Glorious Angel (2 page)

Sam Anderson would take a fit if he found his son like this, but Sam Anderson wouldn’t be down for another hour or so, having had a late night with his cronies. Billy’s father liked cards and dice, and anything else he could wager on, and Billy just managed to keep quiet every time his father said, “Just one big win, and we’ll be out of debt.” But Sam Anderson’s luck wasn’t with him, not the way it had been before the war. He continued to lose and borrow, lose and borrow more.

Billy snapped to attention when the tiny bells above the door jingled. His eyes widened with surprise when two young women entered, their frilly parasols swinging from their wrists, and he recognized nineteen-year-old Crystal Lonsdale, high and mighty princess of The Shadows plantation, and her friend, Candise Taylor. Billy assessed them thoroughly. Crystal was stunning, with wide blue eyes and shimmering blond hair. A trifle skinny for his taste, but certainly a beauty, and one of the most sought-after females in Mobile County.

Candise Taylor was a few years older than Crystal, with raven-black hair tucked neatly under her blue bonnet, and startling blue eyes the color of early dawn. She was the daughter of Jacob Maitland’s closest friend, here for a visit from
England. She was as lovely as Crystal, with a softer face and gentle manner.

Billy came around the counter and approached the two fashionably dressed young women, the one in pink and the other in blue. He wished that he were not so poorly dressed.

“Can I be of service, ladies?” he asked in his most sophisticated voice, a charming smile on his thin lips. Crystal glanced at him briefly, then turned away. “I hardly think so. I can’t imagine why Candise wanted to come in here.”

“It never hurts to shop wisely, Crystal,” Candise replied shyly.

Candise looked quite embarrassed, though not nearly as much as Billy as he watched them walk away from him and heard Crystal’s annoyed drawl. “Really, Candise! Your daddy’s as rich as mine is. Why, when Mr. Maitland asked me to accompany you shoppin’, I never dreamed you’d want to come to a place like this!”

Billy bristled. The snobby little bitch! He’d love to throw Crystal Lonsdale out on the street. But he knew his father would horsewhip him if he so much as looked at her funny. She was too close to the Maitland family. Jacob Maitland was a very wealthy man. He was also a man to whom Sam Anderson was deeply indebted.

Billy stalked back to the counter and plopped down on the stool again. He watched the two young women furtively, his freckles noticeable now because his face was pale with anger.

Billy would have given anything to be as rich as Jacob Maitland. Billy had always envied the Maitlands. He could still remember the day they arrived in Mobile, fifteen years before. He had gone to the docks with his father to pick up a shipment of goods for the store. A large ship had just docked and there were Jacob and his wife and their two sons, the only passengers on that fine ship. Billy was awed by their rich clothes, the magnificent carriage awaiting them, the crate after crate after crate of Maitland belongings.

It was currently rumored that Jacob Maitland’s business interests were so many that he was one of the richest men in the world. He had properties and businesses, mines, railroads, and countless other investments all over the world. Billy didn’t know, but Maitland was surely one of the richest men in Alabama.

There was a man who didn’t have to stay in the South while the war was going on, who could be living anywhere in the world. Yet he was a southern gentleman now, and had elected to stay and support the South. And support it he did, with money, and with his younger son Zachary, who had joined the army, leaving the older son, Bradford, to handle the family interests. Now, there was a fellow Billy envied—Bradford Maitland. He had all that money, lived as he pleased, and traveled all over the world.

What luck to be a Maitland! How Billy wished he were one of Jacob Maitland’s sons. How often
he had dreamed of being part of that family. He didn’t have those silly dreams anymore, but the envy was still there.

Billy’s attention was abruptly drawn.

“Why, even trash like the Sherringtons come in here,” Crystal was sneering.

“You mean that poor man you pointed out to me? The one lying in the alley?”

“That disgusting wretch we saw lying drunk in the alley. Yes, William Sherrington. Did you know they live only a mile away from Golden Oaks?” Crystal asked her friend disdainfully. “I can’t imagine why Jacob Maitland lets a man like that farm his land.”

“I think it’s a shame,” Candise ventured.

“Heavens, Candise! You’d pity anyone. Now let’s leave this place before someone sees us here.”

A smirk formed on Billy’s lips as he watched the two girls leave the store. Yes, run little princess, before any of your fancy friends finds you slumming. Bitch!

His blood had quickened as he listened to them discussing Angela Sherrington’s father. That wild, fiery-tempered hellion had been his obsession for a long time. Although she had only just turned fourteen, she had filled out nicely recently. She was the prettiest piece of white trash he’d ever seen.

Billy had hardly recognized her when she came into the store a few months back. No longer a skinny little brat with stringy brown curls, she had started showing curves. And her face had
changed. Angela Sherrington was downright pretty. Her eyes were deep violet pools hidden by thick, sooty lashes. Billy had never before seen eyes that color. They could catch and hold attention as if casting a spell.

After that day, Billy had started going out to the Sherrington farm and hiding in the crop of cedars that formed a thick wall in front of the Sherrington shack. He watched her working in the fields with her father. She wore tight breeches and a cotton shirt with rolled-up sleeves. Billy couldn’t take his eyes off her.

Billy waited impatiently for his father to come down so he could leave. And when he left the store, he made sure that William Sherrington was just where Crystal had said he was.

Now Billy’s time was at hand. Just thinking about Angela being all alone in that shack caused an ache in his loins. Now he would have her! He could just feel her wiggling beneath him. He would be the first, too, and that counted for a lot. Lord, but he couldn’t wait!

Billy halted the mares and leaped down from his father’s carriage.

“That’s far enough, Billy Anderson.”

Billy smiled. She was going to put up a fight, and that just might be even more fun.

“Now, is that any kind of greetin’, Angela?” he asked indignantly.

He stared at the rifle she held pointed at him but then his eyes moved to her slim hips, outlined
by breeches, then up to the tight shirt. Her breasts pressed hard against the rough material. Obviously, she wore nothing beneath it.

“What’re you doin’ here, Billy?”

He looked at her face now, smudged with dirt and flour, but still pretty, and then he caught and held her eyes. What he saw surprised him. Was it humor? Was she laughing at him?

“I just came for a visit,” Billy said, running a hand nervously through his hair. “Anythin’ wrong with that?”

“Since when you come visitin’? I thought you was the kind that just hid behind trees, too damn scared to come forward,” she replied.

“So you know about that?” he asked smoothly, though his blush betrayed him.

“Yeah, I know. I seen you plenty times, hidin’ over there,” she said, nodding toward the cedars. “What you been spyin’ on me for?”

“Don’t you know?”

Her eyes widened and seemed to turn a few shades darker, a striking violet-blue. Now there was no trace of humor. “You get, Billy! Get!”

“You sure ain’t bein’ very neighborly, Angela,” he said warily, his dark brown eyes on the rifle held firmly in her hands.

“You ain’t my neighbor, and I got no call to be neighborly to the likes of you.”

“I only came to visit—sit down and talk a spell. Why don’t you put down that rifle and—”

“You admitted why you came, Billy, so don’t be
tellin’ me lies now,” she said coldly. “And this here rifle ain’t leavin’ my hands, so why don’t you get your skinny ass on back to the city where you belong.”

“You’re a foul-mouthed little bitch, ain’t you?” he sneered.

She smiled, showing gleaming white teeth. “Why, thank you, Billy Anderson. If that ain’t the nicest compliment I ever did get.”

He decided on a different approach.

“All right. You know why I came, so why are you bein’ so disagreeable? I’m not just out for a little fun. I’ll take care of you. I’ll set you up in a house in the city. You can leave this little farm and live a life of ease.”

“And what would I have to do in return for this life of ease?” she asked.

“You know the answer to that.”

“Yeah, I know,” she returned. “And my answer is no.”

“What the hell are you savin’ yourself for?” Billy asked, his freckled face showing his irritation and bewilderment.

“Not for the likes of you, that’s for sure.”

“The only thing you got to look forward to is marryin’ another dirt farmer and livin’ just as you are now for the rest of your life. Is that what you want?”

“I got no complaints,” she replied defensively.

“You’re lyin’!” he snapped and started toward her.

“Don’t you come no closer, Billy!” Her voice rose to a high pitch. She stared straight into his angry eyes. “I’m gonna tell you honest that I’ll shoot you without battin’ an eye. I’m sick’n tired of you boys thinkin’ you can have me just for the askin’. Hell, most of you don’t even ask—you just grab. I’ve had it, do you hear? I ain’t got the strength for no more fightin’. But this here rifle’s got strength. It’s got the strength to blow your conceited head off. So you better get before that’s just what happens!”

He backed away, the fury in her voice warning him that she meant what she said. Damn!

“I’ll have you yet, Angela, just remember that!” he called as he climbed back in the carriage, his mouth set in a tight line. “You’re dealin’ with a man now, not a boy!”

She laughed. “I ain’t never shot no man, but I reckon there’s a first time for everythin’. Don’t come back, Billy, or you’ll be the first.”

“I’ll be back,” he promised. “And I’ll
be
the first, only not the way you mean. I will have you, Angela Sherrington, I promise you that.”

Billy Anderson drove away recklessly, taking his fury out on the two hapless gray mares.

Three

Angela slammed the door with a bang and threw the bolt, then collapsed against it, her heart pounding painfully. Icy rage gripped her, as it did every time she was confronted by boys like Billy. What did they think she was, a whore? Of course they did. Why else were they forever grabbing her?

Angela sighed impatiently. She realized she had no one to blame but herself. She used to enjoy whipping any boy who dared to tease her. And that was all they used to do—just tease. It had been a show of strength then. But now it was getting harder and harder to win those fights. The same boys she used to send away with bloodied noses were now almost men.

Angela had always felt awkward around girls, having been raised without a woman. She had run with boys instead, until their constant teasing
became unbearable. Soon, girls her own age would have nothing to do with her. And colored girls shied away from her because she was white. The only friend she had was Hannah, kindhearted Hannah.

A knock made Angela start and she clutched the rifle tightly. Had Billy come back already?

“It’s me, child. That boy done gone.”

Hearing Hannah’s voice, Angela threw the door open eagerly and stomped out on the porch.

“That sorry son ov a pig had the nerve to—”

“I knows, Missy. I knows.” Hannah soothed, startled by Angela’s fury. “That boy passed me on the road and I seen him turnin’ to come here, so’s I snuck ’round the trees and was hidin’ behind the house, waitin’ to see iffen you’d need help. O Lordy, Master Maitland sure ain’t gonna like this, he sure ain’t,” Hannah mumbled to herself.

“What?”

“Nothin’, Missy, nothin’,” Hannah said quickly. She put her arm around Angela and urged her to sit on the porch steps. “I guess you’s just growin’ up. Yessum, you sure is.”

Angela wondered briefly why Hannah would mention Jacob Maitland, but Angela wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly, so she let it pass.

Angela had first met Hannah on the day, five years before, when the older woman had emerged from the forest of cedars between Golden Oaks and the Sherringtons’ little farm, saying she was lost and close to fainting from the
heat. Angela insisted she come inside and rest. Later, Angela showed Hannah the way back to Golden Oaks.

Angela just couldn’t understand how a servant from Golden Oaks could have gotten lost. All she had to do was go down to the river and follow it. The plantation was only a little ways back from the rolling Mobile River, and clearly visible from the river’s edge. Or else she could have gone along the river road until she came to the long lane of giant live oaks that led to the mansion where the Maitlands lived.

To Angela’s surprise, Hannah returned a week after that with a sack of flour and a basket of eggs. She said they were payment for Angela’s having saved her life. And no matter how Angela protested, Hannah insisted she had a debt to repay. William Sherrington thought the whole thing was funny, and he saw no reason not to accept the goods. Food was food, and the Sherringtons never had too much of it.