The Way Home

by Eliana West

  A bird up younder’ll show the way.

  A bird up younder’ll show the way.

  Fix my eyes to Zion, Lord.

  I’m here on bended knee.

  A bird up younder’ll show the way.

  A bird up younder’ll show the way.

  A bird up younder’ll show the way.

  When the hour is early.

  Walk me on to glory.

  A bird up younder’ll show the way.

  A bird up younder’ll show the way.

  A bird up younder’ll show the way.

  Moses tell the story.

  The Power and the Glory.

  A bird up younder’ll show the way.

  “It was your Ada Mae wasn’t it?” Mae’s mother asked.

  Jo choked back a sob and nodded. Ella took Jo’s face in her hands.

  “Look at us. We are generations of Coltons who have lived, loved and died in this place. You have the strength of our ancestors. Never forget that,” she said wiping away Jo’s tears with her thumb.

  “Granny said there was a woman trapped in this house. I think you were called to come here to finally set her free,” Opal said.

  The other women nodded in agreement. Jo gave each of them a hug. “Thank you. I didn’t realize just how much I needed this today.”

  After Jo said goodbye to Mae’s mother she turned to where the Jewels were standing by their car whispering to each other. “You tell her, Ruby. You’re the one who talked to them,” Opal was saying when Jo walked over.

  Ruby turned to Jo. “Miss Josephine, I don’t want to cause any trouble but I saw Sam and Minh at the barber shop the other day. I poked my head in to ask how things were going here at Halcyon and they said they weren’t working here anymore.”

  “What?”

  Jo looked at Ruby in shock, her mind racing. She hadn’t seen Sam and Minh around lately. She’d been spending most of her days in town working with Dax and helping Mae update the town computer systems. She assumed they were either finished with their work for the day or Taylor wasn’t ready for the next phase of the plumbing and electrical work.

  Ruby twisted her hands in front of her. “They said that woman that Taylor works with told them they didn’t look right to be on television.”

  Jo pressed her lips together. She’d been avoiding spending any time with Taylor for the last week and clearly that was a mistake. Taylor was trying to get out of using Jacob for the cabinets and now Sam and Minh weren’t working at the house anymore.

  “Thank you for telling me, Ruby. I’ll take care of it, don’t worry.”

  “We’re all really happy to have you here. I mean one of us…I mean a descendant.”

  “I understand.” Jo’s voice shook. “I promise I’ll take good care of Halcyon so other generations can come and learn about Ada Mae and everyone who was enslaved here.”

  Ruby nodded and pulled Jo into a hug. Jo said goodbye to the rest of the Jewels and stood in the driveway waving until their car disappeared.

  Jo walked back around to the garden to take a minute to admire the progress they’d made.

  “It looks beautiful out here,” Taylor said.

  “Thank you. The Jewels and Mrs. Colton were a big help.”

  Jo reached down to pull another weed and let out a sharp hiss when a sliver slipped under the skin of her palm.

  “Careful.” Taylor grasped her hand, gently holding it in his palm. “Just stop, and let me get this out,” he said as she started to pull away.

  “I don’t need your help.”

  “No, you don’t but I want to give it just the same.”

  He carefully pressed on her palm until the edge of the sliver popped up and he could pull it out. Jo’s breath hitched when he rubbed his thumb over the wound before he let go of her hand.

  His eyes searched hers. “I miss you,” he blurted out.

  “We weren’t friends long enough for you to miss me.”

  “Maybe not, but I miss working on the house with you.”

  She’d missed him too. When Judge Beaumont made his decision Jo didn’t know how much she would enjoy working with Taylor on the house. But the man who she thought she was getting to know, the one she liked, wasn’t the man she saw now.

  She took a deep breath before she asked, “About the house, why aren’t Sam and Minh working here anymore?”

  “They were busy working on other projects.”

  “That’s not what I heard.”

  Taylor rested his hands on his hips. “What did you hear?”

  “That Tessa told them they didn’t have the right look for television.” Jo made air quotes with her fingers.

  Taylor shook his head. “I’m sure they misunderstood. Tessa wouldn’t have said something like that.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I get that you don’t like Tessa but making up stories about her is a little petty don’t you think?”

  “I’m not making up stories and I didn’t misunderstand. Why can’t you believe me?”

  “Why are you always trying to make it look like Tessa is some kind of villain? She’s not trying to hurt you.”

  “Do you really believe that? Hiring a private investigator and accusing me of being a thief wasn’t trying to hurt me?”

  “She’s not the one being so secretive. You still haven’t told me what happened back in Chicago with your ex-boyfriend.”

  “I don’t owe you an explanation and I doubt you’ll take my word for it over the lies Tessa has told you. Lies that despite what you say a part of you still wonders if they are true. My ex-boyfriend framed me. He’s the one who stole MY program to get a promotion. And while he was stealing from me he was also cheating on me with my best friend. They’re getting married next month. I’ll find out where they’re registered, maybe you and Tessa can get them a wedding present.”

  “Jo, I—”

  “I never tried to deceive you. I’m not the one who—” She shook her head. It wouldn’t matter what she said. Taylor would only hear what he wanted to. She pointed to the door. “Get out of my garden.”

  She turned her back when he tried to reach for her. She waited until she heard him walk away before burying her face in her hands. How could Taylor be so blind to Tessa’s behavior and how could she have been so stupid she’d almost made the same mistake twice? She refused to let any tears fall. She wouldn’t cry; she was done with men who tried to steal from her. Oliver stealing her program was bad but Taylor almost stole her heart and that would have been much worse. But damn it she’d already fallen for Taylor, harder than she’d like to admit. Maybe she wasn’t head over heels in love with him but she was well on her way and his refusal to believe her…to see her, cut deep.

  That night Ada Mae appeared in her dreams again. She was in a room she didn’t recognize, the light was strange and when she looked up she saw the sky, only it wasn’t. Ada Mae sat at a desk in the corner writing something in a small leather-bound book. She had on a silk dress in yellow with brown trim and her hair was upswept high off her neck. She carefully set the pen back into a crystal ink well and turned to Jo, her dark eyes filled with sorrow.

  “He’s just like the colonel. He will break your heart the same way Absolem broke mine.”

  Jo pressed her hands on her heart. “I don’t understand how you could have loved him.”

  Ada Mae let out a long sigh. “I never said I did.”

  There was a long pause and Jo wondered if that was the only answer she would receive but then Ada Mae continued and she could feel her sadness and vulnerability swirling around her. It was so palpable it made it hard to breathe.

  “Did I love him? Mayhap yes, mayhap no—how much can any woman love a man who owns her body and can sell it on a whim or lend it out for another man’s pleasure?”

  Jo gasped. “No, please don’t tell me he—”

  “No, child, he didn’t share me with anyone else. He was too selfish for that.”

  Jo swiped away at the wetness on her cheeks.

/>   “He whispered so many wishes. He told me so many things during the night that sometimes I believed I loved him. We would whisper our hopes and dreams in the darkness. In the light of day my darkness turned any hope I had into despair and shattered my dreams. Even then, sometimes on a sunny day I would have a moment when I thought, maybe, if I loved him enough he would set me free.

  “That boy is going to hold fast to what he thinks is right, the same way the colonel did. When the time comes he’ll have to choose what means the most to him.”

  “What will he choose?”

  There was no answer, just the chirping of birds waking her up.

  Chapter Eleven

  Taylor barely caught a glance of Jo for the rest of the weekend. He’d tried to get a hold of Tessa to ask her about Sam and Minh but she had flown back to LA for a friend’s wedding and didn’t answer any of his calls.

  Monday morning Tessa blustered in, with a smile on her face. Before he could ask her about Sam and Minh Jo walked in.

  “Should you be on your way to work? The crew will be here any minute and we need to get started,” Tessa said to Jo in a voice laced with contempt.

  Jo raised an eyebrow, looking at Taylor expectantly and ignoring Tessa’s question.

  “Tessa, Jo heard that Sam and Minh aren’t going to be working here anymore. Is that true?”

  He didn’t miss the slight flinch before Tessa smiled. “Of course not.”

  “Great, then I’ll just call and let them know that they can start again,” Jo said.

  “The thing is we’ve already started filming with our subs.” Tessa turned to Taylor. “It’s going to cause a delay we really can’t afford if we have to reshoot with new people who don’t have experience being on camera.”

  Taylor stiffened. Tessa’s excuse wasn’t unreasonable but he could tell by the look on her face Jo wasn’t happy with it.

  “I see,” Jo said in a clipped voice.

  “Jo, we can—” Taylor started.

  She turned her back and walked out of the room before he could finish.

  “She is so rude,” Tessa huffed.

  “Tess, Halcyon belongs to her as much as it belongs to me. Jo has a right to have a say in what happens here.”

  “Maybe with the house, but not with the show. I’m the producer here and it’s my job to make sure everything runs smoothly. She has no right to tell me how to do my job.”

  “That’s not what she’s doing.”

  “Come on, Taylor.” Tessa threw up her hands. “That’s exactly what she’s trying to do. I’m not going to let her interfere with the show and neither should you. You have a lot riding on the success of this season.”

  The crew started to come in and Taylor didn’t want to continue the conversation with an audience.

  “We’ll finish this later. I don’t want this to interfere with what we need to get done today.”

  “I’m glad you have your priorities straight.”

  Taylor ignored Tessa’s comment and went to find Jo. He found her in the garden where he knew she would be. She was on the phone with her back turned. Her conversation brought him to a stop.

  “I believe you, Sam. Please tell Minh I’m sorry.” She sighed. “I don’t know what to do. He won’t believe me.” She nodded, listening. “I will. Take care, Sam.”

  She hung up and spun around with wide eyes. “I didn’t know you were there.”

  “I just wanted to see if you were okay.”

  “I’m fine, Taylor,” she said in a flat voice.

  He glanced down at the gardening tools at her feet. “Are you going to be working out here today?”

  “I am. Callie is coming by later this afternoon to pick up the letter from the colonel and Ada Mae’s freedom papers to have copies made for the state archives. I talked to Dax and he agrees that it makes sense for me to work from Halcyon as much as I can from now on so that I’ll be here to make sure decisions aren’t being made without my input. That was Sam on the phone by the way. Not that you’ll believe me, but he confirmed what I told you.”

  He bristled at the way Jo was acting—like he was the one who couldn’t be trusted.

  “I’m sorry about the miscommunication with Sam and Minh, all right. But you’re completely out of line acting like I can’t be trusted with the house.”

  “Taylor, I have the wallpaper samples for the—” Tessa interrupted them. “What are you still doing here?”

  Jo stiffened. “I don’t have to explain what I’m doing in my own home to you.”

  Tessa glared at her for a moment before turning back to Taylor. “I have the samples we ordered. I think I’ve found the perfect one for this parlor.”

  She held up a dark red swatch with a gold leaf pattern stamped on it. Taylor turned and asked Jo. “What do you think?”

  Jo glared at him. He looked down at the wallpaper in his hand and back at her. “We wouldn’t have chosen anything without your approval.”

  “The parlor should be yellow.”

  “This is more historically accurate,” Taylor said looking down at the sample in his hand.

  “I want the parlor to be yellow,” Jo repeated.

  “I hardly think you have the taste level to decorate a house like this,” Tessa scoffed.

  “That’s enough,” Taylor said between clenched teeth. “Tessa, give us a minute please.”

  Jo watched the rigid set of Tessa’s shoulders as she walked away. Her stomach churned with a mixture of anger and frustration. She braced herself and turned to face Taylor.

  “And that is why I’ll be here every day. You may think you know more about what’s historically accurate or have better taste than I do, but I have the best interests of this house at heart.”

  Jo stepped into the parlor and over to a corner where a piece of old painted-over wallpaper had started to lift. She peeled it away and there was a small fragment of yellow. She stabbed it with her finger.

  “This room will be yellow.”

  Taylor looked from the patch on the wall to where Jo stood with her arms crossed. He reached out and ran his finger over the small spot of yellow with a look of astonishment on his face.

  “I’ll talk to Tessa and make sure she apologizes to you by the end of the day.”

  Jo shook her head sadly. “When my brother and sister and I got into fights when we were kids, my dad used to say: ‘An apology you have to demand isn’t an apology from the heart.’”

  Taylor threw up his hands. “I can’t do anything right for you can I?”

  She didn’t answer. Instead she said, “I have weeding to do and the crew is waiting for you. We can argue about wallpaper later.”

  The look of pity in her eyes made him even angrier. She didn’t have any right to feel sorry for him. He returned to the kitchen where Tessa and the crew were waiting. He held his hand up when Tessa started to approach him.

  “Not now, Tessa.”

  He went over to the stool where his hair and makeup assistant Chloe was waiting for him. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “Are you okay?” Chloe asked.

  No, he wasn’t okay. Tessa’s attitude toward Jo was over the top and disrespectful. It was a side of his friend that he’d never seen before. The conversation he overheard Jo having with Sam made him uneasy.

  “Chloe, has Tessa ever lied to you?”

  Her eyes darted toward the other side of the room where Tessa was talking to one of the cameramen and then back to Taylor. She pressed her lips together and continued to apply powder to his face. Her silence made his gut clench.

  She worked without speaking until she finished. When Taylor got up she whispered in a shaky voice, “I need this job.”

  The anxiety in her eyes drew him up short. Chloe had been with the show for two seasons now and Taylor enjoyed working with her. What had he missed? He didn’t remember any incidents where Tessa had lied or bullied the young woman but it was clear by her expression that something was going on.

 
It took a lot of effort to pretend that everything was okay when they started working that morning. He flubbed his lines more than usual and they had to reshoot him describing the next steps they were going to take to restore the kitchen so many times that was all they accomplished by the time the crew broke for lunch.

  He’d just sat down when Jo came into the kitchen with Callie.

  “Hi, Callie, it’s good to see you again,” Taylor said. “Let me introduce you to the crew.”

  “I’ll be right back,” Jo said.

  Taylor had just finished making introductions when Jo came back to the kitchen. The color had drained from her face and she was shaking, her breath coming in shallow gasps.

  He rushed over to her and grasped her shoulders. “Jo, what’s wrong?”

  “They’re gone.”

  “What do you mean? What’s gone?”

  Callie came to Jo’s side, looking at her anxiously.

  “The letter and her freedom papers are gone,” she said in a broken whisper.

  Before what Jo had said registered with him Tessa interrupted, “Don’t worry, you’ll get your letter and papers back just as soon as they’ve been authenticated.”

  There were gasps from members of the crew and Jo went completely still at his side. Callie tightened her grip on Jo, leaning in to whisper something in her ear. She kept one arm around her while she reached for her phone with the other.

  “Dax, I need Isiah at Halcyon right now,” Callie said in a shaky voice.

  “She may have convinced all of you that the private investigator’s report wasn’t true but I’m not falling for it. Once the report comes back proving that letter is fake you’ll own Halcyon free and clear.”

  Taylor couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Somewhere along the line Tessa had gone from being supportive to overprotective and now…

  “You had no right,” Jo shouted.

  Taylor saw the pain and fury in Jo’s gaze and started to move toward her but a sharp look from Callie stopped him in his tracks.

  “I had every right. Taylor doesn’t know what’s best for him but I do.”

  *

  A few tense minutes later Dax walked in with a tall Black man wearing a tan sheriff’s uniform. Dax immediately went over to his wife and Jo while the sheriff stood by with his hands on his hips.