Dan had wanted to request the same rooms they had occupied before, but he couldn’t without revealing knowledge of the secret passage between them. It wouldn’t be wise to spark doubts in her, not when their relationship was so new and fragile. He, like Rachel, had to be content to gaze at the three photographs taken during their visit here and yearn for their second union.
After an early and quick breakfast, they went to the station and this time boarded the Central Georgia Railroad. During the last leg of their adventurous trek, they whispered and made plans.
“If Phillip has returned home, send me a message,” the cunning Dan advised. “I’ll come out to speak with him about our business. I won’t cause you any problem if you decide you want to stay with him instead of me.”
Rachel’s heart pounded in dread before he could finish. When he did, she was relieved and ecstatic, which showed in her honey-colored eyes.
He said what he knew she needed to hear, “If you choose him out of some sense of loyalty and conscience, I’d be tempted to battle for you, but that would be destructive to all of us. Please, Rachel, don’t take him over me for those reasons. I’ll make you happy, and you’ll never be sorry.”
Her reply was curious. “I can’t see you this weekend, Dan, even if Phillip isn’t home. We must be careful until our problem is resolved. I have to come into town Monday morning to handle pressing business, so I’ll meet with you afterward. Then we’ll have our serious talk, I promise. After you hear what I have to say, you can tell me if it changes your feelings.”
Dan comprehended what she had to do—see the authorities about his brother’s death and secret burial, then confess everything to him. After she did those two things, he would know at last what to do about her. If she deceived him again or failed to make a full confession, he would know he couldn’t trust her and he must proceed with his original plan of exposing and punishing her. “I’ll check on my ship and crew while I’m waiting to see you. You’re mine now, Rachel McCandless. Don’t forget that for a minute.”
“I hope so, Dan. I can hardly wait until we’re alone again Monday. It seems like the end of time, but it’s only a couple of days. No matter what happens after our return, I do want you, I swear it.”
They reached Central Station in Savannah at four o’clock. Burke Wells and Lula Mae Morris were waiting in a carriage for Rachel, and Luke Conner was standing on the boarding platform waiting for Dan. “We’ll get off separately and not speak here,” Dan instructed. “We don’t want your servants or any observers to know we’ve been traveling together. Until Monday, my love.”
“Until Monday, Dan.” She gazed at him as if dreading to part, as if she feared it would be their last time together.
Dan understood and sent her a smile of encouragement and support. “Don’t worry, Rachel, everything will be all right. We’ll be together soon.”
“I hope so, Daniel Slade,” she whispered, then left her seat and the train to join Lula Mae and Burke. As she did so, she glanced at Luke Conner, Dan’s first mate and close friend. They exchanged smiles, and she wondered how much he knew about her, about them. What if he’s heard the false gossip about me and he tells Dan? she fretted. Yet she detected no repulsion or anger in his sparkly blue gaze. Please, God, she prayed, don’t let them hear the ugly rumors until I can explain them to Dan.
Rachel smiled at the black manager as he met her. “I’m afraid I have more baggage than I left with, Burke, but some are gifts for all of you. The porter will help you with my trunks and packages.”
“You be too kind, Miz Rachel. I’ll fetch ‘em fur you.”
The housekeeper smiled and greeted her warmly, but didn’t ask questions.
At home, Lula Mae said, “We been missing you more ‘an a starving man misses a good meal. You rest them weary bones a spell. I’m fixin’ your most favorite supper. And thank you for my presents. You’ve always been a kind girl with sweet thinking and a good heart. How dids the trip pass?”
“Phillip’s partners were nice to me, but neither will be pleased by the telegrams I send them Monday after I visit Chief Anderson. I didn’t tell them Phillip was dead; I just weaseled information out of them.”
“They bounds to be hopping mad when they hears Mr. Phillip be gone to heaven. They’ll be all over you like insects in August to buys out them cumpnies. Men don’t wants no woman partner. You oughta sells them fast. After you tawks to the law Monday, it’s bound to be bad off for a spell.”
“I know, Lula Mae, and I dread it but I can’t wait any longer. I can’t do anything with the three companies until I report Phillip’s death.”
“When it’s done and over with, why don’t you go visit your ma for a spell and git away from this sad house and mean town? Folks gonna be at your neck again, trying to strangle the life from you.”
“No, I can’t. Earl’s there. I never want to see him again.”
Lula Mae came to Rachel and placed a hand on her shoulder. “When times are most awful, a girl needs her ma. This trouble’s been eating at you since you left home. Makes peace with her, Miss Rachel.”
“I told you why I can’t go home, Lula Mae. He’s terrible and wicked.”
“Why don’t you write your ma and aks when he’s gonna be gone away on business?” the housekeeper suggested.
“Earl might find out I’m there and return before I leave. I hate him.”
“I’ll goes with you and protect you. I won’t let him or no man hurt you again. I know you don’t like him, but you need your ma and I’m a betting she needs you. It jest ain’t right to be living like this.”
“You’re right, Lula Mae, but that isn’t my fault. Mama chose him, and that choice drove her children away. She’s the one who has to make peace with us. She won’t do that if it means losing that vile husband of hers.”
“I’m real sorry about this, Miss Rachel. It’s a good thing you got me to tend you, since your ma won’t.”
As Rachel snuggled into her bed, a mixture of joy and sorrow and fear plagued her. She wondered if it were plausible to be cursed to walk the earth alone, to be fatal to any man who wed her, to be doomed to bear no children. Dare she test that incredible theory by risking Dan’s life? What if she was allowed to love and be loved, but not to have any man as a mate? Maybe she was jinxed through no fault her own. Who could answer such frightening questions with knowledge and not think her mad? A man of God, a physician of the mind, or a scientist? She certainly couldn’t visit a fortune teller, as she’d been taught they were the servants of the devil.
If there was no such thing as a curse, what or who had killed her mates? Surely, as the law and public kept telling her, and she had even suspected, it was unnatural to lose three husbands in less than three years.
How she loved Dan, and wanted him, but she feared he was out of reach. Merely thinking of him warmed her heart and stirred her body. She recalled what he had said in Athens and on the train, but would an evil curse spoil the first happiness and real love she’d known since before the war devastated her life?
At the hotel, Dan was talking with his best friend and first mate. He related what he had learned and done during his near three-week absence. He hadn’t risked sending his news to Luke Conner by telegram, so the developments astonished the brown-haired man.
“If you have serious doubts about your sister-inlaw’s guilt, you must have good reasons. You’ve become a good judge of character and situations, my friend. I know you to be a fair and just man, so you won’t harm her if she’s innocent.”
Dan scowled. “That’s the hard part, Luke, determining if she is or isn’t guilty. I don’t like being duped, and she’s done that to me plenty of times; but I can understand her motives. I want the truth, no matter what it is. I don’t know what to think or believe anymore.”
“Maybe that’s because you’ve gotten too close to her to see clearly.”
Dan frowned again as he admitted, “You could be right, but it seemed the only way to get information out of her. If
Rachel has a partner, I haven’t found any clues to him; nor have you, obviously. When Phillip said ‘they’ in his letter, I assumed it meant Rachel had selected victim number four and they had killed him.”
“You don’t believe that now?”
“Not from what I’ve seen and heard.”
“You mean because she’s listed so far in your direction?”
“Yes and no. Just because she’s attracted to me doesn’t prove she killed Phillip or she doesn’t have another lover somewhere. I keep telling myself it’s possible she hasn’t acted guilty because she hasn’t committed any crimes. Some of her conduct could have to do with concealing resentment toward Phillip for getting her embroiled in danger. I’ve tried not to let gossip, those past investigations, her inappropriately gay conduct, and Phillip’s last words mislead me. If she didn’t love my brother, and with her struggle for survival weighing her down, she could be hiding her true feelings. Stars above, I did as good of an acting job as she did! I finally won her trust and affection. With the right motivation, anybody could dupe another person. I have to admit, under the circumstances, she had no choice but to delude me.”
Luke was concerned for his captain. “Even if those deaths are only strange quirks of nature, she seems to be a hazard to the survival of the next man she chooses.”
“Or she’s being framed,” Dan said. “If the deaths weren’t her fault, somebody close to her might be behind them. They could be the work of a female rival, someone who hates her and wants to destroy her. Or a rejected lover who keeps making her available so she can pick him the next time she’s free.”
“That isn’t impossible, Dan,” Luke concurred, “nor any wilder than your sister-in-law being a Black Widow.”
Dan jumped up to pace off his rising tension. “I know; that’s why I’m so baffled and frustrated. What if it is insanity, Luke?”
“I don’t know about such things, my friend; that calls for an expert. But I did learn her opinion of Earl Starger doesn’t match anyone else’s. From what I’ve been told, he’s well liked, well respected, and good-natured. He’s never been in trouble and doesn’t seem to have an enemy in the world. He’s smart, hardworking, and devoted to his wife. Nobody even hinted at trouble between Rachel and her stepfather. From all appearances, he’s done his best to help her after every problem. If he’s mean and cruel, only she knows those traits.”
“That doesn’t prove Starger doesn’t have them,” Dan reasoned in her defense. “There has to be a reason why she hates him so much.”
“Maybe she resents him for taking her father’s place. Yankees did kill her father and brother. And you told me another brother was with Earl when he drowned. She could hold him responsible for all three losses… I used a pretense when I visited White Cloud. It’s a beautiful and prosperous plantation, now, but from what I discovered, Earl brought it back from the brink of ruin. Rachel’s mother is quite beautiful herself, and appeared happy. She was ill and on medication, so I only spoke with her a few minutes.”
“What day did you visit there?”
“On the first. Why?”
“Was her stepfather at home?”
“Not in the house, but out in the fields. Why?”
“The night before was when note number one appeared in her room.”
“I was camped nearby. I didn’t see or hear him return during the night. That would have made a long ride home, but it’s possible. Didn’t you say the note was in her handwriting?”
“Yes, but Starger would have samples of it, living in the same home. And a rich man could find someone to make accurate forgeries. What else did you learn?” Dan asked, almost sounding desperate for another suspect.
“I couldn’t find a single hint about a spurned suitor. The only female rival I could find is a woman named Camellia Jones. She had her hook out to catch both Newman and Phillip, but was defeated by Rachel. She’s from a wealthy and prestigious family, a bit spoiled and hot-tėmpered, but no scandals. If she’s a vengeful murderess, it didn’t appear that way. I think you stand a better chance of romancing information out of her than I would.”
“I’ll work on that angle later. What about her servants?”
“The housekeeper’s been with her for years, loves her and defends her. She was working for Barlow when Rachel married him. Nobody seems to know much about her. Wells was on the place when Phillip bought it and I didn’t hear anything bad about him. I didn’t get to search her home; somebody was always around when I checked, so it seemed too risky.”
“Anything else?”
“Very few people I approached were reluctant to discuss their local legend. Those who refused didn’t defend her or have good things to say about her. I noticed that most people relied on gossip for their knowledge; few actually knew Rachel herself. I found one big inconsistency: Craig Newman. Remember how the bartender and others said all her husbands were rich and she was the only heir?”
“Yes. What about it?”
“That isn’t the case for husband number two. Craig had a brother named Paul…”
Luke went on to expose several shocking revelations and when he finished, Dan realized this pit got deeper and darker every day. Could Rachel McCandless ever climb out?
Saturday morning was a cloudy and gloomy day that promised rain by nightfall. At nine, Lula Mae rushed to Rachel’s room and told her she had company, that same stranger who had “bothered” her before she left home.
Rachel glanced out the window and saw Dan in the front yard. Her eyes widened and she was confused about his reason for coming today. “It’s all right, Lula Mae; I’ll go outside and speak with him.”
“I don’t trust that man, Miss Rachel. Something about him…”
“Don’t worry. Just go about your chores.”
Rachel joined Dan in the yard, and they walked a short distance from the house for privacy, as Lula Mae was standing in the doorway and eyeing them. “What are you doing here, Dan? I thought we agreed—”
“I’m sorry, Rachel,” he interrupted her chiding, “but I had to see you. I went to Phillip’s office so I know he hasn’t returned. Baldwin is miffed, but he accepted that message you left him about Phillip’s trip.”
“What’s so urgent that it couldn’t wait until Monday? If anyone sees you here this weekend, it could mean trouble for me, for us.”
“You worried me, woman, with the way you talked yesterday. You implied that what you have to tell me Monday will change my feelings about you. It also sounded as if you doubted my pledge to you. The more I thought about what you said and the way you looked, the more concerned I got. What’s troubling you, love, besides telling Phillip about us?”
Rachel took a deep breath, held it a moment, then exhaled. “I guess it doesn’t matter whether I tell you today or Monday, or if you hear it before the authorities. It’s something terrible, Dan, a secret. I was going to confess it to you after I saw Chief Anderson. Phillip died the morning you arrived in Savannah. I couldn’t tell you that day because there were serious things I had to investigate first, in Augusta and Athens. Please, let me explain everything before you get angry and lose all trust in me. I—”
“Miz Rachel, the law’s acomin’ up the road!” Burke suddenly appeared to give the warning.
Rachel went pale and trembled. “They must know. Why else would they be coming now? This is going to complicate things. I buried him in secret, without reporting his death to anyone. With my past—”
“Stay calm, Rachel. It might be nothing,” Dan advised, pleased she was about to reveal everything to him, but dreading what that might be.
“You don’t understand,” she fretted aloud in panic. “They’ll try to hang me this time. I’m innocent of everything, I swear it.”
“This time?” Dan echoed, as if ignorant of her dilemma.
“I can’t explain now,” she hurriedly said. “They’re here. I’m sorry, Dan. What I’ll say is the truth; I hope and pray you’ll believe me, because they won’t. I’ll explain everyt
hing in detail later, everything, I swear.”
Two men with badges on their jackets dismounted, secured their reins to the picket fence, and looked at the couple approaching them.
“Mrs. McCandless,” one said, “we’re here to ask a few questions for Chief Anderson. And who might you be?” he asked the handsome stranger.
“Captain Daniel Slade of the Merry Wind. I’m an old and close friend of Phillip’s. I came to do business with him.”
“That’s difficult, isn’t it, Captain, since Mr. McCandless is dead? Tell me, ma’am, why didn’t you report your third husband’s… death?”
Rachel didn’t like the way this interrogation was beginning. She knew Dan was observing and listening as intently as the lawmen. She was relieved she had begun her revelation to him to prevent him from being totally shocked by the news. At the word third, he had glanced at her. There was nothing she could do except stand there helpless and hurting while he learned about her past in this vile manner. “I was coming into town Monday morning to see the authorities.”
“Isn’t that a long time to wait, ma’am? He died three weeks ago. Why bury him in secret and wait so long to report it? What happened out here on March twenty-sixth?”
Rachel realized he had some of the facts, and they looked bad. She hated for Dan to discover the truth about her like this, and wished belatedly she had told him everything sooner. “I didn’t know there was a time limit involved, sir. I had pressing business to tend for Phillip in Augusta and Athens at his two companies there. Before he passed away, he asked me to handle it immediately. I didn’t think it made any difference if I took care of it first. Does it?”
The man looked her up and down with a surly expression. “It seems mighty strange that business is more important than obeying the laws.”
“It isn’t, sir, but circumstances couldn’t be changed. There are some serious problems with our two out-of-town companies. I promised Phillip I would go check on them. I assumed an investigation would ensue and cost me valuable time, so I made my trip first. As you can see, I’m here now. Have I broken a law by delaying my report?”
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