Alana (19 page)

“And if I’m not mistaken,” he continued in a level voice, “the reason you wanted to become rich was to avenge the people who took what was yours. You can’t do that if you’re dead.

Use the money. Damn it, son, we got plenty now. Use the money to lure them.”

“Don’t you think I’ve been trying to do just that? They won’t rise to the bait,” Rafe stated.

“Have you given them the right bait?” Caleb asked wisely.

“What is the right bait?” Rafe shot back.

“It sure in hell ain’t what you’ve been trying, is it? Besides, we ain’t got much time before I got to go back to the mine.”

“You don’t have to rush back. Tom McPherson can be trusted,” Rafe said without any doubts. Tom McPherson had been the man in charge of the Montgomery Company’s warehouses. He had lost his job when Elizabeth signed over the papers.

When Rafe had found McPherson, and the man had recovered from seeing Rafe’s ghost, they’d talked for several hours. Rafe knew McPherson had had nothing to do with the com-pany’s loss, and he offered him the mining job, which he’d accepted immediately.

“I don’t doubt McPherson,” Caleb said, “I just don’t like to be away from the mine for too long.”

Rafe nodded his head. “All right, Caleb. What do you have in mind?”

“We have to make them trust us. They can’t know who you are. So,” he began, “buy one or two small businesses, the type of business that would need a shipping company, and maybe an exporter.” After pausing to fix Rafe with a knowledgeable stare, he continued to outline his idea. When he was finished, Rafe smiled, but Abigail looked apprehensive.

“It’s very risky,” she told both of them, but Rafe saw the special look that she favored Caleb with, and he found himself somewhat surprised.

“We’ll be careful,” Caleb promised her.

“Okay, Caleb, I’ll try it your way for now. But it will take more time than I want to spend.”

“Son, anything worth the while takes time. I waited thirty-five years to find that mine; I think you can wait a few months to find the people you’re lookin’ for.”

“But I won’t wait too long, Caleb.” Rafe’s words were both statement and warning, and his hardened eyes backed up his tone.

~~~~~

“Alana, chile’, I sure hopes you knows what you’re a-doin’,” Lorelei said as she looked at Alana’s strained features.

Alana shrugged her shoulders. She had not spent a waking minute in the past week without thoughts of Crystal Revanche’s offer. When she’d returned to Riverbend, she had told Lorelei about the strange turn of events.

Lorelei had said nothing, but Alana had seen the effect of her words on her housekeeper and friend. “I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t, aren’t I, Lorelei?”

“I doesn’t know about that, chile’, I doesn’t.”

Alana drew her eyes from Lorelei and looked out again at the plantation. Today was the day she would have to give Crystal Revanche her answer, and she had yet to decide what that an-swer would be.

“If my mother were alive, she would never forgive me for turning Riverbend into a whorehouse.”

“Chile’, your mother ain’t alive, and if’n she were, she would expect you to do what was right fo’ you and fo’ Riverbend, an’ only dat!”

“But Lorelei, what is right?”

Lorelei looked away from Alana and took a deep breath. “Alana, dat answer be only in one place, chile’, in your heart. Jus’ like it was when Mister Rafe be staying here.” When she finished speaking, Lorelei did not look at Alana.

“You knew all along, didn’t you?” Alana whispered.

“Yes,” Lorelei replied.

Alana had nothing to say. Thinking of Rafe made her wonder for the thousandth time if he had gotten her letter, but she was sure he had not. She knew, with the deep certainty of the love they had shared, that if he had, he would have come to her. “Is everything set out in the salon?” Alana asked.

“Yes’m,” Lorelei replied.

Alana nodded absently while she looked toward the drive. Then she heard the sound of a horse and carriage. She’s here, Alana thought, still fighting to make her decision. When the carriage, an exquisitely wrought English brougham, came into view, Alana went to the edge of the drive. After the brougham stopped, the tall, thin black driver left his seat and went to help Crystal Revanche out.

Once on the ground, Crystal smiled at Alana and looked around. “You have a magnificent home,” she said.

“Thank you,” Alana replied, feeling proud despite the strange circumstances. “Shall we go inside, or would you like to walk around a bit? I know it’s been a long ride for you.” Crystal studied Alana’s face. “I wouldn’t want to be disappointed. Let’s talk inside first.”

Alana nodded her head and started to turn, but she stopped to look back at the driver, who still stood beside the carriage. Then she looked up at the veranda. “Lorelei, would you see to the driver?”

Lorelei came down the steps and spoke to the driver. The man did not respond or move to get up on the carriage again.

“He cannot speak, but he understands,” Crystal told her. “Go with her, Chaco, I will be fine.”

The moment Crystal spoke to him, Chaco nodded his head, made several motions with his hands, and then went up to the driver’s seat. Lorelei joined him there and pointed out the direction.

“What was that he did?” Alana asked when the carriage drove away.

“He spoke to me. Chaco was among the last of the illegal slaves brought into the country before the war. He was only ten at the time, and he never spoke. I taught him to speak with his hands. What he signed–said to me, was that he would stay nearby if I needed him.”

“He is your servant?” Alana asked while she digested this interesting piece of information.

“In a manner of speaking, but you might say that he is more my friend than my servant.” Crystal stared openly at Alana. “Does that shock you?”

This time Alana smiled. “Should it?”

Crystal shrugged her shoulders. “You were a slaveholder until after the war.”

“No,” Alana replied, “as a matter of fact, I had no slaves during the war. No human being should own another.” Crystal’s eyebrows arched, but she said nothing; instead, she followed Alana up the steps and into the house.

Five minutes later they were seated on the long settee in the salon. Lorelei poured tea and uncovered the small pastries that the cook had prepared for them.

When Crystal put down her cup, her eyes locked on Alana. “Have you made your decision yet?”

Alana held the other woman’s gaze for a long moment before she spoke. Her reply was simple. “Yes, I have.”

Alana
continued to hold Crystal’s gaze as she spoke. “I had made no decision until just this moment. I’ve thought about everything you said to me in Charleston and agonized over whether I could do what you asked to Riverbend.”

When Alana stopped speaking, Crystal let go of the breath she’d been holding. She studied the lines of tension accenting Alana’s drawn features, and a heavy sense of loss overtook her. She had hoped that she and Alana could join forces to stop Ledoque and learn about the consortium. But beneath her hopes, she’d known that Alana Landow was still a southern aristocrat and not the type of woman who would go against her upbringing.

“I see,” Crystal whispered.

Alana, realizing that Crystal had taken her words to be her answer, quickly shook her head. “No, I don’t think you do. I have decided to accept your offer, Madame Revanche.” Crystal’s surprise made her speechless. And in the few seconds that Crystal stared wide-eyed at Alana, her spirits rose.

However, she held back her elation for a moment longer, because more needed to be said. Exhaling slowly, Crystal began to speak. “You realize that you will be tarnishing your good name. That you will feel the ostracism that is part of being associated with whores. You will become alienated from all your friends.”

“But I will not be a whore. I will be a businesswoman only!” Alana stated unequivocally.

“Nevertheless,” Crystal stated, “your neighbors and the good people of Charleston will call you a whore.”

“Aren’t those good people the same ones who are standing idly by watching me lose everything? No, Madame Revanche, I don’t care what they say. I know who and what I am. To accept Charles Ledoque’s terms would make me a whore in fact, if not in name. We will be partners, Madame Revanche–or have you now changed your mind?”

“We will be partners,” Crystal declared, and a smile of genuine warmth and liking for Alana wreathed her face.

Ledoque and James Allison sat across from each other in the darkened office. Allison, smoking a cigar as was his wont, slowly shook his head.

“Forget the woman. You did exactly what we set out to do. You converted the Montpelier contracts. The last two ships would have made a good addition, but we don’t need them–we already have the other three.”

“I won’t give up in this. I want the woman, James, and I intend to have her, with or without her ships. Besides, she defied me and tried to make a fool out of me. I won’t stand for that.”

“Whatever, but don’t let it interfere with our business,” Allison warned.

“Have I ever let anything do that, James?” Ledoque asked with a nasty smile on his face.

“Not yet,” Allison replied.

“What about the South African routes?” Ledoque inquired.

Allison blew out a stream of smoke. “That is going very well at present. Maklin-Parkins awarded my tooling company a contract by for mining equipment. They have also given our new company, Marquette Shipping, the exclusive trade rights for America. Yes, everything is going well. We have an office and warehousing in Cape Town, and I am negotiating with Parkins to form a new partnership with the consortium. Judging by his latest communication, he seems interested.”

“Very good,” Ledoque said approvingly.

“Yes, it is. And now, Charles, the figures for the last quarter?”

Ledoque reached to the stack of papers on the table and handed them to Allison. He knew that when Allison was finished, the consortium would be extremely pleased with the gains he had made in the past three months and with the almost total control he was gaining in all the southern ports.

However, as James Allison went over the figures, Ledoque’s mind was busy with the question of Alana Landow. He needed to teach her a lesson, and the whore who had helped her to escape from him!

~~~~~

Four months after Alana handed Charles Ledoque a bank draft for the entire forty thousand dollars, she discovered that Crystal had become more than just a partner–she had become a friend.

All considered Riverbend to be a bordello, and called Alana a whore, but she had not once regretted doing what had been necessary.

It had taken a full month of whirlwind activity and hard work to organize the house and set it up so that it could function as a real home as well as a…business.

It seemed as if the old plantation house had been built with Crystal’s plans already in mind. Everything on the main floor remained the same: The salon was now the place where the men awaited their ladies, and served refreshments while doing so; the library and study became the private offices of Alana and Crystal. Upstairs the master bedroom suite continued to be Alana’s private domain. Her old bedroom suite became Crystal’s. The five bedrooms down the hall became the shared living quarters for the ten girls Crystal brought with her. Crystal restructured the five large two-room suites in the guest wings into ten bedrooms without any major work required.

The one very important item the two women had decided on was that Riverbend the plantation would stay separate from Riverbend the bordello. Alana ran the plantation with the same determination and iron will with which Crystal ran her business, and by the time the second month of business ended, the money, as Crystal predicted, flowed through the door.

The women had bought a riverboat and hired a captain to bring customers to Riverbend via the Ashley. However, Alana still utilized Captain Bowers and his boat for plantation business whenever possible.

The partnership agreement drawn up by Carlton DuPont, although voicing reservations about this new partnership, was straightforward and he, apart from everyone else, had not condemned Alana.

Crystal, who, showing unexpected expertise, looked after the Landow Shipping business and began to get small but lucrative contracts,. It took Alana several weeks before she realized that invariably two days after Crystal “entertained” a man herself, a new commission would come to Landow Shipping.

Knowing she had agreed to everything Crystal had set up, Alana kept her own counsel about what she saw and thought.

Slowly over the months, Alana and Crystal’s relationship change in small ways–the confiding of some small thing, the way one would look after the other, the opening of their minds to each other, and the caring that both women showed.

But, the friendship that was building was cemented one early spring morning.

Alana was having a solitary breakfast when she heard the shouts of Jeremy, Ben’s son, as he ran toward the house. Going out to the veranda, she saw Jeremy’s tear-streaked face and knew something terrible had happened.

“What is it?” she called as she raced down the steps.

“De horses,” he said between shallow breaths.

“The mare? The foal?” Alana screamed. Jeremy couldn’t speak–all he could do was look at her with huge, tear-filled eyes.

Rather than try to get the answer from him, Alana had run to the stables.

The mare had been nearing her time to deliver, and anything could have happened. When Alana got there, she discovered a truth more horrible than anything she had imagined. When she looked into the stallion’s stall, her stomach twisted sickeningly.

Clamping her teeth together, she fought off nausea and made herself look at the mutilated horse. Then she climbed over the railing and walked to the mare’s stall. When she got there, a wave of blind agony rushed through her. The mare was dead, and horribly mutilated. The foal was still within the mother’s womb.

Her scream reached out to shake the very foundations of her mind; rage and fury darkened her soul at this desecration of life.

She did not know how long she stood staring at the mare, her mind mired in hate. She might never have moved, but Crystal had taken her in her arms and pulled her away.

She heard Crystal shout orders to the workers. Then she found herself sitting on the settee with Crystal and Lorelei both hovering above her.

A few moments later, she spoke. “Why?” she asked Crystal. “Who would do this?”

Crystal’s face tightened; her eyes looked distant. “Don’t you know?”

Alana started to say no but stopped herself when she saw something in Crystal’s green eyes. “He wouldn’t do that,” she whispered.

Crystal said nothing; the hard set of her face was answer enough.

“Why? Why would Ledoque kill the horses?”

“Because he knew how much you valued them. Because he knew it would hurt you!”

She heard the truth in Crystal’s words. “I will kill him!” Alana swore, her mind a black mass of rage.

“No, you shall not, Alana, but he will pay. As God is my witness, he will pay.”

It was in that moment Alana knew she and Crystal had truly become one in their quest to fight Charles Ledoque, and with that understanding, her heart opened fully to Crystal.

“We will make him pay!” Alana affirmed with the same vehemence as Crystal.

From then on, the two women spent each morning together. They concentrated on working out ways in which they could build their shipping business up to the point where they could start to hurt Ledoque and possibly even regain the Montpelier contracts.

In the early evenings, before the customers arrived, Crystal and Alana would sit together over dinner and talk about themselves. At first, they had spoken in generalities, but as their relationship grew, so did their trust in each other. Alana found herself confiding in Crystal perhaps because she had never had this close a friendship with another woman near her own age, although Crystal was four years her senior.

She often talked about Jason and the hopes she’d had for them. One night she even spoke to Crystal about the hard times at the beginning of her marriage.

“Was there no one else besides Jason?” Crystal had asked in a soft voice.

Alana had started to shake her head but stopped when she looked into the openness of Crystal’s eyes. “Yes, there was,” she whispered truthfully. “He was a wonderful man, and I still love him completely. But it was a love that could not be.” She never once spoke Rafe’s name.

“Because of your promise to Jason?”

“Because of my duty to Riverbend and my obligations to Jason.”

“Your…other love sounds like a good man,” Crystal said.

“A strong man also, for if he had not been, I would have gone with him rather than stay here and face the loss of life without him.”

“It could be argued that he was a fool for letting you send him away.”

After a brief surge of anger, Alana smiled slowly. “He was not a fool. And one day he shall return for me.” Once the words left her lips, she realized that it was the first time she had voiced her secret dream aloud.

Alana saw more questions forming on Crystal’s face, but she appreciated the way Crystal held herself back from voicing them.

“I hope so, Alana, I truly do,” Crystal said.

A few moments later, Crystal spoke again. But when she asked her next question, her voice was hesitant. “Do you–I mean, after loving only one man, and then living for a year with another who could not make love to you, do you not find yourself wanting a man?”

Again Alana started to take offense at Crystal’s words, but she sensed that there was more to the question than Crystal had asked.

Slowly she shook her head. “Only when I think of–” Alana stopped herself from mentioning Rafe’s name. She would not do that, ever. It was hers alone, until the day when he might again claim her love. “Only when I think of him. But I have never desired another man.”

“I have never desired any man,” Crystal stated suddenly.

Alana stared at her in surprise. “But you’re–you are a–”

“Being a whore does not mean I hunger for a man’s touch, Alana,” Crystal said with a hard smile. “You know I was forced to become a whore.”

“But you chose to stay one after you had escaped.”

“What could I do? No man would love me after learning I was a whore.”

“Need he have to learn?”

“I would have to tell him. I would not hide so harsh a secret from a man. It would be wrong. It would be a lie.”

“There will be someone,” Alana had said.

“I think not. You see, it takes all my willpower not to scream when a man touches me. I hate it, Alana–I hate it with every inch of my being.”

“Then why?”

“How else could I make the money I do? How else could I have been able to help you? I have something that must be accomplished in my lifetime, and I will not stop until I have done it!”

Alana had nothing to say to that, but that admission had told her more about Crystal than anything else ever could have.

When they both stood, Alana to retire to her room for the night, Crystal to go to work, Alana went over to Crystal and suddenly, impulsively embraced her.

“Thank you, Crystal, for everything.”

They held each other for several minutes, and when they parted, both women’s eyes were misty.

A few nights after that, they were again sitting in the dining room, once more talking about their lives, when Crystal began to talk about her brother. Crystal found it too painful to mention her brother by name, and indeed, she was reluctant to discuss him at all. She revealed only that those who wanted to take over the family business had killed her brother.