Leigh wiped her eyes, nodding again. “Would you do something for me, Jolie?”
“Sure, honey.”
“Get the key from my desk, and open that bottom drawer, please,” she told her, waiting patiently while Jolie found the key then unlocked the bottom drawer. “Please take out that sewing kit. You know the one. It was Mama’s.”
Carefully, with great reverence, Jolie lifted the box covered in fine needlepoint from the drawer and carried it over to the bed. “I always loved this box,” Jolie murmured, her thin hands holding it close.
“I know, and that is why I want you to have it.”
Jolie glanced up in surprise, her yellow eyes wide. “Me? You want me to have it?”
“Mama would have.”
“Oh, honey, I couldn’t,” she said, but her hand was touching it lovingly.
“Her favorite porcelain thimble and pin cushion, and the pair of silver scissors are inside, and even more importantly, the keys to the linen closets, the pantry, the cellar, and the front door of the house. You and Lys Helene should have them now. I won’t need them any longer,” Leigh said, staring down at her wedding ring. “They couldn’t be in better hands.”
“Oh, lil’ honey,” she cried, hugging Leigh again and nearly knocking over the tray. “I gotta go put this where it’ll be safe. You finish yer breakfast now, an’ I don’t want to see anything but the plate left,” Jolie said, hurrying from the room.
Leaning back against the pillows, Leigh sighed with both happiness and sadness. She would miss Jolie and Stephen, but they belonged in Virginia, at Travers Hill, the same as Guy and Althea. Leigh heard the chattering of the maids outside her door and threw back the covers. She bit her lip, trying to stop its trembling as she walked to the wardrobe and found her wrapper, and she was surprised at how tender her lips were, then she remembered Neil’s kisses. As she pulled on her wrapper, she felt the soreness in her breasts, and glancing down she could see the pale bluish bruises on her hips, where his hands had held her against him when they had made love.
Leigh walked over to the cradle, where Lucinda was playing contentedly with her rattle. Leigh stared down at her, touching the sweet curve of head, then tickling her tummy as Lucinda laughed up into her face, her hand grabbing hold of Leigh’s finger and tugging on it. Leigh placed her other hand against her own belly, wondering if she had conceived, and she prayed she had. She wanted more than anything else in this world to know the feel of Neil’s child within her.
Leigh closed her eyes with the memory of their lovemaking, shivering delicately with the sensations it brought with it, her cheeks flushed with heat. The blue of Leigh’s eyes was darkened with shadow when she opened them, for there was only one thing missing from her happiness and contentment—Neil had never said he loved her.
But one day—one day he would, Leigh vowed. An hour later, dressed in her riding habit, Leigh was walking along the corridor, her spirits high.
“Leigh!” Guy called out to her, seeing her from where he was sitting in the courtyard admiring the colorful blooms. “I always knew Lys Helene loved to garden, but I had no idea how beautiful her garden was until now. I can see the tradition of Travers Hill will continue once Lys Helene gets her hands into Travers earth. Mother will always be with us now, never forgotten,” he said, thinking of the gardens that would once again bloom with fragrant life at Travers Hill, and he was suddenly anxious to see the pastures of bluegrass with the curve of river in the distance. He stared up at the brilliant blue sky overhead never having known such happiness to open his eyes after a night’s rest and see the sky through the window, for he had not drawn the hangings last night, not wanting to be enclosed in darkness. “I cannot seem to get enough of this color,” he said, laughing as Leigh sat down next to him on the bench. “Nathaniel has given me his permission to marry Lys Helene,” Guy confided, his joy knowing no bounds this day.
“I’m so pleased, but I’m not surprised,” Leigh told him, touching his hand. “I always knew you and Lys Helene should be together. I couldn’t be any happier for you than I am. Lys Helene belongs at Travers Hill. Even though she has never seen Travers Hill, she loves it as if she’d been born there.”
Guy grinned, grasping her hand tightly, then his smile faded. “Leigh,” he began uncertainly, “have you, ah…have you spoken with Jolie?” he asked hesitantly.
Leigh knew what he was trying to say, and nodded. “Jolie told me she and Stephen will be returning to Virginia with you,” Leigh said huskily.
Guy sighed, placing his hand on her slender shoulder comfortingly. “Leigh, I’m sorry. I wish it didn’t have to be this way. It’s going to be hard on you. I know you love them as much as I. It must seem with Althea and me leaving, and now Jolie and Stephen, that we are abandoning you. But it means so much to me, Leigh, to have Stephen and Jolie coming home with us. Travers Hill wouldn’t be Travers Hill without them. And they come there of their own free will this time,” he added softly.
Leigh nodded. “I know, Guy. And I also knew when I married Neil that my life would be here, not at Travers Hill. I have accepted it, as you advised me to do,” she told him, smiling, but her smile was slightly wobbly, because even if she’d accepted what must be, she would still miss them.
“I would not leave you here, Leigh, be assured of that,” Guy told her, tipping her chin so he could see into her face, “if I thought you would be unhappy with Neil. Tell me now, Leigh, that you want to return to Virginia with us, and you will. No one can keep you here against your will. I am your brother, and now that I’ve regained my sight, I can care for you, and for Lucinda. I will fight Braedon in the courts for custody of her, if you tell me that is what you wish,” Guy told her without hesitation, staring deeply into her eyes as he searched for the truth.
Leigh took his hand in hers and kissed his cheek. “Thank you. That means a great deal to me, and I know you would never abandon me. But I know that I belong here, the same as you and Lys Helene, and Althea and her children belong in Virginia. This has been my destiny all along,” Leigh said, suddenly believing Jolie’s words.
“You do love Neil, don’t you?”
“Yes, with all my heart,” Leigh replied, getting up. “Well, I’m going riding. We’ll have to find a horse for you now, Guy. Hope you haven’t forgotten how to ride,” she told him, eyeing him speculatively.
Guy laughed, then suddenly sobered, calling her back as she started to walk away. “Oh, Leigh, I almost forgot. I know who your mysterious reb is.”
Leigh came hurrying back. “Who he is? What do you mean? His name is Michael Sebastian, isn’t it?”
“To you, maybe, but the man I saw last night is none other than Michael Sebastian Stanfield. You were right about him. He is a Virginian, and he was in my regiment. I would have had a word with him then, but he disappeared. I saw him dancing, but that was when I crossed the floor to you, and after all the excitement, he was gone.”
“Michael Stanfield? Why lie about his name?” Leigh asked, a thoughtful expression on her face as she tapped her riding gloves against her skirt.
“I’m not certain, although I have an idea. You won’t like it. I meant to tell you last night about Stanfield, but in all the excitement I forgot, then I couldn’t find you,” he said. “But I hadn’t remembered everything about the man then anyway, just that his last name wasn’t Sebastian. I couldn’t sleep last night, too much to think about, and as I lay awake, I remembered what it was about Stanfield that had bothered me.”
“What?”
“He had a brother. An older brother. A Major Montgomery Stanfield. I met him several times when he came to our regimental headquarters from his department to visit his brother. Major Stanfield was the commanding officer of the troop guarding that shipment of gold bullion that was robbed near Gordonsville just before we left Virginia. Remember? The newspapers said it was Captain Dagger who robbed the train and massacred those unarmed soldiers. And remember that Confederate troop that was scouring the countryside for Captain Da
gger because of that incident?”
Leigh lost all of the color in her face, her blue eyes darkening into indigo with the fear she could feel sneaking up her spine. “But it wasn’t true. Neil and his men didn’t rob that train and kill those men. You know that.”
“You and I know that, but most people don’t,” Guy reminded her. “When you have someone who becomes as legendary as Captain Dagger, instilling fear in the hearts of already frightened people, every act of violence is attributed to that mythical figure. It is far easier for them to accept Captain Dagger’s almost supernatural feats than to think there might be another murdering raider roaming their lands. That would be too much to bear.”
“Do you think this Stanfield knows Neil was Captain Dagger during the war?” Leigh asked, remembering Neil’s words that for some, the war would never be over.
“Well, it is mighty odd, Stanfield showing up here. Of all the places he could drift to after the war, this is the last place I would have thought, unless he had a reason for coming here. And he lied about his name. Why the devil didn’t he introduce himself to me? He knew me. But, if he somehow found Captain Dagger’s true identity, which he might have been able to, and believing he killed his brother, tracked him down here, then…” Guy said, his words hanging in the silence that suddenly fell between them.
“Tracked him down?” Leigh repeated the phrase. “Tracked him down like an animal he was out to trap and kill?”
Guy met her worried glance. “Stanfield is a gentleman, Leigh,” he said. “He’s one of the Stanfields of Virginia. He may mistakenly hold Neil responsible for his brother’s death, but I don’t think he will do anything more than confront him, perhaps try to bring him to justice, or…”
“Or…?”
“Or maybe call the man out,” Guy said almost in embarrassment as he remembered another hotheaded Virginian who’d done much the same thing. “He is a gentleman, Leigh,” he said again, for he supposed that still meant something in this world. “He won’t shoot Neil in the back,” he added, only making matters worse as he got quickly to his feet, wishing he’d said nothing to her before he could have had a word with Stanfield. They could have settled it between them without Leigh ever having known. But now, as he saw the expression on her lovely face, he believed her when she said she loved Neil with all her heart, because she looked terrified.
“I have to find Neil and tell him about this man Stanfield. He has to be warned,” Leigh said, already hurrying from the courtyard.
“Neil’s already gone, Leigh,” Guy called after her.
“Where?” she asked, damning herself for having slept so late.
“I don’t know, out somewhere on the property. I’ll try to find Stanfield,” Guy told her, hoping she wouldn’t do anything rash as he tried to catch up with her.
But Leigh was beyond listening as she hurried along the corridor, stopping briefly to look in Nathaniel’s study as Guy hurried to the big hall, where he’d heard voices. Someone might know where Neil had gone.
The study empty, Leigh hurried on and found Guy in the big hall speaking with Solange, who was writing a letter as she talked with Camilla.
“What is it?” Leigh demanded, seeing the look on Guy’s face.
“I don’t know why you’re so upset,” Solange said, staring up at Guy in dismay.
“Solange just told me that Michael Sebastian couldn’t come to her studio today to view her paintings because he was riding out with Neil to move a tree that fell across the creek during one of the last storms this winter. It’s damming up the water,” Guy said, glancing around almost helplessly as he stared at the whispering aunts, their furtive glances making him nervous.
“The tree fell during one of the winter storms, but it wasn’t causing any trouble until recently, when the snows started to melt, and then it caused the stream to become only a trickle. Nathaniel saw it the other day when he was out riding beyond the north pasture and he gave orders for it to be chopped up. Neil offered to do it,” Camilla told them, thinking nothing of it as she went back to her perusal of a fashion magazine.
“My God, I don’t even know where the north pasture is,” Guy said in growing frustration, beginning to worry that Michael Sebastian Stanfield might not still be a gentleman.
“I know where it is,” Leigh said, her steps carrying her quickly from the room. She reached Nathaniel’s empty study, walking without hesitation to the gun cabinet in the corner, knowing what she must do. She tried to pull the glass doors open, but they were locked. Glancing around, Leigh grabbed one of the brass fireplace tools, raising the poker and breaking the glass as she wedged the pointed end between the two locked panels and, with a splintering of fine wood, broke the lock in two.
Reaching in, Leigh grasped a rifle, then fumbled through the drawers beneath to find the shells. Dropping a couple of the metal cylinders, she finally loaded the rifle, then hurried from the room, meeting Guy in the corridor, but she brushed past him.
“Leigh! My God, Leigh, what are you going to do?” he demanded, unable to believe his eyes, and remembering the reb deserters she’d shot, he almost wished now he couldn’t see as he watched her running down the corridor with that rifle, unmindful of him as she disappeared out the door.
“Damn!” he swore beneath his breath, continuing after her and wondering what he could do. Not only did he not know where the north pasture was, he didn’t even have a horse to ride to the north pasture if he did.
Leigh reached the stables, not bothering to get a stable boy to help saddle Capitaine. She had to disappoint him when she entered his stall and he greeted her with a welcoming snort, for she had no apple for him this time. Patting his rump, she led him from the stall, quickly putting his bridle on and saddling him, then adding the leather holster for the rifle, something she seldom rode with. Leading him to the mounting block, she was up and heading out of the stables within ten minutes of entering, Capitaine’s hooves sending up dust as she rode across the rancho yard, not even seeing Guy running across the yard behind her, but Nathaniel did as he came riding from the opposite direction. He stopped just long enough to hear what Guy had to tell him, then he was riding after Leigh, the big bay traveling quickly across the grassland and through the streambed until Nathaniel caught sight of her disappearing into the woods.
Leigh paused on the soft bank overlooking the small lake that had formed where the pine tree had fallen across the streambed. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw Neil stretched out on the ground beside the fallen log, Michael Stanfield standing over his body, an ax raised high above his head—and held ready to swing down on Neil’s unsuspecting back.
Leigh could already envision the blood pouring from Neil’s back, cleaved in two by the blade of the ax, and she drew the rifle from the holster, raising it and holding it steady as she took aim on Michael Stanfield’s head.
But before Leigh could pull the trigger, her forefinger just touching it, a roar split through the quiet, and Leigh fought to keep her seat, hold on to the rifle, and control a frightened Capitaine. Glancing around in surprise, Leigh saw Nathaniel sitting astride his horse in the stream below. Knowing Royal Rivers better than she, he’d taken a different, quicker trail along the streambed, where only a ribbon of water remained, and she’d never even heard his approach.
Leigh sent Capitaine down the slope, riding toward Neil and his would-be murderer, Michael Stanfield, both of whom were standing in amazed silence as they watched Nathaniel and his daughter-in-law come riding up, their horses lathering.
Michael Stanfield stared down at the ax handle, the blade having been blown clean off before he could swing it down.
“Neil!” Leigh cried out, hopping down with her rifle, and running toward him. “He was going to murder you!” Her voice came hoarsely as she swung the loaded rifle at a startled Michael Stanfield.
“He’s not Michael Sebastian,” Leigh began, looking surprised when Neil took the rifle from her and pointed it away from Stanfield’s stomach. “His name i
s really Michael Stanfield, and he knows you were the Union raider Captain Dagger. He believes you murdered his brother, who was guarding a shipment of gold bullion he thinks you stole, and he has come here to Royal Rivers to get revenge,” Leigh said, her story tumbling out breathlessly.
Nathaniel sat his big bay easily, his rifle held casually across his knee as he listened, his pale gray eyes never leaving Stanfield.
“So Guy Travers did recognize me,” Michael Sebastian Stanfield said, glancing over at Neil with an almost comical expression on his face.
“Leigh, Michael Sebastian Stanfield rode with me from Washington. I’ve known all along who he is,” Neil said, staring at Leigh as intently as his father had been staring at Stanfield. “He did indeed come here to find the man who murdered his brother, Major Montgomery Stanfield, and stole that Confederate gold, but he came as an agent of the federal government. Do you still have that photograph?” Neil asked, trying to hide his smile at Leigh’s crestfallen expression.
Stanfield pulled a faded, dog-eared photograph from his pocket, handing it to Neil, who handed it to Leigh. “The man second from the right is one of the men who murdered my brother.”
Leigh stared at the photograph of about ten men in Confederate uniforms, their grinning faces smiling back at her, and she glanced up in surprise. “That’s Courtney Boyce.”
“When he was a member of my brother’s troop, his name was Clifton Butts. He was the only survivor of the massacre. He was the eyewitness who identified Captain Dagger as the raider. A couple of months after that, he disappeared mysteriously. I wanted to know why my brother was shot down in cold blood. Even though I was a reb, and had read about the exploits of Captain Dagger, I had never heard of him having committed such a heinous crime. He was no Quantrill. So I started investigating. I discovered there had been a number of robberies. And all very successfully executed. Not only had gold bullion been stolen, but guns and ammunition too. And all attributed to Captain Dagger. The only problem was that even Captain Dagger did not ride a horse with wings, and he could not be in two places at once, which it would have required for him to have been responsible for half of those robberies reported. The only man I could talk to, to confirm what he’d claimed, had disappeared. I started to look for the man, and my search kept coming back to one man, an Alfonso Jacobs. He was some official with the Treasury Department. This Alfonso Jacobs and Clifton Butts, if they worked together, would have had the information necessary for planning these robberies. I ran into a dead end with Clifton Butts, so I tried to find out all I could about this Alfonso Jacobs, and the more I dug, the more concerned I became. He was a wealthy rancher in the territories, with a Spanish wife and close ties to Mexico, and he was a rabid Confederate sympathizer. He, also, disappeared shortly after the last robbery. The more I discovered about the man, I began to suspect that he was the mastermind behind the robberies, and that he might have aspirations to form his own republic in the territories after the South fell. He could not have been in a better position. He had guns and ammunition, gold to fund his ambitions, and the federal authorities would be busy fighting the last of the Confederate army that refused to surrender. I felt as if I could read this Alfonso Jacobs’s mind. He had himself an empire out here in the territories. And he could very easily, after the last of the rebs were dealt with, stir up a problem with the Indians,” Stanfield told them, his voice coming evenly, convincingly as he spoke. “I took my suspicions to Washington, to the federal authorities. Although I was the enemy, I had a brother who was dead, murdered, and I told them I knew it was not their infamous Captain Dagger who committed the crime. I told them I thought I knew who was behind those acts against the Confederacy, and what would soon become acts of treason against the Union, and they listened. It didn’t hurt that I had friends at staff headquarters who could vouch for me. I had nothing to gain, except bring to justice the men who’d murdered my brother, and the Union had much to lose if they didn’t stop this new rebellion before it spread.”
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