The Problem With Jordan (9 page)

“All right,” he agreed. They really needed to get the body into town. “Hopefully the sheriff won’t keep us too long.” He also intended to speak to Ferd Fairchild about his wife, and if he didn’t intend to take her in hand, well, he would! No one was going to talk about his Jordan in that manner. Otis was an honorable man and he’d give his life to protect Jordan, or Missy, as he called her. It was a term of respect from him, and he hated to see Otis unfairly accused, too.

They headed for town and Jim said, “You seem too quiet, friend. Are you angry or just upset?”

“Both. I’m angry with Ferd Fairchild for allowing his wife to flap her tongue with such ugly gossip, and I’m worried sick about my wife. She is deathly ill one minute, and then she feels all better until the next day.”

“She’ll be fine,” Jim said with a smile.

“Do you really believe that?” Cray asked with a worried look.

“I know so.”

“What do you know? Did Alice tell you what’s going on?”

“She doesn’t need to, friend. Just trust me and be patient. I know that Jordy will want to tell you herself.”

“What’s we gonna do ‘bout them town folk?” Otis called to them from the rear of the wagon where he rode beside the blanket-wrapped body.

Cray turned to face him. “I’m going to go and speak to Ferd Fairchild and if he doesn’t take a stick to his wife’s fat behind, then I’m going to do it for him.”

“You know that ain’t true, Mister Cray?” Otis asked sadly.

“I trust you, Otis, and I trust you with Jordan. You are a man of honor, and I know you. I also know my wife. There is no truth in those lies, and I would stake my life on it.”

“Thank you, Mister Cray. You and Missy is good to me. So is you, Mister Jim, and Miss Alice, too.” Otis had a sheen of tears in his eyes. “I know the Bible and I know right from wrong. I’s glad you believe me. It ain’t always so.” He sighed, and then asked, “You seen what they did to this boy; you ain’t thinkin’ them men figured he was me, do you? If that Miz Fairchild been runnin’ her mouth, and folks done heard ’er, maybe they come huntin’ to teach me a lesson and done got this boy?”

“This boy can’t be very old, Otis, and he’s not built like you. I’ve got a feeling we’re going to learn that he was secretly meeting with some young girl and her daddy found out and warned him off, but the boy didn’t listen, and her daddy made sure he wouldn’t be back.”

“I don’t wish that harm on him, Mister Cray, but I’d rather hear that over what I been thinkin’.”

“Even if it was that way, Otis, it would not be your fault. Do you agree with me, Jim?”

“I do,” the other man said firmly. “Otis, you are not responsible for other folks’ actions.”

“I wouldn’t wish that on no one.”

They pulled up in front of the jail and the sheriff was sitting in one of the chairs outside. “What’s goin’ on, boys?” he called out as he got to his feet to approach him. Jim explained the situation, and the sheriff nodded sadly. “It’s a shame, and damn, there comes his mama right now. She’s been huntin’ the town over for this boy.”

“Sheriff,” the woman said, tears in her dark eyes. “This here is my boy, right?”

“Yes, ma’am, Miss Sophie. I sure am sorry.”

“What happened to him?”

The sheriff looked at her helplessly. She turned to Otis. “Sir?”

“Ma’am, this ain’t gonna be easy for you to hear, and I sure be sorry to tell you the truth. We done found him. He was already daid. He was hanged, and best you know, they unmanned him.” When she started to faint, it was Otis who caught her and lifted her and sat her on one of the sheriff’s chairs.

“It had to be them Curtis brothers. They didn’t like my boy courtin’ their sister,” she said, weeping. “She’s a nice girl, and Charlie loved her so. She’s gonna be heartbroke.”

“I’ll come with you to tell her if you like?” Otis offered.

“No, Otis. That is my job,” the sheriff insisted. “I’m going to need to question the Curtis brothers. It’s best if you stay away from them folks; they got a mean streak in ’em.”

“Yes sir, Sheriff,” Otis was quick to reply. “Miss Sophie, can I help you home?”

“What am I gonna do with my boy? He need’s buryin’.”

“We’ll go see the reverend.”

“I’ll make sure that Charlie gets to the undertaker, ma’am,” Jim offered.

“Thank you. Thank you all for helpin’ my Charlie. You’re good men.”

Otis took her arm and walked off with her to see the reverend.

“Can you handle taking Charlie to the undertaker, Jim? I need to see a man about his wife.”

“Be firm, friend. There are a lot of people in this town who would love to see Vickie Fairchild get her comeuppance.”

“That woman causes more trouble than a band of bank robbers,” the sheriff grumbled. “Ferd needs to take a strap to her.”

“If he doesn’t, I will,” Cray promised, then took off down the street, planning to stop by Ferd’s office and make sure he wasn’t there instead of at home. To his surprise, he found Ferd hard at work, bent over the worktable in his shop. Ferd jumped when Cray tapped on the window to get his attention. He got up and came to the door.

“What can I do for you, Cray?”

“You can do something about your wife before I am forced to do so.” Ferd blinked and his mouth dropped open in surprise. “This conversation needs to take place at your house and in front of your wife. She’s gone too far.”

“I don’t understand,” Ferd told him. “What has Vickie done?”

“She is a vicious gossip, Ferd. She stood on the church steps this morning and accused my wife of having sex with Otis Brown. Otis is our hired hand, and my wife works over there with the new colts. The place belongs to Jordan; Otis lives and works there. That is all there is to the situation. It wouldn’t be any different than if your wife worked with another man you hired. I’m not going to tolerate this, Ferd. Vickie needs a sharp lesson so that she watches what she says from now on. You know how things are in this country right now. Accusing Otis of something like messing with a married white woman could put his life in danger if someone believed it to be true.”

“Vickie runs her tongue all of the time, but I had no idea she was saying such terrible things about anyone and especially about Jordan. I’ve told Vickie for years that Jordan was a very sweet girl, but Vickie simply hates her for some reason. I won’t permit this to continue, and I thank you for letting me know. I am aware she rubs people wrong, but I had no idea she was making accusations of this sort.” He reached for his hat and his coat. “Let me lock up and I’ll be right with you, Cray.”

Cray could see the man was furious and trying hard to hide it from him. However, Cray was furious too. He wanted this settled in such a way that Vickie Fairchild would never speak of Jordan again. When they arrived at Ferd’s home, Cray could hear loud laughter while they were standing on the porch.

“Mama, it isn’t right that Papa works so hard all the time. You need to insist that he stay home on Sundays and spend some time with the family. You certainly don’t need the money.”

“Your father loves to work, and Sunday is the one day of the week that people don’t interrupt him and he can get the books caught up,” Vickie said in her loud, raucous voice. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Mother, you have already talked about everyone who was at church this morning,” another daughter said tiredly.

“What are you saying, Amanda?” Vickie asked harshly.

“Amanda would like to talk about the party she is giving in a couple of weeks,” Susan answered for her. “Remember, she asked for our ideas for the refreshments.”

“Oh, that is right. I would rather discuss the guest list. Of course you aren’t going to invite that horrible Jordan McCormick, or Alice Evans. Alice was positively rude to me this morning at church, and that nasty Jordan is lowering herself to lie down with that former slave! How low can a woman go? Why, her husband should beat her!”

“I have heard enough, Victoria Fairchild!” Ferd hissed. “I have never been as humiliated in my entire life as I am right now, and I am going to see to it that you never speak in that manner about anyone ever again. Girls, if you know what is good for you, you will not repeat anything your mother has said about Jordy or about Ally. Both of those girls are sweet young women, and I won’t allow them to be maligned by anyone in my family. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Papa!” the three daughters answered at once.

“I want all of you to leave now. Your mother is going to be harshly disciplined, and she won’t want you here to witness her punishment.”

“Papa, Mama is too old for that!” Susan stood up to her father. “I am not going to leave and permit you to strike her!”

“If you stay, Susan, I will spank you, too.” He turned to Cray and said, “I humbly apologize for my family, Cray.”

“Papa, I hope you know that Anne and I don’t repeat any of Mama’s gossip. It’s gotten so that all she wants to talk about is other people, and if she doesn’t have anything awful to say, she makes it up. I am going home, and Mama, I am not coming back until you can be more like a mother to us. I really needed and wanted some help from my mother today, but instead all I got was another session of untrue gossip.”

“I agree with Amanda, Mama,” Anne said quietly. “I’ll come with you, Mandy, and we’ll see what ideas we can come up with for your party.”

“You two actually think it is all right that Papa punish Mama?” Susan asked in disbelief.

“He certainly needs to, and Max needs to take a hairbrush to you, too,” Anne bluntly told her sister. “You do nothing but encourage Mama in her lies.”

“That’s not true!” she cried out, but it was to a closed door. The older sisters were on their way… without her

“Susan, leave now and tell Max he is to come and see me in an hour. I refuse to permit you to behave like your mother.” Ferd was furious, and Susan decided to leave before he carried out his threat to spank her. She grabbed her things and ran out the door.

“You may go and fetch my razor strop and bring it here.”

“I will not!” Vickie refused. “And I don’t care that you heard me speak, Cray McCormick. It’s the truth!” she insisted.

“The truth is that you are maligning my wife, who is the sweetest woman alive, and putting our friend’s life in danger. If you stir up anger against Otis, there are men who would see him dead, and all because of your lies. There is no truth to what you say, and I best not hear rumors from anyone else because of you.”

“You are the one who will be proved wrong!”

“Victoria, enough! Listen to yourself! Your father owned a mercantile. How often did he leave you alone to wait customers, and with the hired man to help carry things? You were alone with a man you worked with; should everyone assume you were sleeping with him?”

“Of course not! I would never—”

“My wife would never, either, Vickie,” Cray said firmly, hoping that Ferd got through to her.

“Go and get my razor strop, wife. Nothing is going to protect you from the whipping you’ve earned. I intend to make sure you have a reason to keep your mouth in check.”

“You mean to whip me in front of him?” she demanded, her voice more of a screech than normal.

“It is what you deserve. You dragged Jordy’s reputation through the mud on the steps of the church. If I did what you really deserve, I would take you to the church and strap you right there on the steps so that anyone walking by could see how I feel about your gossiping all the time.”

Hatred twisted her features as she gave her husband a heated look. “I want you to leave this house and never come back!”

“This house is mine, and
I
am not the one who is leaving.
You
may leave whenever
you
wish, but first, you are going to fetch the strop and bend over for a tanning the likes of which you haven’t had in years.”

Cray felt sorry for Ferd, and he hoped that his Jordan never looked at him with hatred in her lovely eyes.

“If I need to go for the strop, I will, and I will give you thirty extra for my trouble. You may not have any skin left on your ass by then, but it will be your own fault. This punishment is going to happen, Vickie. If I were you, I would make it easy on yourself.” Ferd showed no sign of giving in, and the woman burst into tears as she ran from the room. “Hurry back,” he warned her. “I am not in the mood to be patient.”

To his surprise, Vickie returned within a reasonable amount of time, carrying the pliable strap in her hands. She handed it to Ferd and said, “Please, Ferdy, make Cray leave. I couldn’t bear to be humiliated in front of him!”

“You humiliated me in front of him, saying horrible things about sweet Jordy that are not true. I’m just relieved the man came to me, asking me man-to-man to handle you myself, instead of coming here and taking his fists to you, or shooting you, or something that will happen eventually if I don’t take you in hand. Bend over the table, wife, and pull up your skirts.”

Vickie gave him a horrified look and refused to budge. He took her by the arm and led her to the table and bent her over so that her backside was facing Cray. Cray nodded at Ferd and silently made his way out of the house. He wasn’t leaving to show Vickie respect she didn’t deserve; he was leaving to give Ferd respect. It was obvious that he was more than capable of dealing with his gossipy wife, and Cray would give him the courtesy of leaving him to it.

Ferd pushed the layers of fabric out of his way and the strap landed on a backside that hadn’t been spanked in many years. Vickie cried out in anguish, and Ferd realized that it wouldn’t take much of a strapping to get through to his wife. He gave her another and then another over her wide buttocks, and then he reached underneath and untied the string holding up her drawers. Then he jerked them down to her knees and spanked her in earnest, making sure the strap landed all over her bared cheeks. He then aimed at her thighs, and when he was certain she couldn’t sit on them without considerable pain, he aimed for the area in between, and the strap soon turned her a deep dark red. Vickie was begging for mercy long before he stopped the spanking, and when he did stop, he pulled her up and marched her straight to a corner of the kitchen.

“You stand right here and think about why you are in so much pain right now. Then we are going to talk, Vickie, and I hope to God you have had a change of attitude by then or we may just repeat this strapping.” Her answer was to sob. After a while, she tried to reach back and rub her flaming bottom, but Ferd saw her and asked if she wanted him to get a wooden spoon and touch up her backside. She quickly shook her head no, and kept her hands away from her bottom.

Ferd gave himself time to cool down, and then he turned her around. “What do you have to stay for yourself, Vickie?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” he asked, stunned.

“No.”

“I see. No remorse? No apology? Nothing?” Ferd couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He knew that Vickie could be headstrong and stubborn, but this was ridiculous. He took her back to the table and dished out round two on her already sore backside.

*****

Jim was waiting by the sheriff’s office. “Sorry it took so long, Jim,” Cray said as he reached him.

“No problem, Cray. Was Ferd reasonable?” he asked.

“Very, when I left, ole Vickie was bent over the kitchen table for a good tanning. He also intended to speak to Max Oldham about Susan. Apparently, the sisters say she is starting to behave like their mama, and they don’t like it.”

“I hope Ferd gets through to her.”

“Me too.” They saw Otis running toward them.

“I’s sorry to keep y’all waitin’,” he said politely.

“I just got here myself,” Cray answered. “How is Miss Sophie doin’?”

“She’s got lady friends there to comfort her now. I done promised to check on her boy and make sure he got took to the undertaker.”

“I saw to it myself, and Mr. Harris is going to do his part for free since Miss Sophie don’t have much in the way of income.”

“That tall-tale ain’t goin’ to work,” Otis said solemnly. “I’d like to pitch in.”

“So would I, Jim. The boy should have a decent funeral.”

Jim looked at them, and then shrugged, “I guess that was a fool idea. I just wanted to spare the poor woman.”

“You’s a good man, Mister Jim.”

“I feel so damn bad for her, Otis. I have three sons, and I would just die if someone did that to one of them. It would kill Ally. I want to help, and this is the only thing I can do.” Jim had tears in his eyes, and Otis nodded in understanding.

“I lost my boy and his mama, and it hurts real bad,” he whispered. “I hope the sheriff gets them that done it, for Miss Sophie’s sake.”

Cray reached out and laid a hand on each man’s shoulder. He knew there was nothing he could say in the moment to help either man. He’d suffered loss, too. “We should go now and let Ally and Jordan know what happened.” His words seemed to give the other men the impetus to move, and they were soon underway. On the way home they spotted the sheriff. He was bringing in the two Curtis brothers, who didn’t seem to have a care in the world. When Otis started to rise in the wagon, Cray reached out and put his hand on his shoulder and pushed him down. “Let the courts handle it, my friend. They will hang.”

“I ain’t a violent man, Mister Cray, but I intend to go to that hangin’,” Otis whispered.

*****

“I cannot understand you, Vickie. How is it that you feel no remorse at all for calling little Jordy names? How would you feel if another woman stood on the steps of our church and announced that our Susan was a whore because she anticipated her wedding vows and had to get married because she was with child?”

“That isn’t true!” Vickie gasped, looking at Ferd in horror.

“No, of course it isn’t true. Neither is what you are saying about Jordy and Otis Brown. They are good people, Vickie, and they do not deserve to have you telling all manner of lies about them. Do you think it was easy for Cray McCormick to come to me and tell me what you are doing? Now that I’ve heard this I am able to understand why people shun us in this town. We are never invited to have supper at other people’s homes, and no one ever seems to accept our invitations. People do not like gossips, Vickie. They avoid them. Our own daughters don’t want to be around you because you gossip so much. You are pushing them away with your lies, Vickie. Why do you do this? Why?”

“Why? Because I have nothing else to do, Ferd,” she shocked him by stating. “You avoid me, and I can only make so many quilts. I feel so alone, and I must do something to get attention. You don’t ever talk to me; if you aren’t at work, you have your nose in a book. You have a job; I only have cooking and cleaning. No grandchildren to play with and spoil. I’m bored, Ferdy.”

“And you make up lies to relieve boredom?” he asked incredulously. “Vickie, I am going to relieve you of your boredom. You will have no reason to make up your lies just to hurt people!”

“Jordy McCormick
is
sleeping with that Otis person. She is just like her mother! And you can stop defending her! I know who her father is, dear husband, and I will never forgive you for cheating on me with her!”

*****

The odors inside the kitchen made Cray’s stomach growl with hunger. He walked over to hug Jordan and kiss her on the cheek. “How long before we can eat, honey?”

“Wash up, and while you are doing that, we’ll dish up. Ally and I fed the boys already and put them down for a nap. Otis, I set a plate for you, too.”

“Missy, I ain’t up to eatin’ right now. My stomach ain’t happy.”

“Would you like for me to send something home with you for later?” she offered.

He shook his head no. “It’d go to waste, Missy. I ain’t feelin’ right.” He bade everyone goodbye, mounted his horse, and left, anxious to be alone.

“Otis isn’t upset with me over what that awful woman said, is he?” Jordan asked with a hurt expression in her green eyes.

“No, honey. I suspect he’s grieving. He didn’t say how or when, but he admitted he’d lost his wife and son. I imagine it is on his mind after today.”

“What did happen in town?” Alice wanted to know.

“Can we wash up and eat first?” Jim asked politely.

The women busied themselves putting the meal on the table, and it didn’t take long for the men to eat their fill. They were very hungry; it was nearly suppertime and they hadn’t had their dinner yet!

“This food is delicious, Jordy.”

“I’m still not used to being able to go to the cellar, or to the chicken coop, or the smokehouse to get food to cook. It seems like such a wonderful dream that I’m afraid I’ll wake up from it and be really poor and stealing what I can to eat. I’m so ashamed of that,” she admitted.

“I’m ashamed we didn’t offer you more help,” Alice admitted, and Jim reached for her hand.

“I’m ashamed of that, too, Jordy. We didn’t have much, but surely we could have figured out something to help more than we did.”

“Maybe I needed the lesson. Jim? You and Ally helped me more than most folks did, but I was proud and I wouldn’t have allowed you to do more for me. God let it happen, and I am thankful for my life now. I have a wonderful husband who does love me and I love him, too. I am happy.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.” Cray gave her a big smile. “You make me a happy man, too. I didn’t realize how lonely I was until I met you. I don’t know how those crazy folks in town decided we needed to be together, but I thank God for them daily. They certainly had the right of it. I cherish you with all my heart.”

“That is the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me, Cray!” Jordan suddenly started crying and got up to round the table and hug him.

Cray slid his chair back, pulled her onto his lap and just held her. “Sweetheart, I didn’t mean to make you cry!”

“They are happy tears. I’m emotional right now. Oh, I wanted to wait until we were alone, but now is the perfect time. We’re going to have a baby, Cray! A real, live, beautiful baby! I was sure I was dying, but it’s our baby making me have morning sickness. I didn’t even suspect I could be pregnant! Ally knew right away.”