True Nobility

by Lori Bates Wright

  But before he could question the earl, Dottie Saberton stepped in behind him with a look that Nicholas recognized as trouble.

  Evening shadows fell across the decrepit floor of the warehouse.

  Tori’s hands, bound at the wrists, scraped against the fetid hay as she struggled to work them free.

  Josie stirred. The smile tugging at her lips did not soften the cold intensity of her eyes. “You a mite uncomfortable, my lady? Ain’t that a shame? I hope you suffer good and proper. Just like ma and Jake.”

  Josie approached the bale Tori sat upon and gave it a push with her bare foot.

  Tori closed her eyes rather than let the girl see her flinch.

  “You always had anything his golden baby wanted while we scrounged for days just to find somethin’ to make our innards stop growlin’.” Josie came close until her jeer was directly aimed at Tori’s face. “Now you get to know the feeling.”

  Josie turned, coughing again with her expended effort.

  Tori used her heel to scoot herself back on the hay until she came up against the wall.

  Josie was ranting again. But as long as she continued to talk, it bought time for Tori to free herself.

  Finally able to catch her breath, Josie weakly slid down the wall to the floor, scowling at Tori in disgust. “Go ahead and stare. Before long, I ain’t gonna need none of your hand-me-downs or your stinkin’ permission to take my own money outta the bank. Ain’t none of that makes you a lady.” She sat with her dingy elbows braced on top of her knees, looking over the ruined gown she wore. “It’ll all be mine, and I’ll get everything back that rightfully belonged to my ma.”

  Tori squirmed as Josie carelessly slit the skirt with her knife. “This fancy material ain’t no better than them calico skirts Ma used to wear. Cotton was a whole lot sturdier.”

  Tori frowned slightly, trying to work her hands free. Useless. Her fingers were numb and refused to cooperate. Taking a quick breath against the panic welling up in her chest, she used her shoulder to free the gag from her mouth.

  Crying out at the failed effort, she gritted her teeth at the sound of Josie’s laughter laced with hacking. “How do ya like not to be able to help yourself? Havin’ to depend on someone else? Knowing help ain’t never comin’?”

  Josie was likely some sort of distant relation. Tori had known it the first time she’d gotten a good look into her eyes, but she was too exhausted and sore and hungry to unravel the fevered girl’s ramblings.

  “We come from the same loins. Or ain’t you figured that out yet?” Josie swiped at her mouth before wiping her hand on Tori’s gown. “Your papa left us here. We wasn’t good enough to live in that big stone house of yours.”

  Tori stiffened. Her mind screamed that the girl’s accusation was nothing but a cruel lie.

  “Don’t believe me?” Josie squinted against the faint shards of light spilling through the broken windows. “It’s on record.”

  Uneasiness set in. The more Josie muttered, the more she sounded like a madwoman.

  Resuming her struggles, Tori was determined to flee this horrid place. To be rid of Josie and her demented prattle.

  “Ever heard of Lucinda Martin?” Josie smirked at the shock on Tori’s face. “Sure you have. I heard you talkin’ about her to your captain.”

  Tori’s heart plummeted at the mention of Nicholas.

  Renewing her struggle, the foul gag finally came free of her mouth, though the ties at her hands held firm. “How dare you make crass accusations against my father?”

  “Because it’s true. Lucinda Haverwood was my ma, and she was married to your papa before you was ever born.”

  The words on the marriage certificate couldn’t be denied. Still Tori refused to believe her father capable of such a contemptible deed. Marriage to two women was illegal. Perhaps this Lucinda woman had died before her father married her mother.

  “Where is your mother now?” Tori wasn’t certain Josie had heard her. She sat completely still with eyes narrowed.

  “Dead.” She finally answered in a dull voice. “Died a few months back. Jake’s dead, too. Couldn’t get no medicine to cure ’em.” Josie hesitated for a long moment before a faraway look again took over her features.

  In the dimming light, Tori could barely make out the girl’s red cheeks, but it was enough to know that fever had her disoriented. Silently, she worked at the ties at her hands. “I’m sorry. I truly am. Can you tell me what happened?”

  Josie’s voice dropped to a near whisper. “Jake got the yella fever. Ma and me, we couldn’t get no doctor to even look at him without givin’ him money first. Ma sold Spanish moss to the townsfolk to stuff their mattresses, but she had to buy eggs with the money just to keep up his strength.”

  Shadows blanketed the warehouse and Tori could barely make out the moisture shining on the other girl’s face as she leaned her head against the wall.

  “Ma went to Mrs. Peddington over at the Somersville Plantation, beggin’ her for help. She sent over an old medicine woman that wrapped him up in goose fat and onion mustard. Stunk to high heaven. Didn’t help none. He died a couple of days later.”

  Both of them were silent.

  An unexplainable sadness clouded over Tori for a boy she’d never even met. The things Josie described were unimaginable.

  “Then Ma come down with it, too. I did everything I could to bring her around. Even slept with the overseer out at the Hamilton place. He promised to have her seen by the doctor himself. But when time come he just called the law. Accused me of trespassin’.”

  Josie’s voice faded so that Tori had to twist closer to hear what she was saying. Her eyes shone bright with fever. It was doubtful she even remembered Tori was there.

  “Mrs. Peddington let us stay in one of the deserted quarters. She sent someone out every other day, bringin’ us food and fresh water. Ma read out of her Bible some, and prayed alot, but her God wasn’t listenin’ neither.”

  Tori didn’t respond.

  “And that’s when she told me about him.” Bitterness seeped back into Josie’s speech, and Tori became instantly wary. “His honorable highness, the great Earl of Wrenbrooke.”

  Josie bent over in a mock bow, breathing with difficulty as she tried to straighten back up. “‘Your papa’s a good man,’” she’d say. “‘He just comes from different folks than us.’” Josie shook her head as she went on. “He turned his back on my ma before we was born. Never even wanted to know us. Left us to scrape and beg, while he went back to his castle and married a woman more befittin’ of him.”

  To even contemplate that she spoke of the same man who had single-handedly raised her made no sense at all. Tori wanted to scream that her father would never be so callous.

  “We buried Ma under a cypress tree that had honeysuckle wrapped all around it. Ma loved honeysuckle. She showed us how to pinch off the bottoms and pull out the long sweet honey stick. It was the best treat we ever got when we found a honeysuckle bush. We’d sit there eatin’ on them honeysuckle blossoms ’til we got sick.”

  Tori remembered the lavish confections that the cook had made for her almost daily as a child. Desserts had become so mundane she rarely gave them a second thought. Now, she wished she could have given just one to the two scraggly children Josie described.

  Something told her that at least part of what she was hearing was the truth. “I never knew.” The words stuck in her throat.

  Josie grasped onto a bale of hay, swaying as she came to her feet. “It don’t matter a hill of beans whether you knew it or not. I turn twenty-five in a couple of months, and the law says I get what’s comin’ to me. All of it.” She started in the direction of Tori’s voice. “The contract said its mine only if you’re dead. Ma begged me not to do it. She said the court of law could work something out if I’d just wait a little while. But I ain’t waitin’ any longer.”

  Tori knew she meant every word.

  For whatever reason Josie had chosen to spare her the night she’d tak
en her from Aunt Charlotte’s home. Maybe a change of heart. Maybe in reverence to her mother.

  Now, however, she was out of her head with fever. She hadn’t been nearly this ill two days ago. Progressively she’d gotten worse until Tori was certain she wasn’t thinking clearly. Josie had no qualms about killing her this very instant, as much for herself as in vengeance for her mother and brother.

  If she was going to survive this night, Tori would have to think of a deterrent and quickly.

  “Listen to me, Josie. I can have it all turned over to you. It’s a fairly simple transaction really. Now that I’m married, I have no use for Wrenbrooke or any of its income.”

  “We already tried it that way, now it’s time to just get it over with.” Feeling her way in the darkness, Josie came closer to where Tori was bound, her dagger poised for attack.

  “Wait, Josie!” Tori screamed. “Surely you can’t murder me, knowing I’m your own blood sister. Think of your mother. Lucinda sounds as though she was a wonderful God-fearing lady. She would be crushed—.”

  “Shut up. Don’t you even speak my ma’s name with that English tongue of yours.” Josie screeched, then erupted into another violent coughing fit. Shuddering heaves of breathlessness brought the girl to her knees.

  “Cut these cords. I can tend to you, Josie. Kill me later, if you must. Right now, let me help.” Tori became frantic to get loose. Josie needed medical attention.

  The awful hacking finally stilled, and Tori listened closely for the haunting wheeze that she had become accustomed to hearing when Josie was around. It was there, rattling in the quietness of the darkened storehouse.

  Fireflies flitted near the fallen girl, and Tori could barely see Josie’s outline on the mucky floor where she now lay unconscious. Stepping off her bale of hay, something scampered past her foot, causing her to shiver. Keeping her eyes peeled on the place she’d last seen the knife, she pleaded silently for the tiny bugs to shed their light just one more time.

  When the flashes finally came, Tori reached for the blade with her bound hands, and tried to steady it between her knees while she sawed at the rope. It seemed an eternity passed before the twine fell free. Pain prickled through her fingers until she was quite certain they would never be the same.

  Rubbing her wrists, Tori carefully stepped over to the girl to feel the heat of her forehead. Just as she suspected, Josie was burning to the touch. Turning her onto her side, she hoped to keep her from breathing the fetid dust from the floor.

  Looking around, she decided that she would need a suitable place to leave Josie while she went for help. Somewhere away from this stinking squalor.

  But first things first.

  Taking the knife between her thumb and forefinger, Tori held it out in front of her as if it were lethal. Shuffling her feet loudly, she fervently hoped to ward off anything in her path as she made her way to the door.

  Once outside, Tori took in a most welcome breath of air.

  An uncontrollable urge to run rose from the depths of her. She wanted to be far away from the nightmare of this place. She wanted to forget about the troublesome girl lying in the rubble of the old building. Wanted to pretend she didn’t exist.

  Oh, how she missed Nicholas.

  Why should she care what happened to Josie? The girl tried to kill her at every turn. Tori flung the dreadful weapon off to her side, listening to it clatter against something in the dark.

  But what if the things she’d said were true? It was highly possible that Josie was her sister.

  Tori shoved her hands into the pockets of the ragged coat, bringing the woolen material closer abound her. Though the night was warm, she felt a chill. Her hand wrapped around a folded paper stuffed down deep in the seams of the jacket. Even as she withdrew it, Tori knew the paper contained proof of Josie’s allegations.

  Moving to where the slivered moon could better provide its assistance, she read just enough of the contract to acknowledge the injustices her father had made. A sob escaped her. According to the document, by all rights Tori should never have been born.

  Lucinda Martin Haverwood and her two children, Josephine and Jacob, had been the earl’s legitimate relations—his firstborn children. Twins Tori had never even known existed.

  She used to dream about what it would be like to have a brother or sister. Little did she know they were very real and living in America. Impoverished and rejected. Abandoned to a life of utter misery, in favor of Tori’s own dear mother. Simply because she had possessed a more acceptable name?

  Tori swallowed the hurt that stung her throat. “What am I to do now?” She looked up to the stars peering from behind low clouds. “You’ve known about this all along. And I believe You’ve sent us here to set things right.” Tori sniffed and squeezed her eyes shut. A tear made a hot path down her bruised cheek. “Lord, please forgive him.”

  Tori only hoped she could find the grace to do the same herself.

  Drawing a quivering breath, it occurred to her that she needed to recover the knife she’d just discarded. It would have to be disposed of. Josie must never have another opportunity to use it against her.

  Sniffing again, she turned to either side. It seemed that she had heard it hit something when she had tossed it away. A rusty washtub leaning against the wall of the warehouse, appeared to be the only thing capable of making the tinny noise. In the dark, she found the knife resting next to the building where it would have been in full view by morning, a careless mistake that could have cost her life.

  Listening to the frogs and various other creatures of the night, Tori used the knife to dig a shallow hole under a tree. Dropping the weapon into it, she hesitated a moment before adding the worn contract as well. Just for safe measure. After filling the hole back up, she disguised her work with brush and leaves.

  Josie couldn’t kill her without a weapon. She was entirely too weak. And she wouldn’t dare knowing Tori was the only one that could tell her where to find her contract. A second bit of insurance.

  Returning to collect Josie, Tori lifted the girl under her thin arms and dragged her across the floor into the fresh night air. She couldn’t do anything about the injustice done to Lucinda or her son, but she was determined to see everything possible done to save Josie.

  Panting and taking a moment to catch her breath, Tori let Josie lie on the grassy knoll that lead down to the riverbank. “You are terribly heavy for someone who doesn’t eat enough to sustain a bird.”

  Her own stomach grumbled in protest.

  With no idea where to go next, Tori settled her hands on her hips. She obviously couldn’t drag the girl all the way back to Savannah. Nor could she leave her here alone in her deteriorating condition.

  A palmetto tree, down by the waterfront would have to serve the purpose. At least, it was in a sandy area, void of the monstrous crawlers from the storehouse.

  Josie moaned as Tori continued to drag her down toward the tree. Once there, Tori ripped a large piece from her petticoat. Kneeling to moisten it with the cool river water, she couldn’t keep from thinking about all Josie had said.

  It was no secret that her father was deeply loyal to station. Endless generations before him had been as well. He was bound by honor to protect the dignity of his title.

  But going so far as to leave a woman he obviously cared for a great deal in favor of keeping with convention? In effect, denying his own children?

  If true, it would take a force much stronger than herself to forgive him of this pretense they’d lived all these years.

  Without warning, a sharp pain in the back of Tori’s head brought complete darkness swirling in around her.

  Child, wait patiently when dark thy path may be,

  And let thy faith lean trustingly on Him who cares for thee.

  ~ Fannie Crosby

  Twenty-Nine

  Nicholas saw the urgency in his mother’s eyes as she strode purposely into the library. “Have you any idea what this man has done?”

  Icy finger
s of dread crept up Nicholas’s back. “We were just listening to highpoints before you arrived.”

  “Why are you people just sitting here? Get up!” The earl rattled his cane against the bottom of Zach’s chair until the young man sprang to his feet. “Fetch my daughter, at once!”

  “Will someone please explain what’s going on.” Nicholas’s voice grew louder with every word.

  The lawyer fidgeted, replacing his papers into their case.

  “Now see here, Saberton, I hold you responsible for this. As my daughter’s husband, you were required to see to her welfare.”

  Nicholas cast an impatient glance at the earl and his flailing cane.

  “Edward, please.” Dottie’s eyes never left her son’s. “Nicholas, there’s good reason to believe that Tori’s life is in jeopardy. We mustn’t delay a moment longer.”

  “We’ve been searching all night.” He was tired and agitated, desperate for answers. “Do you have any idea where they’ve taken her?”

  “Dottie, good to see you.” Abner discretely made his way to the door. “I’ll let Nicholas fill you in on our visit.”

  “Thank you, Abner. Say hello to Eleanor.” Dottie doors to close behind him and turned back to her son. “Edward wasn’t kidnapped. I found him out at Brechenridge when I returned from Philadelphia this morning.” She came to stand in front of her son. “He decided to force your hand. He knew Tori’s birthday was fast approaching and felt she would be better protected under your care. As your wife. He felt you weren’t inclined to marry her soon enough with him here to keep a watch on her, so he removed himself from the picture. Knowing I was out of town, he made himself at home at Brechenridge. I’m sure that dear girl worried herself sick over his disappearance.”

  The earl harrumphed loudly.

  “She was frantic.” Nicholas could barely contain his fury at so careless a move.

  “When I got home, Edward was there waiting for me and told me what he’d done. He also told me you were married while I was away.” Her tight-lipped account told them all she wasn’t happy about any of it. “Though I’m delighted you’ve decided to settle down and take a wife, I would have liked to have been there.” Nicholas caught the ominous look his mother sent his way. “However, under the circumstances, I believe you did what you thought best.”