by Caryl McAdoo
“Still right there where you said.” He turned to May. “What happened up here to upset you so, sweetheart?”
Bursting into tears, Gwendolyn stared at her hands resting in her lap. What if.… “It was all my fault. I should have… Mama was right.” She looked up at him, but could only see his form through her blurred vision. Still she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. “Oh, Daddy! I’m so sorry. If anything had happened to you….”
“To me? What did you think was going to happen?”
She just sobbed into his chest, clinging to him.
“May, what’s this all about?”
“Right after you left to fetch her gun, she told me Braxton was Bull Glover’s son. All I could think of was you walking into an ambush.”
Pushing back, she wiped her eyes on her sleeve. “Oh, Daddy. I’m so sorry. I should have told you.”
“Now, now. Calm down, the both of you. I’m fine. No ambush.”
Fidgeting with the buttons on the front of her gown, Mama fell into the chair next to the little table. “I obviously overreacted. Please forgive me, both of you. I’m so sorry, Gwendolyn, for the way I spoke…to…you.”
Barely able to get the sentence out, she covered her face and sobbed.
Her father left her side and went to May’s, kneeling in front of her. “Here, here. I’m fine, my love. No need for tears. All is well and we know the truth.” He faced Gwen. “So Braxton admitted he was Bull’s son?”
“Yes, sir. He came to Texas hoping to buy some of our land, so Bull could rub it in your face. Him being our neighbor and all, but then Braxton claimed he fell in love with me.”
“Oh, baby.” May looked up with red eyes. “Don’t believe it. When your father wouldn’t sell any of our land, they set their sights on you just to get to your father.” A knock silenced her. May rose and walked to it. “Yes?”
“Ma’am? Is everything alright? It’s the manager. I heard there was a disturbance. Are you in need of any service?”
“No, sir. All is well. Thank you for the concern.”
“Yes, ma’am. Let us know if you need anything.”
“I’m so sorry, Daddy.” She met May’s eyes. “And you, too, Mama. For everything. Will you forgive me?”
“Of course.” He held his arms out and she walked into his embrace. Too soon though, he eased her back. “Let’s make it through this night, and get ourselves back to Texas. Where’s your room key?”
She pulled it from her clutch. “Right here.”
He held his hand out. “You stay here with your mother. I’ll be right across the hall.”
“I don’t think he’s coming back.”
“Best we be on our guard. You two get some sleep if you can.”
But the bliss of slumber eluded Gwen. After May dozed off, she relived Braxton’s kiss. It had been wonderful…and shameful…and so exhilarating…and dreadful. When she thought it to be a true kiss.
Her first kiss…based on lies and deception. She could never take it back, have another first kiss.
Deep into the night, she pondered on exactly how close she’d come to eloping with him. In the end, she concluded if she had, then she’d be a widow, and her daddy would be behind bars for murder.
Somehow, she slipped into a fitful dozy dream world, where she’d indeed married Braxton but was not a widow. Her father, jailed for killing Bull Glover, languished behind bars, and her pregnant mother cried nonstop.
The lawmen moved Daddy to the town gallows. The judge’s gavel struck his desk, the boom louder than any thunderclap.
The executioner pulled the trapdoor’s lever.
In slow motion, Henry Buckmeyer fell through the hole. She screamed no. Her arms reached for him.
Had to keep the rope from tightening around his neck. She couldn’t. She raced down the stairs and under it to hold him up, but he thrashed. Suddenly mired in the muddy hole, she found herself being sucked down.
From the edge, Braxton stood ten feet tall, glowering over her. A wicked grin marred his face. “Your share belongs to me now, and I’ve got all of the Bull’s money, too. It’s mine! All mine!”
The slave girl slithered from behind him, her limbs like snakes, glided and slid all around him, over him. She beamed.
“And mine, darling.” She cackled and glared at Gwen. “He set me free. That’s right. I’m a free woman now, and your husband loves only me.”
“No! Daddy!” She reached toward Braxton, sinking deeper. “Save me.”
The creamy-chocolate-colored beauty chortled. “Save you? Ha! It’s all worked out just like we figured, honey pie. Thank you kindly for being so stupid.”
“Help me!”
Just as the mud reached her chin, a hand rocked her shoulder. “Wake up, baby.”
She gasped and grabbed at the voice. “Help him.”
“Wake up, Gwen.”
She forced her eyes open then held the hug a few frantic heartbeats longer. Finally calmed, she leaned back. “Oh, Mama, it was horrible.”
“I figured so by the way you hollered.”
She scooted up in bed. “Instead of Daddy shooting Braxton, he killed Bull, and they were going to hang him, and I married…
Oh, mercy, it was terrible.” She grimaced. “That slave girl mocked me, and I was getting sucked down into a mud hole under Daddy’s gallows. I couldn’t save him. Braxton laughed at me.”
A knock stopped the nightmare’s retelling.
Mama May scooted off the bed and hurried to the door. “Yes?”
“I heard a scream. Everyone fine?”
She looked back. Gwen pulled the covers up higher, then May opened the door. “Morning, love.”
“What happened? Who called for help?”
“It was me, Daddy. I had a bad dream.”
“Oh. Well…you’re awake now. You ladies get dressed, and I’ll have them bring us some breakfast.”
Not soon enough, she found herself on the third deck of The Mississippi Queen, watching New Orleans grow smaller with each turn of the steamer’s giant paddle wheel. Never again would she be so foolish. She’d… Oh, no!
What had she done?
She raced to find her daddy.
Henry leaned against the bedroom’s wall as May unpacked. She glanced over. “What are you grinning about?”
Giving his mirth voice, he chuckled. “Oh, over what a wonderful woman I married. You ready to shoot Bull or Braxton or whoever had me.”
Her brows arched, and she wagged a finger in his direction. “What did you think I’d do but come save you?”
With arms opened wide, he beckoned her, and she hurried to him. Wrapping her against himself, he relished her softness and kissed her neck. “You get any rest last night?
She scrunched her shoulder and giggled. “Some, but I could use a nap.”
“Me, too.” He kissed her for real. “I’d love nothing better.”
“Daddy? Daddy! You in there?”
Never from the moment of his beautiful daughter’s birth had the temptation not to answer her call for help been any stronger, but he pecked May’s cheek and turned. “Yes, baby.” He stepped over and unlocked the door. “Hey, sweetie, something wrong?”
“Did you post that letter to Clay?”
“Yes. I did. Just like you asked.”
“Oh, Daddy! Why did you?” Gwen backed up a step. What was she going to do now? Clay would hate her, and…she glared at him. “I’m going to be an old maid.”
“No, baby.” He stepped toward her with his arms out, but she turned away, stared out the window. She didn’t want to be consoled. Her life was ruined.
May stepped in front of her father. “What’s wrong? What did your letter say?” Then as though the travesty dawned on her, she frowned. “Oh….”
“Oh what?”
Her father was so clueless. Gwendolyn shook her head. Why, oh, why had she ever sent it? If she didn’t give it voice, then maybe her beau-less predicament wouldn’t be real. Nothing of what had happene
d seemed real.
Last night’s nightmare was more tangible than everything that had gone on. Yet there her daddy stood.
Joining May, he took his love’s hand.
Shoulder to shoulder, they were the perfect couple. Just as she’d imagined herself with that cad she’d thought—so wrongly—was her prince. Would she ever have one? She remembered Braxton’s face when he’d proposed…the kiss.
How could he be so cruel? She reached up and yanked the locket from her neck and flung it across the room.
“Ooooo! I hate that liar! And now…and now…everything is ruined!”
“What was in the letter, Gwendolyn?” His tone told it all. At least he didn’t include her middle name. But then he usually reserved that for when she’d really crossed the line.
“You can’t guess?” Her eyes filled with more stupid tears. Where they came from, she couldn’t imagine because she thought she’d cried them all. “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to sound so mean. I told him I was going to marry Braxton, and that he might as well stay in California.”
“Write him another letter. Tell him it was a mistake.”
“Oh, Mama, and say what? That I want him now?” She shook her head. “He’s a catch. He’ll find himself a nice girl in San Francisco, and I’ll never see him again.”
“Write him again and tell him I forbade the union.”
Stepping closer, May held her arms out. “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry, but we can fix this. If he loves you as he says, he won’t let the letter change anything. We can write Mary Rachel. Maybe she can still intercept yours.”
“But it’s already been over a week. He’s going to hate me.”
Like a real mother, May tucked a stray curl behind Gwen’s ear. “Perhaps, if we explain to your sister, tell her what happened, she can encourage Clay to come home…” She looked to her husband. “He can court her, right?”
“Wasn’t that what he was doing before he ran off?”
The rage had cooled, but Bull Glover still had half a mind to sell Sofia, and put the money on.… That was it! He stood and strolled to the shelf where he kept May’s novels and retrieved her second one written after she arrived in Texas.
He flipped through it until he found the passage he’d just remembered.
What an idiot he was.
Why hadn’t he seen this before? He put the book back then eased down to Bubba’s room and opened the door without bothering to knock. His son’s lazy wench still lay in bed. He ought to sell her for sure. She pulled the covers up to her neck.
Humph, but not until…
“Bubba’s gone to the warehouse.”
“Well, get your slothful-self out of that bed and go get him.”
“Yes, sir.”
Not soon enough, his only son, leastwise the only one he claimed, darkened his door. “Sofia said you wanted me?”
“Well, guess she is good for something. I want you to go to the swamp tonight.”
“What for? I don’t have any money.”
“There’s an hombre there deals Faro at the Horse Shoe, Harmino, if I’m remembering right, but you can’t miss him. Got a chin to ear scar. Tell him to come see me. I’ve got a proposition for him.”
“What’s this all about?”
Why did the boy always want him to explain himself? “Bring him back, and you can find out same time he does. If you’d read May Meriwether’s Ranger novel, then you’d know exactly what I’ve got in mind.” He waved the boy off. “Get out.”
Shame he didn’t put this together sooner. But Patrick Henry Buckmeyer would get his comeuppance, if it was the last thing Bull did.
Chapter Twenty-two
The evening of the second day up the big muddy, Henry stood at the third deck railing and stared at the frothy whitecaps the big wheel churned.
Being back in New Orleans and seeing that Sofia girl dredged up so many old memories. She had to be related, daughter or granddaughter, a niece at the least, but who kept good records on slaves?
Had Glover really bought Tess? Was the girl Bull’s flesh and blood? And if so, did Braxton know she was related?
Mercy, if only Levi hadn’t stopped him the last time he fought Bull…but then he’d be in jail or worse. May would have gone back to New York.
For too many turns of the paddle wheel, he ran all the permutations of going back and taking care of Bull for once and all, but every scenario led back to the Word.
Beside murder being on the top ten list, vengeance belonged to the Lord. God would repay Glover for his actions—unless some miracle happened and the man repented and got a new heart.
What Henry needed to do was pray for his old comrade in arms, forgive him. He sure didn’t want to, but he knelt right there and sought his Creator.
Gwendolyn reread her letter then looked up. May still worked on hers. Again Braxton’s words, the ones she’d managed to hold in, charged to the tip of her tongue. Her mother—that’s what she was and what Gwen wanted her to be—set her quill down and held up her last draft, waving it in the air.
“Let me see yours.”
“Sure, but...uh…” She pursed her lips. Why couldn’t she keep anything to herself? Now May would know something was wrong. The look in her eyes told it all. Best go ahead and ask her if she knew. “Has daddy ever mentioned Tess?”
“No. Who’s that?”
She looked away then shook her head. “Maybe we should consider the source, but Braxton said this Tess person was the real reason for that first fight between Daddy and Bull.”
“Hmmm. Perhaps we should…your father told me he’d embarrassed Glover over.…” The older woman’s cheeks flushed.
“Over what?”
She leaned in, whispered in Gwen’s ear, then leaned back and shrugged. “He didn’t elaborate any more than that. And quite frankly, I didn’t want him to.”
Gwen had never heard of such a thing, but then other than the basics of sex—she shuddered inside remembering that awkward afternoon, Rebecca explaining the ways of men and women—she never heard more, so she didn’t know a lot.
“So does this happen to a lot of men?”
May laughed then shrugged. “Don’t know, sweetie, not to your daddy, and he’s the only man I’ve had any experience with.”
“Oooo, don’t! Please no.”
Her mother grinned and turned an even deeper shade of red. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
Gwen wanted to hear more, but not about May and her father. “It’ll be just fine with me if we don’t get so personal.”
“I apologize.”
“I mean, I like y’all holding hands and kissing and hugging, but….” Of course, she knew…there was Crockett—and the new one on the way and, but.… “So, what are you going to name the baby?”
May did not have any right. Wasn’t like she didn’t have a past, except she never succumbed to…. What? Surely there was nothing to it; at least not all that much. But why hadn’t he ever said anything?
All afternoon she’d put on a happy face, but knowing her husband harbored a deep dark secret love would have soured her milk if she was still nursing.
Oh, Crockett, will you even remember Mommy when she gets home?
Over dessert—that she needed like one more crazy scenario of Tess in her brain, but ate anyway—they laughed, but she brooded. Well, she was eating for two again after all, except she still carried the extra pounds she’d put on with her firstborn.
Bless the Lord, that Henry liked the extra softness. Or so he said.
Again, her dearest warned his daughter to prop a chair under the knob, then finally she had him all to herself. He closed and locked the door after her. When he turned back, a concerned expression etched little lines around his eyes.
“What’s wrong, dear?”
Mercy, Lord. Could it be that Braxton had just thrown out a name?
“You know me so well.” She tried to offer a smile, but feared she failed to deliver adequately. “I didn’t mean to… I mean it�
�s probably nothing, but I… It isn’t that….”
He took her shoulders in his hands and held her eyes with his. She loved the depth of their sky blue. “Darling. What is it?”
“This afternoon, while we were working on the letters…well…” She should forget it. How many years ago had it been? A lifetime to be certain. “You were what? Sixteen when you joined Jackson’s army?”
His laughter boomed in the quietness of the moment. “Yes, but Old Hickory? What’s this all about, sweetheart? A couple of times over supper, I thought you might slap me. I know for a fact it’s not your time of month, unless.…”
Horror twisted his face.
“No, no, my love. The baby’s fine. It’s something Gwen said. Evidently, Braxton told her…” She grinned again, or tried. “Can you tell this is circumstantial hearsay at best?” She filled her lungs.
It had nothing to do with her; she didn’t even know him then. Why, she’d only been six and still the apple of the Commodore’s eye.
“Spit it out, May. What’s got you going in circles?”
“Tess. Gwen mentioned that Braxton claimed you hated Bull over someone named Tess.”
He filled his lungs then plopped down in the nearest chair and sighed. “So every one of my sins has found me out. Sue never even knew about Tess. Didn’t figure there was any reason….”
May folded her arms over her chest, but her heart still hurt. She’d come to grips with Sue, but now a whole new past love would haunt her, one he’d kept so private he hadn’t even told his first wife. “So what’s the story?”
“It was a long time ago.”
“Are you still in love with her? Is that why you don’t want to talk about her?”
“Heavens, no. I love you, baby.”
“I know that. It’s just…. Fine. Then tell me about her. I was under the misguided impression that there were no secrets between us.”
“And there aren’t. Tess isn’t a secret. She’s only someone from my past. ” He nodded toward the chair across from him and extended his hand toward her. “Mercy. Sit down, and I’ll tell you all about her.”
