CHAPTER SIX

Sunday Dinner

THURSDAY CHARLES CAME FROM SCHOOL with Hope and Sammy. Rachel was curious and wanted to see how the tutoring session went, so after setting out muffins, jam, and butter with the pitcher of milk, she busied herself in the kitchen.

When Hope and Sammy went upstairs, Patrick and Charles sat at the end of the table and worked. Charles seemed to watch Rachel at first, but then he concentrated on his studies.

Rachel could tell Patrick had strong mathematical skills, and he was very good at explaining difficult concepts. It didn’t take long for them to finish, and Charles seemed to understand how to do the problems on his own.

Charles thanked Patrick over and over. He’d planned on walking home, but Patrick insisted on taking him.

Sunday came all too soon. Rachel had plenty of misgivings about going to Blanche’s for dinner. She thought about finding some excuse, but she didn’t feel comfortable with lying and hated to cancel at the last minute. She didn’t want to anger Blanche, either, if she could help it. Blanche seemed to be the vindictive type.

“God, please hold me close to You today, and help this to go well,” she whispered.

She dressed for church with trepidation. She considered wearing her emerald dress again, but decided to wear a golden brown one instead. It had a gold or olive sheen among the brown, depending on movement and the light.

Patrick stood waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. He smiled warmly. “You look lovely.”

“I’ll save you a seat beside me at church,” Rachel said. “I’m afraid Axel may plan to sit with me, and I don’t want that.”

“It’ll be my pleasure. Do you think I could inveigle a last-minute invitation out of Blanche?” His eyes twinkled in laughter.

“I wish, but I think she invited Chance for her.”

Axel met them as they stopped the team. “I realized I hadn’t met you, sir,” he said to Uncle Sam, “and I wanted to rectify that. I’m Axel Jones.” He put out his hand.

Uncle Sam shook his hand. “I’m Sam Whitley, Rachel’s uncle. I’m glad to meet you, and this is my older son, Patrick. Why don’t you stay out here and talk with Patrick and me?”

Axel shook hands with Patrick and looked at Rachel as if he’d rather go inside with her, but he stayed with the men. Uncle Sam appeared to be asking some questions, when Rachel glanced back from the church entrance.

Patrick took his place beside Rachel at the far end of the bench as the service began. He quickly patted her hand and smiled. “So far, so good.”

“I’ll be praying for you,” Patrick whispered after the service.

“Thank you,” Rachel whispered back.

Blanche collected her, introduced her to Mr. and Mrs. Furr, and escorted her to their coach. Rachel wondered how they would arrange the seating, since there would be two separate conveyances.

“When might we expect Rachel home?” Uncle Sam asked the Furrs. “She usually prepares supper on Sunday.”

“I’ll have her back by around three thirty, then,” Mr. Furr said.

Blanche didn’t looked pleased.

Rachel and Axel ended up riding with Mr. Furr, and Mrs. Furr rode with Chance and Blanche in his wagon. Again, Blanche looked unhappy. She had wanted her parents to drive and let the young people ride together, but Rachel breathed a sigh of relief.

Axel still sat much too close to her, and he had his arm around the back of her seat. She looked up to see Patrick staring at them. He looked about like she felt.

The Furrs’ home didn’t look huge, but it had been decorated in a very lavish style. The furnishings had to be expensive, but Rachel preferred a simpler style. The meal took forever with multiple courses served by two servants.

Blanche seemed to expect Rachel to be at a loss at the formal dinner, but Rachel performed without a mistake. Mama had taught her well, and some of the dinner parties at Grandfather’s had given her practice. Axel and Chance seemed more ill at ease than she.

Conversation at the dinner table stayed general, but Blanche wanted them to walk in the flower garden behind the house after they ate. Mr. and Mrs. Furr sat on the back porch, where they could see the couples but stayed out of earshot. All the taller shrubs were around three perimeters with the side toward the house open.

Rachel liked the garden, which looked larger than Grandfather’s but similar. Blanche led Chance toward one end, and Axel took Rachel to the other.

“You’re so beautiful,” he told her. “I like how your dress almost changes color when you walk, but you’d be lovely in anything . . . or nothing.” He gave her a wicked grin.

Rachel felt like slapping that grin off his face, but she took a deep breath to calm down. “Mr. Jones, I am not accustomed to men being fresh with me, and I’m offended by it.”

“My apology, but please call me Axel. I guess I’ve forgotten most of the social graces I’ve been taught, but I don’t want to insult you.”

“What do you do for a living?”

He hesitated. “I’m involved in several different business enterprises. What do your parents do?” Apparently, he preferred not to talk about himself.

“They farm, like my uncle, but their farm is in the mountains of Watauga County.”

He gave her a warm smile, which transformed his face and made him quite handsome. “Yes, I remember you’re a mountain girl. I’m pretty much a country boy at heart, although I’ve spent some time around Nashville recently. Didn’t I hear Blanche say you have connections to Salisbury?”

“Yes, my grandfather lives there.”

“What does your grandfather do?”

“He’s a doctor, but he’s semiretired now. He treats a handful of his former patients, but he’s not taking any new ones.”

“That explains how you can fit into Blanche’s world.” His tone of voice indicated he didn’t like Blanche’s world.

“I thought you fit in fine.”

“I can get by occasionally, but I wouldn’t want to do it often. I wouldn’t mind to have all this, but I would hate to live so proper and be so snobbish.”

“Even the furnishings here are too pretentious for my taste,” Rachel agreed.

“See, I knew we had a lot in common. Come walk behind the row of hedges with me. We won’t stay there long—just long enough for me to steal a kiss.”

“No. I hardly know you.”

“Come on, and we’ll get better acquainted. How many men or boys have you kissed?”

“None, except for family.”

He chuckled. “You are an innocent, aren’t you? But I like that about you. You’re not like Blanche.”

They heard Blanche arguing with her parents and went to see what the problem was. Axel put her hand in his arm as they walked toward the house.

“But we won’t be alone,” Blanche was saying. “There will be four of us.”

“After you drop Rachel off, there will just be you and two men,” Mr. Furr said. “I won’t have you riding around without a chaperone. Besides, I told Rachel’s uncle I would bring her home around three thirty, and I plan to do just that.”

Rachel hoped her expression told Mr. Furr she appreciated him taking her home. She had no doubt Axel would demand a kiss if he had the chance, and who knew what else he’d want to do. There was something about him Rachel didn’t trust.

“You still have time to go in the house and play a game or something before time for Rachel to go,” Mrs. Furr said.

Blanche wanted to play cards, but the men only knew how to play poker, so they ended up playing checkers. Chance beat Blanche, and Rachel beat Axel, so Chance and Rachel ended up in a final game. Rachel won easily.

“You’re supposed to let the man win,” Blanche whispered to Rachel.

“Papa and Mama taught me to always do my best at everything,” Rachel told her.

Mr. Furr drove Rachel home, and Axel rode with them. Chance stayed at the Furrs’.

“I’ve enjoyed being with you today,” Axel told her. “I’d like to come calling on you.”

“I had a good time today too,” she told him, “but I’m not ready for a serious relationship, and I stay busy at the farm.”

“We’ll just have fun together, then, and you can’t work all the time. You need to relax some.”

She wouldn’t describe being with Axel Jones as “relaxing.” She felt she had to be on her guard with him all the time.

“I’m honored by your interest,” she said, “but I feel I must decline. I wish you well, Axel, and hope you meet the woman for you soon.”

He seemed to fume for a while, but he told her good-bye and thanked her for her company. He helped her from the coach, and she breathed a huge sigh of relief as they drove off.

When Rachel arrived, Patrick sat waiting on the porch. “How did it go?”

“It went well, thanks to Mr. Furr.” She told him everything, and his frown deepened. She reached over and patted his hand. Just his presence soothed her. “I don’t plan to see him again. I feel fortunate not to have to fight off his advances this time, and I don’t want to be put in such a position again.”

Patrick squeezed her hand and smiled. “I’m glad you are so responsible and look at everything in such a mature way. You act wiser than your sixteen years, and I’m happy you confide in me.”

“I guess the fact that I’m the oldest child and my few friends have all been adults influenced me, but I don’t know what I’d do here without you, Patrick. I came here to be a companion to Hope and help her through those hard early teen years, but I find I can’t talk with her nearly as well as I can you. I don’t really understand it myself, but I’m very thankful.” She paused. “Now, I’d better go see what Aunt Ivy wants for supper.”

Patrick lightly brushed the back of her hand with his lips before he released it, and an exciting tingle ran up her arm, like the sparks from a firecracker. It seemed an odd gesture for a cousin, but he’d also become her dear friend. If not for Patrick’s friendship, she’d more than likely go back to the mountains early.

On Tuesday, they had a surprise. A servant of the Furrs rode up with a note to Rachel from Blanche, and an invitation from her family for all the Whitleys to have dinner with them the following Sunday.

“My husband is out in the fields now,” Ivy told the servant. “Tell Mrs. Furr I will let her know something tomorrow.”

“Yes’m.” He tipped his hat and left. Blanche’s note read:

Dear Rachel,

Axel said you refused to see him again. What are you thinking? We need to talk.

I realize you probably wouldn’t come to visit if I invited only you, so your whole family will be invited. Mother likes your aunt, and Father respects your uncle, so please come. It will be a chance for us to get better acquainted, since you and I couldn’t spend any time alone last Sunday.

I’ll look forward to seeing you. Please don’t disappoint me.

Your friend,

Blanche

Rachel handed the note to Patrick and waited until he finished reading it. “Blanche isn’t going to let me off her hook, is she?”

“We could just not go.”

“I would do that if I thought Blanche would let things drop, but I’m sure she won’t give up that easily. She’ll be determined to get her way. At least I’ll have you with me this time.”

Sam took the acceptance note Ivy had written to the Furrs Wednesday when he went to pick up some flour and sugar from the store. Blanche knew how to manipulate things to get her way. The woman would make a dangerous enemy.

Although they knew each other, none of the family had visited the Furrs’ home before, so Rachel told the family what to expect, and they weren’t surprised by the formal dinner. Aunt Ivy had been even more thoroughly instructed in the social graces than Mama. She’d attended all the social functions that went with living on a large plantation before the war. Mama had never liked that way of life, but Aunt Ivy had. The Furrs seemed pleasantly surprised.

“I’ll have to have you over for tea sometime,” Mrs. Furr told Aunt Ivy. “I think Frank and I need to increase our circle of friends. We’ve become too stagnant.”

“I haven’t had much time to socialize in the past,” Aunt Ivy told her, “but with Rachel here, I do have more free time now.”

“Do you have servants?”

“I had one, but she became sick, and I haven’t been able to replace her.”

“Good help does get harder to find all the time.”

Conversation continued as the meal progressed. Everything went well, until Blanche pulled Rachel off to the side right after they’d finished eating. “So tell me why you won’t see Axel?”

“He’s too forceful for me. I don’t want to constantly be fighting him off.”

“Oh, don’t be such a good little girl. You’ll never have any fun.”

“I have more fun than when I’m with a wild crowd. That’s just not me, and it’s not who I want to be. I’d like to be your friend, but please don’t try to coerce me into things I don’t think are right for me.”

Blanche huffed, and Rachel almost expected her to stomp her foot. “Fine, then. I’ll find someone else for Axel.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Patrick came to her rescue again.

“Just girl talk.” Blanche batted her lashes at him. “You know how it is.”

Patrick laughed. “I’m afraid I don’t.”

“Well, maybe you should be around me more, Patrick. I’m sure you could learn a thing or two.”

Was Blanche flirting with Patrick? Rachel thought she wanted to see Chance.

“But would it be anything I cared to learn?” Patrick asked pleasantly. The words would have been cutting otherwise.

“Why don’t you try it and find out,” Blanche said.

“I think I’d better pass. Your bite is probably worse than your bark.”

“Oh Patrick, you do have the sharpest wit.”

“Shall we join the others in the parlor?” He put his hand on Rachel’s back and guided her to where the others were sitting. He dropped his hand before they arrived.

Rachel sat and answered Mrs. Furr’s questions about her grandfather, his home in Salisbury, and his activities in the community.

Hope and Sammy didn’t say much, but they sat and listened. Rachel was proud of Sammy. He could be well behaved.

Aunt Ivy told Mrs. Furr about growing up at Gold Leaf in Anson County before the war and all the social events and balls. Mrs. Furr seemed quite enthralled. Uncle Sam and Mr. Furr talked about local politics.

“I read an account in the Charlotte Democrat several weeks ago where revenue officials here in Stanly County have been trying to break up a moonshine ring,” Mr. Furr said. “The officers were met by about two hundred armed men and had to retreat.”

“Are that many men involved in moonshining?” Uncle Sam asked.

“More than that are probably supporting it, if you know what I mean. The paper said the officers are girding up for an all-out war, so we all need to be vigilant. I’m trying to keep an eye out for my two women. Anything could break loose.”

“Oh Father, you know the papers tend to exaggerate. I don’t think things are that dangerous, and if it were, men like Chance and Axel would be good men to have around.” Blanche gave Rachel a pointed look.

“Would you like to go for a short horse ride before supper, Sammy?” Patrick asked when they got home.

Sammy nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

“Would anyone else care to join us?” Patrick’s eyes told Rachel he wanted her to come too.

“Let me change to my riding skirt,” she said, “and I’ll come.”

“Sammy and I’ll need to change too. We’ll meet you downstairs in a few minutes.”

Patrick and Sammy had led up the three horses when Rachel went out. Patrick helped her and Sammy into their saddles, and they started off. Sammy took the lead.

“I overheard part of your and Blanche’s private conversation after dinner,” Patrick told her. “I didn’t think you would mind, since you’ve kept me informed of everything. Do you think you’ve heard the last of Axel?”

“I hope so. Blanche said she would find another woman for him. I hope she does, and I hope he’ll accept that.”

“Do you think he might still try to see you?”

“I wish I knew, but to be honest, I’m not sure what Axel might try. He was nice enough most of the time, but I sensed an unpredictable wild streak. I have a feeling I was seeing the best side of him too.”

“Well, I think you’ve handled the situation well, considering everything, and I’m proud of you, Rachel. I just hate I left you to handle the lions alone that Sunday Blanche cornered you.”

“I’m glad you’ve helped me the rest of the time. I think without your help, I would’ve just packed up and gone home.”

“The way you describe Axel, he may have followed you there.”

“I think he’s been living in Tennessee, so you may be right, but Papa and Aaron would handle him, and he’d have no opportunity to see me anywhere else.”

“You be sure to let me know if you suspect something, or if anything doesn’t feel right to you. I don’t want there to be a chance you might be placed in an awkward or dangerous situation.”

Patrick looked at Rachel riding easily beside him. She looked as comfortable in the saddle as he did. She looked beautiful.

He marveled at how comfortable she was with him. He felt sure she would tell him anything and wouldn’t hesitate to share her thoughts and secrets. If only she didn’t view him as a beloved family member or just a friend.

He almost wished he could see her as a sister or cousin, but he loved her as a man loves a woman. He feared his heart would be broken into thousands of pieces before this ended.

Why, God? Why do I feel this way? He’d tried to curb his feelings and squelch his love, but it was like trying to hold back a waterfall with his bare hands.

Even if Rachel did ever come to have similar feelings for him, they would still have insurmountable problems with their family. Rachel was only his half cousin, but she was still his cousin. Mama and Aunt Ivy had grown up thinking they were full sisters, and that’s how they considered each other.

Patrick had done some reading and he knew it was legal in North Carolina and most states for even full cousins to marry. People used to do that more often before the war, but now research said birth defects could come from related people marrying, and society had begun to frown on such unions more. The remote areas would probably change slowly, however.

He would just have to be patient and put it all in God’s hands. Patrick had discovered he had more patience than he thought. He decided he would never say anything to Rachel about how he felt, unless she indicated she loved him in the same way. He would just keep praying and depend on God. That was the best thing to do, anyway.

“Is there a good place to go fishing around here?” Rachel asked. “I’d like to go sometime.”

“Sammy and I go to the Rocky River,” Patrick said. “He and I both like to fish. We’ll go Saturday or Sunday afternoon, when he’s out of school.” He turned to his brother. “Sammy, Rachel wants to go fishing with us!”

Sammy grinned. “That’s great! I bet she even baits her own hook.”

“You’re right,” Rachel said, laughing.

Patrick shot her a glance. “You’re changing one ten-year-old’s opinion about girls.”

“And what about his older brother? I notice you don’t court anyone.”

Was Rachel flirting with him? He’d like to think so, but he doubted it. “That’s not because I wouldn’t like to. I’m just waiting for the right woman to come along and notice me.”

“Maybe you’ll need to make her notice you.”

This conversation had just gotten very interesting. “And how would I do that?”

Rachel gave a nervous-sounding laugh. “I don’t know. I have no experience in this field. Perhaps you’d need to be a very good friend first.”

“You think so?” Patrick suddenly felt a glimmer of hope.

“Yes. I know I’d never want to marry anyone I couldn’t respect and admire, and I’d want him to be my very best friend. Mama and Papa have the strongest, deepest love of anyone I know, and they’re also the best of friends. They tell each other everything. Papa even told Mama about the time he was in Andersonville Prison, but it was so horrid he won’t talk of it to anyone else.”

“I’ll remember to be a good friend to any woman I want to impress. I guess that’s as good a place to start as any.”

She gave him such a warm smile that his heart did a flip.