Concealing Grace (The Grace Series Book 1) (27 page)

“Kinsley,” Hughes announced, “you have passed the preliminary process required to become a Sovereign Son of the South. You are now a probationary member of our organization. In order to become a full member you will need to pass the final initiation. You will be part of Whistler’s chapter. Whistler, you will assign Kinsley initiation duties and report back to me upon completion. Kinsley, do you have any questions?”

“Noooope,” Kinsley drawled.

Hughes chuckled. “Emerson, do something with him.”

“Why me?” Trent retorted.

“Because you’re the one who said, ‘that’s enough’.”

* * *

“JESSICA! JESSICA!”

Already asleep in her bed, Jessica was roused by Jon’s loud bellow. Hearing the unsteady thumps of his boots on the stairs, she sat straight up.

“JESSICA! JESSICA!”

Quickly, she got out of bed and slipped into her robe. He was moving through the hallway toward her room. She lit a candle and hurried to the door.

“JESSICA! Oh, there you are. You’re awake. I’m glad.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Jon staggered toward her. And he was wearing Trent’s clothes. The trousers seemed to fit well enough, but the shirt was too big, and the left sleeve was creased from having been folded and pinned. He stopped a few paces before he reached her doorway. There he tittered unsteadily before slapping his hand against the wall.

“I’ve been celebratinnn’.” His words were so slurred they were almost indecipherable.

“You’re drunk! You smell like a brewery.”

“When have you everrr been to a buwerwery, Sweeeharrrt?” he drawled.

Jessica turned around, slammed her bedroom door and slid the lock in place.

The next thing she knew he was pounding on the door with his fists. “Jessica! Jessica! Let me in!”

“Go away!”

“Don’t you want to hear about my evenin’? Don’t you want to hear why I’ve been celebratinnn’?” he said.

“No! Go to your own room. Go to bed and leave me alone!” Jessica yelled.

She heard his shoulder—at least she assumed it was his shoulder—fall hard against the door. “Open the door, please. Pleeeease!”

“No!”

“I’ll break it down.” He slammed into the wood again.

“You wouldn’t dare!” Jessica took several steps backwards. “I’m not letting you in! Go to your own room!”

“Jessica, I love, looove you. Pleeease… pleeease let me in.”

“No!”

“I hafta tell you my newsss. It’s supposed to be a secret, but I wanna tell you. You’re my wiffffe and I don’t wanna keep secrets from you. I wanna show you my new outfit.”

“I don’t care!” Jessica said.

“Ohhh, yes, you doooo. You do love meeee, I know you doooo. You just won’t say it,” he said.

“You’re wrong!”

“Open the doorrr, pleeease. I don’t wanna break it down, but I will. I will if I have tooo!”

“Fine!” she spat. “But, I’ll only open this door if you promise you will stop being mean to the servants.”

“I can’t promise tha-at,” he said.

“Why not?”

“They’re supposssed to be stupid. They’re suppossssed to be…”

His voice trailed off and it sounded to Jessica like his back thumped against the door. Then he shimmied down it. A distinctively loud bump followed and he groaned out, “Ooowwee!”

After that, barely loud enough for her to hear, he murmured, “Pleeease tell me you love meee. I need you to love meee. Pleeease. Pleeeease love meee…”

This time around Jessica didn’t answer him. He didn’t holler at her again either. There was nothing but silence. Eventually she called out, “Are you still there?”

There was no reply.

Jessica had seen Trent in this condition a time or two, and once, in the morning, she found him sprawled in the front yard, fast asleep. Jon was probably out cold like Trent was then. Even so, she couldn’t quite set aside her concern. Almost a week had passed since their morning discussion—a week in which the only words exchanged between them were an occasional clipped good day.

He’d spent the majority of his time with his horses and she concentrated on her students. Every night she remained behind locked doors alone in her room. She hadn’t witnessed any further awful behavior toward the servants, until this evening with Ditter. That, in and of itself, was bad enough, but she also saw Jon wearing that awful Klan robe. It didn’t surprise her in the slightest that he would want to join that terrible organization. Since she knew her father and brother were not part of it, she could only guess Jon had been showing off for them. Whether Arnold Whistler was a member, she didn’t know, but she wouldn’t put it past him. Regardless, whatever burgeoning forgiveness she began to feel toward her husband disappeared in that moment.

Teetering there, Jessica couldn’t make up her mind about what to do. Finally, she went to the door, turned the lock and opened it. As she suspected, Jon was on the floor, leaning against the door. When she pulled it wider, he limply fell backwards into the room. The back of his head hit the carpet with a thud, but he didn’t stir.

Jessica certainly wasn’t strong enough to carry him to his bedroom. She couldn’t leave him lying there, halfway in and out of her doorway either. She contemplated pushing him out into the hallway, but the idea of Ditter finding him like that didn’t sit well in her mind. There was only one option left. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed him by the wrists. Grunting with the effort, she pulled and yanked and pulled and yanked until his feet cleared the doorway. When she let go of his arms, his body thumped to the ground. He still didn’t stir.

Through the connecting door, Jessica went to his room and grabbed his blanket. She spread it over him, then crawled into her bed and blew out her candle. Lying still in the darkness, she could hear him breathing. Not just breathing. He was snoring!

What had she expected? She’d known from the beginning Jon was too good to be true. Worse was the idea that everything she originally believed of him was more than someone like her should have ever hoped for. She was a poor farmer’s daughter, a bore and a coward, and very few people in the community respected her. As these self-depreciating thoughts ran through her mind, she remembered once again Reverend Nash’s encouraging words.

Regardless, she decided the decent thing to do would be to get Jon a pillow. Stomping the whole way, she retrieved one from his bed. But then, on her way back, as she stopped and stared at his prone form her anger escalated. The word that came out of her mouth—a word she learned from Trent—wasn’t one she said very often. Then she flounced back to Jon’s room and grabbed his knee pillow, too.

This time when she crawled into her bed, she turned on her side so she wouldn’t be able to see his outline on the floor. At least with the pillow under his head his snoring wasn’t as loud. This was what she deserved—marriage to a horrid man. But, she wasn’t that meek and timid that she couldn’t stand up to him. One of these days, she would let him know what she truly thought of him. Her last prevailing thought before sleep claimed her was that she was glad she hadn’t told him she loved him. Very, very glad!

In the morning, when she woke, he was gone, along with most of the evidence that he’d been there. He left his red knee pillow behind. Jessica picked it up, opened the connecting door and threw it blindly into his room. With a loud click she slid the lock in place.

She was very, very thankful indeed that she never told him she loved him!

Darkness fell long before the man in black arrived at the west end of Shanty Town. He slowed his horse along the railroad tracks and kept on until he came to the shack in which the Klan’s latest intended victim lived. After dismounting, he patted Midnight’s shoulder and whispered, “Wait for me, boy.”

Taking his time, he approached the house and lightly rapped on the door. “Jonas, I am a friend. Open up.” He didn’t need to raise his voice. The wood scraps making up the door had enough cracks between them he could easily see inside.

In short order, the door swung wide. The man who answered it held a candle, which he raised to illuminate his visitor. His eyes widened, but he didn’t back away. “I heard o’ you! What do ya want wit me? What’d I do?”

The man in black said, “I’ve come to warn you, Jonas. The Klan intends to kill you. They know you travel along the railroad tracks to and from your job every day. You need to gather your family, pack your things and leave this area first thing tomorrow morning.” He proceeded to give Jonas directions to the cabins at Bent Oak Manor. As he handed over a small pouch he went on, “You will be given two horses and provisions for your trip north. There is enough money in this pouch to support your family for several months if you use it wisely. The horses will be yours to keep, or sell, once you’re settled.”

“But we ain’t got nowhere ta go,” Jonas protested.

“You can travel to Charleston, West Virginia. Go to the Trexler Mining Company. Anyone on the street should be able to direct you. At the mining company ask for a man named Geoffrey Houseman. He will help you find work. Is that all clear? Do you need me to repeat anything?”

Jonas was nervously fingering the money pouch in his hand. “No.”

“Good night, Jonas, and good luck to you and your family. God be with you.” That said, he started away.

“Who are you?” Jonas called out after him.

The man in black glanced over his shoulder. Had Jonas been able to see his expression under the kerchief he would have seen a crooked, amused grin. The man in black said, “They call me the spook.”

* * *

For recess, Jessica introduced her charges to a new game called, ‘Follow the Leader’. But she had an ulterior motive. Instead of staying on the lawn behind the kitchen, she led them—sometimes marching, sometimes skipping, sometimes fluttering their arms like wings—out toward the peach orchard. As they passed the workers in the fields they waved to them. Eventually she brought the children to the crest of the hill where they could look down upon the row of servants’ cabins. There, she handed out the cookies stashed in her pockets. While her students gobbled up their treats, she asked them to point out which cabin belonged to whom.

From them, she learned Herlin and Martha lived in one of the three cabins on the south side, and Ditter and Ruth resided in another. The cabin between them, the most decrepit of the lot, was unoccupied. Jessica was almost relieved when she heard this. The walls on that particular cabin were so crooked, she was sure a strong wind could blow it over. On the north side of the hill, in the row of seven cabins, only one family had a house to themselves. The rest were shared. Wally and Sadie had three other adults living with them.

It struck Jessica that during the telling of all this information, not once did the children make a derogatory remark about their living conditions. Their entire lives had been filled with such hardship, they didn’t know any better. When Vernon, the oldest boy in the group commented, “Dis be da best house I ever lived in,” Jessica’s heart broke.

As they headed back toward the manor house, Jessica thought again of the horribly run down unoccupied cabin. At one point, she guessed, someone must have lived there. They undoubtedly had to vacate because of the awful condition. They had to move in with someone else. At least Jon hadn’t forced them to return. Of course, he probably wasn’t aware they left in the first place. For the children’s sake, Jessica kept on with the ‘follow the leader’ game, but internally she was fuming.

By the end of school the next day she was ready. As soon as she dismissed the children, she headed out to the stables.

Wally was there, working diligently, as always. “Will you saddle Jasmine for me?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am. Right away, ma’am,” Wally said.

While Jessica waited, she said, “You can be very proud of Sadie. She’s doing remarkably well in school now. She just needed a few extra lessons to help her come along.”

Wally nodded humbly. “Yes, ma’am.”

Before Jessica could go on, Jacob and Willy came barreling into the building.

“Wally! Wally!” Jacob hollered, “Willy an’ me wanna help today. Can we? Can we? Is the cap’n out? Is it okay?” Upon seeing Jessica, in unison the boys said, “Hi, Miss Jesska.”

Jessica wanted to laugh and she probably would have if not for Wally’s reaction. He came out of Jasmine’s stall and hollered right back at them, “No! You cain’t come in here. Da cap’n’ll be comin’ back right soon! Dis not be a good day! Go on, git outta here!”

“Bye, Miss Jesska!” both boys shouted as they sprinted off. But then, at the entrance, they almost collided with Herlin.

“You betta git outta here right quick! Both o’ ya!” Herlin told them.

Jessica called out, “Bye!” to the boys, but she didn’t think they heard her. They were already long gone.

Herlin removed his cap and stood there fidgeting. He appeared as apprehensive as Wally, who said, “I’s sorry ’bout dem boys bein’ in here, ma’am. I knows dey’s not allowed. Dis won’t happen agin.”

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s perfectly fine for the boys to be in here,” Jessica told them. “Anytime the captain’s not around, you should let them help. And we’ll keep this as our little secret. I promise not to tell if you won’t. The captain need never know.”

Wally and Herlin stared at her wide eyed. Their expressions, for once however, were not caused by fear. They were both filled with stunned disbelief. Jessica grinned. To Herlin she said, “I forgot to tell Martha and Ruth I am going to town today to purchase some supplies. Would you mind letting them know, just in case I’m late getting back for dinner?”

Herlin looked at her sideways. “If’n ya tell me what supplies ya need, I kin pick dem up for ya.”

“Oh no, Herlin. I don’t want to trouble you.”

“I kin drive ya ta town, if’n you want,” he offered next.

“No, it’s okay. I want to take Jasmine. She needs the exercise and so do I.”

Herlin was fidgeting again. “Ma’am, da cap’n won’t be happy ’bout ya goin’ ta town all ’lone. He done tol’ me I was ta drive ya, if’n ya want ta go anywhere, ’specially now dat it’s gettin’ dark earlier. If’n you want ta ride instead, I kin saddle up Busta an’ ride witchya.”

Wally led Jasmine, fully saddled and ready to go, out to the mounting block. He waited to help her mount, but Jessica was still focused on Herlin. She didn’t think it would be right to pull him away from his duties. He would end up having to work late to get everything done and that wasn’t fair to him. But, if he disobeyed a directive from Jon concerning her, it might cause more trouble for him. The idea that Jon would unjustly berate Herlin because he failed to do something he was supposed to do for her was intolerable. Finally she said, “If you don’t mind, Herlin, I would appreciate having your company.”

“Thank ya, ma’am. Thank ya!” Herlin’s relief, as he rushed to saddle Buster, was so obvious it made Jessica cringe.

Soon enough they were on the road, side by side, keeping a steady gate. Curiously Jessica asked, “Herlin, do you like working at Bent Oak Manor?”

“I need da work, ma’am,” Herlin said.

“I really don’t like the way the captain treats you,” Jessica told him. “I want you to know how sorry I am that he is the way he is. Not just with you, but with Ditter and Ruth and Martha and everyone else, too.”

“It ain’t so bad, ma’am. Words don’t mean much,” Herlin said.

“He’s so terrible to the children, and they don’t deserve it. No one does,” she went on. “I think having the boys in the stables will be good for them. They can learn a lot from you and Wally. It upsets me that the captain forbids it. As I told you before, anytime you want to have the boys help in there, I won’t tell him. I’ll keep our secret.”

Herlin hesitated, but then he said, “Thank ya, ma’am.”

“Herlin, please call me Jessica.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Willy is very smart, you know,” she said. “He is learning to read and to understand figures faster than any other child in the class. He’s a very special young man.”

Herlin looked at her sharply.

Holding in her smile, she continued, “I have another idea and I want to know what you think. Willy seems to enjoy music very much. When I’m playing the piano he is more attentive than any of the other children. So, I was thinking, I could give him piano lessons. If it’s okay with you, of course.”

“I… I think dat would be wonderful, ma’am. I mean, Miss Jessica, ma’am,” Herlin stammered.

“Do you think Martha will think it’s a good idea, too?” Jessica asked.

“Oh, yes, ma’am! Martha’ll be thrilled an’ Willy’ll be beside himself! He just loves music. He’s always singin’. He thinks da world of you, Miss Jessica. He says he wants ta be just like you when he grows up. He wants ta be a teacher, and a piano player—” Herlin’s enthusiasm abruptly died. He cleared his throat and said quickly, “Sorry, ma’am, I don’t mean ta go on like dat.”

“Herlin, please don’t. I don’t want you to be afraid of me, or feel uncomfortable around me. No matter what you do or say, I’m never going to yell at you the way the captain does. I think you’re great people and I just want all of us to be friends. You can talk to me about anything you want.”

Herlin just looked at her.

While they continued on, Jessica’s thoughts turned to Reverend Nash. It was he who inspired her to do what she was about to do. If he could suffer through being beaten and not feel threatened, then she could do what she thought was right. To use his word, she would remain
undaunted
, and not just with respect to her school. Yesterday, without anyone noticing, she went out to the cabins to take measurements.

Just as they reached the outskirts of town, she told Herlin, “I am going to the lumber yard.”

“Da lumber yard?” Herlin repeated.

“Yes,” Jessica said resolutely. “I’m buying lumber to repair your homes.”

Herlin’s eyes widened. “Miss Jessica, you cain’t do dat. Da cap’n’ll be furious!”

“I don’t care. It’s more important for all of you to survive the winter. I can handle the captain’s anger.”

Herlin shook his head. “Please don’t do dis, Miss Jessica. Please.”

Jessica brought Jasmine to a stop in the middle of the street. “Your family will freeze. There are gaps and holes in the boards on your houses. They’re not fit for animals, let alone people.”

“But the cap’n, ma’am,” Herlin pleaded.

“Herlin, I won’t let him yell at any of you for this. I will take all the blame. I promise.”

At the lumber yard, Jessica went inside the office and determinedly walked right up to the desk. Herlin followed and stood discretely behind her.

“ ’Afternoon, ma’am,” the clerk said.

“Good afternoon,” Jessica returned firmly. “I would like to place an order for some cut lumber. Can you help me?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Jessica precisely told him the number of boards she needed and the lengths she needed them to be cut. She also ordered several bundles of shingles to repair the roofs. Turning to Herlin she asked, “About how many boxes of nails will we need, Herlin?”

“I think two should do, ma’am,” Herlin said.

The clerk scowled at Herlin, but Jessica went on as if she didn’t notice, “Please add two boxes of nails.”

“Payment is due up front, ma’am,” the clerk said.

Ignoring the clerk, Jessica glanced at Herlin once more. “We’ll need putty, too, won’t we? How many buckets do you think?”

“Three buckets,
Mrs. Kinsley
,” Herlin said.

Jessica’s eyes flashed at Herlin, but when she turned back to the suddenly slack-jawed clerk, her expression was blank. “Please add three buckets of putty.”

“You’re Captain Kinsley’s wife?” the clerk asked incredulously.

With a haughty nod, Jessica said, “That’s correct. I am Mrs. Jonathan Kinsley.”

The clerk didn’t say anything. He simply added up the total and handed Jessica the bill.

Jessica barely glanced at the paper. “When can we expect delivery?”

“Three weeks, Mrs. Kinsley.”

Frowning, she said, “I was hoping it would be earlier, but I guess that will have to do.”

“We can move up the delivery date one week,” he said. “Normally we charge an additional fee for this, but seeing as your husband is such a valued customer, I suppose we could waive it.”

“No need to waive it,” Jessica said airily. “You can add that to the bill as well. Please put everything on Captain Kinsley’s tab.”

“Yes, Mrs. Kinsley. Will do,” the clerk said.

A few minutes later, outside of the lumber office, Herlin helped her mount Jasmine. As he handed her the reins, he asked, “Where to nex’, ma’am?”