yet!” I said.
“Oh, I’m sure she’s lovely, Mathew, but please, let’s take things slowly here. Your mother and I have great plans for your future and I…”
I backed away from him and tried as best I could to contain my anger, but then decided to jump right in. “I’m going to ask Hanna to marry me tonight,” I said.
My father surprised me by just smiling back and then he said, “I had a feeling you were that far down the road with this girl. Mathew, you need to slow down some.”
“Her name is Hanna Wesley,” I said and I could feel a burning sensation sweeping through my body.
“Are you aware of the consequences of all this?” His question caught me totally off guard and I couldn’t even answer. “Do you know anything about this woman and her family?” he asked and then he took a sip from his glass of whiskey.
“Of course, I do!”
“So, you know of the Wesley family from North Chicago?” he went on. “The father is a clothing merchant of some success, I understand.”
“And how would you know that?”
He sensed the anger in my tone and said, “Mathew, please listen to me. I’ve had some people do a little checking on your new friend.” I started to interrupt, but he held a hand up and continued on. “We know you’ve been spending a lot of time with this girl and I just thought it would be prudent to help you learn a little more about what you’re getting yourself in for.”
“Help me!” I said.
“Please, son.” His voice became even deeper and he looked across the lawn filled with Atlanta society as he continued. “It’s very important we look out for each other and for this family. We have a place in this town that has taken years to establish and we have to be smart about the choices we make and the implications of those choices.”
I couldn’t contain my frustration any longer. “What in hell are you talking about?”
My outburst seemed to surprise him and he looked back at me. He turned and faced me head on, looking directly into my eyes. “Mathew, I’m sure Hanna Wesley is a wonderful young girl, but you have to know how difficult this will be for everyone.”
“What’s difficult?”
“You must know her family will be just as concerned. Hell, her father probably won’t even allow you to see her again when he finds out the two of you have been together.”
The realization of what he was saying swept through me and I tried to calm myself. “I can’t believe you’ve had her family investigated.”
“Mathew, I told you we have to be careful for the family. You’ll learn this as you…”
“You have no right to do this.”
“Of course, I have the right!” he said in anger, his voice booming out through the night air. Two couples nearby turned to look at us in surprise. “Mathew, listen to me carefully. I’ll not have you making this mistake. A Jewish girl…”
“This is not a mistake,” I said, trying to remain calm. “I should have realized it was about this. I know about her religion. I’ve known about it from the beginning.”
“Well, you must know how impossible it will be for everyone,” he said.
“Only if you make it so.”
“No son, I’m afraid it goes much deeper than that. Even if people in this town…”
“I don’t give a damn about people in this town!”
He reached out and took the lapel of my jacket in his hand to stop me. “That’s enough and I don’t want to hear you say that again.” He paused, seeming to try to catch his breath and calm himself. “Even if people in this town accepted her, and these are our friends and business associates, Mathew,” he said looking again out over the people assembled across our back lawn. “These are the people we share our lives with. Even if there was some chance they would understand and welcome this girl into our ways here, which I can tell you will never happen; even if that were so, there is no way her Jewish family in Chicago would ever allow such a marriage. Do you understand this, son?” He let go of my jacket and tried to smooth it down.
“I’m not stupid. I’ve known from the beginning this would be a problem with the family and all of these people and this damned town.”
“Have you talked to her about this? Does she know your intentions?” I just stared at him for a moment. “Does she know you were planning to propose to her tonight?”
As his words began to sink in, I thought about the fact we had not discussed marriage and that, perhaps in my naivety, I just assumed this could all be worked out between the two of us. To hell with parents and everyone else in this damn town and in Chicago, I thought.
The first seeds of doubt began to creep into my mind about Hanna and me being together. All I could feel was anger and frustration at the prospects and inevitabilities that our families and the little worlds we lived in were imposing on us. The sudden realization my future might not include Hanna Wesley was overwhelming and I just stood there staring back at my father.
“Mathew, I asked if this Miss Wesley has any idea about your intentions?”
I tried to compose myself and was finally able to answer. “No, I don’t believe she does,” I said with a dullness in my voice that didn’t even sound like myself talking. He put his arm around me and started leading me back toward the party. My mind was racing with the events and discussions with Hanna over the past few weeks and I searched for any of the signs that would reassure me she felt as strongly as I about our future.
My father spoke, but his voice seemed a distant echo and I don’t even recall what he was telling me. I was just thinking I needed to find Hanna. We had to talk and she would have to tell me how she felt about us and about our future. I looked through the growing crowd and couldn’t see Hanna or Jess. I pulled myself away from my father and threw the drink in my hand to the ground as I started off across the lawn. They weren’t out dancing anymore and I walked up onto the back veranda, looking at all the groupings of people. Maggie came up to me and stopped me. “Mathew, what’s wrong?”
I looked up and just stared at her for a moment and then said, “I have to
find Hanna.”
Chapter Four
My sister, Maggie, looked at me with a puzzled and blurry expression from the drink as I left her standing there and walked into the house. I wandered from room to room looking for Hanna. Then I realized what must have surely happened. Jess had not only interrupted to have the next dance, but also to escort her home; to get her off the property. A quiet rage continued to grow inside me. My family’s complicit betrayal was overwhelming. Even my own brother was in on it.
I staggered down the steps across the back of the house. I turned and looked over the crowd of Atlanta’s most notable families gathered on this evening to be entertained by my parents; to be served with the illegal alcohol my father’s company now provided to this town; to gorge from the extravagant feast that had been prepared. The whole lot of them and all of their excesses suddenly seemed so pathetic; all of their customs and protocols and prejudices.
Our housekeeper, Velma, came up beside me with a tray of drinks. I grabbed a glass of wine and drank half of it in the first gulp. She was a big woman with an even bigger heart. She stood there in her black and white uniform looking at me with those eyes that always seemed to understand what I was thinking. “Mathew, I want you to take it easy on this drinkin’ tonight, you hear me son?” she said. “I been hearin’ what your daddy’s been up to with this new little miss of yours. Best not to get all worked up. Some things just ain’t meant to be.”
I sensed someone behind me and turned to see my father. Standing at my back, he placed his hand on my shoulder and said, “Son, I’m truly sorry about all this, but it’s only what’s right for everyone, including this girl.”
“She’s gone, isn’t she?” I asked, turning to face him as Velma hurried away into the crowd. “Jess has taken her home?”
He nodded. “Mathew, this world can be ugly at times. How we all feel about each other and our faith is one of those damned things that has been a curse since the dawn of man. I can’t say I like it, but it’s the way this world is and you’re going to have to understand that and live with it like we all do. I know you think right now this is the only woman in the world, but you’ll meet so many more girls.”
Grayton Winds Page 4
