Wellington Cross (Wellington Cross Series) (17 page)

“Are you all right?” Jonas asked me, distracting me from my new
memory.

“Yes,” I said, smiling.  I turned around and followed
Jonas, the dogs tagging along behind us into the house, just as they had tagged
along with Ethan that day two years earlier, and we walked into the house.

Inside was a great hall with a big winding staircase to the
right, and a fireplace to warm visitors, across from the staircase.  We
went straight down a narrow hall towards the river-front door and into a big
parlor on the left.  He got the dogs a bowl of water to drink by using a
faucet near the fireplace, where he said water came into the room from the pump
house, so that dishes could be washed when mother had big parties.  I
looked around the room.  The walls were painted light green, and sofa and
settee were deep red.  I remember that there used to be a big carpet
stretching across the room that had shades of red, green and brown.  When
I asked Jonas, he said he rolled that up and stored it for the summer.  I
remembered doing needlepoint in this room with my mother.  We’d sit by the
fireplace on cold winter days, and she would darn socks.  She also taught
me to read and write in this room, and all about hospitality and decorum. 
Father would come in holding a big rabbit by the ears or a duck by its webbed
feet, showing off his catch of the day.  I was happy that I could remember
my mother and father.  

I relayed the whole story to Jonas as to where I’d been for the
past year.  “Everything comes back in spurts,” I told him.  “I’d been
having dreams of you, Ethan, and me when we were children.  I didn’t
remember your nickname until Ethan called me Maddie, the day I first came back
here.  And while on the porch out there, I remembered the day Ethan came
home from the war.”

“I’m so glad you’ve been found, Madeline.  I just got back
late last night from Orange and found this letter from Clarissa.  So you
were in Chester all this time?”

“Yes.”

“Of course I helped Ethan look for you when you disappeared.
 We were all devastated that we couldn’t find you.  Do you remember
what caused your memory loss?”

“No, I don’t.  I vaguely remember being hit in the head
with something and falling out of a carriage, but that’s it.  Ethan said I
had gone to sell cotton blankets with Fanny in City Point, but I don’t know how
I got so far off course over in Chester.  It was like I had taken the
wrong road or something.  Or maybe I couldn’t take the bridge across the
James and had to take the long way around.  I’ve thought about this a
lot.”

“That is strange.  So, you must know about Ethan getting
married again…” he trailed off.

“Yes, he told me all about it.”

“That must be hard to take.”

“Yes, but he says he…”  I felt a little embarrassed talking
about Ethan this way with my brother.  “Well, he says he still loves me,
and he’s been helping me get my memory back.” 

“I’m sure he does still love you, Maddie.  The two of you
were inseparable from the time we were children.  I’ve never seen two
people more in love than the two of you.  He was truly distraught over
losing you.  I didn’t think he’d ever turn himself around again.”

“Yes, well, it didn’t take long after he met Elizabeth, did
it?  I’m still a little worried about that.  How do I know he really
still loves me?  I mean, he told me he did, and he’s been really
wonderful, but he did marry her.”

“Well, I can understand how you may have doubts since you’ve
lost your memory, but I’m pretty sure he still loves you.  You just don’t
know how lost he was without you.  He was not himself.  He was very
depressed.  I do know his father was the one who convinced him that you
had to be deceased so that he would stop torturing himself and get on with
living again.  Honestly, Madeline.  I really think you can safely
believe him if he tells you he loves you.  I never heard him say that to
or about Elizabeth.”

“Really and truly?  Oh, thank you, Jonas.  That helps
me a lot.  I want in my heart to believe him.  I’m starting to
remember more about us when our friendship changed as we grew up.  I feel
like I’m a young woman again, courting him.”

“I hope you get all those memories back again real soon,” he
said, patting me on the shoulder.  “You know, you’re welcome to come back
here and live, if you want.”

“Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.  I’m sorry about Lucy,”
I said then, changing the subject.  I searched my memory but realized I
had not met her, had only seen a photograph of her, which I saw sitting on the
parlor table.  I picked it up and looked at it.  She’d had blonde
hair and brown eyes and had lived up near Fredericksburg.

“Thanks,” he said quietly.  “Do you remember me telling you
about her?”

“Vaguely,” I said.  “Refresh my memory.  You met her
during a battle?”

“Yes, she was a nurse.  I was shot in the Battle of the
Wilderness where Ethan also was, and I got hit with a bullet to my leg.” 
He rolled up his trousers to show me the scar.  “I was taken to an old
house near the Orange Court House where other wounded were being taken care of,
and had to stay there for a whole month before I was able to walk on it
again.  During that time, she took real good care of me, read to me, sang
to me, and we fell in love.  By the time I was able to walk again, I found
out my troop had moved to Cold Harbor, so I had to hitch a ride down there to
join them.  I vowed to come back for Lucy after the war, but when it was
all over and I came looking for her, I was told she was killed by a
Yankee.”  He stopped to rub his face.  “I just came back from
visiting Lucy’s family over in Orange.  She has a mother, father, and two
younger sisters.  I haven’t seen them since after the war when I went
looking for Lucy.  Her mother is the one who told me about her being
killed.  I promised them I would keep in touch.  They’re a real nice
family.  I took them some strawberries.  Do you remember the war?” he
asked me.

“No, I don’t.  Like I said, I only remember bits and
pieces.  The war is still a blank to me.”

“That’s probably your mind protecting you.  You and mother
went through a lot here.  Come on, I’ll show you more of the house. 
Maybe things will come back to you.”

“All right.”  As he started walking me through the house, I
asked him about his leg.  “You seem to be walking fine from your gunshot
wound.  Is it all healed now?”

“Yes, it was not a crippling wound; I just had to wait till it
healed before I could walk on it again.  It healed fairly quickly with
rest and Lucy’s good care.  It aches sometimes when rain is coming,
however.  Obviously, I now think of Lucy every time it rains.”  

We walked through the dining room, back into the great hall, and
into his master study, which had a big dark wood desk and a sitting area on one
side of the room, with two leather chairs and a table between.  This was
where he and Ethan smoked pipes from time to time, he said.

I could remember a lot more as we walked through the rooms that
used to be my home and up the free-standing staircase to the second
floor.  I looked at photographs of our parents, of me and Jonas, and a
painting of my grandparents.  Jonas explained that when the war started,
and the Yankees began to take over the plantation homes, I had taken as many
photographs and paintings as I could up to the attic to keep away from
them.  He said I got them back out when the war was over.

I went into the bedchamber I used to stay in, the door to the
balcony where I used to sit and sometimes sleep on hot summer nights. 
There were double porches on the river side identical to the ones on the
carriage side of the manor.  I used to look over the big old willow oak
tree that sat between the house and the river.  Jonas, Ethan and I used to
climb that tree as kids.  I was happy that I could remember more
adventures of us as children. 

“What have you done since you came back?  How much do you
remember?” he asked me.  I told him about riding with Ethan, going to
Williamsburg, and getting shot at.

“Getting shot at?” he asked me, worriedly.

“Yes.  Apparently it was an old friend of Ethan’s that he
met in the war.  They had been friends.”  I told him about Jefferson
and how Ethan’s father turned him in as a spy.  Jonas did remember meeting
him after the war.  I told him my story, which was getting tedious, but I
wanted to come clean with everyone close to me about me seeing Jefferson while
I was staying in Chester, that not only did he deceive the South, but he
deceived me, as well.  He was apparently a thief who’d stolen my ring,
Fanny, our horse and carriage, and even tried to steal me away from the ones
I’d loved.

Up on the third floor, or attic, Jonas told me this was where
the house slaves stayed before the war, and that our mother used to teach some
of the women how to sew and knit in the evenings.  It was practically
empty now, except for a few trunks and odds and ends. 

I spent the whole morning talking with Jonas, longer than I had
anticipated.  We ate some strawberries on the river-side porch, looking
out over the river and talking about more childhood stories. 

When I started to head back to Wellington Cross, Jonas said, “I’m
coming with you.  You shouldn’t have come out here by yourself this
morning, especially after telling me that you were shot at yesterday. 
Even if the wolfies did follow you.”

“You’re right, I shouldn’t have.  Ethan is probably worried
about me.”

On the way back to the house, I had the feeling someone was
following us.  I looked around but didn’t see anyone.  I told Jonas
quietly, and we slowed the horses down while Jonas pulled a gun out of his
boot, just to be on the safe side.  Then we picked up the pace.  I
looked all around but saw no one among the thick pine trees.  The dogs
growled, sensing danger, or at least our anxiety.

When we reached Wellington Cross, we rode over to the stables,
and Jonas went on inside the house to greet the family.  I told him I’d be
right there after putting Cinnabar in the stables.

After I put Cinnabar into her new stall, I closed her gate and
heard a noise outside the stable.  I looked around to see if it was Ethan,
but to my surprise, I saw Jefferson, looking through the windows of the
stables!  I ducked down quickly and peeped out a window nearby, writhing
my hands nervously, wondering what to do.  I couldn’t face him, not here,
not now.  I couldn’t imagine what he wanted.  I wondered where Ethan was
and how I could tell him that Jefferson was here. I feared for my safety since
he’d apparently shot at me in Williamsburg.  I looked around for a weapon
I could use in case he tried to hurt me, maybe a pitchfork.  I moved
quickly down to the end of the stables where the tools were, and then I heard a
stable door swing open and then close.  My heart leapt inside me. 

I didn’t have time to grab a pitchfork, so instead I crouched
down in the corner.  I heard footsteps coming close, my heart pounding,
and I held my breath. 

“Madeline?  Maddie, are you out here?”  It was
Ethan. 

I breathed a sigh of relief and stood up.  “I’m over here.”

Ethan walked around the corner and smiled when he saw me. 
“Thank God you’re safe.”  We walked towards each other, and upon reaching
me, he lifted me up and into his arms.  “I was so worried when I couldn’t
find you this morning.  I thought you might have left me or been kidnapped
or drown in the river.  You don’t know how many terrible images went
through my head.”  He put me back down in the dirt of the stable.

“Did you not find my letter?  I left it on the piano by our
wedding photograph.”

“I just now found it, after looking all over the house and
riding Blackfoot all down by the river.  Why would you go off on a ride by
yourself?  It’s dangerous out there…especially when you were close to
being shot yesterday by a horrible blackguard.”  I deserved the
lecture.  He was right, of course.  I was glad Jonas escorted me
back.

“I’m truly sorry.  I didn’t mean to worry you.  I woke
up early and couldn’t sleep and didn’t want to wake you, so I took an early
ride to see if my brother was home, which he was, so we visited a while.” 
I would have to tell him later about my visit with Jonas.  Right now, I
wanted him to know about Jefferson.  “Ethan, he’s here,” I whispered, and
quickly told him about Jefferson being outside.

Ethan pulled a gun out of his right boot leg and took my hand
and we walked slowly to the door of the stables.  Ethan pointed his gun in
front of him, looking in all directions but saw no one.  Once we reached
the door, Ethan kicked it open with his boot, waiting a moment before going
out.  I hid behind him.  There was no sound.  He walked outside
first, looking all around for signs of Jefferson.  Then he put his arm
around me, and we hurried over past the bachelor’s quarters to the house and
went inside through the river-front door.  Ethan still held the gun in his
hand.

Once inside,
Ethan yelled for Jonas to
come with him outside and to bring his gun, explaining that Jeff was prowling
around outside.  On his way out, Jonas apologized for leaving me alone
outside, that he didn’t think anyone had followed us all the way to the
plantation. 

“It’s all right,” I said.  “Just go.”  He went on out
with Ethan.  I watched from the doorway and saw Jake and Zeke coming from
the fields, who joined in the hunt.  The dogs followed them, as well,
barking excitedly.