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She remembered too. And since he didn’t know what to say to break this sudden, awkward silence, he let it remain.
Actually, after the first few seconds, it wasn’t so bad. Quiet was a rare thing around Ellie.
On the gallery, he opened the door for her as he had for those girls. And the quiet stopped.
“Graham, how nice of you to give me a ride. I’d been counting the days until your return.” Ellie tugged at his arm and pulled him along with her until they stood outside the parlor doorway. Then she looked up into his face and batted her lashes at him, smiling like a debutante. “I can’t believe you’re finally home. Now we can—”
She pulled her gaze from him and turned to the parlor. “Oh, dear. You have guests.”
Graham ventured a glance into the parlor. If Ellie was trying to get their attention, she’d accomplished her goal. They all sat motionless as sharpshooters, and a few had their mouths open.
Then, before he could figure out what she was doing, she took his hand and nudged him toward the parlor. Now what? Holding Ellie’s hand in front of these girls was more awkward than the silence had been.
“Graham was on his way upstairs to freshen himself after his journey.” She looked at him with those big eyes again. “Go ahead, honey. I’ll serve refreshments.”
This time she pushed him toward the stairs. Whatever she was trying to do, at least he’d get a quick sponge bath. Nothing else was going the way he wanted today, so why shouldn’t he take ten minutes to get cleaned up? It would have taken a lot longer than that if he’d had to wait for those women to decide to leave. Come to think of it, he couldn’t very well go out to look for Noreen as long as he smelled like a horse. A dirty, sweaty, dust-covered horse.
Although it was hard telling what he’d have to deal with when he got back down here.
* * *
“Ladies, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll fetch some cookies and tea.” Ellie started for the hall, knowing full well she wouldn’t get out the parlor door, acting the hostess this way in Graham’s home. Immediately, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see the group rushing toward her, hoopskirts dancing with the motion.
“We appreciate the offer, but we must decline,” Susanna Martin said, making the decision for the whole group as usual. “We came to see the colonel, and since he will be occupied for a time, we’ll come back another day.”
Ellie moved farther into the room and perched on the edge of a gold damask settee. She took a white lace handkerchief from her day-dress pocket and flicked an imaginary fleck of dust from the gas lamp next to her. “Whatever you say, Susanna.”
She needn’t have wondered about the effect of her actions. The girls, all from her Pearl Street neighborhood, sat back down as well and began asking questions all at once.
The charade was rather enjoyable, and Ellie let them answer their own questions for a time. Then she held up one hand. “Ladies! Your mothers would be appalled at your manners.”
“Colonel Talbot was right here in this room with us just minutes before the two of you came in. How did you end up riding with him?” Not surprisingly, Susanna took the lead.
“He sent a message for me. A white flag, so to speak.”
“While we were all in the house?”
“It would seem so.”
“But you never allow a man to come calling.”
Ellie cast her gaze out the parlor door and toward the staircase. “Of course not.”
“How long have you had this understanding with Colonel Talbot?”
“Understanding?”
“I heard years ago that he proposed marriage to you. Is that true?”
Ellie turned her face to the floor in what she hoped looked like a demure gesture. “It’s true.”
“Something’s not right about this.” Susanna stood and made for the door. “I don’t believe you and the colonel are courting at all.”
“Believe what you like, Susanna. It makes no difference to me.” Ellie walked with her to the entrance, and the other girls trailed in their wake. “See you at church on Sunday.”
When she’d shut the door behind them, Ellie fetched Sugar from the stable and brought her back to the parlor. Although she still wanted to go to Magnolia Grove before the heat of the day, she probably needed to stay until Graham came downstairs.
She went to the library to collect the dirty dishes he had said were there, and she washed them in the kitchen dependency. This area was as clean as if Miss Noreen still had a staff of twelve servants. How she kept it that way was beyond Ellie. If Lilah May and Roman hadn’t stayed on after the others left, the Anderson home would be in sorry shape.
Moments after she had dried and put away the dishes, she heard Graham clambering down the stairs. Ellie hastened through the breezeway to the dining room and then the center hall.
“They’re gone?” he asked, freshly bathed, shaved and dressed in what must be his father’s suit—a good idea, considering all the Union troops still occupying the city. “How did you manage it?”
“I didn’t manage much of anything.” Ellie moved to the sunny spot Sugar always chose on the faded runner extending from the front entrance to the back door. The dog ignored her until she picked up the leash. Then she came to life, prancing in anticipation of going outside.
“I told nothing but truth, but I let them come to the conclusion that we are courting.”
“But we’re not courting.”
“Lands, no. But since they think so, they got out of here in a hurry. You’re free to go and look for Miss Noreen.”
The look of dismay on Graham’s face was not what she’d expected. “I can’t believe you did that. Don’t you realize why they left in such a hurry?”
“Of course. They wanted to leave us to our happiness.”
He sat down hard on the wooden settle bench along the hall’s east side and dropped his head into his hands. Just the way he always had when one of her childhood schemes had gone wrong. “No, they didn’t. Have you forgotten who you’re dealing with? Susanna left here to spread the ‘news’ all over Natchez.”
“I’m not sure about that...” Or was she? What if he was right?
“The entire Pearl Street neighborhood will know by the time the party starts. Maybe the whole town.” He raised his head and impaled her with his gray-green eyes. “You did it again, Ellie.”
“What did I do?”
“You trapped me in another of your great ideas without thinking it through. That’s why these plans of yours don’t work out. You don’t stop to think.”
“I thought about it—”
“You never think beyond the present. You have to start considering the consequences of your actions.”
Hadn’t she heard that all her life? First from her parents, then from Uncle Amos and the tutors he’d gotten for her. “I can’t help it if the consequences surprise me, can I?”
He groaned. “We’re going to have to figure out what to do. After I find Noreen.”
“Graham, I’m sorry—”
“You say that every time too.”
Well, maybe she did, but that was better than not saying it.
Graham got up and started for the door. “I’m going to see if the neighbors know anything about Noreen. This afternoon, we’ll decide what to do about this. And how I’m going to get out of going to Aunt Ophelia’s party.”
The party. Ellie retrieved her note from her dress pocket and handed it to him. “I was going to slide this under your door, but then I saw your signal.”
She grabbed Sugar’s leash and followed Graham outside as a carriage pulled up near the spot where his horse snitched mouthfuls of grass from the yard’s edge. Within moments, Miss Noreen stepped unassisted from the conveyance. She turned and faced the carriage door and held out her arms. Someone placed a bundle into them.
A bundle that squirmed and cried...
Chapter Three (#ulink_9c20740d-be36-5b28-a331-01deeec4ad20)
Graham’s eyes misted over at the sight of his stepmother, and that surprised him more than anything else that had taken place this morning. What had happened to the soldier, the commander in him? He’d apparently been replaced by a nose-wiping ball of mush who hadn’t even realized he was homesick.
He also hadn’t realized he’d been running toward Noreen, but his slightly elevated pulse told him he had. He reached for the slender, gray-haired lady to give her the hug of her life—
And was met with a tiny fist to the gut.
“What? What is this?” In his relief and joy at seeing Noreen, he’d noticed but paid little attention to the white blanket he’d thought was merely wadded up in her arms. But there was something in that blanket. And that something was raising a fuss. So the crying hadn’t come from the baby buggy Mrs. Lemar was pushing up the walk as he’d thought. “What’s going on?”
“Graham.” She laid one hand on his upper arm and leaned toward him. “I thank God you made it home.”
He bent down to receive her kiss on the cheek. That alone would have made him start to bawl right here in the street, along with the baby, if he hadn’t been so shocked by his—or her—appearance.
“Everyone please come inside,” Noreen said. “Ellie, you too, dear, and Joseph.”
Joseph? Graham shot a glance back at the carriage. Their attorney, Joseph Duncan, climbed out and stretched his long legs. His suit was somewhat shiny from age and his stovepipe hat faded, but his famous, magnificent mustache was groomed to perfection as always and white as the clouds overhead.
Graham was about to offer his hand when the old gentleman gave him a snappy salute. “Welcome back, Colonel. I was a captain in the War of 1812. I know how pleasant it is to come home.”
Although it felt rather silly to salute a civilian more than three times his age while wearing a borrowed suit, Graham returned the gesture. “What’s going on? Whose baby is that?”
Joseph ambled down the walk with him. “We’d better let Miss Noreen tell her story.”
Noreen and Ellie—and Sugar—were halfway to the gallery by now. “I should carry that baby for her.” Graham started to pick up his pace, but Joseph clasped his arm.
“I wouldn’t. Let her hold the child.”
Inside, Noreen seated everyone in the parlor—Graham in his favorite leather wing chair, Ellie in the old-fashioned writer’s chair in the far corner and Joseph on a comfortable upholstered settee. Noreen chose the gold damask settee for herself. “In a few minutes, I’ll ask Ellie to prepare refreshments for us. We’ll all need strength by the time I’ve finished my story.”
She unwrapped the quieted baby from the blanket and cradled him—or her—in her arms. “This is my granddaughter, Noreen Elizabeth. She’s eight months old. Her mother called her Betsy.”
Ellie gasped, and until that moment, Graham had forgotten she was in the room.
“Yes, my daughter-in-law named her after you, Elizabeth.” Noreen smiled a tiny smile. “Apparently, she called her Betsy instead of Ellie to avoid the confusion of your shared name.”
Just what Graham needed—another female with Ellie’s name. What were the chances that her namesake would be as maddening as Ellie? “Why do we have Betsy?”
“I learned of her existence only this morning. You know that my son, Stuart, died of dysentery in Tennessee a year ago last March. Shortly after dawn, Joseph brought me word that his widow, Francine, succumbed to pneumonia.” Noreen’s always-soft, always-gentle voice was now edged with a sorrow Graham had never before heard. “A neighbor cared for Betsy overnight, and at first light, Joseph took me to Harrisonburg by ferry to fetch the child.”
“I didn’t know Stuart had a child.” But he’d had a furlough shortly before his death, so it made sense. And now the poor little girl was fatherless. And motherless. That mist threatened Graham’s eyes again. He swallowed hard to choke it down. He must have been more exhausted than he thought, as blubbery as he was.
“Neither did he. Stuart had just gotten back to his camp when the sickness swept through it. And Francine didn’t know Betsy was on the way until after she learned of Stuart’s death.” Noreen caressed the top of the baby’s head and then kissed it. “Now I’m her only relative, besides her step-grandfather when he gets home from war. And you, of course, Graham. I’ve always considered you my own.”
Graham put his head down and pinched the inner corners of his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. If he didn’t get control, he was going to embarrass himself. He cleared his throat and searched his stepmother’s eyes. “Thank you, Noreen. I feel the same.”
He stood and went to the window, not to see what was out there but to hide the fact that he had to wipe a bit of moisture from his cheek. What was wrong with him, anyway? He hadn’t cried in eight years.
Turning back to Noreen, he rubbed his face hard and focused on keeping that stupid huskiness out of his voice. “I’ve been your son for the past twenty-two years, and Stuart was like a brother to me. I’ll take care of you and his child as long as you need me.” Although he had no idea how he was going to do that, since the government had confiscated everything he owned.
“I’m sure we’ll hear from your father soon, and he’ll return with his own troops. Between the two of you, and with God’s help, we’ll all be fine.”
Did that little quiver in Noreen’s voice mean she harbored some doubt? Well, so did he, so he could hardly fault her.
“I’ll help you take care of Betsy, Miss Noreen.” Ellie got up and rushed to the older woman. “I don’t know much about babies, but you can teach me.”
Seeing her mistress crossing the room, Sugar did too, and gave the baby a tentative sniff. Betsy reached out her impossibly small hand and grabbed the dog by the ear. Sugar stood still as the baby pulled her ear and giggled.
“Sugar won’t bite, will she?” Graham sprang to his feet.
“She’s never even snapped at anybody in her whole life, and she’s ten years old. She’s not going to start now,” Ellie said, but Graham noticed her moving in closer too.
Betsy apparently grew bored with Sugar’s ear and released it, and the dog lay at Noreen’s feet, facing the baby as if guarding her.
Joseph laughed his rich, deep laugh. “I’d say this is going to be the best-protected baby on Pearl Street.”
As Noreen smiled at him, Graham drew in a huge breath. Ellie had certainly lightened the mood for them and helped them through this hard time, or rather, her dog had. But that didn’t mean she had to help care for the child. He and Noreen could manage that just fine.
“Would you like me to watch her this evening and give you a chance to rest?” Ellie said as Noreen handed Betsy to her.
“No, you and Graham have a party to attend. Betsy and I will be fine by ourselves.”
“I’m not going,” Graham and Ellie said simultaneously.
Noreen gave Graham her mother-knows-best look.
He ignored it. “I’m going to take a hot bath. Then I’m going to the train station and sending a telegram to General Lee to ask if he has any news of Father’s whereabouts. I’m going to write a letter to Andrew Johnson, asking for pardon and amnesty, and then I’m going to bed early.”
“Graham, you have to go to the party. Ophelia has gone to great trouble and expense, more than she can afford, to give it for you. You’ll break her heart if you don’t go.” Noreen turned to Ellie. “You too, dear. She thinks as much of you as she does of Graham.”
He held in a groan. This was already the longest day of his life, and it was only noon. Did the women in his life have to make it the longest night too?
“Would you like me to come tomorrow afternoon and help?” Ellie asked.
The little minx, changing the subject like that. Sure, she didn’t like the Natchez social whirl any better than he did, but if he had to go, so did she. He’d just sit back and wait for the best time to break that news to her.
“You can come back as many afternoons as you like, when it’s too hot for you to be at Magnolia Grove.” As the baby began to fuss again, Noreen took her from Ellie and bounced her on her knee.
“Noreen, you’d be better off without her help. If you let her hang around, you’ll end up engaged to somebody.” Graham started for the center hall, beckoning Ellie to follow. “But for now, we have some things to discuss.”
He strode to the door and out to the front gallery, not bothering to see whether Ellie—or her dog—followed. Outside, he eased himself onto one of the old rockers. It still felt as good as it had before he left.
