by Zina Abbott
“From what I recall hearing, Joseph mined for gold, but he worked for others. The easy placer gold was long gone by then. It was a far cry from working in his own business. Dredging for gold brought him down into the valley where he lives now. He realized the land was filled with farmers growing wheat—wheat that needed to be milled into flour. However, there already was a mill in the area to fill the need.
“Joseph saw his opportunity to get his own mill after the great flood in 1862. Heavy storms in November and December of 1861 produced heavier-than-usual snowfall in the mountains all the way from Washington down through California. In January of that year, the mountains were suddenly hit with a series of warm rain storms. They melted the snow packs so fast the rivers could not contain the run-off. The floods washed away most of the town where Joseph is now living and all but destroyed the grist mill.
“Impoverished by the loss of the mill, the original owner happily sold the property and what remained of the mill structure to Joseph. Joseph not only had money from his earnings as a gold dredger, but he had received his portion of his father’s estate.
“Unfortunately, the wheel and most of the working parts were washed away or destroyed. Joseph worked to construct new replacements. The one crucial part of the mill he could not easily replace were the set of stones.
“I do not know much about mill stones except what Benjamin taught me over the years. Good ones are not so easy to come by. To grind fine flour for bread and other baked goods, they need to be cut from the right kind of stone and scored a certain way. Some of the best grist stones come from Europe, but at that time, it took a year for them to be shipped around the Horn to California.
“Joseph managed to get a set of stones cut from local granite and mounted. They allowed him to grind coarse animal feed. But he needed good stones for fine flour. He knew where to get a good set of stones quicker than waiting a year for them to arrive by ship. As soon as the weather allowed, he took a fast Butterfield coach back to where he could catch a train to Ohio.
“The war had been going for about a year by that time. He knew Benjamin had enlisted and served as a lieutenant for the county’s volunteer unit. The mill sat neglected in his absence. Not only did my daughter not know how to manage a mill, but most of the men who worked for Benjamin joined the same company he did.”
As Caroline fell silent, her eyes staring unfocused on the wall behind his head, Kit waited patiently several seconds before he prompted her to finish her tale.
“And Joseph came back and took the stones from the family mill in Ohio?”
“Yes. It took him several days to line up a train of oxcarts to meet the railroad where it ended. He knew about the difficulties of traveling overland to California. Two wagons he set up to carry the stones, crated and packed in straw so they wouldn’t crack. The others were for hauling extra food and several water barrels as well as the usual supplies. He refused to be like so many pilgrims who died or came close to it due to lack of water and food for themselves and their animals on the desert before the mountains that border California. And if you think Joseph intended to take extra to share with the unfortunates suffering along the way, don’t delude yourself. His only thought focused on getting himself and his stones to his mill as quickly as possible.”
“Before he left for California, he visited your daughter?”
“Yes. Two nights he stayed with her in the old Wells family home. Two nights, but that was all it took.”
Caroline closed her eyes and rested the back of her head on the top of her chair. She continued in a manner that struck Kit as though she were visualizing the scene she described to him.
Joseph stared at this woman who had rejected him for his brother. Her beauty still stirred him, but the affront of her rejection had not diminished. He had Phoebe and his daughter, but they did not make up for what this woman before him had denied him.
His voice sounded gruffer than he intended. “Since this is the Wells home, I expect I am welcome to stay here until the wagons are prepared to leave.”
Instead of shrinking away from him or showing signs that his expectations upset her, Rachael held his gaze firmly with hers. “Of course, Joseph. You are family. I would not have it any other way.”
“Then I will stay in the room I had when I left.”
Rachael reached for him and grasped Joseph’s forearm. “No, Joseph. Stay with me. I’ve been alone for so long. I need you.”
Joseph felt his blood surging through him. Expressionless, he studied her face, searching for any hint she was playing a woman’s game at his expense. His common sense warred with his desire for Rachael, the woman who rejected him. The woman his brother stole from him.
He licked his lips and found his voice. “Benjamin has been gone to war for almost a year, Rachael. What if you find yourself with child? How will you explain it?”
Her lips parted, Rachael offered him a winsome smile. “I’m barren, Joseph.”
He continued to stare at her, unwilling to believe her claim. As a child, Benjamin had been sick with high fevers on and off for months. Joseph realized the inability of his brother and Rachael to not have conceived in the three years they had been married might be because of Benjamin.
Rachael’s hand slipped into his and their fingers entwined. Her soft voice coaxed as she reassured him. “Benjamin’s enlistment is up next month and he will be coming home. If it should happen there is a child, when he learns of it months after his return, he will think it is his. I’m sure he will be pleased.”
Caroline tipped her head upright and stared hard at Kit. “I always suspected Eliza was Joseph’s, not Benjamin’s. Benjamin didn’t come home when his year was up. Instead, he reenlisted while still in the field and sent his bounty money home to Rachael. No matter how much she pleaded in her letters for him to return to her, the only thing that brought him home when she was four months along was a battle injury that prevented him from continuing to serve. To explain a full-term baby born five months after Benjamin’s return, they made up a story of how he had sneaked home without permission in order to spend a day and a half with her, but they had kept it a secret so he would not get in trouble with his commanding officer. I suspected from the start it was not the truth. For one thing, Rachael would have told me sooner if her husband had been able to visit her. For the sake of my daughter and granddaughter, I championed the lie and pushed back against the skeptics. The nature of his war injury explained why there were no more children.”
Caroline stopped and shook her head. “I’m sure Phoebe knows. Remember, Joseph married a local girl and Phoebe’s parents still lived in the area when this all happened. I would only hope Phoebe has more sense than her mother and kept the matter between her and her husband.”
“I received no indication the family knows.”
Caroline turned away and appeared to Kit to collapse within herself. Then, she turned back to him, the pain in her eyes evident. “I hated Joseph Wells for years. I felt sure he took advantage of my daughter at a vulnerable time in her life and seduced her. It was only as she lay dying of a tumor the doctor said could not be cured she felt the need to purge herself of the guilt she had carried for years. She chose me to listen to her confession. It was only then I learned that the desire to have a child of her own led my daughter, not Joseph, to initiated the affair. Who better to father a child possessing the same physical characteristics as her husband than his brother?” Caroline pursed her lips and looked away. “They used each other.”
Caroline sat up straight and glared at Kit, a challenge in her demeanor. “Whether it was Joseph or Benjamin who sired my granddaughter, Benjamin was the only father Eliza knew. He accepted her as his and loved her completely She idolized him. All records, including the family Bible, Benjamin’s will and trust documents, list Benjamin as her father. I am the only one around here who knows, and I will never admit to it or admit I told you. As for me, no matter who fathered Eliza, she is the only child of my only child. I will not have
her suffer because of the circumstances of her birth. Do you understand what I am saying?”
Kit slowly nodded. “Yes.”
“Do not let Joseph steal Benjamin’s daughter. Bring my granddaughter home, Mr. Halsey. If there is any way you can keep Joseph from naming her as his daughter, do it. I do not want Eliza to know.”
“She already knows. I was present when Joseph made the claim.”
Shaken, Caroline clapped her hands to her mouth. Kit barely heard her question as she slid her fingers down her chin. “How did she take it?”
“She was very upset. She refused to believe it. Joseph blurted it out after he found the two of us together. He ordered me away from her under threat of being shot. Since he did not threaten her physically, I felt it best to back off since he was in the right about her having no business meeting with a man alone after dark. I don’t know what happened after that other than I watched from afar long enough to know he yelled at her, but he did not strike her while they were still outside.”
Caroline’s brow crinkled with concern. “Exactly where were you with my granddaughter when this all happened, Mr. Halsey? You better have not compromised her.”
Kit inhaled deeply. He might be at risk again for being shot once he told her. “No. I admit, we were on a hill behind the house after the family had retired for the night—or so Eliza thought. Right after she passed me her most recent letter for you, Joseph found us.” In an effort to reassure his employer, Kit continued before she could comment. “I know that was not the best of circumstances. If discovered by the wrong parties, Eliza’s reputation would have been ruined. But Joseph forbade us to meet openly, and that was the only way for us to communicate.”
Caroline pursed her lips. “Eliza knows better.”
Kit suspected Caroline did not know her granddaughter as well as she thought she did. He declined to enlighten her by sharing the story of his and Eliza’s rendezvous in the town hall supply closet. “Eliza trusts me, Mrs. Arnold. And I would never do anything to betray that trust.”
Caroline turned away and repeated her command more softly. “Bring Eliza home to me, Mr. Halsey. Stop Joseph Wells from ruining her and the rest of his family if you can. Just bring her home.”
“I will.” Kit cleared his throat. “There was another reason I chose at this time to come back to speak with you personally, Mrs. Arnold. I request your permission to court Eliza.”
Caroline’s head snapped back to face him. Her glare penetrated him. “You are not in a position to marry. Right now, until you finish law school and make something of yourself, you are not fit to marry Eliza.”
Kit sucked in his breath. “I know. I can understand if you say no. However, if Eliza is agreeable to my suit, and she is willing to wait, I would like your permission. If nothing else, it will protect her reputation if we travel back as an engaged couple. I won’t hold her to it if later she finds someone else and changes her mind.”
Using her cane for leverage, and aided by Kit’s hand on her elbow, Caroline struggled to her feet. Once upright, she glared at him and shook her finger before his face. “Don’t you dare marry her before you bring her home. I intend to be at my granddaughter’s wedding. You defy me in this, I will refuse to pay for your tuition to law school. You’ll only receive the expense money I have forwarded to you so far. Do you understand?”
Kit smiled. He could not help but admire this formidable woman. “I understand, Mrs. Arnold. I’m sure Eliza wants you at her wedding, too.”
Then Kit’s expression grew serious. “But, I warn you. I will do whatever I must to protect Eliza and get her away from Joseph Wells.”
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Kerr’s Ferry, California – August, 1882
Chapter 13
~o0o~
P hoebe waited until Eliza and her children were settled in bed for the night before she joined her husband in their room. She handed him a letter. “It’s from Eliza’s grandmother.”
Joseph snatched the missive and tore open the envelope. He quickly scanned the contents before he tossed it aside. “That crazy, old biddy—when is she going to give up? She keeps writing the same thing letter after letter.”
“Eliza’s no better. She asked me to send that letter a few weeks ago.”
A frown creasing his forehead, Joseph jerked his face towards Phoebe. “Are you talking about the one before the night I found her on the hill? I told you to tell her I had restricted her from writing letters to anyone. The last thing I want is her trying to contact that randy pup she met that night.”
Phoebe shook her head. “No, she hasn’t asked me to send any letters since then. She hardly speaks to me at all. The girls keep asking me what’s wrong with her. I suspect she isn’t talking much with them either.”
Phoebe watched as her husband stared across the room as he nodded. Then casually, he turned his back to her and folded his arms. He addressed her as if he were making general conversation. “Has Eliza told you about anything that was said that night I caught her?”
Her husband asked too casually, Phoebe realized. Something had taken place between the two that night. She chose her words carefully. “No, not really, other than it was awful. She’s been a little teary-eyed since then, but I assumed it was because you ordered her to stay away from that man.”
Phoebe stood without moving and waited.
“I told her, Phoebe. I told her the truth—that I’m her father.”
Phoebe closed her eyes and she pressed her palm to her forehead. “How could you, Joseph?”
“Why not? It’s the truth.” Joseph turned to face her. “Surely you suspected.”
Her throat tight with emotion, Phoebe answered in a raspy voice. “I knew almost from the start. My mother warned me. She wrote me about Rachael’s full-term baby arriving five months after Benjamin returned home from the war. She knew you were back there a few months earlier to take what you wanted from the mill. Evidently, you took more besides what you wanted from the mill.” Phoebe dropped her hand and raised her eyes to meet the Joseph’s gaze. “I’ve let it go and said nothing all this time, Joseph, because I knew you would have preferred her to me. I knew you were angry with your brother for winning her hand. You got your revenge. What was important to me, and still is, are my children. We only had Julie then, but by the time my mother’s letter reached me, I knew Lydia was on her way. I didn’t want trouble between us, and I did not want my husband to be known as an adulterer.”
“That happened long ago, Phoebe. Things have changed. The way Benjamin set up his estate it is like it is in a strong box locked in thick safe. My attorney is having a devil of a time trying to break through so I can be named guardian and have access to her funds. Of course, that meddling old woman, Eliza’s grandmother—I never did like her—she didn’t have the good graces to die from that attack of apoplexy. The only thing I can think of to strengthen my case and give me the edge I need to convince the courts back in Ohio to turn guardianship over to me is to assert my claim as her father.”
“I know this has been difficult, Joseph, but please do not dredge up the past. Leave it behind where it belongs.”
“I must bring it up, Phoebe. A father has a stronger claim on a child than a grandparent. I need access to her estate. Part of that money is what should have been given me by my father. Instead, to spite me for slipping out from under his control, he left it to my brother. It should go to me first before Eliza.”
“You don’t know that, Joseph. My mother told me that mill was all but destroyed.”
“That was Benjamin’s doing. He should never have enlisted. Instead, he should have stayed home to run the mill.”
With an accusing look, Joseph turned to his wife. “If you had done your part, Phoebe, it might not have come to this. If you had encouraged Eliza towards Daniel more, and Daniel had chosen Eliza over Julie, we would have had an easier time convincing the courts back in Ohio that Eliza intended to stay here. I would have
insisted on at least a year for the engagement, which would have given me time to gain the guardianship and the funds I need for the partnership. Now, he not only is not interested in Eliza, but he doesn’t want to wait long to marry Julie.”
“I always encouraged Eliza toward Mr. Irwin, even when I ached for Julie because I knew she loves him. You cannot blame me because Daniel made a different choice than the one you wanted him to.”
“His choice necessitates me making the decision I have. I will not go to a bank for a loan, Phoebe. For one thing, I wish no one to know our flour production has fallen off due to less wheat being grown and brought to the mill. Plus, I’ve known too many men who lost everything to a bank because they couldn’t make their loan payments when a financial depression hit.”
“Please, Joseph! You name Eliza as your daughter, whether or not it will get you the guardianship and access to her money, it will ruin her reputation. People will know her as your illegitimate daughter. Most men from good families will think twice about courting her. You’ll be lucky to find a common laborer like that man you chased off the hill the other night to marry her.”
“She’s pretty, Phoebe. She’ll have more than one man to choose from.”
“Not with her reputation ruined. What about our children, Joseph? How will they feel about being the children of an adulterer? What will it do to their reputations? I don’t wish them to think less of you. Our daughters, especially, will be heart-broken if they learn they are Eliza’s half-siblings, not her cousins.”