A Life Worth Living (10 page)

Allen smothered a groan, thinking he couldn’t stay in New York that long. With both Dora and him away, all kinds of problems could occur at the textile mill. Timothy would do everything he could, as would the foreman, but Allen couldn’t rid himself of the notion that they hadn’t seen the last of Ted Morgan.

ten

Although Dora obviously didn’t want him to leave, she must have realized he was needed more in North Carolina than with her. He stayed for a week until Kitty was released from the hospital, then he took a southbound train. As soon as the surgery was over, Dora had sent a special delivery letter to Mrs. Franklin, but Allen knew that Kitty’s mother would be uneasy until the girl was home. Although he was eager to check on events at the mill, when he got off the train in Fairfield, he went directly to the Franklin home. Mrs. Franklin had already received Dora’s letter, but Allen updated her on the girl’s recovery before he went to the mill office.

When he walked in, Timothy was laboring over one of the ledgers. When he saw Allen, a comical expression of relief spread over the boy’s face, and he wrapped Allen in a big bear hug. “I’ve never been so happy to see anybody in my life,” he said.

Allen disentangled himself from Timothy’s clutch. “What’s wrong? Have you had any trouble?”

“Nary a bit of trouble. According to the foreman everything is moving smoothly, but I’ve worried all the time what I’d do if we did have some trouble. I tell you this kind of life isn’t for me. I’m still planning to go west to seek my fortune. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep since you left.”

“Then that makes two of us.”

“And Kitty is still doing all right?”

“Yes, I didn’t leave until she’d learned to walk on the crutches. She’ll have to use them for a while. It will probably be a month before they can come home.”

Timothy groaned. “Four whole weeks! But at least you’re home, so I can go back to the farm.”

❧

If Allen still harbored doubts of how much he loved Dora, not seeing her for a month removed all doubts. He haunted the train station when a train was due, hoping she and Kitty would be on it. As soon as he’d arrived home, he’d sent a letter to Dora, and he hoped she would answer soon. Every day he went to the post office hoping for a message from her. When he did receive a letter saying that they would return to Fairfield within a week, he felt better. However, he realized that he was never going to be satisfied if Dora wasn’t where he could see her every day.

Should he ask her to marry him? Sometimes the expression on her face and the warmth radiating from her eyes led him to believe that she loved him. A few times he’d been tempted to talk to her about marriage, but each time he thought about it, he cringed. When he considered proposing to her, the word
millionaire
popped into his mind, and he figured most people would think he was marrying her for her money. Certainly her father would. The days passed endlessly, and he remembered how Dora had embraced him when he showed up at her New York apartment. He knew how she felt now. He prayed he wouldn’t do anything foolish when he met the train on her return.

Finally, he received a message that they were scheduled to arrive on the evening train within three days. He spread the word, and a crowd gathered to welcome Kitty home. When the train rolled into the station, a conductor stepped off first. Kitty appeared in the doorway, using a cane for support rather than the crutch she’d been using the last time he had seen her, and the conductor helped her down the steps.

With her free hand she waved and threw kisses at her friends and neighbors. Mrs. Franklin stepped forward, with her five other children beside her, and waited for Kitty. A lightweight brace was still on her leg, but she maneuvered the three train steps easily. Allen noted tears in her eyes, but he turned as his beloved came down the steps. She looked over the crowd until she saw him, and a ready smile spread across her beautiful face. He took her hand and helped her down the last step.

“Welcome home,” he whispered. “I’ve missed you.”

“Same here,” she said. Looking around the large crowd and to the town beyond, she continued, “Oh, it’s good to be home.”

Hearing her say those words brought happiness to his heart.

“When you sent word that Maude was going to stay in New York until after Christmas, I hired a reliable woman in Asheville to help you.” He picked up her bags. “I’ll take these to your house. I told her that you’d be here today, and I’m sure she’ll have everything cozy for you. She’s preparing supper.”

“Will you eat with me?” Dora asked. “I don’t like to eat alone.”

Allen grinned sheepishly. “I told her to prepare enough for two.”

“Is everything all right at the mill?”

“Yes. I think you’ll be pleased when you check the finances. You didn’t make a lot of money, but your income was more than expenses. I am worried about one situation, however. Ted Morgan has escaped from prison. He killed a guard in doing so, and the police are diligently searching for him, but so far he’s still on the loose.”

“You’re afraid for me, right?”

“Of course! That’s why I’m sorry Maude didn’t come home with you, so you wouldn’t be living alone. I’m going to be uneasy until he’s caught.”

“Don’t you think you’re in danger, too?”

“Sure, but he’d only shoot me. I doubt that’s what he would do to you.”

❧

It was only a month until Christmas when Dora first approached Allen about what she should do for the mill workers for the holiday season. “Should I give them a bonus? Do they have a holiday then? What should I do?”

“I don’t know,” Allen said, flipping the calendar to December. “I’m sure there’s always an extra holiday of some sort, but I’ll find out. Christmas comes on a weekday, so I’d suggest you give them an extra day or two.”

“I’ve been thinking that I could make their Christmas Day a whole week from Christmas through New Year’s Day, with pay. That could be their Christmas bonus. Do you think that’s generous enough?”

“More than generous! But if you do that this year, you’d be setting a precedent that they’d expect every year. I don’t mean to pry into your affairs, but can you afford to be so generous?”

“The auditors tell me that we’ve made more profit this year than the mill had cleared the past two years. I think we can afford it. I’m willing to try it, but I won’t if you think it isn’t a good idea.”

“Are you going to New York for Christmas?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No, but I’ve insisted that Mattie go and spend time with her family. As long as my grandmother lived, I spent Christmas week with her, but now that she’s gone, I’ve usually spent the day at home. Mrs. Vanderbilt has invited me to spend the day with them, but some of their relatives are coming so I told her I had other plans, which means I’ll probably spend the day at home.”

Although Allen usually spent Christmas Day with his cousins Vance and Evelyn Bolden in Canaan, he had no intention of leaving her alone. He persuaded her to go with him to spend the holiday with the Boldens. He was also worried about leaving the mill. If there was any trouble, he didn’t want Dora to be in Fairfield alone. He hired several reliable men to watch the place, and with Timothy also on guard he didn’t think he had too much to worry about. He would have taken Timothy with them, but he wanted to stay with Kitty and her family. So they set out for Canaan without concern for the property.

The weather was mild for December, but Allen had put curtains on his buggy to protect Dora from the cold weather. Fortunately the wind was blowing from the south today, and it was cozy in the buggy. Glancing sideways at Dora, Allen smiled, wondering how he was so fortunate to have this woman favor him. She wore a full-length fur coat and a tam and muff to match. The outfit must have cost a fortune, at least more money than he’d make in a year’s time.

Dora had been looking forward to this trip, and she was obviously enjoying the evergreens that were decorated with tufts of snow that had fallen throughout the night. It was a winter wonderland, and if Allen had needed anything else to put him in the Christmas spirit, Dora sitting beside him, looking as if she’d just stepped out of a New York department store dressed in all her finery, would have done it. Her eyes roved the countryside, obviously enjoying the winter day to its fullest.

“Now, why are you looking at me like that?” she demanded. Her even teeth flashed in a gentle smile.

“Oh, I don’t know—maybe wondering why I’m such a lucky guy—to be celebrating Christmas with you. We’ve known each other more than a year now, and you’re so much a part of my life I don’t know what I’ll do when you aren’t around anymore.”

She lifted her chin in a haughty gesture that reminded him of her father. “What makes you think I’m going anywhere?”

“It just stands to reason that you won’t be content to spend the rest of your life here. When I compare your lifestyle in New York with Fairfield, I can’t imagine how you could possibly be happy in a rural area like ours.”

“Well, I’m not going to leave North Carolina this week, so let’s forget that. It was gracious of your relatives to invite me.”

“I wasn’t about to leave you in Fairfield on Christmas Day, especially when I know that Vance and Evelyn will be happy that you’re with me.”

“Share something about them so I’ll know what to expect.”

“Vance Bolden is my cousin, although his father was much more prosperous than mine. His family owned a plantation in South Carolina since the mid-1700s, but my father was a sharecropper in the neighborhood. After the War Between the States, Southerners, especially those who’d fought for the Confederacy, had nothing left. When Union soldiers invaded the South, they destroyed a lot of property to punish Southerners for seceding from the Union. Vance was married before the war, but while he was serving in the Confederacy, his wife and son died.”

“So Evelyn is a second wife?”

Nodding his head, he explained, “And in my opinion, a much better wife for Vance than his first one. After the war ended, he tried to rebuild the plantation, but many Yankees moved into the state and bought property the Southerners couldn’t afford to keep. The Boldens had never owned slaves, of course, and they’d been treated more like sharecroppers—receiving a portion of what they raised on their acreage. Vance’s maternal relatives owned property in this area, and his father dreamed of leaving the past behind them and starting anew in a new region. When his father died, Vance sold the property and moved here. Many of his neighbors came, too, and they established the settlement of Canaan several years ago. Most of the immigrants have prospered there, either buying homes in town or settling on farms.”

“And you came with them?”

“Yes, my father was a sharecropper, too—that means he didn’t own any land, but worked for the plantation owners. I was the oldest kid in the family, and I knew there wasn’t any future for me in that area. I wanted to make a new start, and I paid my way westward by helping Vance and Evelyn with their wagons and horses. I lived in Canaan a few years then came to the Asheville area.”

“You seem to have the wanderlust. Have you considered leaving here?”

“At first I intended to go west, possibly as far as California to seek my fortune in the gold fields. After I bought the farm and found I could earn a living with my carpentry work, I haven’t thought of leaving. Wanderlust must be a Bolden family characteristic. As you know, Timothy has mentioned that he will probably move westward.”

“Will you try to stop him?”

Allen glanced at her in surprise. “Why should I? I’m not his guardian.”

The miles passed quickly. Sometimes they’d ride a long distance without comment, although Dora had many questions about what kind of trees they saw along the roadside and about the history of the area. They stopped a couple of times to stretch their legs and to view the mountains to the west.

When they were closer to Canaan, Allen said, “Probably I should tell you about Evelyn, Vance’s wife, too. She has an interesting past. She and her husband worked at a mission in London, and the Lord called them to be missionaries among the Cherokee Indians, whose homeland is in this area. The ship they traveled on wrecked off the South Carolina coast. Vance just happened to be on a nearby island when that happened, and although her husband was drowned, Vance was able to save Evelyn’s life. She was with child, and because of the storm Vance couldn’t go to his plantation for help. With Vance’s assistance she gave birth to twins on the island while the storm raged around them.”

She nodded. “Goodness. How terrible, but how wonder-ful, too. It seems like a fairy tale.”

“Well, to make a long story short, Vance and Evelyn married, and they’ve lived ‘happily afterward.’ And I do mean they’re happy. They were meant for each other, but it took a hurricane to bring them together. In addition to the twins, they have a child of their own.”

“Do you believe that?”

Allen glanced at her. “Believe what?”

“That when they’re born certain people are meant for each other?”

“I’m not sure. In some cases, I do—like Vance and Evelyn. But that’s just my opinion—I don’t have any biblical passage to back up what I believe.”

“What about us?”

Laughing, Vance said, “Don’t start that again! We’re friends, but no more than that. We’re too different to ever get along. Sometimes when I see poorly matched husbands and wives who seem to share a good marriage, I believe that God has a sense of humor.” They were heading toward a subject he didn’t want to discuss, so Allen was glad that they arrived in Canaan, which took Dora’s attention for the time being. He suspected, however, that he hadn’t heard the last of the subject. It must be the mystery of the ages—why a woman like her would favor him.