Wellington Cross (Wellington Cross Series) (18 page)

I stayed inside with Edward, Clarissa, Lillie, and
Elizabeth.  Cora and the girls were out in their quarters in the kitchen
house.  Edward had a hard time hobbling around with his partial wooden
leg, and so he told them he’d stay and protect the ladies of the house. 

I told the others what was going on.  Elizabeth went to the
sitting room, while I paced in the parlor, looking out the windows
anxiously.  Clarissa took Lillie upstairs, after Lillie gave me a slobbery
kiss, and Edward returned to his study.

Soon, I saw the four men return, coming through the river-front
door, and I met them in the main hall.  “We couldn’t find him,” Ethan said
to me.  He took my hand and led me to see his father in his study. 
“Father, have you searched the inside of the house?  He may have slipped
in when no one was aware.”

His father had not, nor had any of us.  I asked Ethan if
he’d checked on Cora and the girls, and he said that he had and that they were
fine.  He told me to stay in the study while he and the others checked the
house.  I looked around at Edward, who had a scowl on his face, his
forehead wrinkled in thought.  I got the feeling he didn’t like me, but
maybe he was just worried.  He had only been fairly pleasant to me since I
arrived.  I supposed he was just a busy man. 

“Have a seat, Madeline.”  He motioned for me to sit on a
curved dark green sofa over by the windows.  He went back to polishing a
hand gun that lay on his desk.  I turned around to sit down on the
sofa.  There was a painting of a soldier from the Revolutionary War
between the two windows, above the sofa.  I suddenly remembered that the
soldier was Ethan’s great-grandfather, who’d been a Patriot who had fought
against the British. 

“That was my granddaddy Baldwin Wellington,” Edward said. 
He must have noticed me looking at the painting.  “He was a good man.
 He fought for freedom and achieved it.”  I sat down quietly and
smiled at Edward.  He continued polishing his gun.

Edward was probably around 50, still had some dark hair mixed
with gray.  He had dark bushy eyebrows and eyes the same color as Ethan’s,
though not as bright.  The skin on his face was tan and slightly wrinkled,
and he had a full beard on his chin that was also graying.  I suddenly
remembered how he had looked when I used to come over here when Ethan and I
were courting.  He used to be much thinner and much friendlier.  He
used to call me Linn, a nickname I loathed but tolerated because he was Ethan’s
father.

“Madeline, I understand you’ve been getting some flashes of
memory back.  How much do you remember about me?” he asked.

I looked up and found him watching me, his eyes squinted. 
He looked like he was trying to size me up, or perhaps the sun shining through
the front window was too bright for him.  “Well, sir, I just now
remembered how you looked when I was younger.  You had darker hair then,
and you used to call me Linn.”  I didn’t want to mention that he’d put on
weight, obviously, as he might take offense to that.

“Ah, yes,” he said.  “Linn.  I had forgotten about
that.  The war does funny things to your memory, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Apparently it does, sir.  I still don’t recall any of the
war.”

“Hmm, I see.  Well, I’m sure in time it will come to you,”
he said.  He looked back down at his gun again.  For some reason,
that made me feel uncomfortable.  Of course, he was just getting prepared
to protect us if he had to, if Jefferson were to come in the house, but it
seemed there was more to it than that.  I hadn’t felt comfortable around
Edward at mealtimes either.  I didn’t remember feeling wary about him
before I lost my memory.  It seemed like there was something I was supposed
to remember about him, but I just couldn’t. 

Ethan came back into the study moments later and told us that he
and the other guys had looked through the whole house but found nothing. 
He walked with me into the sitting room where Clarissa and Elizabeth had
gathered, telling them the same thing.

“We couldn’t find him.  Hopefully I scared him off when I
went into the stables, but we must all be very careful and keep our eyes on the
lookout.”  Clarissa and I eyed each other worriedly, and then I looked at Ethan. 
I realized how foolish I had been going off by myself the way I did, and that I
was lucky to have such a fine gentleman that cared so much about me and
protected me.

Ethan vowed that he would not leave my side for the rest of the
day. 

Later in the afternoon, I was sitting on a bench inside the
gazebo, overlooking the James.  Ethan had left me only for a moment to
check on the progress with fixing one of the stable doors that was hanging
improperly.  He guessed he had damaged it when he kicked it open with his
boot earlier.  Jonas had stayed and offered to repair it.  Ethan
joined me moments later, sitting down beside me on the bench.

“How are you doing?” he asked me.

“Oh, I’m fine.  I should be used to all this excitement by
now.  My life hasn’t been normal for quite a while.”

Ethan caressed my cheek with his hand.  “I’m so sorry this
is happening, love.  It’s all my fault.  I had thought he was my
friend, but then found out he was a traitor.  I can’t believe he’s come
back for revenge.”

“Perhaps he’s just angry that I refused him,” I said.

“Perhaps,” he said, thoughtfully.

“You said I met him here before?”

“Yes, right after the war.  Mother had one of her
gatherings for all of us coming home from the war.  He only stayed a few
days, and then said he was heading over to City Point where he had apparently
lived before the war, which of course had been a lie, since he was really from
East Tennessee.”

“But he did live in City Point while he was coming to see
me.  He took me to his plantation home on the Appomattox River.  I
don’t know how he could live in Virginia and be a Yankee.”

Ethan frowned.  “At any rate, while he was here, I remember
that he and Father had stayed up half the night on his last night here. 
Jeff had lost his father before the war, so at the time, I just thought he
needed a fatherly figure to relate to and that he was having a hard time
getting over things he saw in the war.  The next day, however, Father took
him to the sheriff for being a traitor.  Father had figured it all out
while they had been talking.  When did he try to kiss you?”

“It was on the last day he was here, I suppose.  I just
remember that he found me in this gazebo.”  I explained to Ethan how he
forced himself on me and pleaded for just a little kiss, as it had been so long
since he’d been with a woman.

Ethan was furious.  “Him kissing you – more than once – and
all those lies he told you, pretending to be your betrothed, knowing you were
my wife all along, makes me furious, not to mention trying to shoot you in
Williamsburg, and then daring to come here on my plantation.  If I ever
find him again, I’ll kill him, I swear I will.”

I knew he would need to vent about all of that eventually. 
He had been so sweet about Jefferson courting me before, but I understood why
he would be angry.  I would be, too, if I were in his place. 

He had mentioned that the war had been hard on Jefferson. 
It must have been hard on everyone.  “The war must have been very hard for
you, too,” I said, putting my hand on top of his.

He took my hand in his and kissed it.  “It was, but I had
you to come home to.  That’s one of the reasons why I took it so hard when
you disappeared.  I didn’t have you to comfort me anymore, to keep the bad
dreams at bay.”

“Aw, Ethan.  You’re making me want to cry.”  I kissed
his cheek.  “I’m so glad I can comfort you now,” I said, stroking his
cheek gently.

“So am I,” he said tenderly.  “I apologize if I seemed
harsh this morning when I found you, but I was truly worried.  I don’t
want to lose you again.  I don’t know what I’d do if I did.”

“No, it’s fine.  I deserved it.  It was foolish of me
to go off by myself, even if the wolfies did follow me.”

“You remember that nickname?”

“Yes, Jonas reminded me, and I remembered the day you brought
them home from the war.”

“You do?” he asked, excitedly.

“Yes, how long your hair was, and how full your beard was,” I
said, while stroking his hair and beard.  “I had other memories of my
childhood, too.”  I told him about remembering more adventures we had as
children and about remembering my mother and father for the first time. 
It seemed strange that I remembered Ethan before I did my own parents.

“That’s wonderful!  I’m so glad,” he said.

I suddenly remembered hiding those things in the floorboard of
the attic of my old home, like Jonas had told me.  My eyes lit up. 
“Ethan, Jonas told me and I just remembered that I hid some photographs,
paintings, and birth records in the attic of my old home.  I had loosened
up a few floorboards and stuck them under there, covering them back up so they
would be hidden when the Yankees came.  Jonas even told me that he found
the paintings still there after he came back from the war.  I remember
having personal items, as well.  A brush and mirror set my mother gave me,
the letters you wrote me during the war.  Where are those things? 
Did I leave personal things here…”  I swallowed hard.  “In our
bedchambers?”

Ethan looked at me, his eyes suddenly burning with
intensity.  “Yes, you did,” he said softly.  “Perhaps seeing those
things and our rooms will help your memory.  I should have thought of
sooner.  Shall we go up and have a look?” 

“Yes,” I said, feeling my heart racing at the prospect of seeing
the bedchambers we had shared when we were married.

We went inside and up the staircase to the second floor, and
then Ethan picked up a lit lantern.  He explained that there was no light
in this part of the staircase, that we had wanted privacy and so had closed off
the staircase to the third floor with a door.  He then opened a door I had
not noticed before, which was built into the wall and hidden.  It looked
like part of the wall, even with wallpaper from the hall on it.  It was in
the middle of the hallway.  Ethan led me through the door and up another
staircase, which was also two separate staircases divided by a landing, leading
up to the third floor.  The staircase was narrower and there were no
windows, which was why we needed the lantern.  At the top of the
staircase, Ethan opened another door, allowing sunlight to light shine in the
stairwell.  I followed him into the hall and looked around.  It was
designed exactly like the floor below it, with a main straight hall and doors
directly across the hall from each other, the staircase stopping at a door this
time, which was directly across from another door. 

It was much warmer up on this floor, but I felt a breeze from
the open dormer windows at each end of the hall.  Ethan led me straight
across the hall from the stairs into the nursery.  As I walked into the
nursery, I drew a quick intake of breath; it was just as I had remembered it
yesterday when I got the vision of these rooms.  This room was furnished
with a high baby bed made of walnut with finials in the four corners and an
intricately patterned headboard, and was draped with muslin.  There was
also a walnut rocking chair with big arm rests, and an old chest for clothing.
 A fireplace stood against the wall opposite the carriage side
window.  The nursery had one window by the rocking chair and another by
the baby bed, both of which were open.

 I looked at the baby bed with the muslin pulled back, and
suddenly I could see a tiny baby dressed in pink.  Lillie Rose.  She
had been crying, and I’d picked her up, as Ethan came over to us and gave us
both a kiss on our foreheads.  This was a new memory.  I walked over
to the area in my memory where Ethan had approached us.  It was through a
door which led into the master bedchamber which Ethan and I had shared.  I
stepped into the sun-laden room and saw our 4-poster tobacco-carved canopy bed,
which stood in the middle of the room under a small window, which was open to
allow cool air in.  It was covered with a rose-colored spread over a horse
hair mattress, I suddenly remembered.  Muslin was draped around the canopy
at the top and hanging down at the 4 posts, pulled back and sashed.  There
was another fireplace that shared the same wall as the fireplace in the nursery. 
A high top chest of drawers was on the wall across from the bed, and there was
another door beside it that led out into the hall.  The walls were covered
with faded green wallpaper with pink and burgundy roses, and there was a settee
at the bottom end of the bed covered in a deep burgundy fabric.  There was
another window overlooking the gardens and river, and a washstand stood beside
it in the corner close to the bed.  

I looked at our bed and realized this was indeed the room I had
seen in my visions when I saw the two of us having relations.  I dared a
look at Ethan, who was watching me.  His eyes bore into mine, and I had a
sudden physical longing for him.  I had to remind myself why we came up
here…to see if I could get more memories.  I was having memories all
right, just not the kind I was looking for.  Ethan walked over to the
chest of drawers and opened the top drawer, pulling out some of my
things.  He showed me a silver brush/comb/mirror set that my mother had
given me when I was about 12.  I remembered looking at myself in that
mirror for the first time, pretending to be a grown-up, batting my eyelashes,
being silly.  And then I had looked in it again on my wedding day,
wondering what the future held.