Undaunted Love (PART ONE): Banished Saga, Book 3 (15 page)

“Yes, Father. I’m finally well again.” She sniffled into a handkerchief and smiled weakly.

“You are safe now?”

“Yes.”

“Your mother told me that you were concocting wild tales of abuse in an attempt to instill sympathy.”

“I spoke only the truth,” Savannah said.

“That’s what terrifies me,” he whispered.

A knock sounded an instant before Lucas opened the door. “Hi, Sav. Great to have you back! But you need to know, Mother’s home, and she’s heard you’re here.”

Martin closed his eyes for a moment before firming his shoulders for the battle to come. “My daughter has every right to visit me,” he snapped at Lucas.

“Father,” Savannah said as she rose. Martin stood and rounded his desk to stand in front of her. “I’ll leave because I can only imagine how difficult life already is with Mother. What matters is that you would have fought for me. Thank you.” She leaned forward for a short embrace before moving toward Lucas and the doorway to the store.

“May I visit you at Mrs. Chickering’s?” her father asked as he followed them into the store.

“Of course.”

“Lucas, I’ll man the store. Please see your sister home.”

Savannah waited as Lucas removed his apron. She smiled at her father and walked outside as she heard her mother approaching. Lucas gripped her elbow and propelled her forward, slamming the store’s door shut behind them.

“Let’s go, Sav. I wish there were more customers in the shop to prevent Father from receiving another verbal lashing from Mother.”

“Why can’t she understand my desire to be away from Jonas?” Savannah said, sighing with relief when they slowed to a more sedate walk as they turned down Waltham Street. The trees provided a canopy of shade, and birds trilled overhead.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me how terrible it was?” Lucas asked, unable to hide the hurt from his voice. “I hate that he kept you locked in the house as though you were in a prison.” He paused, gripping her shoulders as he searched her eyes. “And the baby? He placed her in an orphanage?”

Savannah closed her eyes for a moment, blinking away tears. “I thought no one would believe me. Mother would never let me speak a word against him, and I began to believe everyone would think it was my fault. And then, when I learned the baby lived, I worried you’d believe I was unhinged, like Jonas said, and that I should be placed in a mental institution.”

“Why would you doubt Father and me? Why would you believe such things?” Lucas asked.

“I chose to marry him. I could have left after … I realized how he was. But I stayed. I believed what he told me.” At Lucas’s inquisitive stare, she continued. “That whatever happened to me, I had provoked him to do it. That it was all my fault.”

“You had to have known he was feeding you a pack of lies, Sav.”

“Some part of me, deep down, did. But I was so afraid, all the time. You don’t know what it is to live your life like that.”

“Are you safe now?” Lucas asked as he offered his elbow, and they began their slow walk toward the Public Garden and then to Sophronia’s house.

“Yes. Sophie is powerful and fierce. She’ll not let anything happen to me.”

“It seems strange you’d go to another woman rather than to your father and brother.”

“Mother would never allow me to stay. And I think Jonas is afraid of Sophie. She’s one woman he can’t charm or intimidate. He doesn’t know what to do with her.”

“Please tell me that you’ll call if you ever need me or Father.”

“Of course.” After a moment Savannah asked, “Lucas, why is Mother so upset with me?”

“Mother wants you to continue with your marriage so that she maintains her esteem with the grandparents. She hopes to receive a generous amount on their death if she does.”

“That’s so … That’s so …” Savannah stammered, unable to think of an appropriate word.

“Mercenary. Cruel. Selfish,” Lucas said. “Yes, all those things. And all could be applied to Mother. But their health has begun to fade, and she thinks that she will soon reap her just deserts, as she calls them.”

“But for that to happen, I must continue to play the part for her.”

“Exactly. And you couldn’t have chosen a worse time for your rebellion.”

She turned to glare at Lucas but then smiled when she saw that he had a satisfied gleam in his eyes.

“She tried to convince Father that the store was having financial difficulties due to your scandal. However, he is savvy enough to know it has nothing to do with it.”

“What is causing trouble for the business, Lucas?”

“Mother doesn’t like to admit that the store is suffering due to the new aboveground trolley line. It’s uglier than we thought it would be and creates a near-constant rumbling that patrons say precludes them from thinking clearly about their purchases.” He smiled at Savannah’s unladylike snort. “At any rate, due to it, there are now fewer people walking along the streets. Everything is darker. Fewer pay attention to our shop’s front window displays, and it’s harder to entice customers in.”

“Besides the fact that fashion is changing, Lucas,” Savannah murmured. “People are purchasing more ready-to-wear clothes.”

“I know,” Lucas said. “At any rate, none of this has to do with you and your decision to live the life you want.” He gripped her hands. “The life you deserve, Sav.”

“Thank you, Lucas,” she whispered, before gripping his arm with such force he grimaced. “Will you do something for me?” At his nod, she said, “Will you go to City Hall where they keep the birth and death records, and look for my baby’s death certificate?”

“Why? You know Adelaide didn’t die, Sav.” He brushed away her stray tear.

“But I don’t know where she is! I’ve visited orphanages, and none have any record of her. I keep thinking, maybe she did die, and I’m deluding myself. If there’s a death certificate, that would mean she was gone, wouldn’t it?”

Lucas’s jaw clenched, and Savannah flinched. “I’ll never forgive him. Not for what he did to you. Not for what he’s done to Adelaide, stealing months from you, her mother,” Lucas whispered, moving forward to grasp both of Savannah’s arms and meeting her eyes with a fiery intensity. “He lied to all of us. I’ve never seen Father as upset as these past months, watching you mourn Adelaide.”

Savannah nodded, blinking rapidly, unable to forestall the shedding of tears. “I knew I couldn’t remember something from the birth, but, when I finally emerged from the drug-induced fog, I realized I remembered hearing her cry. That she wasn’t a stillbirth. I have to find her. Find out what happened to her.”

“You feel strong enough to leave Mrs. Chickering’s? To venture forth each day in your pursuit?”

“Brave enough, you mean?” Savannah asked with a self-deprecating laugh. “I’ll always be afraid Jonas will find me. Attempt to force me back with him. But I’ve realized I can’t allow my life to be dictated by fear, Lucas. I want more than that.”

“There’s the brave Savannah I know,” Lucas said with a hint of a smile, his glower fading. “As for your request, why don’t you look for the record yourself, Sav?”

“The man working at the desk said a lady shouldn’t concern herself with such matters and should look to her husband for guidance in such a case. He refused to help me.”

“If there is anything to be found, I’ll find it,” Lucas vowed before he pulled Savannah close for a tight embrace. “I hate that you suffered more than I’ll ever know.”

Savannah stifled a sob and clung to him. “Thank you for believing me.”

“Of course I believe you. You never lied before, Sav. Well, except to yourself.” He leaned away to meet her eyes, and his regret-filled smile made her cry harder. “Hush, don’t cry so, or that Chickering woman will think you’ve had a run-in with Jonas.”

Savannah shuddered. “Not even in jest, Lucas. Will you visit me at Sophie’s? Come play for me?”

“You’d like to hear my music?” Lucas asked, unable to hide the pleasure from his voice.

“Yes, I’ve always loved it. I didn’t have enough sense to appreciate it until I’d moved out.”

“I’d love to. I have missed you, sister,” he said, before he kissed her gently on her forehead. “Even when you visited, you seemed distant. Not at all like the Savannah of old.”

“Well, I may never again be the pre-Jonas Savannah …”

“No, you’re even better. Stronger and wiser.” He hugged her at Sophie’s door. “Never forget that, Sav. You might have changed due to your association with Jonas, but it hasn’t altered you irreparably.”

CHAPTER 15

“PLEASE, SIT WHILE I prepare us a cup of tea,” Florence said. She bustled around the kitchen, putting the kettle on the stove, stirring the dregs of the ashes while adding a piece of new coal to rekindle the fire. She pulled out a teapot and two mugs, placing them on the table. “I’m afraid we don’t have any milk today,” Florence said as she placed the sugar bowl on the table.

“Florence, please sit,” Savannah coaxed. “I can’t thank you enough for all your help.”

“You’re welcome, Savannah. I know that Jeremy would have been with us if he hadn’t received such a good commission.”

“I’m happy for him that he did. He should have more to do in his day than escort women to orphanages on a wild chase.”

Florence rose, filling the teapot with boiling water before placing it on the table to steep. She sat on a chair facing Savannah. “I just wish we’d been able to find your child, Savannah.”

“I’m beginning to think she really did die. That everything Jonas told me about her was a mixture of half-truths, and I will never decipher truth from lie.” She bit her lip as she fought tears. “Even if she is alive, I have to accept I may never find her.”

Her gaze became distant as she envisioned each trip to the different orphanages in Boston and the surrounding cities. She cringed as she recalled her inability to ward off a fleeting hope as she ascended the stairs outside each new orphanage, that this day’s orphanage would bring her resolution. Perhaps even a reunion with her daughter. The inescapable grief had continued to grow as, every time, her hopes were dashed, and her possibilities became more limited.

Savannah shook her head and smiled sorrowfully at Florence. “As I feared, Lucas discovered there was no death certificate. Nothing corresponding to an Adelaide Montgomery. At the same time, Sophie’s contacts have yet to yield any information.” She played with the spoon in the sugar bowl. “I wonder what Jonas did to her.” She raised tormented eyes to Florence.

Florence gripped her hand in an attempt to impart solace. “You must take heart that you have done all you can.”

“But I lost so many months,” Savannah whispered as she brushed at tears on her cheeks. “It’s already the end of August. She’d turn one in November. I’ve lost so much time, Florence.”

“Thanks to your husband. Do not blame yourself for mourning.” Florence studied her with wonder for a moment. “You don’t know what it means to have watched you these past weeks search for your daughter.” Florence glanced away, reaching toward the teapot to pour the tea.

Savannah stilled Florence’s movement with a gentle touch to her hand. “Why has it meant so much to you, Florence? I would have thought, after the way I’d treated you, that you would gloat at my misfortune.” She made a face as Florence frowned.

“Well, if not gloat, at least not be eager to help me. I was not kind to you. I scorned you for being a poor, orphan teacher, thinking myself above you because I was marrying a man such as Jonas. I couldn’t have been more wrong, and you married the better man,” Savannah whispered.

“Do you know much about me?” Florence asked. Savannah shook her head and released Florence’s arm as Florence poured the tea. “Did it never seem odd to you that the head mistress of an orphanage would know who I am?”

“Aren’t you an orphan like the McLeod brothers?”

“No, Savannah.” Florence gripped the handle of her mug and continued to speak. “My mother gave me to the orphanage. She didn’t want me.”

“That can’t be true,” Savannah argued.

“On some level you are right. I’m sure she thought she was giving me a better future by bringing me when I was seven to the orphanage to be raised. My father was a drunk, and there was never enough food in the house. She was pregnant with another child.”

“You can’t think she chose your siblings over you.”

“For the longest time I did,” Florence whispered. “Until we returned to the Home, and I realized two of my siblings had been brought in.”

“You must know that your mother acted as she did to ensure you had the best future possible, Florence,” Savannah urged. “No mother gives up her child without feeling as though her heart is breaking.”

“Well, whatever the case, I’ll never know what my mother felt as she and the rest of them died in some sort of outbreak in the tenements a few years ago. My other siblings were sent on those orphan trains. I’m the only one left in Boston.” Florence blinked away tears.

“I know what it is to have family, Savannah. To have siblings and a mother to tuck me in at night. To have a father that tells wondrous stories when he’s not sick with drink. You have no idea what it does to you to be torn away from all that is familiar.”

Savannah gripped Florence’s hand, her brow furrowed with concern. “I’m sorry, Florence. I wish there was more I could say. I’m sorry you had to suffer as you did.”