“Why have you stayed on, Hattie? You don’t have to, you know. If things are so hard, why don’t you go?”
Hattie laughed. “Where am I going to go? I got nice quarters here, and the missus taught her daughter to treat me right. I got no complaints with Miss Ellie. Mrs. Patterson, she leaves me alone for the most part. Searching for something better is what got you into trouble, Master Pemberton.”
Nathaniel wanted to tell her to flee, to run now before Andrew came into possession of Rosamond, but that wasn’t fair. His own prejudices probably mingled heavily into his opinions.
“No, and I don’t suppose you would ever have complaints with Eleanor. She loves from the depths of her soul.”
Hattie searched his eyes. “Where’d you go, Master Pemberton? Do you know how I nursed that broken heart of Miss Ellie’s? We all thought she’d get over it, that she’d find someone else to love and cast off her old feelings for you like some worn-out coat. But she didn’t. She wore them like a badge of honor, her own Confederate flag, waving torn in the wind. And now that you’re back, she’s marrying your brother. Life’s odd, ain’t it?”
Nathaniel thought so. “I went to California, hoping to find gold.”
“Did you?”
He laughed. “It was gone a decade before I got there. I sat in grimy mining camps and finally prospected for a mining company. Any measly flake I found belonged to them.”
“Did you find what you was looking for?” Hattie asked, with all the wisdom of any educated scholar.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Can’t imagine what you was missing here, what with your daddy owning all that land and all. So I figured you went looking for something in particular.”
Nathaniel shook his head. “I went looking for a fool’s adventure, and that’s exactly what I found.” What had he been hoping to find? Everything that mattered to him was right here in Mississippi all along. Everything, that is, except adventure, and he had found that highly overrated. Wondering whether he’d make it to the next day was no longer a thrill for Nathaniel. Thinking on the American war, he probably could have found adventure in Mississippi as well. Nathaniel sighed audibly. He was no better than a dog chasing its own tail.
“What was you looking for?”
“I guess I had independence in mind, Hattie.”
Hattie laughed. “Well, leaving your family high and dry is a way to find that, I suppose. I been here since I was a young girl, and I guess I never did wonder much what was beyond those white fences, so I can’t fault you. Miss Ellie taught me to read, to speak properly, and how to pray to God. That’s a lot to be thankful for. There ain’t much more a woman asks from life but to be forgiven and know there’s eternity waiting on her. That makes me happy.”
Happiness. Would he ever find such an elusive thing here on earth? The Bible didn’t promise it, and Nathaniel highly doubted it. “I’m glad you ask for so little in life, Hattie. I suppose that’s a good way to find happiness.”
“You want to know what I think?”
“I’m not sure, Hattie,” Nathaniel answered with a chuckle.
“I think you’re still in love with Miss Ellie, and you’re planning to steal her away from your brother.”
Nathaniel laughed and shook his head. “No, Hattie. Andrew’s won fair and square, and he deserves Ellie. Not that I didn’t try, mind you. But Andrew will be good to her.” As soon as he said the words, he knew they were untrue. Andrew had never cared for anything unless it served his own purposes. Nathaniel had no doubt that if there were any way to care for Woodacre, other than going to battle, Andrew would have found it.
As if reading his mind, Hattie went on, “You believe that, Master Pemberton?”
“No, Hattie, I really don’t.”
“I didn’t think so. I thought you must have learned something while out in California. I pray you do steal her away, Master Pemberton, even though I could be hanged for saying so. Nothing left for a belle like her any longer. The Yankees, they treated her with the utmost respect. But the Southerners, the gentlemen, they rocked my girl’s faith. They spread rumors about her and said she was on Satan’s side when she tried to help a Yankee officer in need. But I know she would have helped Satan himself if he lay in a puddle of blood. Miss Ellie’s like that. She’s got a heart of gold. So see, Master Pemberton—you didn’t need to go looking for the precious metal.”
“I suppose I didn’t, but I disrupted my father’s plans once, Hattie. I don’t plan to do it again,” Nathaniel said by way of excuse, hoping he truly was being a hero letting Ellie marry Andrew. Somehow he doubted it.
“You didn’t learn nothing while you was in California. Nothing. Because the Nathaniel I knew was a fighter. He wouldn’t just give up the woman he loved because he didn’t want to stir up any trouble, but I’m glad you’ve grown up. It will make things much easier.”
Hattie’s faith in him bolstered his own. What if God had sent him back in time for the wedding to stop it? What if this was God’s will?
“Thank you, Hattie. You’re a godsend.”
Hattie laughed her boisterous, familiar laugh. “I know it. You just keep in mind what I told you.”
Eleanor watched Hattie carrying on below with Nathaniel. She had opened her window but could hear only muffled conversation, not the words being said. What were they discussing? No doubt it was she, but in what capacity? Had Hattie told Nathaniel to run again and leave her to be with Andrew? Her maid was far too familiar with her future brother-in-law for Eleanor’s liking. And from the looks of it, Nathaniel had easily won Hattie over with his carefree style.
A knock at her door startled her from the window, and she closed it with a crack. She swallowed hard and opened the door. Her father stormed into the room with hands clasped behind his back. “I’m sorry to disturb you in your quarters, but Andrew has approached me with an important matter. He is anxious to get on with your lives.”
“Of course, Father. That’s understandable. We are to be married in a month,” Eleanor agreed, hoping the direction of the conversation wasn’t headed where she feared it might be.
“He’s waited a long time to ensure that you wouldn’t be upset by his proposal, and now that you’ve accepted, he’s hoping to begin the marriage as soon as possible.” Her staunch father patted his protruding stomach and paced the room. “When I was ready to take a wife, I was anxious to have her under my roof and begin our lives together, but there’s the added issue of planting. It won’t be long now before it begins. The soil will need a lot of encouragement this season.”
Eleanor gulped. “Father, are you suggesting we move up the wedding? We’ve hardly had a decent engagement period as it is.”
“No one’s counting the days of an engagement anymore, Eleanor. We’ve all faced death and survived. Those of us who are left must move on. What with the shelling of the town, the gunboats, no one is worried about a decent interval.”
Eleanor’s heart beat in her ears, and she had to think fast. The idea of marrying Andrew before she had time to prepare her heart after Nathaniel’s arrival suddenly sickened her. It made her feel like the traitor she was.
“Mother would care.” The comment stopped her father’s pacing, and Eleanor knew she’d hit her target. His brows lowered, and he studied her. “Mother would care, Father. It’s odd enough I’m marrying Andrew when everyone thought I’d marry his brother one day, but to do it quickly when Nathaniel’s just returned will only intensify the gossip. People will talk, Father. Like they did when Nathaniel left—do you remember?” Eleanor looked out the window again. “I know we’ve always been called the proud Sentons, but I venture to guess Mother would have wanted me to have a proper engagement.” She wished she could see her father’s expression but dared not face him.
“I shall ask my sister for her opinion,” her father said, then left without another word.
Eleanor fell to her knees as she beseeched the Lord. “I don’t even know what to pray for, Lord. But please let You
r will be done, and prepare my heart if I’m to marry Andrew sooner than I’d planned.”
Her fate rested in her aunt Till, and, for her own sake, Eleanor hoped their opinions agreed. Hattie entered the room with a loud bang. “Are you ready to be undressed, Mistress?”
“Oh Hattie, don’t call me that.”
“I’m sorry, Miss Ellie. I saw your father leave. I’m thinking about him. Everything all right?” Hattie began her nightly routine of readying Eleanor for the following day. She checked her combs and laid out an appropriate gown for the next morning. Once her ritual was complete, she turned to Eleanor and forced her eyes away.
“Why do you think Nathaniel came back, Hattie?”
Hattie clicked her tongue while motioning for Eleanor to turn around. The older woman began unbuttoning the back of Eleanor’s gown and then untying her undergarments. It felt like an eternity before the maid answered. “Can’t rightly say, but he means to make a name for himself here in Natchez.”
“What do you mean?”
“His father has welcomed him home. That’s no small gesture. Master Pemberton’s going to prove himself to his father. I have no doubt.”
Eleanor turned to face her maid. “Did he say anything about me?”
“Were you eavesdropping, Miss Ellie? During the war, men were shot for less.”
“I knew he was out there. He approached me after dinner.”
“If your father, or your future family, caught you talking with Master Pemberton, you may as well say good-bye to Woodacre. No war is going to erase that kind of scandal. Natchez hasn’t forgiven him, even if his father has.”
“Tell me what he said, Hattie,” Eleanor begged.
“Just that he’s sorry he left without word. He wants to make it up to you, but I think he knows the way to do that is to leave you be.” Hattie began to pull at Eleanor’s hair, letting it down from the net to fall in red cascades across her back.
Eleanor blinked back tears. “Did he say that? That he was going to leave things be?”
“It’s just the way it is, child. Propriety dictates you two stay far away from each other, and he’s got a mind to make the most of his second chance at Woodacre. You wouldn’t want to get in the way of that now, would you?”
“No, I suppose I wouldn’t.” Eleanor rubbed her temples. “I have a vicious headache.”
“It’s too much excitement for the day.”
“I’ll tell Father tomorrow that it’s fine to move up the wedding. I don’t suppose there’s any reason to keep it a month from now. A fortnight will be plenty. I’m not as young as most to begin having children, you know.” Eleanor felt somehow that if she just got her wedding over with, maybe her feelings for Andrew would follow.
Hattie began hanging up Eleanor’s gowns. “You’ll tell your father no such thing. Just wait, Miss Ellie. Wait and see what happens. God isn’t through with you yet.”
Eleanor looked into her maid’s eyes and saw a certain sparkle. Although she didn’t know what the elder woman had in mind, something was circulating in that head. Eleanor drew in a cleansing breath of excitement. Waiting would be the least of her problems. Getting her father and Andrew to agree to terms in hiring the slaves back at an honest day’s wage—that was her real problem.
Chapter 4
Aunt Till and her daughter, Mary, arrived from Louisiana the following morning. It was a bright and promising day, and Eleanor breathed in the fresh autumn air, glad to think of her future rather than her troubled past.
“Aunt Till!” Eleanor ran to the carriage without a concern for grace or propriety. Her aunt Till was finally there, and Eleanor had great expectations for her aunt’s opinions on a hasty wedding. Years had passed since their last visit from her father’s beloved sister, but she had little doubt how the woman would view such a societal faux pas.
Aunt Till’s home had been shelled and destroyed by Yankees, but she maintained her prestige and respect even without the money usually necessary for such an honor. By all accounts, Aunt Till should have returned to Rosamond, her childhood home, a broken woman, but it hadn’t happened. She had remained in Lousiana, hoping Mary would marry a handsome officer returning from the fields. Mary’s beau never did return from the battles, and her heart never appeared ready to accept another in his place. Moving became unimportant in the women’s shared mourning.
Aunt Till’s generous frame exited the conveyance, lifting the strain of the carriage visibly. She lumbered toward her niece with arms outstretched and pulled her into a hug. “Lovely little Eleanor. Look what a beauty you have become. Your cousin Mary has been telling me of your escapades here in Mississippi.”
Eleanor looked to her cousin and pen pal. Mary shook her head nominally as if to say that nothing of importance was ever relayed from the letters. Just seeing Mary made Eleanor feel like a carefree child again, wanting to giggle through the fields on her mare and jump fences behind her cousin. Eleanor grabbed Mary’s hands and whispered in her ear, “I have the day all planned for us. We shall have a picnic and ride to our hearts’ content.”
“I heard Nathaniel’s returned. Is it true?” Mary whispered excitedly. “Shall he join us as in the days of our youth?”
“Shh, no. Father has forbidden me to see him.”
“So you are set to marry Andrew after all.” Mary stamped her foot childishly. “I was hoping the wedding would be called off.” Mary smiled sweetly to throw her mother off any trail. “Maybe not called off, but I was quite hoping for some excitement so Nathaniel might carry you off romantically, stealing you from his brother once and for all.”
“What are you two conspiring?” Aunt Till asked.
“Nothing, Mother. We are discussing the wedding plans of course.”
“Ah, to be a young bride again. Eleanor, where is your father? Is he not here to greet his own sister?”
“He’s in the fields, Aunt Till. He shall be back soon. There was some business to attend to, and he could not be relieved of it.”
“My! Doesn’t he have an overseer?”
“No, Aunt. The overseer has disappeared, but I believe he may have a new one this week.” Eleanor hoped that was enough of an answer, for she knew nothing more. She had no more idea of what had happened to Mitchell Rouse than her father, but she feared for the man. He was a vicious overseer, and she couldn’t say she missed him; but she also knew the men didn’t miss him, and thus her uneasy feeling for him. She hoped he’d left of his own free will and hadn’t met with an untimely ending.
“Disappeared, dear?”
“Father shall tell you all about it. May Mary and I ride this afternoon, Aunt? The servants have packed us a fine picnic, and it’s such a nice day.”
“Mary is probably tired from our journey, Eleanor.”
Aunt Till removed her gloves. Gone was the kid leather and in its place a shiny material of lesser consequence. Eleanor winced at the sight of it.
“I’m not tired, Mother. I’ve never felt finer.” Mary’s eyes widened in her plea, and her mother relented with a smile.
“Very well, if you two should like to live your last days as girls, who am I to stop such revelry?”
Eleanor and Mary smiled broadly, took each other’s hands, and ran to the stables, giggling with glee. They fell in a heap outside the stables, just as they had when they were children. They laid on their backs in the tall grass, gazing dreamily at the clouds above while their gowns stretched out beyond them. “It is such a pleasure to be away from the house and all its chains.”
“That one looks like a tulip,” Mary commented.
“And that one, a dragon,” Eleanor said, pointing to the sky.
Mary lifted herself onto her elbows. “How does Andrew manage without the arm? Is it very strange to watch him? I’m quite nervous I shall stare at him.”
“He does fine, I suppose. I pray you won’t stare at it. It’s nothing really. Just his arm is not there. I guess I don’t think of it much.”
“Really? I daresay I’d be qu
ite weary of marrying a man with no arm.”
“Not if it was Morgan you wouldn’t,” Eleanor said in reference to Mary’s beau who had succumbed to the war.
“Andrew is not Morgan, Ellie. That’s what I mean.” Mary gazed steadily at her cousin.
“Andrew and his father still have enough men at the plantation where he can tell them what work to do. Andrew has harsh words for the Federalists that keep a close eye on his work though. He claims he is barely surviving, and so does my father. That’s why we must forge the plantations together. I hate to hear of such matters, but I suppose it’s my lot in this life. One can no longer play childish games all day. The war has put an end to that.”
Mary sighed. “I don’t want to discuss the war. I hate everything it represents. Let’s talk of something cheerful. I’m sick of seeing Yankees lurking on every corner. Tell me about Nathaniel being back. Is he quite a criminal?” Mary said dreamily.
“You mean Andrew, my future husband. That is whom you wish to discuss,” Eleanor said.
“Of course—Andrew.” Mary cleared her throat. “Were you able to get fabric for a gown?”
“I’m wearing my mother’s. It’s the one she wears in her family portrait.”
“It’s such a pity she won’t be here, Ellie.”
It’s not a bit fair. “It’s probably just as well—this wedding will be small. Appropriate for the circumstances. Besides, I think she’d be disappointed I’m marrying Andrew. She never did care for him much. He was such a serious child, no fun at all. Mother always worried he’d steal the life right out of me if I was allowed to play with him.”
“Will he?”
Eleanor drew in a long breath. “Andrew won’t, but this plantation might. It’s not like it was. There are men out of work, men who want the slaves’ jobs, and Father lords that over the slaves. Or freedmen, as the Yankees call them. Things will never be the same, I suppose.”
The Prodigal's Welcome Page 3
