Promise Me Forever

by Janelle Taylor

  Rachel didn’t refute the fact that even if it were legal, that would be cheating his partners out of their rightful share of profits. In light of her husband’s mumblings, she didn’t know anymore if her deceased mate would do something illegal or unscrupulous. “How did you meet Phillip?” she asked suddenly, wanting to test him to see if his story would be consistent.

  Dan noticed her skeptical look. “Living in close proximity in Charleston and being almost the same age, we went to school together, shared mutual friends and interests, and we were both in the shipping business. Phillip and I were not alike, but we became good friends.”

  “That would make you around twenty-nine?”

  “Twenty-eight this past January, ten months younger than Phillip if I recall correctly. He did have a birthday the first of this month?”

  Rachel didn’t want to remember the young age Phillip had died. She nodded. “Did he tell you in his letters that he had married last August?”

  “Yes, he did, and he sounded very happy about it.”

  “So why did you seem surprised to meet me? You stared at me when I introduced myself as Mrs. McCandless.”

  Dan sent her a wry grin and drawled, “Guilty as charged, ma’am, but I have a good defense. Phillip wrote you were beautiful and charming and well bred, but I assumed he was biased in your favor. He wasn’t, and it caught me by surprise. Frankly, I expected pretty, not ravishing.”

  She stepped away from this magnetic man before his force overpowered her. “Thank you. I’m pleased to hear my husband bragged about me to his friends. What else did he say about me?”

  “Nothing, except that you were a very special lady, his joy and pride. I think he wanted me to meet you and form my own opinion.”

  “I hope it’s a good one. You didn’t say how you knew I was here in the office.”

  Dan was ready with an answer to that expected question. “I’m staying at the hotel across the side street. I thought a change of scenery and diet would be nice for a while. I was about to take a walk around town when I saw you enter. I gave you time to do whatever work you’d come to do, purchased this basket, then came to join you. It is mealtime, so I hoped you might be hungry. Are you sure you won’t sneak off for a picnic along the road home? We can get better acquainted. Since Phillip isn’t here to fill me in on the last four years, you can do it for him. I doubt I’ll still be in port when he returns from his trip.” He was certain she was attracted to him, a feeling that clearly made her nervous. Excellent, he praised himself. If he had to romance the truth out of her, so be it, but he didn’t want to appear a wife-stealer or a man who viewed women lightly. No doubt she would simply think he was enamored of her.

  Rachel didn’t know how to take his behavior, as merely friendly or flirtatious? “We can do that on the train and during our journey. It’s unwise to be seen dallying with such a…an attractive man during my husband’s absence.”

  “Thank you for the compliment, and I understand.” Dan cautioned himself not to press and panic the skittish creature. “See you tomorrow.”

  Rachel walked to the safe, replaced the items, then locked it. She straightened anything she had disturbed to conceal her visit. “You leave first, then I’ll follow shortly.”

  “You forgot your papers,” Dan reminded.

  “I don’t need them. I have the information inside my head. Until morning, Captain Slade. The train leaves at nine sharp. Don’t be late.” Dan chuckled and gave a playful admonishment.

  “Dan, remember?”

  “Good-bye, Dan.”

  “Good-bye, Rachel. Nine sharp,” he repeated, then grinned.

  Rachel watched the tall and handsome man depart with his basket swinging on a strong arm. He had to be at least six two, and was well built. He appeared all lean and hard muscle. He was certainly tempting, and no doubt many women had fallen prey to his charms. She couldn’t and mustn’t; she had to stay on guard to protect her mission and supposed marital status. She hung the drawstring purse on her wrist, took one last look around, then left. This time she made certain the office door was locked behind her. She mounted and walked her horse down Bay Street to Broad, then headed for home.

  Rachel was only a few miles from where Moss Haven property began when a shot rang out and rent the silence of the lovely afternoon. A bullet whizzed past her, close enough to be heard and almost powerful enough to be felt. She urged her horse off the dirt road, dismounted with agility and speed, then jumped behind the protection of a large tree.

  She leaned against it as she tried to slow her rapid heartbeat and clear her head. She jerked the fabric bag from her wrist, relieved she hadn’t hung it over the pommel as she was inclined to do while riding. She yanked on the string to open it and fumbled inside for her derringer with trembling fingers. Clutching the little weapon in her grasp, she waited and listened for an enemy’s approach. She knew the small gun had a short range, whereas the rifle in her foe’s hand had a long one.

  Rachel’s breathing came in shallow, rapid gasps that dried her lips and mouth. Panic surged through her. She struggled to regain her wits, to be ready to defend her life. Someone had fired at her! Was this a scare tactic or a real threat that had missed her by inches?

  Time passed without another shot. Her frightened horse had calmed down and was grazing contentedly nearby. Hugging the tree, she peeked around it with caution. Her gaze searched the other side of the road and tried to pierce the concealing woods beyond it. She strained her ears to detect any footsteps. Nothing.

  She wondered if it was only a stray shot from a careless hunter, but doubted it was an accident. She wondered if it could have been a warning by whomever was responsible for the destructive episodes Phillip had mentioned on his deathbed, done by someone who didn’t know he wouldn’t be affected by another threat. But if that was true, how would she know?

  Rachel wondered if Daniel Slade was who and what he claimed and if he had had enough time to get a horse, trail her, and… But why would he want to terrorize her or harm her? He had seemed so nice and polite, and so sincere. Maybe she was wrong about him. She recalled the eerie sensation of being watched last night after Dan’s visit, and had dismissed her feeling as raw nerves and fatigue. But…

  Earlier, Dan had suggested escorting her home safely. If that had been a hint to her needing his protection, she had missed it. During their journey together, she needed to study him carefully. She could not afford to misjudge him or to relax to the point of exposing herself.

  Maybe she had misunderstood one of Phillip’s ramblings. When he had said, “Killing me,” perhaps he hadn’t been referring to his illness.

  Tomorrow she would be on greater alert when she met Dan!

  Chapter 3

  “You been gone a long time, Miss Rachel. I had a good notion to send Burke looking for you. I thawt something bad had happened to you.”

  Rachel had taken time to recover her poise before reaching home. She had decided not to reveal the alarming incident to keep from worrying her servants. “I’m fine, Lula Mae; you worry about me too much. I’ve been riding and thinking. I have a lot on my mind.”

  “You bound to, Miss Rachel, but you’ll be safe again soon.”

  “Right now I have to pack for my trip tomorrow. When Burke comes by, tell him I’ll need him and the carriage at seven-thirty in the morning.”

  “Why cain’t you jest sell everything and leaves, like he was still alive?”

  “His partners wouldn’t buy me out without contacting Phillip. I can’t lose everything that rightfully belongs to me. Phillip doesn’t have any other family, so I’m his only heir. Besides, if I tried to move away and sacrificed all his holdings, his partners would get suspicious of not hearing from him or seeing him and they’d begin an investigation. If the authorities had to hunt me down, which they would if I left mysteriously, I’d appear even more suspicious to them.”

  “I don’t like you being hurt like this, Miss Rachel. It ain’t fair.”

  “I know, Lul
a Mae, but I’ll have to reveal the truth soon. If the authorities don’t believe me, they can dig up his grave and examine his body.”

  The woman was horrified. “They won’t dares to touch cholera dead.”

  “I hope not; I don’t want his resting place disturbed. Once the news is out, I’ll get a headstone to mark it. Now I’d better get packed. I don’t have to leave any orders; you and Burke know what needs to be done while I’m gone. If anyone comes to visit, tell them Phillip and I are away on a trip. That should stall matters until I get back.”

  Rachel went upstairs and Lula Mae entered her bedroom to assist her mistress with folding and packing garments for her trip, even though the young woman had told her it was unnecessary. “I hate to see you leaves. Be careful out there alone. I worries about you when I ain’t around to takes care of you.”

  The new widow looked at Lula Mae, smiled, and said, “Ever since I married William and moved into his house, you’ve looked after me. I couldn’t have gotten through his loss and everything that happened to me afterward if you hadn’t helped me, my dear and loyal friend.”

  “I shoulda been there when Mr. William died: I didn’t knowed when I visited him that day, it was his last one; he seemed fit as a spring chicken.”

  “The doctor said it could have been his heart, but the law still isn’t convinced. My opinion is that he never recovered from the loss of his son.”

  “That was a mitey strange fall that boy took when he broke his neck.”

  Rachel halted her packing. “That’s why the law questioned me about it again after William died only two months later, leaving me as his heir. Most people still think I had something to do with both deaths.”

  Lula Mae patted her cheek. “I know you didn’t, you sweet angel.”

  “I wasn’t sure you’d believe me, either, Lula Mae,” Rachel said. “You didn’t like me when I married William. I was afraid you’d had your eye on him and felt I’d taken him away from you.”

  The thirty-eight-year-old spinster stopped working to laugh in amusement. “I was only worried ‘cause you was so young. Mr. William and his son was like my brother and nephew. I ‘bout raised that boy after his ma died when he was ten and I was hired to takes care of him and the house. But I saw how fonds you was of Mr. William, and I saw how he treated you like a daughter.”

  Rachel grasped her meaning, and stopped herself from blushing with embarrassment.

  “Mr. William took good care of you, like I does. If I hadna been gone for three months at my sister’s, you wouldna married that Craig Newman.”

  “It wasn’t your fault, Lula Mae. I was young and scared. The law was harassing me, and people were saying such awful things about me. You know why I married William and why I left home.” Rachel’s gloom deepened. “So much happened after Sherman blazed across Georgia. If those carpetbaggers and Yankees hadn’t put such high taxes and harsh rules on us, we could have saved the plantation. It wasn’t fair or right, Lula Mae.”

  “Don’t you be worrying over things that cain’t be changed,” the housekeeper soothed.

  “That sounds easy, but it isn’t. I tried to change things plenty of times, but nothing worked right for me. Craig appeared to be the only one who believed in me and tried to defend me. But I was certainly fooled by him.”

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you, Miss Rachel.”

  “I was hurt when I thought you were ignoring my messages. I was alone and scared. When you finally returned to work for me I was so happy.”

  “Me, too. Mr. Newman was bad. He didn’t want me working for you.”

  “I’m sorry Craig fired you, Lula Mae, but I couldn’t stop him. He was so angry after Governor Smith canceled those state bonds and he lost so much of my inheritance from William. He did it to punish me.”

  “We was both hopping mad when he gots rid of me,” Lula Mae said with bitterness. “He had no call to do that; I done a good job in his house. He didn’t even hires nobody to take my place. It wasn’t right or proper for a lady to do her own cleaning, cooking, and warshing. Mercy be on my head, but I was glad when you was free of him. Bad men don’t deserve to live and hurt people.”

  “Craig was a bad man, Lula Mae, but I didn’t wish death on him,” Rachel refuted. “You know how he was when he got angry or upset. You visited me the day he died and you saw what a terrible mood he was in.”

  “His brother weren’t no better. Taking all your money and leaving you pore. The law shoulda been chasing them ‘stead of you!” The overwrought woman slammed down the items in her hands so hard that she toppled a stack of neatly folded clothes on the bed. She scowled and went to work straightening up the mess she’d made. “Sorry, Miss Rachel, but it gits me worked up. You knows I was working for them Terrells. Mercy, they was hard folk to please! That was the worst year of my life. I couldn’t work for you, ‘cause you was near penniless, pore thing. I needed food and a bed.”

  “But you gave me a little money—as much as you could spare,” Rachel pointed out. “And you came by to tend me every time you could when I was recovering from my miscarriage. I don’t know what would have happened to me if it hadn’t been for your kindness and loyalty.”

  “It weren’t right for peoples to be mean to you when you never done nothing wrong. They forget their Christian duties not to judge or be cruel to others. It was most awful how wicked men tried to bed you on the sly and how women wouldn’t have nothing to do with you and talked about you something fierce, right to your face! Just mean and jealous witches.”

  “I wanted to stand on my own two feet,” Rachel admitted, “and I could have if people had allowed me to do so. But what can one expect from people who welcomed that destructive Sherman into their homes and handed him their beloved city on a silver tray? Perhaps it was done, as they claimed, only to spare Savannah from the same fate as Atlanta and the other towns that evil Yankee razed, looted, and burned.”

  “Things seemed good for us after you married Mr. Phillip,” Lula Mae reminisced, “but here comes that bad trouble again. It seems you cain’t get away from it, Miss Rachel. It follows you around likes a black shadder on a sunny day.”

  “I know, Lula Mae, and I can’t seem to shake it. Phillip seemed like good luck for a change. I hoped my past would be forgotten or ignored in time, when everyone saw how happy we were and how safe he was. Now he’s dead after getting drunk like Craig did that last day. It’s a scary pattern that frightens me so.”

  Lula Mae halted her chore and looked at the young woman. “You and Mr. Phillip acted more like good friends than husband and wife. Were you truly happy and in loves down in your deepest of hearts, Miss Rachel?”

  Rachel wondered if the housekeeper knew her so well or was merely unusually perceptive. “Happy? To be honest, Lula Mae, I’m not sure I even know what real happiness is. Not since my family and home were taken from me because of the war. We didn’t believe in or practice slavery, yet, my father and brother are dead because of it, and my family and home were lost.” That reality had ruined her life. “I don’t hate all Yankees,” Rachel murmured. “Many came south to be genuine reformers; but some won’t allow us to forget our old way of life or grant us time to accept the new one.” But today Rachel didn’t want to think about the South’s lingering dilemma. She had worries closer to home and heart to resolve.

  “What am I going to do if the law comes and arrests me?” she plaintively asked Lula Mae.

  “I won’t let them or anyone harms one hair on your pretty head.”

  “Thank you, Lula Mae,” she said, but knew there was nothing the kind woman could do to save her from whatever her fate would be.

  Both worked in silence as the packing neared its end.

  Rachel noticed that the bitterness she had seen in the housekeeper’s expression and heard in her voice had vanished. She prayed hers would drain away, too, as she needed all of her energy to work on her problems. Somebody had shot at her today, but she would be out of that culprit’s reach tomorrow. All she
could do was wait to see if a message came to tell her who and what was behind this afternoon’s threat. If it came to Phillip, she would be the one to receive and read it. If Phillip had been murdered and her life was in danger, she would take no risks that would allow an enemy to succeed again. She couldn’t report the shooting to the police; that might entice them out to Moss Haven to ask questions. She would advise Lula Mae and Burke to be alert and careful during her absence, but not expose why. And soon, she would have the opportunity to study Daniel Slade closer.

  As Burke and Rachel rode away in the carriage the next morning, Lula Mae observed their departure. She shook her head and frowned. “You be up to something, Miss Rachel, and you shoulda tolds me what it is,” she muttered to herself. “I know you better than you know yourself. You always pluck the wrong man to marry. You’re truly like me and don’t need no man messing up your life and doings. Most men ain’t worth nothing nohow. Most jest uses us and throws us away when they don’t wants us no more. You should never let no man hurts you like that Newman beast did; I seed your bruises and such. No man deserved dying more than him!”

  In town, Captain Daniel Slade McCandless was having his last talk for a while with Luke Conner. “Learn all you can,” he said to his first mate, “but don’t draw attention to yourself or to me. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. Stay at the hotel; I’ll send telegrams there to keep you informed.” Dan thought Luke almost always looked as if he were about to grin over a joke; he had a playful air, a boyishly roguish charm, and a pleasant manner that Dan thoroughly enjoyed. They made perfect companions and had been best friends for four years.