“Well, I’m glad you found one in time,” Beth said, hiding a smile.
“My momma said the same thing,” Magnolia whispered as she glanced at the closed door. “Do you like being married, Mrs. Wakefield?”
“Very much,” Beth said with a smile. “Don’t you?”
Magnolia appeared young and confused. “I guess. Momma said since James wrote to me and asked me to marry him, I should accept. She said I wouldn’t get a better offer from any of the boys around where we lived. Most of them returned from the war either maimed or poor like us.”
“You must not have known Captain Sumners long before you married him.” Beth guessed.
Magnolia shook her head no. “I remembered him from when I was a little. He was nice to me. Momma wrote the letter to him accepting his offer. He came for me as soon as he was released from the Army. He showed up one day, and we got married the very next. I thought we would live near my folks, but we left the next day on a train, and we have been traveling ever since.”
Lettie came into the kitchen, handed Virgil off to Beth, and went to the stove.
Magnolia looked shocked when Beth kissed little Virgil on the cheek. “Did she stay with you after the war? All our slaves took off!”
Lettie turned around with fire in her eyes. “I was never a slave. You can tend to breakfast this morning, Beth. If you need something, you know where to find me!”
The door slammed behind Lettie and Magnolia looked even more shocked. “Why’d you let her speak to you in such a manner?”
Beth rose from the table. “Because Lettie is my best friend. Magnolia, I know Mississippi is probably a lot different from where I was raised in Maryland. Nevertheless, there are no slaves anywhere anymore, and our country is the better for it. Lettie has been a loyal friend to me all my life, and I love her as a sister. Times are different now, and you have to accept people as they are, both white and colored. I’m sure Lettie considered your remark insulting, and I don’t blame her.”
“Why?” Magnolia asked.
Beth took a deep breath. “Magnolia, it’s time for you to grow up. You are a wife and no longer on a plantation being waited on hand and foot. You need to accept your new station in life, which won’t ever include slaves again. Take your cues from Captain Sumners. He doesn’t seem to be the type of man who would put up with a lot of foolishness.”
Magnolia shook her head, making her large sausage curls bounce. “I didn’t come from a big plantation. We had a small farm where my momma needed our slaves to keep it going. Did Mr. Lincoln even think about people like my momma? No, he didn’t. After my papa died, she was left with four daughters to raise on her own! Why my momma couldn’t even afford to give my sisters or me dowries!
“When we got Captain Sumners’ letter, Momma said marrying a northern man would get me out of the South. She immediately wrote and told him I would marry him.”
“I’m sure Captain Sumners will make you a good husband. He seems like a nice man,” Beth said.
“My momma told me the same thing. She told me it was a wife’s duty to make her husband happy.” Magnolia said repeating the advice almost as if she believed if she said it often enough, she would really believe it.
“Is Captain Sumners taking you to live in Denver?”
Magnolia shook her head back and forth. “He said he had a job offer in Denver, and then when we went to Denver, he didn’t like it there. He has another offer to return to his old job in San Francisco. We’re going there next.”
Breakfast was almost ready when Garret returned to the house followed by James Sumners and the rest of the men expecting their first meal of the day. Magnolia remained seated at the table never offering to help Beth serve their breakfast. When the meal was done, the other men went off to their jobs while Garret and the James Sumners remained at the table.
“I’ve offered James and Magnolia a few days’ rest here before they continue on their journey,” Garret informed Beth.
“I’ll work for our keep,” James Sumners offered. “I understand your hired hand is building a cabin on his land. I know a bit about building.”
“My husband has a college degree in architecture,” Magnolia said importantly.
Captain Sumners regarded his young wife indulgently. “A degree I have never used much, I will admit.”
“The part of our house you helped build with your men has proven to be quite sturdy,” Beth agreed.
James took Magnolia outside where Beth could see him talking to her privately.
“I’m sorry I didn’t give you any notice, but it seemed the right thing to do,” Garret explained to Beth. “His wife hasn’t taken to traveling very well.”
“She’s a spoiled child,” Beth whispered. “He’ll have his hands full trying to make her into a decent wife.”
“I’ve had my hands full with you, too,” Garret answered pulling her to him and kissing her. He placed his hand on her belly. “Are you with child?”
Beth nodded yes.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was afraid. I still am,” her voice broke in a sob.
Garret tugged her closer in his arms and held her gently.
“If it’s God’s will, everything will be fine.”
“And if it’s not, my heart will be broken again.”
“We will face it together.”
Beth nodded and swiped at an escaped tear. “You’ll have to move a cot into the living room. We’ll offer the Captain and his wife our bedroom.”
Four days of dealing with a spoilt child had Beth on the verge of screaming. She was trying to be a hospitable host, yet they did not live in a mansion. They were no servants to cater to their needs. Beth and Lettie did the housework, cooking, and cleaning while Magnolia snapped out orders to Lettie expecting them to be followed. When the girl got on Lettie’s nerves, Lettie went to her cabin and slammed the door shut. Beth wished she had a separate cabin where she could hide from the pampered southern belle who she thought to be quite childlike and useless.
On the fifth day of their visit, James Sumners packed their wagon to move on. He told Garret he was grateful for the recommendation to be the sheriff of Denver, but the job was more than he wanted to take on as a newly married man. He was reluctant to leave his bride a widow when they should still be on their honeymoon.
He had been offered the job of opening a new branch of the Pinkerton Detective Agency in San Francisco. Before he had accepted a commission in the Army, James had worked out of the St. Louis branch of the Pinkerton Agency. Since he was from the San Francisco area, he thought he was better suited for the job there.
Beth sacrificed one of her hens for a celebratory dinner. It had been a non-laying hen, but still, it was the thought that mattered. She and Lettie prepared the dinner together as it was to be a double celebration. The meal would be a send off for James Sumners and his bride, and a party because the men had finished Abram’s cabin. He took Lettie to see the cabin and property, and she finally approved.
Magnolia was scandalized when Lettie sat down at the evening meal alongside Abram. Every meal had been the same with Magnolia glancing disapprovingly when Abram took his place at the table. Now when Lettie sat down, Magnolia scooted her chair slightly closer to her husband.
“Girl, if you can eat the food I cook, you can sit beside me without gettin’ the cooties,” Lettie snapped.
Abram gave Lettie a pinch, and she glared at him.
“We’ll be staying here in Lettie’s cabin for the winter,” Abram said as a general statement. “My cabin is finished, but we ain’t prepared to survive the winter months on our own.”
“Good, because it works out best for us, too,” Garret agreed. “We expected you to be with us during the winter. You two have worked hard, and you deserve to share our bounty.”
“Lettie and I will be going to town in a couple of days,” Abram said firmly, staring directly at Lettie. “We have to find us a preacher to marry us.”
There was an audi
ble gasp from Magnolia. “You aren’t married, and you’re having a baby?”
“Hush, Magnolia,” James remonstrated.
“It’s all right, Captain,” Abram explained smiling. “We got ahead of the preacher, but we’re fixin’ the problem as soon as we get to Denver!”
“I’m about to slap the silliness out of that girl,” Lettie whispered to Beth as they cleaned the dishes.
“She’ll be gone in the morning,” Beth promised. “I feel sorry for James. She has been spoiled to the point of ruination.”
“Why would a man marry a piece of dandelion fluff like her?” Lettie asked.
“Love.”
The women whirled around and guiltily faced James Sumners.
“I apologize,” Beth said hastily.
“There’s no need,” Captain Sumners responded with a smile. “I left my pipe in the living room and came to retrieve it. I also wanted to thank you personally for your hospitality. I knew Magnolia was spoiled to almost ruination when I married her. I realize she’s young and immature, and yet I have hope she will change for the better. I fell in love with her when she was just a sweet child, and she’s not much more than that now. Thank you again for your graciousness. Miss Lettie, I also thank you for having the patience of a saint.”
Beth and Lettie regarded each other in surprise and dread after the James left. “Abram will have my hide if the captain tells him I insulted his wife,” Lettie whispered.
“So will Garret,” Beth replied. “I think we had better apologize again.”
Both women went into the living room to find James Sumners standing at the fireplace mantle. He was holding Beth’s puzzle box peering at it intently.
“Where did you get this?” he asked.
“I found it in a trunk,” Beth explained. “There are seven more puzzles just like it, but I haven’t managed to open one of them, yet.”
Captain Sumners returned the puzzle to the mantle and left the room suddenly. His stride was purposeful as if he were still wearing a uniform. A few minutes later he returned with Garret. Magnolia followed them inside.
“James, I thought we were leaving,” she asked querulously.
“In a while,” James answered cryptically. “Beth, could you get the rest of these puzzles for me?”
“Of course.” She disappeared into their bedroom and brought out the other seven boxes. They were heavy, and she deposited them on the kitchen table.
James Sumners eyed them closely before he turned to Garret. “Have you heard the stories of missing gold shipments during the war?”
“Sure, everyone has, but they don’t make sense. Why would the Army ship gold to the west?” Garret asked.
“They didn’t,” James said sitting down at the table. He selected the puzzle Beth had been trying to outwit for months. He picked up the wooden rods and poked them inside the holes in what appeared to be a random order. There was an almost inaudible click, and he opened the heavy metal plates.
“What’s inside?” Beth asked.
Garret regarded the plates. “It looks like an etching of a hundred-dollar bill.”
James Sumners smiled. “It is. This is a currency plate issued by the federal government in 1865.” He systematically unlocked each of the plates and laid them open on the table while explaining how when the war ended, the government was in debt, and nearly all the currency produced before the war was worthless. Most banks in both the north and south were broke, and each state was issuing its own worthless paper money.
“The National Banking Acts from 1863 through 1866 changed the entire monetary system of our country. It took a couple years to get out the kinks of the new legislation, and it coincided with the North winning the war. In the end, the federal government was responsible for the control of all money and banks. They created the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency with the explicit responsibility of chartering, examining, and supervising all national banks. Basically, it was a taxing system on banks so the federal government could recoup lost revenues from the war. However, the U.S. government must back the value of the currency with bonds or vaulted gold. Individual states are allowed to have banks, but the federal government must issue the currency. All currency has to be printed, backed, and distributed by the federal government mints.”
“All right, we’ve been given a lesson on federal banking legislation, but what does it have to do with these plates?” Garret asked.
“These plates were issued in 1865,” James Sumners continued. “Plates were sent to every federal mint. Some were intercepted, stolen, or lost. There was a lot of opposition to the banking legislation. When the government issued these, trains and stagecoaches were robbed, and ships were sunk to prevent them getting to their rightful destinations. Keeping these plates out of the hands of unscrupulous men was a primary responsibility of the Treasury Department.”
“Money printed with those plates is legal,” Garret asked.
“Exactly.”
“How do you know so much about them?”
“One of my assignments was to guard a shipment of these plates bound for St. Louis. We succeeded in getting our shipment through, but three other shipments were lost in less than six months. Even now, agents are still hunting for these missing plates.”
“Will you return them?” Beth asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” James Sumners answered. “There’s a hefty reward for the return of these plates.”
“Oh, goodie,” Magnolia exclaimed, clapping her hands. “We’ll be able to afford a decent house once we get to California.”
James shook his head no. “It won’t be our reward.”
“Why not, they didn’t know what those plates were. They still wouldn’t know if you hadn’t told them!” Magnolia pouted.
“Please go outside and wait for me, Magnolia. This is not your business.”
The young woman huffed and flounced from the room as James watched her go with amusement. “It might take me a while to settle her down. If you will trust me with these, Garret, I’ll return them to the San Francisco Mint. If the reward is still valid, I’ll make sure you get it.”
“Your wife is correct in saying we didn’t know what we had,” Garret said. “You should take a share of the reward.”
“The Pinkerton Agency will take a cut as I am an agent for their company. Finding these will credit me with their recovery, which will make my standing in the company rise exponentially. Even if finding these plates was a fluke, I will take the recognition for a job well done.”
Beth brought a small trunk down from the loft, and James loaded the metal plates in it carefully wrapping them in a quilt.
“I’ll write to you in care of the Johnson’s Emporium,” James promised as he helped his wife into their small wagon. Beth and Garret watched as the wagon made its way along the road away from their ranch.
“I like James Sumners better now he’s out of uniform,” Beth said. “He has turned out to be a decent man.”
Garret laughed and put his arm around his wife’s waist and led her into their bedroom. “You didn’t seem to mind when I was wearing a uniform.”
“I did,” Beth insisted. “I chose to overlook it.”
Chapter Eighteen
Garret circled his hands around and gently caressed his wife’s belly possessively.
Beth wrapped her hands over his. “I know I should have told you, but I’m still scared. Let’s not talk about it.”
He nodded in agreement. “All right, if you want it that way. When can we discuss it?”
“Maybe next month. Lettie says four months along is pretty safe.”
“Can we make love?”
Beth nodded yes. “She says one doesn’t have anything to do with the other.”
Garret frowned. “What don’t you women talk about?”
She laughed. “Not much if it is something women need to know. It wouldn’t do me any good to talk to you. You have never had a baby.”
“Abram says they are leaving tomorrow morning
at dawn, and they’re not coming back until he finds a preacher to marry them. If you need anything, be sure to make a list so they can get it while they’re in town.”
“I have already given Lettie a list,” Beth admitted. “Abram had better make an honest woman of her!”
“He would have already if it had been up to him. She was the one who wouldn’t marry. I’ve never heard of such foolishness!”
Beth giggled, and her husband gave her a stern look. She laughed again and kissed him. “You didn’t spend a lot of time with Magnolia. If she’s an example of a southern belle, it takes foolishness to a new level.”
“James needs to take her in hand,” Garret agreed. “A warmed bottom would quickly put a stop to such childishness.”
***
Lettie and Abram returned fifteen days later. She had a gold band on her finger and a marriage license encased in a pretty glass-fronted frame. She hung the frame on the wall while Abram moved out of the bunkhouse into her little cabin. He was happily sharing her life and her bed. Their marriage came none too soon. Lettie’s belly had popped out, and it was obvious she was going to have a baby. She had been wearing loose smock tops, which had hidden her pregnancy well. The women had figured Lettie was nearly three months further along than Beth.
Beth’s little belly was not as pronounced, yet she knew she was pregnant for sure. She kept track and as clear as she could figure, she was fourteen weeks along. She was still terrified of every twinge or pain. She was no longer sick and had all the energy she needed. If she could last several more weeks, she thought the baby would be safe.
Garret treated her like a fragile glass figurine. They were still making love, except he was much gentler with her. She understood, but missed her masterful man who took his pleasure and, in return, gave her the same.
They got a surprise visitor one day. Dr. Franklin Merritt drove his buggy into the ranch. He said he was traveling through the countryside and thought he would make house calls and offer his services if they were needed. Reading between the lines, Garret figured it meant the doctor was trying to manage a few more payments for medical visits since he had to make the trip anyway.
A Path Worth Taking Page 26
