Antebellum BK 1 (18 page)

“
How can you say that?” he wailed. “After all we meant to each other.”

“
I lied to him,” Clementine shouted. She pushed Kevin back toward the porch steps. “I stood right here on this porch, looked my husband right in the eye and denied ever having sex with you. I lied. I lied so well that the poor, stupid son-of-a-bitch believed me and apologized for doubting me.”

“
Really? So he’s not going to kill me? Then why can’t I come in?”

“
Kevin. You’re not listening. You can’t come in because it’s over.”

“
Why? It was good, wasn’t it? What we had?”

“
Damn it, will you pay attention. If Jack comes home and finds you here he’ll know that I lied to him and he’ll kill us both.”

“
I don’t care. I don’t care. Let’s die together. I want to die. Are you ready to die with me, Clementine?” He tried to take her in his arms.

“
No. No. You die.” She pushed him away. “You go die if you want to. Jump off the cliff. Go drown in the Bay. But don’t try to take me with you. I’m staying here and I’m going to fight to save my marriage.” She raised her knee to her chest and kicked Kevin in the stomach.

He stumbled backwards down the porch steps and landed flat on his back.

Clementine ran after him and kicked him in the thigh. “Get out of here. Go away. Kill yourself. I don’t care. I never want to see you again. Never.”

Kevin rolled onto his chest and then struggled onto his hands and knees.

“
Go.” Clementine landed a vicious kick to his ribs. “Go. You worm. You coward. You weakling.” She kicked him again, then staggered back to the porch. “I’m going to get the shotgun. If you’re still here when I get back, I’ll splatter your guts all over this hill and claim you tried to rape me. Do you hear that? Do you hear me?”

She went inside, closed the door, sat down on the floor and wept. Later, when she looked outside, Kevin was gone.

March 20, 1852

New York, New York

H
arriet Stowe and Anna Van Buskirk were huddled in the doorway of the Western Union office watching the book store across the street where
Moby Dick
was being replaced in the display window by
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
.

“
The first printing is sold out,” Anna said.

“
How can it be sold out if that store still has all those books?” Harriet asked.

“
Your publisher sells books to book stores. When your publisher has no more books in his warehouse, you’re sold out until the publisher prints more.”

“
What is it called when the book stores have no copies?”

“
Failure.”

“
I don’t understand.”

“
It doesn’t matter, Harriet. Your book is going to be in bookstores for a long, long time.” She did a double take at the corner clock. “Lord. Look at the time. I must hurry or I’ll miss my boat. I can’t let Nancy go without me.”

“
I wish I was going with you.”

“
Next time.”

“
When will you be back?”

“
I don’t know. I’ll send you a telegram when I do. Good luck with your book signing.”

“
Thank you. Oh, Anna?”

“
Yes?”

“
Have you by chance read any of Louisa May Alcott’s short stories or poems?”

“
The name doesn’t sound familiar.”

“
When you’re next in Massachusetts you might wish to visit her. Her father’s name is Bronson Alcott. They live in Concord. Bronson Alcott in Concord, Massachusetts.”

Anna didn’t understand why Harriet had mentioned any of this and glanced at the clock again. “Thank you. The next time I’m in Concord I’ll try to call on her. But, I really must go now.”

“
Yes. Of course you must. May God bless you and your – bible deliveries. And remember, Louisa May Alcott in Concord.”

Puzzled, Anna hurried on her way with her mind now focused on the impending trip to deliver supplies to the Free-Staters in the new territory.

April 1
, 1852

Unorganized Territory of

The Louisiana Purchase

E
arlier in the year, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would have created the Nebraska Territory from the open prairies west of Iowa and Missouri. The Senate tabled the bill, however, because most Southern Senators wanted Nebraska to be a slave state while most Northern Senators wanted it to be free and a few wanted it split into two states. Hoping to gain Southern support, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, stipulated that the principles of the Compromise of 1850, which had no restrictions on slavery, might be applied in Nebraska. Although a revised bill that would split the territory into Kansas and Nebraska, permitting citizens to choose slave or free status, was not expected to pass immediately, maneuvering to gain voters in the prospective new states and immigration were already in full swing.

On March 20
^th
, Anna and Nancy had accepted a consignment of crates from a man in Brooklyn who did not identify himself. Their only instructions were to deliver the “supplies” to a new free-state town in the Nebraska Territory that was being created by the New England Emigrant Aid Company. The following day they boarded a train in New Jersey that was bound for St. Louis, Missouri and arrived there a very uncomfortable three days later.

At St. Louis, they saw to the loading of their consignment, boarded the steamboat
Elena
and steamed up the Missouri River to Kansas City. In Kansas City, they bought a wagon, a team, a tent, a pistol, ammunition and provisions, then set out over the Oregon Trail with only vague directions.

Today they had delivered the cargo to another unidentified man and had rented a room above a plank and frame building with the words Red Johnson’s Saloon hand-lettered on the front wall.

“
Dear God,” Anna grumbled. “I’ve never been so exhausted in my life.” She sat down on the bed and began to unbutton her shoes.

“
I’ve never been so dirty.” Nancy sat on the opposite side of the bed and started removing hairpins. “I’d burn everything I’m wearing if I had anything else to wear.”

“
Yes,” Anna agreed. “The next time we’ll know how to pack.”

“
And how to hitch a team to a wagon, and how to shoot a snake, and ford a river and relieve ourselves behind a bush and – every other painful lesson we learned. It feels like I’m awakening from a bad dream.”

Anna giggled. “It’s a miracle that we made it.”

“
We’ve only made it halfway. Now what we have to do is go back the same way we came.” Nancy groaned. “Oh Lord, I dread that train trip. If this hotel wasn’t vermin-infested, I’d just stay here forever.” She shook out her hair and lay back on the bed. “What’re your thoughts about the bathhouse we saw?”

“
There’s no privacy whatsoever.”

“
I’ll hold up a bed sheet or something while you bathe, then you can do the same for me.”

“
As long as you hold onto our gun while you hold up the sheet.”

“
What do we do about clean clothes?” Nancy asked. “The clerk at the desk laughed when I asked about laundry service.”

Anna nodded. “Maybe we should go buy new clothes before we visit the bathhouse.”

“
Do you think the general store even stocks women’s clothes?”

“
The saloon girls must buy clothes. I saw several on the way over here and four or five in the saloon downstairs. Although calling them girls is a stretch.”

Nancy sat up. “They must have a place to bathe.”

“
I know what you’re thinking and…”

“
Why not? They don’t have any diseases that are going to rub off on us and we certainly don’t have a reputation to ruin.”

“
Okay. You talked me into it.”

~

“
You’re not safe staying even one night above Red’s saloon.” The woman’s name was Florence. She had henna colored hair, a heavily painted face and was probably in her early fifties. “I’ve built that tent city for my girls. It’s protected twenty-four hours a day by men on my payroll. I’ll rent you a tent for whatever you’re paying Red Johnson.”

“
You have a deal,” Anna said, opening her pocketbook. She, like Nancy, was wearing a new dress that was too colorful but modest, and both of them were clean.

“
Who are all these people?” Nancy asked.

Florence shook her head. “What people?”

“
All the people here – in this place – in this town – or whatever it is. There must be several hundred.”

“
Oh, they’ve come for various reasons. Most to stake a claim for the free land.”

“
Nobody knows when, or even if, there’ll be a homestead provision in the new territorial acts,” Anna said.

Florence nodded. “They’ll squat on a section and farm it until they can claim it, or somebody runs them off.”

“
This isn’t at all what we expected,” Nancy said. “We thought it was a real town.”

“
Come back in a month and there’ll be a real town here,” Florence replied.

“
We’ll be back,” Anna said. “But probably not that soon.”

“
No probably about it,” Nancy said. “It’ll take me a month to recover from this trip.”

April 4, 1852

Two Alone Ranch, Waco, Texas

“
N
o, Father,” Johnny Van Buskirk said loudly. “I’m not going to attend West Point and that’s final.”

“
Don’t be so dramatic,” Thomas replied with a grin. He dropped the appointment letter that he’d just read to Johnny into the trashcan beside his desk. “You can do whatever you want.”

Johnny looked at the letter in the trashcan uncertainly. “Really?”

“
Really.” Thomas opened a ledger and picked up the abacus that he used to double-check his figures.

“
What will Pea say if I don’t?”

“
He’ll probably say that you’re making a mistake.”

“
Do you think it would be a mistake, Dad?”

Thomas shrugged. “I can’t make your decisions for you, John.”

“
Pug will probably beat me up.”

Thomas looked up at his son. “Quincy will do no such thing.” He pointed at the door. “Go do your chores.”