Read Morgan James - Promise McNeal 02 - Quiet Killing for Free Online Page A

don’t get excited one way or the other. Yankees, or Crackers, either way killing don’t set right with me.”
    For some reason I was disturbed to hear Mrs. Allen say the twins looked through the Sorley papers. I considered the twins criminals and knew whatever they were looking for would lead to problems for someone else. “But why would they want to go through the suitcase?”
    Mrs. Allen handed me a stack of papers bound by a length of frayed, pink knitting yarn. “Here, look through these for an old envelope addressed to Joab Sorley. Well, if I remember rightly, that feller down at the historical society told them Goddard boys about the Sorleys being here since God was a baby, and they said they wanted to hunt anything written down about the war years in Western North Carolina. I reckon they thought finding something would make them big shots with their Rebel playmates.”
    “Did they find anything?”
    “No, they rummaged through about every piece of paper; but went away disappointed, so far as I could tell.” She held up a yellowed envelope to the light and then handed it to me. “Here it is. I knew it was here somewhere.”
    It was indeed addressed to Mr. Joab Sorley, Charleston, North Carolina. “Where is Charleston, North Carolina?”
    “Back then, I believe, Bryson City was known as Charleston. I think the mail come to the Sorleys by way of there. Can’t say why.” She smiled and tapped the envelope with excitement. “Just go on and open it. As I remember, your Reba is mentioned. Read it out loud.”
    I unfolded two pieces of well-creased paper and read the neatly penned words:
    August 25, 1882
Dear Cousin Joab ,
    We all desire the best for cousin Nola’s baby. Thus, by your counsel, we made haste to locate Mr. Beauchamp. Two Christian Temperance League ladies working for cousin Lewis’s release are to be thanked for this effort. They set fellow workers in Baltimore the task of locating him in the household employment of Mr. and Mrs. John Garrett, also Nola’s employers since her arrival from Wexford. We agreed with you that once Mr. Beauchamp was informed that Nola died giving birth, he would want his child with him .
    Our angels of mercy sent word they did indeed call upon the Garrett house. Mrs. Garrett received them most graciously. She expressed sorrow at Nola’s passing and met them with Mr. Aiken Beauchamp, who is her butler .
    The ladies write Mr. Beauchamp is as Nola described. He presents himself as educated, gentlemanly, and handsome. Though he is lighter of complexion, and seems quite respectable, he is, by his own account, counted as a man of color, owing to his mother being a mulatto woman from the West Indies, bought into service to the elder Mr. Garrett. Mr. Beauchamp declared he was in agreement with Nola’s decision to journey to her South Carolina relatives, and to raise the child here. The ladies write he wept when he was given the news Nola died in childbirth. Nevertheless, he is steadfast in his belief that the baby would have little chance of a happy life as a person of color in Baltimore. Further, we all agree that to send the baby to the Connell family in Ireland would be just as unfortunate a choice .
    Thus, dear cousin, we arrive back where we began, and trust you have not had a change of heart. We pray Nola’s child will be the daughter you and Enid have prayed for these many years. If this stifling heat should ever relent, our John will bring the baby, Rebecca (Reba), along with cousin Adeline Redmond, who has nursed her with her own sizeable brood, to you in Charleston. I have no knowledge of the time by wagon from Seneca, but I am certain John will make haste as well he can. We are told the roads can be dangerous and fraught with thieves, thus three of the Redmond boys will accompany the wagon on horseback .
    We are also sending a chest of household items from dear departed Papa Connell’s home for little Reba’s future dowry, with a prayer she will choose more