A Promise for Tomorrow (38 page)
“I’ve been looking for you,” James said and came to join him on the bench.
“I’ve been walkin’.”
“Well, I’ve talked to your brother and the leader of the Corkians, Aidan Monahan. I don’t think I’ve ever come across two more pigheaded individuals. They both refuse to back down. I’m afraid, however, when the new laborers arrive, there’s going to be trouble anew.”
“No doubt.”
“Sadly enough,” James said, appearing to have aged a score of years in a single day, “I can’t very well allow Carolina to return to this. Not when the laborers are due anytime. God alone knows whether there will be another riot or merely a mild skirmish, but either way she’ll be traveling with no one but Miriam and the children.”
“What are ya goin’ to do?” Kiernan asked, suddenly realizing the truth of James’ concerns. He had little desire to see Victoria plunged into the middle of the Irish tug-of-war, either.
“I’ve sent a wire to Oakbridge. I can only pray it reaches Carolina before she departs. For now, I suppose all I can do is sleep on it.”
“Aye. Sleep,” Kiernan said, wondering what he should do regarding the same idea.
James looked at him sympathetically for a moment, then his expression changed to one of sudden revelation. “You have nowhere to go, do you?”
Kiernan chuckled. “It seems not. I was just chewin’ on that bit of news when ya joined me.”
“Well, I never got to thank you properly for what you did for me today,” James said. “I think it only fair that since I was responsible for getting you alienated from your brother, it should also be my responsibility for seeing to your care. Come to my hotel with me. You’ll sleep tonight in my room, then tomorrow we’ll see about getting you a room of your own.”
“I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“You won’t be. Come on. Let Red sit in his misery, while you get a good night’s sleep.”
Kiernan nodded, knowing that James couldn’t possibly understand the depths of the consequences from his earlier actions. He hadn’t only alienated Red; he’d put off all of his own kind. There wouldn’t be a Connaughtman high or low who would speak to him now. Even if they agreed with him, they were too afraid of Red to interfere. Getting to his feet in order to follow James, Kiernan felt as though the dragon had won.
Carolina finished looking over a report sent by Thomas Swann to her father. The accomplishment of a railroad to the city of Wheeling on the Ohio River was starting to take definite shape, and Carolina was terribly excited about it. Just poring over the facts and figures, she could see that it wouldn’t be much longer, two years at the most, before the Baltimore and Ohio could boast completion. Contractors were building in sections all along the two hundred-some miles between Cumberland and Wheeling—some with varying degrees of success and others with overwhelming failure. Those failing contractors were being replaced or assisted as the circumstance merited it, but all in all the news was very positive. In addition to information regarding the new line, Swann had also included information regarding the line already in place. Passenger receipts were expected to greatly increase for the 1850 accounting year. Freight receipts had doubled.
“Mama?” Victoria called from outside the bedroom door.
Carolina folded the report and answered, “Come in, Victoria.”
Victoria’s dark curls swung and her eyes glinted with determination as she entered the room. “Mama, this dress is simply too tight in the bodice. I can’t wear it anymore, and that hardly leaves me anything but this old thing and my Sunday best.”
Carolina looked at the pale pink muslin gown her daughter held and then to the butterscotch calico gown she wore. Both looked ridiculously childish for the blossoming young woman who stood before her. Seeing Victoria as she did just now made Carolina all the more aware of her need to talk to her daughter.
“Come sit here.” Carolina patted the window seat and moved over. “I’ve wanted to talk to you for some time, and now appears to be as good a time as any.”
Victoria shrugged and tossed the pink muslin to the bed. “Can we have some more dresses made? I want some grown-up gowns.”
“Victoria, you’re not even fourteen. You’ve not come out, so there will be no floor-length gowns until that time. It’s the same thing I’ve told you about pinning up your hair.”
“But I don’t want to wait until I’m sixteen.”
Carolina smiled and reached a hand up to give her own stylish coif a pat. “You’ll be grateful to have this freedom of wearing your hair down after you’ve had to pin it up for a time. Believe me, Victoria, being all grown-up isn’t everything you believe it to be.”
Victoria crossed her arms and shook her head. “You just want me to be a child forever. I hate it, and I hate having to be away from home for so long. When are we going back?”
Carolina was amazed at how quickly the girl had shifted the focus of their discussion. “I had planned to leave at the end of this week. I told you that at the first of the month.”
“Yes, but you told me last month that we would leave by the twentieth and then the thirtieth and now this. I’m tired of being away from home. I miss everyone.”
“Everyone?” Carolina questioned with a raised brow of suspicion. “You mean Kiernan O’Connor, don’t you?”
Victoria squared her shoulders and jutted out her chin. “And what if I do?”
“You needn’t take that tone with me,” Carolina reprimanded. “I asked a simple question.”
Victoria sighed and fell back against the wall. “I miss Papa, too.”
Carolina smiled at her veiled response. “Papa misses you, as well. But I’d really rather we speak of this matter between you and Kiernan.”
Victoria looked at her for a moment, and Carolina saw a range of emotions in her expression. It appeared that she wanted to confide and talk to her mother about the situation, but on the other hand she also seemed fearful of Carolina’s reaction. It gave Carolina cause to retrace her steps. She didn’t want to offend Victoria so that she refused to speak at all. Trying to put herself in Victoria’s place, Carolina continued, this time in a less demanding voice.
“I’d really like to talk about what you’re feeling for him, but only if you want to.”
Victoria relaxed and smiled. “I love him. That’s what I’m feeling for him.”
She said the words so matter-of-factly that Carolina had to bite back a snide retort about Victoria being too young to understand what love was all about. Instead, Carolina focused on her own hands for a moment, studying the lines, the nails, anything to settle her nerves before replying.
“Love is a very confusing thing,” Carolina began, “and we often find our perceptions clouded.”
“Well, I’m not confused about what I feel for Kiernan,” Victoria replied adamantly. “I think he’s positively wonderful. We talk about such fascinating things and he tells me about Ireland and his family who still live there. Someday I hope to go to Ireland and see it all for myself.”
“Perhaps someday we can all go abroad and see it together,” Carolina countered.
Victoria seemed not even to hear her. “Kiernan has told me of his hard life there and how they all slept together in one room. Imagine it, Mama, nine kids all living in the same room.” She didn’t wait for comment before continuing. “Their life was so bad there. Their mother and father died, and the famine nearly took the lives of their youngest sister and brother. Kiernan’s two older sisters, Bridget and Mary, are keeping the children and they nursed them back to health, but Kiernan wants to bring the entire family here to America and I want to help him. I can’t imagine living in such poverty. All of my life I’ve had a room to myself and servants to help with the necessary duties. I’ve had dresses and toys—why, do you know Kiernan said his little sisters had rag babies with sewn-on faces? Not even a real doll. We’ve been very lucky to enjoy the wealth we have.”
“I doubt luck had anything to do with it.”
“You sound like Kiernan. He told me Red is always talking about the luck of the Irish, but that given all that has happened, he doesn’t think it rings true.”
“Yes, well, it’s all very fascinating,” Carolina said, trying to figure a way to bring up the subject of her daughter’s youth. “As a
man
,” she said, stressing the word man, “Kiernan has a tremendous responsibility to his family. He should focus on them before he does anything else. Especially if he feels that strongly about bringing them to America.”
“I told him I would find work and help him save the money,” Victoria told her mother matter-of-factly. The shocked expression that Carolina knew must be on her face was not lost on Victoria. “I will still manage my chores at home, so don’t fret about that. I figure I can work after school and on the weekends and—”
Carolina held up her hand. “Wait just a minute. You aren’t going to get a job.”
“But there’s bound to be something I could do to help. Maybe I could work at the store with the Kaberlines.”
Carolina thought of the vast wealth that lay in a trust fund for Victoria. It would be more than enough to bring half of Ireland to America. “Victoria, I know you care about Kiernan’s affairs—”
“I love him,” she interrupted. “It’s more than just caring about his affairs. I want them to be my affairs, too.”
Carolina studied her for a moment. Her dark eyes were wide with excitement and her expression betrayed her passion for the topic. This was no child she was dealing with, and yet chronologically, she was no real woman, either. Still, her emotions and feelings for the man in Greigsville sounded very much like the feelings Carolina held for her own husband.
“You need to focus on your education,” Carolina finally said, not certain how else to bring the conversation back in line. “I thought perhaps— that is, given the growing acceptability of women seeking to educate themselves—perhaps we would send you to a university.”
Victoria jumped to her feet. “I don’t want to go to a university! That is your dream, not mine. I have no interest in such matters. I want nothing more than to learn to keep a household in order and provide for the needs of my family. I want nothing more or less than that which will make me a good wife to Kiernan.”
“Wife?”
Victoria smiled and bit at her lower lip. “Yes, well, that is what we hope for.”
“We?” Carolina felt a sinking in the pit of her stomach.
“Kiernan and me. We hope to be married. In fact, as soon as the tunnel is complete, Kiernan plans to talk to Papa about it.”
“But that’s ridiculous, Victoria. The tunnel is scheduled to finish in less than two years. You’ll barely be sixteen.”
“Many girls younger than me get married, Mama.”
“Not if they’re my daughter, they don’t!” Carolina retorted. “You can’t be serious about marriage so soon. What will he do for a job? What about his relatives in Ireland? How can he save up money for them when he has a wife to support?”
“We plan to go west to California and look for gold. When we have enough, we’ll send for his family.”
“What?” Carolina couldn’t believe what she was hearing. California? Gold? “Victoria, I cannot approve of this in any way. You are but a child and you need to think of your future. An education, even one from a lady’s school, would do you better than running off at fifteen or sixteen to marry a man you scarcely know.”
Victoria frowned. “I don’t want to go to school. I hate it.”
“But it’s good for your mind,” Carolina countered.
“People told you it was better for your mind to stay at home and knit scarves,” Victoria protested. “You told me that yourself. You wanted to go to school, but everyone, including your mother, told you it was insanity. They told you it was sheer madness for a woman to educate herself—after all, what could she do with an education in this world?”
“But that was different,” Carolina said, forcing herself to remain seated. She really wanted to go to the child and shake some sense into her.
“It’s not any different at all,” Victoria replied. “Not really. You wanted something for yourself that everyone else thought was crazy. I want something for myself that everyone thinks is crazy. You fell in love with Papa when you were fifteen. I’m barely a year younger. Why can’t I know my heart as well as you knew yours?”
Carolina found it impossible to answer. How could it be that things looked so different now—now that she was the mother and it was her daughter whose lunatic ideas rang of insanity and waste?
For a moment, all Carolina could think about was the way her own mother had chided her for her desires. Margaret had recently confessed her regret at having stood in Carolina’s way. If she’d had her mother’s support on the matter, there was no telling where she might be today. Probably not here, and probably not with Victoria. Carolina loved her husband and children and knew her life had turned out well, yet she could not deny the bouts of discontent that still threatened her at times.
Calming her nerves, Carolina made herself realize that Victoria would mature and grow and soon be able to make her own decisions. She needed Carolina to help guide her choices, but if Carolina alienated her from speaking her heart, Victoria would simply choose someone else to assist her.
“How long . . .” Carolina began, then paused to take a deep breath. “How long have you and Kiernan been planning this?”
“Not long,” Victoria admitted and plopped down on the end of the canopied bed. “At least not on Kiernan’s part. I set my sights on him when the riots broke out last November. Remember how you and Papa had to go and help?”
Carolina nodded, not entirely certain that she wanted to know what her daughter would say next.
“Well, Kiernan came to the house. He was wounded and I hid him out in the cave behind the barn. I went there every day while he was getting well and he would tell me about Ireland, and we would just talk about all manner of subjects. I started teaching him to read when he was still there. He said he knew it would be a help to his getting a better job, and I saw it as a way of making myself useful to him.”
Carolina could well imagine a great many uses Kiernan might have for her pretty young daughter, most of them unacceptable. “And when did Kiernan return your feelings?”