His face reddened. April did not wait for his retort, but moved away quickly. He had asked her father’s permission to court her, but when April expressed disfavor, permission was refused. But Graham was not one to give up. Once rejected, he had resorted to vulgarity whenever he had the opportunity to torment her without being overheard.
She walked into the mammoth ballroom, taking a fresh glass of champagne from a passing footman and giving him her empty glass. The buffet was laden with giant silver platters of fruit, glazed ham, turkey, iced caviar, and a variety of lavishly decorated cakes and cookies. She nodded her approval to Posie, who stood by in a simple gray dress accented by a large white collar, a big white apron covering her large stomach.
“Have you seen Vanessa?” she asked.
Posie shook her head. “I just asked Lucy, and she ain’t seen her, either. Ain’t seen Mandy, though, so I reckon she’s up there helpin’ her get dressed. But I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Miss Vanessa didn’t even come down. Lucy says Mandy told her that Miss Vanessa knowed all along you had a fuss with yo’ poppa over her bein’ included in the party. She heard you two when you was arguin’. Maybe she just decided she didn’t want to come where she wasn’t wanted.”
April’s eyes widened in stunned surprise. “You mean Vanessa overheard my conversation with Poppa? Oh, no! I’ll go talk to her, make her see—”
“There you are, my darling.”
She looked around to see her father approaching with a distinguished-looking man.
“April, I want you to meet Lester Warrick. He is an aide to President Davis.”
She held out her hand, and the man bent to kiss her fingertips. “Miss Jennings, this is such a pleasure. I have heard what a beautiful woman you are, and now I see for myself that all I’ve heard is true.”
“You’re too kind,” she said, forcing herself to sound demure. She was anxious to go to Vanessa. “I know you must find your work with President Davis fascinating.”
“Oh, quite. He’s a remarkable man. Do you know him?”
“April hasn’t met him,” her father interjected. “We had hoped he would be able to attend tonight.”
Lester Warrick looked contrite. “I’m sorry, sir, but the President was invited to so many social functions this weekend that he just decided to stay at home and work on his inauguration address rather than choose which invitations to accept.”
“I understand. I’m sure April will meet him later. Now if you two will excuse me, I see someone I haven’t spoken with yet.”
He walked away, leaving April with Mr. Warrick, who began to expound on why Jefferson Davis was an excellent choice for President of the Confederacy. “He was a respected member of the cotton aristocracy, and is renowned not only as a soldier but as a statesman as well. He graduated from West Point, then served seven years at various frontier posts before quitting the army. Then, in 1845, he was elected to Congress but resigned a year later to command a regiment in the Mexican War. He came home a wounded hero and was sent to the United States Senate by appointment.”
Warrick paused to take a fresh glass of champagne from the buffet. Behind his back, April looked at Posie and rolled her eyes.
“Where was I?” He smiled. “Oh, I remember. The South is indeed fortunate to have a leader like Jefferson Davis in this time of crisis.”
April could not contain her sigh of relief when her father returned. “Well, are you two getting along well?” he greeted them.
“Mr. Warrick is quite interesting,” April replied, “but if you will excuse me, I would like to go upstairs and see what is keeping Vanessa.”
“Of course, of course.” Lester Warrick gave a slight bow, then cried, “Oh, there’s Franklin Overby. Excuse me.” And he hurried away.
Her father leaned over to whisper, “What’s this about Vanessa? She hasn’t come downstairs yet?”
“No, and I think I should go talk with her.”
“She’s pouting about this afternoon.” Her father was irritated. “Just leave her alone. If she wants to sulk in her room, she won’t be missed. It’s you everyone wants to see, and we both know I’m having this party just for you, anyway.”
“Oh, that’s just it, Poppa.” As always, April felt totally frustrated trying to make him understand. “I just found out that Vanessa overheard our arguing over her being included in the party. She’s terribly hurt. She’s been hiding that hurt all these weeks. She doesn’t feel you want her here. And it’s not true that everyone wants to see just me. They want to include Vanessa, and it is her party, too. Now I’m going upstairs and try to reason with her.”
He sighed, then said, “All right. I will go with you. If she’s sulking, I’ll tell her that if she doesn’t come downstairs to make you happy, I’ll drag her down.”
“No! I’d rather go alone. You’ll only make things worse, Poppa. You and Vanessa just bring out the worst in each other.”
She started making her way across the ballroom, but he was right behind her “I’m not going to put up with her selfish, ugly behavior tonight of all nights,” he said quietly. “If necessary, I’ll tell her she misunderstood, and I do want her at the party.”
Gratitude washed over April. “Poppa, it would be so wonderful of you to tell her that.”
He scowled. “I’d only do it for your sake, April, to make you happy. I certainly don’t want her here. Mark my words, she will do something to bring disgrace on this family. The girl is uncontrollable.”
“She is not. She just feels that no one loves her. I’ve told you before how unfairly you treat her, Poppa. She’s as much a part of you as I am—”
“Oh, there’s the lovely belle of the ball!”
April stopped short at the bottom of the stairs as Graham’s mother moved in front of her.
“I’ve been wanting to speak to you, dear. This is such a lovely party. Your father should be very proud of himself. You are such a beautiful girl, and now that you are being formally presented to society, I’m going to have a difficult time with Graham. He’s going to be so upset when all the eligible young men start hovering around you.”
April had never cared for Mrs. Fletcher. She was such a gusher, forever going on and on about something. She looked to her father for help, but he was kissing Mrs. Fletcher’s hand, being gracious, as always.
“Will you excuse us, Mrs. Fletcher?” April turned sideways to slide around her, inching her way toward the stairs. “We’re going upstairs to see what’s keeping the other belle of the ball, my sister, Vanessa.”
Mrs. Fletcher’s nose wrinkled in distaste. “Oh, I see.” Her voice was stiff. “Graham didn’t tell me the party was for her, too.”
“Well, why wouldn’t it be?” April snapped. “She is my twin, and the invitations plainly stated the party is for the debut of April and Vanessa Jennings, and—”
“Uh, April, it’s all right.” Her father touched her shoulder, nodding apologetically to Mrs. Fletcher. “You must excuse us. April is worried that her sister might be ill since she has not come downstairs yet. Enjoy yourself, please.”
“I was going upstairs myself.” She tilted her head upward. “I would like to freshen up.” With an icy glare in April’s direction, she lifted her skirts and began to make her ascent.
April gritted her teeth and followed. She lagged behind her father so he would have to be the one to make idle chitchat with Isabelle Fletcher.
“I’m so worried about Graham,” Mrs. Fletcher sighed. “He’s so anxious to march off to war. He thinks it’s so grand and glorious. Bless his courageous heart, he just doesn’t realize he could get killed. It’s frightful, all this dreadful war talk. Graham is my only son and the love of my life. I declare, if anything happened to him, I just couldn’t stand it.”
If he doesn’t leave me alone, April thought with gritted teeth, he’ll be safer going to war.
“I’m sure the war will end quickly,” her father said, trying, April knew, to be polite. He didn’t really care for the talkative
woman any more than she did. “I hear all the young men are afraid it will be over before they have a chance to shoot any Yankees.”
Isabelle Fletcher made a clucking sound. “To think our young men actually want to shoot someone. It’s just terrible! If the Yankees would only mind their own business.”
April started to comment that if everyone would mind their own business, life would be wonderful, but she couldn’t be rude. After all, Mrs. Fletcher was a guest in her home, and she wasn’t being any more annoying than usual.
They reached the second floor. “I will see you and your sister downstairs, April,” Mrs. Fletcher said, smiling.
April nodded and hurried in the opposite direction, wishing her father were not following. She would stand a better chance of reasoning with Vanessa if he weren’t present.
She paused outside Vanessa’s door, took a deep breath, then lifted her fist to knock.
Her hand froze in midair. There was laughter, and not just a woman’s laughter. She was sure she heard the deep, throaty chuckle of a man!
Her father joined her, looking impatient. “Well, what is it? Won’t she answer the door? We haven’t got all night.”
Before April could stop him, he reached around to grab the knob. The door swung open.
Vanessa was lying across her bed, her mussed ballgown twisted about her. Her bodice had been pulled down, completely exposing her breasts.
The man on top of her jumped up, and April gasped as she recognized Rance Taggart. His shirt was unbuttoned to the waist. She had seen his hand slide quickly away from Vanessa’s breasts.
Vanessa’s eyes glittered maliciously. Her long hair whipped about her face as she said, “Don’t tell me I was missed at your party, sister, dear. Since I wasn’t wanted, I decided to have one of my own and neither of you were invited.”
Rance struggled his feet, stuffing his shirttail into his trousers. Vanessa continued to lie there languidly, exposed, challenging anyone to admonish her.
Carter Jennings stood rigid with shock, his bulging eyes taking in the scene. Then, suddenly, he came alive, lunging forward, arms outstretched, hands reaching for Rance Taggart’s throat.
Behind her, April heard a scream and was vaguely aware that Isabelle Fletcher was in the hallway, watching.
“I’ll kill you for this!” The force of Carter’s lunge at Rance took both of them to the floor. Rance was trying to get the older man away from him without hurting him, while struggling to breathe through Carter’s grip on his throat.
Vanessa continued to lie there and watch, expressionless, making no move to cover her nakedness.
Sobbing, April hurried to pull her father away from Rance. She tripped and went sprawling to the floor. “Poppa, no!” she screamed, trying to get back on her feet, impaired by the giant hoop beneath her heavy skirt. “Poppa, you’ll kill him!”
Mrs. Fletcher’s screams had brought others to the upstairs hallway, and several crowded into the room to pull Carter away from Rance. It was difficult. In his wrath, the older man had a viselike hold on Rance’s neck.
When they were finally able to get him to his feet, they led Carter out of the room and into the hall. He was still struggling fiercely, cursing and swearing, demanding that they release him at once.
Rance staggered to his feet, rubbing his bruised throat. He saw April struggling to stand, and he reached down and jerked her to her feet.
“If you stupid women wouldn’t wear those silly iron bird cages, you could get up when you fall down,” he commented.
“How dare you?” April’s hand cracked across his face. “How dare you stand there and look so smug when you tried to rape my sister?”
His eyes widened as he looked from her to Vanessa, who started giggling. “You…you think I tried to rape her?” he asked incredulously.
“Oh, I wouldn’t take anything for this,” Vanessa laughed shrilly. “Poppa didn’t want me at your party, and I had one of my own, and now everyone is upset. This is just marvelous!”
She saw Isabelle Fletcher watching in horror from the open doorway. “Well, what are you looking at?” Vanessa yelled. “If you’d open a few doors around your house, you’d find your son doing the same thing with your servant girls!”
With a gasp of outrage, Mrs. Fletcher backed out of the room and out of sight. Vanessa slowly tucked her breasts back into the bodice of her dress, then looked at Rance and said, “I think you’d better go now.”
“Yeah,” he said quietly, calmly, his eyes burning strangely into April’s. “I suppose your party is over now.”
“I think you should leave the way you came.” Vanessa pointed toward the door leading to the veranda. “If Poppa sees you again, he’ll kill you.”
With a crooked smile, he looked at April and rubbed the red imprint of her hand upon his cheek with the back of his hand. “Don’t ever do that again, blue eyes. I don’t allow a woman to make more than one mistake.”
April was speechless, staring as he walked out the door and disappeared into the night.
“He is a handsome devil, isn’t he?” Vanessa got up and stood before her mirror. She picked up a brush and began stroking it through her wildly tangled hair.
April fought to speak. “How…how can you stand there so calmly after…after what you just did?”
Vanessa laughed shrilly. “We did not do anything, sister dear. We were merely, shall I say, enjoying ourselves? Rance would make a wonderful lover, though. He’s so powerful, so strong! Couldn’t you and Poppa have waited a few moments longer? Then you might have walked in on something quite fascinating.”
“Vanessa, just shut up!” April stumbled toward the veranda door, peering miserably out at the carriages now hurrying down the curving drive. The guests were leaving. The ball was over. “You ruined it all,” she murmured. “I hope you’re satisfied.”
The sound of the hair brush slamming on the dresser made April turn quickly, startled. “Yes, I am quite satisfied.” Vanessa’s nostrils flared. Her face was starting to redden. Her whole body shook with her wrath. “You think I don’t know what goes on around here? I heard Poppa say he did not want me at the party. And I heard you tell him what gossip it would provoke if I weren’t there. The two of you—talking about me as though I were the family disgrace, some kind of poor, demented soul to be locked away where no one can see me! I won’t stand for it, April. Not now or ever!”
As she moved forward, April shrank back, thinking Vanessa was about to strike her. But Vanessa grasped her hand and held it up, displaying the huge ring. “I see Poppa bestowed the precious ring upon you. That is the official family ring, isn’t it?”
April nodded, numb. How could she explain to her sister that it was all right, she intended to share everything with her? In her present mood, Vanessa wouldn’t listen.
“So! Pinehurst will be all yours, one day,” Vanessa said. She slung April’s hand away, her breath coming in gasps as she continued her furious explosion. “You go on and enjoy yourself for now, my father’s precious darling. But one day my day will come, and then you will pay for all you have ever done to hurt me.”
“I never tried to hurt you. I love you, Vanessa. I hate the way Poppa has treated you all these years. It wasn’t fair for him to blame you for Mother dying, and I’ve told him that over and over. You can ask Posie. She’s heard me argue with him and defend you.”
“Lies! All lies!” Vanessa whirled away, starting to pace up and down the room, wringing her hands as tears streamed down her face. “Get out of here. I don’t want to listen to you anymore.”
“I must make you understand,” April begged. “You arranged all this tonight so you would be discovered. You wanted to embarrass Poppa. But don’t you see? You’ve only embarrassed yourself. You ruined the party, if that was your intent, but I don’t care about that. I care about you and what you’ve done to yourself. I’d rather you tell me that Rance forced his way in here and tried to rape you than—”
“Perhaps that might have been true, once
,” Vanessa stopped pacing to smile at her. “But Rance does not have to rape his women. All he has to do is kiss them and touch them in a special way, and they beg to be taken, as I did.”
“He’s been around animals so long he’s become one himself.”
“But a wonderful animal,” Vanessa gloated. “The kind a woman is born to please.”
“I won’t listen to any more of this. Tomorrow when we’ve all calmed down, we’ll talk. Good night, Vanessa.” April hurried from the room, grateful to see that the hallway was empty.
She walked to the stairway and looked down at the empty house. Posie was just closing the front door. “Is that the last of our guests?” she called down softly.
Posie looked up at her, tears streaming down her dark cheeks. “Yes’m. It didn’t take ’em long to clear out. Missus Fletcher, she invited ever’body over to her house. I think most of ’em went. Prob’ly just to gossip. It’s a shame. A terrible, terrible shame.” She shook her head from side to side.
“Where is Poppa?”
“Buford took him some whiskey and said he was gonna sit with him till he got hold of hisself. He wanted to get a gun and kill that Taggart boy. He’s mad at Miss Vanessa, too. She’s sho’ gonna hear about this fo’ a long, long time.”
“I don’t think any of us will ever forget it, Posie,” April sighed. “I’m going to bed now, though I doubt I’ll sleep.”
“Want me to bring you up somethin’ to eat? We got plenty of food left. Won’t hardly none of it touched.”
“I can’t eat. Thank you.” She went to her room and started to pull the bell cord for Lucy, but decided she would rather be alone. She struggled out of the crinolines and hoops by herself. She put out the lantern, crawled under the satin coverlet and stared into the darkness.
Sleep would not come. It was a nightmare. She knew she would never forget the sight of Vanessa lying there, her breasts exposed, being fondled by Rance Taggart.
Rance Taggart. She could feel only hatred for him. Cold, consuming hatred. She trembled with it.
It was difficult now to recall the cobwebs of childhood memories when they had played together. The times had been rare, for as soon as her father discovered she was with the son of a hired hand, he had reprimanded her. But there had been some warm summer afternoons splashing in a secret pond, and hours spent whispering in the shadows of the stable as he confided his love of horses, and dreams of growing up to conquer the West.
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