House on Diablo Road: Resurrection Day (The McCann Family Saga Book 3) (11 page)

Minna heard Jared’s soft stealthy tread coming from the barn, and by the glow of moonlight she could see his tall, lithe frame, his tilted wolf-eyes and his black straight hair that he wore to his collar. She saw him stop and turn toward the road to listen to the sound she too had heard—the groaning rumble of a cotton wagon. The accompanying high spirited clip–clop was that of horses rather than the plodding work mules used in the cotton fields. The driver, for whatever reason, needed speed and obedience from the animals that night.

She went outside to stand with her son to await their visitor, seeing all below in a sharp shadow and light, down to the dark ribbon of road that ran through to the bottom-lands. The sound grew closer, and she recognized that peculiar squeaking axle. So many times that same wagon had come up the hill, bringing Cyrus McCann who, upon Morgan’s request, would come to deliver an occasional message to her.

There on that high ground, she could see anyone coming up the the winding road. She could look over the tops of the trees and down to the roof tops of the boxy frame houses with their picket fences, and across the bridge to the tar paper shacks of Irish Shanty Town. She could name every child she had delivered in those homes, rich and poor alike, in dingy cottages and elegant plantations. Midwifery held few surprises. The genteel ladies delivered with no less pain and no more dignity than the field hands. She could name which family she had treated through fevers and every baby she had cured of whooping cough and colic. She knew every indiscretion in that town and treated the resulting ailments .The Caddoan wielded her own quiet power, and not all of it could be attributed to Reese Morgan. She was the secret keeper of Morgans Bluff.

The wagon mounted the crest of the hill, and she recognized Phoebe, Lucinda McCann’s housekeeper. Phoebe’s sinewy arms stretched and tensed on the reins as she pulled the horses to a stop and hit the ground running. “Minna!They need you at the McCanns’ place on Diablo, at the main house. Come with me now. Hurry, so I can get back to Baby Thomas. His papa has gone somewhere.”

Minna took her by her shoulders. “Slow down. Who needs me there, and why?’

Phoebe caught her breath.
“
Lucinda needs you! She’s in a bad way. She drank laudanum to calm her nerves. She took too much, and she's sick to death. She’s taking
fainting spells. Then she wakes up and thrashes around like a witch in a fight with the Devil.”

“
What brought this on?”

“
Cyrus was murdered tonight...dragged out of the parlor while he was going over the cotton figures, while Lucinda was upstairs asleep. She’s out of her mind from it. She just keeps looking at me with these dead eyes saying ‘Cyrus has gone off and left me. My own husband is a deserter. He deserted the Confederacy and me’. It’s like she doesn’t know he’s
dead
...or has blocked it out like she’s
afflicted
”

Minna shook her head in amazement. “I’ve been expecting as much on a full moon such as this, but never should it have happened to Cyrus. He was an honorable man.” Then she turned back to the house. “Give me a moment, and I will go with you.”

Minna went inside to get her leather pouch of herbal medicines and then twisted her waist-length hair into a chignon that she secured with hairpins. Jerod stood at the door looking anxious. Before she climbed onto the buckboard, he placed a firm hand on his mother’s arm. “Mother, it’s best for you to stay home. I heard in town that the Night Riders are running all over the county. If they are liquored up, you never know what they might do . It’s not only deserters they look for but folks who are
different
”

“
Say what you mean, son. You mean full-bloods.
Redskins
like me...like
us
?” she said pointedly.

Jerod ducked his head and nodded.

“
Do you not know your own mother? I don’t look for trouble, but neither do I run from it. Now go inside and get your rest. If I am not home by midnight, look for me by morning light. Either way, you can be sure I’ll make it home.”

On the way downhill, the wagon went wild and unwieldy, with horses galloping at full speed on the rocky washboard road. It felt as if the wagon would shatter apart. Phoebe gripped the reins tightly in an effort to maintain control and slow the horses’ downhill speed. Minna found it strange that someone else had use of the good wagon, at such an unusual hour. She raised her voice above the rumbling clatter and squeak of the bad wheel.

“
Who killed Cyrus?”

“
Night Riders I reckon. Some folks thought Cyrus was a deserter, but for awhile he was too crippled up to get back to the post. He was planning his trip back...just waiting until he got some things taken care of.”

“
Who found him?”

“
My man Louis found him hanging by rope from a dogwood tree. I expect there’ll be a
burying tomorrow.”

The rest of the ride the women remained silent, each deep in her own thoughts.

When they came to the front of the McCann property, and the hanging tree, Minna ordered Phoebe to stop so she could pull leaves for use in Lucinda’s purifying tonic. There several pickers were huddled together, some wailing and cursing. “This is the tree,” murmured Phoebe in a voice that shook and broke.“This is the very one where Louis found Cyrus. No Minna, don’t pull those leaves. I can’t bring the leaves off that tree into the McCann house.”

“
Why not?”

“
It'll let in a
mzungu
.”

“
Are you sure you didn’t make that up? My people also have superstitions, but they see no evil in natural healing leaves from any tree.”

Minna turned to the workers whose wails grew louder by the second. “Go back to your cabins and prepare for tomorrow. We will need you to help bury the body in the morning.”

“
Can’t you see somebody got the body and dragged it off,” said one of the men. “I can’t tell you who.”

“Let the sheriff figure it out...if we still have a sheriff that is, after the Night Riders took over the county. Wherever happened, no doubt the body has been moved to a safe place. We can’t have it left in the open on a low branch with coyotes and wolves about. That’s all it is.”

The men stood in silence, stunned at the loss of their employer. Although pragmatic at her core, Minna felt the sharp prick of sorrow as well. She had never heard a bad word about Cyrus—except from Jonathan Bonney, and she figured he held a grudge against Cyrus and anyone else who kept him from what he wanted. She had heard that he was the leader of the Night Riders, and everyone knew they lynched deserters and anyone who got in their way.

Minna pulled several leaves, slipped them into her bag, and Phoebe tuned up to cry. “Stop bawling. You sound like a calf stuck in a mud hole,” Minna said. “We’ll bring no bad spirits into the house, and Lucinda’s not about to die.”

“
What if she’s not up to taking care of what needs to be done. for Cyrus’ burying and the plantation...and what will happen to
us
?”

“
First things first. Tell Louis to see if he can find a sheriff in this lawless county, first thing tomorrow morning. Then there must be a proper Christian ceremony. You all will be
taken care of. You know Cyrus provided for it in case of his death. I'm sorry I've been so hard on you, Phoebe. It must be like losing family for you. Forgive me. Anything else before I go up to Lucinda?”

“
Louis will never go to see the sheriff, Minna. Buck Hennessy ‘s home on furlough. He can help out. I saw him ride out yonder in the direction of Caney Creek a couple of hours or so ago, so he’ll be back directly. He came home to help Cyrus, so he might plan for the burial. He was Cyrus’ best friend and was married to Lucinda’s cousin Charlotte.”

“
Yes, I know Buck. I was here with him when he lost Charlotte and the newborn four years ago, right there in that first cabin. Sad things happen on this land. Now wait for him there on the veranda. I may need help to restrain Lucinda. Where’s your man?”

“
When I left to get you, he was still gone. He had been over at the McCann's helping Lucinda with Cyrus. He was not a well man you know.”

“
Tell Mr. Hennessy I’ll be upstairs if he needs me.”

Cyrus McCann’s widow was a disgusting sight. Lucinda’s blonde cascading curls lay tangled across her face. Her eyelids were swollen shut, and her usual peaches and cream complexion had taken on a grayish pallor. The room looked as if she had worked herself up into a magnificent fit. The coverlet and bed pillows had been thrown to one end of the room, and the sheets were in a rumpled heap on the floor, next to her frock and corset. She lay sprawled across the bare feather mattress in her nightgown.

Minna shook her head in disbelief at another secret to keep.
Here flounders a tormented soul who cannot face the fact she is a widow.

She began crushing the dogwood leaves with her mortar and pestle and mixing the powdery substance with the bottle of liquorice oil. She propped Lucinda against her, placed the pillows behind her back and held the mixture to her colorless lips. “Take this and drink it down...all of it. Then you’ll be able to think clearly.”

Lucinda turned her face away. “I don’t want to think, clearly or otherwise. Leave me alone, and let me die. I didn’t send for you, and I don’t need you.”

“
Suit yourself. Lie there and wallow in your self-pity. You’ll get no sympathy from me.
But I
am
going to sit here in this chair and watch over you. That’s what your husband would want me to do—true gentleman that he was.”

“
You
would
think that, wouldn’t you! He’s
left
me. He abandoned me and his post.”

“You listen to me! Cyrus is
dead
. Some people came in and took Cyrus from this house and lynched him.”

Lucinda bolted straight up in the bed. “
Lynched
him? I don’t know about that. Don't don’t ask me anything, because I don't know anything. Now leave me alone.”

As Minna settled herself into an upholstered chair by the window, she heard voices on the front lawn below. By moonlight, she could see three people standing together. They were in a discussion, murmuring low, with heads bowed and then tilted toward the waning moon. As her eyes focused, she could identify Buck Hennessy, and Louis and Phoebe Monet who was holding Baby Thomas. It was obvious to her that the topic was Cyrus’ murder.

Then something happened that made Minna recoil: Buck took a well placed swing, and his fist connected with Louis’ midsection, and he landed on the ground; but just as quickly as he fell, Buck helped him to his feet. It seemed as if, in his anguish over Cyrus’ death, Buck had overreacted and had immediately regretted it. Still, in Minna’s mind there could be a
reason
Buck had punched Louis. She knew the two men pulled cotton side by side and walked home together at days’ end. They shared meals and stories, troubles and blessings. Something was not quite right.