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  When her father didn’t arrive to separate the twosome, Jarena decided she could watch no longer. With quick strides, she approached the pair. “Did you find this morning’s message enlightening, Aunt Lilly?”

  “What? Oh, the sermon? It was much the same as all the others I’ve been subjected to. If you’ve heard one, you’ve heard them all.”

  Moses attempted to use the opportunity to extract his arm, but Lilly quickly tightened her hold. “Now, don’t you try to get away from me,” she cooed. “I’ve only just begun our discussion.”

  Undeterred, Moses deftly loosened her hold. He waved to a gentleman across the churchyard and, without giving Lilly opportunity to object, strode off.

  Lilly pursed her lips into a girlish pout. Had Jarena thought this was a game, she would have laughed aloud at such childish behavior from a grown woman. She hoped her suspicion was incorrect, but it truly appeared as if her aunt had some plan in mind, one that obviously included Moses, which Jarena found both frightening and appalling.

  “Now there’s a man worth his salt! He’s educated, handsome, charming, ambitious—” “And engaged to marry my sister.”

  Lilly chortled. “A fact I find totally amusing. What could a man such as Moses Wyman possibly see in your little sister? She has absolutely nothing to offer him. She’s much too young for a man of his maturity and sophistication. Moses needs a woman who can stand by his side and help him get ahead in the world. A woman who knows how to entertain and who won’t embarrass him in public—and a woman who knows how to lavish affection on him.”

  Jarena narrowed her eyes and leveled a warning glare at her aunt.

  “A woman like you?”

  Lilly gathered her skirts into her hands and began walking. “No, of course not. But you must admit that Truth is an unlikely choice for a man such as Moses. In our brief conversation, it was immediately apparent that Moses needs a mature wife, someone who can help him develop to his fullest potential. Someone like you, Jarena.”

  “Me? Don’t be foolish. I love Thomas Grayson. Once he completes his assignment with the army, he’s going to return to Nicodemus and we’re going to be married. His acreage adjoins ours. Did you know that?”

  Lilly shot Jarena a look of disgust as she looped arms with her. “Farming! You’re no more suited to be a farmer’s wife than I am. You’re bright and quite beautiful, I might add. You need to expand your horizons and look to the future. What kind of life will you have out here on the prairie? With a man such as Moses, there’s no limit to your future. Think of it, Jarena—you could help shape him into a man of importance. With Moses, you could see the world, travel to Europe, and mingle with people of importance. You’d be able to go places and experience a life most colored folks can only dream about.”

  Jarena yanked her arm loose as she stopped in her tracks. “How can you even think such things? Truth is my sister. She loves Moses, and he loves her. He obviously thinks she’ll make the perfect wife. All of that aside, I have no desire for any man other than Thomas Grayson.”

  “And what if Thomas never returns to Nicodemus? What if he dies out there in Indian Territory fighting for some white officer who’s only too happy to send him off to battle? From what I observed in church this morning, there are very few suitable unmarried men in Nicode-mus.”

  Her aunt’s words struck like a blow to the stomach. Already, Jarena worried daily about Thomas, crying herself to sleep when an expected letter was late arriving—or didn’t arrive at all. Didn’t she already fear the worst for him? She didn’t need her aunt’s cruel reminder that he was constantly in harm’s way.

  Grace jogged up beside Jarena, obviously noticing her faraway look. “You thinking about Thomas? Come on, Jarena. Pappy says we need to get started home.”

  Jarena shook off the worrisome thoughts and forced herself to speak. “Yes, I was.” She turned and watched Lilly approach Moses and Truth. She’d been so caught up in her own feelings she’d not even realized Lilly had left her side. “Run over and tell Aunt Lilly that Pappy wants her to ride with us,” she ordered. “You can ride with Moses and Truth if you like.”

  “But Aunt Lilly said she was going to ride with them.”

  “I don’t care what she said. You go on now, and do as I said.”

  Jarena watched as Grace sprinted off to deliver the message.When Lilly turned to glare in her direction, Jarena merely smiled and waved her aunt forward. For the time being, she decided she would do what she could to keep Aunt Lilly away from Truth and Moses.

  After Jarena and Lilly had boarded the family wagon, Jarena’s father tipped his hat and cautiously maneuvered his wagon around the Beyer family. “I invited Miss Hattie and Nellie and Calvin to come over this afternoon for a visit.” His comment was spoken in a calm, even tone though his expression was hard as he studied Lilly.

  “Oh, that was a wonderful idea, Pappy!” Jarena said. “I haven’t had a chance for a visit with Nellie in a long while.”

  Ezekiel smiled and nodded. “Know’d you’d be happy to hear they was coming, Jarena. Tol’ Miss Hattie they should plan to stay and take supper with us. She said to tell you she’d be bringin’ some vittles along with ’em, so you shouldn’t worry none ’bout having enough food for everyone. Hope she brings one of them red raspberry pies . . . or gooseberry. Um, um, that might be even better.”

  Jarena laughed along with him. “If Miss Hattie doesn’t bring one, I’ll go berry picking next week and bake you a pie.”

  Ezekiel flashed his sister-in-law a toothy grin. “You be sure and take your aunt Lilly along. That way she can learn where all the best berry patches is. Thataway, she can keep us supplied with berries the whole time she’s visitin’ with us.”

  “I’m simply not one for spending my time outdoors.” Lilly’s words were as smooth as the silk ribbons that decorated her lavish hat.

  “You’ll adjust. I’ll see to that. You best enjoy yourself today, ’cause come mornin’ you’s gonna start earnin’ your keep, jest like the rest of this here family.” Ezekiel pulled back on the reins as they neared the house. “See to it that you act proper this afternoon, Lilly,” he cautioned as he helped her down from the wagon.

  “What are you afraid of, Ezekiel? You think I might be able to do something to break up your little kingdom out here in the middle of nowhere?”

  When Truth and Moses approached in their wagon, Lilly rubbed her hands together with far too much glee—at least that’s what Jarena thought. There was little doubt this day would be filled with worry.

  As they walked into the house, Lilly slipped by Truth and positioned herself alongside Moses. “I’d be most interested in hearing about your life back in Boston, Moses. I realize everyone else knows all about your past, but I would like to learn about your early years. In fact, we could go and sit outdoors so we wouldn’t disturb the others.”

  Ezekiel frowned and pointed to a chair. “Seems you was tellin’ me only a few minutes ago that the outdoors don’ agree with you. Best you stay put inside the house. Anyways, we don’ mind listening to Moses tell ’bout his life afore he come to Kansas. Do we, girls?”

  “No, not at all,” Jarena hastily agreed.

  Moses turned an apologetic look toward Truth. “And what about you, Truth? Are you weary of this story?”

  She smiled in return and shook her head. “You go ahead and visit with Aunt Lilly.”

  Lilly clapped her hands with obvious delight. “Good! First of all, I want to know about your parents. I told Jarena you could easily pass for white—at least in the North, where folks aren’t so familiar with mixed bloodlines. Down in Louisiana, you might have a lick of trouble if you tried to pass.”

  Moses shifted in his chair beside her. “I’m not ashamed of my ancestry, Miss Lilly. In fact, it seems to make whites more uncomfortable than anyone else. As you’ve so perceptively noted, I am of mixed bloodline—more white than colored, I’m told. Both my grandmother and mother were of mixed blood. My mother and I were sired by the same man
—the vile owner of a Louisiana plantation. My mother had jumped the broom with another slave, but that meant nothing to the plantation owner. He continued to have his way with her.”

  Apparently unimpassioned by the sordid revelation, Lilly continued her inquiry. “So how did you end up in Boston and get educated?”

  Leaning back in the chair, Moses told how his small family’s freedom had been purchased by the Houstons, a wealthy family living in Lowell, Massachusetts. He explained that Mrs. Houston had grown up on a cotton plantation in Mississippi but had never believed in slavery— which led to her subsequent activity with the abolitionist movement. Consequently, on one of her journeys to the South, Mrs. Houston had managed to strike an agreement with the plantation owner and secure their freedom. Though Moses was quick to add that his story was much more involved, he didn’t elaborate further except to mention his thanks that he’d been spared a life of slavery.

  Lilly sat forward, hanging on each word of Moses’s unusual tale. “What an exciting story—and so Mrs. Houston simply handed you your papers?”

  “No. The Houstons offered work on their horse farm as well as a place for us to live. I was but a small child at the time, and the Hous-tons had a young son, Spencer, who was the same age. We became friends, and the Houstons extended me the same educational advantages as those given to their own son. I was privately tutored alongside Spencer; later we attended school together.”

  Lilly waved her hand eagerly. “Do go on. I want to hear everything.” Moses shrugged. “There’s not much more to tell. After graduating from college, Spencer and I briefly went into business together, but soon our lives took us in differing directions. While Spencer wanted to continue the operation of his family’s horse farm and involve himself in several production ventures, I wanted to try my hand in either the newspaper business or politics.”

  Lilly’s eyes widened at the mention of politics. “Truly? You are a man of vision.”

  Though he quickly admitted political office wasn’t widely accessible to coloreds just yet, Moses declared people must be prepared to step forward when the opportunity finally arose. With that thought in mind, he had taken a position with a Boston newspaper, but feeling as though he’d reached his goals, he found himself restless and ready to accept a new challenge.

  “So you came to this vast wasteland?” Lilly’s words were spiked with disdain and bewilderment.

  “Indeed! I investigated stories that had been circulating about the development of several all-colored communities, and I determined it would be an excellent opportunity to begin a new chapter in my life,” he enthusiastically replied.

  Lilly looked at him as though he’d lost his senses. “And?”

  “And it has! Though my original plan had been to set up a newspaper office in Nicodemus, I became acquainted with a young lieutenant on the train coming west. He introduced me to his father, Dr.

  Boyle, who in turn directed me to the widow of the previous newspaper owner in Hill City. I was able to purchase the building and equipment.

  Now I print papers for both Hill City and Nicodemus. And, quite possibly, there could be a political future for me here in Kansas. Of course, the best part was meeting Truth,” he added, glancing at his bride-to-be. “Truly?” Lilly asked.

  Moses smiled broadly and gazed lovingly at Truth. “Absolutely. If ever I doubted God’s hand in sending me to the prairie, when I met

  Truth, I knew without doubt why He’d sent me.”

  Lilly’s lips tightened into a disgusted sneer. “You are an educated man, Moses. Please don’t tell me you came traipsing out here because God told you to. Such a statement would make you sound downright foolish.”

  He laughed. “I gave up caring whether I sounded foolish long ago, Miss Lilly. I care more about what is right and wrong, good and evil. However, if you’re asking if God actually whispered in my ear, the answer would be no. But I knew I was supposed to leave Boston, and I knew He was directing my path. I try to keep my eyes and ears open to His leading. Simple as that. Now, then, I believe it should be your turn. Tell me about yourself and why you’ve come to this vast wasteland— that is what you called it, isn’t it?”

  Lilly pushed away from the table. “I should likely be helping the girls prepare the noonday meal.”

  Jarena immediately took advantage of the break in their conversation. Like Moses, she was anxious to hear Aunt Lilly recount her past. Jarena motioned for her aunt to remain seated and then added her own appeal that Lilly relate her story. Both Grace and Truth echoed the sentiment and drew near, asking for details about life in New Orleans.

  Jarena noted her father’s look of smug satisfaction as he turned his attention to Lilly. “Go on, Lilly. Tell ’em ’bout your life down there in New Orleans. ’Member you said they’s all growed up now—they’s able to hear the truth. If you’s able to speak it, that is.”

  Aunt Lilly drew a deep breath and then slowly exhaled through pursed lips. “Well, all right then. I suppose I can rightly entertain you until our noonday meal is ready. My sister Jennie, that would be your mama—we were born to the same mother, but we had different fathers.”

  Jarena dropped the knife she’d been using to pare apples. “Mama never mentioned that.” She glanced at her father.

  Ezekiel nodded. “That’s true.”

  As Moses had done earlier, Lilly settled back in her chair. All eyes were focused upon her as she stated that she, too, had been sired by a white man. She told how her early years were spent on a plantation in Virginia, living in the big house, where her mama was a house servant.

  She shot a look at Ezekiel as she added that life had been a little easier for them than it had been for the field slaves.

  “A whole lot easier,” Ezekiel said.

  “A whole lot easier,” she conceded. “Our mama, your grandmother, was a cook at the big house, and I spent my time playing with the master’s young daughter. Course, at the time, I didn’t realize I was his daughter, too; that’s why I was chosen to be Sarah’s playmate.”

  With her elbow resting on her knee, Grace cupped her chin in her hand. “But you were privileged to be at the big house.”

  Lilly sighed. “I suppose you could say that. Sarah and I were together all day long. Every day. So when the tutor came to teach Sarah her lessons, I sat over in the corner and listened and learned right along with her. Sarah even had me do her schoolwork for her each day after the tutor went home. At night, when I returned to our little room off the kitchen, I’d teach my sister, your mama, what I’d learned that day.

  She was a year younger than me, but she was a smart child—learned easily.”

  “You got that right,” Ezekiel agreed. “And she know’d right from wrong, too.”

  Lilly kept her attention on Jarena and her sisters. “As I was saying, your mama learned quickly, and I’m pleased to see she made certain you girls received some education. Now, where your mama and I differed is that I used what I learned to get ahead in the world, while she chose to get married at a young age.”

  “And we’re surely glad she made the choice to marry Pappy, or we wouldn’t be here,” Grace put in.

  “And how did you end up in New Orleans?” Moses inquired.

  “That happened after we were sold and living in Kentucky. There was a fine gentleman that came to the plantation one day—a white man. He was taken with my beauty and intelligence and offered to purchase me right there and then. The master refused at first, but eventually they struck a bargain and he took me to New Orleans.”

  “And is that the man you married?” Grace asked.

  Lilly arched her brows and looked at Grace as though she were a bit slow. “No. He was already married—to a white woman. But he gave me my freedom and—” “You weren’t no more free in New Orleans than you was workin’ in the big house back at the plantation,” Ezekiel blurted. “That man still owned you. He put up the money for your keep, but you repaid him with your soul.”

  The rebuke brought Lilly to he
r feet. “I repaid him with my body, but not my soul! My soul still hangs in the balance, Ezekiel. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll give that to God or the devil.”

  Ezekiel stood, too. “That’s what ya say now, but that’s not what you was tellin’ Jennie in them letters you used to write her—telling her ya could heal her if she’d come to New Orleans and let ya practice some of that voodoo magic on her. And don’ ya try and deny that, neither. She read them letters to me, and Jennie weren’t no liar.”

  Lilly slowly lowered herself onto the chair, clinging to her lace-edged handkerchief.

  Jarena watched the older woman. There was little doubt Lilly was embarrassed. A haunting look of desperation filled her eyes as she attempted to retain a sense of decorum. And much as Jarena loathed Lilly’s behavior, she could not in good conscience continue to watch the woman struggle any longer. “It won’t be long until dinner’s ready,” Jarena said. “You men go on outside while we set the table and dish up the food. I’ll call you when we’re ready to sit down.”

  Lilly brushed past Jarena on her way to retrieve a serving bowl. “Thank you.”

  The words were no more than a whisper, but Jarena heard them clearly—and they sounded sincere. Perhaps her simple act of kindness would carve a chink in Aunt Lilly’s hardened heart.

  CHAPTER

  5

  Though the conversation throughout their meal had remained stilted, Jarena noted Aunt Lilly seemed to regain her composure as the afternoon wore on. Shortly after Miss Hattie and their other guests arrived, it appeared as if the earlier discussion had been completely forgotten.

  Miss Hattie busied herself cutting a slice of raspberry pie while Ezekiel stood over her, holding a plate. She stopped short of dishing up the slice and turned her rheumy eyes on Moses. “So when you an’ Truth gonna finally jump the broom? Seems like you been talkin’ ‘bout marryin’ that gal forever, but you still ain’ done nothin’ ‘bout it.”