A Promise for Tomorrow (41 page)
As men attacked each other, oblivious to the women and children in their midst, Carolina began to pray as never before. She feared for her life, but more so, she feared for the lives of her children, including the unborn child she carried. Biting at her lower lip, she frantically searched the crowd for someone she knew. Of course, she recognized Red, but he would hardly do her any good.
Several feet away from her a fistfight broke out, and this quickly ignited the surrounding men into a full-blown battle. Boards, branches, mauls, whatever could be reached, instantly became a weapon for war.
Victoria screamed, and just as Carolina turned to see what caused this sudden outburst, a stunning blow hit her at the temple. For a moment, Carolina was too surprised to understand what had happened, but as her vision blurred and the images around her began to dance and spin, she completely comprehended the gravity of the situation.
“Mama!” Victoria screamed again, and this time Brenton, too, joined in.
Carolina tried to shake her head, but the pain was too intense. She reached her gloved hand up to the place where the rock had grazed her and brought it away bloody. Seeing her own blood was too much. Her knees gave out and blackness crowded her thoughts.
“James . . .” she whispered.
Suddenly strong arms grasped her. “This way,” the voice instructed.
“My babies,” she moaned, unable to see through the swirling darkness.
“I’ll be seein’ to them all.”
Somewhere in her thoughts, Carolina recognized the voice of Kiernan O’Connor. “Don’t let them get hurt,” she pleaded, slipping further and further into the arms of unconscious oblivion.
“Hush,” he told her. “I’ll guard ’em with me life.”
It was the last thing she would remember.
Carolina next opened her eyes to the worried frown of her husband. Hovering at her bedside, James’ expression immediately reminded her of another episode of struggle and worry.
“I’ve not seen you look like that since I gave birth to Jordana,” she said groggily.
“Carolina! Oh, thank God!” James declared, taking hold of her hand. “You can’t imagine my shock when Kiernan brought you here.”
“What happened?” she asked, fighting through the clouded images of her memory. Her head ached fiercely, and for the life of her, Carolina couldn’t remember why.
“The Irish are rioting. It started at the station just as you arrived. Red is furious because Ben Latrobe has brought in additional Corkians. They were on the same train as you were. Now there’s fighting going on all over Cumberland, and Red O’Connor is leading the Connaughtmen.”
She nodded. Yes, somewhere in her memory she remembered Red O’Connor shouting and Irish voices being raised in anger.
“Where am I now?”
“My hotel room,” James replied.
She nodded, supposing that somehow it all made sense. She lay quietly for several moments as bits and pieces came back to her. Suddenly she thought of Victoria screaming. “The children!” she cried, her eyes flying open in fright.
“They are fine. Kiernan has them all in his room. Miriam, as well.”
“They are unhurt?”
“Yes,” he replied. “You were the only one wounded.” He leaned down to kiss her gently. “Why didn’t you listen to me? Why didn’t you stay at Oakbridge?”
“What are you talking about?” Carolina reached a trembling hand to her temple.
“I sent you a telegram. Didn’t you receive it?” James asked gravely.
“No . . . I received nothing,” admitted Carolina. “I had a letter dated from the first part of November, and that was the last I had from you.” Things were coming clearer to her now, and the dull ache in her head didn’t seem so troubling. A bandage had been placed over the wound, and bringing her hand back down, she once again saw the blood that was now drying on her glove. “It seems I can’t keep a clean pair of gloves. It’s either locomotive soot or blood or some such thing.”
“Oh, Carolina,” James said, and the heaviness in his voice immediately made her feel guilty.
“I am sorry,” she said, slipping the soiled glove from her hand. She reached up to touch his face.
“You can’t know what I went through when I saw you in Kiernan’s arms. You were unconscious and bleeding, the children were crying, and even Miriam was so shaken that all she could do was weep. I thought you might even be dead.”
“Not me,” Carolina said, grinning gamely, trying hard to soothe his fears. “I’ve too much to live for. You need me to keep you out of trouble.”
“Yes, but who will keep you out of trouble?” he asked softly. Pulling her gently into his arms, James held her close and stroked her hair.
Carolina relished the way he made her feel secure and loved. She didn’t even mind that his actions had caused her head to throb painfully. She loved him so and had despaired of ever seeing him again.
“I want you to take the children and Miriam and return to Baltimore,” James said suddenly. He pulled away to look her full in the face. “There are only going to be more problems. The labor situation isn’t going to calm anytime soon. I can’t even fire Red without concerning myself with a full-scale war. My only hope is to help him see reason. If we work together we can surely come to some kind of amicable settlement. But I won’t risk your life, nor that of the children or Miriam.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Carolina said adamantly. “My place is with you. I probably never realized that so much as when I was at Oakbridge.”
James shook his head. “It’s going to be too dangerous.”
“Life anywhere is dangerous, my love,” Carolina said softly. “We’re a family and we need to work together and remain together as one. I need to be with you. I need you. Especially now.” She smiled and leaned forward to kiss him lightly upon the lips. “We’re going to have another baby.”
“What!” James exclaimed and held her at arm’s length. The stunned expression on his face made her laugh.
“Poor man.” She giggled. “First Ben overruns you with Irish, and now I do the same with children.”
“Are you certain?”
“Of course I’m certain. I found out while I was at Oakbridge.
Come June I will give you another daughter or son.”
“Now I know that I want you to return to Baltimore.”
“The doctor in Greigsville is good, and I want you near when I have our baby,” Carolina countered. “James, see reason. Greigsville is just as safe as any place else. I wouldn’t have been hurt today if I hadn’t been in the wrong place. If I’d received your telegram, it might have made a difference, but who knows? I believe we are in God’s hands and that all things happen for a purpose. Don’t send me away,” she pleaded.
“Don’t look at me that way,” James said in complete exasperation. “You know exactly how to get your way with me, and that look always seems to worm its way into my heart.”
Carolina laughed. “I never knew that, but now that I do—”
“Don’t you be getting any ideas, Mrs. Baldwin.” He laughed and let go of her. Crossing his arms against his chest, he shook his head. “You know exactly how to get what you want out of me. I’m much too soft when it comes to you and your feminine wiles.”
His expression was serious, but Carolina knew how to break through this facade. “It has nothing to do with feminine wiles,” she said, her fingers lightly touching his cleanly shaven face. “It has more to do with my deep abiding love for you. You cannot know how very much I love you, how I live for you.” She traced along his jaw, then placed the palm of her hand against his cheek. “I want to stay with you.” She heard him sigh and knew that she’d won. She grinned.
“Stop looking like the cat who caught the mouse,” he told her. “I know I’ll probably regret this, but very well. We will all return to Greigsville together. Maybe the fact that you and the children are in tow will cause the men to behave themselves.”
“What men?”
“I’m to escort the new laborers back to the tunnel site, along with the men who accompanied me here to Cumberland for my meetings with Ben Latrobe.”
“Will there be very many?”
“Nearly fifty. If they choose not to behave themselves, then we’ll all pay the price. I only hope Red will keep his mouth shut.”
“Can’t Red see the way he’s dividing the people against each other?”
“He does and he doesn’t care. He wants them divided. He’s even put Kiernan away from him.”
“What do you mean?” Carolina instantly remembered that it was Kiernan who had rescued her.
“Kiernan defended me against Red, and so Red has denounced him as a brother. He kicked him out of their room, and not only that, but the other Connaughtmen will have nothing to do with him. Either they are too afraid of Red or they totally agree with his politics and believe Kiernan to be a traitor.”
“How sad.”
“It is,” James said. “But Red cares naught for anyone but himself.
I would wager a bet that it isn’t even the benefit of the Connaughtmen that drives him. He’s filled with anger and hatred, and it pours out into everything he does. If I fire him, he’ll only become more powerful as a martyr and sneak around behind my back without even the benefit of a job to keep him in line. And if I do nothing, then I’m seen as weak and an easy mark for further demands.”
“It does seem an impossible situation.”
Just then a knock sounded at the adjoining room door, and Kiernan O’Connor looked in when James answered. “How is she?” he asked.
Carolina lay back against the pillow as James moved aside. “I’m just fine, Kiernan, thanks to you and God.”
Kiernan grinned. “Now, that’s what I call keepin’ high company.”
“Mama! Mama!” Brenton pushed past Kiernan and rushed to his mother’s bedside.
“Whoa there, son,” James said, taking hold of him. “Your mother is going to be just fine, but you can’t go jumping on her like she’s a sack of flour.”
There were tears in the boy’s eyes as he nodded and turned toward Carolina. “I was a-scared that you were dead,” he told her honestly.
Carolina opened her arms and James released the boy. Brenton snuggled down into her embrace and held on to her tightly. “I hate those Irish,” he said angrily. “If I had a gun like Papa’s, I’d kill them all.”
Carolina knew without a mirror that her expression was one of absolute shock. The words coming from her young son’s mouth were frightening and overwhelmingly filled with bitterness. James, too, appeared surprised by this sudden outburst.
“Son, that’s no way to speak,” he admonished.
“I don’t care. They tried to kill my mama,” Brenton said, rising up enough to see his mother’s face. “They hurt you bad.”
“No, not truly,” Carolina told him, stroking his soft brown hair lovingly. “They weren’t trying to hurt me, Brenton. They were fighting each other. I was simply in the way. They didn’t mean to cause me harm.”
“I don’t care. I hate them. They’re just a bunch of dumb old Micks.”
“Brenton Baldwin!” Carolina exclaimed. “I don’t know where you ever heard that term, but I’d better never hear you use it again. You may well think the Irish set out to hurt me, but I’m telling you otherwise, and as your mother I expect you to believe me. You should also remember that it was an Irishman who saved my life.”
Brenton shook his head furiously and sat up. “Kiernan saved you.”
“Son, Kiernan is also an Irishman,” James said softly.
Brenton looked to his mother for affirmation, and Carolina nodded. “Kiernan is Mr. O’Connor’s brother, and Mr. O’Connor is the one who started today’s fight. At least from what I could see.”
“I’m certain that’s right,” Kiernan offered from the door.
By this time, Victoria and Miriam had come into the room, with Jordana quietly watching the scene from Miriam’s arms. The gravity of the situation was not lost on her, and it had subdued the active child for the moment.
Brenton looked up at the man he’d come to think of as a friend. Carolina knew it was difficult for him to understand. The seeds of bitter prejudice had been planted in her son’s heart, and it was her utmost desire that they might be stomped out before being given a chance to grow.
“Brenton, there are all kinds of people in this world,” Carolina explained. “Some look different from us. Some act different. Some live in other countries far across the ocean, and some have different colors of skin. But all are important to God. Do you understand?”
“Even when they’re bad?” Brenton asked, his little-boy face contorting in confusion.
“Maybe even especially then,” Carolina countered. “There are bad people everywhere, just as there are good people everywhere. The color of your skin or the country you were born in doesn’t make you better or worse than anyone else. Remember what I told you about slavery?”
“You said it needed to stop,” Brenton answered confidently.
“That’s right. Grandfather Adams has slaves, but he intends to set them free. The slaves at Oakbridge are generally treated very well, but other slaves living elsewhere are often treated very badly. But no matter how good or bad they are treated, slavery is still wrong because no one has the right to own another person. Neither do they have the right to force people to work at one place or another. Mr. O’Connor is trying to force the railroad not to hire certain people just because he doesn’t like them. A lot of the Irishmen feel the same way he does, but a lot of them don’t.”
“Me for one,” Kiernan said.
Brenton seemed to consider all this for a moment, then got up from the bed and ran to Kiernan. “I didn’t know you were Irish,” he said. “I just thought you talked funny.”
Kiernan laughed. “Now, ’tisn’t me who talks funny,” he said, purposefully thickening his brogue. “Folks in me homeland talk like this all the time. ’Tis yar own self who’d be talkin’ funny.”
Carolina smiled at James, then turned her attention back to her son. “Remember, Brenton, Kiernan saved my life. He’s a good man, and we should all give him our thanks.” She met his warm expression and knew that her opinion of him had been forever altered.
“Thank you for saving my mama,” Brenton told him, extending his small hand.
Kiernan shook it and nodded. “I thank the good Lord that I could be there to help.”
“So do we,” James replied. “I can’t thank you enough for protecting them. I had no idea Carolina wouldn’t receive my telegram and not remain at Oakbridge. The shock of finding my family here, much less in the middle of a riot, is still taking a toll on me.”