Carefully she pointed to the bloodstains on the paneling. “Look. It’s a handprint. Just the size of mine.” Immediately, Brant put his eye to the knothole nearby. “Do you think that’s wise?” Lauryn asked, taking a step backward lest another mouse come popping out of the hole. “I mean, I’ve already seen one mouse jump out of there.”
Brant looked at her. “A mouse? You mean, there’s not just dirt behind these planks?”
Lauryn shrugged. “I don’t know. What else would there be?”
Brant’s face paled slightly. “Lauryn…you said your great grandfather didn’t believe in slavery.”
“That’s right,” she confirmed. “But what would that…”
“Remember what Mr. Jackson said to us…that day after we had been over to the see the doctor? He said your great grandfather was a good man and that….”
“That all families had their secrets,” Lauryn finished for him.
Brant glanced about the cellar quickly, finally picking up the ax handle Lauryn had tripped over when she’d enter the first time. Sticking his index finger into the knothole, he said, “Anybody around here ever been linked to helping slaves escape?” he asked. Lauryn shrugged. “There’s no dirt wall behind these planks.” And shoving his shoulder hard against the plank that contained the knothole, he worked to insert the ax handle into the space created between the bowed plank and the one next to it.
The wood split, cracking noisily. Brant began tearing away at the dry, brittle wood. “Here,” he said, handing Lauryn a piece of broken wood. Lauryn hadn’t time to set the wood aside before Brant simply went crashing through two broken planks and into another room. Lauryn’s heart hammered fiercely within her chest as she handed the lantern to Brant and stepped over the broken planks into the secret room with him.
Brant coughed. Lauryn covered her nose and mouth with her hand while the stale air in the hidden room began to freshen by the air entering from without. Brant held the lantern up, and Lauryn followed his gaze to the room’s ceiling. Like the cellar, the dirt ceiling of this secret room was covered in wisteria roots. Large roots lined the walls and part of the floor.
“I think your great grandfather took more than one secret with him to his grave, Lauryn,” Brant said pointing to an ancient, iron collar lying on the floor at their feet. Stooping and picking it up, Brant held it out to her. “A slave collar. And it’s been cut off someone.” Lauryn shivered as she looked at the device of human misery. To think that such things had actually existed, made her heart ache.
“The underground railroad?” Lauryn whispered. “At Connemara?” Somehow the knowledge made her proud, all the more loving of her special, beautiful home.
“Come on,” Brant said, reaching back and grasping her hand tightly as he held the lantern up and began to move forward. “I think we’ve…” and his words stopped as, at the same instant, Lauryn gasped.
There in one far corner of the dark, forgotten room…
“Laura,” Brant breathed.
Reverently Brant led Lauryn to the surreal scene before them. There, on an ancient, broken bed, the remains of a feather tick beneath her, lay a young woman’s skeleton, still dressed in the manner of the past.
One skeletal hand hung off one side of the bed. On the floor, just at the tips of its fingers, lay a small, child’s teacup… white and embellished with lavender blossoms. Laura’s other hand lay at her stomach, the fabric of her dress beneath her fingers, though faded and spotted with holes (no doubt from tiny creatures of the earth or other means of decay), was still dark with blood stains…blood stains that, like those in Connemara House, were over fifty years old. Her tiny shoes were still on her feet, and there, on her left ring finger…the ring the Captain had saved so diligently to purchase.
“Brant,” Lauryn breathed as she looked on the sight. The wisteria roots had grown around the skeleton. But, they had grown tenderly, softly cradling Laura’s arms and body as it lay on the bed. Lauryn watched as Brant reached out and took a cream-colored curl between his fingers. Miraculously, an unusual amount of Laura’s beautiful hair still cascaded from her skull down, over her shoulders. The hair was as bright and as silky in appearance as that owned by her spirit. Reaching out, Lauryn lifted the tarnished golden locket at the skeleton’s throat. The one Brandon had given Laura before he’d left for war.
“You can’t tell.”
The voice so startled Lauryn that she screamed as she spun around. Brant turned, too, shouting angrily as he glared at Jeffrey.
“What are you doing here!”
“You can’t tell that you’ve found her here,” Jeffrey growled.
“Jeffrey?” Lauryn breathed. Her mind spun wondering why it would be Jeffrey that should intrude upon Laura’s secreted tomb.
“She’s an old woman, Lauryn,” Jeffery said, meeting Brant toe-to-toe threateningly. He paused, looking down at the strangely peaceful sight. “It was so long ago and she was young. Frightened.”
“What are you talkin’ about?” Brant demanded. Lauryn was confused, as well. She couldn’t fathom what he was babbling about. They had found, Laura! After so many years. Laura was found! And Jeffrey didn’t want anyone to know?
“Granny Carry,” he explained. “Whatever she did…it’s in the past and she’s suffered enough for it.”
“Jeffrey,” Lauryn began. “I don’t understand. Why would findin’ Lauralynn hurt you Nana?” Jeffrey swallowed hard and tears brimmed in his eyes.
“Carissa killed Lauralynn. Didn’t she?” Brant said flatly. “That day she came to Connemara…either she wounded her further…killing her…or she left her here to die. Didn’t she?” Brant reached out, grabbing the front of Jeffrey’s shirt in one powerful fist. “Tell me! Or else I’ll beat the…”
“Last year,” Jeffrey interrupted in a whisper, Gran was really sick. I was stayin’ down in Memphis with her. Takin’ care of her one night and she told me. She told me that her name was Carissa O’Halleran and that the O’Hallerans living in Connemara House were her family. She told me that she hid her sister durin’ the war. The sister that everyone in town knew about…the one that had disappeared during the battle.”
“She told you? All this time? You’ve known all this time?” Lauryn cried. She was furious with him! She knew she felt as Brant did…that she wanted to hit him! To hit something!
“She only told me last year ago. I asked her…about Lauralynn…because I knew the story. Everyone in Franklin does. And she told me…she told me that she hid Lauralynn.”
“Why didn’t she ever tell anyone else, Jeffrey?” Lauryn was nearly hysterical. The Captain and Laura had been tortured, unsettled for over fifty years! And all the time Carissa O’Halleran had been alive and known where Laura was! It was too much to bear! She began furiously beating Jeffrey’s chest. “How could you? How could you not tell us? You’ve known where she was! Carissa knew! And you never told us! Do you know the torture they’ve been through? What Brant and I have been through? Do you realize…” Lauryn struggled when Brant pulled her back and away from Jeffrey.
“She killed her. And he’s been protecting her. Isn’t that it, Jeffrey?” Brant accused calmly.
“She didn’t kill her! She didn’t. She tried to help her. She hid her. I…I didn’t know where she had hidden her,” Jeffrey told them. “I only knew that they were sisters. I think Gran…I think…it was a long time ago, Lauryn. Gran is an old woman. Her mind has been tortured by this her entire life, I’m sure.”
“Even you think she left her here to die, don’t you?” Brant asked him, as Lauryn sobbed. “Carissa…she was jealous…she left Laura here to die didn’t she?”
“No,” came a weak voice. Lauryn turned to see Carissa step into the room, assisted by her own Nana and Penny. “She died while I was here with her.”
“Gran,” Jeffrey began. “You don’t have to say anythin’. No one blames you for anythin’.”
“Hush, Jeffrey,” Carissa said, softly. Then looking to Brant and Lauryn she began.
“I was jealous, for a long, long time. It ate at me…destroyed me, as jealousy and hate always do. But…but I loved Lauralynn. And…and I came here that day…afraid that somethin’ would happen to them…to me…to her. I came to Connemara that day…to see her. But everythin’ was….horrible! Death was everywhere!” She swallowed as tears streaked her face. “I came into the parlor, just as my brother Sean was hidin’ Mama and Virginia. I saw Daddy sittin’ at the desk…Laura helped him to sit, even though she was bleedin’ and hurt so badly herself. He didn’t live long. Laura and I were both there. He saw me…he forgave me…told me he loved me. Told me, that I owed Laura my help. Told me to hide her in the secret room in the cellar…the room she and I had known he hid escaped slaves in. And I did. I took her there.”
The old woman looked to the bed, her face contorting with the painful memories as she gazed on her sister’s remains. “I stayed with her. The battle was so fierce. I even heard the soldiers come into the cellar lookin’ for people. I was so afraid they’d find us! So afraid of what they’d do to us if they did! I found the tea set…the one we had played with as children. Laura told me that Daddy had brought the little tea set in here once when he was helpin’ a family escape. I took one of the teacups and gave it to Laura…reminded her of happier days between us…when there wasn’t a war. When we had been sisters and friends and played together at Connemara. And then… then she told me that she loved me…forever. And…and her breath stopped and she was gone. She simply quit breathin’. And I…I never told anyone.”
“But, Gran,” Penny asked in a whisper. “Why didn’t you tell anyone? Why?”
“I was afraid. Everyone knew what had happened. How horrid I had been! How miserable I was. About my shame. I knew…I knew that if I told anyone…anyone at all…I knew they’d think I killed her. I knew they would. They’d all think I killed her to try and win Brandon…or to make him miserable. So…I kept my secret. I left. I went north and then to Memphis after the war and married my Mr. McGovern…a wonderful man who loved me in spite of my sins. And everyday of my life, I’ve been afraid…afraid to tell. And I’ve loved Lauralynn, too. Every moment.”
The resentment, the hurt, the near hate was draining from Lauryn. And as Brant gathered her in his arms, stroking her hair soothingly, she could feel the harmful pain leaving him, too. As she looked to where Laura had spent her last moments, suddenly there was only relief and love in Lauryn’s heart.
“Carissa?” Virginia asked. “Are you all right, love?” Lauryn smiled, warmed through her entire being as she watched her Nana place a loving arm around Carissa’s shoulders.
“She’s here, Ginny,” Carissa whispered. “She’s still here.” Carissa buried her face in her hands and sobbed bitterly.
“No, Carissa,” Lauryn heard her grandmother say. She watched as Nana took Carissa’s hand. “That’s not our Lauralynn anymore. And it hasn’t been for many, many, many years.”
“Will you look at that?” Patrick gasped, as he came charging into the room, his mother close behind him.
“You hush, Patrick,” Nana warned. “This is an important moment. And it’s to be joyous.”
Lauryn looked up into the warmth of Brant’s eyes. “It’s over,” he mumbled.
Two days later, the former resident family of Connemara gathered at the old family cemetery for a quiet service held to, at long last, lay to rest the earthly remains of Lauralynn O’Halleran Masterson. Brant and Sean had quietly removed Lauralynn’s skeleton from the secret cellar room and placed it in a simple pine coffin. Lauryn, her Grandmother and Aunt Carissa then placed the small teacup in with the remains and covered them gently with a soft, white sheet as Georgia and Mindy dabbed at the moisture on the cheeks. Patrick sat uncommonly quiet near the gravesite, Junie on his lap playing with the buttons on his shirt. Every few moments, Lauryn would see her little brother kiss his niece tenderly on the head, and she knew it was his way of expressing his young, but very deep feelings.
As Lauryn stood watching Sean and Brant fill in Laura’s grave with the rich soil of Connemara, she wondered why the Captain hadn’t come to her, to let her know that all was well. It had been two days since she and Brant had found Laura. And in those two days, no amount of wishing or calling for the Captain had brought him to her.
She wondered what was in Brant’s mind, too, for he’d barely spoken to anyone since finding Laura. She looked to her Nana and Aunt Carissa, standing with their arms linked, tears upon the cheeks of their beautiful, elderly faces. She looked at her cousins, Penny and Jeffrey, again amazed that they were, indeed, her cousins.
And Mr. Jackson was there. “I always thought the fambly knowed about that underground railroad room, Miss Lauryn. Never occurred to me that ol’ Mr. O’Halleran had kept the secret all to hisself,” he told her before the service. Already the historical society was fantastically excited! Not only was Connemara and the Connemara House of such historical value, but now that it was known it’s cellar had served as part of the underground railroad…Lauryn knew that Connemara was meant for another adventure. One that it would travel alone, without Lauryn and her family.
As everyone stood looking at the now finished grave, Lauryn looked again to Brant. Her body ached to be in his arms! Her lips longed for his kiss! Just a glance from him would have been enough at the moment. But he stood solemn before the grave. Even after everyone else had gone, he stood, pensive and seemingly oblivious to everything and everyone else around him.
One by one, everyone left…Mr. Jackson said he had to get ‘on home to supper at Mariah’s ‘fore she skins me alive.’ Sean and Mindy took baby Junie and Patrick and started for their own home, and Lauryn’s mother said she wanted to walk through the rose gardens for a moment.
Even Penny and Jeffrey, after hugging Lauryn tightly, took their leave. Lauryn felt oddly alone as she stood watching her Nana and Carissa dab at their tears with their lace hankies. Brant still stood staring at the fresh grave and Lauryn was lost. For the first time in her life, she felt lost. Lost to her family, lost to the Captain, lost to Connemara…and most of all, lost to Brant who still remained so silent and brooding.
Burying her face in her hands for a moment, overwhelmed with conflicting emotions, it wasn’t until she sensed the soft fragrance of wisteria, heard her Nana’s startled gasp that she raised her head. Standing at the edge of Laura’s grave was the Captain. At his side, on his arm, as beautiful as the day she died, was Laura.
“Laura?” Carissa breathed. Instantly, Lauralynn rushed forward, throwing her arms around first one sister and then the other in a loving embrace.
“All is well, my darlin’s,” Lauralynn said. Lauryn felt her mouth gape open at the beautiful and very audible sound of Laura’s voice. “All is well.”
“But, Laura,” Carissa began.
Lauralynn O’Halleran Masterson shook her head and smiled. “All is well,” she repeated.
And as Lauryn watched the Captain coming toward her, she noticed that Brant’s eyes were filled with moisture as Laura approached him.
“Thank you, my angel,” The Captain said, taking Lauryn in his arms and kissing her forehead tenderly. “Thank you.” Lauryn looked up at him, tears streaming down her face.
“You’re goin’, aren’t you?” she choked.
“We are. And you’re to be happy,” he said. “I promise we’ll never be far…that we’ll watch you be happy. Never too far away.”
Lauryn turned as Laura approached, leading Brant by the hand.
“Thank you, Lauryn,” she spoke. The melody of her voice as soothing to Lauryn’s soul. Yet, Lauryn’s tears increased, for she knew this was a goodbye that would haunt her always.
“You see,” Laura said, taking one of Brant’s hands and one of Lauryn’s in her other. “The family had two lost members, angels. Not just one. Not just me.”
“Carissa,” Brant mumbled.
Laura smiled at him. “Yes. Carissa. She needed peace. She deserves it. And I couldn’t rest u
ntil she and I, both of us were found. I didn’t even know myself why…couldn’t tell Brant why…until…until you found me and everything became clear.”
“You couldn’t talk to me because…” Brant began.
“Because I was bound. By bein’ lost to Brand…to Connemara. All I knew was where Brand might be…near you, Brant. Near his home and family…and that is where I lingered. I’m sorry for your hardship, my sweet boy.”
Brant shook his head and smiled. “What would my life have been without you?” Lauryn felt a pang of heartache. What a bittersweet reality it was to have found Laura. And in finding her, lose her…lose the Captain.
“I love you, sweet Lauryn,” the Captain whispered, caressing Lauryn’s cheek softly. “Thank you, Brant.” His voice seemed quiet, far away somehow.
“And I love you…both of you,” Laura whispered, her voice slowly vanishing to nothing more than a fragrance. “Have peace now…and life,” her mouth moved. Then she turned to the Captain, and Lauryn watched with wonder as they kissed, passionately, joyously. And then…as if they’d never been…they were gone.
“They’re gone. Aren’t they?” Lauryn said. There was a sweet sort of peaceful longing in her as if two spaces were now empty in her heart. Voids left by the Captain and Laura. And yet, she wasn’t sad for the loss of them. Their journey of over fifty years was finally, blessedly at an end. They were together. Happy. Forever.
But, as she watched Brant, standing very still and looking off into the distance, his eyes narrowed and full of tears, a trembling began to overtake her. A trembling so strong that she wondered if her knees would, indeed, give way beneath her. What would be their lives now? For so long, both she and Brant had longed to live free of the mystery. But, now that it was upon them…
“Yes,” he mumbled. “They’re gone. I can feel it.” He put a hand to his chest just over his heart and closed his eyes a moment. “They’re gone.” He looked to her then, and added, “And we’re both free.” He turned and looked at her, his eyes narrow, emotion blazing from them. Lauryn felt her breath shorten, her heart begin to pound furiously as he strode toward her with an aggression she’d never seen in him before! A determination in his eyes that was almost frightening.
The Fragrance of Her Name Page 40
