Antebellum BK 1

by Jeffry S. Hepple

  “Get back in bed before you freeze your pretty weapons off.”

  “No. Help me move the bed to the other side of the room.”

  “Would you rather have a stranger listening to you?”

  “I’d rather have some privacy.”

  “You won’t find it in a frontier hotel with plank walls, Nancy. Chances are the man in the next room is enjoying a fine view of your charming buttocks through a knothole.”

  “What?” She looked over her shoulder in terror, then ran to the bed, jumped in and burrowed under the covers. “You beast.”

  “What did I do?”

  “You let strange men look at me naked.”

  “I did no such thing. It was you that decided to expose yourself to Lane.”

  “That was different.”

  “Where were we? 1840, wasn’t it?” He tried to put his arm around her but she pushed him away. “What’s the matter?”

  “Learning that we have an audience has put me out of the mood.”

  “Fine.” He turned on his side with his back to her.

  “Fine.” She turned on her side with her back to him.

  There was a knock on the door.

  “What?” they both bellowed at the same time.

  “This is the hotel manager. The Committee of Safety has commandeered the hotel as a barracks. I’m afraid you’ll have to vacate.”

  “Who’s in charge of the Committee of Safety?” Robert shouted angrily.

  “Dr. Charles Robinson is commander-in-chief.”

  Robert was about to reply but he heard the man knocking on Jack’s door. “Well. I guess we’re evicted.” He kicked off the covers and swung his feet to the floor.

  Nancy got out of bed. “Where will we go?”

  “I don’t know. We’ll have to look around.”

  ~

  Robert, Nancy and Jack were walking through Lawrence and marveling at the fortifications. Every house was occupied by volunteer soldiers of the Committee of Safety. All approaches to the town were now defended by circular timber and earthen redoubts. Each redoubt was surrounded by a deep trench. Secondary fortifications had been built closer to the center of town. Printed posters with evacuation instructions were being passed among the citizens.

  Jack stepped around Nancy to walk next to his brother. “If the city’s attacked we might be able to use it as a diversion to break Clem out of the prison.”

  Robert rolled his eyes. “And then what? We run to Canada or Mexico? Let’s give Anna some time to deliver her good news.”

  “There may never be an opportunity like this,” Jack insisted.

  “We can storm that prison any time we want,” Robert countered. “It’s just mud and logs. We’ll wait for Anna.”

  “If it came to that, to storming the prison, would you help me?” Jack asked.

  Robert gave him a disapproving look. “That’s a stupid and insulting question.”

  “What are you two whispering about?” Nancy asked in a peeved tone.

  “You,” Jack said.

  “Me?” Nancy pointed to herself.

  “Yes.” Jack walked back around her and took her free arm. “I was telling Robert that I’ve always thought of you as a sister and I’m delighted that now you really are.”

  “I’m happy that Robert hasn’t held me in the same view,” she giggled. “As a sister, I mean.”

  “No, that he hasn’t. Robert’s had a yen for you ever since you started growing breasts.”

  Nancy giggled and bumped Robert with her hip. “Is that true?”

  “No.” Robert shook his head. “The yen didn’t develop until your breasts were fully developed. Then I was hooked.”

  “Don’t tell me that you married me just to see them,” Nancy teased.

  “Speaking of your recent marriage,” Jack said. “Where are we spending the night? I haven’t gotten much sleep since the wedding and a little distance from you would be welcome.”

  Nancy blushed. “A gentleman wouldn’t mention that.”

  “I stopped being a gentleman when I resigned my commission,” Jack said.

  Robert watched a cannon being wheeled into place. “There’s an inn on the road to Mount Oread. It’s probably vacant. We can take rooms at opposite ends.”

  Jack nodded. “But the proprietor has probably evacuated.”

  Robert waved his hand. “Then we’ll commandeer the whole place in the name of the United States Army.”

  “How will we know if there’s a telegram from Anna?” Nancy asked.

  “It’s not a long walk,” Jack said. “I’ll check a few times a day.”

  December 6, 1855

  Lawrence, Kansas

  Anna gave Jack a document envelope, then hugged and kissed Robert and Nancy. “I’m so happy for you.”

  Jack had opened the envelope and was leafing through the pages. “What is this, Anna?”

  “Clementine’s sentence has been commuted.” She pointed at the document. “That’s sure to be overturned, but if you get her out of the territory today, she should be safe. It might actually be best to leave the country for a while.”

  “I’ll take her to Canada or Mexico.” Jack fanned the pages. “How did you get this?”

  “I did the judge a favor.”

  “It must have been a big one,” Jack said.

  “Now don’t go getting big-brotherly on me, Jack,” Anna said angrily. “Whatever I did was for you.”

  “Let’s go get Clem.” Robert put on his coat.

  ~

  “Do you know who I am?” Robert bellowed at the warden.

  “I don’t care who you are,” the man replied.

  “Then you’re a complete and utter damn fool,” Robert said in an even louder voice. “I’m the commander of Fort Leavenworth. In one hour, I can have a full brigade of men plus thirty cannon surrounding this complex.”

  “You – you can’t…”

  “I can and I will.” Robert slammed his hand on the warden’s desk. “You send someone to get my sister-in-law now or I’ll turn this place into a pile of dirt and splinters with you under it.”

  The warden nodded to a nervous guard who was being held at bay by Jack with a shotgun. “Get her. Take her out through the front gate.”

  “Thank you,” Robert said. “Good day.”

  December 16, 1855

  Lawrence, Kansas

  Robert and Anna were seated at a table in the boarding house dining room. “It’s just not fair,” Anna grumbled.

  Robert shrugged. “It’s probably fair, but it still hurts like Hell. I fully expected to be relieved of my command, but to be relieved of my commission – well, I feel like someone died.”

  “What did Nancy say?” Anna asked.

  He shook his head. “I haven’t told her yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “I wanted to get used to the idea first. She won’t understand the pain of it. When I told her how much the army paid me, she laughed. I tried to explain that I didn’t serve for the money but…”

  Anna nodded. “She’s never felt strongly about causes. Her involvement in politics has always been just acquiescence to me.”

  He nodded.

  “What will you do now?”

  He shook his head. “When are you going home?”

  Anna looked out the window. “Well, it looks like the Governor’s mediated an end to the so-called Wakarusa War and things will be returning to normal.” She turned back and smiled at her brother. “I’m ready to go whenever you are.”

  “Would you object if Nancy and I moved into the main house at Van Buskirk Point?”

  “I’d be delighted. And so would Abe and Ginger. They feel isolated with the rest of us gone.”

  They both looked up as Nancy came in.

  Robert stood up and pulled out a chair for her.

  “Why the long faces?” Nancy asked as she sat down. “Has something bad happened?”

  “The truce is holding,” Anna said. “The Wakarusa War was a non-event.”<
br />
  “What then?” Nancy searched their faces.

  “I’ve been relieved of my commission,” Robert said, reclaiming his seat.

  Nancy covered his hand with hers. “Oh no. That’s awful. How very unfair after all you’ve done for the Country.”

  Robert looked into her eyes for a moment, then nodded toward his sister. “Anna and I were just discussing the Van Buskirk Home Place. How would you feel about living there?”

  “It’s always been a second home to me,” Nancy said. “But what will you do for employment?”

  He shrugged. “I have more than enough income, even without yours.”

  “I wasn’t thinking about money, Robert,” Nancy replied. “I was thinking about your need to serve.”

  Robert and Anna exchanged a pregnant glance.

  “What?” Nancy asked. “Did I say something wrong?”

  “No,” Anna replied. “You said something right. But it was unexpected.”

  Nancy stuck her tongue out at Anna. “I know you think I’m a flibbertigibbet without a brain in my head.”

  “No, no,” Anna protested.

  Nancy waved her away with her left hand and picked up the menu with her right. “I’m starving. Have you ordered yet?”

  “No,” Robert answered. “We were waiting for you.”

  “What kind of meat do you suppose this steak is?” Nancy pointed at the menu.

  “If you’re going to order that, tell them to burn it black,” Anna suggested. “Otherwise you’re liable to get ptomaine poisoning.”

  “We should have heard from Jack by now,” Robert said.

  “It’s only been ten days,” Nancy replied. “As crowded as the steamers are he might be stuck anywhere.”

  “He really loves her,” Robert said, absently. “If she dies, I don’t know what he’ll do.”

  “Clem’s a tough one,” Anna said. “She’ll be okay.”

  Robert shook his head. “I can’t get the image of her or the look on Jack’s face out of my mind.”

  Nancy folded the menu. “I don’t think anything they did to her was life-threatening.”

  “Before we leave town I’m going to pay a visit to that warden,” Robert said.

  “I’ll get his home address from the newspaper office,” Anna said. “What are you having?”

  “The chicken and dumplings, I suppose,” Robert replied. “It’s probably not chicken but it won’t be dog meat.”

  “I’ll have that too,” Nancy said.

  December 18, 1855

  Mesilla, New Mexico Territory

  Marina was engrossed in a book and jumped when someone pounded on the front door. She plucked the lamp from the table, then grabbed her shotgun and hurried into the entry hall. “Who is it?”

  “It’s me, Mother. Jack.” The voice was muted by the heavy door and the pounding rain.

  “Jack?” She put the lamp on the floor but kept the shotgun and peeked out through the small viewer in the door. The wind-driven rain made it impossible to see.

  “It’s really me, Mother,” the voice said. “Please. Clementine’s in a bad way.”

  Marina struggled with the latches, opened the door and stepped back to let Jack, who had Clementine in his arms, come in. Shielding her eyes, she peered out into the dark driveway. “Is anyone else with you?”

  “No.”

  “How did you get here?”

  “Cotton boat,” Jack said. “Mother, please. I carried her all the way from your dock and my arms are killing me.”

  “Take her into the bathroom.” Marina pointed down the hall, closed and locked the door, then scooped up the lamp and ran to catch up. “Her lips are blue. Put her on the toilet seat and I’ll draw a warm bath.” She hung the lamp from the ceiling hook and then lit two sconces. “We’ll put her in the tub and then undress her.” She pushed the plug into the tub’s drain, turned on the hot water tap and mixed in some cold.

  Jack was kneeling in front of Clementine who was barely conscious. “A flush toilet and hot and cold running water?” He pushed his wet hair off his face.

  “In all four bathrooms,” Marina said.

  “Four? Really?”

  “The master bathroom is bigger than the living room was in our New Orleans house.” She turned to look at him. “So are you going to tell me what’s happened to Clem and why you’re here?”

  “Yes, if you’ll give me a chance.”

  “You have your chance.” Marina tested the temperature of the water in the tub with her elbow.

  “You knew she was in prison, right?” Jack asked.

  “Yes. And Anna wired me when her sentence was commuted. But Anna also said that you were taking Clementine to Mexico.”

  “And I did.” He rubbed Clementine’s hands between his. “But by the time we got to Matamoras, Clem was so weak that I got back on the steamer to El Paso the next morning. From there we caught the cotton boat to here. It may have been a mistake. It was farther than it looked on the map.”

  “It’s not far, but those barges are slow when they’re traveling against the current. You should have taken the stage.”

  “I didn’t know.”

  “Of course you didn’t.” Marina kicked off her sandals and stepped into the tub. “Give her to me.”

  “She’s too heavy for you, Mother.”

  “Nonsense. Give her to me.”

  Jack put Clementine over his shoulder, dandled her legs over the side of the tub and let Marina take her weight. “Okay? Do you have her?”

  “Yes.” Marina lowered herself and Clementine into the water. “Help me get her dress off.”

  “The buttons are on the back.”

  “Oh. Yes. Hold her up then.” She began unbuttoning the back of Clementine’s dress. “She’s not wearing anything under this.”

  “I know. That’s Nancy’s dress. When we took Clem from the prison, she was wearing a filthy shift and nothing else. We almost had to start a war to get her released so I was anxious to get out of Kansas.” He looked up at his mother. “You knew that Robert and Nancy were married, didn’t you?”

  “Yes. But I’m confused about why Nancy didn’t loan Clementine undergarments to go with the dress.”

  “Nancy was wearing this dress when they brought Clem out of the prison. She took it off right there in front of the prison and gave it to Clem.”

  “That girl’s always had pluck. Couldn’t you buy something else on the way?”

  “Other than one bad night in Matamoras and an hour in El Paso, we haven’t set foot on dry land since we left Kansas,” he said defensively.

  Marina looked at Clementine’s bare back and hissed. “What’s happened to this poor girl’s back?”

  “She was caned repeatedly in prison.”

  “My Lord. If you hadn’t gotten her out of there they would have surely killed her.”

  “I’m not so sure that they haven’t done that.”

  “She’ll be fine. We’ll warm her up, get some food into her and you’ll see.”

  “You don’t understand, Mother. She’s sick. Very sick. She has a fever, vomiting, bad stomach cramps.”

  “She doesn’t have a fever right now. She’s like ice.”

  “She gets better for a while, then goes cold like this and then the cycle starts over. Each time it’s worse than the last.”

  Marina pushed the dress off Clementine’s shoulders and down her arms. “I’ll lift her and you pull the dress off over her hips.”

  “Okay. Can you lift her higher?”

  Marina sat down in the tub and leaned Clementine against her chest. “How’s that?”

  “Okay.” Jack hauled the soaking dress out of the water and tossed it onto the already flooded floor.

  “Does she have a rash of any kind?” Marina asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well look, ninny.”

  “Okay. Christ.”

  “Don’t blaspheme.”

  “Is this a rash?” He pointed to what looked like a large clu
ster of tiny pimples across Clementine’s belly.

  “Yes.” Marina began combing Clementine’s hair with her fingers. “It looks like tick fever. The tick should have fallen off after the first feeding but if it didn’t, and it’s still feeding, that could account for her cyclical symptoms. Or she may have several.”

  “A tick could make her this sick?”

  “A tick could kill her. Check her over inch by inch. Creases, warm areas like behind her knees, in her pubic hair, under her breasts, under her arms.”

  “What’s a tick look like?”

  “A freckle or a mole.”

  “I’m not so familiar with Clementine’s body that I know every freckle and mole, Mother.”

  “Just look closely at every freckle and mole, Jack. If you find one that looks a bit odd, show it to me.”

  “We’ll have to take her out of the tub to check her back.”

  “Wait. Here’s one.”

  Jack stood up and looked where Marina was holding Clementine’s hair parted. “How do we get it out?”

  “There are some tweezers in that drawer.”

  He got the tweezers and gave them to his mother. “Do you need help?”

  “No,” Marina said. “Now that you know what to look for, keep looking. If that prison was infested with ticks there could be others.”

  December 23, 1855

  Mesilla, New Mexico Territory

  Marina bumped the door closed with her hip and carried the tray to the bedside table. “You look better.”

  “I feel better,” Clementine said with a smile. “Much better. It’s a miracle. I really thought I was dying.”

  “Let me help you sit up.”

  “No, no. I’m okay. I just have to move slowly or I get dizzy.”

  “Another few days of rest and good food, that’ll pass.” Marina put the tray across Clementine’s legs, then pulled a chair over to the bed. “Jack still wants to go to Mexico when you get well. I’d like you to stay here.”

  Clementine hesitated before she replied. “I’ve been a terrible wife, Marina. But Jack’s stuck by me through it all. If he wants to walk off the edge of the world, I’ll follow him.”