Promise Me Forever

by Janelle Taylor

  “You be careful, Dan,” Luke cautioned. “If all we’ve heard about your sister-in-law is true, she’s a dangerous woman.”

  Dan saw how concerned his friend was. “I know; her own words at Phillip’s grave incriminated her. That story I told her made her plenty nervous, Luke, and I can tell she doesn’t trust Phillip’s partners. And from what I sense, she doesn’t know whether or not to believe me.”

  “What if she knows who you are?” the brown-haired man ventured. “You did give her part of your real name. What if she recognized it?”

  “She didn’t react as if she’d heard it before.”

  “If she’s a good actress, she wouldn’t; and no woman would be a better one than a successful murderess.”

  Dan reflected on that. “I don’t think Phillip ever spoke about me or even knew I stopped using my last name after I left home. She said Phillip told her his family was dead and that he didn’t want to talk about them.”

  “Then, why did she invite you, a stranger, to travel with her?”

  “Obviously to study me to see if I’m embroiled in her mystery. Somehow Phillip was forced into a trap. I told you what his letter said about needing help fast and about not telling Rachel anything or he would be in more trouble and danger than he already was. That makes me even more suspicious of her. Maybe she got him into a raw deal and something happened to the money. She was searching hard for it yesterday, so I know she doesn’t have it, and that scares her. Phillip must have hidden it as insurance, but died without revealing its location. Then he must have warned her she would be responsible for returning it. I wonder why he would do that, Luke.”

  “If Phillip didn’t tell her about the deal and money until he was dying,” Luke speculated, “it could be his revenge against her for killing him—put her into an enemy’s peril. She has to find it and return it or her own scheme could be exposed. If she does know or suspect who you are, my friend, maybe she thinks you know where the money is hidden, so she’s turning her charms on you to extract that information. Why else would a one-day widow who loved her husband be sailing toward you so fast?”

  “I don’t think that’s her motive for inviting me along. Phillip had to love and trust her to marry her, especially with her bad reputation, but I doubt she loved my brother or any of her husbands. Besides, Rachel hasn’t listed that far in my direction, Luke, though I admit I have caught her eye.”

  “Not yet and not here. She has to protect herself against more gossip and suspicions. Wait until she gets you away and see how she behaves then.”

  Dan didn’t want to think about that possibility. “This would never have happened if she’d known Phillip had a brother who would come after her. It’s because of that damned ship we were supposed to sail on in ‘71! If we hadn’t changed to another clipper at the last minute because of the problems aboard, we’d be at the bottom of the sea with those unlucky sailors. We were in too much of a rush to have our names removed from the seaman’s role in port. I didn’t even remember that mistake until I was given Phillip’s letter last week. I never knew they thought I was dead. Phillip was desperate, so he prayed it wasn’t true. He wanted me to get him out of trouble again. It all comes back to the arms deal and missing money. Rachel’s true motive is in that mystery; she’s not just after an inheritance.”

  “She probably wants the hefty profit from it, but you’ll foil her,” Luke said with confidence in his friend. “If anybody can romance the truth from her lips, it’s Captain Slade. You’ve never let a pretty face and shapely body sway your judgment before.”

  “Not even when I bedded the woman my father loved and wanted to marry?” Dan scoffed. “Damn that scheming bitch!”

  “That was different, Dan, a mistake, and we both know it.”

  Agonizing memories flooded Dan’s head. “I let that flaming-haired vixen get her claws into me. My father never forgave me, Luke, and I don’t blame him. From the time I was born, he had a grudge against me. I couldn’t help looking like my mother, and it wasn’t my fault Mother died giving birth to me. If anyone’s to blame, it was he. He shouldn’t have gotten her pregnant again a month after Phillip was born. That was too soon and she was too weak. I told him so one day when we quarreled; I think he hated me even more because I forced him to face the ugly truth; it was cruel of me.”

  “That’s over, Dan, and you can’t change the past. I thought you’d resolved all that bitterness and anguish, but Phillip’s loss has apparently brought it back to the surface. Don’t let it eat away at you, Dan. Bury it now.”

  “That’s easier said than done, Luke. If only I could have seen Father and Phillip one last time to make peace with both of them, it would be over, one way or another. At least my conscience would be cleared by my overtures. Now, it’s still hanging over my head like a sharp cutlass.”

  Luke clasped Dan’s shoulder with a firm pressure and sent him an expression that revealed his love and support.

  Dan nodded in gratitude. He dropped the matter and returned to their original conversation. “Rachel wouldn’t be concealing my brother’s death if she’s after his money. His partners would never let her drain the companies of enough money to make murder worthwhile anyhow. If Phillip died of natural causes, that would be simple to prove.”

  “Maybe it isn’t,” Luke speculated, “or doesn’t look that way to her. If she’s innocent this time, she could be afraid she’ll be arrested and convicted unjustly. That would be ironic.”

  “If my ravishing sister-in-law isn’t guilty, my friend, the law wouldn’t be so interested in her. They don’t believe her, and neither do I.”

  “If she is scared and was looking for escape money, why didn’t she take that packet you saw in the safe? As you said, she was searching for something particular, something important.”

  Dan picked up his bag to leave. “But if not that money, what could it be?”

  “Damaging evidence that needs destroying? Or clues to this deal?” Luke surmised.

  “Could be either one, Luke. I aim to find out everything soon.”

  “If she sets her eye on you, Dan, protect yourself. I’ll see what I can learn about her family and servants. And about that Earl Starger she mentioned.”

  “I have a few tricks of my own to use on our pretty prey…”

  Rachel purchased a ticket at Central Station while Burke placed her luggage on the loading platform for a porter to put it aboard the train.

  “Don’t you worry none while you’re gone. Me ‘n Lula Mae’ll takes care of ever’thin’. You can depen’ on us.”

  “I know, Burke, and thank you.”

  “Mr. Phillip’d be proud of you, Miz Rachel. You be handlin’ dis real good. And don’t you be scared. Ole Burke won’ let no harm come to you.”

  Rachel smiled and embraced him. She didn’t care what anyone in the South said about a white woman showing affection for a black friend.

  “Bye, Miz Rachel,” he said. “You takes care now.”

  “You, too,” she said.

  She hadn’t seen Dan outside, and she didn’t see him inside the car she was assigned to use. She sat down and waited.

  “Good-morning, Mrs. McCandless,” the familiar voice said over her shoulder. “May I join you since we’re the only people occupying this car?”

  The wary widow smiled as she put her ruse in motion by teasing the grinning man. “Since our mischief can’t be observed, please join me.”

  Rachel moved her skirt out of Dan’s leg room. She was wearing a simple outfit—a promenade polonaise and a demitrained skirt that lightly swept the floor in the rear. The material was a brownish green that enhanced the color of her eyes, a dye Phillip had mixed just for her.

  “You look lovely this morning,” he remarked as he settled himself in the aisle seat next to her, getting his own deceit underway.

  “You look nice yourself, Cap—Dan.”

  “That’s mighty kind of you, Rachel,” he drawled.

  Yes, she had noticed his appearance. He wa
s clad in an obviously expensive suit that was tailor-made for his manly physique—a deep-blue waistcoat with striped trousers in blue and brown and a neat cravat with a tiepin at his throat. Beneath was a brown vest over a tan shirt. He looked comfortable in his dress garments. He cut a dashing figure this morning, and seemed in high spirits, yet she wished he would stop smiling at her as he did and wished the sparkle would leave those seawater eyes. This man was too irresistible for his own good, for her own good. It was hard to concentrate on deluding him when he stole her wits and breath with ease and swiftness.

  A whistle blew—loud beneath the covered platform—to indicate their impending departure. They heard hissing steam and felt the tug against the tracks as the train began to move. It did not increase its speed until they cleared the town, then headed northwest at a steady, rocking pace with its wheels sending forth clickity-clack repetitions as they struck the iron rails.

  As she gazed out the window, Rachel opened a safe conversation. “I hear they’re having a terrible railroad strike up North,” she said. “The papers say working conditions are so awful and dangerous that men have walked off their jobs and refuse to return until changes are made. They’ve reported all sorts of crimes they say are the work of a group called Molly Maguires. I hope it doesn’t spread to here. Most of the interior crops and goods are sent by rail to Savannah for shipment to other ports, and things they need are sent inland by rail. Of course, if goods can reach Augusta by wagon, they can be sent downriver by steam or keel boat.”

  “You seem to pay close attention to anything that might affect your affairs. That’s smart, Rachel.”

  “Phillip taught me well. The ‘73 Panic and Depression warned people to watch for danger signs and to ward off trouble before it struck. My father was smart like Phillip, too.”

  “Does that mean he’s dead? Of course he is, or you wouldn’t have been working to support yourself. I’m sorry, Rachel.”

  “He and my older brother were killed in the war. We owned a beautiful plantation between here and Augusta: White Cloud where we raised cotton. That’s how it got its name. When the fields were ready and you gazed out over them, it looked like a giant snowy cloud covering the earth.”

  This was what he needed, more information about her. “Did your family lose it during the war? Was it burned and looted?”

  “No, we were lucky there,” she revealed in a bitter tone. “But postwar taxes and expenses were destructive.”

  “What happened to your home? Where is the rest of your family?”

  “Another brother drowned shortly after the war. The others… If you don’t mind, I don’t want to talk about this anymore. We won’t be passing near the plantation; it’s farther east than our route.”

  Dan realized these were all clues to her dark past, ones he needed to probe later if Luke didn’t have the answers when he returned. He saw how the conversation had dulled her eyes with remembrances of bad times. Her voice and expression exposed the strain she was experiencing, which told Dan she wasn’t totally unfeeling. Despite his suspicions and caution, her soulful mood tugged at his heart. While he regained his control, he pretended to gaze out the window beyond her, when actually he watched the baffling array of conflicting emotions that flickered on her face and in her golden-brown eyes.

  For a time they both looked out the window at the stretch of pines and cedars with intermingled hardwoods that seemed to go on forever. At some points, they passed plantations and farms and saw workers in the fields. One pasture was dotted with cattle and a few horses. They came to an area where several boys and girls were waving and yelling at people on the train. He observed how she smiled dreamily as she watched them.

  The bartender had told him she had been married three times but had no children, just large inheritances from each. Dan tried to imagine his brother and this beauty as a wedded couple, but he couldn’t. “You and Phillip don’t have a child; that’s a shame. Your expression says you’re fond of them.”

  “We’ve only been married eight months, remember?”

  “Then you two want children someday?”

  “Yes, if it’s possible. Some couples… Look, isn’t that lovely?” she asked, changing the subject. “Everything is so green and alive. I love this time of year. I suppose you miss many seasons while at sea.”

  Relax her, old boy. Let her think she’s learning all about you. “A world of blue can be peaceful and enjoyable, Rachel. I love the sea. I was born to be a sailor. The Merry Wind is my home and family. She’s never failed me. She’s sleek, fast, and beautiful. A clipper with three masts, miles of rigging, and sails enough to fill a big house. She’s the most beautiful sailing vessel ever made—long and lean with sharp bows and raked masts. You’ve never seen a more thrilling sight than a clipper knifing through a windswept sea with a white curl at her bow as she tosses aside an occasional spray. She doesn’t have that bonejarring lift and plunge into the water like other ships. She just skims across the surface like a strong hand over a calm pond. Her flapping sails are like musical heartbeats to me. Yep, she’s my home, family, and love.”

  “I take it you’re not married?”

  “Only to the sea. She makes a challenging, unpredictable, and bewitching wife. She’ll steal your very heart and soul if you let her. But she’ll take your life if you don’t master her.”

  Rachel didn’t mean to relax in his company for a single moment, but she couldn’t help herself. “I’ve never been on a clipper before, only a large steamship once. You make it sound so exciting.”

  His gaze met hers. “It is. It makes the blood sing through your veins. Maybe I can take you on a voyage one day.”

  “That would be won—” Rachel halted and composed herself, dashing aside the contagious emotions he had evoked within her. “I’m sure Phillip and I would enjoy a trip on your… lovely wife.” She laughed.

  The train made a few stops at small towns with tiny depots. The whistle would blow on approach and departure. Steam would hiss like an angry snake and send clouds of misty white breath billowing away from its sides. It would move onward with its steady sounds and lulling motion.

  Despite the numerous stops, no other passenger entered the car they were sharing. They remained secluded in the quiet and intimate setting, sitting side by side with shoulders touching and occasionally one’s knees rubbing the other’s as the engine took them around bends.

  “Somehow I can’t picture Phillip McCandless as a plantation master,” Dan commented.

  Let him think he’s getting to know you, Rachel. “He isn’t. We use the sharecropper system at Moss Haven. Our plantation is divided into large parcels where other families live and work. They pay us by giving us half of their crops, mostly cotton and indigo. We own the land, houses, work animals, and tools. We supply the seeds and other necessities. Phillip sells the crops to brokers in town, and the profits are split down the middle. We only have four people who work for us: Lula Mae, our housekeeper, Burke Wells, our manager, and two helpers. Burke takes care of our private property and sees to the needs of the sharecroppers. We only keep a few stock and raise a family garden. This method saves us a lot of time, work, and aggravation. If their crops fail one year, we have other holdings to see us through. So far, that hasn’t happened.”

  “Your staff is mighty loyal. That housekeeper looked annoyed with me for bothering you the other day. She’s mighty protective, isn’t she.” He chuckled.

  “She’s always been that way. She calls me Miss Rachel and has trouble forgetting I’m a grown woman. But I don’t mind. She’s been good to me.”

  The train halted for a time at Tennille. The passengers were allowed to get off to stretch their legs and to buy a snack if they wished. Dan went to purchase them something to eat. He returned with a napkin of cold fried chicken, still-warm biscuits, hunks of cheese, and an open bottle of wine.

  He spread another napkin across her lap, then one across his thighs. He held up the food for her to make her choices. Rachel took some of e
ach and thanked him. Dan pulled two glasses from his pockets and poured wine into one. He passed it to her, then filled his own.

  “I’m sure you paid a pretty sum for this lovely feast.”

  “We’re worth being pampered today, aren’t we?” he jested.

  “Yes, and it’s fun.” How curious that he should make her feel so relaxed and happy while simultaneously making her tense and worried.

  “Do you like Savannah, Rachel? Are you and Phillip planning on living there permanently?” He listened as he ate a chicken thigh.

  “It’s a beautiful town. Phillip never mentioned moving again. He seemed happy with his change from Charleston. Why do you ask?”

  “I just never thought about him moving away. He loved it there. But Savannah does put him closer to his other businesses. Why did he merge the McCandless shipping firm with Milton Baldwin’s?”

  She chewed, swallowed, then answered, “Savannah already had several shipping firms, and both of theirs were smaller. To be competition for trade, they needed to be large and powerful. I also think Phillip wanted someone helping to run the firm when he was in Athens or Augusta.”

  “How did he get into those businesses? They’re both odd choices for a gentle man like Phillip who was never a hunter or a fighter.”

  “I don’t know. I assumed he always owned partnerships in them. He didn’t inherit them from his family when they died?” she asked Dan. Listen close, Rachel.

  “No, the McCandlesses were never involved with arms and ammunition.”

  “I can’t answer. I never thought to ask him that question.”

  “Did he spend much time with them?”

  “A few days every five to six weeks. He seemed content to let George Leathers and Harrison Clements run those two companies. That’s why I found it strange that he worked out a personal deal with you.”