Mara: A Georgian Romance

by Barbara T. Cerny

  It was over—the bullet removed, the wound cleaned with whiskey and cauterized.

  Lonergan stood up from the floor and looked at Jake. “Well, I understand now why he never takes off his shirt. How’d he get those?”

  The lie came easily now. “His father beat him brutally. Money doesn’t buy you civility.”

  Wallace gave a low whistle. “I guess not.”

  Deirdre remade the bed with clean sheets while the men finished stripping Jake down to his trousers. Mara and Indy did the best they could to clean the blood off his chest, shoulder, arm, and back. It took all of them to drag the unconscious Jake to the bed.

  Then they surveyed the damage.

  “Is someone going to tell us what happened here?” asked Lonergan.

  Mara phrased her words very carefully. “Those two men, whom none of us have ever seen before…” she began. The other women then joined in, stepping all over each other’s sentences. Even Indy was telling it her way, arms and fingers flying.

  When they finished, Mara looked at the bloodbath on the floor. “We have to do something about the two dead bodies in our parlor.”

  “I say bury them,” Wallace suggested.

  “I say we need the Columbia sheriff,” said Lonergan.

  “I say put them in a box and ship them back to England tied up with a nice pink bow,” deadpanned Cecilia.

  They all laughed, easing the evening’s tension a bit. Mara finally stood up. “Scott, saddle a couple of horses. Ride to Columbia and bring the sheriff out here. We need to do this right.”

  “But won’t he arrest you?” Wallace asked, worried.

  “For what? Two strange men barge in here, shoot Jake, attack me, threaten to kill Cecilia, and we can’t protect ourselves? Sheriff Wiley is a reasonable man. He will do what is right.”

  The men agreed, and saddled Python and Angelo for the ride into town.

  *****

  Mara watched them go, and then turned to the ladies. “We need to hide the fact that Cecilia, Jake, and I know these men.” She pushed Cecilia out the door. “Search their belongings and see if there is anything that identifies them.”

  She turned next to Indy. “Could you track down their camp and then show us where it is? They had to have been watching us. It is too much of a coincidence that they attacked while Luke and Alvin are gone.” Indy nodded, grabbed some food, and left into the night.

  Deirdre stared at Mara. Mara put up her hand. “Not yet.” Then she searched Paulus and Edwin’s pockets.

  Cecilia arrived back with a few papers. Mara looked at them and threw them in the fire. Then the questions started to fly.

  “How’d they find us?” asked Mara.

  “How’d they find each other?” queried Cecilia.

  “He’s your brother? For real?” exclaimed Deirdre. Mara nodded. “Dear God!” Deirdre murmured.

  Mara and Cecilia went back and forth. “Edwin said he wanted Jake dead? What was that about?”

  “He wanted the jewels, too. That means he knows. How?”

  “Do you think anyone else knows?”

  “Should we move again?”

  “What are you talking about? What did you all do?” Deirdre queried. Her mind reeled with questions. Why would Mara keep her relationship with her brother from Lonergan and Wallace? When had Jake been whipped? What was the story behind the jewels and kidnapping Edwin had mentioned?

  All conversation stopped.

  “He,” Deirdre pointed to Edwin’s body, “mentioned Jake masterminding a kidnapping and jewel heist. Is that true?”

  Silence.

  Finally, Mara spoke. “Yes. But you have to hear the whole story before you pass judgment. We’ll wait until Indy returns.”

  There was nothing left to do but wait the few hours until Lonergan and Wallace returned with the sheriff. So they ate dinner, and after Indy returned from finding Edwin and Harry’s camp, Mara and Cecilia told the astonished Indy and Deirdre the entire story, starting with Mara’s first encounter with Jake until they met Deirdre in New York, this time not leaving out any details.

  “Oh, my God!” exclaimed Deirdre. “Jake isn’t gentle born? It was your father who whipped him! Your wealth was stolen?” She put her head in her hands. “When Luke said he’d done some things he wasn’t proud of, I thought he meant stealing food to live as a boy. I never would have believed he was a jewel thief and a highway robber! Nor you and Jake.” It was too much for Deirdre to comprehend.

  There was a lot of the story Indy didn’t understand. But she definitely understood about the whipping, the stealing, and the running away. She, too, was going to have to come to grips with the truth about her husband-to-be and his role in all this.

  Just before midnight, leaving Edwin and Paulus where they lay, the ladies went to bed, exhausted.

  *****

  True to Mara’s prediction, Sheriff Wiley believed their story of the unprovoked attack. The members of the Abbot clan were good people, and he had no problem with tracking the events that unfolded, as the evidence backed it all up. There was the unconscious Jake with the bullet wound. There were four pistols and three empty holsters on the two men. There was the jar of smashed preserves with a bullet hole in the wall. There were the two dead men—a sword in one, and a knife in the other.

  The camp wasn’t mentioned, nor did the sheriff think to ask. Mara and the other women decided to clean that up later in the day.

  Pete, Luke, and Alvin returned. They—along with Lonergan, Wallace, and the sheriff—helped clean the cabin. Pete eventually drove a wagon back to town with the bodies. He gave Indy a kiss, hugged each of the ladies, and checked in on Jake again before going back to town.

  Sheriff Wiley left the horses and tack with the Abbots. He felt that was just payment for the grievous wounds they had suffered that night. Besides, he was too tired to figure out what else to do with them.

  The rector buried Paulus and Edwin in unmarked graves in the Columbia church cemetery, and the past was buried with them. No one ever came to look for them or to claim them.

  Chapter 58

  Jake awoke late the next morning, in pain but improving. His appetite had returned, and he had enough energy to be very angry over the entire ordeal. He didn’t like that Deirdre and Indy now knew the truth. The more people who knew, the more dangerous their situation. Mara said she’d had no choice, given what Edwin had said.

  “How did they take the news?”

  “As well as can be expected.” She laid in the crook of his good arm, touching his face and bare chest lovingly. “I am sure Deirdre questioned Luke for most of the morning, as she was quite shocked to discover she’d married a jewel thief.”

  “What did Indy do?”

  “Hard to say. I am not sure how much she understood, but I am sure Pete will have some placating to do as well.”

  “It just makes it tougher on us all.”

  “I know. I know.”

  She pulled him closer. “I thought I lost you last night. After Edwin shot you, I thought you were dead. I lost my mind. I can’t even remember most of the fight with Edwin, just the fury that swept through me knowing he was the one who had taken you from me. I was completely insane in my grief. I can’t imagine life without you.”

  Jake hugged her to him, and kissed her. “I have been whipped brutally twice …you think a little bullet is going to keep me down?”

  She smiled.

  “Just don’t let that Indian near me with a knife again, okay?”

  Mara laughed and agreed. “I don’t want her anywhere near me, either! You should have seen the looks on Harry and Edwin’s faces when her knife went into Harry’s back. He never knew what hit him, and Edwin didn’t have any idea where the knife came from.” She kissed his good shoulder. “But you have to admit, she did a fine job pulling out the bullet and cauterizing the wound.”

  “You call that a fine job? You weren’t the one on the receiving end, woman!”

  “Baby.”

  “Sadist.”


  “Actually, I’d like to be on the receiving end of something else, but you are probably too weak for that.”

  He pulled her into a deep kiss. “Try me.”

  She did.

  *****

  Mara wasn’t wrong about Deirdre interrogating Luke that morning. She was very upset and distressed at having a jewel thief for a husband.

  Luke lay propped up on pillows on their bed, and let her rant and rave as she paced back and forth across their bedroom. He thought she looked ravishing all angry and bothered, her hair messed, still in her nightgown. When she finally ran out of breath, he patted the bed. “Sit down, me love.”

  She stared him down.

  “Okay, then stand, but you gotta know our side of the story.”

  “Mara told me your side of the story!”

  “Then let me put it in perspective for you. ‘Ave you ever been an orphan?”

  She shook her head.

  “Beat up to an inch of your life?”

  She shook her head.

  “Starved until you were forced to steal food to survive?”

  “No,” she whispered, shaking her head again.

  “My life was hell until Mara came along. You can never know what it be like to be six years old and starving. When Jake came to the children’s home, he at least brought some protection for Pete, Alvin, and me. Before that, we was on the brink of dying. Jake stood up to Snellings. He took a lot of punishment because of it, but he knew right from wrong, and did what he could to right them wrongs.”

  Luke paused to let his words sink in. “And remember, I be the runt of the litter so I had it worst.”

  Deirdre sat on the edge of the bed.

  “Put yourself in Mara’s shoes, Deirdre. If you had known me for seven years and had loved me since the day you saw me, then your Dad decided to marry you off to another, how would you feel?”

  Deirdre looked at the floor.

  “How would you feel if I was forced to leave you now?”

  She swallowed, trying to contain her emotions. “I wouldn’t let you go, I couldn’t.”

  “And neither could Jake let Mara go. It woulda killed him. And we couldna stand by and let them be ripped apart. Until I met you, no one meant more to me in the world than Jake and Mara. No one. I would go to the ends of the earth for them.”

  He moved next to her, swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

  “I am not proud of what we did. None of us is. But I’d do it again in an instant if it meant saving the ones I love. The wedding gifts belonged to Mara, so we dinna steal them. There was no kidnapping, as Mara came along on her own. The jewels, yes. Some we stole. But some were gifts to Mara from the duke, so they were kinda already hers if you stretch the truth a bit. Those stones and gold bought this land, this cabin, the new house, our new lives. We expected to buy passage over and then have to use our skills to make a living, nothing more. And, unfortunately, the cursed things got Paulus and Edwin killed.”

  Luke stood up to face his wife. He cupped her chin with his hand, and raised her head to look her in the eye. “Who did we hurt? A bunch of mean, nasty, horrid men who were willing to sell Mara for money, power, and a title. A man who twice whipped Jake to within an inch of his life, for no good reason. A man old enough to be Mara’s father, who wanted only her beauty for a prize. Men who could well afford what we took. We were lookin’ for enough to leave London, and ended up with a bloody fortune! Face it, my love. You married a one-time, never-to-be-repeated jewel thief, who loves you more than life itself. Take me, or leave me.”

  This time Luke stared Deirdre down.

  He won.

  *****

  Pete and Indy and Cecilia and Scott married in a double ceremony in mid-September, less than a month after the attack. Bess, Deirdre, and Mara worked themselves to the bone cooking up a feast fit for a king for the wedding reception.

  They coupled invited the entire town. The entire town came.

  The party was of the likes never before seen in Kentucky, and it would not be repeated any time soon.

  Twasn’t every day double weddings took place, especially when one of the couples was an Englishman and a mute Indian! But anyone with eyes could see that Pete the blacksmith was utterly and completely smitten with the lovely savage. This would give the townspeople gossip fodder for years to come.

  Indy moved into town with her husband, and Cecilia and Scott moved into Cecilia’s room in the cabin. They planned to eventually build a house of their own on her property. Soon, only Jake, Mara, and Alvin would be living at the farm.

  *****

  In the next few weeks, Lonergan’s men completed the new Federal-style home for the Abbots. Mara thought it was the most beautiful house in the world. The woods became quiet when the men left, well paid for their labor.

  Jake was quite exasperated that he was completely out of commission for a while, and had to let others do his work on the pasture fence. He really hated being an invalid. The bullet wound took longer to heal than the whipping wounds had, for it was a deeper muscle wound. He was frustrated at being limited to working the horses, and often pushed himself until his shoulder ached so much it drove him to bed.

  Four equine pregnancies were coming along nicely, and the five foals born in the spring grew like weeds. Jake had already sold three of the foals—they would leave the farm in the next couple of weeks.

  Edwin’s horse was a gelding, of no use for breeding. Paulus’ horse, however, was a mare of prime breeding age. Both horses were trained riding stock, so Angelo and Python could now be used almost exclusively for hauling. Mara named the gelding Egbert, after the first King of England, and the mare Hebe, after her own horse back in England. They gave Egbert to Luke and Deirdre.

  To grow his stock more rapidly, Jake bred Parisian with one of the draft horses in mid-summer when they came into heat. By the end of next summer, if all went well and the other two foals didn’t sell, he’d have six Abbot Farm foals and yearlings. One or two would hopefully be a solid stud or mare to add to the stables for quality breeding.

  But the best news by far was that he and Mara would be adding a resident to the farm. Baby Abbot was due in late June.

  *****

  The winter passed uneventfully, the new house now giving them shelter. The men spent the fair-weather days clearing land for the cabin on Luke and Deirdre’s acres, and then clearing land for a house on Cecilia and Scott’s parcel. Jake did what he could, but his shoulder often kept him from helping with the hard, manual labor.

  Deirdre had a contract to make bricks, and the women made as many as they could in their spare time after cleaning, cooking, mending, taking care of chickens, and canning. Jake found brick making easier work on his shoulder than clearing land. Even though he grumbled about it, he was secretly happy he could still be somewhat productive.

  *****

  That spring found Mara and Jake Abbot standing arm in arm on the ridge overlooking their property. Mara’s belly was ripe with their first child, Jake’s hand protectively resting on it.

  From this vantage point, they could see their house, the barn, the paddock, henhouse, storage sheds, pasture, and White Oak Creek. The cabin was partially dismantled, logs numbered and carefully stacked to re-assemble on the Holloways’ land.

  They had accomplished so much in the nearly two years since their arrival in Adair County.

  “What are you thinking, my pet?”

  “What a lucky woman I am to have all this, and you, too.”

  “No, I am the lucky one, Angel Mara. I am the lucky one.” He bent to kiss her, passion flaring up in the core of his being. As they finished their long, tender kiss and turned to gaze on the land once again, their life-long shared love gave them strength and courage, and they knew without a doubt that their kindred souls had found a place to call home.

  EPILOGUE

  Jacob James Abbot IV stood on the ridge overlooking the Abbot Horse Farm. He knew he would be in deep trouble again. The thirteen-y
ear old couldn’t keep his head in his books when there were creeks to cross, trees to climb, and slimy things to catch and put down his sister’s back. He watched as his best pals, Calvin Smithers and Johnny Holloway, climbed up the ridge to meet him. They, too, had snuck out of school that morning to go fishing in the hollow.

  His mother forever ranted and raved how he needed a good education if he was going to take over running the farm from his father someday. But his grandfather, Jake Abbot II, would just laugh from his comfortable chair by the fireplace and say, “Now, now, Nancy. He’s just like my father, so let him be. Jako will grow up to be a great horse breeder—” he’d then pause dramatically and continue, “—or a great horse thief,” and laugh at some inside joke only he understood.

  But today, in the late spring of the year of our Lord 1860, Jako just wanted to be a fisherman and have fun with his mates. He’d ask Grandpapa again about his great-grandpa Jake and the horse thief later. Grandpapa never told the secret, but it was fun to ask anyway.

  ###

  Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed it, won’t you please take a moment to leave me a review at your favorite retailer? You can link directly to this book from my website at https://barbaracernybooks.wordpress.com/mara/ and it will point you to the retailers directly.

  Thanks!

  Barb Cerny

  Other Novels by Barbara T. Cerny

  Of Angels and Orphans

  Grays Hill

  Tressa

  The Tiefling

  The Walled Cat