With Suzanne in Charleston, Judith and Lynna’s workload was cut drastically. They had kept late hours in order to complete several day dresses and a ball gown for Suzanne’s trip and now found themselves with rare free time on their hands. Lynna recalled Mary’s stunned expression when questioning her daughter about the new dresses and extravagant gown she had requested from Judith.
“Mother, whatever do you mean? Why of course I could not be seen in the same dress twice while in Charleston. What would people say? And would you have Captain Jordan think us penniless and all but destitute?” While uttering the offensive words, she had clutched her chest as though she were on the verge of succumbing to one of her frequent attacks of vapors. “Why, I could never show my humiliated face in the finer homes of Charleston again!”
Mary had left the room mumbling to herself, but Judith didn’t complain. Suzanne was her livelihood.
Lynna and Judith quickly adapted to the much slower pace, taking leisurely strolls by the river, stopping to have a quiet picnic lunch, or just sitting on the front porch listening to the birds sing, bees buzz around the flowerbeds, bullfrogs croak from the pond, and crickets chirp. The entire plantation seemed to breathe an audible sigh of relief during Suzanne’s absence.
Long after the sun had dropped below the horizon Lynna settled back against a cushion on the old porch swing, watching a star shoot across the sky. She pushed with her bare feet to set the swing in motion, allowing her mind to drift.
Absentmindedly, her fingers went to twirl a lock of hair as her thoughts drifted to Charleston. Suzanne was probably having a marvelous time in the Holy City, flitting from ball to ball in the fabulous gowns that she and aunt Judith had designed and painstakingly stitched into the wee hours of the morning. She most likely had all the young bucks vying for her attention, including Joshua Jordan.
No!
She simply would not permit herself to think about him, or what he and Suzanne were doing on this beautiful moon swept, romantic night. Hearing a rustling noise, she peered into the shadows, ready to bolt if her uncle appeared.
Lynna and Judith were grateful and gave thanks nightly for their quiet, peaceful evenings alone. Her uncle had not forced his company on them in over a fortnight, which meant they were due a visit any day. Judith’s husband Tobias knew that she received her wages on the first day of the month and he would show up at the door with his hand out.
Tobias Mathison was a drunk.
A nasty drunk.
Short and heavyset, he had carrot colored hair, a pudgy screwed up face, and the meanest of dispositions. After quenching his constant thirst at the local tavern and spending his last coin for a night with one of the local harlots, he would come home searching for whiskey money.
“It’s only me, Lynna. Don’t be frightened. I was hoping you would still be awake.”
Relieved to hear Daniel’s familiar voice, Lynna patted the swing, inviting him to sit with her. “Aunt Judith just went inside. It’s such a marvelous night that I decided to sit outside for a while. Come join me, Daniel.”
Daniel sat beside her as fireflies danced merrily around them. He smelled clean, of soap, and earth, and tobacco. “I remember when Suzanne was a little girl, she would pull the hind portion of a firefly off, the part that glowed, and place one on the top of each finger. They still glow even when severed from the body, you know? Then she would waltz around with the body parts shining on her fingers and pretend they were sparkling jewels.”
“How awful!” Lynna cried, feeling sorry for the mutilated insects.
“Suzanne did not bat an eye when she killed the bugs, dozens each night.” Daniel shook his head. “Jasmine always said that you could tell a person’s true character by the way they treated animals. I wonder if that saying holds true for insects.”
“If you ask me, cruelty is cruelty no matter the species, and if I recall, you and Samuel also had a fondness for such devilment,” Lynna admonished. “Remember when you would chase down a June bug and retrieve a length of Aunt Judith’s sewing thread, and tie the string to the June bug’s leg? The poor insect would fly madly around and around your head trying to free itself of the string until it collapsed from exhaustion.”
“I suppose you’re right,” he lamented. “They left a nasty smell on my hands, too.”
Lynna was quiet, enjoying the sweet fragrance of honeysuckle.
Then, with a look of steely determination in his eyes, Daniel turned abruptly to face her. Taking both hands, he pulled Lynna to her feet, gazing into her eyes. Lifting his hand, he pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear and then returned it to grasp her hand. “You know how I feel about you. How I have felt for a long time.” He paused as if gathering his courage. “Will you marry me, Lynna?”
Lynna stood in stunned silence, not knowing what to say or how to say it. She had been expecting him to ask her for months now, but when it actually occurred she was caught off guard.
Daniel drew her into his arms as his lips lowered for a demanding kiss filled with years of pent up passion. When he drew away, his fingers went to where his mouth had been to gently outline her lips.
Unfortunately, Lynna felt no emotion from his kiss, none of the overwhelming passion that she knew simmered inside of her. She didn’t feel anything really, except sadness and regret. However, she refused to hurt Daniel by allowing him to see that his most passionate kiss failed to elicit even the slightest response in her. She would try another kiss, and this time make her body respond.
Slipping her arms around his neck, she touched her lips to his in her most passionate kiss; and she had been taught kissing by a master. Still, she felt nothing. Not even the slightest twinge in her nether region. She heard Daniel’s sharp intake of breath, not realizing that he was undergoing the same feelings she herself had experienced after being the recipient of Joshua’s first kiss.
Dropping her arms from around his neck, she went to stand solemnly at the edge of the porch, watching fireflies flicker and moths flutter around the sputtering candle. After several minutes of pained silence, she turned to Daniel and could only surmise that he was still awaiting a reply to his proposal. She had to stall for time, until she could think of a way to refuse his request without breaking his heart in the process. “Daniel, this is so sudden.”
Daniel seemed flushed, perspiring heavily, and evidently his groin area had been beset by a terrible itch. It was some minutes before he found his voice, and when he did it was scarcely above a whisper. “It’s not sudden on my part. You know that I love you, Lynna. I have since the first day you appeared on our doorstep as skinny as a rail and looking as if you had lost your only friend in the world. Please, make me the happiest man on earth by saying yes.”
There must be a way to be truthful, while at the same time sparing his feelings. Save him from having to suffer the same torment that she had been forced to endure after Joshua had callously thrown her offer of marriage back into her humiliated face. But what? “Daniel, please give me time to ponder this issue at length. I could not possibly give you an answer tonight.”
Daniel immediately exhaled a sigh of relief that she hadn’t turned him down flat. “How much time do you need?”
“Why, I’m not sure. Marriage is much too serious an institution to be hastened into.” She prayed he could somehow understand. “When I marry, I want it to be perfect and last forever.”
“Lynna, I realize that your feelings are not as strong as mine. But given time you would grow to love me. I know you would.” With a sweeping hand, Daniel encompassed the plantation and its thousands of acres. “I long for you to stand by my side as my wife and one day be mistress of Magnolia House.” It was obvious to Lynna that in his mind no woman could turn down such a proposal, when in truth the plantation and all of its acreage was but a drop in the bucket to her own inheritance.
If she still had one.
“I do love you, Daniel.” Like a brother. “I just don’t know if I am… quite ready for marriage. I need more time. P
lease, give me that time.”
His white grin flashed in the darkness. “I will give you until morning.”
“Oh, you are incorrigible.” She laughed, thankful that he was able to joke about the matter.
He held her face and tilted her chin up.” I will be eagerly awaiting your answer. Please, I beg of you, do not postpone the agony any longer than you have to.” Then, placing a tender kiss on the tip of her nose, he turned to leave.
Lynna watched him walk toward the big house with his shoulders hunched, defeated. What was she holding out for? Why not accept his offer of marriage and move her scant belongings into the grand plantation house?
Daniel was a handsome man of average height and build with his father’s black curly hair and his mother’s small frame and cheerful disposition. A man who would love her and be a splendid father to her children.
Just as his own father had been, once, a long time ago.
Daniel was a man that any woman would be proud to claim as her own.
Lynna could find only one flaw with the plan. She didn’t love Daniel, and she would never hurt him by marrying for any other reason. When she stood before God and pledged her vows, she would mean every single word.
Chapter 14