by Gina Danna
Ahead, she saw the outline of a few buildings. “Does it by chance have a hotel we could clean up in?”
“Yes, though its been ransacked by the Yankees. Now, I do know a place we could clean up that will be in better shape.”
That puzzled her. The hotel was in pieces, he claimed, but there was another place? A former mistress’s place? She shuddered at the thought. “You know this lady well?”
He was silent as they walked down the main street. Few people were out, a couple waved, calling out hello to him and his return. She kept expecting he’d stop but he didn’t till they got to the last building and pulled his horse up in front of a store with the placard outside claiming it was Antoine’s Barber shop.
“This is what you’re looking for.” He lifted her off the saddle.
Antoine was an elderly white man with white hair and whiskers and spectacles perched on the bridge of his nose. “Francois, boy, tres bien! You’ve returned in one piece!” He eyed the cane, eyebrow rising in question.
Francois laughed. “Yes, all in one piece, thanks to this lovely lady. Antoine, let me introduce you to Miss, no, Doctor Ada Lorrance.”
Antoine’s frown deepened, as if disbelieving, before he broke into a large smile. “A doctor? Only you Francois, would claim such!”
“No sir, I’m not fibbin’.”
Antoine offered her his hand and then clasped hers in his two. “Pleasure to meet you, miss.”
Ada stiffened, as usual when her title was scoffed at. “He is correct. I am a surgeon, sir. From Pennsylvania.”
The man stopped cold. “Francois, you brought us a Yankee?”
Ada raised her chin, readying herself for another assault when Francois stepped in.
“Yes, Antoine, that she is. She saved my foot from meeting with the head surgeon’s saw. Got badly hurt in Virginia, captured by the Union and left to rot in their hospital until she was given the permission to tend to me and the others of the Tigers. She brought me back from death and my body intact—twice, in fact!” He stepped closer to the apothecary. “She has come to see to the sick, since the fever is here. Now, we need some supplies.”
Antoine gave her another glance. Her skin itched as he assessed if she was worth his time, or perhaps she had lice at this point but regardless, his look made her cringe. He finally asked her what she needed, but she never felt better until they left.
Was his, and the widow’s, attitude what she’d have to face here all the time in the South?
LaJoyce heard the hustling in her main room, her girls yipping with excitement, and she raced in to find out what was happening. She was not prepared for what she saw. Standing in her door way was a strapping young man, a little disheveled looking in his rather worn Confederate uniform, bronzed in the face and wild black hair, but the devilish look his sultry blue eyes always gave him away.
“Francois!” She leaped right for him and he caught her, his cane crashing to the ground.
He laughed as he hugged her tight, though at a bit of an angle. “LaJoyce, I’m so glad to see you!”
He lowered her and she noticed the walking stick and picked it up. “I’d hoped you’d come back, right as rain.”
He snorted, taking the cane from her. “You know, nothing keeps me down long.”
She grinned, her heart thudding wildly. Her own fears he’d be killed now faded as she squeezed his arms again. He looked leaner and a touch older with the sun-kissed skin showing age lines. But he was still hers…
A rather loud grunt came from behind him. LaJoyce gave him a questioning glance before she bent to peer around him. There stood his companion, in a dark colored gown, covered in yellow dust and God-knows what else. Her hair was perhaps blond, though it was dull and wisps flew around her face as it escaped the pins that held it so fiercely tight. The woman’s jaw was locked, her lips narrow and the angered stare told LaJoyce everything.
“Good afternoon, Miss ?” She gave the girl her welcoming grin. The woman didn’t return it.
“Dr. Lorrance.”
LaJoyce laughed and turned to Francois. “Oh, my, look what you brought home! Though didn’t think you would, considerin’.” She chuckled.
Francois shook his head softly. “LaJoyce, Dr. Ada Lorrance is a physician and my fiancée.”
LaJoyce’s smile broadened at his announcement. She opened her mouth to speak, but he didn’t give her time to respond, throwing in a request.
“We need baths. I brought her home to tend to mama and the rest of the ill.”
That reality check refocused her. “I’ll have those made immediately.” She turned toward the girl, who didn’t look as harsh anymore since he came to her defense. Good, LaJoyce thought.
“Ma’am, or shall I say Doctor Lorrance, if you would be so kind, I have a couple of my girls having fits with this fever. May I ask you to take a peek at them?”
Ada sank into the tub, rubbing her eyes and letting herself just succumb to the warm waters. She didn’t have long, knowing the water would chill, despite the sitz bath sitting near the fireplace with its green wood burning. But she was determined to allow herself the luxury of reclining in it, even if it was only a second. She slid down the back of the metal tub, her knees bent so her entire top half would sink under the water, a task not easily done.
“Doctor Lorrance! Doctor!”
She shot up out of the water. “What!” she cried, gripping the sides of the tub to pull up and get out but the black lady who greeted them was standing in the room, motioning for her to stop. LaJoyce was what Francois called her. She wasn’t tall, but her large bosom kept her from being small, also. The dress she wore wasn’t exactly the type for society, or none Ada knew of. The low neckline that displayed the swell of her breasts was hardly suited for teatime. She stared at Ada with a sparkle in her eyes and a grin that was anything but malevolent.
Ada sunk into the cooling water. Being naked in front of another woman was very uncomfortable for a conversation. She couldn’t help but squint.
To that, LaJoyce laughed. “Oh, my, yes, I did put you in a tight spot. Here,” she said, unfolding the linen towel and holding it above the rim of the tub.
Ada sat, still trying to decide. At the moment, she couldn’t see the woman but this was highly improper.
“Missy, Doc Lorry, please. You’ll catch your death if you stay in that cold water, then I’ll have to deal with Francois over it.” She shook the sheet.
Goosebumps were already popping up on her shoulders. With great reluctance, she tucked her legs beneath her and rose, grasping the towel by the top. “Thank you.”
LaJoyce walked to the side. “I expect you want some answers and I have a few questions of my own I’d be looking for, so now was a marvelous time to get to know you.”
Ada frowned. She’d never been around a woman with such boldness as this woman. Her skin prickled and not from rising out of a cold tub. The woman waited so she shimmied into her chemise, asking, “You are right. I do have questions, like who are you?”
The black woman’s grin grew larger. “My name is LaJoyce. I’ve known the Fontaines for many years. Some of them very close. Yet, let us get this right. I am in charge, here.”
“And we’re where?”
“At La Bonne Jeux,” she answered with a smile.
“A house of ill-repute.” Ada shuddered. Francois brought her to a whorehouse?
“Now, you wipe that foul look off your face,” the woman stated, as she went to the armoire in the back. Ada could see an array of silks in various colors hanging inside it. “You act as if my place isn’t worth your time, but believe me, you needed that bath and a change of clothes if you think you’re going to Bellefountaine, illness or not.”
“I hadn’t begun to start…”
“Of course not, because I stopped you.” The woman yanked a dark dress from the back. It was a deep blue dress, trimmed in white and black. “Yes, this will do. Put this on.”
Shocked, Ada stepped back. “I have a dress.”
Ada bit her tongue. She knew what a Creole was.
“You may be a northerner and think yourself all righteous, but here, to make acquaintance, you need to follow the rules. Now, the illness has only touched the edges of their lands. Mistress Fontaine is the matriarch there and she will expect her children to behave in good manner. Manners I hope were instilled upon you in your upbringing, because you’ll need it for the test God will rain on you. Now, put the dress on.”
Francois sank in his own tub, letting the heat work into tired bones and muscle, relishing in a novelty he didn’t know was one until now.
“Darlin’, need you to sit up, raise that pretty chin for me.”
He smiled, his eyes shut. “Yes, Clementine, you have my whole attention.”
The girl giggled as she lathered the shaving soap on him and he tightened his jaw as she started to shave the whiskers. He heard the door whisk open, a rustle of skirts and his Clementine was gone. He snorted. “I wondered when you’d get here, you vixen.” He reached for LaJoyce, but she stopped him.
“Tsk, tsk, let us get this gone, I tell you.” She picked up the razor knife and started at his jawline. “Talked to that missy you brought in with you. Thinkin’ of marrying her?”
“Yes,” was all he could get out while she shaved.
“Well, as much as I’d hate to lose a good stud like you, you best prepare her for your family. From what I hear, it wasn’t a pretty sight with Miss Emma when she found out.”
He cringed a bit at that memory. “Always sounds worse than it was. You know that. Say, speakin’ of Miss Emma, what is going on at Bellefountaine?”
“Ne’er you mind. Stick to what you need to do first. Or that pretty little strumpet could take that foot of yours after all, before she turns you in. Yankees still rule the roost here, if you’ll recall.”
Francois blinked hard. LaJoyce was too good at her job of reading clients, mostly men and their desires, or so he thought. But she had Ada figured well. The problem was, how to explain the Fontaine wealth, and his part in it. God help him!
Chapter 42
“There is no enthusiasm in the army for Gen. Grant, and, on the other hand, there is no prejudice against him. We are prepared to throw up our hats for him when he shows himself the great soldier here in Virginia against Lee and the best troops of the rebels.”
—Col. Seldon Conner, 19th Maine
Francois stopped the horses at the gates to his family’s home, letting the blood that raced through his veins come to a calm. He was home. After the mad dash to get away from here last November, he’d returned. But was he ready to?
“Francois?”
He grinned a lazy, lopsided smile as he turned to face his fiancé. “We are at Bellefountaine, my lady. Home to the Fontaines for the last century. A group of Frenchmen who’d wandered to this land under the French regime, got rich under the Spanish and maintained their wealth under the Americans. Welcome to the family.” He bowed his head.
“You don’t make it sound so good with that tone.”
He inhaled. She was right. “My dear, we are slave-owners, the very type of you people you scorn. Fever or not, the darkies are here. Now, keep in mind, my brother, Jacque, is a Union officer, and was stationed here for control of the state of Louisiana, since the loss of New Orleans to the Yanks. My sister, who is a bit like me, and ran away years ago, returned from her adventures towing a Union officer husband back with her. A general, if I recall correctly.” He turned to face her. “Both sides are here and learning to live together, as best as any divided family can. Please, do us all a favor and keep your abolitionist views quiet. While I love you, they may not, regardless of their views. Agreed?”
Her gaze was tense and her jawline steeled but she did nod. The last thing he needed was her ranting about the number of blacks here. Though, then again, they may not have that many, considering…
He reached across and took her gloved hand to squeeze. “You know, I’m honored you’ll marry me.”
“You saved me from a life, worrying over someone who is not worthy of that, so I thank you.”
It wasn’t the answer he’d hoped for, but it was an answer. And he knew she yearned for him like he did her, all signs their lovemaking demonstrated that. Love would come, that he kept telling himself. With a grin, he nudged his horse forward.
“Bertrand! Bertrand!” he yelled when they reached the front of the house. He scanned the building he grew up in and saw wear and tear in places he didn’t remember, like the front doors had the paint peeling away, the stairs up to them were worn and bare in areas like he’d never seen. One of the window sashes sagged and the shutter to the far left first floor window was missing a lattice. Puzzled, he dismounted, forgetting about his foot until the last second and caught himself. Where the hell was Bertrand?
The front door swung open and the head house slave ambled out at a pace that equaled Francois’s gait.
“Massa Francois! Sorry, I didn’t hear you at first,” the old man said, taking the reins for his and Ada’s horses.
Francois saw his doctor tense the moment the butler spoke but, thankfully, she kept mum. He reached for her, steadying himself on the better foot. As he lifted her off the saddle, he whispered, “Thank heavens ladies are so light!”
She batted him with the fan LaJoyce had shoved in her hand when they left. “Next time, I’ll dismount by myself. Harrumph!”
He laughed. “Bertrand, ole boy, where is everyone?”
“Well, sur, after Massa Jack said his piece, some here and some ain’t. Then the fever hit. Mighty bad, sur. Mighty bad.”
Ada looked at him and then reached for her medical bag. Francois took her arm and as he started into the house, asked, “Where is that brother of mine, Bertrand?”
“Well, sur, he be gone. Massa Jack is gone.”
Francois stopped. Jack left? Now? He went to the front parlor, hoping to find his mother there but found an empty room.
“Perhaps they’re in their rooms?” Ada suggested, a slight annoyance in her tone, as if that was the better solution than a parlor.
Francois growled and turned to leave the room when a whirlwind in green brushed right into him.
“Francois!!”
“Cerisa?” He held her tightly. Her stomach bulged between them and he caught she was barefoot. “Still carrying that child?”
She ignored him. “I’m so glad you’re here. It’s been a mess ever since Jack left.”
“Bertrand said the same. What do you mean, he left?”
Cerisa caught her breath, then seem to notice another person in the room. “Apparently, Francois has lost his manners. Welcome to Bellefountaine.”
Ada nodded. “Thank you.”
Francois added, “Cerisa, my fiancée, Ada Lorrance. Ada, my sister, Cerisa.”
“You brought a fiancée back from the war?” Cerisa started laughing. It was an edgy laugh, one that grated on his nerves. “This family doesn’t do well being single during this rebellion, do we?”
“Where the hell is Jack?” Once the swear word was out, he regretted it but he was in no mood for her laughter. If Jack was gone, where was Emma?
Gripping as best she could around her pregnant middle, Cerisa stopped laughing. “He was called back to the war.”
“What?”
She shook her head. “He got orders to head to the western theater. Tennessee, I think.”
“Why didn’t your husband stop him?”
She snorted. “You can’t really think Pierce could stop the War Department, do you?”
“He’s a general, for Christ’s sake!” His anger escalated. How could Jack just leave the family like this?
&nb
sp; “Yes, Emma was pretty mad, too.”
The man he was mad at ran into the room.
“Cerisa, what is—” he turned and saw Francois. “Francois, you’re home.” He looked his brother in law up and down. “Returned fairly unscathed.”
“Ha!” Francois mumbled as he paced, his steps emphasized with the sound of the cane on the hardwood floor.
“He brought a fiancée, as well,” Cerisa nodded.
Pierce turned to face Ada, smiling broadly. “Good afternoon! Welcome to the latest warfront here at Bellefountaine!”
Ada stood, unable to move, truly believing she was seeing a theater over real life. These people had embraced and embroiled within seconds and she stood to the side, like the audience of a bad play. She realized her hand gripped around the handle of her medical bag so tight, her fingers and wrist now hurt but she found she couldn’t relax. This was the family that madam had told her to be prim and proper for? Poppycock!
“Excuse me!”
All three heads turned. Francois looked mildly surprised. The woman just grinned and the other man’s eyes widened.
“I hate to interrupt your argument, but I am a doctor. I understand there’s a fever here?”
“Yes, there is. Been spending the better part of the week trying to keep my expectant wife clear of it,” Pierce offered, pulling the pregnant woman’s arm into the crux of his arm. “Which has not been an easy chore.”