Wellington Cross (Wellington Cross Series) (51 page)

And so I had developed a plan to help save Fanny and her
baby.  If she didn’t want to go down to that ex-slave camp, she shouldn’t
have to.  She wasn’t a slave anymore, so she could make her own
decisions.  I helped her make this one.  She was scared and desperate
to do anything to keep from going to that slave camp.  I was going to take
her to Catherine’s over in Bellwood.  Catherine needed help at the time,
and so I thought Fanny would be safe from Edward, safe from being taken where
she didn’t want to go, and help Catherine out at the same time.

We left early the next morning, and after picking some strawberries
at my brother’s field to eat along the way, we headed to Bellwood.  Fanny
drove the carriage of a single horse, sitting high up on the outside of the
carriage.  I offered to drive, but she insisted that it would look better
if a black servant was driving the white woman, and not the other way
around.  And so I sat back under the shade of the carriage top.  I
guided Fanny which way to go, as I had been there once with Ethan.  Across
the river and up the road almost to Bellwood, we heard a gunshot close by,
which startled our horse, which started running awkwardly, trying to get away
from the noise.  Fanny could not control the horse.  The carriage was
carried along the road at lightning speed.  That was when I saw Jefferson
riding on a horse.  He stopped our distraught horse.  I thought he
was trying to help us until he pulled out a hand gun and pointed it at Fanny,
telling her to get off the carriage. 

Apparently Edward had sent him out to look for Fanny and me, to
take Fanny down to the Dismal Swamp.  I remember Jefferson telling me he
had agreed to do this because he felt like all slaves should be free to go
where they wanted to, not to be held by any man.  Fanny tried to tell
Jefferson she didn’t want to go to the Dismal Swamp, that she wanted to go to
Miss Catherine’s.  Jefferson wouldn’t listen, and he tried to force her
off the carriage, pulling at her to get her up onto his horse, but she kicked
and screamed, and he couldn’t keep hold of her.  I tried to help Fanny,
but Jefferson shifted his concern from Fanny to me and while still on his
horse, knocked me out with the butt of his gun.  I remember the pain in my
head and falling out of the carriage to the ground below.  I now knew that
Jefferson took the horse and carriage and Fanny, and left me for dead. 

Edward was watching me.  “Do you remember your
accident?”  I nodded.  So it was Edward’s fault that I had lost my
memory, that I had lost a whole year with my husband and baby, and that I came
back and found that Ethan had married another.  His fault and Jefferson’s.

“Jeff was supposed to kill you that day.  You weren’t
supposed to live.  It was supposed to look like an accident.  He
thought he had killed you when he knocked you off of that carriage, but was
later surprised when he saw you in the marketplace at City Point.  Did he
tell you all of this?”  I nodded.  “I thought he was an imbecile, but
then he told me you had lost your memory, didn’t even know who you were. 
So I told him to keep an eye on you, keep you away from Charles City, and so he
did.  He courted you for a while.  He said you got tired of him and
told him not to come back, so he set the house on fire and thought you were
dead, again.  But you weren’t. 

“That’s why I was so shocked to see you at Wellington Cross the
day you showed up, when my Clarissa had brought you back home with her. 
You still didn’t have your memory, but you quickly started remembering things,
with Ethan’s help.  I started getting worried that you would remember my
Union jacket and the correspondence papers between me and General Grant, and
that you’d turn me in.  So I told Ethan about the jacket, showed it to
him, and told him I’d been a spy for the South.  He believed me.  Why
wouldn’t he believe his own father?  Therefore, I thought no one else would
believe you, especially after you had lost your memory for a year.  Who
would believe someone like that over a respectable plantation owner who had
fought valiantly in the war?  So I thought I had nothing to worry about.

“And then I found out a few days ago that you were carrying
Ethan’s child.  I was mortified.  I knew that I was not going to get
rid of you easily, since you were carrying another Wellington, and that you
would eventually remember my jacket and the papers.”

He paused for a moment, and I let everything sink in.  So
Edward really was guilty.  Ethan had believed his lies about being a spy,
and I wanted to believe Ethan, too.  But I’d had the feeling it was
wrong…that Edward really was a traitor.  How was I going to get anyone to
believe me?  Would I ever get the chance to tell anyone about this? 
Was I going to live to see the light of a new day?  Would I get to raise
this baby?  Lillie?  Elizabeth Rose, who was in fact Jefferson’s
half-niece?  Would I ever see my beloved Ethan again?

I felt my heart beat faster.  Edward stopped pacing and
looked at me, the gun still in one hand, holding his wooden leg in the
other.  “I told Jeff to end your life, yours and the baby’s.  I
didn’t want any more babies complicating things.  Ethan had Elizabeth and
her baby to take care of, in addition to Lillie.  Imagine my surprise when
Ethan came home and told me that Elizabeth had been shot and died, but that the
baby lived.  Jeff himself had told me he shot you.  Obviously, he
shot the wrong person.  That bullet was meant for you, not Elizabeth.”

The realization hit me then.  It truly was my fault that she
had died.  That shot was meant for me.  So many times I had wished
her gone, and now she was gone for good and it was my fault, as if I had pulled
the trigger myself.  Despite my fear, I felt tears in my eyes. 

Edward ignored the tears.  “As Jefferson may have told you, I
am the one who had arranged for Elizabeth to come here and work.  Jeff
found her living in a well at an abandoned farmhouse and tried to take her back
to their home in City Point, but she wouldn’t hear of it.  So I agreed to
hire her if she kept quiet about it.  It all worked out since I had sent
Fanny away.  At the time I thought Jeff had gotten rid of you, so I was
returning the favor.  I also had him promise me his plantation if anything
happened to him.  I have to think about my family, and by helping Ethan
find a new wife with Elizabeth, I was keeping the wealth in the family.  I
have to make sure Ethan is taken care of.  He’s my only child.”

“What about Fanny’s child?  That’s your child, as well. 
Why’d you send her away?”

“I didn’t want any part of a child with a slave woman.  I
sent her down with her own people.  Besides, if the baby turned out
looking white, what do you think Clarissa would think?  I’m the only white
man Fanny had been around besides Ethan.  What do you think that would
have done to Clarissa if she found out?  She would’ve never forgiven
me.  We’d have both been miserable.  I never meant to hurt
Clarissa.  It was just a one-time thing with Fanny.”

There seemed to be a lot of one-time incidences resulting in
babies around here.  Must be something in the water.

“And so now, since I’m a crippled man, I had Jeff do one last task
for me…get you out of the house and bring you here, unnoticed by anyone. 
He did that much for me, and, as I can’t depend on him to kill you properly,
I’ll have to do it myself, Madeline.  I’m terribly sorry it worked out
this way, but I don’t trust you.  You’ve lost so much that I think you’d
do anything to keep your place in my family.  I think you could even be
lying to Ethan about the baby being his.  I can’t risk losing my
family.  I
would
lose my family, Madeline, if they thought I had
been a traitor during the war, and if they knew I’d fathered a child with a
slave.  They would lose all respect for me, especially Ethan.  I
couldn’t live with that, and so I have to get rid of you once and for all.”

He pointed the gun towards my temple then, and I closed my eyes,
knowing I had no means of escape.  I mourned that this baby would probably
die, too, and I mourned that I would never get to be with Ethan to be the happy
family that we wanted to be. 

“Please don’t,” I begged.  “I promise to keep my mouth
shut.  I’ll marry William.  I won’t tell Ethan anything, just please
don’t kill me.”

Before Edward could say or do anything, I heard my savior’s
voice.  “Put the gun down.”  It was Ethan!  I had hope for the
first time all night.  I looked over Edward’s shoulder and saw Ethan walk
slowly behind Edward with a shotgun pointed at him.  As he got closer, his
eyes widened.  “Father?!”

Edward continued to look at me and pulled the safety on his gun,
preparing to shoot anyway.  I shook with fear and trepidation.  What
should I do?  Try to knock the gun out of his hand?  What if he shot
Ethan?  I decided to talk instead.

“Yes, Ethan.  Your father was a traitor during the war, after
all.  He fought for the Yankees, your enemy, and he lied to you about
it.  Now he wants to end my life, mine and our baby’s.” 

Before I could say anything else, Edward pulled the trigger, but
at the last second Ethan pushed him out of the way, so the bullet landed
somewhere else in the shed, not in my head, thankfully.  Edward fell over
sideways, his wooden half-leg falling out from under him, but he recovered
enough to yank my hair and pull me closer to him.  I cried out until he
pushed the gun into my lower chin.  “Stay away, Ethan.  I don’t want
you to get hurt.”

Ethan backed up a bit cautiously.  “Father, how could
you?!  Not only have you betrayed the South, but you have betrayed your
family…me.  How many times have you tried to kill Madeline?  Is this
the reason she lost her memory?  The reason she was gone for a whole
year?  The reason I lived through hell for a whole year?  Is it?” he
demanded.

“Yes,” Edward admitted, sighing.  “With the aid of one lowly
Jefferson Banks.” 

“You and Jeff were in this together?”  I could see Ethan
putting it all together in his head.  “Of course.  You two talked all
night when I brought him home with me after the war.  Were you comparing
stories?  I thought you turned him in as a traitor.  Did you betray
him, as well?”

“No.  I had to do something to keep him quiet.  I got
him out after a couple of days.  The guys I had arrest him didn’t hurt
him; I paid them well.”

“No wonder he had Madeline’s wedding ring…the family wedding ring,
father.  Does family mean anything to you?  I can’t believe that you
would risk a family member in order to clear your name, to save your own
neck.  Madeline was my wife, so she was family.  She was a Wellington
and always will be.”  He looked at me briefly.  I swallowed hard, the
gun still pressed to my lower jaw.

“She’s not family to me,” Edward said.  “Besides, I was
thinking about you.  How would it look for you if everyone found out your
father fought for the Union instead of the Johnny Rebs?  And I wasn’t
going to prison, either.  I wanted to protect you and your mother. 
Those Northerners allowed us to keep the plantation, allowed us to be unharmed
during and after the war, and allowed us to be able to hire another
sharecropper and still have social balls.  How do you think I was able to
pay for your honeymoon in Williamsburg and all the things you bought for your
chambers on the third floor?  They bought our cotton and kept our
plantation running, all because I fought for their side of the war.  I
even found a new wife for you, Jeff’s half-sister.”

“What?”

I interjected, “Yes, Ethan.  It seems that Elizabeth and
Jefferson were related.  Your father arranged for her to come work for him
after he had Fanny sent away because Fanny was to have his baby.”

Ethan tried to absorb all the news.  “Father, you disgust
me!  I don’t care what anyone else thinks of you.  I am deeply
ashamed of you.  I can’t believe you schemed the whole time, trying to get
rid of Madeline and sending another woman my way, while lying to me about
everything.  That’s why you told me to stop looking for Madeline, isn’t
it?  You told me you had it on good word that she was dead.  You’re
nothing but a traitor and a scallywag!”

“I did it all for you, Ethan.  I didn’t want you to have to
struggle for anything.  I wanted you to be happy.”

“Because of you, I wasn’t happy.  Because of you, taking
Madeline away from me, I was miserable.  Even after marrying Elizabeth, I
was not happy.  Couldn’t you see that?  Madeline means everything to
me.  She’s my family, and family is more important than plantations or
wealth, father.  I’d rather be poor and happy with the one I love than
make deals with the Yankees by betraying my family.  I want nothing more
to do with you.”

I heard footsteps then, and saw Jonas and William walk into the
shed, guns in their hands.

“Let go of her now!” Ethan shouted.

Edward looked at his son.  “I’m sorry, Ethan.”  He
turned back around and looked at me, and I felt the gun move away from my
jaw.  I heard two shots at the same time…one close, the other farther
away.  The sounds were deafening.  I screamed and heard Ethan shout,
“No!”  I felt something warm and wet splatter on my face. 
 Edward fell against me, knocking me in the head with his own. 
Everything went black again.

I felt something rough and wet touch my face when I opened my eyes
again.  Ethan was using the cloth that had been around my mouth to clean
my face.  Had I been shot?  I didn’t feel pain, except for where
Jefferson had struck me in the head earlier and where I had fallen on the baby.