We were all so excited about the trip to Charlotte we began making plans immediately. None of us could talk about anything else. Papa even said he knew of a hotel where he had stayed a few times that allowed colored folks inside that he would take us to, and where we would eat dinner in a fancy restaurant and even spend the night. I couldn't imagine that anything could sound more exciting!
And it was too. We had the time of our lives!
The morning after we returned from Charlotte six days later, Katie was up early preparing to go to town. She'd convinced Papa that his going would only raise more unwanted questions than if she went herself. But we did ask Jeremiah to come out and ride in with her. She didn't want to go all that way to the bank alone carrying over three hundred dollars in cash money.
As soon as the buggy was out of sight, Papa left the yard where we had been standing watching them go. He walked out past the barn, then toward the field where we had planted the cotton. He walked slowly, like he was looking at everything for the first time. He looked so different in his new work clothes.
I watched him as he stooped down in the middle of the dirt to examine the tiny little shoots of green that were just starting to pop through the soil.
It was wonderful to see. It was indeed like watching a new beginning, just like he'd said-a new beginning inside a person.
After about a minute I walked after him. He heard me coming, stopped and waited, then stretched out his arm and pulled me to his side as we continued on.
"Well, Mary Ann," he said, "I think it's time you show me around this place so that as soon as Kathleen gets back we can decide what's to be done."
Katie did get back several hours later, laughing and happy and with stories to tell about Mr. Taylor's surprise when she'd plopped that three hundred and fifty dollars down on his desk-in cash this time!-and all the questions he'd asked. By then Papa and I had walked around Rosewood, as much as he could, and I'd had the chance to say a lot of the things I wanted to say to him. I was happy too, though in a different way than Katie.
We both had been given back something we'd thought we'd lost.
She had her plantation. But I had been given back something even better.
I had my father.
HORSEMAN ENTERED GREENS CROSSING, North Carolina, early in the year 1867 carrying legal documents that he hoped would establish his claim to one of the large nearby plantations.
The meeting several months before at a Charlotte garden party had been as accidental as it had been, in the rider's view, fortuitous.
Marvin Taylor had been but a passing acquaintance when he was just getting started in the financial business years before. That had been long before the war. From a prominent Charlotte family, he and Taylor were of similar age and their paths had crossed on several occasions. He had not thought of Taylor in years and had had no idea that he was now managing the bank of the small town near where his brother lived some twenty miles northeast of the city.
Then they chanced to meet at the garden party, had shared a mint julep or two followed by a glass of bourbon. Gradually the talk between them had turned in the direction of their mutual acquaintance. That's when the conversation had become interesting.
The man's name was Burchard Clairborne. His first stop would be at the bank.
Watch for volume four Of SHENANDOAH SISTERS
Together Is All We Need
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Table of Contents
1. WHAT WE'RE DOING HERE
2. THE STRANGER WHO WASN'T A STRANGER
3. OUR SECRET IS OUT
4. TEMPLETON DANIELS 7
5. UNSOUGHT MEMORIES
6. A VISITOR FROM TOWN
7. THE STORM
8. FLOOD
9. DOVER AND RED
10. HENRY
It. THE SUN AGAIN
12. LOOKING AHEAD
13. A VISIT AND AN ATTACK
14. THE WINTER PASSES
15. OVERHEARD PLANS
16. TEMPORARY BOARDER AT ROSEWOOD
17. THE MEN
18. A TALK WITH HENRY
19. KATIE GETS DESPERATE
20. SURPRISE VISITOR
21. A CONVERSATION I'I) NEVER FORGET
22. THE SHOCK OF MY LIFE
23. ANGER, TEARS, AND SILENCE
24. LOOKING INSIDE
25. EMMA AND ALETA
26. THE HEAVY LANTERN
27. MR. TAYLOR'S EYES POP OUT
28. HOME AND NEW QUESTIONS
29. THE MAN WITH THE FUNNY NAME
30. THE SUSPICIOUS LEROY SNEED
31. MRS. CLAIRBORNE
32. KATIE AND MR. TAYLOR
33. HENRY'S EARS PERK UP
34. FORGIVENESS
35. No AIN'T No ANSWER
36. WHAT TO Do
37. THE CLOCK TICKS DOWN
38. A WELCOME SURPRISE
39. SHOOTOUT
40. VENGEANCE COMES TO ROSEWOOD
41. AFTERMATH OF DEATH
42. WORDS OF LOVE
43. THE OPERATION
44. THE VIGIL
45. CRYING OUT TO GOD
46. A NEW BEGINNING
EPILOGUE
The Color of Your Skin Ain't the Color of Your Heart Page 21