Eve Mobley was spellbound. You are, or were, related to Wilhelmina Stone? I can’t believe it!”
Della thought it best to change the subject. “Actually, we were there when the accident happened,” she hastened to add. “We just didn’t know about the accident. It’s such a big place. And you remember how foggy it was that day, and how it got dark so early? Well, Donnie Whitefield had driven me to the side entrance of the mansion, and Addie was coming out the side door. We heard a commotion from inside the building, and I guess we should have checked to see what was going on, but I still felt so weak. All I could think about was getting home before the fog got any worse. We felt bad about it when we heard of them falling to their deaths from one of the balconies on the other side of the building.”
“It was awful,” Addie said, her head bowed.
Della put her arm around Addie as they left the table to get warmed plates for the buffet.
“This is so surprising,” Eve exclaimed as she heaped her plate with yellow scrambled eggs. “Then, that’s why you and Addie were sitting in the family section at the cemetery?”
“I suppose so,” Della said. “Actually, our family connection is through the half brother, Nickelos Dane’s father, and it’s so complicated, I don’t think even I could figure it out very well.” That ought to end that, she hoped, as she took a small bowl to fill with fresh fruit.
Seated at the table again, Evelyn Ann asked Addie, “Why aren’t you going to Florida with us?”
“Oh, I’d love to go, but I can’t right now. I have so much to do.”
“Really. Like what?” the girl asked rather snidely.
“Well, daddy reminded me recently that I had outgrown all of my clothes. He says I’m sixteen now, and should pay more attention to such things. I haven’t been shopping in so long, until yesterday. Mama and I did pick up a few things at Lilly’s. She’s having a sale, you know. And mama can’t resist a good sale – thirty-five percent off. And I promised to stay with Miss Mattie until Mr. Cutler returns from England. We don’t know how long that will be. His father is very ill. But daddy might take us when it’s warmer, and mama is feeling better.
“What’s it like, staying at Stonegate?” Eve asked with excitement.
“It’s big,” Della said. “I really haven’t had time to explore it much.” Then she had what she thought was a brilliant idea – one to top it all off. If she could stand it? “Eve,” She said, “and, Jake, after you see Evelyn Ann off, why don’t you come to Stonegate for lunch?” She turned to Mattie. “Would that be all right? I know you always cook plenty.” She would apologize to Mattie later.
“That would be fine, Della. We’re having an eye of the round roast. They’re so tender you don’t need a knife to cut them. Murcheson’s beef is the best there is – Black Angus. I know you’ll enjoy it,” she said to the Mobleys.
“You get your beef from Murcheson’s Farms?” Jake asked.
“Miss Willy wouldn’t eat any other. They raised it especially for her.”
“Wow! That would be a treat. Okay, Eve?” He looked at his wife hopefully.
The woman was sitting there like she was in shock and trying her best not to let it show. “Oh, that might be too much of an imposition,” she said weakly, but anxiously.
Now, Della thought, the shoe is most definitely on the other foot.
“Nonsense,” Mattie was saying. “It would be a pleasure. I love to cook.”
“And we’d love to have you,” Della said.
“And you know you’re dying to see Stonegate,” Jake said.
By the time all the teenagers and their luggage was loaded onto the church bus for Daytona, every parent there knew that lunch was waiting at Stonegate for Eve and Jake Mobley as guests of her dear friend, Della Martin, a relative of Wilhelmina Stone’s.
Della did apologize to Mattie as soon as they were in Mattie’s car and headed back to the mansion.
“Della, I’m glad to do it, and the roast is already baking. It will be delicious. We’ll add vegetables and potatoes, a nice salad, and rolls. And I’ll make a sumptuous dessert. I’ll do you proud. I sensed that this is important to you.”
“Thank you, Mattie.” And you can’t imagine how important. “I’ll help, and so will Addie,” Della said as quietly as possible, hoping that Addie didn’t hear and start asking questions.
But Addie had other things on her mind and was wondering if her mother would let her be gone for a little while. She asked as soon as they were inside the kitchen door. “Mama, there’s something I need to go see about, if I may? I won’t be gone more than an hour.”
“We’ll get along just fine without you,” Mattie said. “I can get along by myself, but I’m so glad you feel like helping, Della. I will enjoy your company.”
With her mother’s permission, Addie rushed to change her clothes to one of the new pant suits with a jacket, and was soon in the battered white Taurus, and headed for South Street. She was glad Della had been so occupied with her own plans that she hadn’t asked where she was going. If the key in her pocket, whose tag read ‘house, So. St.’, was her South Street house, it would make a perfect home for Donnie and his mother, Gramps too, if he wanted to move.
She thought of all the furniture and furnishings stored on the fourth floor at Stonegate – all so much like new. She and her mother could furnish them a nice home, and have a great time doing it. It just had to be the right house.
She knew about where the house was, and was sure she’d know it when she saw it. After all, her daddy said it had been boarded up. She found it in the middle of the third block on South Street. She had remembered that it was across the street from a big open field that ran clear up to the next street, with a falling down old farm house in the center of it.
The driveway to the house was two strips of old concrete placed the width of a car’s wheels from the sidewalk to a garage of sorts on the back of the lot. Addie drove up to the porch with a walkway in front of it. It was a white clapboard house, square, with a porch that ran almost all the way across the front of the house. It was an old neighborhood, but the houses all looked like they had been taken good care of. Most of them were brick, a few of gray stone, but she had seen only two or three of clapboard.
She looked it over as she walked from the car to the front door. It didn’t even need painting unless the paint had been messed up where it had been boarded up. She hurried to the door, anxious to insert the key and see if it fit. When she did, the lock turned easily. She breathed a sigh of relief as she pushed open the door and stepped into a spacious hallway. It was dark because of the boards over the windows. She flipped the light switch, grateful that the electricity was still on. She must make arrangements for it to remain on, and the telephone.
This was the house Julian Dane had moved his small family to after his wife had died giving birth to Nicholas. And where Victoria had died when she fell off the widow’s walk on the roof trying to rescue her brother. Addie knew the house well through her half sister, Vicki, even though she had never been inside it any farther than the front door. She walked through it, flipping light switches as she went. There was one good size bedroom. Donnie’s mother would like that. And the two small bedrooms could be used by Donnie since one was only big enough for a regular or, hopefully a queen size bed, plus bedside tables and perhaps a chair. Fortunately, the rooms opened into each other. No doubt they had been Nicki and Vicki’s bedrooms. The kitchen was a good size and could hold a generous size eating table in the center of it. Then there was the efficiency apartment made from the dining room and pantry, and the small side porch that had been made into a tiny kitchen.
It was all clean enough. Her daddy and Donnie had done a good job, but she wanted it spic and span and sparkling. She wondered if Wylene could help her again? The boards had to be removed from the windows. Perhaps she could get Bud to do that. She wanted the windows washed, woodwork and floors polished, the kitchen cabinets cleaned better. And it had to be done by Tuesday, and
the furniture moved in, just in case they should come home earlier than Wednesday.
She was excited about the project and hoped her mother would be also. Did she have time to go see Wylene? She wondered as she locked the door and rushed back to her car. Surely, if she hurried, she would. She wanted always to keep her promises to her mother. If Wylene was at home, she should be able to get back to Stonegate within the hour.
When she reached the Square, she could see some sort a commotion as she turned toward the slums, and just about where Wylene lived. “Now what?” she muttered. She sure hoped it had nothing to do with her trolleys. She drove to where people were gathered, parked the car on the side of the street at the fire hall, got out and walked over to the group.
There wasn’t much talking going on, and she could see someone lying on the ground in the yard of the shack next to where Wylene lived. An elderly, black man was sitting on the edge of the porch crying quietly. Old Cooter was sitting beside him and had his arm around him. Then she saw Wylene, dressed in her Sunday clothes, her Bible clutched under her arm, and leaning over her mother who was crouched beside a teenage, black boy lying on the ground. Addie peered over Mrs. Mitchell, who was brushing back the boy’s hair from his forehead.
Addie knew the boy from school. It was William Butcher. “What’s wrong with William?” she asked Wylene, who had taken her hand in a solemn greeting.
“That crazy boy tried to hang himself.”
Just then William moaned. “You had no right to stop me. I’ll be dead when he gets through with me anyhow. I can’t stand another one of his beatings,” he wailed.
Addie, as well as every other student in their high school knew about William’s beatings from the bruises, black and swollen eyes, and at times, his limping, or an arm hanging at his side. “What happened?”
“You really don’t want to know, Girlfriend.”
“Yes, I do. I want to help, if I can.”
Wylene shook her head. “Ozzie over there,” she nodded in the direction of the man sitting on the edge of the porch, “fell off the porch while William was making his breakfast. He seems to have a couple of broken ribs Aunt Ruby said. And William is sure his old man will beat him within an inch of his life. He does it often enough. He just can’t stand another beating. He tried to hang himself in that barn back there. Billy found him just as he was kicking the stool out from under himself, grabbed him and screamed until he got our attention. We were all walking home from church.”
Mrs. Mitchell was admonishing William never to even think of doing such a thing again. “I can’t stay here! I can’t stand it anymore!” William was exclaiming in anguish.
“And just where can you go? You know he’ll find you. He always does,” Mrs. Mitchell was saying.
“I don’t have any place to go. That’s why I was going to kill myself. Don’t you understand?”
Addie thought about the now vacant gatekeeper’s cottage at Stonegate. She hadn’t seen inside it, but so far as she knew, it was furnished. Old Anson had been living in it.
“I’ve got to get out of here before they get back!” the boy demanded as he sat up. “They’ll be back any minute now – just went to get beer at a place they knew would sell it to them on Sunday.”
Impulsively, Addie said, “Get your things. I’ll take you someplace he can’t find you. But hurry.” She needed to get back to Stonegate. And she sure didn’t want to meet William’s father.
William, as well as Wylene, her mother and several people standing around that Addie didn’t know, looked at her in surprise. “What are you doing here?” William asked.
“I’m taking you to a safe place, if you want to go?”
“Oh, yeah. Just where would you take me, and why would you?”
“Because you need help. I want to help you, William,” Addie said, “but where, I won’t tell you until we get there. If you don’t like it, I’ll bring you back.”
“I can’t go. I can’t leave Ozzie. I’m all he’s got. They don’t tend to him – just use his money to go drinking,” and he started crying.
“Can Ozzie get around? What kind of shape is he in?” she asked.
“He can walk with help. He stumbles a lot. He forgets he needs me to help him. Now he has broken ribs. He’ll beat me to death this time,” William cried.
“Not if he can’t find you,” Addie said. If she could hide one, she could hide two, she supposed. “Okay, get your and Ozzie’s things, but hadn’t we better hurry?”
“You mean this, Girl?”
“Yes. And my name is Addie, and you know it.”
“You’re really taking him someplace where he’ll be safe?” Mrs. Mitchell asked her.
“Yes, ma’am. I had come by to see if Wylene could help me again with a cleaning job.” She looked at Wylene. William and some men had gone inside the house to get his and Ozzie’s clothes and things. Quickly, she told Wylene what she needed done and by when. “I sure would appreciate it if you could help me again.”
“Sounds interesting. Sure, I’ll get my crew together. We could use the work and the money.”
“Thanks. I’ll be by first thing in the morning. Now I’ll need help getting Ozzie and William in the car,” she said as she saw William and two men coming toward her with their arms full of clothing and other items. “The car only opens on the driver’s side.” She explained as she pushed the button that opened the trunk on the small pad attached to her keys.
In minutes, the men had Ozzie in the back seat lying down, William in the passenger seat in front, and their possessions in the trunk. Addie assured Mrs. Mitchell again that she was taking them someplace safe and would take care of both of them. And she was off in a hurry, getting out of the neighborhood as fast as possible. She wanted away before William’s daddy returned. And, she had been gone longer than her one hour. She had to get to Stonegate. “William, why don’t you scoot down in the seat? If we should pass your daddy, he won’t see you.”
“He ain’t no kin to me,” he said as he did Addie’s bidding.
“Well, whoever he is, I don’t want him to see me taking you away.”
Making sure he was well below the window, he asked, “Where you taking us? Why you doing this? Why’d you want to help us?”
“Just because you need help. Isn’t that a good enough reason?”
“Nobody ever tried to help us before.”
“Maybe everybody is afraid of this man you say isn’t your daddy.”
“He ain’t. He’s a no good drinking bum. He married my mama when I was little. She died when I was nine, and he was stuck with me. Then he took up with this woman when I was twelve, and she brought Ozzie. He ain’t no kin to her either. I’m the one who takes care of him. Only thing they take care of is his Social Security check. When it comes, they buy him soup, some Spam, some bread and dried milk, and cereal. They spend the rest of it on beer until it runs out.”
“Does his check come to him?”
“Yeah. She makes him sign it, and she cashes it.”
“Well, if you like where I’m taking you, and you want to stay there for a while, can’t I go to the post office and get a change of address form? You can get Ozzie to sign it. Then his check will come to him at where you’re going to be staying, at least for a while.”
“I guess,” he said looking at Addie. “You mean we won’t be staying where you’re taking us for good?”
“You’ll be there for a while, I’m sure, but for how long, I don’t know. But I can always find a place for you. Just trust me.”
“I don’t get it gr – uh, Addie. Here you are driving this nice car and all dressed up. You sure you’re the same Addie Martin I know?”
“Oh, it’s me all right. There’s just been some changes in my life that allows me to help you. We’re going to Stonegate. Do you know where that is?”
“Stonegate! Of course I know where that is. What are we doing going there?”
“That’s where I’m staying right now. There is a gatekeepers cottag
e that’s vacant. I’m pretty sure it’s furnished, and probably needs a little cleaning. The gatekeeper had a stroke and went to live with his granddaughter. I’ve never been inside it, but I know one thing – you’ll be safe there. Nobody would ever look for you at Stonegate.”
“You can say that again. How come you’re staying there?”
Addie hit a rough place in the road just as she was turning into Stone Drive, and Ozzie moaned loudly. “I’m sorry, Ozzie. William, are you sure he doesn’t need to go to the clinic?”
“Naw. He’s had broken ribs before. Ain’t nothing they can do for broken ribs. There was a good size rock where he fell – must have fell on it.”
“Here we are,” she said, and she was quite late. She wished she had a cell phone. She could have called her mother to let her know she was going to be late. She stopped the car as close to the gray stone cottage as she could get. The porch stretched from the door past a window on each side. Logs of firewood were stacked along the right side of the porch. The cottage didn’t look big enough for more than one bedroom. Well, she would soon see. She got out and waited for William to get over the console. Whatever the cottage consisted of was better than they had had, and nobody could hurt him here.
She hadn’t thought about the door being locked, but it was. “I’ll have to go up to the mansion to get the key.”
“Could this be it?” William asked as he lifted a key from a nail in the doorframe.
“Surely not, but try it.”
William inserted the key and the door opened.
“That’s crazy! Why lock a door then hang the key beside it?”
“Who knows?” William said, as they walked into the living room, kitchen, and eating area of the small cottage.
Very nicely furnished, Addie thought. A sofa bed, let out, but unmade, sat between a floor lamp on its left side, and a three drawer chest on its right, against the back wall, under a window. No doubt this was where old Anson slept. A door just past the stone fireplace led to the one bedroom, also very nicely furnished, and with a double bed, made up. There was an adjoining bath with a small stack washer and dryer in one corner. A shelf above it sported an open box of laundry detergent, a box of fabric softener sheets, and a carton of light bulbs. Addie wondered if Anson had done his own laundry, or if the mother and daughter who cleaned and did laundry for Stonegate also did his cleaning and laundry? She opened the door to the linen closet next to the washer and dryer to make sure there was a supply of clean linens. There seemed to be plenty of everything.
The Daughters of Julian Dane Page 40