The Visitor - The Bell Tower 1873 - 1875

by Barbara Svetlick

  “You never have to ask. And since my husband just realized you are sitting at the table, I am sure he is going to join us.” Garnett walked up and shook hands with David. James and Meeks joined them at the table and the conversation stayed very light and informal. The waiter served them lunch but they all were drinking coffee instead of whisky.

  “Mirisa, you are not drinking today? I can recommend a great white wine.”

  “Thank you, but I try not to drink when I am expecting.”

  David looked over at Meeks. “Congratulations.” He motioned to the waiter and asked him to bring a bottle of wine. “You can at least have one glass so I can properly congratulate you.”

  David turned back to the boys. “I had a long talk with Dominic when he rode through Washington and I think it is going to be a very easy win since the incumbent is retiring”

  When the waiter brought the wine David tasted it and nodded. David toasted them both and told Mirisa she was probably the most attractive mother he had ever met then they turned the talk back to business as Mirisa played with the food on her plate. Meeks finally had them remove her dishes and they brought her hot chocolate pudding.

  Even after he went back to the conversation, Meeks kept Mirisa’s fingers intertwined with his and she ate with her left hand rather than letting go. Meeks finally asked her if she was ready to go home. They all stood up and Mirisa kissed her husband then told David she hoped to see him again. James told them he’d meet them back at the office and he helped Mirisa into the carriage. As the carriage pulled away, Mirisa saw the white box on the seat wrapped with a beautiful pink ribbon. She picked it up and opened the little card.

  "Little girls dance their way into your heart, whirling on the tips of angel wings, scattering gold dust and kisses in our paths." James

  Mirisa opened the box to find a tiny pink blanket woven in mohair yarn. She picked it up and put it against her cheek.

  “Mirisa.” Meeks put the pad down on the table.

  “Yes darling.”

  “We need to discuss what we are doing for the next six months.” The maid brought out a large tray of fried chicken. “With the election in November we’ll be raising money and campaigning in New York, Washington and throughout Mississippi. Garnett left for Washington this morning and James will join him later in the week. They’ll both stay there before heading to Mississippi.”

  “Are we going to Washington?”

  “We’ll stay in New York for now but will go down for a few weeks. I may need your help down at the office since I’ll be there alone but only if you feel well enough to do it.” She nodded. “Because it will be very hectic and busy the last two months, I want to take you and the girls to Mississippi and stay through the election. We, the four of us, will have to do a lot of traveling through the State so I need to know if you want to stay at the Plantation with the boys or if you want me to rent a house for the two months.”

  “I’ll stay at the Plantation. It will give me a lot of help before the baby is born and I always enjoy being there.”

  “I’m afraid the election is going to cut into a lot of the things we hoped to do this year including heading home.”

  “That’s alright. The election is like having a baby where the end result of the sacrifice and hard work is worth everything.” She put her hand on her stomach and James just wanted to pull her over and kiss her. “I think this is going to be a beautiful baby.”

  A LITTLE blonde came up and said something to Garnett who looked over at the bar then responded to her. She left and walked over to the brunette sitting on the bar stool. James looked up at him and they both finished the hand and left the table heading upstairs. She appeared to be a little older than most of the new girls that they brought in and as she began to undress they both realized that she was not new to the business at all.

  Even though she gave the impression of being cheap you could tell by her silk undergarments that she wasn’t. In fact, she was a little too focused on keeping their attention. She walked up to James.

  “Darling, why don’t you take off your gun so that it doesn’t get in the way?”

  Garnett leaned up against the wall between the door to the hallway and the door to the next room. James took off his gun belt and laid it on the small chair near the bed. She slowly reached for his buttons and James watched her as she undid them very, very slowly. James reached for the tie on her blouse and even though she didn’t stop him she did try to distract him by kissing him. Garnett smiled because that was the sign of a seduction not a prostitute. You never kissed a working woman on the lips. “I understand that you boys like to play together.”

  James grabbed her hands and spun her around so he was behind her and she was unable to move. “You understand wrong.” James untied her blouse and wrapped his hands around her breasts which were very large. He much preferred small firm breasts because they physically reacted so beautifully to the touch. He slid her skirt off of her and she tried to turn but James slowly started to talk to her. He could tell that she was purposely not reacting to him but he didn’t give any indication and continued. James nodded to Garnett who put a chair up against the connecting door then locked the other door. Garnett took off his gun then took off his belt. He wrapped it around her wrists and she started to protest. Garnett pulled it tighter and looked into her eyes.

  “We don’t pay for protests.” Her reaction was all the proof they needed. Garnett hooked the belt around the rod in the iron headboard and pulled it tighter. James took out a cigar and lit it standing at the foot of the bed watching Garnett. The man could torture with such precision that it was scary. Garnett slowly had sex with her as she tried hard to not want to slit his throat. Garnett smiled because he could see the contempt in her face. This is not what she agreed to when she took the job. Garnett redressed and released her bonding. He told James he was going back to the game and left the room. James stood watching her try to control her rage and humiliation.

  “I told you we don’t play.” James came around the bed and pulled her up. He slowly had sex with her then lay in the bed waiting for her to start asking questions.

  James rolled over retrieved his cigar relighting it. She started by asking him what he did and whether he was from Washington or was a politician. He answered her truthfully because she already knew the answers. James asked her how she got into the business and particularly in this house and she lied. Garnett sat in the window sill at the end of the hallway waiting. She got more specific in trying to get information about their strategy for the campaign implying that she had never been west of the mountains. James gave her great details which delighted her to no end and she became a lot more seductive as he talked. James finally told her that he needed to go but would definitely see her next time he came back and she said she would love it but only if he left the other guy at home.

  “I can do that.” James got up, dressed before he put money on the dresser. James and Garnett left the house and stood in the alley across from the back door of the house and waited. The worse part of waiting was not being able to light their cigars.

  A few of the girls came out as a few more came in. About a half hour after James and Garnett took up their post, she came out and turned north toward the center of town. She walked about two blocks when a carriage pulled up and she got in. They stayed back as it let her off at the Seafoam Hotel near the docks. They both dismounted and waited in the shadows. Neither were surprised when he walked out of the hotel with her.

  “Well, if life wasn’t always so full of stupid people I would be surprised.”

  Mr. LaBelle was well known for being Louis’ right hand man when it came to doing things discreetly. Obviously Louis Sampson was not willing to walk away without getting some type of payback for what happened.

  The winter gave way to a very cool spring as the trees in the park struggled to produce new foliage and the bulbs had barely broken ground before summer arrived. James and Garnett closed up the townhouse and returned to New York
before they would head to Mississippi at the end of June to join Dominic.

  JAMES AND Garnett left early before the sun had risen. Mirisa stood at the window as they talked to her husband. They both looked up and nodded just slightly before riding away. The summer had come in quietly with gentle breezes and pleasant temperatures. They were taking the girls out to the Manor for a week then would have to really spend a lot of time on the business.

  Mirisa learned so much when she worked alone with Meeks because he didn’t mind her questions or confusion and was always completely patient in explaining things because he could watch Mirisa slowly understand and get a better grasp on things that most women never dealt with or wanted to know. It was a complete reversal of her always giving them full rein to run her affairs and she would often argue with him over why he was doing something.

  James and Garnett rode through Philadelphia where they spent several evenings meeting with people. They finally headed across the state into the Blue Ridge Mountains. They took the less traveled trail though it slowed them down a little. James was squatting at the top of the ridge with his glasses trained on the valley. “There are at least two riders. They are trying to decide which route we took even though LaBelle had a very detailed account of how they would go over the mountains.”

  Garnett lit a cigar and passed it to him. “They are too far behind us to hope to catch up.” James nodded as they mounted and headed further up into the deep ridges so that they would not be seen even by the most experienced tracker. As the sun started to go below the ridge, they dismounted and tied up their horses. They could smell the smoke and finally spotted the small campfire about a mile below their point.

  Both sat down and took out something to eat waiting for the dark to settle over the mountain. The sky was a beautiful shade of blues and dark purples. “It’s been a long time since we have ridden together.”

  Garnett smiled and put away the glasses. He liked traveling with James because James always had interesting conversations where both Dominic and Meeks were very quiet when on assignment. Garnett took off his jacket, hat and his gun belt tucking his firearm in his waistband. “I’ll be gone fifteen or twenty minutes.”

  “Alright.” James leaned up against the tree as Garnett worked his way down. He was back in about twelve minutes and put his holster back on before sitting down.

  “There are only two horses and one of the men is watching the road though they think we have stopped for the night.” He relit his cigar cupping it in his hand so it couldn’t be visible in the dark. “I’ll drop down in a couple of hours when they are convinced that we are not riding but camped somewhere below them.”

  “It will take the other two all night to reach them if they ride hard.” James closed his eyes and relaxed. The moon rose slowly and when he looked up again it was almost above them. James smiled because he always thought of Mirisa when he looked at the moon. The temperature had dropped slightly but their jackets were warm enough to hold off the damp chill. Garnett went down again and this time was gone a half hour which meant that they were both in the camp.

  “They are waiting for us. They have a description but no names. Whoever hired them didn't want a connection and complete deniability. The two coming up are to keep us from turning around and escaping so they have holed up probably below the last rise of the road. That part of the road is steep cliffs both along it and below so it would be perfect for an accident. They were getting ready to bed down so we’ll give them another hour.”

  James nodded and closed his eyes again. The sound of the night owls reassured them that nothing was stirring that shouldn’t be. Garnett woke him at midnight and motioned. James stood, relieved himself, and tightened his gun belt. He looked up at the moon which was waning. Good night for being in the mountains.

  Slowly working down around each side of the camp, James and Garnett cautiously walked into the camp and eliminated the two men. They drug their bodies across the road and threw them over the side along with everything from their camp. The brush was so thick with the summer growth that it swallowed up any sign of them almost as soon as the weight passed. James extinguished the dying campfire with dirt spreading it out covering it with dirt again.

  “You know James we could have just kept going leaving them waiting until the other two showed up?”

  “We could have, I guess.”

  Unmarked graves and unknown tragedy had been the bane of life and the mountains held stories never to be told. James wondered how many skeletons laid at the bottom of the mountains over the years. This was a favorite area of the Cherokee who would rush down the hill startling the already jumpy travelers as they usually simply panicked and fell to their deaths without a single shot in defense.

  They broke into the valley as the sun was rising and headed across the open country into Tennessee. They finally stopped at a tavern and checked in sleeping through most of the day. It took three days to get through Alabama and another day of hard riding to make it to Jackson where they met up with Dominic. They spent the week at the Capitol working before they headed for Natchez.

  “It’s so nice to be home. Sometimes I forget how much I love Mississippi.” Dominic and Garnett agreed with James.

  Matthew and Jonathan were so excited to see them and they asked a million questions about their mother and sisters. James told them that she tucked something for them in his saddlebag. They both ran and opened it pulling out several things that were wrapped. Matthew read the names and put two of them back. He opened his and it was a flute deerskin sling decorated in the symbols that came to him in his dreams. Jonathan’s was a small leather bag with a silver feather attached to the front. He opened it and poured out the contents. Garnett watched him as he picked up each thing then put it back in the bag tying it around his neck.

  “Jonathan, what is in the bag?”

  “Things from my sisters to keep them close.” Jonathan stood up and tucked it into his shirt. He wasn’t a talkative child when he was around adults but extremely animated when Maggie was near him.

  James poured a shot and put his feet up. “God, it feels so good to be here.” He told Matthew to bring him the two things he put back in the saddlebag. Matthew walked over and handed them to James and told his father they were going to go out in the woods for a while.

  “Make sure you are home before dinner tonight.”

  “He reminds me of us at that age.”

  “Yes, he brings back a lot of memories.”

  James threw one of the packages to Garnett and opened the other. It was the small book that he had bought showing the sketches of the stages of a baby before birth. Under each picture Mirisa had written the date that the baby would be that size and she used Cassie’s name in each notation. He found the date of July 10th as the 6th month mark. Right above it she wrote him a love poem and wished him happy birthday. He closed it and slid it in his pocket without saying anything.

  Garnett put the little package still wrapped in his pocket to look at later. Dominic asked them if they wanted to go into town later for cards and they both agreed. Most of their old friends would probably be at the bar so it would be good to sit down with people you truly liked and trusted. Garnett took the small framed sketch of Elizabeth and put it next to his bed. She had the roundest blue eyes that took in everything.

  The summer in Mississippi was dry and hot as they traveled the State talking to people and campaigning for votes. There was one thing that was certain. Three good looking boys from Mississippi had no trouble gaining the trust of their fellow statesmen especially since they had military backgrounds. Their reputation for supporting the South and Mississippi during the war was legendary. They returned to Natchez often just to check on the boys and to do business. The tobacco fields were producing a bumper crop and the dock business in New Orleans was booming with more and more shippers deciding to use the river to get the merchandise to the west as well as the upper valley states and across the growing western territories.

  The
y spent a week in Jackson then returned to the Plantation to find a letter from Meeks. James sat down and read it slowly before handing it to Garnett. James walked over to the decanter and poured a shot. They were expecting a good summer storm as the dark thunderheads were building west of the river. James thought about the nights he and Dominic would sit on the upper porch watching the late summer storms roll in one after the other. Garnett put the letter back in the envelope when Dominic came in and took off his gun.

  “I think right now we need to make plans to work the coastal part of the state.”

  “I’m heading back to New York in the morning.”

  Dominic turned and looked at James. “I need you here.”

  “Dominic, you have enough volunteers and staff here to handle the last month without me.”

  “James…”

  “It’s not open for discussion.” James put down the glass and headed up the stairs.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Garnett handed him the letter and walked out onto the veranda as the boys came running up from the river with their cane poles and a dozen cat fish. Garnett watched them as they headed for the kitchen door and wondered where all the time goes when you are young and life is so adventurous.

  Dominic sat down and read the letter from Meeks. Mirisa’s father had put her on complete bed rest with absolutely no travelling. Her doctor and her father were concerned not only with her health but the life of the baby. They told Meeks that he might have to make a decision on saving only one if her condition deteriorated and they also made the decision not to let her know. Dominic weighed the issue since in the worse case it would have a huge impact on their sons and yet his being in the state before the election was vital to holding onto his lead. He put the letter down and stepped out onto the veranda.

  “I’m not sure how to handle this one.”

  Garnett looked up at him. “I wouldn’t want to be in Meeks shoes right now.”