Year of Jubilee (15 page)

He inhaled and changed the path of his
thoughts. However, images of Jubilee and Colvin honed in.

“Jubilee?”

“Hmmm?”

“Are you sleeping?” He rolled his eyes at
the ceiling.
What a stupid question
.

“No.” She gave a soft laugh.

He smiled in the darkness, and sobered. “Can
I ask you something personal?”

Silence.

“I suppose.”

“Was it…bad with Colvin?”

She didn’t answer, but he heard her take a
sharp breath.

“Listen, forget I asked.”

“No. It’s okay.”

“I shouldn’t have asked.” He adjusted the
sheet over his body and stretched his neck.
Did you think she’d
blurt out her most intimate thoughts?

“I want to tell you.”

He stilled.

“Maybe I should start at the beginning.”

Rafe didn’t dare move.

“In Pittsburg, the orphanage bound me out at
age 12, to an elderly widow woman. Her name was Gertrude Galston.
She’s known as Granite Galston. She’s a hard lady, but she treated
me all right. Her house is in the Old City, a huge mansion, and she
had a full-time cook and butler. I helped whenever and wherever
they needed me. I ran errands a lot and worked in the garden most
of the summer.”

Jubilee paused here, whether to organize her
thoughts or control her emotions, Rafe wasn’t sure.

“Your Uncle Hilmer, Mr. Stallings,
frequented the neighborhood. Mrs. Perkins, the cook, always said he
had his eye out for a rich widow.” She gave a small laugh. “He even
tried to melt Mrs. Galston’s heart as well, so he’d show up and do
different handyman jobs. We had a bad storm in April of ’48, which
tore off some of the shakes on the roof, and Mrs. Galston hired Mr.
Stallings to patch it. When he arrived, he had Colvin with him, and
they began to repair the roof.”

Jubilee stopped and the pause grew longer.
The breeze stirred the curtains.

“He…always seemed to be about, Colvin, that
is. I’d be in the garden and I’d look up, and he’d be—staring at
me.” She let out an unsteady breath. “Once, when I was in the dark
cellar, counting the produce jars, I finished and turned to leave,
and there he was. He scared me witless. When I asked him what he
wanted, he offered to help.”

Rafe’s muscles tensed as she spoke
again.

“They worked for two weeks. Finally, they
completed the job. I was relieved, I must say, for there were many
other incidents. A couple of days later, Mrs. Galston asked me to
put up some new drapes in her living room. Mrs. Perkins and I
pressed them, and I climbed the ladder to hang them. Mrs. Galston
was in one of her difficult moods and demanded we remove them
several times and press the fabric over and over.” She sighed. “By
the time we finished, it was well after dark, and I usually walked
to the orphan home at the end of the day.”

Jubilee worried the sheets, and Rafe fixed
his eyes on the far wall to tamp down his uneasiness.

“Mrs. Perkins told me I should have Ramsey,
the butler, give me a ride in the carriage. But Mrs. Galston
pitched such a fit about not finishing the dining room drapes, I
slipped out the back and headed to Eighteenth Street on my
own.”

Here Jubilee pushed herself to a sitting
position, and Rafe couldn’t keep his eyes from her shadowed form,
head bent, hands wringing in her lap.

“I walked along a particularly dark section
of street.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. A long pause stretched
out. “I remember being afraid and looking all around. I think I
could actually feel something wasn’t right. As I passed some bushes
on the left someone popped out of the dark alley and grabbed
me.”

Rafe threw his legs to the floor as
Jubilee’s hand fluttered to her mouth.

“Was it Colvin?” Rafe throat constricted and
anger rose in his gut.

She nodded and her voice trembled when she
spoke again. “Only I didn’t realize it then. He covered my mouth
with his hand and dragged me to a carriage house some distance from
the main road. He wrestled me to the ground and poured a
vile-tasting liquid down my throat. That was the last I knew for
the next twenty-four hours.”

Rafe took a deep breath but kept his eyes on
Jubilee.

“When I awoke, he’d tied me up and slung me
face down over a horse. There was a gag in my mouth and a blanket
over my body.” A sob broke from her and Rafe moved to stand beside
the bed. “He…he stopped for the night, removed me from the horse,
tossed me to the ground and tied my hands above my head to a tree.
Then he started to drink.”

She put her hands to her mouth and took a
few shuddering breaths. Even in the moonlight, Rafe could make out
the sparkle of tears running from her eyes.

“He told me all kinds of wild stuff, like,”
her voice broke, “how he’d show those rich biddies. He’d be
respectable, and they’d wish they hadn’t trifled with him. Then he
straddled me and screamed I was his now…” She sobbed now. “I
remember kicking and kicking, but nothing helped.”

Rafe’s clenched his jaw, and his heart
wrenched as she covered her face with her hands. He sat on the bed
and gently gathered her in his arms. The rest came in a broken
whisper.

“The next morning he put a gun to my head
and told me I
would
marry him. He’d won a farm in Indiana in
a card game. He wanted to go there, somewhere new, and make folks
respect him.”

Rafe tamped down the burning rage mounting
inside him and tightened his arms around her, praying in a low
voice while her small body trembled. She burrowed her face into his
neck and he stroked her back.

“Everything’s all right, now. He’s gone. He
can’t hurt you anymore,” he murmured.

“I didn’t have anywhere to go. I had no idea
where we were.” She continued to sob. “What else could I do?”

Rafe smoothed the flyaway hair that had
escaped her long braid. His voice grew tight with emotion. “You had
no choice. He was just plain evil.”

Her sobs eased, and she pulled away from
him. Rafe reached to grab a handkerchief from the nightstand and
pressed it into her hand.

“Life with him wasn’t always horrible.” She
sniffed. “Only when he drank. We settled at the farm, and he
actually worked for a couple of months. There was so much to do. He
left for long periods of time and came home with perfume all over
him. And then he began to hit me.”

Rafe massaged her shoulders and rubbed his
hands down her arms.
Dear God, help me not to hate Colvin.
“No one should treat a woman like that, Jubilee. He was wrong, you
know that, right?”

She nodded. Then she shrugged one shoulder,
fingering the handkerchief. “I didn’t know how to fix things or
what to do.”

Rafe sucked in a deep breath and gave a
silent prayer of thankfulness. “I think God took care of the
situation for you.”

Her head came up. “You think so?”

“I know so. God is with us, even in painful
times. And he delivers us because he loves us, Jubilee.”

“I guess it’s hard to believe God loves me.
I have nothing.”

Rafe stood, but reached over to stroke her
face. “You’ve got me.”

* * *

Next morning, at breakfast, Jubilee sensed
Rafe’s gaze on her. She tried to keep her attention fixed on her
plate, yet her traitorous eyes kept dashing to his. Never had she
told anyone such intimate information about herself. She’d had
special friends at the home, like Ellen. They’d shared childish
hopes and dreams with one another at night. Yet they’d been
childhood friends. This was…what
was
it?

“Everything all right this morning, Rafe?”
Everett grinned and glanced at Addie, his wife.

His oldest brother and his family had joined
them for breakfast. Jubilee was thankful for six children who
chattered continually around the table. Their prattle more than
made up for her quietness.

Rafe paused and looked his sibling over.
“Yes. Why?”

Everett raised his brows to Addie across
from him. “No reason. Just wondering.”

“Oh, leave him alone, Everett.” Jennie waved
as she passed the butter to her husband. “He’s in love, for Pete’s
sake.”

Jubilee’s face burned, and she focused on
the bacon in her plate.

“I was surely not
that
bad.” Everett
chuckled.

“Oh, goose and gander. You were mooning
after Addie for months. I was never so glad as when you finally
proposed.” Jennie laughed.

“Leave the boy alone.” Will laughed. “I
worked him so hard yesterday he barely got to see her. He’s gotta
make up for lost time.”

Rafe cleared his throat. “Speaking of the
wheat, shouldn’t we be off? The grain doesn’t harvest itself.”

Everyone laughed except Rafe and Jubilee.
The men rose and collected their hats from the pegs by the door.
Jubilee caught Rafe pulling a face at her and grinning before he
disappeared outside.

* * *

Rafe groaned.
Why did I agree to run to
town with Everett?
A rawness still gnawed at his belly with
thoughts of the abuse Jubilee had suffered at the hands of his
cousin. Now Everett was doing his best to be irritating. And
succeeding. Rafe pinched the soft leather reins between his fingers
as Everett continued to talk.

“Just saying you oughta make some time to be
with Jubilee, that’s all. Take her on a buggy ride through town.
Borrow the Johnson’s little Phaeton carriage. Maybe have a picnic
by the river.” Everett spat over the side of the wagon. “Women like
that stuff.”

Rafe scratched the side of his head. “We’re
fine.”

“Well, you two don’t act like you are. You
carry on like you’d like to gobble each other up. Which probably
means you’ve been spending too much time in the fields. Addie gets
all teary-eyed when I work too much.” Everett stretched out his
legs and set his heels on the edge of the wagon’s footrest. “And
why don’t you get her a ring? Tanners give their women rings. And
another thing, you shoulda told us about the wedding. Mom cried for
two days when she got your letter. Made things downright unpleasant
around here, that’s for sure.”

“Everett, you don’t understand.”

His brother snorted. “What don’t I get? That
yer acting addled? Yeah, I think I got a handle on that one.”

“Everett…I don’t want to discuss this.” A
warning throbbed through Rafe’s voice.

“You never do. You lit outa here like a fox
with his tail set fire. I told you that fancy pants Rosemary was no
good. Why, she never thought of anyone but herself. Then you up and
left.”

Rafe gritted his teeth. “Everett. Be
quiet.”

“You beat all, you know. I’m the eldest and
I’ll have my say. Now Jubilee seems to be a good woman, and you
best be taking care of her. I won’t twiddle my thumbs while you
make a shambles of your vows.”

Rafe could stand no more. He pulled back
hard on the reins and turned fiery eyes upon his brother. “My
marriage isn’t real!”

Everett’s mouth snapped open and his eyes
grew large. He brought his feet down onto the floorboards of the
wagon and sat up straight.

Rafe sighed and turned his gaze to the road.
“I married her because she had nowhere to go.”

A smile stretched slowly across Everett’s
face. “Well, that’s perfect.”

Rafe reached up and wiped his jaw with both
hands before turning to his brother. “Everett, I understand you’re
the eldest and all, and I should respect that. And for the most
part, I do, but you have way too many opinions about how your
family ought to live their lives. Just do me a favor and leave my
private life alone.”

Everett still grinned. “You don’t even know,
do you?”

Rafe leaped down from the wagon and started
to walk back the way they’d come.

“Where are you going?” Everett called.

Rafe turned enough to yell an answer to
Everett, who now stood in the wagon watching him. “
You
go
get the gunny sacks we need for the wheat. I’m heading to the farm
to do something productive.”

His brother’s laughter followed him as he
strode away. Rafe gritted his teeth and refused to give in to his
carnal desire of connecting his fist with Everett’s face.
I’m
addled? More like Everett’s lost his cookies
. One minute he
berated him for not spending time with Jubilee, the next gave him
the business about leaving the farm. Yeesh.

Rafe growled and kicked a clod of dirt.
How’d he let Everett make him blurt out the real state of his
marriage? He slowed and set his hands deep into his pockets. Now
he’d tell the rest of the family. Soon the whole story would leak
out and be all over town.

He didn’t need that grief.
And neither
does Jubilee.
His tread slowed to a stop in the middle of the
road. She’d been so soft and pliant in his arms last night. So
broken. He ran his hand through his hair before swiping the back of
his neck in frustration.

He spun. He couldn’t do that to her. The
wagon jangled a piece down the road now, and Rafe began to jog to
catch up. Somehow he’d have to convince Everett not to let his
secret out to the rest of the family.

* * *

Jubilee fell into the ladies’ pattern of
work each day. Monday was washing day, Tuesdays were for gardening,
Wednesdays, baking, Thursdays, cleaning the house, and Fridays for
sewing. The ladies fussed about a guest who insisted on doing her
part, but they seemed pleased, nonetheless.

By Friday, the ladies gathered on Anna’s
back porch, a stone’s throw from Rafe’s parents. The huge wooden
frame stretched out the beautiful log cabin quilt while the ladies
surrounded the brown and red pattern, stitching and chatting. They
spent the morning applying small stitches to the face of the
covering as the children ran about the yard. They lunched under the
maples and were soon back sewing.

“Sure enough.” Jennie stared at her needle
through the glasses perched on the end of her nose. “Rafe tied a
string through a piece of corn and watched that poor hen gobble it
up. Why, I think he waited near fifteen minutes for one of them
hens to be stupid enough to grab it. No sooner had that red layer
gulped the kernel down, when Rafe jerked it clean out of her
gullet.”