Master Of Paradise (18 page)

"No, no. Dr. Caldwell will be here any minute. I do need you to run some errands for me, Nicholas. Can't depend on servants, you know. They go to pieces in a crisis."

"No. I think she would want the minister from St. Philip's in Charleston. I'll write you a letter for him. Urge him to make the journey out here, Nicholas. I'd also appreciate if you'd take messages to her family. Her sister Virginia will want to come."

"I'll bring Brandon back with me. I'll travel down tonight and return first thing in the morning." He hesitated. "Do you have a coffin?"

"Yes, it's being made right now. It will be finished by dark."

"Write me the letter and I'll be on my way." Nicholas could still see the look on Mandy's face.

"I'll write it now. The church is at the corner of Broad and Meeting Streets. Miss Caroline's sister lives in the big mansion on the East Battery. You can't miss it."

Nickolas took the notes and put them in his breast pocket. "I'll slip home for an overnight bag." He knew he must find Mandy before he left.

By the time Nicholas rode back to his own lands, dusk had fallen. He checked the stables and house, but as he feared there was no sign of Mandy. On impulse he went to the spot where he had found her before on the riverbank, deep under the shadowy cypress trees.

She heard his horse approach, and as she turned blindly to flee from him, she lost her footing and slid down the grassy bank into the river. "Nicholas!" she cried helplessly, flailing her arms to keep the yellow, swirling water from closing over her head.

"Hang on!" he ordered, and was in the river in an instant.

The moment his strong arms grasped her, the fear left her body.

He hauled her unceremoniously out of the water by hooking his hands under her armpits. He dragged her up the bank and sank down beside her.

Mandy feared his anger and his condemnation. She knew what it must have looked like to him. Her arms reached out to him in supplication. "Nicholas, I didn't try to drown myself. Honestly."

"I know you didn't, love," he soothed. "I know how upset you are." He held her against him and stroked her hair.

"I had an unbearable pain in my heart, and when you came in with Jenny, you looked as if you were carrying your bride over the threshold. I thought... I thought... you didn't love me anymore."

He looked down at her, cupped her face tenderly, and raised it so he could see her clearly. One tear slipped down her cheek and wet his hand. He bent and tenderly brushed his lips across her brow. It was a kiss intended to make her feel loved and wanted.

"I love you," he said low, "but Mandy, I cannot allow myself to
fall in love
with you until you are older. Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?"

"No," she said imply, and her body quivered against his.

He sighed heavily. "You are cold. We'll go up to the house and get dry." As he carried her over the threshold of Paradise, her words came back to him, and he grinned down at her.

She brushed her eyelashes and tremulously returned his smile.

"That's better." He gave her a reassuring squeeze before he set her down.. "Samuel, fetch a blanket! Light a fire!" He called orders and Samuel carried them out without lifting an eyebrow.

Nick poured a glass of wine and came to the fireplace with it. "Drink this down while I'm watching you," he instructed.

She obeyed, slowly.

"I'm going up to change. I promised your father I'd ride into Charleston tonight. When I go upstairs, I want you to take off your wet clothes and wrap yourself in this blanket. Dry whatever you can. Put your shoes right onto the hearth, that's right. I'll try to find something of mine you can put on until we get you home. Don't worry, I've given orders that no one is to come in here."

She smiled apologetically at the trouble she was causing. "Thank you for helping me, Nicholas."

When he came back with various items of apparel over his arm, she accepted she shirt, but shook her head over the trousers. "I'll put my skirt back on. It's only damp now."

He turned his back so she could dress.

"You may turn around now," she said softly. She struggled into her damp shoes and bundled her bedraggled stockings and underwear into her discarded camisole. "I wish I didn't have to go back." Her lips began to tremble.

Her mounted Sunblood and gently lifted her up before him in the saddle. The heat from his body soon stopped the shivery feeling she had, and she relaxed back against him, thankful that she had someone like Nicholas to lean upon.

He knew a great need to protect her. She was too young, too small, and far too sensitive to shoulder the burden life was thrusting upon her. His arms tightened about the slight figure and he willed some of the misery in her to drain away into his own powerful frame.

He wished he could stay with her all night and allow his strength to sustain her, yet he was sure that within Amanda Virginia there were deep mysterious reservoirs of strength. Though it wasn't physical, it was a strength of the spirit, which in the long run might prove more enduring.

When they came close to the Jackson Plantation, keening could be heard coming from the slave quarters. Mixed with the sounds of the tree frogs and crickets, it sounded eerie indeed. He drew rein and lifted Amanda to the ground. He held onto her shoulder with one hand, and lifted her chin with the other. "You'll find it easier to bear if you talk to your mother. That's what I did when my father died. Still do, sometimes. I don't know if she can hear you, love, but just pretend that she can, and I guarantee you'll feel comforted." He bent and kissed her brow. "I'll watch 'till you get to the door, and I'll see you tomorrow."

Chapter Ten

During the month that had flown past since the day Miss Caroline had been buried, Nicholas had harvested his own cotton and then turned around and repeated the process over at the Jackson Plantation. Bernard had lost his overseer and never replaced him, and Brandon was less than useless when it came to running a plantation. Nicholas still had to gin both crops in his mill before he could get Rafe to ship it and, naturally, any plans he had tentatively made to go with the cotton to Liverpool had to be canceled.

Over at the Jackson Plantation, nothing seemed the same without Caroline Jackson, yet all was exactly the same. The household ran as smooth as silk because the slaves had been so well trained in their duties. Miss Caroline's will had been read, and the things she had brought when she married Bernard were now bequeathed to her children. Jennifer Joy and Amanda Virginia were left the house slaves, which totaled sixteen in all. The will stipulated very clearly which eight were to go to Jennifer and which eight to Amanda. Her mother had left Mammy Lou to Amanda because she was the baby and still needed a deal of looking after.

Brandon received a small farm that was his mother's property, even though Bernard had had the running of it since she married him. It was located inland at Blackville, on the south fork of the Edisto River. This time Brandon refused point blank to return to military academy and Bernard, for once, did not insist. In fact Bernard seemed to rattle about the place and couldn't seem to put his heart into anything.

Jennifer was most annoyed with Brandon because of her mother's will. "It is most disturbin' Brandon that Mother left you property, while I get some slothy house servants. Those are the rewards for bein' a female in this world!"

"Jenny, honey, it's only an ol' farm. Never saw the place-- don't even know if it's worth anything," he placated.

"Nevertheless brother, I feel in my bones I've been cheated, an' I won't be satisfied until I've seen that farm with my own eyes."

She said slyly, "If I could get a look at this farm, I might be willing to trade some of the wenches for it. I own Cleo and Fanny and that pretty Aphrodite you're always after."

Brandon snorted. "I don't need your permission to pleasure Dite or any of the wenches."

"When I marry, I shall take them with me, then they'll belong to Nicholas Peacock. See if he'll let you pleasure his wenches!"

Brandon began to laugh at where her ambitions lay.

"Don't you dare to laugh at me," she hissed.

"A truce Jenny, a truce," he begged, still filled with mirth. "First chance we get, we'll visit that lil' ol' farm at Blackville and see what's what. Don't say anything to Father. I already broached the subject and he fobbed me off. Almost forbid me to go up there."

Jennifer Joy positively chafed at the bit, and she found she could complain to her heart's content to Brandon and it wouldn't go any farther than his ears. If indeed he allowed it to reach that far. "I don't mean to be disrespectful to Mother, but honestly Brandon, I swear I'm the unluckiest girl in the whole world. Why did she have to pass away at the height of my Season? I'm only eighteen once in my entire life. How can I positively catch a husband when I'm supposed to be in mourning?"

Brandon, only giving her part of his attention said, "Beau Hampden's fancy already strayin' is it?"

"Beau Hampden?" Jenny stamped her foot. "Don't you ever pay me no mind, Brandon Jackson? I am seriously interested in Nicholas Peacock."

"You must have seen the house on Paradise Hill."

"That is the wickedest thing I've ever heard you say. My feelings have absolutely nothing whatsomehowever to do with a house."

"Whatever gives you the idea he'll have you?" he asked mildly.

"I don't have to stand here and be insulted by you, sir. Why everyone knows you're just an idle young lay-about with no more ambition to get a plantation than fly over the moon."

"I don't need to get one when there's one here ready made for me, and you don't need to get one do you Jenny? All you have to do is marry one. So you see, we are alike. Where's the need for name-calling?"

"Daddy won't have any objections to Nicholas. He'll be over-anxious, if anything. All you have to do is convince him old Nick will get stolen from under your nose if you have to wait another year."

"Brandon, you are brilliant!"

"A minute ago I was a lay-about."

She pulled her face and went off to find her father. She found him in his office with a visitor. She tried to retreat the moment she realized it was men's business.

"Come in, darlin'," called Bernard when he spotted her.

She went forward to greet the stranger who was about the same age as her father.

Bernard said with pride, "I'd like you to meet my lovely daughter, Jennifer Joy. Jenny this is Gerrard Johnson, he's on a special committee for John Calhoun who you've hard me talk about so much."

Gerrard stood and bowed. "A distinct pleasure, Miss Jennifer. I'm trying my best to persuade your father that we need him up in Richmond."

Bernard waved his hand to prevent her from entering into the discussion. "You just run along now, sweetheart, we have government business to discuss."

Jennifer dropped an obedient curtsy, but when she left, she made sure the door was open a crack so she could listen to their conversation.

"She is one of the reasons I'm not in Richmond this very moment. I've two young daughters, motherless now. It makes leaving very difficult."

"Bernard, if you could only hear the voices growing louder and louder, demanding abolition, you wouldn't hesitate. When John Calhoun of this very State of South Carolina took over the political leadership, we thought we were safe. Representation shifted rightly to the cotton states, because all the world cried out for cotton. There's such an insatiable demand, it's become a cotton culture."

"You're right there," Bernard agreed. "I heard we exported four and a half million bales last year."

"Well I don't see how it can last much longer. Abolitionists are everywhere. This fellow Lincoln running for the Presidency is a sworn abolitionist, you know."

"Without slaves there is no cotton. Every planter knows that. Haven't we been subsidizing Northern industry for years with the damned tax they levied at Southern expense?"

"The only local autonomy we have is to exercise our veto over National Policy. The veto gives us parity in Congress, and believe me, only with Congressional power can the South hold onto the institution of slavery."

Jennifer was not interested in politics or slavery or the North's power versus the South's. From their conversation however, she did learn that her father wished to be free of his responsibilities at home, so that he could go back to Richmond.
What better way is there for a father to transfer his responsibilities than onto the shoulders of a husband?
She began to hum a little tune as she went off to find Mammy Lou to ensure that some of her father's favorite dishes were prepared for supper.