by Lily Graison
“My God, are you all right?” Gabriel reached down to help her up, his strong arms lifting her as if she weighed nothing at all.
Anna blinked and tried to get her bearings. She looked toward the wall. A small section of it was turned and she could see into her room. “A hidden door?”
“Yes. The rooms are adjoining.”
Anna didn’t know how long the house had been standing but there were still married couples who didn’t share a room. She imaged the former occupants of the house using that door to meet with whoever slept on the other side of the wall, be it a spouse or guest.
It took several minutes before Anna realized just how close Gabriel still held her. His hands still gripped her upper arms and he stood so close she could smell the soap on his skin from where he’d washed. A glance up at him and her neck and face heated. He was naked from the waist up, his muscled chest lightly covered in dark hair. She should have pulled away but found she didn’t want to. She’d wanted nothing more than to know this man since she first saw him on the train. Being in his house as a guest was fine for now but she knew it wouldn’t satisfy her for long. She’d want more.
Gabriel raised his hand and pushed a stray curl behind her ear. “You’re trembling.”
She smiled to try and cover her nervousness. “I’ve never been alone with a half-naked man before.”
“Well, had Julia had her way, this would have been our wedding night and you’d be seeing a whole lot more of me than this.”
She blushed so hard she knew her face was bright red. Gabriel laughed and let go of her, crossing the room to pick up a shirt. Anna watched him dress, the muscles in his back moving underneath skin tanned from the sun. He was beautifully made and he should have been hers.
When he was decent, he turned back to face her. “How much trouble was Julia after Francesca and Nathaniel left?”
“She was quite furious so I let her vent then saw her off to bed.”
Gabriel kept his distance and sat on the edge of his bed. Seeing him there didn’t help distract her thoughts. If anything, it caused them to run wild with visions of them there. It was their wedding night, after all.
She cleared her throat and turned back to the hidden door separating their room. “I’ll leave you to finish getting ready for bed.” She was in-between their rooms when he called out to her.
“Will you attend the party at Winter Place with Julia and I?”
She glanced over her shoulder. “Would that be appropriate?”
“You’re a guest in my home. Its my place to decide what's appropriate and what isn’t. Besides, Julia will want to go and I don’t trust her to stay out of trouble given her dislike of Francesca.”
Anna smiled but she felt no joy. He wanted her to tag along to watch over his daughter, nothing more. She nodded her head and said, “I’d be happy to watch her for you. That’s why I’m here.”
She entered her room and pushed on the door, surprised to find it slid easily back into place. She stood staring at the panel, one palm flat against the cool wallpaper.
Could she make Gabriel love her? She knew so little about the affairs of the heart. How did she make Gabriel fall in love with her when he was so set against another marriage? And was she really willing to risk her own broken heart for a chance at love?
* * * *
Gabrielle laid a hand against the wall, willing himself not to push the hidden door open and follow Anna into her room. He was starting to believe James was right. That he was a fool for not taking Anna up on her offer of marriage, regardless of his feelings about it.
It had only been a day and he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He wasn’t sure why he thought he could. He’d spent the entirety of the train ride from South Carolina watching her. Memorizing the way the curls at the nape of her neck brushed against her skin. How she blushed when she looked back at him and caught him staring at her.
If she were the type of women to bed a man whether she were married or not, this little arrangement they had would be the closest thing to heaven he could imagine. He’d have her in every way a man could and not be tied down to any sort of rules but he knew without asking she wasn’t that type of woman. She didn’t look as if she were willing to be a man’s mistress.
He turned, pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it to the chair next to the fireplace. Anna finding him in nothing but his trousers had taken them both by surprise. One moment he was undressing, trying to figure out a way to make the profits higher, the next, an angel fell at his feet wearing nothing but a thin shift he could see clean through and chestnut locks that tumbled down her back in curls he wanted to sink his fingers in.
What he wouldn’t give to have slipped that shift off her shoulders and kissed every inch of exposed skin he could find.
He passed the bed and opened the double doors to the balcony. The summer heat was made bearable by a breeze blowing in from the river. The trees had grown so tall he couldn’t see it from his room now but he knew it was there. It had been ages since he’d sat on the banks. The last time being when Evelyn was still part of their family and Julia was learning how to swim.
The moon was bright, its light bouncing across the cotton fields and reminding him how dire things were. He needed to think of something to help increase profits this year or they would all suffer. It wasn’t just him and Julia, it was the share croppers who owned the pieces of land they farmed. Some of them had worked this land their whole life. Letting them down wasn’t an option.
Gabriel left the doors open but went back inside. He looked toward the hidden door separating the two master bedrooms. He’d let Anna down and Julia and he didn’t even flinch. Why was it so easy to disappoint family but not friends? He’d have to find a way to make it up to them both.
* * * *
Anna entered the kitchen to find Julia and Ruth in a heated conversation. Franklin sat at the small work table eating a plate of eggs fried with onions and small pieces of bacon. He looked up at her and motioned her into the chair across from him. “Have a seat, Anna. Ruth will whip you up something to eat as soon as she sees things Julia’s way.”
“I most certainly will not!” Ruth shook a chubby finger his way. “She needs to learn she can’t have everything she wants and you need to stop encouraging her.”
Franklin laughed. “Simmer down, woman. I’m too old to be fighting this early in the morning.”
“Well, you should have thought about that before you promised to take this one with you to Camden. She has chores to do, not to mention a new governess to occupy her time.”
Julia rounded the table and stopped beside Anna. “She can go with us,” she said, smiling while looking between the three adults in the room.
“And what will you father say about you taking off all day?”
She shrugged. “If I’m with Anna, it shouldn’t matter.”
“Oh no, please don’t drag me into this.”
“Please, Anna. I never get to go and if you’re here, father may just let me.”
Anna looked to where Ruth stood by the stove. The woman’s lips were pressed closed so tight they were nothing but a white slash across her face and she was shaking her head emphatically. Anna didn’t know what the trip was about but from the look on Ruth’s face, Julia didn’t need to go.
She smiled up at Julia and reached out to lay her hand against her arm. “As much as I’d love to see more of Alabama, I’ll admit I’m still rather tired from the trip. Could we go another day, perhaps?”
Julia opened her mouth to argue no doubt, but shut it with a snap. She wasn’t happy but she didn’t try to persuade her any longer either. “Fine.” She blew out a breath and crossed her arms over her chest.
“I have the sweet tarts ready,” Ruth said. “Why don’t you deliver them for me. You can show Anna around the plantation and introduce her to the tenants.”
Julia pulled one of the empty chairs away from the table and flung herself into as if the world were ending.
Rut
h sat a cup of tea in front of Anna and she picked it up, hiding a smile behind the white porcelain.
Breakfast wasn’t the formal affair the meal the night before was and Anna was a bit disappointed to learn Gabriel had already eaten and was out in the field with James. Apparently, the older man still thought he was young enough to put in a full days work like a man half his age and if someone didn’t watch him, he’d wear himself out and end up sick.
Ruth packed a basket as they finished their meal and by the time they were ready to go, Anna was actually excited. She’d never seen a working cotton plantation before. She’d worked with thread and cloth for longer than she wanted to remember but had never once wondered how all those fine fabrics started.
She’d put on one of her nicer dresses before coming downstairs and ran up to change into something more appropriate. Walking cotton field and dirt roads called for more rugged attire. She dressed in a plain brown skirt and white shirtwaist and pulled her hair into a loose bun at the nape of her neck and headed down the back stairs to the kitchen. Julia stood by the door swinging the basket of sweet tarts back and forth when she rejoined them.
“Ready to go?”
Anna smiled. “Lead the way.”
They headed across the yard behind the house and Anna had a chance to get her first real look at the property. It wasn’t as opulent a view as you received when traveling the road up to the front of the house but it was no less spectacular. There were several outbuildings, barns and stables and the fields ran for what seemed like miles.
They took the road that ran along one of the fields and headed towards the cabins she could see in the distance. There were people everywhere doing various things and Anna couldn’t help but ask what everyone was doing.
Julia lost patience with her after the tenth question and Anna laughed, then apologized. “I’ve never even seen a real farm. Well, nothing of this size. Its just not something you’d see in the city.”
“Get used to it. There’s nothing in this part of the country but farms.”
“You don’t sound as if you enjoy it here.”
She shrugged. “I love Laurel Haven but it gets a bit lonely. There’s children in the tenant cabins but they won’t play with me much. Something about social classes or some such nonsense.”
Anna could only imagine how difficult it was living in the south now. The war was long over but she was sure tensions still rose on occasion. She looked toward the fields. There were as many white men and women working the crops as there were black and Ruth had said the cabins belonged to tenants. Did they purchase the land from Gabriel, then work it? Or did they work the land in order to live in the cabins? She was about to ask but the look on Julia’s face halted her words.
They were halfway to the cabins when Julia yelled out to her father. They stopped and Anna raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun. Gabriel was headed their way, an older gentleman close behind.
“What are you two up to?”
Julia lifted the basket for him to see. “We’re headed to the cabins. Ruth made more sweet tarts.”
“Yeah?” Gabriel reached for the cloth covering the basket. “What did she put in these?”
Julia pulled the basket away before he could reach for one of the tarts. “Stop that. Ruth told me to make sure you stayed out of them this time.”
He laughed, then looked at Anna. “Morning.”
“Good morning.” The sight of him in nothing but his trousers flashed in her minds eye and Anna turned away in case she blushed. It had taken her hours to go to sleep the night before. Every touch and soft word he’d spoken replayed in her head on repeat until she’d kicked the blankets away in frustration. Every time his image flashed in her head she was reminded why she’d traveled so far and long.
Gabriel Montgomery was supposed to be hers but here she stood, still unmarried, wanting a man who didn’t want her in return.
She focused her gaze on the older gentleman with Gabriel and smiled. “You must be James.”
He grinned and nodded his head. “Heard all about me, have you?”
“I hear you’re trouble if no one is looking.”
He laughed loudly and slapped a hand on his leg. “They know me well.”
Anna liked him instantly. His hair was white, which made his black skin seem all the more darker. Wrinkles covered his face, he’d lost a few of his teeth but his eyes were as sharp and alert as men half his age.
“Watch yourself around this one, Anna. He’s a shameful womanizer.”
James laughed again. “I’m too old to be a womanizer.” Anna watched them and knew their relationship was one born of friendship many years in the making.
Julia swung her basket in Gabriel’s direction. “You should come with us and help me show Anna around the property. She’s quite interested in how the cotton grows.” She smiled and lowered her head a fraction, looking up at her father through her lashes. “You can explain the workings of the plantation better than I can.”
James looked at Anna and grinned. “That sounds like a fine idea to me. I need a nap anyway.” He started walking away when Gabriel called out to him.
“I thought you wanted to try and fix the gate on the Cyrus’ stall?”
“That old horse ain’t going anywhere. He’ll stay right where he is until you get done showing Miss Anna around.”
James kept walking, never even glancing back at them and Gabriel shook his head as he watched him go. “He works from sun up ’til sun down, every day but Sunday.”
“Maybe he’s just tired,” Julia said.
“No. He’s meddling again.”
“How so?”
Gabriel looked at Anna and tipped the front of his hat up. “It doesn’t matter.” He turned toward the cabins and said, “Well, let’s go, ladies. We have sweet tarts to deliver.”
The tenant cabins were all the same as far as Anna could tell. They weren’t very large but held a quaint hominess that any small family could enjoy. They were lined in rows, each with small vegetable gardens beside them.
Children played in the road and grassy areas just beyond the cabins. When they saw them, they all stood and ran in their direction.
Julia uncovered the basket to the delight of everyone. The sweet tarts were gone in minutes, the faces of those children covered in the remains of sugar drenched cherries and happy smiles.
Anna turned to the cabins, watching an elderly woman sweeping dirt from the porch. “Julia said everyone here was a tenant.”
“They are.” Gabriel moved to her side and crossed his arms over his chest. “These used to be the slave cabins.”
Anna looked up at him. “You owned slaves?”
“I didn’t, but my ancestors did.” He inhaled deeply and looked across the fields. “Once they were freed most left but some of the older families stayed to work in the land in exchange for a share in the crop. By then, most of the families here became more friend than tenants and my father worked out a deal so they could keep their homes even though the cotton crop was paying so little. Its worked that way for a very long time but…”
“But what?”
Gabriel looked toward the field and sighed. “Cotton doesn’t sell like it used to. Its been the livelihood of Laurel Haven since my grandfathers father but it barely pays enough for us to keep going. We’ll be okay for while but the tenants…” He looked toward the children. “I’m not sure how they’ll survive much longer like this.”
Julia walked over to where they stood and handed the basket to Anna, then looked up at her father. “Can I stay here and play?”
Gabriel looked at the faces of the other children and smiled. “Don’t be long and don’t get into any trouble.”
Julia grinned and took off running, the other children right behind her.
“She told me they don’t play with her much.”
“They don’t. Everyone gets along fine but some of the older tenants still remember the way things used to be. They’re stuck in their ways. She’s a
reminder to them of how hard their life used to be. How hard it still is and why.”
Long minutes passed with neither of them saying a word. When Gabriel turned and motioned for her to head up the road, she fell into step with him. “Have you thought of growing something else instead of cotton?”
He smiled down at her. “Like what? Vegetables?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Something everyone else isn’t growing much of, like peanuts.”
He was quiet at her side for a few minutes. “I’ve never really thought of growing anything else but I suppose it can’t hurt at this point. We could probably take the east field and try something new just to see what happens.”
Anna stopped and stepped into the edge of the field. “Is this a cotton plant?”
“Yes.”
“Where does the cotton sprout from?”
Gabriel stepped beside her and reached into one of the plants in the field. “The seeds sprout and grow into these green shrubs. They produce these pink flowers.” He ran his hand over the ones she could see. “Once they flowers are pollinated, they fall off and leave the fruit behind.” He dug into another plant until he found what looked like a large green apple growing. “This, once its ready, will open to reveal the cotton bolls.”
He walked two plants over and picked one of the bulbs from the plant and handed it to her. “It takes all summer for the whole field to produce. By October, we’ll be ready to harvest.”
Anna studied the bud he’d handed her. It wasn’t just one cotton boll but several all clumped together. She rubbed it between her fingers and smiled. “Its wonderful.”
“It is. I just wish it paid more than it does now.”
“You’ll think of something.” She looked up at him, the grim expression on his face showing how worried he was. Was it just the crop and the tenants? She could imagine the stress that came along with running a plantation this size. She didn’t know how many people lived on the property but he was responsible for their livelihood. If the plantation failed to produce money, they all suffered.
