The House on Tradd Street (47 page)

“Ah, so that’s what this is all about.” She sounded disappointed.

“Actually, no. It isn’t.” I thought for a moment, trying to remember when my last few months had stopped being about restoring an old house to make money from its sale and had instead become all about finding a young boy’s missing mother to tell the world that she hadn’t abandoned him. I realized with a small start that that was really what it had been about for me from the very beginning, when I’d read Nevin’s letter to me. It was almost as if I had challenged myself to prove to the world that not every mother who abandoned her child did so willingly. I thought of the words of his letter that I had long since memorized:
Maybe fate put you in my life to bring the truth to the surface so that she might finally find peace after all these years.
I cleared my throat and met Susannah’s eyes. “Mr. Vanderhorst—Nevin—died without ever knowing the truth about what happened to his mother. I aim to find out and clear her name so that they can both rest in peace. Because I know with all certainty that Louisa loved her husband and her son. She wouldn’t have left them willingly.”

Susannah’s face drooped a little. “So Nevin is gone. It seems wrong, somehow, that he would be gone before me.” She shook her head. “As far as Louisa ever deserting her son, though, never. He was her life.”

I looked at her hopefully. “So you knew her?”

“Not socially, no. But I knew of her from the society pages and from Gus. She was what we called ‘real quality’ in the old days. A true lady. And I didn’t for one minute believe what the papers were saying about her running off with that no-good Joseph Longo.”

“So . . . you don’t know what happened to her?” I felt my shoulders slumping. The coincidence of the date of Susannah’s departure with Louisa’s disappearance had me hoping they had both gone north together.

Susannah shook her head. “I’m sorry, dear, but I don’t know. Gus knew, but he wouldn’t tell me. He said that the fewer people who knew the better off we’d all be. He said it was the kind of knowledge that could get a person killed.” Her bright eyes lighted on me and then Jack. “I guess that means it’s my turn to answer your questions.”

She sat back and rang a small bell sitting on a low chest by the side of her chair. Mrs. Marston appeared immediately, almost as if she’d been waiting outside the door. Susannah gave her a small nod and Mrs. Marston abruptly left the room. I put another pastry in my mouth and listened.

Susannah continued. “I don’t know all the details—just what I heard from Gus—but I think it will be enough to answer your questions.” Jack and I waited while she took another sip of her tea. My foot gave a little kick of impatience, but I reined it in with my clasped hands.

“The night Louisa disappeared, Gus came to see me. He told me that something bad had happened—he wouldn’t tell me what but that I needed to leave town right away. I didn’t want to go, of course. I didn’t want to leave him. I loved him more than my own heart, you see.” She glanced away for a moment. I watched as the pearls on her sweater rose and fell like the vagaries of time, and waited until she was ready to speak again.

“Gus told me that he needed to give me something to take with me, and that nobody must ever find it. Not ever. He knew that whoever wanted it wouldn’t think of me at first, and if they did, I would be long gone. Gus told me that if this . . . thing that he was to give me was discovered, it would mean certain death for him and for Robert. And even little Nevin.”

She gave us a shaky smile, and Jack stood to get a clean napkin from the tea tray for her. She touched the corners of her eyes and took a shaky breath. “He promised me that he would take care of me, that he would make sure I had a beautiful house to live in for as long as I liked and unlimited funds in a local bank. I would never want for anything if I agreed.” Her face crumpled like a drying rose. “But he was wrong, you see, because all I ever wanted was him.”

“But you said yes,” Jack promptly softly.

She nodded. “Yes. I knew Gus wouldn’t ask me if it wasn’t a life-and-death situation. For ten years he had given me everything, and I’d had nothing but my love to give him in return. I thought that I could at least do this one thing for him.”

There was a brief tap on the door, and Mrs. Marston entered the room again, but this time she held something in her hand. I stood when I recognized my grandfather’s humidor. Jack stood, too, then motioned for me to sit down again. “It’s not the same one, Melly. Look, the lock is still there.”

Jack held out his hand for the box, and when Susannah nodded, Mrs. Marston gave it to him. We both sat down again and waited for Susannah to speak. “Gus helped me pack my things, then took me to the train station. He bought my ticket and waited with me until the train arrived. And then . . . he kissed me goodbye and gave me that box. Gus told me that he had a business associate who would meet me at the train station in Atlanta and purchase my next ticket and send me up north. Gus didn’t want to know my final destination in case . . . well, in case whoever it was he was afraid of would want to come after me. He said this associate—I never learned his name—would take care of my finances and travel with me to help me procure a house. Gus gave me a small package to give to him, explaining to me that his payment for assisting me was inside. I assumed it was money, but I can’t be sure.”

I felt a lump in my throat. “Did you ever see him again?”

Her eyes were cloudy as she regarded me. “No, dear. I never did.” The room was silent except for the gentle crackling of the fire. “He loved me—I knew that. But he loved his friend and his godson, too. He did the only thing he could think of that would keep us all safe, and I understood that.” She shrugged. “And I knew, too, that our time together was coming to an end. You see, family was so important to him. One day soon he’d be wanting a wife and some children, and I couldn’t help him with either one of those things. And he was such a man of principles that he never would have considered continuing his relationship with me while marrying another woman. Other men would, but not Augustus Middleton.”

Her chest rose, as if filled with pride. “No, I never saw him again. So that was my parting gift to him: not only to help him save the lives of those he loved, but also in helping him say goodbye to me.”

Jack’s fingers were white against the box. “And you have no idea who Gus was afraid of.”

Susannah shook her head. “No. And he made me promise to never show this box to anybody except for Nevin. Not anybody. He said that when Nevin was older, he would be told the truth, or at least be led to the truth, and he would find me here. I suppose what you found in Gus’s box was supposed to lead Nevin to me.”

Jack nodded. “Yes. We’re guessing that Augustus held the box for safekeeping for Nevin, in case something happened to his father before Robert decided it was safe to tell Nevin the truth. But Robert and Gus died only a few days apart without Nevin ever knowing anything. And then the first box sat in Gus’s effects until one day last month when Mellie’s father found it.”

The old woman’s head drooped so that her chin nearly rested on her chest. “I didn’t find out about Robert dying until later, but I knew about Gus. I received a newspaper clipping of his obituary that was in the Charleston paper. The envelope had an Atlanta postmark, so I assumed it was from his business associate. I remembered that I cried all day but it wasn’t all from sadness. Oh, no—there’s lots more people like me that have a great deal more to cry about. And I had ten good years with him.” She glanced up and our eyes met. “I think I was crying because of all the years I’d missed him and how I’d always pretended he was dead. And then he was, and I had to miss him all over again.”

“How difficult for you,” said Jack.

Susannah surprised us by smiling. “Not really. You see, I feel him here, in this house. With me. When I go to sleep, I see him. It’s like he’s waiting for me.”

I looked away, afraid that I might cry if I didn’t. “So the clues have been here all this time, and Nevin never knew. He died without ever knowing.”

“That’s not true, dear,” Susannah said gently. “He knew his mother loved him. And he knew enough to leave his house to you. He must have been pretty sure that you would continue searching for his mother.” She smiled. “And that’s why I decided to give the box to you and not that other fellow.”

Jack sat up straight. “There was somebody else here asking about Louisa?”

Susannah wrinkled her forehead. “Yes—late yesterday afternoon. He was only here briefly, which is probably why I forgot about it until now.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry—my memory isn’t what is used to be, I’m afraid.”

Something cold and heavy gripped my gut. “Do you remember his name?” My voice sounded strangled, as if I were struggling to get the words out from my tightening neck. I recalled Marc canceling our date because of a sudden out-of-town trip, and the person at the Historical Society’s library who’d misfiled the book we needed that would lead us to Susannah Barnsley. And the hang-up phone calls Miss Barnsley had received from Charleston that weren’t from us. I felt Jack’s eyes on me, but I didn’t look at him.

Susannah tapped her fingernails against the arm of her chair. “It will come to me, just a moment.” She continued tapping her fingers, her brows creased in a deep frown.

Jack cleared his throat. “What did he look like?”

“Oh, that’s easy. I always notice a nice-looking man. He was very tall, taller than you. He had very dark hair and dark eyes. And he wore an expensive suit. That’s something Gus taught me, you know—how to recognize good tailoring.” She chuckled. “It’s funny, isn’t it, that I can remember things like that from a long time ago but I have trouble remembering what happened yesterday?”

Jack hesitated, and I knew he was going to wait for me to ask the question or not ask it at all. Feeling almost as if my voice was coming from another person, I asked, “Was his name Marc Longo?”

Susannah’s frown smoothed and her face brightened. “Yes, that’s it exactly. I should have at least remembered the last name. Joseph Longo is who Louisa was supposed to have run away with. Not that I ever believed it, of course.”

I opened my mouth to ask the next question and found that I couldn’t. Jack spoke instead. “Was he asking about Louisa and Joseph?”

She frowned again. “You know, I’m not sure if he did. But I do remember that he asked me about the diamonds. He asked me several times if Gus had sent me away with them.”

“What did you tell him?”

Susannah smiled sweetly. “I told him no, of course. That I had never heard of the diamonds. Which wasn’t true—I
had
heard of them, but I didn’t know anything about them. Not that I would have told him, anyway. There was something I didn’t like about him. Something . . . untrustworthy.”

Jack had the decency not to say anything.

I managed to find my voice. “Would you like us to open the box now?”

She appeared to consider my question for a moment, but then shook her head “No. I don’t think so. It was never for me, you see. I’ve kept it and not told anybody but you about it for all of these years, just like I promised Gus. I don’t want to break my promise now.”

Jack nodded slowly, then stood. “I think we’ve taken up enough of your time, Miss Barnsley. I can’t thank you enough. You’ve been enormously helpful.”

I stood, too, my knees shaky, still not sure if the frozen ball in my stomach was going to be too heavy to walk with. I moved to Susannah’s chair and knelt in front of her. “Yes, thank you. Thank you for trusting me with the box.”

She touched my hair, and then my cheeks and smiled. “I’m so glad we met. It’s nice to see a part of Gus after all these years. You’ve made an old lady very happy.”

I placed her hand between mine. “Then that alone was worth the trip. Is there anything we can send you from home? Anything you need?”

She squeezed my hand. “Gus is gone now, so there’s nothing on this earth that I need. But I want you to promise me one thing.”

“Sure. Just name it.”

“Promise me that you’ll set it right—for not just Louisa but for all of them.”

“I will, Miss Barnsley. I promise.”

“Good,” she said, squeezing my hand again before glancing up at Jack. “Is he your beau?”

“Definitely not,” I said at the same time Jack said, “I like to think so.”

Susannah surprised me by laughing. “I understand. He’s a bit like Gus, that one. You’ll resist him and you’ll resist him, and then one day it’ll be like a bucket of water being thrown over your head, and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without him.”

I stood and grinned wryly. “More likely the bucket will have to hit me in the head hard enough to make me lose my senses.”

Jack nudged me with his elbow as he leaned down to kiss Susannah’s cheek. “Goodbye, Miss Barnsley. It was a pleasure meeting you. I hope we’ll have the chance to meet again.”

“Me, too,” she said as Mrs. Marston appeared with our coats to escort us to the door.

 
Wordlessly, Jack and I got into the rental car, and Jack handed me the box. As if in mutual agreement, we maintained the silence until we reached the highway and Jack spoke. “Do you want to talk about it?”

I shook my head.

“Fine.” He drew a deep breath. “Any ideas on how we’re going to open the box?”

I looked outside the window at the vast countryside passing by, the greens and blues of summer hidden beneath the reds and golds of autumn. “Pull over.”

Jack had the good sense not to question me and pulled the car over onto the shoulder of the two-lane highway. I jumped out of the car with the box, and Jack followed me to the edge of a field. “Help me find a big rock.”

Realization dawned in his eyes as he turned away from me, and we began combing the edge of the field for anything heavy enough to break the lock. We’d been looking for only about five minutes before Jack called out to me, holding up a chunk of rock a little bigger than his fist. He approached and reached for the box.