Wellington Cross (Wellington Cross Series) (50 page)

“After the war, Ethan invited me to his family home for a little
celebrating before I went home.  As you know, Ethan’s father turned me in
as a spy.  You see, I knew he had been on the Union side during the war.
 Yes, he was a traitor.  I’d seen him once with General Grant. 
So I threatened to turn him in.  Instead, he turned me in, but said if I
didn’t talk, he’d get me out in a few days.  He kept his word.

“I went back home to City Point to find out that my step-father
had died during the war, that mother had been killed by Union soldiers and that
Elizabeth had run away.  I inherited the plantation home, which was in
terrible condition, but I lived there for a while alone.  I sent word to
Edward, asking for help with my home.  He agreed to help me rebuild it if
I would put his name in my will to inherit the home, should anything happen to
me.  I agreed, and he began sending people down to fix my house up
again.  I also helped him get his cotton sold up North, since I got a job
in train exports, which is where my step-father had worked before the
war.  Edward and I helped each other out, tit for tat. 

“Edward later sent for me to help him out with a house servant of
his, said he wanted to send her down to the Dismal Swamp and asked if I would
take her, make sure she got there safely.  He said you were planning to
take her somewhere else, against his wishes and that I had to watch you and
follow you to prevent you from interfering, to basically get rid of you if I
had to.  I found the two of you on the road to Bellwood, took her, and
thought I’d killed you with the butt of my gun.  I couldn’t bring myself
to shoot you.  That was the first time I thought you were dead.  By
the way, that was when I took your horse and carriage.  I had the side painted
over that big “W” so no one would trace it and sold the horse.  I took
your wedding ring, also, to make it look like a robbery.  I hesitated
letting you see that ring for fear you would remember Ethan, but I needed some
tangible evidence to make you think you knew me, and that was all I had.”

I was in shock.  So he’d stolen my wedding ring, after
all.  I still couldn’t remember all the details of that accident yet, but
now I knew who had caused it.  It had been Jefferson who caused my memory
loss and caused me to lose Ethan.  I couldn’t even gloat that the ring
did, in fact, help me remember Ethan.  I was fuming, but I kept listening.

“Imagine my surprise when I found a sketch of you at the marketplace
in Chester, when I thought I had killed you.  It said that you had been
found but had lost your memory.  That had apparently been my fault, when I
hit you with my gun.  It was convenient for me, though, to pretend to be
your betrothed, and so I courted you.  I told Edward before I saw you at
City Point Marketplace, and he told me to distract you and not tell you the
truth about who you were.  He didn’t want you back.  I was happy to
oblige, hoping to get you to be enamored by me.  I had been quite taken
with you when I first saw you the night I went with Ethan to your
plantation.  Then I saw you again after the war at Ethan’s
plantation.  Do you remember when I tried to kiss you?”  His
expression changed, as if he realized something he hadn’t before.  “You
did remember, didn’t you?  That day I tried to kiss you at my
plantation.  You got all upset and then said you had strong feelings for
another man.  It was Ethan, wasn’t it?  Is that why you broke it off
with me?  Ah, so it was my fault in the end.  I gave you a memory by
accident.

“Anyway, Edward told me to get rid of you, yet it was with a heavy
heart that I attempted to do so.  I thought that as long as you didn’t
remember who you really were, perhaps you could be happy with me.  I had
to lie to you about your last name, about your brother, where you came
from.  I didn’t want you to get any memories of Ethan.  I was the one
who took down the other notices about you being missing, in all those other
towns, after I asked you where else you placed them.  I couldn’t have
Ethan or his mother finding you, you see.  I thought I was done for one
time when I saw Ethan at the marketplace in City Point while you and I were
there.  I had to get you out of there in a hurry before you saw each
other.”  He took another drink from his flask.

That was surprising.  If only Ethan had seen me that day.

Jefferson continued, “I thought you and I could be happy together,
Madeline.  I truly wanted you to be my wife.  You were so trusting of
me for the longest time, so innocent and so beautiful.  I wanted you to
love me in return.  Yet when you told me you didn’t want to see me anymore
and had feelings for another man, I got angry, so I set the house you were
staying in on fire.  Yes, I was the one who started that fire, and I
thought I was done with you.  I went back to Edward and told him so. 
He wasn’t happy that I had killed innocent people in the process of killing
you.  That was the second time I thought you were dead.

“Meanwhile, I found Elizabeth and tried to get her to come back to
the plantation and live with me, telling her that Edward was helping me fix it
back up, but she wouldn’t have it.  She didn’t want to live with the bad
memories, saying that the Union soldiers had defiled her and pushed our mother
down the stairs, killing her.  So I went back to Edward and asked him if
he would hire Elizabeth as a house servant, since he didn’t have Fanny
anymore.  As I had earlier agreed to put him in my will to inherit Western
Manor, he agreed to do this for me, saying it would keep our families close and
that he would take care of Elizabeth for me.  So Elizabeth went to
Wellington Cross and ended up falling in love with Ethan.  You know the
rest of her story.  I did go see her from time to time, to see how things
were faring inside the manor.  Clarissa surprised us all by finding you
and bringing you back to Wellington.  Edward was mad at me for not killing
you and told me that I still needed to help him get rid of you, if I wanted
Elizabeth to remain where she was.  So I did.  I followed you to
Williamsburg and tried to shoot you there.  Yes, that was me, and you were
lucky I have a terrible shake in my arm sometimes from a war injury. 
After that, when you left Ethan’s plantation to go live with your brother, I
hid out here in this toolshed, and I’ve been spying on you.  I’ve worn a
path from here to Magnolia Grove. 

“The last time I thought I’d killed you, as you already know, it
turned out to be Elizabeth instead.”  He got up and paced around, letting
the shovel fall to the earth.  “She wasn’t supposed to be at Magnolia
Grove!  I couldn’t imagine why she would be there.  I thought it was
you, that I’d shot you.  I took off back through the woods to come here
and wait.  Jake Hulett came over here and informed me that Elizabeth had
been shot instead of you.  I was distraught.  I couldn’t believe I
had killed my half-sister.  I was so mad at you for not being dead instead
of her.  That was the third time I’d tried to kill you.  Each time, I
had failed.  Edward told Jake to tell me that I had one more chance to
make it right, that I had to go fetch you and bring you here until he arrived,
or else he’d kill me.  And so, here we are.”  He took another swig
from his flask.

“I suspect Edward is trying to take over my plantation.  He
may try to kill me now.  Then the plantation would be his.  That was
perhaps his plan all along.”  He came back over to me and squatted down
closer to my level.  “I could save you, Madeline.  If you’d have me,
I could save your life.  And you could save mine.  We could go to
East Tennessee, and I could be a father to that baby of yours.  We could
forget all about this whole mess.  Otherwise, Madeline, if you don’t
choose me, Edward will kill you.”

 My eyes widened; I was shocked.  Shocked and
scared.  Why would Edward want me dead?  I couldn’t believe it. 
I tried to let everything I’d just been told sink in.  Edward had indeed
been a traitor, as I had suspected when I found that Union coat and
correspondence papers.  Was he concerned I would turn him in?  Was
that motive enough to kill me?  I certainly wasn’t going to run away with
Jefferson.  He was the scum of the earth, as far as I was concerned. 
How was I going to get out of this?  My legs were free; perhaps I could
kick him or hit him in the throat with my double fists that were tied
together. 

“First, I’m going to have my way with you.”  He
laughed.  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Madeline?  How many fellas
have you been with since you got back to the plantations?  Two at
least…Ethan, William.  They were just a warm-up to me, darlin’. 
You’ll be happy as a clam once I get through with you.  I’ve waited a long
time for this.  All those visits I spent, trying to court you.  You
never would give yourself over to me, not even a kiss.  Well, that’s about
to change.”

I closed my eyes, trying to hide the fact that I was scared and
angry at the same time.  If he’d tried to kill me three times, what was to
stop him from trying again?  I knew I had to do something quick.  So
I took advantage of his close proximity and clasped my hands together and swung
them up hard against his lower jaw.  His teeth clicked together hard, and
he fell backwards, his flask falling out of his hand.  He cursed, and I
quickly got up on my feet and ran out the door.  The fire was close to the
old shed and looked like it was getting out of control.  Jefferson had not
contained it properly with bricks or rocks.  Perhaps it would burn the
shed down and Jefferson with it.

Before I could run away, I felt hands grasp my back and push me
down onto my abdomen, onto my baby.  I screamed out a muffled cry in
pain.  I’d kill him if he hurt my baby.  I rolled over, planning to
kick him, but saw that he started unbuttoning his trousers.  Oh God,
no.  He held my legs down, so I was not able to kick him in the groin like
I wanted to. 

“You’re not getting away from me,” he sneered, an evil smile on
his face.  “Not until I’m through with you.”  He had his trousers
pulled down to his knees when I heard a deep voice coming from the woods behind
me.

“Get away from her right now!”  It was Edward.

I felt relief as Jefferson quickly pulled his trousers back up and
got up on his feet, looking behind me in the direction the voice came
from.  Edward appeared near the fire, holding his wooden leg with one hand
and a lantern with the other.  He bent down to put the lantern down and
picked up a small gun, pointing it at Jefferson.

“Why in God’s name did you light a fire out here for everyone to
see?” Edward said.  “You’re a poor excuse for a man.  You’ve botched
everything up.  Now get out of here before I change my mind and shoot
you.”  Jefferson didn’t move, just stared at Edward.  “Go on! 
Get lost!  I don’t need you anymore.  You’re done here.”

Jefferson picked up his pipe by the fire.  He kicked a little
dirt over some of the wandering fire. 

“I’ll take care of that, just go on,” Edward said. 

Jefferson ran off into the woods. 

“Madeline, if you would, please get inside the shed,” he
instructed me.  He was now pointing the gun at me.  Did he really
want me dead, as Jefferson had said?  I was about to find out.

I stood up awkwardly and walked inside towards the back window and
turned around.  He messed with the fire and then followed me inside,
leaving the door open.  He walked over to me and adjusted himself to
balance on his wooden half-leg while he untied the cloth around my mouth. 
He let the cloth fall to the ground, and then held onto his half wooden leg
again.  I felt relieved to be free from that.

“I’m an old injured man, Madeline.  You see, I can’t even
untie a piece of cloth while standing.  This damned injury, from one of
those damned Rebs, nearly killed me and has left me a shadow of the man I used
to be.  Don’t look surprised, Madeline.  I know you remember seeing
that Union jacket in my study.  Am I right?”  I nodded.  “I
thought you would turn me in, Madeline.  Sure, I had told Ethan that I was
a spy for the South, but that’s not true.  I was on the Union side. 
I lied to Ethan.  He couldn’t know that his father fought on the opposite
side of the war as him.  Oh, I made sure I wasn’t anywhere near him in the
battles; I wouldn’t want to fight against my own son.  That was one of the
reasons why I corresponded with General Grant.”

Edward hobbled around the room and continued talking.  I sat
back down on the cold ground of the shed. 

“But why?” I asked, relieved that I could talk again. 
Perhaps if I kept him talking, I could talk him out of shooting me.  I
wondered if anyone knew I was missing from the manor house and how long I had
been gone.

“To save the plantation, Madeline.  I did it for my
family.  I did it to survive the war.  How do you think we were able
to keep the plantation, almost without being touched?  The infantry came
riding up to the plantation one day, and as I had not yet joined the war, they
threatened me, Clarissa, and my plantation if I didn’t let them use the
plantation, promising to give it back unharmed when they were done spying
across the river.  They also talked me into joining their side of the war,
so that’s what I did.  I joined the Union Army.  I didn’t have much
hope for the South.  I didn’t think they could win.  They sure put up
a hell of a fight, though.  How much did Jefferson tell you?  Do you
remember what happened to Fanny?” he asked.

“He told me a little,” I said. 

“Do you remember why you took her away from here?” he asked,
trying to prod my memory.

I looked out the open door towards the fire, and I could see her
then in front of a campfire one night, over on the other side of the kitchen house
at Wellington Cross.  She had lived upstairs above the kitchen house, but
she was sitting down on a log looking into the fire when I found her and sat
down beside her.  She was distraught.  Through tears, she told me
that she had been with Edward in a private way, and that she was now carrying
his baby.  She had told him about it, and he wanted to send her
away.  Far away, down the river to the Dismal Swamp, where he had heard
that other slaves had gone to escape their masters.  She didn’t want to be
sent away.  She loved it there on the plantation, but he wouldn’t hear of
it.  He didn’t trust her to keep quiet about him being the father, and he
also didn’t want the child to have any part of his inheritance.  She
promised she wouldn’t tell a soul, but he didn’t believe her.  She was to
head out the very next day, just after sunset.