House on Diablo Road: Resurrection Day (The McCann Family Saga Book 3) (12 page)

She could hear a few more words here and there. Louis was afraid of what people would think and do, when they found out it was he who was seen at the dogwood tree. Buck wanted to send the couple to a place where they could hide—out to some place deep into the thicket. Something Buck had found out would surely make Louis a suspect in the eyes of the sheriff and in public opinion.

Yet had it not been the alcohol-fueled Night Riders led by Jonathan Bonney who had done that terrible deed? Had the Creole field hand simply been the one to happen upon the aftermath of an execution?

Minna settled back in her chair and tried to rest, but when she closed her eyes there was the image of something discordant to that violent act of breaking a man’s neck by rope. In her dream, she saw a large pool of blood staining the rich black soil of McCann Plantation.

It was the wedding of the century for the small town of Morgans Bluff. The guests were assembled in that mystic manor where tragedy had lived—where its residue clung to the walls and hovered in the air. There was something there that would not rest. Yet on that one day, there was tranquility. There was a Christmas Eve wedding in the house on Diablo Road.

Nathan’s wish had been for the ceremony take place there in his newly inherited home, and Katie had agreed. That cheerless structure had not been so welcoming since Cyrus and Lucinda threw festive parties there before the Civil War. With much effort on the part of Mavis from the Mercantile, the house had been transformed. From the high ceilings hung garlands of pine boughs and holly sprigs, and at one end of the great room stood an eight foot tall Christmas tree, under which lay piles of wedding gifts. A long table, at whose center stood a magnificent three tiered cake, was laden with clove studded hams, trays of finger tidbits and crystal bowls of fruity punch. Mavis fluttered about completely in her element. “I do declare I’ve produced my best efforts...if I do say so myself!” she squealed to Annie, who admitted to herself that Mavis had outdone herself.

Guests milled about downstairs, treading softly, peering into corners, recalling their grandparents’ stories of the history of that place, both true and imagined. Upstairs the bride and father of the bride awaited the cue of the music. Jesse used that private moment to ask the question one last time. He hated the thought of his daughter marrying someone who belonged, by birthright, to the vigilante group he believed had murdered his uncle.

”
Do you really want to live way off out here in the middle of
nowhere,
and do you
really
know this man?” he asked.

Katie adjusted her wedding veil and smoothed her long white dress. “
Yes
, Daddy. I love Nate, and I love this place. You've got to let go and trust me. My mind is made up.”

“
You are so like your mother, you know? It’s not that I don't trust
you
. There's his family and their history with the McCanns.”

“
Please don’t tell me ‘blood is thicker than water’.The past is dead, and that old family feud dies here and now. We’re determined to live in the present. We will do so in this house. So lets get ready to go downstairs.”

Katie took Jesse’s arm, and he could feel her trembling. He pressed his arm tightly against hers.

“The time has come, Daddy,” she said breathlessly. “Hear the wedding march? Please smile when you walk me down. Pretend you’re happy...please?”

They two stepped onto the stairs and toward an uncertain future, step by step— a distance that seemed like the longest walk of Jesse’s life. Somewhere deep inside, he half hoped Katie would leave Nathan Bonney in the dust. He had hoped for it right up to the moment she let go of his arm to stand by her groom. The sound of the preachers’ voice reciting the nuptials seemed muffled and from a distance to Jesse—as if he listened from an underwater depth. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and at the same time, it moved with lightning speed toward the inevitable: the loss of his daughter to a Bonney.

He looked beyond the front row of chairs occupied by both families. There was Annie’s father, Jerod Morgan, who had come from the Renegade Native Village in the Big Thicket. He, who believed in and prayed to the Great Spirit Caddyio, silently asked that his granddaughter have a long and happy life and many children. Jerod’s mother Granny Minna was not there. She had shaken her head violently when Annie had tried to dress her for the wedding, had resisted every plea to come to see her great granddaughter marry. At the last moment, Nurse Rachel had been called in to stay with her until they returned.

Jerod sat beside Calvin and his grandson Tobias, both of whom had been on their best behavior since October’s Founders’ Day misadventure. Tobi had stewed silently over his promise not to tell of their whereabouts—or the discovery of the skeleton and the shotgun at the bottom of Blue Hole. He had sworn on scout’s honor, but the secret nagged him every night when he lay in his bed. But that day there was nothing more serious on the boy’s mind than sneaking a swipe of frosting off the wedding cake and exploring the property he had trespassed months before.

Last to arrive was Jesse’s uncle Adam Kessler, who had taken the train east from Mt. Mission with some of Jesse’s cousins and their families. Tall, fair and Germanic, the Kesslers were his mother’s family in appearance and in the nonsensical outlook and lack of pretense. Jesse thought of Mama Kate, and he felt a sense of great loss, yet he felt her presence and knew she was smiling down on her namesake. He could almost hear her blessing:

You did right well raising my granddaughter, son.

Nathan's parents looked as out of place as a pair of swans floating in the Big Muddy. They were East Texans by birth, but their world travels had filed down the rough, raw edges of the woodlands to a smooth patina of worldliness. Their clothing was custom made, and their speech was devoid of the familiar twangy colloquialism. Travis Bonney was a darker and smaller version of his son and carried himself with an aristocratic bearing, and Sarah was a quiet and elegant beauty. Jesse could see a mixture of both in his new son-in-law.

Once the wedding vows had been recited, Jesse had no choice but to concede. He hoped like hell Nathan was a worthy man and that Jonathan Bonney’s blood had been cleansed from the family tree by that fourth generation. Through great effort, Jesse consciously turned down the volume of the clatter in his head and smiled—because he loved his daughter, and because Mama Kate had raised him right.

Afterward
, the guests milled about and nervously glanced around the rooms of the house. Once the cake had been cut, Nate found a moment to have Katie to himself and pulled his bride out back into the brisk December air. Buttermilk skies held the promise of snow, and they happily awaited the first flakes of the season. Katie spotted the graveyard she had been looking for and scooped up the train of her gown and dashed about reading each headstone. She had become obsessed with all that was connected to the plantation’s past, and she couldn’t say just why.

Nate stood patiently for a moment and then came to her with outstretched arms that broke through that magnetic force. His touch overcame the power of those who lay there beneath the ground. Katie pulled away from his caress and pulled him toward a grave beneath an old oak tree. “Look. There's your great grandfather. Can you remember him? How he must have cherished you when you were little—enough to leave this wonderful old place to you.”

”
And
I
cherish
you,”
he said, pulling her back again.
I want nothing more than to give you everything. I would give my life for you.”

Katie shuddered and placed her head and hands against his chest. “Don’t speak of death, here in this place where it surrounds us. Hold me, Nate. Hold me so close nothing can come between us. I have a sudden feeling something bad may happen, and I don't know what it is.”

“
Don’t be so serious on our wedding day, of all days. I swear I’ll
never
let anything come between us or let anything happen to you. If I have my way, there’ll be only happy moments here in this place.”

Within a few minutes the temperature plummeted to below freezing, and a sudden wind whipped through the cloud bank to shake snowflakes down to coat their eyelashes and hair. They laughed and held their hands and faces up to welcome a full fledged flurry. Katie realized Nate was suddenly looking intently at her face, as if to catch a glimpse of her soul, as if her heart alone would never be enough. When she wrapped her arms around his neck, his mouth was grim, and his jaw was set. “No one can take you from me—not your father, not Tom Yancy, no one.”

Hand in hand, they left the graveyard and returned to their guests, some of whom were scurrying home as the snowfall began in earnest. There were hugs and handshakes, tears and good wishes, as the day came to a close. Jesse, Annie, the boys and Buck Hennessy said their goodbyes after the rest of the guests had left. Jesse gave Katie one last word: “Remember...if anything worries you...”

Katie kissed her father on the cheek. “Yes, Daddy. I know, and I won’t forget. Now wish me well.”

“
I do wish you well and more. I wish you the best.” With those parting words, he retrieved his overcoat from Crow who had stationed himself at the front door. Even he was dressed for the occasion, with his empty eye socket covered by a black silk eye patch, his wiry hair washed and trimmed. It was with the coming of Nathan Bonney to the house that Crow felt he had purpose again. Yet Jesse knew something sinister lay beneath the improved appearance. ”Be good to my daughter,” he ordered Crow, who dutifully helped him into his coat. “Be as protective of her as you are of this place. If you should ever give her one moment’s unhappiness, you’ll deal with me.”

Crow merely smiled and walked away.

Alone at last, the couple sat on the veranda of their home in the half light, sipping the cherry brandy Buck had secretly gifted them behind Annie’s back. “I reckon you both might need a nip of this tonight, but don’t tell anyone I gave it to you. We are in the age of Prohibition, you know.”

The snow had spread before them like a sparkling blanket that reflected the reddish glow of the dying sun. It had become colder, and Katie, still in her wedding gown, shivered as the wind moaned like a long lost spirit. Nathan pulled his jacket around her, and they went inside and climbed the stairs to their bedroom—the same room Lucinda had first shared with Cyrus and, in her final days, Jonathan.

Crow had tidied and cleaned the room and had built a roaring fire in the fireplace. Nate and Katie entered in a giddy euphoria that vanished amidst low lighting and dark, heavy furnishings and drapes. Lulled and warmed by Buck’s brandy and the fire, the newlyweds fell onto the big four poster bed and unwittingly drifted into sleep.

When Katie awakened before dawn, she shivered in the chill of the dying embers, and rubbed the goose bumps from her arms, in response to the vague feeling of something crawling on her skin. Then she heard it: a soft swishing sound that grew closer, louder, proceeding down the hallway. She sprang from bed, opened the door, and looked down a hallway on whose walls hung the images of both the McCanns and the Bonneys—rivals doomed to remain side by side for as long as the house stood. There was no one and nothing there, and the sound stopped as abruptly as it had begun. How could Nate sleep when the noise had grown so deafeningly loud? Was it only she who had heard it?

“
Nate! What was that? Did you hear it?”

And he with his eyes still closed, mumbled groggily. “I didn’t hear anything. Must be mice in the walls...or maybe the holly bush scraping the side of the house in the wind.”

He opened his eyes, pulled himself up to his elbows and noticed he was still fully clothed except for his jacket. He felt as if someone with a hammer was banging away from inside his skull. “Is everyone you know
against
me? Seems as if there was a conspiracy to disrupt our wedding night. Mr. Hennessy plied me with his brandy, knowing what its effects would be and knowing you would not indulge as heavily.”

“
Nonsense, Nate. You’ve become paranoid from it.”

Nate pulled her back to bed and cradled her head on his chest. ”Of course you’re right. Whatever I am or will become, good or bad, I am your husband. Tomorrow we’ll be out of here and on our honeymoon in New Orleans. But for right now, come here. I’ve waited for you much too long.”