Mountain Laurel Read online

  She knew she couldn’t tell him. She couldn’t tell anyone. Even if Hears Good had appeared, she couldn’t have told him either. “I can’t tell you,” she raged at him, but to her horror there was a catch in her voice. “I can’t tell even my father.”

  He moved his head to look at her. “You can tell me,” he whispered.

  It was those words that made the tears start. She tried to choke them back, but she couldn’t. She tried to find her anger again, but she couldn’t renew it. Truthfully, she was glad to see another human being. She was tired of being alone. “I can’t tell anyone. Not anyone.” The tears won out then, a great steady flood of them.

  ’Ring moved off her and pulled her into his arms. While holding her, he leaned back against a tree and held her to him, cradling her as one would a child. “Go ahead and cry, sweetheart. You deserve to cry.”

  Since Laurel had been taken, Maddie had not allowed herself to cry much. She had been very brave and strong as she told herself that she was doing what must be done. But then, perhaps the reason she had been able to be brave was because she had had hope, hope that Laurel was going to be returned to her and that everything would turn out all right. But after tonight her hope was almost gone.

  ’Ring stroked her hair and held her tightly and securely as she cried. He’d said that she was safe now, and she did indeed feel much safer. And when her head cleared somewhat, she was grateful that he wasn’t raging at her for having once again used opium on him. She tried to pull away from him, if for no other reason than that she was very embarrassed. She sat up in his lap. “I am so sorry, Captain. I don’t usually do this.”

  He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and handed her his clean handkerchief. Maddie was glad for the darkness that hid her red face. The entire front of his shirt and a great deal of his jacket was soaked.

  She blew her nose and the unladylike noise further embarrassed her. “I usually have better control of myself than this. I…” She trailed off, not knowing what to say. She started to get off his lap, but he pulled her back into his arms and snuggled her head against his chest.

  She did try to move away from him, but it wasn’t a serious attempt to move and he didn’t have to make much effort to hold her to him. His heart against her cheek felt good, and as she lay against him, she prayed that he wouldn’t again start asking her to tell him where she had been.

  “I don’t guess you’ve had many women cry on you before, have you, Captain? I would imagine most women do their best to present their best side to you. Mustn’t let handsome Captain Montgomery see a lady in any way except at her best.”

  She had meant her comment to be a little snide—anything to save her further embarrassment, but he was silent for so long that she felt guilty about her nastiness. She lay still against him, listening to his heart and trying to think of anything except Laurel.

  “Actually,” he said slowly. “I held my sister, Ardis, after Davy died. She cried then.”

  Maddie was quiet, allowing him time to tell her the story if he wished. She didn’t want to leave his arms, didn’t want to move away from him, and thinking of someone else took her mind off Laurel. “Who was Davy?”

  “Davy was the son of a woman who worked for us. Her husband had been killed before Davy was born so we became her family, and with there being so many kids in our family, there was always a lot to do. My sister Ardis was born two days before Davy, and it seemed natural to put the two of them together. They played together, slept together, took their first steps by holding on to each other.”

  He looked off into the darkness and smiled. “I guess it was a little odd how much they were left on their own, but my mother produced a new child every year for a while, and I guess everyone was grateful that there were at least two kids who didn’t need constant attention. As the oldest, with a whole passel of brats following me, I was glad to have one fewer to pester me.”

  He took a breath and put his hand in Maddie’s hair and began stroking it. “Three years ago, when Ardis was seventeen, I received a letter from her asking if I could come home for her wedding to Davy. With those two, a wedding seemed anticlimactic. I’m not sure that I’d ever even seen one without the other.” He smiled again. “You should have seen them! They were like a world unto themselves. They talked together constantly, but when anyone else tried to talk to them, they had nothing to say. I was very pleased when Ardis asked me to her wedding because, to tell you the truth, I wasn’t sure she knew anyone except Davy was alive.”

  “You returned?”

  “Yes, of course. I arrived in Warbrooke three days before the wedding. My mother was in a dither because Ardis was the first of her children to get married. Ardis was the calmest of the bunch. The only time she showed any agitation was when my mother told her she couldn’t see Davy for twenty-four hours before the wedding. I don’t think Ardis had gone so much as an hour of her life without Davy beside her, and she didn’t very much like the idea of being without him. I think that if it had been up to her, she would have called off the wedding rather than do without Davy for a whole day.”

  He paused. “Nor did Davy like the idea of separation. He didn’t say much—he never did—but we think that’s why he rowed out to Ghost Island by himself.”

  “Ghost Island?”

  “Warbrooke is on the tip of a peninsula and there are islands not far away. Ghost Island is said to be haunted by a couple of men, one of them wearing a black mask. Boys often take girls there to frighten them.”

  “Did you?”

  “No.”

  He was silent, not saying anything, just holding her and stroking her hair.

  “What happened to Davy?”

  “We don’t know. He never came back. When he didn’t show up for the wedding we knew that something was wrong. Davy wasn’t going to jilt Ardis. Everyone started searching. My brother Jamie found Davy’s little rowboat. It had caught on a snag on the far side of Ghost Island. But there was no sign of Davy.”

  “How did Ardis take the news?”

  “She was very, very calm. Everyone else was tearing around, no sleep, only enough food to keep us alive as we searched for him, but Ardis was still and quiet, not saying anything. On the third day after when the wedding was supposed to have taken place, Davy’s body washed up on shore.”

  “What had happened to him?”

  “We never knew. After three days in the water, the body was misshapen and the fishes…”

  “I understand. What about Ardis? Did she cry then?”

  “No, she didn’t cry then. My mother went to tell her the news and Ardis took it very well. Everyone was so relieved—that is, until the next day at breakfast, when Ardis kept looking out the window. Someone asked her what she was looking for and she said she couldn’t imagine what was keeping Davy.”

  “How awful.”

  “Yes, it was. No one knew what to do. For two days we all tiptoed around the house, fearful that Ardis was losing her mind. I know they all meant well when they were so careful of her, but I had spent some time with the army and I had seen some things.”

  “Such as?”

  “Things I don’t want to remember, much less talk about. But I had seen women, and men as well, who had seen terrible things done to the people they’d loved. They, too, had done the best they could to pretend nothing had happened.”

  “What did you do?” she asked, sensing that he had been the one to help Ardis.

  “I took her to see Davy’s body.”

  She moved to look at him. “His body that the fishes had…”

  “Yes. I thought it might shock her into facing reality.”

  “Did it?”

  “No. She looked at the body but she didn’t see it. She said that she had to get back to the house to be there when Davy returned from Ghost Island.”

  He took a breath. “My family was quite angry with me when I returned home. They thought Ardis should be in bed. There was an awful scene and everyone was on her side and against me. You would