Otto's Offer (Lockets And Lace Book 3)

by Zina Abbott

  “And you almost got in the middle of it that day, didn’t you?”

  Otto nodded. “I was on my way to town early that morning when I ran across some children who were fleeing the attack. After they told me what they knew, I worried if the raiders were after all the horses they could find. I thought they might try the surrounding farms. Since our three ranches—Uncle Sidney’s, the Palmers’ and ours—were between Salina and Missouri, I rode back home as fast as I could and told Pa. He agreed with me we needed to take the best horses and hide them. That’s what our cousins, Kizzie and Jesse, and I did. It was then I decided I needed to join up. Pa managed to hold me back a year, but after the massacre at Lawrence, I told him I couldn’t, in good conscience, avoid my duty to Kansas.”

  “Why would they kill all those people in Lawrence?”

  “I think Lawrence was a revenge attack. They were after a Kansas general named James Lane. He led a Kansas unit that had attacked Osceola, Missouri, over a year earlier and killed several civilian Confederate sympathizers.”

  Henry squirmed and shifted a few inches closer to where Otto sat. “But, wasn’t it exciting knowing you were going to go fight off those rebels who killed all those men?”

  Otto shook his head. “No. That’s not how it is in the Army. The Army is a lot of hurry up and wait. It is a lot of boredom interspersed with a few incidences of intense fighting and total terror. In the middle of battle, all that ran in the back of my mind was the thought that a bullet or bayonet was headed my way and right then I might be breathing my last. Henry, I went to Fort Leavenworth to enlist in November. I missed Christmas with the family while I was stuck in the fort until the following May, waiting for them to muster enough men to fill a regiment. Other than guard duty and drills, there wasn’t much to do. I quickly realized that was not what I signed up for.

  “Then, in September, when we did get orders to move out to Paola, we didn’t do much other than watch the area until a month later we were sent into Missouri. Even though you were quite young when we moved to the farm Pa has now, you remember when we lived in Boonville in Missouri, don’t you?”

  “I was pretty little, but I remember hearing talk about it.”

  “One thing I really did not want to do was find myself in Missouri fighting against our old neighbors. Yet, one of the first battles we fought was east of Independence along the Little Blue. The battles we fought were to push back General Price who was trying to take Missouri for the Confederacy. I could just see us heading east to our old home. Fortunately, the fighting moved south. It was a week of battle after battle, one of the most terrifying weeks of my life. Many times, I doubted I would live through it.”

  Otto felt his chest tighten the more he talked about those days. He noted with a touch of satisfaction that some of the excitement had faded from Henry’s face.

  “But, you beat the Rebs back, didn’t you?”

  “Yes. We drove them south through Missouri, then the south part of Kansas, and eventually into Arkansas. We were there for a good portion of the last winter of the war. But, that is not what I really wanted to do when I signed up. I wanted to be in Kansas protecting Kansans, not down in Arkansas for months before they pulled us back.”

  Henry’s face wrinkled with confusion. “But, I thought St. Joseph is north of Fort Leavenworth and Kansas City. That’s where you bought the gold locket for Ma, isn’t it?”

  Otto recalled the gold locket. Obviously, Henry didn’t have all his facts straight. “I bought the gold locket from an old Bavarian jeweler in St. Joseph. But, I didn’t buy it for Ma, exactly. She’s holding it for me. I gave it to her before I left to go west to keep it safe. Of course, as soon as our dear sister, Hannah, saw it, she wanted it for herself.”

  Henry smirked and shook his head. “Hannah wants everything for herself.”

  “That’s Hannah, all right. I now know why our cousin, Kizzie, the wild one, used to always sarcastically call her the perfect daughter. She used to be meek and easy to get along with when she was younger. Once she grew old enough to go men-crazy, she started wanting every pretty thing for herself, and she wants a lot of attention, to boot. However, I promised the old German I bought the locket from I would keep it to give to the woman I love enough to marry. I told Mutti when I gave it to her, if for some reason I didn’t return from the Indian campaign, she was to keep it. Considering what it says, it applies more to her than it does to Hannah.”

  “But, if the fighting took you south until the war ended and then you traveled west, when did you get up to St. Joe to buy the locket?”

  “I’ll tell you the story tomorrow night, Henry. Right now, I’m tired. I’m headed for bed.”

  .

  .

  .

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  ST. JOSEPH, MISSOURI – APRIL 1864

  CHAPTER 3

  ~o0o~

  It was a late enough in April that spring was in full swing. Private Otto Atwell had just received his monthly pay and his mess mates in Company A of the 16th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry had been granted four days of leave. He had to get away from Fort Leavenworth. He had enlisted in November and been mustered in right away. However, it was taking the regiment longer than planned to enlist enough men to fill its ranks, and many of the later enlistees had been sent home to await word of when they should report for duty.

  After five months at Fort Leavenworth—five months of drilling, performing guard duty, and supposedly being available in the event of attack—Otto had already had his fill of Army life. He wanted to go home for leave. However, with there being a distance of over 200 miles between the fort and Salina, where his folks lived, he didn’t have time.

  Otto had no desire to go to Kansas City or the small surrounding towns, either. Most of the men talked of heading out to those localities. They had only one thing on their minds—visiting the saloons and brothels. He was already familiar enough with what went on in the Army to know too many young men came back from such adventures with either a case of the clap or the pox that plagued them for the duration of their enlistment, in spite of treatment by the physicians. Even efforts by the Army to regulate prostitution so that the women stayed “clean” did not seem to stop the problem. Otto was restless with the desire to see some action, but not that kind of action.

  What Otto had seen outside of Boonville, Missouri, where he had spent his younger years, and the trip to Salina, Kansas, was what could be seen along the Smoky Hill and Kansas Rivers between his family’s current home and Kansas City. What he wanted to see was something new. It was with great relief when two fellow soldiers, Privates Carter and Ellis, invited him along for a trip to St. Joseph, Missouri, only one hard day’s ride from the fort.

  Naturally, one of Otto’s first concerns about their destination dealt with whether or not it was near a combat area. Carter had assured him it was not. St. Joseph had seen some unpleasantness in the early days of the war, but right now, with it being a city on the Missouri side of the Missouri River, and the river being the boundary between Missouri and Kansas, the city was quiet.

  Ellis also pointed out another fact that convinced Otto it was safe to go. “Remember, Atwell, there may be a lot of Southern sympathizers in Missouri, and Quantrill may have been headquartered there, but no one has heard much from him since Lawrence. Technically, Missouri is a Northern state where Union uniforms are accepted, if not always welcomed.”

  Otto remained a little dubious about how welcome his blue Union uniform would be, especially after hearing about some of the atrocities committed by Union soldiers against the citizens of Missouri. However, his misgivings were not enough to prevent him from taking the opportunity to travel to someplace new to enjoy the sights for a couple of days.

  When they stopped midday to rest the horses, Otto quizzed his companions about the city. “What exactly is there to see?”

  Ellis spoke first. “The city itself. It’s up on a bluff overlooking the river. Quite a scene.”

  Carter interjected. “You see a lot
of that kind of thing up and down the Missouri and Mississippi.”

  “Ho! The world traveler, are we, Carter?”

  Carter shrugged with nonchalance. “I’ve been around a few places—before the war, of course. However, St. Joe is close enough for us to see the bluffs without getting shot at for our trouble.”

  Not to be outdone, Ellis jumped in. “They say it’s the farthest point west you’ll find a railroad. In fact, there are several that all meet up in St. Joseph.”

  Otto raised his eyebrows with a questioning look. “What about the transcontinental rail they are building out of Omaha? That’s west of the Mississippi.”

  Ellis nodded. “That’s just it, Atwell. They’re still building it. Planning to build it is probably more like it. Of course, I’ve heard there are railroads out west in California and the like. They ship those big engines and the rails around the Horn, if you can believe that. However, there is nothing yet that connects those western states to the East. St. Joseph is the most westerly point you can travel by rail if you are coming this direction from the East.”

  “That’s why the Pony Express had its eastern terminus in St. Joseph. Once the rider took the ferry across the river, the mail could go by rail from there.”

  Otto looked at Carter with a question on his face. “The ferry?”

  Carter rose and clapped him on the shoulder. “Yep, the same ferry we are going to use to cross the river to reach the fair city by the river. But, for all the sights we can see in St. Joe, and the good food we can eat, the one place I plan to visit is the shop belonging to the Bavarian jeweler. Anyone who knows anything is aware he always has a good selection of lockets. Some he makes himself, and some he either buys or takes in as trade. I’ve got a sweetheart back home, and I wish to send her a little encouragement to wait for me until I return to her.”

  The next day. the trio found The Bavarian Jewelry and Watch Repair shop. All three entered, only to discover the space on their side of the L-shaped counter was barely large enough for all of them to comfortably stand and view the items either in a display case or hanging out of reach on the wall behind the counter. He noticed some of the items on display were not jewelry, but were lace, such as a lady’s lace collar and a dresser scarf.

  The older man, who Otto judged to be about forty based on his spectacles he wore over dark eyes and his dark brown hair streaked with gray at the temples, assumed almost a military bearing as he stood straight and faced the three soldiers. He nodded a greeting before he addressed them in a thick German accent. “May I help you?”

  Otto smiled and nodded in return, but his curiosity could not keep him from turning to study the larger area behind the short leg of the counter. He noticed an unusual worktable with a U-shaped cutout in the center, creating two protruding arms on each side as if designed to serve as elbow rests to support the jeweler’s arms. A glass globe filled with water—the likes of which Otto had never seen—rested on a wooden stand. Next to the stand appeared to be the casing and interior parts of a gold pocket watch. He quickly realized the purpose of the orb was to focus sunlight shining in through the front window onto a central work area. At that moment, the work area happened to be the back of the open watch.

  A young man, perhaps not much older than Otto’s thirteen-year-old brother, Carl, stood next to a different work table where it appeared he was connecting links for a gold chain. Otto realized both the jeweler and the young man he guessed to be his son felt uneasy about the presence of three uniformed Union soldiers in their shop.

  Otto offered them a reassuring smile. “Guten Tag. Good day. My friends came to see some of your jewelry. I’ll wait outside so it is not so crowded.”

  Before Otto could open the door, the jeweler focused on him and spoke in German. “Sie sprechen Deutsch? You speak German?”

  Otto realized he had made a mistake by conversing in German to the jeweler. As a child, while she still lived at home, his mother, Carlotte, and her family had mostly spoken the native language of her German parents. As an adult, Carlotte had talked to her young children in German, except when their non-German-speaking father was present. Then they talked in English. As the children grew older, German had been used in the home less and less until Otto found it did not come to him as easily as it had when he had been younger. “Ein bischen. A little. When I was a small child.”

  Ellis nudged Otto. “Ho, Atwell, I never knew you were German. Atwell sounds English, old pal.”

  Carter’s languid reply stopped Ellis from further comment. “His first name, Otto, should have given you a clue.”

  Otto shook his head over their antics. “My mother is German.” He then focused on the jeweler. “We are not here to speak for the Army. My friend, Private Carter, says he would like to look at some lockets, if you have any.” He looked first at Ellis, and then at Carter. “I’ll wait outside while you two gents conduct your business. Mind your manners.”

  “Yes, Mother.” Ellis laughed and gave Otto a wave of dismissal.

  “When I finish with them, you come back in, and we talk. Something I have you may like.”

  Surprised at the jeweler’s invitation, Otto smiled and nodded. “Certainly.”

  After Otto stepped outside, his mind started pondering the man’s request. He had no idea what the jeweler thought he might like. He had no sweetheart or wife, so, unlike Carter, he was not in the market for a locket. He could use a pocket watch, but he did not want to spend the money it would take to buy a decent one.

  Soon, sharing a joke between them, Carter and Ellis exited the jeweler’s shop. Ellis turned to Otto. “The old man reminded us he’d like you to go back in and talk with him. Guess he doesn’t get much chance to talk that Dutch language.”

  “Deutsch. He’s Bavarian. The language is German, not Dutch.”

  Ellis shrugged. “Can’t tell one from the other.”

  “I’ll be out in a few minutes. Where can I find you?”

  Carter pointed towards an eatery across the street and down the block.

  Otto agreed to meet them there.

  Back inside, Otto noticed the young man had returned to his task. He was now seated with his back to the counter.

  The older jeweler nodded his greeting and began his conversation in German.

  Otto struggled with the language—the grammar more than the words. He soon realized the jeweler understood English better than he spoke it. They ended up conversing in a combination of German and English.

  “Your mother is German, ya? Where was she born?”

  “She was born in Pennsylvania. Her mother’s family had come to North America from the Palatine region before this country’s revolutionary war where we broke away from British rule.”

  “Ya, Rheinland-pfalz—west from Bavaria. I know.”

  “Interesting history. They went first to England. From there, they were sent as indentured servants to New York, but eventually, the family ended up in Pennsylvania. That is where my grandfather had been given land during the Revolutionary War. Ever hear of the mercenary soldiers from Hesse who were sent to this country to fight for the British?”

  “Of Hesse, I know. North of Bavaria.”

  “Well, from what my mother told me, at the time of the Revolutionary War, at least a third of Pennsylvanians were Germans. One of the great generals who served under George Washington was German and barely spoke enough English to talk the other officers. At this general’s suggestion, when they captured large groups of Hessian soldiers, they gave them a choice. They could stay loyal to the British cause and become prisoners of war. Or, they could give an oath to never again take up arms against the Americans and in exchange, they would be sent to Pennsylvania to live among the German people already there. They were also promised land so they could have their own farms and support themselves.”

  The jeweler looked at Otto in amazement. “A reward they were given.”

  “Perhaps. But, it was much cheaper and easier than keeping them prisoners of war. From what I understa
nd, these men did not fight because they wanted to be soldiers or because they had anything against the Americans. They owed their loyalty to their duke or whatever was back in Europe. In Hesse, if the men didn’t own land, they couldn’t marry. The only place for them to go was to work the land for the owner or go into the military. That is how my grandfather became a soldier. To be given land so he could be his own man and support a family was the greatest gift he could have been given. At least, that was what my mother said. She was his youngest child, born when he was quite old. My grandfather passed on before I knew him.”

  “A good story. All over German states, it is the same. My younger brothers forced to be soldiers. Horst not want to be in army, but Bavaria needed soldiers. Johann is a soldier still, but Horst…” The Bavarian shook his head.

  “I assume your one brother died while serving his country. My condolences. Were you called into the Bavarian army?”

  The jeweler shook his head. “No. A trade I had, as watchmaker.”

  Otto had no reason to doubt the jeweler. However, the manner in which the man’s eyes momentarily stared at the other side of the room without focusing left him suspecting there was more to the story.

  The jeweler turned back to Otto. “Something I have to show you. A good price I offer if you wish to buy.” He leaned down and unlocked one of the cabinets below the shelf on the counter with the thick glass covering. He brought out a gold locket shining with newness and handed it to Otto.

  Otto brought his palm closer to his face to better study the design etched on the front of the heart-shaped locket. He had seen lockets before, but mostly they were oval or round, and they tended to be larger. Yet, from the heft of the small ornament in his hand, he could tell the jeweler had not skimped on the amount of gold used. Filigree scrollwork surrounded the floral design in the center.

  Otto turned the heart over. On the back, bordered top and bottom by etchings of the same design as the front, was an inscription. “All my love, Otto.”