THE VISITOR - COLORADO
Part III – 1869-1871
Barbara Cope Svetlick
BOOKS OF THE VISITOR SERIES:
Book I – The Visitor 1862
Book II – The Visitor – Texas 1863 – 1869
Book III – The Visitor – Colorado 1869 – 1871
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and publisher of this book.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s great imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, business establishments or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Copyright @ 2013 by Barbara Cope Svetlick
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Dedication
To those who have given me their time to read this story.
PRELUDE
“The state was named for the Colorado River, which early Spanish explorers named the Río Colorado for the red colored silt the river carried from the mountains. On August 1, 1876, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed a proclamation admitting Colorado as the 38th state.”
Mirisa finds some decisions you make in life carry a heavier burden than others as she retreats to the Plantation with her young son, Matthew, and pregnant with twins in hopes of keeping her life from falling apart.
Seven years of marriage to Dominic has taken their toll on her ability to accept that a man’s world is something that gentile women are rarely given access to but which she walks like a ghost in some distant memory. Her love and friendship wraps around all four men as her growing unhappiness with the isolation of being the only woman on the ranch explodes into a quiet rebellion that she doesn’t understand and has trouble controlling.
At odds with normal life, the decision to move further west to the Colorado territory creates the catalyst that changes Mirisa’s life forever as she seeks to balance her love of the beautiful dangerous country along the Rocky Mountains with the proper and equally dangerous life of the affluent society of New York City.
THE CHARACTERS OF BOOK I, II and III
The Visitor is a series that takes you through the life of Mirisa Eppes from the age of sixteen until the end of her life. The story begins at the beginning of the Civil War when her father sends her to his birth home of Natchez, Mississippi, as the Eppes family is torn apart by the events of the war. Dr. Eppes hires Dominic Lanfear to protect his daughter until the war is over not realizing that he has changed his daughter’s life forever.
EPPES FAMILY
Dr. Richard Eppes is a country physician and a Virginia plantation owner. He was born in Natchez and raised by his grandmother, a descendant of the Choctaw nation. After completing medical training, he marries a wealthy young woman who borders on frequent and uncontrollable bouts of mental illness. They settle in Virginia where they have seven sons before the birth of their youngest and only daughter, Mirisa.
Lenora Eppes met Dr. Richard Eppes while institutionalized due to severe bouts of psychological instability. He marries her believing he can cure her illness but despite his efforts over the years she continues to worsen as she ages. Her antics have a dramatic effect on her only daughter Mirisa.
Jed, Jes and Gus, are triplets born a few years before Mirisa. They are still living at home when the war starts and take up arms with their father for the South.
Mirisa Eppes is a young, ideological girl who is raised encircled by rambunctious brothers and without the guidance of a loving mother or any female companionship. She knows nothing of love and less of life. Trusting and lonely, Mirisa spends her life trying to create the perfect family while struggling with her love for the men who capture her heart.
LANFEAR FAMILY
Conrad Lanfear was born in the 1700s and lived on the family plantation until he was sixteen when he takes up with a maiden, Algonquin, from the Natchez tribe. Conrad is a hired gun who rides with Algonquin's brother, Sequasi. For over a hundred years, Conrad has been waiting for Mirisa to step across the threshold of the Lanfear Plantation. Conrad is waiting when Mirisa steps out of the carriage on that stormy night and will slowly consume her until she can no longer tell reality from her haunted dreams.
Dominic Lanfear is a descendant of the Lanfear family, one of Conrad’s descendants. He inherits the Natchez plantation and continues the family business of growing and trading indigo, tobacco and cotton. The Lanfear family has been beset with tragedy after tragedy since a curse beset the family in the 1700s following the war between the Natchez Indians and Conrad’s family. Dominic’s mother died at his birth, leaving him to be raised by a grieving and angry father who ruled with beatings and heavy drinking. When he was old enough, he left home and enrolled at VMI and began a military career that kept him away from home until his father’s death leaving all his holdings to Dominic. Like Conrad, Dominic's life is one of a mercenary with a cold hearted belief that killing is a necessary part of life.
Dog Moon, Chief of the Choctaw Nation, is the great-grandson of Conrad and Algonquin who seeks to bring wholeness to his people. The visions of Mirisa become stronger after Conrad brings him into the circle forever connecting Dog Moon with Mirisa and her children.
DOMINIC LANFEAR’S CLOSEST FRIENDS
The four young men become close friends while attending Virginia Military Institute before a stint in the Army stationed around Fort Lared along the Pawnee Fork and Arkansas River protecting and guarding traffic along the Santa Fe Trail. All four decommissioned before the start of the war and worked underground for the South while placating the Northern Army. Their thirst for life and adventure bonds them through good times as well as bad.
Garnett Alexander is a criminal lawyer whose practice takes him up and down the Mississippi River. He was raised in Vicksburg, Mississippi and practiced the circuit down to New Orleans. Despite having a normal upbringing, he is beset with demons that struggle with his constant attempts to find happiness in his life knowing that it may never come to him. He is a cold and sadistic killer.
James Alcorn, a banker and financial investor, has a natural talent to amass fortunes through investments. He was born in New York but raised in Natchez and spent most of his childhood as a close friend to Dominic. Intelligent and compassionate, his ability to kill is instinctual and his passion for life encompasses everything he does.
Alexander Meeks is an independently wealthy entrepreneur. Born in New York City, Meeks took up with them at VMI forming a lifelong friendship with James. His upbringing has created a wall where he refuses to candy coat reality and refuses to let out his emotions. His ability to take a life is calculating but he takes no enjoyment in doing so finding it to be only a necessity.
NEIGHBORS
The Ross Family lives in the house next to the Lanfear Plantation in Natchez. Tom Ross is the father of eight children and a very robust wife. An independently wealthy gentleman from Missouri, he seeks a purpose in life when he moves to Texas with his three oldest sons to become a cattle rancher.
Charlotte Ross becomes the first close friend of Mirisa after she moves to the Plantation. She marries Thomas Riddle who served under Dominic during the war and owns the General Store in Natchez.
Alexander Taylor served under Dominic Lanfear during the years leading up to the war. After settling in Natchez, he marries and starts raising a family whi
le working as a master carpenter. He spends half his time in Natchez and half of his time in Texas living on the Ross Ranch and building homes for the growing community.
PLANTATION EMPLOYEES:
Mrs. Chauvin is the housekeeper at the Lanfear Plantation. She is a powerful root woman and guide to the other world and her employment at the plantation was not by accident.
Jasmine is Mirisa’s personal maid and closest confidant is a Choctaw Indian. Like Mrs. Chauvin, Jasmine is at the Plantation for the sole purpose of protecting Mirisa as she is taken into the other world by Conrad.
Miss Minnie has run the Plantation kitchen since before Dominic was born. She was raised in the bayou by her grandmother and works with the many powerful concoctions and herbs to heal both the soul and the inflicted. She works in the darkest of magic known only by the mystical people of the bayou.
Simone appears in the form of a housecat at the Plantation. His soul is unable to ever leave the grounds for it is his destiny to protect the portal to Conrad’s world but his attachment to Mirisa is unbreakable.
Dog a wild Texas coyote latches onto Mirisa as a protector of her and the children.
BOOK III NEW CHARACTERS
Charisse and Jack Casper – Sister and Brother in Law of Alexander Meeks. Jack Casper controls a shipping company and owns a section of the docks in New York City.
Catherine Tyler – A beautiful young woman from New York City who is married to a well to do elderly gentleman.
Dr. Robert Bailey – Answers an ad seeking a doctor in Denver, he arrives on the train at the same time as Mirisa and the children.
Se᷈nor Gomez – An elderly Mexican farmer who is hired to take care of the Texas orchards and gardens. His relationship with Mirisa and the children is strong.
1869
“Officials and workers of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railways held a ceremony on Promontory Summit, in Utah Territory approximately thirty-five miles away from Promontory Point, the site where the rails were joined to drive in the Golden Spike on May 10, 1869. The spike symbolized completion of the first transcontinental railroad, an event that connected the nation from coast to coast and reduced a journey of four months or more to just one week.”
MIRISA tucked Matthew in for the night before she retired to the library. The house was so quiet and lonesome without Dominic. Some nights she would sit at Dominic’s desk and write in her journals wishing she could turn back the old grandfather clock to 1862. Though her days were filled with Matthew’s needs, she missed having someone around in the evenings. Mrs. Chauvin brought in a tray of hot tea and cakes placing it on the table. Mirisa put down her journal and wondered about the babies as she ran her hand around her stomach. The doctor had assured her that there was more than one baby and she frequently wondered if her stomach could expand enough for two. She stood looking out over the gardens as the moonlight bounced off the river giving it an eerie feeling.
Mirisa stirred honey in her tea and walked out on the veranda. The summer had come in with an oppressive heat but in the last few weeks had cooled off making the nights more bearable. She curled up in her rocking chair and wondered if everyone had forgotten about her since she had had no communication from anyone which was so similar to the first year she lived at the Plantation. She tried hard not to think much about the birth and concentrated on having healthy babies. Having this time to bond with her son and untangle herself from outside influences, Mirisa believed everything she was experiencing, every decision she made was going to make her stronger but the seclusion and uncertainty of her future was overwhelming when the sun went down. She damned the nights as they stole her confidence and left her praying for guidance. Simone ran up the stairs from the garden and sat down to lick his paws.
“Simone have you been hunting tonight?” He continued his cleaning finally walking over and curled up away from the rockers of her chair.
“If you go back to 1862, then it will be just me and you.”
Mirisa turned to Conrad. “It was wasn’t it? Did you know that I wrote down all the dreams and when I read it again I was amazed at the story you told. I was more afraid of you than life.”
“I guess everyone’s life is a story but very few take the time to write it down. You are wondering why you are alone in a big quiet house.”
“I feel like I am under water floating just below the surface. I can see everything but the sound is so muffled. Am I being punished?”
“You will never be punished by anyone but yourself. That’s not to say that you don’t have a very difficult journey in front of you. In order for you to grow, you will have to overcome many things that are in your path and realize that none of them are bad decisions just things that you have to accept about yourself and others. It is not your position to judge but to merely decide how much to allow.”
“Will I ever have just a normal life?”
“You follow the goose from beyond the north wind and even though you believe in a certain reality you need to understand that you are made to wander and to provide for those you love. It is time for you to remember what it is like to make your own decisions and handle your own life only then you will find happiness but you will never have a normal life.”
“Why have they forgotten me?”
Conrad laughed. “They are running from the fear that what has happened will change things. Men actually don’t like change unless they are in control of that change. Women are unpredictable because their rational is always based on emotions and their maternal instinct. Very rarely will you find a woman so stripped of emotions that she can look someone in the eye before pulling the trigger.”
Mirisa thought about his words. “I don’t have the ability to kill anything.”
Conrad put his hand on her stomach. “Actually you do but you feel better thinking that you are a peaceful soul. Your sons already know their path and will follow it giving praise to you for your love and softness. Your daughter will always follow her brother for he will forever protect her and teach her the things that you shy away from. It shall be your last child who will be at your side when you make that very last ride.”
THE SUMMER brought torrential rains to eastern Texas causing flooding in the low lying southern pastures and threatening the small farming communities around the ranch. Dominic took off his slicker and hung it with his hat on the porch. A thunderstorm was leisurely moving west but the last thing they needed was more rain.
James stepped up on the porch and shook off his hat before he headed into the house. “We finished the fencing near the corral and have moved all the horses to the dryer part of the ranch since the fence along the west and most of the south is completely down. Did you find the horses that headed east?”
“They brought in most of them but I don’t have a count yet.”
“Have you heard from Mirisa?” Dominic poured a shot and went out onto the porch sitting down. James picked up the bottle and joined him. “Is something wrong?”
“No.” He sipped on his whisky but you could tell he was brooding.
Garnett stepped onto the porch and took off his slicker before going in and getting a shot glass. “Never thought I would ever get tired of rain but the mud is so thick that my horse is refusing to leave the stable. Is anyone going to cook or do I have to hire someone?”
“I think you need to hire someone or get a room at the tavern.”
Garnett sat down and poured a shot. “James, when are you heading for Colorado?”
“Meeks wanted to leave at the end of the week but he’s been very vague. In fact, the general mood around here lately has made me want to seek new friends.”
A clap of thunder shook the windows as they watched the black clouds come over the house heading for the river. “Where is Meeks today?”
“Meeks headed into town with the deposit and payroll information.”
Dominic furrowed his brow. “Shouldn’t he be back by now?”
“I would think so but maybe he decided to eat at t
he tavern since James refuses to cook.”
James took out his watch and looked at it. “I think I’ll ride in and join him.”
They all nodded and locked up the house. The rain continued at a steady pace as they headed toward town. They tied up in front of the bank as the banker was locking the door.
“Jim, how are you doing?”
“Good. Trying to button down everything and get home before I have to swim.”
“Was Meeks by with a deposit?”
“He was here a few hours ago.”
“Did he say where he was headed?”
“No, can’t say that he did. He was talking to some young woman then left with her.”
James narrowed his eyes. “Someone from town?”
“No, don’t think I have ever seen her before. She was dressed very fancy the way they do back east.”
They headed to the Tavern finding his horse tied up in the ally which made James feel better. They walked in spotting him sitting in the corner with a very pretty young woman. James caught his eye but he just acknowledged him without taking his attention off the woman.
As they were served, Meeks stood pulling out the woman’s chair and escorted her to the front desk where she spoke to the desk clerk. The clerk reached in the cubby and handed her a key. She said something to Meeks then headed up the stairs as Meeks came back into the dining room and sat down.
“Someone from your past?”
Meeks ordered a cup of coffee and sat back as they waited. “Her brother has disappeared and she believes he may be in trouble.”
Dominic leaned in. “How did she get to you?”
Meeks reached in his pocket and took out a piece of paper handing it to Dominic. “Her brother has a gambling problem and is living on a very large trust set up by their father. The last communication was over two weeks ago at a bank in San Antonio. They contacted the local sheriff who could provide them with no information based on a description of the brother. She wants an escort to San Antonio and help finding her brother.”
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