Impending Love and War
Page 10
“Clever enough to keep Edward from finding the documents. Now are you going to hand them over, or do I have to go on a treasure hunt?”
Cory should have been shocked by his suggestion, but after Edward’s revelations, she wondered if Tyler talked to all women the way he had been teasing and flirting with her. Tyler Montgomery was a rake. She toyed with the top button of her gown. “Turn around.”
Tyler obeyed. “You know I’ve seen you in your nightie.”
“It was dark.”
“Not that dark.”
She slapped the packet against his shoulder. “So what are the papers for?”
He pointed at her dress. “You missed a button.”
She fastened it. When she looked up, he was staring at her bodice. She directed his attention to something more important. “The papers?”
“This makes it clear Noah is a free man.”
“Why didn’t you give them to Noah in Vandalia when he left to look for Tess?”
“He was in a hurry. I didn’t have time to draw up legal documents like these. I wrote him a pass stating he was free, but as I said before, it doesn’t mean much if chasers knock him out and take him south where he can be sold for several thousand dollars.”
Cory wasn’t sure she had heard correctly. “How much?”
“Noah is a skilled blacksmith. He’s strong, smart, and could be sold for three thousand dollars or more in an open slave market. That’s why it’s so dangerous for him to be on his own. I should have come north with him to look for Tess, but I knew he’d need money. I stayed behind and sold off everything we owned.”
“We?”
Tyler smacked the packet against his thigh. “Noah had his own workbench and tools in Mr. Yoder’s blacksmith shop. I sold some and crated the rest. Once Noah is settled, I’ll have Mr. Yoder ship them to him.”
Cory looked at the document in Tyler’s hand. “And this proves he’s free.”
“This is a legal document the local authorities won’t question. I can’t say the same about the commissioners.”
“Why not?”
“Commissioners are paid ten dollars to say a black man is a slave. They’re paid five for saying he’s not a runaway. It’s amazing how an extra five dollars will put shackles on a free man.”
“How unfair!”
“That’s why the Fugitive Slave Law is such an abomination. A free black can be forced back into slavery. They’ve been doing the same thing in Virginia since 1806. If a freed black man or woman doesn’t leave the state within a year, freedom is revoked.”
“You’re lucky Sam Morris stopped Edward from taking Noah.”
“I owe him,” Tyler admitted. “Sam said the local sheriff is more sympathetic than federal marshals. That’s why the commissioners have the power to fine local judges and sheriffs if they don’t comply with the law.” He grinned. “But they don’t like being strong armed.”
“So Noah is safe,” Cory concluded.
“If chasers find him with Tess, he can be arrested for aiding a runaway.” He tapped on the packet. “These papers should convince any chasers except the Cassell brothers that Noah and Tess are free. The problem is the flier Edward sent out. A hundred fifty dollar reward for news about Noah would tempt any man. That’s why Noah can’t search for Tess in the open, but I can.”
“Won’t you lead Edward to Tess?”
“I don’t know where Tess is.” He studied her. “Do you?”
“No.” Did he believe her? She wondered about something in the packet. “I saw a paper with her name on it. It had Reggie’s name on it, too. Did she set her free?”
“That’s the problem. Only Edward can legally free Tess and Adam, but I was hoping the documents would fool local inquiries.”
“Won’t having the false papers cause trouble for you?”
Tyler didn’t answer. He didn’t have to.
Chapter Twelve
Cory felt emotionally drained. Tyler was a slave owner who had given Noah his freedom. He was defying the law, the very thing he had trained for and sworn to uphold, to give freedom to Tess and Adam. And the one person determined to stop him was Edward Vandal. And she was caught in the middle of it. “But you could lose your right to practice law. Why would you risk that?”
“I know what I’m doing.” He removed Nell’s bridle and replaced it with a halter to lead her out of the barn. “It’s you and Adelaide I’m worried about. Don’t you know how much of a risk you’re taking helping runaways?”
“Six months in jail and a thousand dollar fine if we know the person is a runaway,” she replied. “Otherwise it’s Christian charity.”
Tyler opened the gate to the pasture. “Actus reus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea.”
“What does that mean?”
“Same thing you said, but doesn’t it sound more important in Latin?”
Cory looked around. “Won’t Edward fetch the sheriff now that he knows you’re here?”
Tyler froze. “Does he know?”
Cory’s shoulders sagged. “I used the name Reggie instead of Regina when I spoke to him.” She sighed. “I’m not clever after all.”
Tyler led Nell inside the fenced pasture and released her halter. “I won’t put you or Adelaide in danger. I should leave immediately.”
Cory accepted his inevitable departure but needed to discover the truth. His character would determine whether his kiss would be banished or cherished in her memories of him. “Edward slandered your name.”
Tyler secured the gate as Nell grazed. “That doesn’t surprise me. You heard him call me white trash, but if he’s the measure of a gentleman, then I’m glad he doesn’t consider me an equal. He’s arrogant and cruel.”
Cory didn’t know any way to ease into the topic. “Who’s Miss Olivia?”
Tyler ran his fingers through his hair, a nervous habit she was beginning to recognize. “What did Edward say about her?”
“He said to ask you about her. Is she your mother?”
****
Tyler kicked the fence post so hard some of the bark fell away. “She was my mother.” He wrestled with what to tell her. He wanted Cory to like him. He didn’t want to see the look of disgust he had seen on women’s faces when he had confessed the truth before. Even Reggie had looked at him differently after the revelation of his ancestry.
“I told you there were reasons no respectable woman would marry me. Miss Olivia was one of them.”
Cory rested her hand on his arm. “You don’t have to tell me.”
Tyler searched her eyes for a sign of understanding. He paced with the nervous energy of a caged animal. “If I don’t, Edward will. He delights in revealing my sordid family history.” He jammed his fists into his pockets. “When I was seven, my father, Grayson Montgomery, abandoned us.”
“Why?”
“The reason doesn’t matter.” Tyler paused when he saw Cory’s confused expression. Half-truths were no better than lies. “Miss Olivia lied to him about something he couldn’t forgive.”
“Oh,” she gasped. “I understand.”
Tyler doubted she had guessed the truth. “You understand what?”
“Another man.”
She was wrong, but her mistake was easier to accept. He walked along the pasture fence, and Cory kept pace. “Miss Olivia didn’t have many choices,” Tyler remarked quietly. “She had run away from home when she was fifteen and couldn’t go back. When she left, she took some jewelry and her personal maid, Lydia. She sold the jewelry and hired Lydia out after Noah was born to pay the rent and bills. Then she met Grayson Montgomery.”
“Were they married?” Cory asked.
Tyler cocked an eyebrow. “Edward called me a bastard, huh? He enjoys spreading false rumors. My parents were married. Grayson was a quiet, respectable banker, and we had a comfortable life. I remember he was a good father, then.”
“What happened?”
“There was a scandal involving missing funds at the bank. Grayson lost his job.”
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“Was he guilty?”
Tyler shrugged. “I don’t know, but others thought so. He couldn’t find work and started drinking. Grayson wanted to sell Lydia and Noah, but Miss Olivia refused. Then one day we returned from the store, and Lydia was gone. Grayson had sold her. It was his right,” he explained.
“He wanted to sell Noah, too, but Miss Olivia wouldn’t allow it. They fought, and Grayson hit her.” Tyler recalled the images of the nightmare. “I remember Noah and I tried to stop the beating, but he shoved us outside and locked the door. We could hear her screams as his fists connected with her flesh. We thought he was going to kill her and fetched a neighbor. When we returned, Grayson was gone, and Miss Olivia was covered in blood, barely alive.”
The memory angered him. “No man, drunk or sober, has the right to harm any woman. Grayson left town and took all the money he’d received from the sale of Lydia. We couldn’t buy her back.”
“Poor Noah. Did he ever see his mother again?”
Tyler hesitated. “No. We moved to Vandalia. It was a small secluded town in western Virginia where no one knew us. Noah and I moved in with the Yoders.”
“And your mother?”
Tyler grinded the words out. “She found a job.”
“At the Dunking Witch?”
He sucked in his breath. “You and Edward had quite a talk.”
“What kind of place is the Dunking Witch?”
It was the moment of truth. “A saloon and a whorehouse in a mining town where the men outnumber the women five to one.” Tyler watched the myriad of emotions cross her face. It was too late to stop now, and no reason to sugarcoat his story. She would be glad when he was gone. “There aren’t many ways a woman can make a living.” He shook his head. “My mother entertained men at the Dunking Witch. She eventually became its owner.” How much detail did she need? “I never saw her.”
“Never?”
“Nearly never,” he amended. “That’s the way she wanted it. The Dunking Witch was across the river from town. You had to ride the ferry to reach it. When Miss Olivia left Noah and me with the Yoders, she ordered us never to use the ferry. She dropped her surname so nobody knew Miss Olivia was my mother except for the Yoders, and they kept her secret. They offered to take her in as well, but she wouldn’t accept charity. She paid the Yoders to care for Noah and me so we wouldn’t be a burden.”
“But didn’t you work for him?” she recalled.
“The Yoders didn’t believe in sloth. The money paid for our food and clothes, but we worked around the farm, and Mr. Yoder taught Noah to be a blacksmith.”
“Didn’t you work as a blacksmith in the summers?”
He chuckled. “Do you remember everything I say?”
Cory blushed.
He was flattered by her interest. Most people listened to conversations only to add comments or switch to a topic of their own. “I learned enough to help out when I came home from school, but Noah was a craftsman.”
“Did Mr. Yoder get into trouble for teaching a slave a trade?”
“It’s not against the law, and blacksmiths are valued in any community,” he reminded her. “It was one of the reasons Miss Olivia chose the Yoders to raise us. She was intelligent about some decisions,” he conceded.
“Then Noah was never treated like a slave,” Cory realized. “Is that why you said he wasn’t a slave?”
What should he tell her to explain Noah’s status? Tyler debated his answer. “I explained a freed slave has to leave Virginia. An adult can petition the court to remain. By the time Noah was twenty-one, it was easier to be a slave.”
“Why would he want to be a slave?”
“Vandalia was Noah’s home. He was learning a respected trade, and the Yoders offered protection from being sold.”
“What about Tess?” Cory asked.
He’d forgotten the most important reason. “Tess and Adam kept him in Virginia until she ran away.”
They had reached the end of the fence. “How did Edward find out Miss Olivia was your mother?”
Cory was relentless in her pursuit of answers. Tyler turned back toward the house. “Edward’s father, the great Cyrus Vandal, was a frequent visitor to the Dunking Witch. When I was fourteen, Cyrus decided he wanted to marry Miss Olivia. I guess she thought she wanted to marry him, too, because she claimed me as her son. Cyrus told Edward he was going to have a stepbrother.” He snorted. “One big happy family.”
Tyler chose his words carefully. “Only problem was Edward didn’t like the idea of having a whore as his stepmother and made his feelings public. He was almost three years older, but I stood up to him. I don’t know why. I hadn’t acknowledged the existence of Miss Olivia in seven years, but I demanded an apology. He refused. I threw a lucky punch and broke his nose. He started pounding on me, and Noah pulled him off. That’s when Cyrus took a whip to us. All three of us.”
****
Cory didn’t know what to say. Edward and Tyler had almost become brothers. Then they had been in love with the same woman. Now, they were searching for Noah and Tess. Edward would take Tess back to Vandalia. If he did, Tyler and Noah would follow no matter what the risks. She was a spectator in a drama that had been playing for a long time.
Tyler shrugged. “I lost the battle but won the war. The marriage was called off. Edward became my sworn enemy, and everyone knew Miss Olivia was my mother.”
“Didn’t the truth make it easier?”
“Easier being a pariah? My number of friends shrank considerably when mothers deemed me unsuitable as a playmate.” He headed for the pump to wash. “After the fight with Edward, Miss Olivia decided it was time for me to attend a good academy for a proper education. She wrote me every month. I only opened the missives because she enclosed money with each one.” He stopped at the pump, worked the handle until water flowed, and splashed some on his face and neck. “I wasn’t a very good son.”
“She put you in a difficult situation.”
“I was ashamed of her. How can a son be ashamed of his mother?”
Cory had helped her father care for a prostitute who had been brutalized by one of her customers. Although prostitution had been around since the beginning of time, society was beginning to sympathize with women who had to earn a living by selling their bodies. Beautiful young women became mistresses or courtesans to wealthy benefactors. Brothels supported unfortunate women who had no home but were still attractive enough to demand money for their companionship. The old, deformed, or diseased women walked the streets, hoping a man would part with a few coins for a moment of pleasure.
“You said it yourself. Society doesn’t give a woman a lot of choices, especially if she doesn’t have a father or husband to take care of her.” Cory recalled his words. “You said she was your mother. Is Miss Olivia dead?”
“She died in January. When I spoke of the fate that took me from Brennan, Brewster, and Waxman, it was a letter from Mr. Yoder telling me she was ill and asking to see me. I informed the law firm I needed to go home, but they asked for an explanation. I didn’t want to answer their questions so I quit.”
“Wouldn’t they have understood?”
“You forget the requirement of moral character for a lawyer,” Tyler said. “In Boston it applies to a lawyer’s father, mother, and wife. Any hint of scandal and no job.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
Tyler shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I returned to Vandalia and spent Christmas with Miss Olivia. She filled in the blanks of her life I had been too young to remember or understand. I didn’t know how to feel. I hated and loved her at the same time.” He ran his fingers through his damp hair. “I made the funeral arrangements. I figured it would be poorly attended.”
Tyler looked out over the yard. “I was wrong. No one cared she was a fallen woman but me. In fact, everyone loved her. Not in the carnal sense,” he added when she gasped. “She had a strength I didn’t understand or appreciate.”
“What do you mean?”
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nbsp; “I know respectable women think saloons and whorehouses are the devil’s playhouse, but she knew her customers better than they knew themselves. Men with tempers spent the night at the Dunking Witch instead of going home and slamming their fists into a wife or child. She would take half the pay from a man and give it to his wife before he drank or gambled it all away. Then there were the miners. She provided showers and made special soap to scrub the coal dust off before they returned home to one room shacks so their skin wouldn’t break out in sores. She fed the hungry and gave shelter to any woman in trouble. The preacher in Vandalia admitted the Dunking Witch did more good than his church.”
She didn’t believe him. “You’re joking!”
Tyler crossed his heart. “She was loved by everyone but her son.”
Cory understood why his story had been difficult to share, and she knew it had been true except for the last part. “Liar. You’re proud of her.”
Tyler shook his head. “If I’m so proud, why didn’t I tell you about her? You had to hear it from Edward.”
“We’ve only met,” Cory reminded him. She thought of his warnings, his outrageous behavior, and his kisses. “Maybe you wanted to make a good impression.”
“Oh, I made a great impression calling late at night, scaring you into shooting me, and then putting you in the middle of my fight with Edward. I’ll wager Douglas’ family has no shocking revelations.”
Cory didn’t answer. She knew so little about Douglas. She wondered if Beth had turned down his proposal because of some dark secret he had confided. A secret he had not shared with her. Cory was equally apprehensive about Tyler. Why had he bothered sharing so much of his life with her? It was unfair. Tyler had a mission, and she was a minor distraction in his quest toward his goal. He would be gone soon, and she would be left alone to pick up the broken pieces of her life.
“I shouldn’t have said anything. A respectable woman can only overlook so much. The women in New England overlook nothing. They pride themselves on long family histories and family wealth. They look for the same in husbands,” he said. “Even Reggie wouldn’t settle for a poor country lawyer with questionable parentage. She wanted a rich farmer like Edward with ancestors back to the American Revolution.”