“Of experimental tea plants. I know.” She took a sip of her tea as she stared at Jasper.
“Oh, tell them, Miss Jenna,” Jasper said.
So Jenna gave them the skinny on all that she and Jasper had preliminarily done to begin the production of tea on the plantation.
Her parents sat in awe.
The storm continued raging outside.
“But with all that said, I need to finish the story about the river. When all the waters receded from the banks, something was left behind in the middle of the river bed.”
All but Hogan had curious looks on their faces.
Finally, her mother nearly yelled, “Jenna, tell us!”
“The Amberjack sits at the bottom in the middle of the river beyond the old dock, yards beyond the old rope swing we used to use.”
Her mother grabbed her chest and inhaled. She turned white. “Where your brother dove in that day.”
“Oh, Lawd,” Amberlee said.
“Not only does the Amberjack lie at the bottom. Fifty or more barrels lie scattered all around.”
Her father stood. “Anson,” he whispered, looking at the floor.
“What about Anson, Daddy?” Before he’d even answered, a light went off in Jenna’s head. Somehow she knew.
He drew in a long breath. “Anson hadn’t drowned, like we let everyone believe. He died of blunt force trauma to his head.”
Her mother sat silently crying.
Her father continued. “He must have hit his head on one of those casks. I’ll bet the plantation on it.” He exhaled twenty years worth of worry he’d held in his chest.
Her mother wiped at the tears.
Even rivers cannot drown secrets forever. Jenna had been lied to again. But it had been so long ago that it didn’t bruise her like it would have before. Somehow she now understood it to be the only way her parents could deal with her brother’s death. They each had their own way. But if she had known, she wouldn’t have spent the last twenty years feeling…responsible…and guilty. Even if she had been watching Anson instead of the fireflies, she couldn’t have saved him. He was dead the moment his head hit one of those barrels. Such was the fallout from lies. She should have never blamed herself…or the fireflies. She held Savannah even more tightly as the darkness and the wind outside held the house more tightly. What remained of her guilt washed away like the dock had washed away earlier.
“None of that changes the loss of that sweet boy, now.” Amberlee patted her mother on her hand. “We all done grieved all we lost in him for years. But don’t you see how it’s been fixed?” She smiled. “Miss Jenna done found what he been looking for all the time he went runnin’ around on this here land.” She nodded. “Yessir, some of what’s been lost, now’s been found.”
Jenna inhaled. Amberlee had said it with perfection. “And I can’t be certain, but it looked like something might be inside the barrels that were broken because they weren’t clear. Something amber-colored and more dense.” She looked at Amberlee. “It was too difficult to see clearly with all the mud. And we didn’t have much time.”
Huge smiles covered Jasper’s and Amberlee’s faces.
“Lawd, Lawd, them stories was all true,” Amberlee said.
“Mr. Anson looked for the treasure to save this here plantation. Miss Jenna done used her brain to save it, and she found the treasure to boot it all up. My, my, my,” Jasper said.
The winds pushed against the house. The water pushed against the roof. Trees pushed against one another and toppled over.
Jenna’s entire world was being transformed.
Chapter Nineteen
“O lands! O all so dear to me—what you are, I become part of that, whatever it is.”
~ Walt Whitman
Jenna stood at the river’s edge with Jasper. It was low tide, and the swamp log company that her friend Hanna had told her about was hard at work again, diving, securing the barrels and hoisting them up on the huge barge. Each cask they brought up was placed in the old syrup kettle she and Jasper had wrangled down to the water’s edge. They kept a fire under the old kettle to melt the rosin. Encased inside the rosin was gold and coins. Lots of it.
In one of the first casks, was a perfectly preserved metal tube, enclosed in the hardened rosin. Inside were all the important papers her seven times great Grandfather Henri had the foresight to preserve. Amongst them all was the will.
The new will had formally released the first will and that iron-clad trust that had controlled the plantation for so many years. Jenna would inherit the entire plantation, free and clear. It was hers to do with as she saw best.
She gave a copy to her new downtown Charleston lawyer, Mr. R. Lawton Halloway, IV, esquire, who, in turn, gave a copy to Mr. Slithers.
Jasper stoked the fire under the old syrup kettle. The amber-colored rosin cask in it was beginning to melt. “Everything that’s been done is now being undone,” he said. “Though he was stopped by that old storm, your Granpappy Henri started unwinding all this a long time ago.”
“That storm during the late 1700s took things, and ours gave it all back.”
He nodded in agreement. “I just wish I had me a couple of potatoes right now.”
“I do, too, Jasper. We’ve got lots of barrels of rosin now. Next time we have a barbeque, we’ll cook some in this old pot. I promise.”
He picked up the metal strainer with the long handle and lifted some of the coins from the pot, let them drain and placed them on the sheet of tin to cool. “You got enough room in that new safe you had installed?”
“I do,” she said. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable keeping all this money and gold unprotected until I can put it all in the bank.”
“Um, hum, I hate to admit it, but Amberlee was right again.”
“About what, Jasper?”
“About that old saying. ‘It was Amber that was going to save this plantation.’ We just had to look for something the color of amber, just like your brother was doing.”
The information in all the old folklore had been correct in ways that none of them had realized. They simply had to look for something ‘cold and wet,’ something ‘gold and wet,’ something tinted the color of amber. Even if the rosin casks, laden with coins, had not been found to accomplish the prediction, the tea crop would have saved their home. Both were cold and wet and gold-colored and amber-hued. Prophecy fulfilled. “The two of them were far wiser than anyone has ever given them credit for.”
He nodded his head. “Um, hum.” He let another load of coins drop onto the tin with a loud flat noise. “Did you call about them logger trucks to get all those old trees that fell during the hurricane?”
“Yes. They’re working on the east end of the property. They’re getting only the ones on the ground.”
“Too bad we lost so many during that storm.”
She nodded. “But that turned out to be a blessing, too.”
“How do you see that, Miss Jenna?”
“Well, remember what we learned about tea plants. They kind of like dappled sunshine. Now we have even more acreage to plant tea. Some of the land was useless to plant because there wasn’t enough light for the tea. Now we’ve doubled what we had.”
“The Lord has blessed us beyond all we prayed for.”
Jenna thought about that for a moment. No truer words were ever spoken. She and Hogan had had several heart-to-heart conversations in which they’d revealed all their scars, their fears and their hopes for the future. And then they made plans to be together. And plans for a family. A family. She was going to have a family of her own.
Yes, she was blessed. She would have Hogan and Savannah and her beloved plantation—forever. She also had all the money from the gold and coins in the rosin—enough to never need money ever again.
Jasper and Amberlee would have their home forever. And a new one if they wanted. And help when they needed.
Her parents would remain on the plantation, but they’d already decided they wanted to move into the
carriage house in a few months so that Jenna could take the main house when she married Hogan. It had been the way of the DeBordieus since they came from France to settle this land with the other Huguenots who came here to worship under the old, virgin oaks that shaded the Lowcountry.
“Miss Jenna, are we gonna cash in some of this money to get the equipment we need to plant and harvest?”
“No need to do that, Jasper. We have all the money from the timber that fell during the storm. Though I’d rather have the trees back, we’ll have quite the fortune from the timber sales.”
“This plantation is going to be sustainable until the end of days by means of the tea we’re going to plant in the early spring—as long as there’s a South and people drink sweet iced tea, the future of this plantation is going to be fine.”
“And what about the other money, Miss Jenna? Didn’t I tell you if we found all that money we’d be richer than the King of France?”
“You did and you were right. I want to make some improvements on the land.” She took his weathered hand in hers. “I’d like to build you and Amberlee a new house.”
He drew in a deep breath. “Awww, honey, I think you already know what that stubborn old woman is going to say about that. She didn’t even see the need for new china all those years ago. You think she’s gonna move into a new home she’s not used to in her old age?”
“Well, I have to do something for you guys. At least let me fix up the cabin a little more.”
“You know you’ll have to talk to the boss about that. Amberlee likes things the way they are. It’s our home. Where we’re comfortable.”
She understood. Even with all the money that her Great Grandfather Henri from seven generations before had seen fit to store away for the family, there was little that was going to change on the plantation, except for the new family that was about to take over the main house. The biggest change for everyone was the freedom from control that her ancestor had secretly bestowed in the lost will at the end of his life so long ago. She was going to see to it that that freedom would be secured through the ages for future DeBordieus to own and run the plantation as they wished.
“What else do we need to do, Miss Jenna?” he asked.
She looked around. “Do you feel like helping me move some of this debris out the way? The guys are coming in the morning to put in the new dock.”
Jenna and Jasper worked in unison to accomplish yet another task on the grand plantation.
She lifted her head up to find a car inching down the road.
“Miss Jenna, I ain’t never seen a car like that. What is it?”
“That, Jasper, is a Morgan. I only know because my father has had his eye on getting one for the last twenty years. My fancy Broad Street lawyer drives it.” She put down her rake. “Wonder what he wants?”
He brought the silver roadster to a stop just before them and got out. He was the real deal and would make Charlton Smithers quake in his Alan Payne oxford shoes. He stepped out in his crisply starched shirt and bowtie and coughed in all the dust that hung in the air. In the most proper of Charleston accents, he said, “Jenna, dear, you simply must get that road of yours paved and bring it into the twenty-first century.”
Not on her life would she ever, but she said, “I’ll have to look into that, Mr. Halloway. How may I help you today?”
“I have some papers on which I need your signature, and I am personally going to hand these over to that Smithers man at his firm.”
“What’s wrong? Are you having trouble with them?”
He straightened his back. “Let’s just say…they are of dubious intentions and questionable intellect.” A look of smug superiority covered his face.
Jenna had learned first-hand about the dubious intentions, but questionable intellect, too? It was almost too much. Mr. Smithers had it coming, though. She knew he’d not been impartial when it came to her and her cousin.
“Everything I fax over they seem to lose and are—in effect—delaying our process.” He handed her a portfolio. “Sign at all the Sticky-tabs.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” She signed where he pointed.
“Absolutely not, dear child. This is the very reason you hired me. I’m about to give him the Broad Street treatment. He’s on my radar now for fast-tracking since he isn’t being cooperative.” He looked at the papers to make sure they’d all been signed properly. “I have quite a lot to do to dismantle that trust and unbind all that the old will had bound and tied. I’m going to transfer it all into the new trust that’s been set up—just as you’ve requested.”
“Thank you for taking care of our little Jenna here,” Jasper said.
“Oh, my. This young lady is perfectly capable of taking care of herself. I’ve seen what she has planned for this exceptional piece of property—caring for this land and making the plantation permanently sustainable—not to mention the way she’s handling the money she’s recovering from her family’s fortune,” Mr. Halloway said. “Oh, and just to make sure we’ve been dealt with properly, I’m having an audit done of all the transactions concerning your family’s trust—for thirty years back. Smithers isn’t very happy.”
“Thank you for being so meticulous,” she said.
“It’s what you’re paying me for, my dear. Now, I must be off.” He slid into the antique car, turned around and meandered away in a cloud of dust.
“I guess we’d better finish picking up for the construction crew that’s coming tomorrow.”
“Guess we’d better,” Jasper said.
When they finished the clean up, she brushed her hands together. “Well, I’m heading out to the farm this evening.”
“When will you be back?” he asked.
“I’ll come back every other day or so to check on things, but you’re in charge while I’m gone. I’m counting on you.”
“Honey, I ain’t never let you down.”
She nodded. “I know. I’ll be spending a lot of time there helping Savannah—until I move back here permanently. That little girl needs me. More than anything else, I have to catch her up because she’s missed so much with her revolving door of teachers and tutors.”
This was going to be the beginning of a totally new life for Jenna—not filled with things to keep her busy, but filled with things that would keep her…fulfilled.
⸙
The front door creaked. And then Hogan heard a knock.
“Hogan?” a soft voice called out.
It was Jenna.
Savannah looked about the room. There wasn’t even a bell that triggered her presence. It had been Jenna’s voice. Shut my mouth.
“Jenna, we’re in the dining room.” He turned in his seat, his hip aching just a little. He was nearly healed now. He closed the Llama, Llama Misses Mama book he’d been reading to his little girl. The books had become her new favorites. There was an entire series, but the ones that centered on the llama’s mama were her preferences.
Savannah dropped her dolly, took off toward Jenna and hugged her hard around the knees.
Jenna bent down and Savannah leaned onto her shoulder and brushed Jenna’s hair with her hand.
Jenna picked up the little girl and sat down, placing Savannah in her lap.
Hogan’s heart was bursting. “Jenna, she heard you when you called out at the front door. Can you believe that?”
She smiled and nodded. “I can. She’s making amazing improvements.” She stroked Savannah’s hair.
Hogan thought for a moment. “A doctor once told me that if we got her the right type of care, we could possibly see a turn at this age. And if we didn’t…” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “You came to us when it mattered most.”
“Our next project is to work on making sounds.” She leaned down to speak to Savannah. “Isn’t that right, sweetie?”
Savannah looked up at her.
His heart melted.
All that he thought that Jenna could be for them, she was…and more.
Je
nna smiled. “So how was your day?”
“Unremarkable. A little more physical therapy. I worked on some contracts and quarterly taxes for the farm. I read to Savannah, like you asked.”
“Good.”
“When anyone came to the door, she went to her princess fort.”
“That’s okay. It makes her feel safe. She feels in control there.”
“And what about you. You’re the one living the exciting life right now. Tell me about your day.”
“Well, it started off with another TV interview. With me and Jasper and the Swamp Log guys who are bringing up the rosin-filled casks for us.”
He raised his eyebrows. “So how much did you bring up today?”
She smiled. “More than the King of France had back in the day. You should have seen the coins and the gold when Jasper and I melted away all the rosin. I’m going to need all your financial expertise to handle the fortune.”
“Not a problem. Running the numbers is as easy as…owning land.”
“Well, I’m finding that a little time consuming actually. My lawyer is checking into all the legalities. He is awesome.”
“Well, I’ll be by your side to make it a little easier, too.”
“You’d better. I have a lot of plans for this little girl, and I need the time to accomplish everything I’ve planned for her.” She kissed Savannah on the top of her head.
His heart seemed to melt like the rosin she’d described. All that was left was golden pieces of love for the two right next to him.
“What’s going on with the damage and the cleanup?”
“Ah, those details.” Humph. She explained everything.
“So did you bring the rest of your stuff?”
She nodded. “All that I need for now. I’ve got some things that I’ll take over to the main house—for when—for when we move into it. It’ll take Momma and Daddy a while to sort through all they’ll want to bring to the carriage house. I wanted to clear out as much as possible to make their transition easier.”
He couldn’t wait.
She crooked her pretty head. “Are you still okay with leaving this and living on DeBordieu Plantation?”
Fireflies and Lies (A Summerbrook Novel Book 4) Page 27