Counterfeit Courtship (11 page)

What was he thinking? For the first time in his life, he didn't have the money to buy something he needed.

As he sat in his desk chair, pulling on his boots, Ellie's giant bell rang. Looked as if Noreen had finally embraced the idea of using bells to call people in the house. Funny how quickly some people took Ellie's ideas and ran with them. What was it about Ellie that made people want to please her?

Everybody but Graham. At least, up to now. This morning, and every day until this mess was straightened out, he'd show her that he could court with the best of them.

Her note still bothered him. Signing it “Sis.” Telling him not to frown. Hoping he'd be more fun. What made her think he would frown, wouldn't be any fun?

Then it hit him. He'd been frowning for the past three days.

He'd hardly remembered how to smile when he came home. And yesterday, he'd laughed—hard—for the first time he could remember. He got up and went to the mirror.

What he saw looked awful. He hadn't taken a good look at himself, other than to shave and comb his hair, for months. Maybe longer. Had he become the man Ellie thought he was? Had he allowed the war to make him hard? Judging by that scowl in the mirror, probably so.

Was that why God allowed him to have Ellie and that ridiculous dog of hers in his life again? Maybe, maybe not. But whatever the reason for the changes, he needed them.

What would it be like to enjoy life again? He needed to find out. Now he wished he hadn't sent Ellie that sarcastic note through the pen barrel.

He looked in the mirror again and tried for a smile.
Pathetic.
This was going to take some time.

Graham sprinted down the stairs as Noreen rang the bell again.

“Good morning, dear.” His stepmother kissed his cheek and set down the bell. “I thought you might want to help your father dress for church. Doctor Pritchert thinks he should go. I brushed and freshened his uniform last night. Breakfast in ten minutes.”

Noreen made for the kitchen as Graham started back upstairs to assist his father. Then, on impulse, he stopped. “Noreen.”

She turned to him. “Yes?”

Graham took a deep breath and smiled the best he could. “Good morning.”

He thought he saw a tear in her eye. Then she gave him the first genuine smile he'd seen on her face since Betsy had come to their house.

“Good morning, Graham.”

Half an hour later, those bells tinkled, signaling Ellie's carriage at their door. He stepped onto the gallery and saw her sticking her head out the carriage window, waving at him and pointing at the ostrich feathers on her hat. “Fluff and feathers—just as you requested.”

She'd taken him literally? That was the gaudiest hat he'd ever seen. “You can't wear that. It looks awful.”

“That's no way to win a woman's heart.”

She was right. He'd already forgotten his resolve to court her for all he was worth.

And it looked as if he was in her debt again, this time for transportation to church. She'd done it for Father and for Noreen, who would struggle to carry Betsy to church in the late-morning heat. But it rankled against his Southern sensibilities to let her drive him around.

Nevertheless, Graham headed back inside to fetch Noreen, Father and Betsy. Within minutes, he had them settled in the landau's backseat. The only missing member of their families was Amos. And Sugar.

Graham got in next to Ellie. “Good morning. You look lovely in that hat.”

She looked so startled, he must have done or said something wrong. When Noreen began to laugh softly, he knew he had.

“My grandmother apparently thought so too. She wore it to a Charles Finney revival in New York back in 1825.”

Finney revival—1825? The harder he tried to understand, the more confused he got. Why was she wearing such an old hat—and why was Noreen laughing?

Ellie handed him the reins, then lifted a hatbox from the floorboard and pulled out a different hat. It might have been the one she wore yesterday. “It was just a joke, Graham. You told me to wear fluff and feathers, and this was the best I could do.”

A joke. Laughing at him—again. He let out a puff of air that sounded like a growl. Try to court a woman, and this was what happened.

She tied her blue hat under her chin and blinked those big even-bluer eyes at him. “Is this better?”

“No, I like the other one.” Which wasn't entirely true, now that he thought about it. Aside from the abundance of feathers, they didn't look much different to him. Both were too big and fancy.

“You poor man. Miss Noreen, you must have forgotten to give him his breakfast. He's as grouchy as Uncle Amos is when he's hungry.”

“No, I fed him like a king. Grits with eggs, and biscuits with wild honey.”

Graham shifted in his suddenly uncomfortable seat. He'd have to try again. “Ellie, you don't need a stylish hat to look beautiful.”

Silence.

Apparently, that wasn't the right thing to say either. What was wrong with it? It was true, and it was complimentary. If these women couldn't appreciate sincere admiration, he didn't know what else to do.

“Thank you, Graham,” Ellie said in a soft little voice. Her face held a hint of a dewy smile. Something soft glowed in her eyes, a womanly radiance so beautiful he could hardly breathe.

Betsy began to fuss in the backseat then, and the moment faded away.

“What gave you the idea to start up our message system again?” Graham asked, pulling his gaze from her.

“I remembered you banging that barrel against my window on Saturday mornings.”

“And you did it to wake me up in time to play in the churchyard before Sunday school.” Graham had all but forgotten about that. “I can believe the pulleys were still attached. But that twine should have rotted years ago.”

“It did. That's why I came over yesterday morning, while you were grooming Dixie, and strung another length of twine.”

“How did you do that?”

“Same way we did it before. I fastened the twine to my pulley, then I stood under your window and threw the ball up to the gallery.”

A low chuckle from the backseat let him know who else was responsible. “You're in on this too, Noreen?”

“I'm afraid I am. I thought you needed a little levity in your life.”

Levity? Why would he need that?

They arrived at church then, and Graham realized Father had not said a word the whole morning, even during the half hour Graham spent with him during breakfast. Would that get awkward in church? What if someone spoke to him, but he didn't answer?

He glanced at Ellie, who continued to chat with everyone in the carriage, even his quiet father. Did she understand how much they all needed that, needed her to encourage them? Today was Graham's first time in a church in at least two years. Sure, he'd attended camp services as often as his command allowed, but a ragtag meeting in a makeshift outdoor church was a far cry from worship in a Natchez sanctuary. Ellie seemed to know instinctively that his family needed the distraction from the awkwardness that could come.

However, the prospect of spending time with people who weren't soldiers or family felt less intimidating than it had when he first rode into town. A clean shave and the hasty haircut Noreen gave him before Aunt Ophelia's party had certainly helped. But his new calmness was due mostly to Ellie's easy friendship, and he knew it.

He also knew he needn't worry about the church's reaction to his father. As long as Ellie stayed by Father's side, chatting as usual, nobody would notice his silence.

They parked at the church, and Father exited the conveyance as soon as the wheels stopped rolling. He waited beside the door and helped Noreen and the baby out. That was progress.

Graham opened Ellie's door and took her hand while she stepped from the landau. The instant before he would have let go of her hand, he instead tucked it into the crook of his arm and drew her closer than he ever had.

She wanted courting? She would get it—as good as he could give it.

Chapter Eleven

“I
s consulting our attorney considered work on a Sunday?” If not, Ellie might get some answers to the questions that had been nagging her since yesterday: Did she own a railroad? If so, why had she and her mother lived in poverty? And why did Leonard Fitzwald want it so badly?

Uncle Amos lifted the built-up spoon Ellie had made and tried to use it to scoop up some red rice and étouffée.

Ellie and Graham sat at the small square table at Uncle Amos's bedside. The older man had his Sunday dinner on the high bed table on wheels that Ellie had one of the Magnolia Grove workers make.

“Best not to defile the Lord's day with work.” Her uncle's sagged features seemed to droop even more when he disapproved of something Ellie wanted to do—as they did now.

“Even if he does it as a favor?”

Uncle Amos frowned harder than Graham always did. “Ask...ask your young man here. He'll tell you the same thing.”

“His name is Graham.”

“I knew who he was, just forgot the name. He's the one you're in that imaginary courtship with.”

She certainly hadn't expected that. “Only for the sake of convenience.”

Uncle Amos fixed his one good eye on Graham. “I don't like it—not at all.”

Graham hesitated. “It's nothing harmful. We're just like brother and sister, as always.”

Her uncle snorted. “I know more than you think. Nobody should play around with love. It's dangerous, and somebody always gets hurt. Every time.”

“Not this time, Uncle.”

“Mark my words.” His ominous tone sent a shiver up Ellie's back. “What do you want with the attorney?”

Graham looked as relieved as Ellie felt at the change of subject.

If she told Uncle Amos what was on her mind, he likely wouldn't remember the answers today even if he did know them. On the other hand, if she asked him and then he forgot, it probably wouldn't affect his health. She decided to take a chance. “Joseph Duncan told me that my father left me a railroad.”

He frowned. “Joseph Duncan...”

“The attorney.”

“Right. What did he say about a railroad?”

“That my father left me one when he passed.”

He hesitated, frowning again as he did when trying to remember.

Perhaps Ellie could help him recall if she told him what she knew. “It's the Louisiana–Texas line.”

“Louisiana–Texas...”

Just when she thought the memory was gone forever, Uncle Amos sat up straighter and shook his head. “No, no.”

Graham leaned forward. “You don't remember?”

But he did. Ellie could tell. “What is it, Uncle? What do you remember?”

“Let it go. It's not worth it.”

“Let what go? Do you mean I should sell it?”

“No.” He raised his voice. “Just let Joseph deal with it. He knows what to do.”

“But—”

“Let it go, Ellie.” His face turned red, his chest heaving with every breath.

Graham touched her hand. “This is too hard on him. Forget it for now.”

He was right. Ellie rushed to Uncle Amos's side. No railroad was worth endangering his already precarious health. “I'll tell Joseph what you said.”

“You'll do what he tells you?”

“I promise.”

“Good.” He lay back against his pillow again and drew deep, slow breaths, his eyes closed.

“I'm sorry. I didn't know it would upset you.”

He lifted his good hand then let it drop. His color had improved a bit, and his breathing had slowed to normal. “As long as you do what Joseph says, it will be all right.”

If Uncle knew about the loan from Leonard, he would know that it was not going to be all right. Not all right at all. “I'll take care of it.”

He opened his good eye and put all his uncle authority into his gaze. “Not on the Lord's day.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Take this food away.” He closed his eye again. “I'm going to sleep.”

“I'll get it.” Graham rose from the table and collected her uncle's dishes. He carried them to the table and started to add his leftovers to the ones on Ellie's plate.

She hurried to his side and stopped him from scraping them together. “That's enough for our supper. I'll put it in the spring house to keep it cool.”

“Or I could give it to Sugar for you.” He looked at her with questions in his eyes. “Most people don't keep leftover crawfish. It'll spoil.”

She hesitated. He might as well. Lilah May would feed it to the dog before the next meal, anyway, as she always did.

Within ten minutes, Graham had fed Sugar, and then he and Ellie moved to the parlor to explain to Lilah May about Uncle Amos's spell of nerves.

“Keep him as quiet as you can,” Ellie told her maid. “Don't mention railroads.”

Lilah May's brows rose, but she said nothing and returned to the kitchen, where Graham had stacked their dinner dishes.

“I can't wait until tomorrow to start getting money together to pay this loan.” Ellie paced the parlor, her mind whirling with ideas she'd had while sitting up late last night. “I'm going to ride out to Magnolia Grove and talk with the workers.”

“In this heat? Why don't you go in the morning instead? It's ninety degrees and humid as a thunderstorm. Nobody's going to be stirring out there.”

“I have to go today. Tomorrow I meet with Joseph about that railroad and put my plan into motion.”

“I'll go with you after I check on Father and Noreen. We can ‘court' just as well out there as here in your parlor.” Graham watched her from the rococo-style couch. “Why don't you sit by me while we make plans? You're wearing me out with all that walking. It's a day of rest.”

“I can't rest. Let's start for Magnolia Grove, and I'll tell you about an idea I had.”

Graham opened his mouth, and Ellie braced herself for his snide comment about her ideas. But he closed it again and stood from the couch. “I'll meet you back here in a few minutes.”

She watched him walk out, her plans somehow failing to capture her attention anymore. Graham Talbot had missed an opportunity to chide her about her ideas? What had happened to him?

Calling to Lilah May to ask for help in changing to an older dress, Ellie sprinted up the stairs. If her uncle knew she was going to Magnolia Grove today, he'd have something to say about her working on the Lord's day. But didn't Jesus say that if an ox falls into a pit, the owner would pull him out on the Sabbath? Well, if she didn't do something about this loan, she would be the one in the pit.

When she had changed, she leashed Sugar and headed toward the carriage house. Roman had the landau ready to go, just as she'd asked before dinner. As soon as Graham got there, she let Sugar climb into the backseat, and they took off for the plantation. She opened her parasol and held it over them both for shade.

“More than anything,” she said as they turned onto the country road to Magnolia Grove, “I want to go to Joseph's house and find out why my uncle got so agitated about that railroad. But if Uncle remembers anything about our conversation, he'll ask me what we did today. If I say we went to Joseph's, I'm afraid his attack of nerves will happen all over again.”

“Or something worse could happen. He had me scared for a minute.”

“Me too. I hope he won't find out what I'm going to do out there.”

“I'm not sure I want to know either, but you ought to let me in on the plan before we arrive.”

For the first time, Ellie hesitated to tell him her plan. No doubt that was because she was unsure it would work out. Graham was right that her plans didn't always achieve what she wanted them to, but she'd never doubted before. Not until Graham had come home. And that scared her more than the loan did.

This was her last chance to back out. She drew a deep breath. “I'm going to put my plan of daily pay in place to keep them from moving on to some other plantation.”

“I assumed you'd do that.”

“That will not only retain our workers, but I think it's the right thing to do. Planters in this area are starting sharecropping programs, and I think they're a terrible idea.”

“I don't know much about that, other than the planters leasing out tracts of ground to the workers.”

“It's terrible because the laborer never gets out of debt to the landowner. The workers don't get paid until the crop is harvested and sold. Until then, they rack up credit at the plantation store. The workers have to buy their own tools and animals besides living expenses. So basically, they are still slaves.”

“And by paying them daily, you'll eliminate the need for the workers to live in debt. I like it.”

She might as well tell him the rest now, while he was impressed with her daily-pay idea. “Also, if anyone brings me a new worker, and that person stays on through the harvest, they each get a bonus of a double-eagle coin.”

He looked at her as if she'd proposed giving away the entire plantation. “That's going to cost you.”

“It'll cost more to leave cotton in the field to rot.”

“You know that's going to make you unpopular with the other planters in the area.”

“It doesn't matter.” The humidity was turning oppressive; she fanned herself with her handkerchief. Maybe Graham was right and they should have waited until morning. “I have to get this crop in. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and this is about as bad off as I've ever been.”

Graham leaned back into a comfortable-looking position, gathered the reins in one hand, pulled out his handkerchief with the other and dabbed his neck with it. He looked so much the part of the landed gentry that she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. “I'll give that some thought.”

He assumed he was meant to be a soldier, but Ellie knew better. Even as a child, Graham had an eye for the crops, a way of kindness with the workers and an uncanny business sense. If he had ground, he'd be the most successful planter in the county.

They passed the abandoned chapel again, with its falling-in roof and rotting siding. Such a shame for it to go to waste...

Her new idea came to her as she mourned the loss of that chapel. She watched the plan unfold in her mind as if she were seeing it with her natural eyes.

“Graham, I just got an idea that will save our plantation and give you an opportunity to make a living for your family.”

* * *

“Ellie, no—”

She interrupted Graham with a rush of words so fast, he had to concentrate in order to keep up. “I know this plan will succeed. It will keep your family going until your father gets better and can find something to do, and if he wants to, he can work here too. We'll start with the cabins and then the chapel. It won't be long before we can—”

“Stop!”

She looked at him with eyes so big, he couldn't doubt that she had no idea what she'd done. “What's wrong?”

“I know what you're going to say. You want to hire me to help at Magnolia Grove.”

Ellie all but bounced on her seat. “It's going to work out wonderfully!”

Did she mean to strip him of what little pride he had left? Or did that just happen naturally? “Look at me, Ellie. I have nothing. I have no prospects. I'm already driving your horses and carriage. I'm not going to let you pay my way too.”

“My idea is going to change all that.”

“Your ideas change things, I'll give you that. But this time, I'm not going along with your plan.”

“Graham, don't be silly.”

“Even if I would agree to do this, which I am not, where are you going to get the money for all this labor? And how much will you need to rebuild the cabins? What shape are they in?”

“They can't be that bad.”

Graham ran his hand over his eyes. How could he make her see her mistake? He'd never been able to do that before. But he could give her another idea. “Why don't we wait and see if Father improves enough to sign for the sale of the property? That way, you could pay off the loan, and you might have money left over. I heard in church this morning that Yankees are swarming down here, buying plantations and thinking they're going to get rich on cotton.”

“Well, they're mistaken. Cotton is selling high now, but I expect the price to plunge by the middle of September. And a high price doesn't guarantee a large profit. We have to pay laborers and taxes, do maintenance and upkeep. Cotton isn't the foolproof crop the North thinks it is.” Her sweet smile looked like bravery shining through fear. “And that way we wouldn't have a livelihood either. This way, I can keep working.”

She knew her cotton farming, of that much he was sure. In fact, she knew a lot more about the market than he did. “Why don't you sell half of the ground then?”

Ellie lowered her parasol and met his gaze. “Because we barely survive on twenty-five hundred acres. How could we live on less than that?”

He had no answer.

“How did you get the manpower—and money—to plant and cultivate that much ground?” He paused, realizing the Andersons' entire financial situation didn't add up. “What about taxes? Hardly anybody around Natchez has this much cotton planted, because no one had the money.”

“Miss Noreen and my uncle were quite clever. Two years ago, they guessed how the war was headed, so they converted most of their Confederate money into gold coin. It wasn't the most patriotic move they could have made, but seeing how things turned out, I'm glad they did it.”

As Graham had done in Virginia. “But Union troops occupy this whole city. How did they not confiscate the money?”

“We hid it in our matching mahogany sideboards—in our dining room and yours.”

“But the Union soldiers would have known to look in the sideboard for valuables. We kept our silver in there.”

“They did, but they didn't know the mahogany was a veneer, and the sideboards are actually three-thousand-pound cast-iron safes with secret recesses in the doors.”