Ashes in the Wind

by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

  “As your mistress?” She laughed in amazement. “Sir, you are dreaming.”

  He caught her roughly by the arms and snatched her close to him. “Don’t laugh at me again, mademoiselle.” His words took on the rushed Cajun accent. “You would only regret doing so. A face such as your does not bear well under a fist. It is too fine and fragile.”

  “I will be no man’s mistress, sir,” she hissed, glaring into those dark eyes.

  “I have ways to convince you,” he smiled lazily.

  Alaina shivered at the callow crudeness of his threat, and again she tried to turn away, dragging her eyes away from those burning black ones that bore into her. Then, over Jacques’s shoulder, she saw a familiar form paused in the doorway. Doctor Brooks stepped forward, loudly clearing his throat, and Jacques jerked around at the intrusion.

  “Miss Hawthorne, are you all right?” the doctor questioned.

  “You should have made your presence known, old man,” Jacques sneered angrily.

  Doctor Brooks fixed the younger man with a stern glower. “And you, sir, should not go about my hospital accosting and threatening defenseless girls. Begone from here before I set the sheriff on your tail, and don’t ever let me see you in here again.”

  “You think to threaten Jacques DuBonné?” the roué scoffed. “I will cut you up in little pieces for the alligators, monsieur. No one tell Jacques what to do.”

  “And I, sir, will rouse the gentlefolk of this city to a rat hunt if I ever catch you laying your hands on this young lady again.”

  Jacques’s nostrils flared with indignation, but he saw the truth in the old gentleman’s angry glare. “I will go, but not because you say.” He turned and sneered at Alaina. “I assure you, mademoiselle, we are not finished with this.”

  Alaina stared after the Frenchman as he made his departure, and finally, after a long moment, met the old doctor’s gaze. “I fear Mister DuBonné is becoming a bit overzealous in his determination to have me.” She tried to sound flippant, but she failed miserably as her voice quavered unsteadily. With more truth, she admitted, “I think he poses a bigger threat to me than I can handle just now. Saul drives me to work, then comes to pick me up. I never leave the house unless I’m with someone—either Jedediah or Saul. Who knows what that man will do, and if it’s a matter of his pride, he will not ease his attentions until he has satisfied it.”

  It seemed only a series of harassment tactics that found Angus vehemently denying that he had any part in the Yankee payroll robbery which the renegade Alaina MacGaren had been involved in. Several bank notes that he had deposited in the bank were identified by their serial number as those taken in the theft, and immediately a swarm of Yankee officers descended upon his store to question him at length. He could only explain that he had haplessly accepted the money as legal barter for some merchandise he had sold. The Yankees could not prove otherwise, and thus were helpless to pursue the matter. Long after they left, Angus sat at his desk and stared unblinkingly at the packet of letters he had received from Roberta before she died. The back door swung open, and Saul leaned in to announce that he would be going now to pick up Alaina.

  “Was dere anything else yo’ was wantin’ me ter do befo’ ah goes, Mistah Angus?”

  Angus heaved a laborious sigh. “No, Saul. You can be on your way.”

  The door closed gently behind the huge black, and it was a long while before Angus stirred himself enough to reach for the packet of letters. He opened the second envelope from the top and folded out the letter to examine the bank notes it contained, a part of the same that he had innocently deposited. They were crisp and unused, and in this one letter there was at least two thousand dollars in paper money tucked within it. The other letters contained like amounts, and the total wealth they contained approached almost twenty thousand dollars in crisp Yankee currency. Where his daughter had gotten them, he did not know—only that she had instructed him to keep them for her until she returned home again.

  Angus hastily put away the money as a knock came at the back door, and at his call of admittance, Doctor Brooks escorted Tally Hawthorne in. Angus rose to meet them, and pulled out a chair for the old woman.

  “We’ve come to talk with you about Alaina,” Tally stated bluntly.

  Angus frowned heavily. “I don’t know why you came here. The girl is no concern of mine.”

  “She’s your niece,” the woman reminded him pertly.

  “Of late, I’ve been trying to forget that fact.”

  “Angus! How could you! She’s such a dear, sweet child!” Tally scolded angrily.

  “Not as dear as my Roberta,” Angus commented caustically. “She’s meant trouble for me ever since I took her into my house, and I am forever hounded by her presence. I pray that I may be besieged no longer. I am an old man, and I am weary.”

  “Do you know anything about Jacques DuBonné and his threats against her?” Doctor Brooks inquired impatiently.

  “His threats against her! My lord, it is his threats against me that have laid me low. Any day I fear he will set a torch to my store, or my home, or that some other disaster might befall my family. Why should I worry about her when I have my own problems with Mister DuBonné?”

  “I have taken the initiative and written Cole about this matter,” Tally informed him imperiously.

  “Cole? That bas—?”

  “Angus!” Tally snapped sharply. “Control your tongue!”

  “That Yankee killed my daughter!” Angus barked.

  “You’re being ridiculous! It was not Cole’s fault,” Tally declared.

  “He got her with child!” Angus shouted.

  “Angus, I would suggest that you listen to what Tally is trying to tell you,” Doctor Brooks coaxed. “Cole has sent a reply to her letter, and it might be an answer to your difficulties.”

  “Anything that Yankee offers I am not interested in,” Angus vowed vehemently.

  “He has asked for Alaina’s hand in marriage,” Tally serenely conveyed.

  “What?!” Angus’s eyes nearly bulged from his head as he glared at the old woman.

  She nodded, undismayed. “Cole agrees that Alaina should be gotten out of New Orleans, and has offered the solution with his proposal.”

  “Never! Never!” Angus bellowed, shaking his fist at them. “I’ll see him rot in hell first!”

  “I’m sure you will be there to greet him should he fall victim to that wayward path,” Tally replied calmly.

  Angus’s jaw thrust out as he questioned sneeringly, “You come here and judge me, Tally Hawthorne, when you’ve managed to do well for yourself playing both sides of the fence, Yankee against rebel?”

  She smiled almost gently. “Angus, nobody seemed to bother what my opinions were, neither your high-and-mighty Confederate friends nor the Yankees, so I simply kept them, uncertain as they were, to myself. And with the exception of Mister DuBonné, no one has bothered me. I come here not to judge, but to plead with you to consent to this marriage as Alaina’s only kin. She will only come to harm in this city when Dubonné has every intention of making her his mistress. You must not let that happen—if you are at all a man of mercy.”

  “Leave me!” Angus thundered. “I’ll hear no more of this! Begone with you both!”

  “Very well, Angus.” Tally sighed and rose to her feet. “But let me warn you that if you do not soon relent, you may regret it for all your remaining life.”

  “Does Alaina know anything about this proposal?” Angus demanded.

  “We wanted to talk with you first,” Doctor Brooks explained.

  “You will say nothing to her!” Angus insisted.

  “I’ll give you a while to think about it,” Tally threatened. “Then, who knows?”

  They left without another word, closing the door behind them and leaving Angus standing alone in the darkening shadows of his store. He paced restlessly about, loathing the thought of satisfying any part of Cole’s desires, yet he knew that Jacques DuBonné was just waiting to sp
ring a trap from which there would be no escape. And if the man learned that his niece was the one and only Alaina MacGaren, then it would be hell to pay for sure. Angus was greatly troubled. What was he to do when he wanted to exact some type of revenge on the man who had taken his daughter and when, at the same time, he would be placing himself in jeopardy if he did not consent to the marriage?

  He mulled over the suspicions that Leala had roused in his mind, but he dismissed them as untruths. Roberta could not have played such a trick on anyone. Yet if Cole and Alaina were attracted to one another and if he consented to the marriage, then the Yankee would be well contented with her as his wife—unless they were somehow kept apart.

  Angus paused in his pacing to stare down glumly at his shoes, and pondered the options open to him. What should he do? What should he do?

  The heat of August descended upon the city with a merciless vengeance, and only in the cooler temperatures of the evening could a small measure of comfort be found. As she sat alone on the Craighugh porch, Alaina stared into the star-filled darkness of the heavens, wrapped in the aura of a melancholy mood. Supper had long since passed, and Angus, for a change, had arrived home at a reasonable hour and in a more sober state of mind than was his custom of late. For at least a week now, Jacques had kept his distance from the store, but his absence had all the feeling of a lull before the storm. It was hard for any of them to relax.

  The front door creaked open, and Alaina glanced around as her uncle stepped out onto the porch. He approached the swing where she rested and cleared his throat sharply as he settled himself in a nearby chair. It was apparent that he had something on his mind, but a long moment of silence passed between them before he came to the point.

  “I have written to Cole pleading with him to help you out of this predicament you’ve gotten into with Jacques.” Angus cleared his throat as if a bitter gall welled up within it. “He has offered to let you come north and stay in his house for a while until this trouble has passed. I, of course, reminded him that your reputation might be greatly compromised with such an arrangement. I further suggested marriage as a solution to the problem. He has tentatively accepted, providing—ahem—”

  Alaina waited rigidly, not feeling particularly complimented by her uncle’s account of his exchange with Cole. She was even less flattered when he continued.

  “Cole will accept on the grounds the marriage is considered to be only a temporary affair and that it be a titular arrangement, a marriage in name only—an affair of convenience to be annulled as soon as your problems are resolved.”

  “I see!” Alaina replied caustically, feeling more hurt and degraded than she cared to admit.

  Angus rushed on to reason with her before she could express her indignation. “I see no other option open to you, Alaina, or to me. Jacques DuBonné is becoming too much of a threat for us to live here safely together. If he should learn that you are Alaina MacGaren, there’ll be no hope for you. But as the wife of a retired Yankee officer, and one who was a hero besides, you’d be relatively safe. With Cole lending you his protection, you can leave the city without suspicion, and Jacques would not dare interfere.”

  “Thank you for your concern, Uncle Angus, but I’d rather not inconvenience Major Latimer. I can leave the city without his protection.”

  “You can’t even leave this house without one of Jacques’s men tagging behind. The man will not let you escape him. He knows your disguises, and no doubt has cautioned his men to be wary. As long as you’re living here with us, he’s probably hoping to persuade us in a more peaceable fashion to give you over to him—”

  “Peaceable!” Alaina scoffed. “Is that what you call it?”

  “Jacques has boasted of greater brutality. If he had some serious threat to hold over our heads, he’d be in here in a moment with his men to seize you. But now, he’s just feeling around, looking for some handle he can grasp in order to frighten us into submission. As long as he doesn’t have it, he’s probably as afraid of the authorities as we are. I do not believe that he is a very honest man.”

  “I’ll not become a burden to any man, and I won’t accept Major Latimer’s charity,” she gritted.

  “If you will not think of yourself, then consider what your aunt will have to suffer if you are taken,” Angus argued.

  “I’ll go away if you wish! I don’t have to stay here!”

  “And where will you go? Mrs. Hawthorne’s perhaps? Doctor Brooks’s? Will you put them in danger, too?”

  In roweling frustration, Alaina shot to her feet, but Angus held up a hand to stem the flow of tempestuous words.

  “Think about it. You owe us that much.”

  Alaina whirled and ran into the house, knowing all the hurt and humiliation of being rejected by the one man who haunted her dreams. In the quiet that followed her departure, Angus gazed out into the dark-filled night. Now that he was set on a course of action, he could not easily be swayed from his purpose. As much as he loathed to, he’d enlist the aid of Tally and Doctor Brooks to help convince Alaina that marriage with Cole was the only resource of freedom open to her. By the time his niece arrived in Minnesota, she would be, he vowed, so embittered with Cole Latimer that there would be no help for the two of them.

  It was late in the afternoon of the following day when Alana received word that she was wanted in Doctor Brooks’s office. Whenever such a summons had come before, she had been met with bad news, and she wondered what cataclysmic event confronted her this time. When she entered his small office, he rose from his desk and moved past her to close the door. It was then that her eyes fell on Mrs. Hawthorne who sat haughtily erect in the narrow corner behind the door. The old woman looked like a majestic queen with her wide hat and her veil tucked beneath her chin. She rested both hands on the handle of her parasol, the tip of which she had braced on the floor before her. She smiled sweetly and nodded her white head in greeting, and Alaina turned wonderingly back to Doctor Brooks as he reclaimed his chair. He leaned back, playing with a scalpel that lay on the desk top, and watched Alaina over the rim of his glasses. She glanced back and forth between the two elders, growing more and more confused by the vague signs of disapproval that she noted in their faces.

  “Have I done something wrong?” she questioned hesitantly, unable to bear the stilted silence any longer.

  Mrs. Hawthorne lowered her eyes briefly and toyed with the handle of her umbrella. “Not really wrong, Alaina, just utterly stupid.”

  Alaina sat down abruptly in a chair, more than a little stunned. Her gaze went to Doctor Brooks, and she caught him gazing thoughtfully into the distance, but nodding his head ever so slightly as if in agreement.

  Alaina was crushed that the criticism of these two friends and benefactors should descend upon her, and she had no clue as to the reason. She looked down at her suddenly clumsy hands and clasped them tightly in her lap to cease their fumbling. She heaved a long sigh against the urge to tears and shrugged.

  “I—don’t know what you disapprove of,” she murmured softly.

  Mrs. Hawthorne glanced at Doctor Brooks and received his nod of approval for her to proceed. “The doctor and I,” she began in a rather brittle tone, “went to considerable effort to arrange a way for you to leave Louisiana. At least, until things cool down a bit. We had to twist Angus’s arm nearly off to get his endorsement and cooperation. Now, we find that you have rejected the whole thing out of hand.”

  Alaina stared at her in amazement. “You mean you and Doctor Brooks—But Uncle Angus said that he—” She was more confused than ever.

  “Bah!” Mrs. Hawthorne barked. “For a man of otherwise intelligence, Angus Craighugh is a fool when it comes to matters of delicacy.”

  Doctor Brooks chuckled at Mrs. Hawthorne’s blunt appraisal. “Now, Tally,” he reproved gently. “Be fair.” He took on a slightly lecturing tone as he faced Alaina. “Angus did inform us of the fact that he had written Cole several letters—and what Cole’s suggestions were. It seems to me, Alaina,
that you made your denial in an emotional gesture which, though understandable, we are here to implore you to reconsider.”

  “I did not!” Alaina decried, a trifle insulted at the doctor’s judgment. “I was not angry. I listened to all of Uncle Angus’s reasons, and simply disagree that I should flee halfway across the country to let things simmer down.”

  Doctor Brooks leaned forward and began to tap the blade of the scalpel on a blotter. “I wonder, Alaina, if you have really considered the full depth of your predicament. Jacques has gained enough stature in the city’s affairs to be dangerous, and we know him to be most persistent. He will not leave you be. He bides his time until the moment is ripe, and then, my dear, you will find yourself in dire straits. Angus made his arguments, yet I doubt that he went this far. Angus can handle the accusations that Jacques makes against him because he is an honest man in his business, and can no doubt prove it. But if you are found out, both Angus and Leala will be judged harshly. For harboring a person who is believed to be, by both North and South, a most despicable criminal, they can be stripped of everything they have and thrown into prison.

  “Indeed, if the full story is brought out, even Tally and myself could join them. If Alaina MacGaren disappears for a while, what proof will there be that she was actually residing here among us? If you go away, there would be time to search out and correct the false accusations that have been leveled against you. It is most urgent that you leave, but where do you go? Back home? To hide in the swamp and hope that the Gilletts or someone as mean can’t ferret you out? If we can send you to some far-off city, how would you travel and how would you live? Certainly you cannot be known as Alaina MacGaren. Every riverboat captain, every sheriff would be suspicious of a young woman traveling alone. Then again, if you travel as the bride of a well-respected doctor, a wounded hero, who would be the wiser? I doubt that they would consider Mrs. Latimer as a suspect, and you would reside in a remote frontier community, free of Jacques, free of suspicious lawmen, free to relax and enjoy a bit of peace and gracious living.”