CHAPTER 4

Hellfire and damnation, Victoria fumed silently some time later. The meeting had not gone well, and she would have to go back. That is, if she could get away again and if Miss Cicely allowed her to come back. Too many ifs, when all she was doing was trying to help. And another thing, Miss Cicely had said she didn’t know anything more about the baby Victoria was carrying. She’d said it was too soon for her to see the particulars. Victoria wasn’t sure she believed her, but there hadn’t been anything she could do to get her to say more.

So here she was now, frustrated in the extreme and her eyes gritty from a lack of sleep. Victoria carefully stood in the jonboat and tied it to the old dock at the very edge of River’s End land. For heaven’s sake, she fumed, she couldn’t just let this matter go. She’d been begged to come here and she had—all the way from England, only to be told this was none of her concern and she was to leave it be.

“Well, I don’t think I can leave it be,” Victoria said softly to herself. Upsetting her was how Miss Cicely had treated her. Victoria had known and loved that woman all her life. Why, she’d played at her knee and toddled around after her and run to her with all her youthful scrapes and hurts. And yet tonight there had been no happiness and no warmth in Miss Cicely’s eyes for Victoria. She’d as much as told her to forget what she knew and go home where she belonged before she got herself hurt or worse.

Maybe Miss Cicely meant to protect her by warning her away, Victoria considered. That could be. Or maybe something had changed, something that she wouldn’t or couldn’t tell Victoria. That could be, too. But whatever it was, she was here and she wasn’t going away. Victoria blew out the candle that had provided her light in the lantern. The moon was waning but still holding forth in the night sky. With any luck, she could get back inside, wash, and get in bed, all without being detected. Though her heart ached and her mind was in a whirl, the thought of bed sounded heavenly. So did being clean. It was awful how the swamp smell clung to a person.

Before climbing up the rough ladder—nothing more than thick pieces of board nailed across two neighboring pilings—she reached up and petted the family bloodhound. Neville had watched her leave earlier and so had waited right here for her to return. “You’ve been here this whole time, haven’t you? I don’t know whether to thank you or be mad at you. Do you realize that if anyone had cared to look out here, you’d have given me away? They’d know how you always wait here if I’ve taken the boat out.”

The dog came to his feet, his tail wagging as Victoria, with the ease of experience, climbed up the makeshift ladder and stood on the dock. She reached out to rub Neville’s ears. “Come on, boy, let’s go get some sleep.”

Before Victoria took her first step, the dog tensed and stared toward the sloping lawn and the imposing but night-shaded big, white house. He lowered his tail and his head … and growled.

Victoria stopped cold. Fright had her heart pounding and her limbs weak. Desperately, she looked around, not spying any stealthy movement. But that didn’t mean someone wasn’t hiding behind a bush. Still, all she saw was the expanse of lawn, silvered by the moon and shadowed by tall trees, no more than black silhouettes against the sky. No one darted around any corners of the house, either, not that she could see. Still, she trusted the dog’s sharper instincts more than she did her own.

Victoria squatted down beside Neville, stroked his head, and whispered: “What’s out there, boy? What’s got you spooked?”

The dog spared her a quick, anxious look, a slurp of his tongue up her cheek, and a worried whine. Then he resumed his vigil. This time he looked more toward his left, to the far end of the house, and raised his long, flopped-over ears alertly. Victoria fully expected him to take off at any moment in full voice and raise the house as he charged after some scalawag who’d come sniffing around on River’s End where he had no cause to be.

Yet here the dog was, staying protectively close to her. She assured herself of one thing: She wasn’t about to move from this dock until whoever was out there showed his face. And she didn’t care if she had to sit here until mid-morning and have her breakfast brought out to her. Her reaction, she knew, was nothing more than pure fright—and Redmond stubbornness. Her chin jutting out to prove it, Victoria vowed that if it were a game of waiting this somebody wanted, she would give it to him.

And so, long moments ticked slowly by. Soon enough, a cramping in her leg muscles had her wincing. Then her foot threatened to go to sleep. She wanted very much to stand up and walk around to get rid of the cramping, but didn’t dare. To take her mind off her body’s protests, she devised a plan of escape should somebody suddenly rush her. First, Neville would go for him and that would give her time to scream and raise the house and get back in the jonboat and pole back out into the swamp. She doubted that an attacker, if he could get away from Neville, would dare jump in that water to pursue her. If he did, he’d most likely meet a water moccasin or two, or maybe that hungry gator, before he got to her. And if he did get close to her, he’d face a scared woman wielding a sturdy hardwood pole and screaming at the top of her lungs.

Heartened by that brave scenario, and still squatted down by the dog, Victoria shifted her weight to her other foot and rested a knee against the dock. She stroked the hound dog’s back, feeling his raised hackles but also feeling more secure for his nearness, his reassuring warmth, and his muscled bulk that came complete with bone-deep loyalty and a set of very sharp teeth. She put her arm around Neville and pulled him closer to her. But the dog suddenly lunged forward, growling low in his throat.

Startled, Victoria released him and stood up, her heart pounding, her hands fisted. In the dark, with only the moon’s indistinct light to assist her, she didn’t know where to look first, from which direction the danger was coming.

Neville set himself in motion. Victoria instinctively reached for him, but he was already out of her range. Afraid to be alone, she started to go after him. But a small warning voice inside her head told her to stay put. Instantly, she pulled back, a hand over her mouth, and watched Neville to see what he would do. With his head and tail lowered, the dog moved in a menacing manner as he made for the other end of the dock.

“Sister?” came a hissing, masculine whisper close by. “Is that you?”

Victoria started, but shock faded enough to allow reason to take over and remind her that only one person still called her “Sister.” “Jefferson?” she called out tentatively, quietly. “Is that you?”

“It sure is. Sister, what in the world are you doing out here?”

Intense relief nearly dropped Victoria in a melting heap on the dock. “You nearly scared the life out of me, big brother.”

At the other end of the dock, Jefferson slowly came into view. All Victoria could see of him were his head and shoulders since he stood on the downward slope of the land, nearly to the water’s edge. He raised his arms to show her he had a shotgun with him. “You see this gun? I came near to shooting you with it. My God, Sister, do you think I could live with myself if I’d shot you?”

Believing his question didn’t really need an answer, Victoria quietly watched as Neville stepped over to Jeff and sniffed at him. Jeff reached up and rubbed the dog’s head. “Hey, boy.” Then her brother turned to Victoria. “What in the world are you doing out here?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” Victoria said, adding to herself … not while I was poling the boat and talking to Miss Cicely.

“So you got dressed up in that rig because you couldn’t sleep?”

“Well, I could hardly come out here in my night clothes, now could I? And I didn’t want to fuss with putting on a dress.”

“Where’d you get those clothes, anyway?”

“Out of your chest of drawers.” Victoria realized her mistake the instant the words were out of her mouth and inhaled a hissing breath between her gritted teeth.

“Out of my chest of drawers? When did you do that? I’ve been in my bedroom until just a few minutes ago. I think I would have noticed if you’d been in there, too, and rummaging around.”

“No, not just now, silly. Earlier in the evening when you weren’t in there.”

“Why didn’t you just ask me for them?”

“You wouldn’t have given them to me.” And he would have had too many questions about why she needed them.

No doubt, Jefferson realized she was hiding something. But all he did was slowly shake his head. “If you don’t beat all. I thought you were some river rat who pulled his boat up to the dock, intent on stealing some chickens or equipment. I came out here to scare him off or shoot him.”

“Did you hear something out here? I’ve been out here all this time with Neville,” she lied glibly, “and I haven’t heard anything.”

“No, it wasn’t anything I heard. I come out at night regularly to check on the property around the house. All up and down the river lately, most of the plantations have suffered losses. People have awakened to find they’re missing tools and livestock and such. I thought we were next.”

Victoria listened to her brother talking but knew he was lying every bit as much as she was. He was up to something out here that had nothing to do with river rats. For one thing, if her father were concerned about thievery, he’d hire guards. He certainly wouldn’t put his only son on patrol. Still, she made the expected response. “You’re right. I do recall Daddy saying something about the robberies.”

“I expect you do. It’s all he talks about. So I can’t fathom why you—knowing that unsavory sorts are about and could be a particular danger to a woman alone—would stray outdoors in the middle of the night.”

Victoria raised her chin. “I can take care of myself. I was careful, and I had Neville with me.”

“And yet I was able to walk right up on you and came close to shooting you.”

“That is the third time you’ve mentioned shooting me, Jefferson. And don’t think I didn’t know someone was around. Neville was about to jump on you. He heard you. You’re just lucky you identified yourself when you did, or he’d have been on you.”

“Neville wouldn’t jump me.”

“You threaten me and just see if he won’t, big brother.”

Jefferson sighed, a long-suffering, masculine sound. “All of this could have been avoided, Victoria, if you’d just stay inside where you belong.”

Victoria stiffened with offense. “Where I belong?”

“Don’t you start with me, Sister. I’m just trying to look out for you, and I’m telling you that you were just lucky this time. You may not be the next time.”

Was that a warning? A frisson of fear danced lightly over the hairs on her arms. “I’ll take my chances. And here’s something for you to think about the next time you go sneaking up on people with a gun in your hands. It could turn out you’re not the only one who’s armed, and you could get shot just as easily as I could.”

A weighted silence billowed into the space between them. Then, Jeff said … quietly, evenly: “I probably will before it’s all over.”

Victoria’s heart lurched. She knew only too well, because of the letter she’d received in England, the truth of what he said. Jeff was deeply involved in this awful plot, only she didn’t know to what extent. She didn’t know, either, which side he was on. Her worst fear was that Jeff would be the villain and would actually harm her. While she was willing to take her chances with her brother, she wasn’t willing to place her unborn baby in any more danger than she’d already been forced to do in coming here. But, oh, how it hurt not to be able to trust him.

Jeff tiredly rubbed at his forehead. “You ever going to tell me the real reason, other than you were just homesick, that you ran away and came home?”

Victoria hadn’t been expecting that, but she bristled, nevertheless. “I did not run away. I don’t run away from anything. And I don’t need a reason to come here, Jeff. River’s End is my home.”

“No, I’m afraid not, Sister. Not anymore.”

The hurt cut through her like a knife. Miss Cicely and Jubal had both said the same thing to her. And now Jeff. Did no one want her here? She supposed, though, when she considered her past behavior and the scandal she’d caused in Savannah, she couldn’t blame them. Still, with equal measures of stung pride and stubbornness to buoy her up, Victoria retorted in kind. “River’s End will always be my home. I was born in that house. My heart is here, and here it remains.”

“Maybe so. But it won’t ever be your land.”

In her agitation, Victoria advanced a step. “Jefferson Caldwell Redmond, what has got into you? You have no call to say something like that to me. I never said, or even thought for one minute, River’s End would ever be mine. I know Daddy intends to leave it to you.”

“It’s good you know that.” Jeff’s tone had become decidedly cool. “You haven’t been home for a few months, Sister. A lot of things have changed.”

“Things can’t have changed all that much … except for you. You’ve changed. And it hurts me to say it, but not for the better, either.” And that was as close as she intended to come in letting him know she suspected him of something.

“I could say the same thing about you. I could also say you are certainly no longer the picture of true Southern womanhood. But then again, you never were.” With that, he turned and trudged up the slope of the land.

“Is that supposed to hurt me, Jeff?” Victoria called out, as loudly as she dared, to her brother’s back. “Well, it doesn’t. In my own heart, I am the woman I want to be. And isn’t it just like a man to say what a woman should be?”

Jeff made no comeback to that. Silently, Victoria watched her brother climb up onto the dock and walk toward her. Neville took up a position next to him and padded alongside him. Though each booted footstep of Jeff’s made a hollow, somehow threatening, sound on the weathered-wood planking, Victoria held her ground. She wasn’t afraid of him. Even though they’d had words, this was Jeff, after all. Her brother.

She glanced down at Neville and suddenly recalled how he had yelped when Jeff had first spoken. That was when it struck her: Neville had been caught off guard by Jefferson being on the right side of the dock because he’d been alerted to something he didn’t like off to the left side of it. Did that mean someone was still out there and hiding? Cold dread slipped over Victoria. She started to speak of her concern, but suddenly her brother stood in front of her.

With the shotgun held loosely in the crook of his arm, and even with the barrel pointing down to the dock, he appeared an imposing figure. Rank disapproval rode his features in the form of a frown as he looked her up and down and then met her waiting gaze. “You’re not out here because you can’t sleep, Sister. You said yourself you took these clothes hours ago. To me, that says you’re up to something you shouldn’t be.”

Victoria stared at her brother, a tall, handsome, light-haired man she loved with all her heart and suspected of atrocious, or at least heartbreakingly neglectful, deeds. “I told you the truth,” she said, marveling at how cool her voice sounded. “I couldn’t sleep. It’s that simple.”

“Nothing’s that simple.”

Victoria held his gaze for a pointed length of time before saying: “I know. Nothing ever is, is it, Jeff?”

Sober of expression, reminding her too much of their father, and apparently intending to ignore her response, Jeff looked past her to the jonboat and again met her gaze. Under his censorious scrutiny, Victoria felt her face burn with guilt. “You stink of swamp,” he said, his voice calm and even. “You’ve been out in that boat, and you went to see Miss Cicely.”

Victoria hesitated with her answer, thinking she could of course deny it, but then she decided to take a small chance and see how her brother responded. “Yes, I have, Jeff. I’ve been out to see Miss Cicely.”

Jeff looked away from her and shook his head. When he looked down at her again, his voice was raw with emotion. “You shouldn’t have gone out there, Victoria. Don’t let Miss Cicely drag you into something you know nothing about.”

“I never said she was trying to drag me into anything, Jeff.” She hadn’t missed that he’d called her “Victoria.” He only did that when he was trying to be persuasive or serious with her.

“You don’t have to say it. I know Miss Cicely. She doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone. Neither do you.”

Despite his harsh indictment, Victoria felt an urge to reach out and touch him, to put a comforting hand on his arm. In the end, though, she didn’t, but she did take her questioning one step farther. “What is it I should leave alone, Jeff? What are you talking about?”

She prayed he would open up to her and tell her about Jenny and Sofie; prayed he was on the right side of this and would just tell her and let her help before it was too late for them all.

Jeff swung his gaze back to her. The slanting light of the waning moon showed Victoria the hard planes and shadowed angles of his unsmiling face. “Nothing. I just know you. If you’ve been out to see Miss Cicely in the middle of the night like this, then you meant for it to be a secret. I don’t know what you’re up to, Sister, but I will say this: You keep on going out there in that swamp and listening to that woman, and she’s bound to get you involved in something that will get you hurt or killed.”

“How can you talk about her like that, Jeff? We’ve known and loved her all our lives. Miss Cicely would never do anything that would get us hurt.” Victoria’s throat felt constricted with emotion. Her dear, sweet, handsome brother. Jeff could very well be a murderer—or a man who had hired a murderer to do his dirty work. Victoria feared she’d be sick right here. She swallowed convulsively and tensed her leg muscles to keep herself standing upright.

“You think she wouldn’t? You being out there in that swamp at night to go see her is dangerous. Now, what did Miss Cicely have to say to you? And how did you know she wanted to talk to you?”

“One of the hands gave me a message.” She’d ignored his first question and answered his second with a lie. The truth was Miss Cicely hadn’t sent for her. She’d gone out there on her own. Another truth was Jeff was interrogating her to see if she knew anything about his secret wrongdoings. If he found out she did, would he shoot her right here on the dock and blame those river rats?

“What hand was that, Sister?”

She shrugged, acting unconcerned. “Oh, I don’t know. I’d never met him before. I figured he was new.”

“We haven’t hired any new hands since you left for England.”

“Well, I didn’t know that, did I?”

“And you wonder why I’m out here with a gun? Anything could have happened, Sister. What’d he look like?”

Oh, Lord. “Jeff, quit getting all bothered. He was harmless enough. Just some tall, skinny colored boy who said Miss Cicely wanted to see me and for me to come tonight.”

Jeff’s expression could only be called horrified. “What’d he do? Come right up to the house and ask for you?”

“No, he did not. He saw me outside.”

“Outside? When was this? I haven’t seen you talking to any colored boys since you’ve been back.”

“Do you watch me every minute, Jeff?”

“No. But it’s starting to sound like I’d better.”

Victoria’s heart nearly tripped over itself. “Oh, for pity’s sake, I hardly think that’s necessary.”

“Well, I do. What did she want, anyhow? Miss Cicely, I mean.”

“I know who you mean. And she didn’t want anything special. She just heard I was home and wanted to see me.”

“Wasn’t that sociable of her—and at midnight, too.”

Victoria waved a hand in dismissal. “You know how she is. Likes to make everything all mysterious. It was nothing, and here I am, safe and sound.”

Jeff shifted his weight to his other leg and looked from her to the swamp behind her. “All right, but don’t go out there again, Sister, you hear me?”

“I do. I hear you.” And she had … she’d heard him say it.

“I mean it, too.”

“I said I heard you. And now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go inside.” She had to get away from him and think about this and sort through what she knew and what she suspected. She had no idea how to proceed from here. The trouble just kept getting bigger and bigger—and worse and worse. Victoria started to take a step forward and around Jeff.

He moved to block her way. “You need to do more than just go inside, Sister.” Jeff’s voice was pleading. “Please. You need to go on home—and I mean to England. Things have changed here. Times are dangerous. I know you and how you get wound up in things. But the hard truth is you are not wanted or needed here.”

Victoria blinked back sudden tears. “How can you say these things to me, Jeff? How?”

He was quiet a moment, but then he exhaled, sounding suddenly weary. “I say them for your own good. And I’m sorry, Sister, but that’s just the way of it right now. I wish I could say I’m glad you’re here, but I’m not. And not for any reason you might think, either.”

Victoria took a step toward her brother. “Then tell me what the reason is, Jeff.”

“No. I can’t. It’s better for you if I don’t.” He roused himself and moved aside, gesturing for her to go. “You just … go on inside, now. Get up to the house before anyone else sees you.”

Despite her fears for him and of him, Victoria’s heart went out to her brother. “Jeff, if there’s anything you want to tell me—”

He held up a hand to stop her words. “Go on up to bed, like I told you to do. Please.”

Victoria studied his face, seeing lines of worry and grief drawn across his normally smooth forehead and bracketing either side of his mouth. “All right, big brother, I’ll go. But will you come with me?”

He shook his head. “No. But I’ll be in directly. I just need to … make sure everything is in order out here.”

His slight hesitation alerted Victoria. She’d been right in thinking someone else was out there and waiting for Jeff. Almost before she even knew she was going to do it, she’d asked: “Why do you really have that gun with you? Who’s out there?”

Frowning, Jeff pulled back. “What are you talking about? Nobody’s out there. Leastwise, there’d better not be anybody out there. I’m just going to go make sure, is all. So you go on inside. I’ll wait here until you get to the house.”

What else could she do? “All right, Jeff. Good night.”

“Good night, Sister. Sleep well.”

Victoria doubted that she would, but she abruptly brushed by him and hurried down the dock and then started up the spongy lawn, steadily making for the safety of the house. As she trudged up to the back door, a fearful corner of her mind wondered if he suspected she knew what he was involved in and would just shoot her in the back. After all, and as she’d thought a moment ago, he could claim he thought she was a river rat. She could certainly be mistaken for one in the dark and dressed as she was.

By the time she stepped into a deep shadow cast by the house, she had worked herself into a state and just had to know what Jeff was doing. She slipped in between a flowering bush and the solidness of the house’s wall behind her. Taking a deep breath for courage, she turned around and looked. She half expected to see her brother sighting down his gun’s barrel at her. But what she saw was much worse. Her breath caught before she could exhale it. Jeff was gone. He hadn’t waited for her to go safely inside.

The only one about was Neville. The dog sat alertly on the weathered planking of the dock … and looked off to his left. Pressing her lips together, gathering her courage, Victoria quietly moved to the corner of the house and peeked around it. She slid her gaze in the direction Neville indicated. There Jeff was—loping for the far end of the house. What was he doing? Where was he going? She thought of following him, but instantly abandoned that idea. For one thing, she was too tired and had no desire to explain to her brother—again—what the devil she was still doing out here, should he detect her.

And for another thing, she saw no need to go putting herself, and therefore her helpless baby, in further or deliberate danger tonight. Tomorrow would be soon enough to try to figure out what she should do next. Not that she was supposed to do a darned thing. That’s what the letter she’d received in England had said. She was to do nothing and wait for instructions. She hadn’t received any yet … but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t.