Home to Walnut Ridge (13 page)

“
CJC,” Noah
added.

Sadie’s eyes twinkled as she smiled.
“Yes, CJC. And what an interesting boy he was. By the time Craig
was around twenty, Walnut Ridge had grown into a thriving
plantation growing tobacco and raising cattle. But Craig wanted no
part of it. He was a rebellious child who preferred to go by
Craggie, which actually suited him better. Craggie developed a
terrible case of wanderlust, so one night he took off without
telling a soul, and especially not his parents. Later, they would
learn, he roamed the country for several years, always picking up
odd jobs along the way until he had enough money to move on. Then,
around 1861 he found himself in Washington D.C.”

Tracey glanced around the table. She
smiled, observing her father and Noah hanging on Sadie’s every
word, totally mesmerized by her story. They hadn’t even noticed
when Alex served dessert, though they’d both taken several bites of
the apple chunk cake.

Sadie continued. “By this time,
Craggie had learned the ways of the world enough to know how to
charm himself into any job he set his eyes on. And so it was, our
own Craggie Collins found himself a butler in the Lincoln White
House!”

Buddy leaned back in his chair. “Well,
for heaven’s sake. How on earth did he do it? I wouldn’t think you
could just walk up and knock on the White House door and ask for a
job.”

“
Dad, remember what Sadie
said about folks coming and going in the White House day and
night?” Tracey asked. “It’s not like they had guards out front and
metal detectors at the door. Times were different then.”

Noah finished a bite of cake. “Who
knows, maybe he met someone in a pub or a boarding house. And if
that’s the case, then things really haven’t changed that
much‌—‌it’s all in who you know.”

“
Of course, we have no way
of knowing,” Sadie said. “The family archives had no such
information on how he got the job. What we do know is that he was
quite fascinated to be a part of the White House staff. By then,
I’d like to think he’d matured and knew his manners. Still, with
the states at war, Craggie found himself at odds with those who
walked the halls of the White House.” She stopped and looked
around. “Oh dear, where did I leave my valise?”

“
It’s probably with your
coat,” Alex said. “I’ll get it for you.”

“
Yes, please, dear.
Because there’s something I must show you. Do you suppose we could
clear away some of these dishes?”

“
No problem,” Tracey said
as she and Noah started gathering dishes. “By the way, your apple
cake was delicious, Noah.”

“
Wish I could take credit
for it, but the compliment goes to Publix.”

“
Can’t beat their bakery,”
Alex added as she handed Sadie the thin leather case.

Buddy leaned forward. “Tell us what
you’ve got there, Sadie.”

The librarian gently removed a folder
and laid it on the table in front of her. She carefully opened the
file and removed a page in a clear plastic sleeve. “This is a
letter I found in your family’s archives, Buddy.” She turned it for
them to see and slowly slid it across the table.

They all stood up, their chairs
scraping in unison against the oak floor as they crowded to take a
look.

“
As you can see,” Sadie
began, “this is a letter signed by Craggie Collins dated May 6,
1862. It was a letter he wrote to his father who had recently
written to tell Craggie that his older brother Evan had been killed
in the Battle of Shiloh in early April. Evan had been the one
sibling Craggie got along with before he left home. Tracey, why
don’t you read it for us since you and Alex had a chance to look it
over with me this morning.”

“
Sure,” Tracey said,
picking up the protected page. She took her seat as Noah, Dad, and
Alex leaned over her shoulders.

Dear Father,

I was so very sorry to
hear that Evan had been killed in battle. I hadn’t shed a single
tear since I was a boy, but I confess I cried all night after
receiving your letter. How I wish I’d told Evan how much he meant
to me.

Even though I’m from the
South, I’ve always liked Mr. Lincoln. He’s very kind to all of us
who work here. When his son Willie died back in February, President
Lincoln did not return to work for almost three weeks, as he and
Mrs. Lincoln suffered through their grief. We all felt the sadness
in every room of this great house.

But now, as I experience
my own grief
‌—‌
one caused by this wretched war
‌—‌
I find myself angry as well and
fearful of my actions. Others I work with know I am from Tennessee
and regularly provoke me about my allegiances. Just yesterday I
nearly punched a footman for a vulgar joke he made about the
Confederacy.

That is why I have decided
to leave here at once and come home to Walnut Ridge. If you and
Mother will have me, I want to come home.

Your son,

Craggie

Chapter 11

After Sadie left, Buddy said goodnight
and went upstairs. Noah helped Alex and Tracey finish the dinner
dishes, then Alex headed off to the barn to work for a while. Noah
was much too wired to call it a night, so on a whim he invited
Tracey to take a ride with him. She balked at first, uneasy about
riding a motorcycle in the dark. The fact that she quickly came
around pleased him. She borrowed Buddy’s leather jacket, spare
helmet, and protective eyewear, then followed Noah out to his
bike.

“
Wow. This is a lot bigger
than Dad’s. A lot more chrome, too.”

“
Bigger, but older than
Buddy’s. It’s an ‘04 Ultra Classic, but it’s got all the bells and
whistles.” It even has helmets with communication headsets.” He
then showed her how to plug into the communication port on the bike
and where the switch was to activate the headset. He climbed on and
helped her up onto the seat behind him. He motioned for her to hold
on. “You’ll probably want to‍—‍”

“
Oh, I’ll
definitely
want to.” She
leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his ribcage. “I’m new at
this, you know. I practically cut off Dad’s circulation on the way
home from the airport.”

“
Good to know. If you
notice my voice jumping an octave or two, you might want to ease
up. Ready?”

She tightened her arms around him.
“Ready.”

Holding the clutch, he turned the key
and powered up the Harley. It was one of his favorite sounds‌—‌like
a personal, open invitation to relax. He gently eased off the
clutch and slowly drove the bike down the long, winding driveway. A
few minutes later they were rolling along, the cool autumn air
whisking over them.

“
You okay back
there?”

“
Doing great. You okay up
there?”

Noah laughed. “I’m good, thanks. Check
out that moon.”

“
Whoa! It’s beautiful! I
forgot how big those harvest moons can be.”

“
What, you didn’t have
them in D.C.?”

“
Yes, wise guy. We have
harvest moons in Washington. But I was always too busy to notice.
Hard to take in a sight like that sequestered in an office ’til all
hours.”

Noah drove them out of town on the
two-lane country road with no particular destination in mind. He’d
never had a woman passenger before, but he decided then and there
he liked it. In fact, he liked it a lot. It felt good to have
Tracey’s arms wrapped around him. A little strange considering
they’d only known each other a few days. That, and how intimate it
was, feeling her pressed against him like this.

They rode in silence for fifteen or
twenty minutes until they came to a bluff overlooking a river.
Slowing, he pulled off and parked. “I’ve never been up here before.
Mind if we take a look?”

Tracey pulled off her
helmet and eyewear. “This was a favorite parking spot back when I
was in high school. Mind you,
I
was never up here. Dad always convinced Alex and
me that if we ever did that sort of thing, he’d know. ‘I’ll
just
know
,’ he’d
say. I had images of him jumping out of the bushes if I ever came
up here with a guy. He sure put the fear of God in us.”

Noah secured their helmets. “I guess
we’re safe then.”

“
Safe?” she asked,
following him up the steps to the lookout.

He turned back, reaching for her hand.
“Buddy’s home in bed. I don’t think you have to worry about him
jumping out of the bushes.”

She laughed, keeping up with him until
they reached the top. A concrete wall served as a barrier to keep
them from falling down the long, steep embankment below. “What a
view‌—‌I had no idea we were this high up.”

Tracey walked around him. “It’s
absolutely breathtaking. Oh my goodness, I don’t know which is
prettier‌—‌all the twinkling lights below or the canopy of stars
above. Especially with the moon looking all fat and orange like
that.”

“
Well, I did call ahead.
Asked for something breathtaking.”

She laughed quietly. “Did you now? So
you planned this? Like a rendezvous or something?”

He could tell by the look on her face
she hadn’t meant to say that. Even in the moonlight he could tell
she was embarrassed. “Ah, yes, ma’am, it surely does. I called up
Dial-A-Sky and said I’d be coming up here with a beautiful young
woman at‍—‍” he checked his watch‌—‍ “8:55 and would they please
toss out a few stars. I had to pay extra for the moon, of course.
Being so big and all.”

“
So now you’re mocking me?
You and your stars and your big fat moon?”

“
Not hardly. I’m not that
clever. But you have to admit it was a good one.”

“
What, the
Dial-A-Sky?”

“
Subject change,” Noah
said, turning around so he could lean back against the wall. “I
still can’t get over all this business with the Lincoln teacup and
your
Uncle
Craggie hiding it in the wall of the smokehouse. If I hadn’t
seen the letter with my own eyes and compared the handwriting to
the note we found with the cup and saucer,” he shook his head, “I
wouldn’t have believed it.”

He watched Tracey looking out at the
view below. “Unbelievable, isn’t it? And thank goodness Sadie is
such a stickler for keeping the town’s archives. Imagine if we’d
found that teacup and had no possible way to find out how it got
there.”

“
She’s incredible,” Noah
said. “She’s quite the fountain of information. I keep trying to
envision this Craggie fellow on his last day at the White House.
What possessed him to steal that teacup? Was it just a souvenir? I
find it hard to believe someone with a reputation like his would be
smitten with a particular pattern of china.”

Tracey chuckled. “Yeah, probably not.
And from what Sadie found in her research about that china and how
so many pieces of it were broken and missing‌—‌it makes you wonder
if Craggie was part of those on staff who deliberately dropped a
piece here or there out of spite toward Mrs. Lincoln.” She
shrugged. “Then again, maybe he just stole it right from under
their noses.”

“
Which in Abe’s case, was
quite large.” Seeing her perplexed expression, he added, “His nose.
You could hide a band of gypsies under that nose of
his.”

She bumped against him, smiling. “Hey,
have a little respect. He was our president, after all.”

“
Duly noted.”

“
Or, is it possible, as
Sadie indicated, that the china really was defective,” Tracey
continued. “Remember she said Mrs. Lincoln replaced it with a whole
new different set when her husband was re-elected? How sad that
they never got to use any of it because he was
assassinated.”

“
Somehow I doubt the First
Lady gave it a thought, considering someone just
murdered
her
husband.”

“
Duly noted.”

Noah turned to face her, his hip still
leaning against the wall. “So somehow, whether he just wanted a
souvenir of his tenure there at the White House‍—‍”

“
Or maybe he took it as
proof that he’d actually worked there. Think about it. He’d always
been this wild child, roaming half the country. Everybody back home
probably thought he was an embarrassment to his family. There’s no
telling what they all thought of him.”

Noah followed her lead. “Maybe it was
just a last-minute whim on his way out the door. Maybe he was about
to leave and noticed a tray with the cup and saucer just sitting
there. So he grabs it, slips it under his jacket, and walks out the
door.”

Tracey nodded, a far-off look in her
eyes as if imagining the entire scenario. “Then he comes home,
maybe even tells his folks it was a parting gift from the
Lincolns.”

“
But‌—‌being the
ne’re-do-well
the
townspeople knew him to be‌—‌maybe no one believed him.
Or . . . or maybe, after all his bragging around
town, he began to worry that someone might steal it.”

Tracey faced him, continuing the
supposition. “And Sadie said all this would have happened right
about the time Craggie’s father was having the new smokehouse
built.” She suddenly grabbed his arm, caught up in the imagery. “So
he hid it in the wall because he was leaving to join the
Confederate Army! Sadie told us he enlisted shortly after he got
home, remember? He told his parents it was something he had to do,
to fight in Evan’s place.”