by Jana Petken
Mercy’s eyes widened, and she stared at Belle, who refused to look at her. She willed Belle to look her in the eye. Her breathing was becoming uneasy. Her heart was pounding fast, her head was spinning, and she was sure that the Coulter family were staring at her. She had to say something. She had to know the answer to the question that was tearing her heart apart. “Thank you for your invitation, Elizabeth. You must be very excited about your wedding. Are you marrying a local man?”
Elizabeth laughed, as did her father and brother. Belle looked down at her lap, hiding her eyes. Mercy looked at the laughing faces – she wasn’t sure if they were laughing at her or laughing at the question.
Elizabeth stopped laughing and looked at Mercy impassively. “Why, Mercy, surely you must know who I’m marrying after being on that long voyage. They must have told you that I was marrying Jacob on his return. How could you not know this? Did my Jacob not tell you?” Elizabeth turned sharply towards Belle. “Belle, did that fiancé of mine not talk about me at all?”
“Of course he did, Elizabeth, but you know Jacob better than anyone. He doesn’t talk much about his personal thoughts – although I do know he’s looking forward to the wedding. Mercy probably wasn’t around when he spoke of you. You know Jacob is a terrible sailor. Why, we hardly saw him. And I was spending all my time in my cabin with Mercy for company …”
Belle’s voice trailed off, and an uncomfortable silence ensued.
Mercy had heard enough. She was struck dumb, felt as though her breathing had stopped, was seeing double, and couldn’t look at anyone. She hated Jacob and if he were here, she’d throttle him. She felt disappointed and hurt by Belle, who had hidden this from her – they had all hidden it, Jack, Hendry, and Isaac, who had always been so understanding. She had told Jacob all the secrets about her London life. They had all betrayed her. Jacob had used her as the prostitute he thought he had saved. He had taken her virginity, and now he’d broken her heart. She wished she’d died in the fire.
Mercy felt all eyes on her. She stood up as ladylike as possible and made a point of pouring more tea into all the cups. She couldn’t allow herself to be seen like this: weak, pathetic, a crushed woman who had just had her heart cut out and served up on a plate to a woman called Elizabeth.
Mercy tried to steer the conversation away from the wedding, but Elizabeth hadn’t finished. “Well, I just hope this horrid weather has gone in time for Christmas and the wedding. Pa, what will happen if no one can get to Pinetrees? I’ll just die! I want the whole county to see my gown.”
“This blizzard will pass in a day or two. Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it,” her father said.
Elizabeth dabbed tearless eyes with her dainty cotton handkerchief. “I just think Jacob has been too selfish and mean. Why couldn’t we have gotten married in the fall as I asked? Why did he have to go on that stupid voyage to England this time? It’s just not fair! Pa, you must tell him how badly he’s treated me.”
Belle stood on visibly shaky legs. She looked across the room at Elizabeth, who was pathetically sobbing. Her father was holding her hand, and her brother looked bored. Belle looked extremely uncomfortable.
“You know, I feel a little faint,” she said. “Now y’all must make yourselves at home. Your rooms should be ready by now. Why don’t we meet for dinner at seven? I’m so sorry, but being pregnant seems to make me tired all the time. Mercy, would you be a dear and help me up the stairs? I’m going to lie down for just a little while.”
“Of course I will,” Mercy said, grateful to have an excuse to leave. “When I get you all tucked in, I think I’ll take a short walk – just around the gardens. I’ve got my coat and hat all ready.”
“But you’ll freeze to death! You can’t go out there, not in this weather,” Mr Coulter said, shocked.
George jumped in quickly, saying, “I’ll be happy to escort you if you like, Miss Mercy.”
“No, thank you, George. I like walking alone,” Mercy said.
“Pa, don’t fuss so. I’m sure a walk will do her good. She has such a grey pallor about her. And, George, you know it wouldn’t be seemly for you to escort Mercy alone. Think of her reputation,” Elizabeth said, as though Mercy had already left the room.
Mercy laughed. “I’ll be fine. Thanks, all of you, but I’m used to the cold. We Londoners are hardy souls. I have my hat and coat, and I don’t think five minutes of fresh air will do me any harm. It was nice to meet you all. I’ll see you at dinner,” she said, following Belle from the room.
They walked up the stairs in silence. Upon entering Belle’s room, however, Belle broke down and held Mercy to her. Tears streamed down her face. Mercy felt their wetness on her own cheeks.
Mercy looked into Belle’s face. Belle’s sorrow and guilt broke her heart. Mercy wanted to shout, scream, and call her a traitor, but she saw that Belle was suffering as much as she.
“Shh – Belle, don’t upset yourself. Think of the baby. It’s all right,” Mercy told her.
“No, no, it’s not all right! I should have told you about Elizabeth and Jacob – we all should have told you. We fought with Jacob about it for weeks, but he was determined to sort this out in his own way. Mercy, Jacob is at Pinetrees right now, if I’m guessing right. That’s the Coulter’s Plantation. He was going there to tell Elizabeth that the wedding has to be called off. He was going to do and say the unforgivable because he loves you. He loves you so much. Darn it, Mercy, Jacob should have told you. You would have understood, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course I would have,” Mercy told her truthfully. “I came into Jacob’s life after his engagement. He should have told me, though, on that very first night, when he told me he loved me. Oh, Belle, I hurt so much.”
Belle nodded and held Mercy to her again. “I know, I know, darling. But you have to forgive him. He’ll just die if you leave him.”
Mercy had heard the words “Jacob loves you so much.” She knew them to be true. Every thought she had ever had, she had confided in Jacob, no matter how silly or insignificant. Jacob had always listened, and he had been the same open book with her. The closeness between them had now ended. He was getting married to another woman, and he had led her to believe that he was going to turn up here with a proposal for her!
“That woman downstairs believes she’s getting married in eleven days’ time. She will have her wedding dress hanging up, ready to wear. The cake will have been made. The ceremony, the invitations … Oh God, Belle, Jacob can’t break it off now. It would ruin him. I can’t allow him to destroy his way of life for me. I’ll never fit in here – not with my accent, my common upbringing, or the reputation of a marriage breaker.”
“What are you going to do? You can’t leave. You’ll break him!”
“He has broken me!” Mercy said miserably. “Rest now. I’ll be back in a little while. I need a brisk walk. I always feel better after a fast walk. It will clear my head.”
“Please, Mercy, don’t leave Jacob …”
Mercy walked back down the stairs and picked up her coat, gloves, hat, and scarf lying over a chair. As she put them on, she heard raised voices coming from the drawing room. She stopped to listen, hidden from view behind the door.
“Did you see the look on her face, Pa? She wants Jacob; I know she does. What if he wants her too? I’ll be ruined forever. I’ll never be able to go out in public again. Oh, Pa, please don’t let Jacob dump me like I’m common white trash, like she is!”
“Don’t you worry, daughter. Jacob will marry you, even if I have to shove a rifle in his back. He won’t defile your reputation or our family’s good name. I’ll make damn sure of that.”
Mercy covered her mouth to stop the sound of wretched sobs escaping. Tears fell onto her hands, rivers of tears that couldn’t be stopped. She stumbled quietly to the door and opened it, slipped through it, and went out into the freezing cold.
Chapter Forty-Four
Jacob, Hendry, and Isaac arrived at Stone Plantation tired, hungry,
and eternally grateful to have made it out of Pinetrees. They had left the Coulter household just after midday, as soon as the wind had dropped and the snow was but a soft flurry.
The snow had been deep, too deep for any sensible person even to think about riding out in it. But they had all agreed that they couldn’t spend another night with Mrs Coulter and her incessant talk of her wonderful daughter and her wedding plans.
Belle saw the three men ride up the drive and her heart lurched. At last, Hendry had come home. These past days had been a living nightmare, and she’d missed him terribly. They’d never been apart for so long. In the five days since she’d seen him, everything that could go wrong had. Pulling a shawl across her shoulders, she rushed down the long staircase to greet them.
The Coulters were gone. She had been furious to learn that they’d left before she awoke that morning. Their suspicions had grown regarding Jacob and Mercy. She had barely been able to keep the truth from them after they’d goaded her with question after question about Mercy. Mercy had not attended dinner. Instead, she had complained of a headache and had eaten alone in her room.
Belle was no fool. She suspected the Coulters’ departure without a goodbye or a thank you was because they didn’t want to be present when Jacob arrived home. They were not going to give him the chance to explain himself. Elizabeth had manipulated this, Belle thought angrily. Unless Jacob met her on the road, it would be far too late to call off the wedding. She wouldn’t put it past the Coulters to take an alternative route, just to make sure they didn’t meet Jacob halfway. If she were in Elizabeth’s position, she might do exactly the same thing to hold on to her man.
Belle reached the bottom of the stairs and called out for Handel. He was in his sixties and was bossy and authoritarian. He knew the two Stone brothers loved him like a father. He used this knowledge to his advantage, giving Hendry and Jacob a telling-off every now and again when he thought they needed to be put in their places, and both brothers allowed the slave this leverage.
Having given the order to ready the house, Belle left Handel to issue his orders to the other house slaves.
The three men walked wearily into the hallway. Hendry and Belle hugged and kissed.
Jacob interrupted Belle and Hendry in a shaky and nervous voice. “Are the Coulters still here?”
“No. They left before the house stirred. Jacob, I think Elizabeth is suspicious.”
“Of course she is. She doesn’t miss a trick. Damn it, what the hell do I do now? Where is Mercy?” he asked, realising she was nowhere to be seen.
Belle’s eyes filled with tears, and then she broke into heavy sobs. She’d been brave and controlled, but now that Hendry was back, she didn’t need to be strong anymore.
“She’s sick, Jacob. She’s very sick. She went out in that blizzard yesterday. She was upset when Elizabeth talked about your wedding. She wouldn’t listen to me, and she went for a walk in the blizzard and got lost. She found her way back in the dark eventually, but then she got a fever early this morning – and no one will let me in to see her.”
Belle sobbed to Isaac, “I’m so glad you’re here, Isaac. Please go to her. I’m so worried. I wanted to be by her bedside, but everyone was worried about my coming down with something – and the baby.”
“Oh my God, this is my fault. Where is she?” Jacob stumbled up the stairs.
Belle shouted after him, “She’s in your father’s room. Abby is with her.”
Isaac paled. He thought quickly. He ordered one of the house slaves to fetch his bags and raced up the stairs after Jacob. If Mercy was down with a fever, she could be in real danger. He would have to improvise as far as medicines were concerned. His heart was as heavy as a rock and his mouth was dry. Mercy had suffered so much already. He wanted to punch Jacob in the mouth, friend or no friend. His stupid ideas on how to handle this nasty business had been noble but futile. She deserved better.
Jacob sat at Mercy’s bedside, openly crying. Isaac stood at the door for a second and felt tears sting his own eyes. He wondered if he was crying for his tormented friend or for Mercy, who lay unconscious. Her face was white as the snow they’d just left and in complete contrast to her coal-black damp hair spread across the pillow.
“Jacob, get out of the way. I need to get closer. You don’t have to leave but you have to stand aside. I need to examine her.” Isaac took his two medical bags from the slave. He took out the stethoscope first and loosened Mercy’s damp gown. Her head was still, but every now and then, she whispered jumbled words. She was perspiring badly and burning like a hot poker. He placed the stethoscope on her chest and listened to her lungs. They were rattling as she breathed, and he was in no doubt that infection had set in.
“What’s your name, girl?” Isaac asked Abby.
“Abby, sir. I don’t know what to do,” she said, also crying.
“Abby, I want you to do exactly as I say. Bring me some water with ice and some rags. Put this medicine, two teaspoonfuls, in a glass of boiling water, and hurry.”
Isaac looked at Jacob’s frightened face, and at last his heart melted. Jacob was very much in love, as if Isaac hadn’t known that already. Now was not the time to think about his feelings for Mercy. His own feelings didn’t matter. “Jacob, this is serious. It could be influenza.”
“What can I do?”
“We need to bring her temperature down. Keep piling on cold, wet rags. They need to be placed on her forehead and chest and changed when they get warm. She needs to drink some broth. The medicine I sent Abby for might help. I picked it up in Liverpool. It has some herbs, eucalyptus, and roots, and they say that it can clear the lungs. I don’t want to bleed her, but I might have to.”
Jacob’s eyes widened in fear. Bleeding was only done in extreme cases nowadays, and the treatment had very little success. “Dear God, what have I done? I’ll never forgive myself if—”
“That’s enough of that talk,” Isaac told him sharply. “Help me sit her up. It may help her breathing.”
Mercy heard the sounds of their voices from some distant place. She tried to open her eyes, but there was a fire. The flames were all over her body, and she couldn’t get away from them. She screamed Jacob’s name. She was at a wedding, but no one wanted to sit next to her. She was ashamed – everyone was staring at her. Elizabeth was laughing. Jacob was her groom.
“Jacob, no – no, Jacob!” Mercy shouted in her dream.
Jacob listened to Mercy calling his name. He had no right to feel sorry for himself. Mercy and Elizabeth had every right to hate him, as did Belle, who had endured Elizabeth’s company. He was a son of a bitch!
Abby and another house slave arrived with a basin of water mixed with snow. Abby carried a tall glass with Isaac’s medicine in one hand and cloths in another. Her eyes were tired and puffy. Jacob took the glass and told Abby to wait outside the room for further instructions.
He and Isaac dampened down Mercy’s burning body with the freezing wet cloths. Isaac ordered the slave who remained to fetch a bowl of boiling water.
Jacob watched helplessly as Isaac poured the foul-smelling medicine into Mercy’s mouth.
They later suffered the stench of eucalyptus steam rising from the boiling water in the bowl Isaac had ordered. It was placed just under Mercy’s nose.
Mercy could smell and then taste the bitter and strong aroma running down her nose and into her throat. Maybe it was that horrible drug again – were Eddie and Sam here? Had they finally found her? She moved her head from side to side, attempting to escape the drug, but she had no strength to do anything further. She tried to open her eyes, but they were stuck together. She couldn’t watch herself burn; that would be too horrid. Every now and again, she felt someone lift her head and pour another type of liquid into her mouth. This one tasted even worse than the drug. She tried to call out for Jacob, for he would save her again – she just knew he would …
Jacob held the bowl whilst Isaac dabbed her continuously with the wet, cold cloths. When the snow
in the basin melted, he ordered more to be brought.
They repeated cooling her, medicating her, and placing steaming eucalyptus under her nose. Neither man left Mercy’s side until the next morning.
In the grey light of dawn, Mercy was no better. Her breathing was still laboured, and the burning heat in her body had not subsided. Jacob slept now with his head on the edge of the bed and his body on a chair.
Isaac hadn’t slept at all. He had tended to Mercy and, along with Abby, had continuously dampened her down with iced water. He had decided to open a vein in her arm, and her blood trickled into a bowl. The medicine that Isaac had bought in England was still being poured into her mouth, tiny drops at a time from a spoon. The steaming bowl of water and eucalyptus had been constantly changed throughout the night. They could do nothing else now but wait and pray.
Hendry and Belle held each other in bed. Belle told Hendry all about the Coulters’ visit. They talked about the wedding, and both agreed that it was too late for Jacob to call it off. In four days’ time, they would all have to leave for Pinetrees for the wedding and Christmas festivities that would follow.
“How are we going to convince Jacob to go when Mercy’s lying here so ill?” Hendry asked.
Belle said, “He won’t leave her like this, and he’s still determined to call it all off.”
“Well, he can’t. It would be the end of him – of us. Some of our cargo comes from Coulter Plantation and the others around Portsmouth. We would all be ruined, not just Jacob.”
“But he loves Mercy. How can you worry about business when his happiness is at stake?” Belle said angrily.
“I know he loves her. I’ve never seen him like this with any woman. He wants to marry Mercy, but sometimes duty and honour have to come first!” Hendry said sharply. “Belle, things are not good here. There might be big changes next year in how we deal with the politics of this country. Jacob’s problems are small in comparison to what might happen in the South.”