“Is there something you wish to say to me?” Cameron asked icily.
“Oh, no.” Marie laughed merrily, her voice husky and triumphant. “I was merely passing through Mississippi and wanted to meet Captain Logan’s wife face-to-face. We’ve been working together, you know, Jackson and I. A pity I will miss him, but I cannot stay. I have State Department business in New Orleans, but I’m certain I’ll see him again soon. Very soon.”
Her implication was plain; her affair with Jackson would continue.
Cameron settled her gaze on the dark beauty, her heart pounding. Here she had been chastising herself for how she had treated Jackson in the months since his return from the war, and the bastard had been cheating on her all along. Cheating on her with this…this…
“You common whore.” Cameron spoke softly, her eyes flashing with anger. “How dare you?” She stepped closer to Marie LeLaurie and the woman drew back, her dark eyes wide with surprise. Obviously, she hadn’t expected Cameron to respond when she confronted her.
“How dare you come here and address me!” Cameron hissed, pressing her finger to LeLaurie’s collarbone. “Now let me tell you something! If you ever so much as speak to my husband again, I will hunt you down and rip every lovely black hair from your head! Do you understand me? Then I will go to Secretary of State Seward, and I will demand you be discharged from the government’s employ and sent away in disgrace for being the lowlife whore that you are.” Cameron regarded Marie with utter disgust. “And he will send you packing because he knew my father. Because Secretary Seward respects basic decency!”
“How dare you speak to me that way!”
Marie reached out and slapped Cameron on the cheek. For a moment Cameron was so shocked that she just looked at her. “Do you feel better now, Mrs. LeLaurie? Now, get the hell out of here before I truly get angry!” Cameron demanded.
Marie turned and walked up the stairs.
“Cameron! Cameron, are you all right?”
Cameron heard her sister calling from the hallway, but she couldn’t bear to face her, realizing how much Taye must have heard.
Nearly blinded by anger, Cameron ducked around the front desk of the hotel lobby, through a curtain and out a rear exit to the stable yard.
“Cameron!” Taye called, running into the lobby.
“Taye, let her go.” Thomas, a step behind her, closed his hand over her shoulder.
“But you heard what that horrible woman said to Cameron,” she cried, looking up at Thomas. “Please tell me that wasn’t that LeLaurie woman. I’ll rip her hair from her head myself.” She caught her breath. “Oh, heavens, I have to go to Cameron.”
“Let her go, Taye,” he repeated firmly. “Give her some time to be alone. To talk to you now would only make it worse,” he said.
Taye wiped at her teary eyes. “You knew about this…this creature, and you didn’t tell me?” she demanded.
He looked down at her, his brown eyes kind. “Marie is lying.”
“This cannot entirely be fabricated. There are too many—”
“Taye,” Thomas said sharply. “I am not at liberty to discuss Jackson’s personal life with you, but I know for a fact that he has not been intimate with Marie since his return from the war. I suspect that is what prompted this visit in the first place.”
“Then we have to go after Cameron! We have to tell her the truth.”
“She’s not going to listen to us. She’s not going to listen to anyone, not right now. Give her some time and then we will go to Atkins’ Way and see to her, although you know only Jackson can right this now.” Thomas offered his arm to Taye. “Now come, let’s celebrate your freedom, Minette.”
At the hotel stables, Cameron avoided eye contact with the servants as she ordered her horses to be hitched to her carriage. Shaking inside, but holding back her tears, she waited until the two-seater was ready. Within minutes she was headed out of town.
Jackson had cheated on her. The son of a bitch had lied. Their marriage was a sham and it was over. She shook from head to toe, so angry she didn’t know if she could control it.
Through waves of tears, she reached a fork in the road and contemplated which way to go.
When she left Taye, she had fully intended to return to Atkins’ Way. It was getting dark, and she knew the roads weren’t safe after sunset. But as she approached the road that led out of town toward Elmwood, she couldn’t help herself and found the carriage turning, almost of its own accord.
God above, what was she going to do? Her marriage was over. Jackson loved another woman. Taye was leaving. And she was having a baby…alone…without her husband. How would she ever manage?
There was no place to go but Elmwood.
“All right, boys.” Clyde spat a long stream of brown tobacco juice and it splattered on Buster’s boot. “Listen up!”
They had ridden into the woods and were well hidden by an overgrown hedgerow that smelled of honeysuckle and something warm. Homey. It made Clyde feel good, like when he rubbed his cheek against one of his puppies’ bellies.
“Are ya listenin’, Buster and One Arm, or am I puttin’ my boot up yer asses?” He waited a moment until all eyes were on him. “Now, here’s the idea. It ain’t nuthin’ tricky, so’s ya ought to be able to handle it.”
Halfway to Elmwood, Cameron’s team suddenly spooked and leaped in their traces, setting the carriage off balance and making it rock violently. She had to pull hard on the reins to keep from careening off the road. “Easy there, easy,” she soothed, staring into the hedgerow they passed.
What had the horses seen to frighten them so?
As Cameron peered into the dark, she caught a flash of red out of the corner of her eye. A man running?
She whipped around, to see behind her, and her heart leaped in her chest. Another flash of movement. Another man.
The men rushed her from out of the hedgerow. Two, three, four of them, all wearing sacks over their heads with holes cut out for eyes.
Cameron screamed.
The man in the red shirt grabbed the team’s harness, and the spotted mare reared in fright. The small carriage tilted precariously, and Cameron grasped the side to keep from tumbling out. When the horse landed on its front hooves again, she slapped the reins as hard as she could. “Ha!” she called, trying to force the terrified horses forward.
But men blocked the horses’ path. The animals were well trained; they would never hurt a human on purpose. Another man grabbed the second horse, and Cameron snapped up the buggy whip. She cracked it over the second man’s head, trying to startle him. The second time she snapped it, she caught the top of his sack-covered head with the tip of the leather whip.
The man screeched in pain.
Another man, heavy, with cutoff trousers, climbed up the carriage wheel, reaching for her.
Cameron let go of the reins and stood up, trying to find her balance. She grabbed her skirts and leaped off the other side, but as she landed, the hoop of her crinoline caught on the wheel. She fell facedown in the dry grass.
Cameron landed hard, but the ground was soft. When she hit, the air was knocked out of her, but she quickly recovered. She was on her knees, scrambling up to run when a fourth man grabbed her by her chignon, preventing her escape.
“Got ’er,” he hollered. “I got the bitch, Clyde!”
Another man came around the hedgerow, pulling one of the masks over his head. “Don’t call me by name!” He leaned over Cameron who had been forced to her knees. “Looks like we got us a fine pickin’, first night out boys, eh?” he chuckled. “Y’all dumb asses know who we got? Miss Cameron Campbell, the senator’s daughter.”
“Bet they got plenty of cash to buy ’er back,” someone muttered.
Cameron could smell the liquor on Clyde’s breath. Liquor and sour sweat and rotting teeth. She almost gagged, but she didn’t look away. She glared with hatred right into the eyeholes cut in the sack.
Clyde smiled and backed up. “Tie ’er up. Unhitch them hor
ses, and we’ll take them. Leave the carriage with my note, so they won’t miss it.”
The one holding her pinned to the ground by a hank of her hair jerked her to her feet and pulled a section of crude rope from the back of his pants. “Ya gonna let us have a little fun with ’er, boss?”
“This here’s practically Mississippi royalty,” Clyde growled. “If anyone’s gettin’ ’er, it’s gonna be me.”
Cameron winced as her captor jerked her hands behind her back to tie them. As he did, she glared at the leader thinking to herself that if Clyde raped her, she’d be the last woman he ever raped, because she’d cut off his stem at the root.
Jackson lingered in the stable at Atkins’ Way after he fed his mount. The stable was quiet and somehow reassuring in the darkness.
His mission in Memphis had been successful; it had been a stroke of luck intercepting the message that Thompson’s mother had died. Thompson confessed to Jackson that he and his men had planned to march on Washington. They had planned to sneak into the city in the dead of night and burn the Capitol building. It was a daring plot that Thompson knew had little chance of success. But he sure as hell would have shaken up the government.
Jackson convinced the army officers with him to let most of the Southern soldiers go after interrogating them. Jackson felt they had been punished enough by the years of war. In the end, only Thompson and a handful of his senior men were transported to Washington to stand trial for treason.
And Jackson was released from his assignment, free to return to his wife.
Because it was so late at night, he had insisted Falcon spend the night at Atkins’ Way. Bedded down in the loft above the stable where no one would see him, he would be able to ride out unnoticed at first light to the safe house ten miles from town. He would wait there for instructions telling him where Taye would meet him. Then they were going west, with Taye as his wife, if she would have him. Jackson hated the thought of his friend going so far away. He might not ever see the Cherokee again. But he couldn’t help but be happy for him. Falcon truly did love Taye, and the life he had to offer her was one it seemed Taye would embrace with open arms.
Jackson crossed the yard in the darkness, listening to the night sounds of crickets chirping, frogs in the nearby pond croaking. He heard the flutter of wings of a large nocturnal bird. An owl, perhaps.
At the front door, he turned the knob quietly.
“Miss Cameron! We was scared to death—” Patsy flew up out of the chair just inside the door and stared at Jackson in surprise. “Capt’n?”
Jackson’s brow furrowed as he stepped into the hall and closed the heavy paneled door behind him. “Why did you think I was Mrs. Logan? It’s late. Isn’t she here?”
Patsy shook her head in terror. “We can’t find her.”
“What do you mean, you can’t find her?” Jackson bellowed.
Patsy burst into tears.
A door opened down the servants’ hall, and Naomi came bustling out, her starched petticoats rustling. “Thank Noah’s Jesus yer here,” she said somberly.
“What’s going on?” Jackson crossed the marbled front hall to Naomi. The candelabras were still burning, despite the late hour.
“Cameron is missing. Noah jest got back from town a minute ago. He was supposed to go back to The Magnolia at ten to get ’er. They was havin’ a dinner to celebrate Miss Taye bein’ set free from jail. Only Taye tole Noah, she done left hours ago.”
“And no one has seen her since?”
Naomi shook her head. “Noah’s gettin’ set to ride the road again, but he said she wasn’t on the road to town. Didn’t see no carriage, either.”
Jackson felt a quiver of fear deep in the pit of his stomach, a fear so unsettling that for a moment he couldn’t think clearly. All he could do was imagine Cameron lying on the road somewhere, injured, perhaps dying. Jackson had faced many life-and-death situations in the last couple of years, and he had certainly known trepidation, but he had never truly been afraid. Not like this.
“Capt’n,” Naomi said gently, brushing her hand against his coat sleeve. “Ya hear me? I said, Noah’s gettin’ men together now in the kitchen. Ya want to ride out with ’em, don’t ya?”
Jackson lifted his gaze to Naomi’s dark, beautiful face, and he saw fear in her eyes, too. He took a deep breath. “I’ll ride with them. Falcon is here. He’ll go, too.”
Naomi lifted a brow at the mention of the “missing” Cherokee who had supposedly kidnapped Taye, but she didn’t say anything.
“And Noah said Taye was certain Cameron intended to come straight home?” Jackson asked, feeling as if he had suddenly snapped out of some kind of fugue. He strode across the hall, headed for the kitchen.
Naomi had to trot to keep up with him. “Taye told my Noah that she left the hotel ’bout seven-thirty. Said her stomach was upset, and she was goin’ home to Atkins’ Way to sleep.”
“Her stomach was still upset?” Jackson halted and grabbed Naomi by the forearm. “She’s pregnant again, isn’t she?” He stared into Naomi’s black eyes that were said to be able to cast spells. He believed it. “Don’t lie to me, Naomi. Not about this.”
She offered the barest hint of a knowing smile. “She didn’t say nuthin’ to me, but she got a little girl in her arms. I read it in the bones. An’ them bones never lie.”
Jackson felt as if someone were squeezing his heart in a bare hand. He grabbed Naomi by the arm and started down the hall again. “We’ve got to find her, Naomi, and we’ve got to find her quickly.”
Behind them, Jackson heard the front door open and the sound of voices. Patsy spoke and Taye replied. Then Thomas.
“Back here,” Jackson shouted to them. “In the kitchen!”
Taye rushed down the servants’ hall, with Thomas bringing up the rear. He coughed and had to stop to catch his breath. Taye helped Thomas into the kitchen where Noah was already gathering a group of workmen, black and white. He was organizing them so that small groups could ride in different directions. They would all take the best horses Mrs. Logan’s stable had to offer.
“I want these roads scoured,” Jackson ordered tersely, his mind flying in a thousand different directions. He wanted to think that Cameron had just taken off on one of her jaunts, like when she had left Baltimore to come to Mississippi without him. Who knows what crazy idea might run through her hard head?
But in his gut, Jackson knew differently. He knew she was in mortal danger…if she wasn’t already dead. “And not just main roads,” Jackson went on, forcing himself to concentrate on the task at hand. “Every dirt path, every field. Even the river.” He pulled his pocket watch from his coat and checked the time. It was after eleven. “Noah will set up a place on the edge of town where you can check in. Two men ride together at a time. No one goes out alone.”
He studied the men’s faces. He looked into their eyes and saw their concern, and it did his heart good. For all of Cameron’s trying ways, she had made a positive difference in these men’s lives. She had given these men jobs, a roof over their heads, food in their bellies. He could see in their eyes that they all respected her. Cared for her.
“All right,” Jackson said gruffly, fearing his emotion might seep into his voice. “Let’s move out.”
“Wait,” Noah called. “First bow yer heads, boys.”
Every head in the kitchen bent. Even Naomi closed her eyes in prayer, and she swore she wasn’t a Christian.
Jackson wasn’t a praying man, but he closed his own eyes. As he did, he felt Taye’s small hand slip into his.
“Father above,” Noah said in his deep, rich voice. “Please be with these men. They’re good men, all of ’em. Carry ’em swift and sure. Lead them to Miss Cameron. Keep ’er safe ’til we can bring ’er home. An’ if the worse done happened, you take her straight to heaven and send who hurt her to everlastin’ hell. In Christ’s name we pray.”
“Amen,” many of the men muttered in unison.
Jackson opened his eyes, watching th
e men file out. He turned to Taye. “You’re sure she left at seven-thirty, and you’re sure she was coming here?”
She nodded and looked to be sure no one could hear her. “But there’s something else I need to tell you.”
“What is it?” he demanded when she hesitated. “Taye, I have to go.”
“Marie LeLaurie was here.”
Jackson stared at her. “Here?”
“The hotel. I don’t know where she came from. Thomas said she’s already gone, but she—”
“She told Cameron,” he finished flatly.
“She implied that you were having an affair with her and that it would continue.”
“But it isn’t true!”
“You need to tell Cameron that,” she whispered.
He covered his face with his hand. “If I can find her in time.”
36
Taye sat on the bottom step of the grand staircase and stared into the flickering candlelight of sconces left lit on the wall. The candles had burned down to sputtering nubs and would soon go out, leaving her in darkness if she didn’t get up to replace them. She shivered despite the warmth of the night. Alone in the empty front hall, the room was eerie with its tall trembling shadows and hollow echo.
Jackson, Thomas and the workmen had ridden out only fifteen minutes before and she had spotted Falcon among them. She’d wanted to run to him, but knew he needed to ride with the others, and that he would return for her. All she could do now was wait.
“She ain’t come home, is she?” Lacy asked, her footsteps light on the stairs behind Taye.
“Hasn’t come home,” Taye corrected as a matter of habit. “No, she hasn’t.”
Lacy came down the stairs, looking like a much younger version of Cameron, with her wild red hair and her chin jutted out in determination. Her bare feet peeked out from the hem of her soft yellow nightgown.
“Then why we sittin’ here?” Lacy asked, dropping onto the step beside Taye.
“Why are we sitting here? Why, because the men are looking for her.” Taye hesitated. “Because…I don’t know. I suppose because Jackson said to stay here.”
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