Return to Me

by Rosemary Rogers

  Lacy shook her head. “And not who she went with, neither.”

  And with that, Cameron knew her sister had run and who she had run with.

  She spun on her heels and hurried from the room. “I have to go back downstairs. You stay here.”

  “You think I could put a little of that red stuff on my cheeks?” Lacy called after her.

  “No.” Cameron shut the door loudly and hurried to the staircase. There, she took a breath and slowly descended the steps, as if making her first appearance at a ball. “I’m sorry, gentlemen, but I was mistaken,” she said sweetly when she reached the front hall. “My sister does not seem to be at home.”

  Captain Grey looked to Jackson and frowned. “What’s the meaning of this, Logan? I came this way, after dark, so as not to cause Miss Campbell any undue anguish. But I will not be toyed with. I am here for duty’s sake, and fulfill it I shall.”

  Jackson turned to Cameron. “She’s not here, dear?”

  Cameron shook her head, meeting Jackson’s gaze. That was when she realized he had known something before she had, probably before she went up the stairs looking for Taye. “I don’t know where she could be, but I will ask the servants. You see, sir,” she said, smiling sweetly, “Captain Logan only returned to Mississippi on the afternoon train. He and I were inspecting Elmwood Plantation, my father’s home, and we had only just returned when you came in. I assumed my sister was here at Atkins’ Way, but I’d not yet had time to speak with her.”

  “We’ll have to search the place,” Captain Grey said stonily.

  “Of course.” Jackson stepped back and gestured grandly. “Two stories. The servants’ quarters are over the kitchen, and there are also men residing over the barn. If we can be of any assistance, please let us know.”

  “If you don’t mind, ma’am, could you ask your servants where Miss Campbell might be?”

  “Yes, Captain.” She smiled her most generous smile and hurried off to the kitchen. She knew she had to speak to Naomi, not about Taye, but about the night Grant died.

  Cameron gripped Naomi’s lean hand in hers and led her out of the kitchen into the darkness of the small, paved herb garden.

  “I don’t know where’s she gone,” Naomi said, wiping her hands on her white apron. “So no need to ask.”

  Cameron glanced at the house that loomed behind them, on the lookout for the soldiers. “I don’t want to know where she went, at least not yet.” Cameron stared into Naomi’s dark eyes. “You know why these men are here?”

  Naomi lifted her shoulder slightly. “The kitchen ain’t so far from the front hall.”

  “Naomi, I need you to think carefully back to the night Grant died.”

  Naomi’s face tightened and her lips drew back in a half sneer. “One of the best nights of my life, ’scuse me for sayin’ so.”

  “I need you to think back. Were Dorcas and Efia anywhere near the house?” Cameron tried to recall, but her memories were sketchy as to where the others had been. “Hadn’t Taye and the twins gone down to the stables, or to the slave quarters to look for food?”

  “I think that’s where they said later they was. Don’t know fer sure, ’cause I was in the house tryin’ to set myself free.” Naomi rested one hand on her hip as she thought. “But I know didn’t no one see what happened but you and Taye. Them silly girls didn’t even come up to the house after they musta heard the gunshots.”

  “I didn’t think so, either.”

  Naomi looked to Cameron suspiciously. “But that little negra girl Efia is here in town again.”

  Cameron nodded.

  “Got to be her tellin’ tales.” Naomi fingered her gris-gris bag. “I knew them wenches was nothin’ but trash. And her takin’ with Clyde Macon after what he done to them little girls.” She made a clicking sound between her teeth. “Like sleepin’ with Ghede Satan himself.”

  “Well, I know that Taye is frightened, but she shouldn’t have run. It just makes her look guiltier.”

  There were unfamiliar sounds in the kitchen and both women turned to gaze at the open door. The soldiers had entered the room to search it.

  “What ya gonna do?” Naomi whispered.

  “I don’t know, Naomi. I just don’t know. Once the soldiers are gone, Jackson and I will probably ride in to see Thomas. Then we’ve got to find Taye and convince her to turn herself in.” She shook her head, hating to think of how this might all play out. “Considering the fact that Taye was the housekeeper’s daughter and Grant was the senator’s son, a Southern jury isn’t going to like it. There’s a lot of bitterness in this town against your people. A lot of anger no one knows where to lay.”

  “Might not matter why she killed him or whether or not he deserved it twice over,” Naomi whispered.

  Cameron rested her hand on Naomi’s shoulder. “I should go inside. I don’t want to look suspicious.”

  Naomi pulled off her apron and tossed it into a bush. “And I’ll be takin’ a little ride into J Town to pay a call on a young lady.”

  Cameron grabbed her hand. “You can’t go to J Town, not alone after dark. They say no woman is safe there.”

  Naomi smiled slyly. “You got a look at my man lately, girl? He four feet wide and got arms on him like tree trunks,” she said proudly. “Don’t know no one not give him a wide berth.”

  “All right, find out what you can. Thank you.” Cameron squeezed her hand and released it, then headed for the back door.

  “Ain’t nothin’ Naomi can’t do for her girls.”

  Cameron smiled, thankful once more for the friend she had found in such an unlikely character.

  28

  Cameron entered the kitchen through the rear door.

  “There ya are, Miss Cameron. Theys lookin’ for ya upstairs.” Patsy twisted her bony hands in her apron. “That girl of yours gone crazy-wild.”

  Cameron hurried out of the kitchen and into the main house, following the sounds of Lacy’s shrieks.

  Jackson met Cameron at the top of the stairs, pointing down the hall toward Taye’s bedchamber and the source of the commotion.

  “Lacy!” Cameron called, hurrying down the hall.

  “Get away from me!” Lacy screamed.

  Cameron heard the sound of shattering glass and one of the soldiers ducked out of the room. “Captain Grey told me to look everywhere,” he said sheepishly. “I have to look under the bed.”

  “Give me a moment, sir.” Cameron stepped through the doorway and ducked just in time to miss a glass hurled at her head.

  The drinking glass exploded on impact with the doorjamb, and glass and water sprayed Cameron. “Lacy Campbell, get off that bed this minute and stop throwing things.”

  Lacy stood perched on the center of the bed, her eyes wide. “Aunt Cam,” she gulped as she lowered the crystal water pitcher in her hand. “I didn’t get ya, did I?”

  Cameron walked to the bed and jerked the pitcher out of her hand. “Get down this instant.” The girl was still dressed in Taye’s blue gown, her cheeks and lips now bright red with lip pomade. “Because if I have to come up there after you,” Cameron threatened, “you will not be pleased.” She set the pitcher down safely on a table.

  “I didn’t want ’em in here, Aunt Cam,” Lacy explained softly. “I don’t like soldiers.”

  Cameron offered her hand to help her niece down, softening her tone. “I don’t suppose you do,” she said, recalling what Lacy had told her about the soldiers and her mother. “Now come with me. They need to search this room. Taye’s not here, so they’re not going to get her tonight,” she reassured her quietly. “It’s going to be all right.”

  Lacy clasped Cameron’s hand, and Cameron was surprised to find that the small hand was shaking. Lacy was a feisty little girl, but in many ways, she was still just that, a little girl.

  “You’ve searched the master bedchamber?” Cameron asked the soldier.

  He bobbed his head, stepping back to give the glass-hurling hoyden a wide berth.

  “The
n I’ll take her in there. I apologize for her behavior, but her experiences with soldiers have not been the best.”

  “Yes, ma’am. No need for us to bother you. You go right ahead.”

  Cameron put her arm around Lacy and escorted her down the hall. Jackson still stood at the top of the stairs.

  “I’m going to take Lacy to our room until they’re gone,” she told him. “They must have frightened her.”

  “Frightened her? Hell, it looks like she did a fine job of scaring that poor boy out of a year of his life.”

  Cameron eyed him but bit her tongue. “Come find me after they’re gone,” she whispered.

  Cameron left Jackson to deal with the soldiers and escorted Lacy to the master bedchamber. “You have to learn to be more ladylike,” she admonished. “Campbell girls do not stand on beds and throw chamber pots.”

  Lacy set her jaw. “He asked me if he could come in, and I told him hell no!”

  Cameron had to hide her smile. “Ladies do not curse, either. Now let’s get this gown off you.” She walked to one of her clothing trunks and pulled out a pretty yellow sleeping gown, embroidered with violets.

  Lacy allowed Cameron to help her remove Taye’s blue gown and her underclothes and pulled the sleeping gown over her head. Cameron then led her to the washstand and offered her a linen washing cloth, studying her face. “I told you, no rouge.”

  “Weren’t rouge.”

  “Of course it’s rouge. Wipe it off.”

  “Nope. Nothin’ but some spit and a ’lil red paint offen that red rose wallpaper.”

  “That qualifies as rouge,” Cameron insisted firmly.

  Lacy sighed dramatically and obediently dipped the cloth into the water and scrubbed her face. “My mama used to wear paint.”

  Which is exactly why I don’t want you wearing it, Cameron thought. Look where face paint got her. She didn’t say it aloud because she didn’t want to hurt the child or tarnish her memory of her mother.

  “You’ve still got some there.” Cameron touched the corner of Lacy’s mouth. “I’m going to call for a tray for your supper and I want you in bed.” She pointed to her own oversize four-poster.

  Lacy’s face lit up. “Will ya—you read to me? From my grandpapa’s journal?”

  Over the last few weeks it had become a habit with them to curl up in the evening and Cameron would read to Lacy. Sometimes she read from the Bible, although heaven knew the child had no religious upbringing whatsoever, or from one of the many books from the library. Occasionally, she read to her from David Campbell’s diary. Taye still insisted she had no right to hear of the private life her mother and father shared, but Lacy, like Cameron, was fascinated by the passages.

  “We shall see.” Cameron stuck her head out the door to call for Patsy and saw Jackson coming toward her.

  “Need something?” he asked.

  “I was looking for Patsy. I want her to bring up a tray with some supper for Lacy.”

  He rested his hand casually on her waist. “You should eat, too. You look thin.”

  “Are the soldiers gone?” she asked, instead of responding to his remark.

  “On their way out. Grey is pretty angry. He expected to come to the house and have her go with him peaceably.”

  Cameron lifted her lashes. “She must have heard us from upstairs.”

  He nodded.

  “You think she went alone?” she asked, pretty certain she already knew the answer.

  He shook his head.

  She sighed and rubbed her temples with her thumb and forefinger. “This was one of the things I needed to discuss with you, Jackson. As I told you earlier, Thomas has been acting very odd. It’s not just that he moved back to his family’s plantation. I can’t get him or Taye to tell me a thing, but I know they’ve had a falling-out.” She gestured. “I suspect he’s ill, too. The coughing has gotten worse.”

  “And Falcon?”

  Again, she sighed. “Neither Taye nor Falcon have said a word to me, but I know there’s something going on between them. I see the way they look at each other when they think I’m not watching.”

  “I thought something like this might happen,” Jackson mused.

  “And you didn’t say anything? You didn’t try to stop Taye from ruining her life?”

  He met her gaze, his gray eyes steady, solemn. “When you decided you would have me, could anyone have changed your mind?”

  The way he said it tugged at her heart. They both seemed to ache for what had been lost. Or maybe only misplaced?

  She pressed her lips together and glanced at the floor. “I suppose not,” she conceded.

  “Well, in case you haven’t noticed, Taye is more a Campbell woman than anyone is giving her credit for.”

  “I just don’t want her to make any mistakes. I don’t want to see her hurt.”

  “I don’t think anyone does.”

  “And Thomas…I feel so badly for him. He was so loyal to Papa and he has been so good to us.”

  “That doesn’t mean we can hand him Taye as a reward.”

  She looked up at him again. She had never thought of it that way before. “I suppose. Well, anyway, wherever Falcon and Taye have gone, we’ve got to bring them back. Running only makes Taye look guilty.”

  “She is guilty.”

  Cameron pushed the heel of her hand into Jackson’s chest. “Don’t you say that,” she snapped, looking up and down the hall to be sure no one had heard him.

  “Damn it, Cameron, I didn’t mean I thought she should be held accountable. If I’d been there, I’d have blown the bastard away, too, with less excuse.”

  “Well, it’s not up to us, now. None of it is. We just need to bring her home.”

  “I’m going to talk to Thomas just as soon as the soldiers are gone.”

  “I’ll go with you.” She turned to go back into her chamber for a wrap.

  He caught her arm and halted her. “No. Let me go alone. I’m going to have to tell Thomas that she left with Falcon. No need for you to be there to witness it. You stay here, in case Taye comes back. Besides—” he nodded in the direction of the bedchamber door left ajar “—I think you’ve got your hands full already.”

  “Oh, Jackson, if you would just give Lacy a chance,” she said softly, “I think you’d really like her.” She hesitated. “I see a lot of me in her.”

  “Your mother wasn’t a whore, and you know who your father was.”

  “That’s something else you and I need to discuss. I had Thomas do some investigating after you left town. He spoke to some people who had known Maureen. He’s of a mind that Lacy might well be Grant’s daughter. So everything Lacy told us was true. About her being at the saloon, about her mother losing her place above the pharmacy.”

  “Can anyone prove undeniably that she’s Grant’s daughter?”

  Cameron shook her head. “No, but—”

  He pressed a finger to her lips. “We agreed we wouldn’t argue about her tonight. I need to get to Thomas.”

  Cameron grasped the doorknob, wishing she could go with Jackson, but understanding that it made more sense for her to stay. A silence stretched between them. She was searching for that sense of intimacy she had felt this afternoon at Elmwood, but Jackson was now set on a mission, and he was all business.

  “I’ll wait up for you. I want to know what Thomas says.”

  He nodded. For a moment he acted as if he wanted to kiss her goodbye, maybe hug her. Instead, he turned away and walked back down the hall.

  Cameron swallowed the lump in her throat and went back into the bedchamber to join Lacy.

  “Today we began the spring planting. It’s hard to believe Sukey has been here almost a year. It is amazing to me how quickly time passes when one is happy,” Cameron read aloud.

  She glanced over the edge of the diary to see Lacy sound asleep, her red-gold hair spread across the pillows on the big bed.

  Cameron smiled and then glanced at the clock on the far mantel. Almost midnight. Jackson ha
d been gone a long time. Her gaze returned to her father’s diary and she flipped through several pages. She had read this section to Lacy because there was nothing inappropriate for her to hear. But now that she was asleep, Cameron was anxious to continue where she had left off the previous night.

  I do not know how it happened. I was not as careful as I should have been. Not patient enough. Papa caught me sneaking out of the house to meet Sukey. When he demanded to know where I was going, I could not lie to him. I confessed my relationship with Sukey.

  Cameron bit down on her lower lip, trying to imagine how her father must have felt that night, so torn between loyalty to his father and loyalty to the woman he loved, but would never be permitted to truly have.

  Papa surprised me, Cameron read on silently. He did not chastise me for lying with one of our slaves. He only suggested that I be more discreet. He said my mother would be distressed to learn that her son was, indeed, growing up and had the same urges as other men. I wanted to ask Papa if there had ever been a slave woman or someone else forbidden to him who he had loved, but the subject changed so quickly that I did not have the chance.

  After he gave me his permission to sleep with Sukey, he casually announced that he had made an agreement with another Mississippi family…for a marriage contract between their daughter and me. My heart seemed to break and crumble as he related the details. I am to marry Katherine Parnell within the year….

  Cameron closed the diary in her lap and squeezed her eyes shut against her tears. In her father’s words, she could feel his pain, and somehow, a part of it became her own.

  “Well, looky what we got here.” Clyde Macon walked out onto the rickety porch of the shack Naomi had been directed to. Sour lamplight spilled from the house. The smell of cooked cabbage was strong.

  Naomi knew the man; everyone in the county did. And as far as she knew, they all despised him, black and white.

  “Evenin’,” Naomi said, swallowing the bile that rose in her throat. Just looking at his ugly, leering face made her want to vomit on his muddy boots. “Yer missus at home?”