THE VISITOR – NEW YORK
Part IV – 1871-1873
Barbara Cope Svetlick
BOOKS OF THE VISITOR SERIES:
This is the story of Mirisa Eppes, a young affluent girl from Virginia who is thrown into a world of untraditional love and murder. The story starts in 1862 and the series will go through the adventures of her life, the men she loves and their children. Until I write “The End” one must assume that Mirisa has yet to leave the life she loves and another Book is in the wind.
Book I – The Visitor 1862
Book II – The Visitor – Texas 1863 – 1869
Book III – The Visitor – Colorado 1869 – 1871
Book IV – The Visitor – New York 1871 – 1873
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and publisher of this book.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s great imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, business establishments or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Copyright @ 2013 by Barbara Cope Svetlick
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Dedication
To my ‘Ipod’ which inspired me and to all the artists who write the songs that inspire the world.
PRELUDE
Mirisa suddenly sat straight up as panic pushed against her chest. A dark silhouette of a man was sitting in the wing chair next to the fire smoking a cigar watching her. Her heart was pounding so fast that she couldn’t breathe and she didn’t know if it was a dream or maybe Conrad. She closed her eyes and reached out for him. Conrad touched her lightly and she looked at him then looked at the fireplace and the man was still there. Conrad put his hand on her arm to calm her. The voice brought her attention back to him.
“I was surprised you turned down my offer.”
“How did you get in my house?”
“I have the key. I know the man who was in charge of construction while it was being renovated.”
New York City was a city of rich and powerful men who ate bad business deals for breakfast and thought nothing of dropping their foes into the harbor. The City never slept, never cared whether they left the bones of the night in the gutters and only paid attention if it involved money and perverse sex and where graft and corruption was a badge they wore heroically.
Mirisa’s life was instantly sucked into the whirlwind of bored trophy wives, caddy rumors and their hungry husbands while the Assignments start to eat at the edges of the friendship of the men she loves and they unsuccessfully try hard to pull her back under their protection while she attempts to create what only her husband considers a normal life. For hell has no place for a woman left to her own devices in New York City.
THE CHARACTERS OF BOOK I and II
The Visitor is a series that takes you through the life of Mirisa Eppes from the age of sixteen until the end of her life. The story begins at the beginning of the Civil War when her father sends her to his birth home of Natchez, Mississippi, as the Eppes family is torn apart by the events of the war. Dr. Eppes hires Dominic Lanfear to protect his daughter until the war is over not realizing that he has changed his daughter’s life forever.
EPPES FAMILY
Dr. Richard Eppes is a country physician and a Virginia plantation owner. He was born in Natchez and raised by his grandmother, a descendant of the Choctaw nation. After completing medical training, he marries a wealthy young woman who borders on frequent and uncontrollable bouts of mental illness. They settle in Virginia where they have seven sons before the birth of their youngest and only daughter, Mirisa.
Lenora Eppes met Dr. Richard Eppes while institutionalized due to sever bouts of psychological instability. He marries her believing he can cure her illness but despite his efforts over the years she continues to worsen as she ages. Her antics have a dramatic effect on her only daughter Mirisa.
Jed, Jes and Gus, are triplets born a few years before Mirisa. They are still living at home when the war starts and take up arms with their father for the South.
Mirisa Eppes is a young, ideological girl who is raised encircled by rambunctious brothers and without the guidance of a loving mother or any female companionship. She knows nothing of love and less of life. Trusting and lonely, Mirisa spends her life trying to create the perfect family while struggling with her love for the men who capture her heart.
LANFEAR FAMILY
Conrad Lanfear was born in the 1700s and lived on the family plantation until he was sixteen when he takes up with a maiden, Algonquin, from the Natchez tribe. Conrad is a hired gun who rides with Algonquin's brother, Sequasi. For over a hundred years, Conrad has been waiting for Mirisa to step across the threshold of the Lanfear Plantation. Conrad is waiting when Mirisa steps out of the carriage on that stormy night and will slowly consume her until she can no longer tell reality from her haunted dreams.
Dominic Lanfear is a descendant of the Lanfear family, one of Conrad’s descendants. He inherits the Natchez plantation and continues the family business of growing and trading indigo, tobacco and cotton. The Lanfear family has been beset with tragedy after tragedy since a curse beset the family in the 1700s following the war between the Natchez Indians and Conrad’s family. Dominic’s mother died at his birth, leaving him to be raised by a grieving and angry father who ruled with beatings and heavy drinking. When he was old enough, he left home and enrolled at VMI and began a military career that kept him away from home until his father’s death leaving all his holdings to Dominic. Like Conrad, Dominic's life is one of a mercenary with a cold hearted belief that killing is a necessary part of life.
Dog Moon, Chief of the Choctaw Nation, is the great-grandson of Conrad and Algonquin who seeks to bring wholeness to his people. The visions of Mirisa become stronger after Conrad brings him into the circle forever connecting Dog Moon with Mirisa and her sons.
DOMINIC LANFEAR’S CLOSEST FRIENDS
The four young men become close friends while attending Virginia Military Institute before a stint in the Army stationed around Fort Lared along the Pawnee Fork and Arkansas River protecting and guarding traffic along the Santa Fe Trail. All four decommissioned before the start of the war and worked underground for the South while placating the Northern Army. Their thirst for life and adventure bonds them through good times as well as bad.
Garnett Alexander is a criminal lawyer whose practice takes him up and down the Mississippi River. He was raised in Vicksburg, Mississippi and practiced the circuit down to New Orleans. Despite having a normal upbringing, he is beset with demons that struggle with his constant attempts to find happiness in his life knowing that it may never come to him. He is a cold and sadistic killer.
James Alcorn, a banker and financial investor, has a natural talent to amass fortunes through investments. He was born in New York but raised in Natchez and spent most of his childhood as a close friend to Dominic. Intelligent and compassionate, his ability to kill is instinctual and his passion for life encompassing everything he does.
Alexander Meeks is an independently wealthy entrepreneur. Born in New York City, Meeks took up with them at VMI forming a lifelong friendship with James. His upbringing has created a wall where he refuses to candy coat reality and refuses to let out his emotions. His ability to take a life is calculating but he takes no enjoyme
nt in doing so finding it to be only a necessity.
PLANTATION EMPLOYEES:
Mrs. Chauvin is the housekeeper at the Lanfear Plantation. She is a powerful root woman and guide to the other world and her employment at the plantation was not by accident.
Jasmine is Mirisa’s personal maid and closest confidant is a Choctaw Indian. Like Mrs. Chauvin, Jasmine is at the Plantation for the sole purpose of protecting Mirisa as she is taken into the other world by Conrad.
Miss Minnie has run the Plantation kitchen since before Dominic was born. She was raised in the bayou by her grandmother and works with the many powerful concoctions and herbs to heal both the soul and the inflicted. She works in the darkest of magic known only by the mystical people of the bayou.
Simone’ appears in the form of a housecat at the Plantation. His soul is unable to ever leave the grounds for it is his destiny to protect the portal to Conrad’s world but his attachment to Mirisa is unbreakable.
Dog a wild Texas coyote latches onto Mirisa as a protector of her and the children.
BOOK III and BOOK IV NEW CHARACTERS
Charisse and Jack Casper – Alexander Meeks’ sister and brother in law. Jack Casper controls a shipping company and owns a section of the docks in New York City.
Catherine Tyler – A beautiful young woman from New York City who is married to a well to do elderly gentleman. Her past rises to haunt her.
Michael Cotes – A scout in the U.S. Army. Michael served under Dominic Lanfear in the Colorado Territory before the war.
Louis Sampson – A wealthy businessman who has homes in New York, Italy and in the Orient. His manner in business is ruthless and his social manner is polished. He seals his deals with oriental women and opium.
David Yarrow – Served under Dominic Lanfear in the Colorado Territory before returned east to become a United States' Senator.
1871
War was not foreign to man nor was the fallout from the suffrage of the grieving families, the forgotten wounded and addled minded who would never put the pieces of life back together. The assault and cruelty of the years that followed did little to heal the country that wept deep into the sleepless night.
Garnett descended the stairs heading for the dining room where the conversation had continued over a light dinner of leftovers and strong coffee. Nothing sits well when an assignment seeks out a good soldier and friend. He poured a cup of coffee and turned his chair around.
“Mirisa’s not taking it well.”
Meeks got up and went up to find her. She was in their room curled up in the big chair by the fire. He squatted down next to her and the tears in her eyes glistened in the firelight. He picked up her hand and kissed her fingers. She smiled at him because they both knew there was nothing to say. Meeks pulled Mirisa down into his arms and held her. “Will you come downstairs and eat with us?”
“I love you Alexander.” Meeks ran his finger over her eyelash before he kissed her again pulling her up to him.
They went down and Mirisa sat next to her husband. Meeks fixed her a cup of tea putting it in front of her. Mirisa didn’t pick it up because she knew that she was shaking too much to hold the cup. Mirisa knew when Dominic showed up and went into the library that it was an assignment. Mirisa closed her eyes and tried to will it out of her mind. The struggle was so obvious but Mirisa wasn’t going to let her emotions show tonight because she knew they needed to leave knowing she would be fine. Mirisa finally picked up her husband’s glass and sipped the whisky then tried to eat just to give herself something to concentrate on but the food was tasteless.
Mirisa hadn’t looked at any of them because it scared her to even acknowledge the danger. She knew they weren’t afraid and that if anything this is what they lived to do but it had been a long time since she had been left at home with all of them out there. Mirisa looked up and met James eyes. He was sitting back watching her as she took in her breath. Meeks leaned over and took her hand which was still shaking and he brought it up and kissed it. You could see the tremor in her fingers. Mirisa knew if it took all four of them that it was extremely dangerous and last time they almost lost James though they had downplayed it around her. They were such strong, ruthless men and she was so emotionally bound to them.
Meeks didn’t say anything because her love for all of them was undeniable. He decided it was going to be a short night and he wanted to spend it alone with his wife. When Meeks got out of bed she rolled over and watched him get dressed. Mirisa climbed out of bed going into his arms. He buried his face in her hair and told her he would be home in a few days but definitely before the New Year’s Eve dance. She didn’t want to let him go even though she knew he didn’t need to think about her in this state. Mirisa kissed him slipping a housecoat over her nightgown. They were all sitting at the table eating breakfast when Mirisa walked in and sat down at the table.
“Mirisa, is this what you look like when you first get out of bed?” She was wearing a long satin blue housecoat that outlined every curve including the way the cold made her nipples so prominent. Garnett so wanted to take her right there and didn’t care about the consequences.
She looked at Garnett who was buttering his biscuit and his thoughts defined his expression. Mirisa leaned across the table showing ample cleavage and took the biscuit from Garnett. Dominic smiled because he absolutely loved her in the mornings. “Do I look that bad?”
“Actually, I think it turns me on more than any other look you have.”
“Namely any look at the moment is your favorite. I’m beginning to think that you are easily enticed even though you try hard to pretend not to be. I believe that right now you are mentally running your hands across my nipples wishing you could do what your eyes are expressing with the most provocative look I have ever seen in a man’s eyes.”
Garnett thought she was probably becoming too intuitive when it came to their reactions. She broke off a piece of the biscuit and the butter ran down the underside of her hand and she slowly licked it off.
“Mirisa, please you have to stop doing those things with food.” She smiled at Garnett and leaned back across the table kissing him so deeply that he told her right there that he loved her when she had butter on her lips, when the cold made her nipples hard and when she took him to the edge of desire knowing he couldn’t touch her.
“Mirisa, we need Garnett to be able to think today so you might want to stop trying to scramble his senses.” Mirisa sat back and looked at her husband then took a bite of her biscuit.
“Well, I wasn’t the one who buttered it.”
“No but you were the one who stole it and what you are doing is so deliberate and you know it drives everyone crazy.” Mirisa smiled.
“Mirisa, are you going to be alright?”James turned her face to him.
“I’ll be fine if you promise to come home.”
“We always come home. You know that.” James kissed her and pulled her up when he stood. He walked over and strapped on his gun then walked back to her and kissed her again.
“Well just in case you don’t I will just have to go to the New Year’s Ball without you and I understand that they serve up the most delectable options for the night.”
They were all standing by that time and they all stopped trying to decide if she was masking her fear or challenging them. Dominic told her to take care of the children and not to let anyone in the house while they were gone. Garnett held her then kissed her lightly. They all grabbed their jackets and headed out the back door. Meeks took her in his arms and told her to be brave because he wasn’t about to let someone else take her out for New Years. Mirisa promised and kissed him as he headed out the door.
They headed west following the Hudson north riding hard. The cold weather kept the roads empty of other riders allowing them to reach Kingston by nightfall. They checked into a small tavern along the river and had food delivered to their room. They knew his cabin was somewhere in the Blackhead Mountains near the falls. They decided to team up with Meeks an
d James heading north to enter the mountains from the east. Dominic and Garnett would circle around and coming in from the Southeast trail. Since Michael was alone and would be waiting for more deputies to come after him, they believed he would only cover one way, which was the south, so at least one team would be the decoy with the other hopefully breaching his hideout. They knew Michael well but with the indication that he had gone completely off his rocker it was always dangerous that he would not act as they expected. Dominic decided if he was going to respond to anyone it would be to him so Garnett and he were going in as the decoy.
There was no moonlight with the low cloud cover, James and Meeks left around four in the morning in a light snow. Meeks knew the mountains well as did Garnett so they were confident that they could travel under the cover of dark. Meeks and James turned from the river heading along the lower hills into the mountains. It was slow not only because of the terrain but because they had to look for signs. At sunrise they were well into the mountains and found a place to hole up until sunset unfortunately the weather continued to decline.
The snowfall started to get heavier in late afternoon which would make following his tracks very difficult if he wasn’t moving. James and Meeks decided that they needed to move or they would be snowed in.
Garnett and Dominic left a few hours later heading toward the southern mountain trail. There were no signs of anything except animals. They kept under the cover of the trees as they climbed higher. With the exception of the birds the mountains were eerily quiet. Garnett finally dismounted and squatted down looking at the tracks.
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