Ask a Shadow to Dance (24 page)

David got out of bed and pulled on his funny blue pants again—the ones he called jeans. Then he pulled a soft shirt over his head called a T-shirt. When laid flat, it resembled the letter T.

“Where are you going, David?”

“Nowhere.
I just can’t sit still, thinking about that man bringing you into a home where you were going to be his wife, then making you put up with two mistresses. Why did you stay?”

“What else was I supposed to do? Where could I have gone? James had taken every bit of money I’d brought with me from Memphis, claiming everything I owned was his. Legally, that was so. If I’d tried to leave, he would have beaten me senseless. I wasn’t there long before I knew he was capable of such brutality.” She closed her eyes, remembering that awful night.

David sat beside her. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“It’s all right. I want you to know. I’ve never told anyone. It’s time.”

He nodded and kissed her. She took a deep breath. “When Marie said something he didn’t like one evening at dinner, he dragged her out of the room by her hair, ordering us to stay where we were. We listened to her screams while he beat her mercilessly. We were told, when he returned to the table, no one was to touch her or talk to her until tomorrow.”

“That sorry bastard!
What happened to her?”

“We heard her moaning and crying, hour after hour. A few minutes after midnight, I persuaded the kitchen servants to help me. We tended her bruises and bathed away the blood. James heard and came storming downstairs. I told him we had complied with his orders—it was ‘tomorrow.’ He didn’t say anything, just scowled and went back upstairs. We helped Marie into bed. She didn’t come out of her room for more than a week and never raised her voice to James again. After that day, I was treated better by Marie and the other girl
and all of the house servants. I suppose the incident had proved to them whose side I was on.”

David was so angry, Lisette stopped for a moment. This was a side of him she’d not
seen, even when she’d told him about Andrew’s striking her. He stared out the front window for a long time, muscles twitching in his jaw, his lips pressed tightly together. When he finally turned to look at her again, she saw anxiety in his eyes.

“Did he ever beat you like that?”

She hurried to reassure him. “Not that severely. I did everything James asked of me, even when it humiliated or embarrassed or shamed me. I never gave him cause.” She didn’t mention the dozens of times James had cuffed her with the back of his hand, or shoved her down the stairs. David had heard enough. It was in the past, or would be as soon as Andrew was out of her life forever.

David held her. His arms felt so good. She pressed her face to his shoulder.

“Tell me the rest. I want to hear it all.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. How did James die?”

“Yellow fever.
The epidemics were as bad in New Orleans as they were in Memphis. He came down with the fever and lived another three months. I tended him, with help from the others, while Andrew strutted around, thinking he’d become master of the house and lands. He assumed, as I did, that he would inherit everything when his father died.”

“But he didn’t?”

“It came as the biggest shock of my life. The day James died, the man who had always kept books for the plantation told me James had made out a will years ago, when his first wife was alive. He never changed it after her death. In the will he left the land and the house to Andrew but all the money to his ‘beloved wife.’ Even though I was not the wife mentioned in the will, I was still his wife, so I inherited the money.”

“How much was there?”

“One hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars. I couldn’t believe it. The sad part was that Marie and the other girl got nothing. When James died and they heard about the will, they came to me, ready to spit at my feet. I gave each of them twenty-five thousand dollars. They had endured James’s ill temper a year longer than I had. I thought they deserved something for it. They hugged and kissed me, then left. I never saw them again.”

“What about Andrew? Why did he follow you to Memphis?”

“Because James left him no money with which to run the plantation. In the will he said something to the effect that Andrew had never worked a day in his life. If he were to have anything at all, he’d have to work the land. He specifically stated in the will that Andrew was not to receive one penny of the money left to his wife.”

David smiled for the first time since she’d begun talking. “How did Andrew take it?”

“He ranted about what a horrible bastard his father had been—excuse the language, but that’s what he said—smashed a good bit of furniture, which could have been sold for enough to run the place for several years, and stormed out of the house. He stayed gone three days. When he came home …” She didn’t want to tell David this part. There was no telling what he might do the next time he saw Andrew.

“When he came home?”

“He’d been drinking until he couldn’t walk without staggering. He told me he was master of the house and everything in it and that included me. He dragged me upstairs.” She couldn’t say it. From the look on David’s face, she knew she didn’t have to. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut for a moment, trying to push the memory away. “I fought him. He beat me until I was almost unconscious. By the time I was fully awake again, it was done and he was gone.” She tried to swallow the anguish and humiliation choking her.

David’s expression was a mixture of hatred, rage and grief. He held her so tightly she could scarcely breathe.

She heard the tears in his voice. “What happened then?” He took several deep breaths.

“I waited until he left the house,
then locked every door. I expected him to come back, but he didn’t. He stayed away until two days before I was to leave New Orleans for Memphis. When he came to the house, he wasn’t drunk or abusive. He asked for my forgiveness and promised he’d never lay a hand on me again.”

“You didn’t believe him!”

“Absolutely not. Just as I didn’t believe him when he came here the day after he struck me and asked for forgiveness. I know what he wants, David. If I were to marry him, he’d have the money and Morgan Enterprises, and I’d be penniless and dependent upon him for everything.”

“Doesn’t he know you realize that?”

“I don’t know what Andrew thinks about anything. I just know I want him out of my life forever. If that means disappearing with the
Cajun Star
—”

“And leaving this house?”

Her throat tightened with the thought of losing her home. “If that’s what it takes, then that’s what we’ll do. I don’t see that we have any choice. Even if you and I manage to cross to your time, I couldn’t leave my father and Aunt Portia here to contend with Andrew. And there’s hardly a way to bring the house with us, is there?

David’s expression changed again. His eyes widened and he gazed across the room for a moment, obviously in deep thought.

“David? What are you thinking?”

“There might be a way to do what you just said.”

“Bring the house with us? That’s impossible. Isn’t it?”

“Maybe not.
We don’t have much time. Are there some clothes in this house I could wear? What size is your father?”

“He’s not quite as tall as you are. He lost a lot of weight after the fever. You might be able to wear some of the clothes we bought for him after he got
well. Where are you going?”

“We.
I’m not ready to go anywhere without you. Not yet. You mentioned your father’s accountant. Did he also have a lawyer?”

“Several. Do you want to talk to them?”

“As soon as possible. They probably don’t work on Saturdays.”

“They work whenever we need them. For what they’ve earned working for Morgan Enterprises they wouldn’t dare turn me away. What do you want them to do?”

“You’ll see. Let’s take a look in your father’s closet.”

Chapter Fifteen

David tried on several of Jacob Morgan’s suits and finally chose what Lisette called a double-breasted frock coat with striped wool trousers and a top hat to match. The leather boots with shiny toecaps were a half size too large, but he was able to lace them tightly enough to keep them on his feet. Lisette combed his hair “stylishly,” and he was ready to go.

She wore a burgundy wool dress, trimmed with embroidery and brocade, with a matching hat trimmed in feathers and ribbons. She seemed nervous for some reason. David asked why.

“Because I’m supposed to wear black, mourning for an entire year after James’s death.
But Aunt Portia told me she thought I had mourned long enough.”

“I agree. He kept you prisoner and abused you for eight years. You should wear red, for celebration.”

“You really think so?”

“There’s no need for you to mourn that man another day. It’s time you focused your attention on love.” He gathered her close.
“My love. For you.”

She pressed her lips against his, opening her mouth for the kiss. His body tensed with desire for her again. But they had important business to take care of. A crazy idea had been born in his mind. He only hoped he could pull it off.

They took the carriage to the lawyer’s office at the corner of Jefferson and Main. Seth drove the horses while Lisette and David sat in the back, holding hands like teenagers. He couldn’t see enough. Even at three miles an hour, it all went by too quickly. There were buildings he recognized from the Memphis he knew, only they were new and beautiful. There were buildings which had fallen down or been replaced that he’d never seen before. The churches were magnificent—the Calvary Protestant Episcopal, St. Peter’s Catholic, Trinity Lutheran and the first Presbyterian Church—and all existed in Memphis in 2009.

One thing about the city disturbed him. Trash and filth seemed to be everywhere, and greasy, stagnant water. He mentioned this to Lisette.

“The city is much cleaner now than it was.”

“Cleaner? It must have been horrible before. It’s a wonder people didn’t get sick and die from it.”

“They did. The noxious fumes rising from the filth caused the yellow fever epidemics. Once we realized that’s where the fever was coming from, there was a city-wide effort to clean up the streets, to prevent those fumes from afflicting us again.” She saw him smiling. “What did I say that amuses you so?”

“Cleaning up was the right thing to do, but it was done for the wrong reason. Yellow fever doesn’t come from noxious fumes.”

“It doesn’t?”

“No, it comes from a tiny organism, too small to be seen without a microscope. These organisms—people sometimes call them ‘bugs,’—are carried by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes breed in filth and in standing water.”

“So it was the mosquitoes all the time?”

“By eliminating the mosquitoes’ breeding places, you reduced the chances of contracting yellow fever.”

She shook her head. “If we’d only known sooner, then Memphis might still be a chartered city.”

“Don’t worry. Memphis will regain its charter in a few years and will eventually be ‘the cleanest city in the country.’ Memphis in 2009 is a beautiful city. I can’t wait to show it to you.”

When they reached the downtown area, he saw the river for the first time. The banks were not the same as the ones he knew. The river was constantly changing but would always retain its majesty. Old Man River never got in a hurry for anyone. It went where it pleased, when it pleased. The faces of people on the banks changed constantly. The river—its soul—would never change.

“David, you look so peaceful. What is it?”

“The Mississippi.”

She smiled and kissed his cheek. “It’s beautiful. I missed it when I was in New Orleans. So close, yet so far away.”

He held her face in his hands, kissed her. “I promise you won’t have to leave it if you don’t want to, except to travel. You can always come home to the river.”

From the way she smiled, he knew it would be difficult for her to leave 1885 because of her home and family. Hopefully, he could make the leaving easier, depending on how cooperative this lawyer proved to be. If only he could contact Joe! He’d know exactly what they needed to do to save the Morgan home and make sure it still existed in 2009.

They arrived at McAllen, Chambers and Rogers just before one o’clock. Louis Rogers, the partner Lisette had always dealt with, was still at lunch, due back any time. While waiting, they talked about twenty-first century Memphis and what she could expect. Computers, education for women—careers for women—all amazed her.

“Remember when I asked you, on the boat, if you worked somewhere?”

That same look of indignation clouded her face. “I couldn’t believe you were being so rude.”

“I didn’t mean to be rude. Women work all the time where I come from.”

“Why? Don’t they have husbands?”

“Yes, sometimes, but in my century one salary sometimes isn’t enough to provide enough money for all the things families want to do, or for the payments they have to make. So, women work to earn extra money, because they enjoy it, because they like contributing something to the place where they live, to make life better for themselves and their families.” David could tell this was an entirely new concept for her. He let it soak in a minute.