They heard loud, laughing voices out in the lobby. Apparently the bank president’s guest was leaving.
“Thank you, Rex. It’s good seeing you again.” Buck stood. “Forgive me for not asking sooner, but how’s the rest of your family? Still at Foxgrove?”
Rex spread his hands on the desk and pushed himself to his feet. “Father managed to sell the plantation a few years ago. He and Momma and my sister moved to Greenville. He’s a judge there now. Or was. With the war ended and the Yankees in charge, who knows?”
“I wish them well.”
Buck opened the door before his crippled friend reached it and stepped out into the lobby in time to see a large, well-dressed plutocrat, wielding a glossy black walking stick, step out into the street. Grayson turned and greeted Buck with an outstretched hand.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he said. “That was General Hampton, here to discuss . . . some interests of his.” He ushered Buck into his high-ceilinged office.
“Sell it,” Buck instructed, once the door was closed. “For whatever you can get for what’s left of Jasmine, sell it.”
“Are you sure, sir? It’s your patrimony.”
“Sell it,” Buck repeated. “There’s not much left but memories, and there aren’t too many of them I treasure. The house’s gone. The slaves have all run away. Of course, they’re not slaves any more, but . . .” He paced anxiously across the worn Oriental carpet between the desk and the cold stone fireplace. “There’s just one thing. Old Emma. Did you realize she’s raising Clay’s son out there by herself?”
“I heard rumors,” Grayson muttered. “I asked your father a year or more ago about the baby, but all he’d tell me was that it was Saul Snead’s grandson, and I should mind my own business. You mean the child’s still there at Jasmine? What in the name of Ulysses S. Grant is Emma doing with a baby at her age?”
“Taking excellent care of it from what I can tell. But, as you’ve noted, she’s getting on in years. If I sell the place, she’s gonna need somewhere to go.”
Grayson shook his head. “Buck, I’d assumed the Sneads had taken the baby back to Lexington County. If I’d known they hadn’t, especially after I heard about your father’s death, I would’ve checked to see if he was all right.”
“It wasn’t your responsibility, Gus. You’ve had your own problems to deal with. Besides, you’ve already done so much for our family.”
“I wish . . .” Suddenly his face brightened, his hazel eyes twinkled. “Wait till I tell Miriam. She’ll know what to do.” He smote his forehead. “I can hear her now. We’ll have two more chickens in our coop.”
Buck couldn’t help but smile at his friend’s unfailing good humor in spite of all he’d endured. “I don’t feel right unloading this burden on you, Gus, but I’m consoled that old Emma and my nephew couldn’t be in better hands. Thank you, my friend. Now that I know they’ll be properly taken care of, I never want to set eyes on that accursed place again. Sell it,” he repeated once more, in case his earlier message hadn’t been clear enough.
“I’ll do as you wish, Buck, but I hope you’ll reconsider. I hate to think of Jasmine going to some stranger, maybe even a Yankee.”
“Damn the Yankees, and damn Jasmine, for all I care.”
Grayson regarded him for a long minute, then cleared his throat. “I wish things had worked out differently . . . for all of us.”
For several moments the only sound in the room was the ticking of the mantel clock over the fireplace.
Regaining his composure, the banker offered him a cigar from the humidor he kept on the corner of his desk. Once they’d lit up, Buck said, “I’m leaving Columbia. Present company excepted—it holds no associations I care to retain.”
Grayson frowned. “Your family’s lived here for generations and we’ve been lifelong friends. I’ll miss your company, but I certainly understand why you feel you must go. Any idea where?”
“I enjoyed Charleston when I was in medical school, and now I have other reasons for making it my home and establishing my practice there.”
Grayson puffed out a smoke ring. “Do I detect a female influence in your decision?”
Buck smiled, then grew serious. “Any word on Rufus Snead?”
“As a matter of fact, I’ve just received a preliminary report from Tracker.”
Buck sat up.
“Snead’s indeed ensconced in Lexington County among a band of cutthroats and thieves who do his bidding as much out of fear as loyalty. They’re a formidable contingent.”
Buck puffed his cigar and listened carefully.
“Snead knows you’re here in Columbia,” Grayson continued. “He also knew you were coming here from Charleston and purposely ambushed you at Cedar Creek. His intent at the time was to wound you like you wounded him. The man’s insane, obsessed. Tracker’s emphatic. Be exceptionally vigilant. He’s convinced Snead will make another attempt on your life.”
“He already has,” Buck stated calmly through the veil of rich aromatic smoke. “At Weston’s Creek. And he missed. Again.” He examined the ash on the tip of his cigar and recounted the ambush and his narrow escape on the trip back from Jasmine the day before. When he was finished, he stood up. “I think it’s time I met your Mr. Tracker.”
#
“What do you mean you’re going to Jasmine today?” Gus asked his wife at breakfast. “You said last night you were bringing Emma and the baby here in the next week or two.”
“That was last night,” Miriam replied. “I thought more about it and I’ve changed my mind.”
“How often have I heard that before?”
She scowled at him. “There’s no point in waiting, and that poor woman out there all by herself with that child. We should have done something about that situation a long time ago.”
“It wasn’t our responsibility, dear.”
“If each one sweeps in front of his own door, the whole street is clean.”
“I’m trying to reason with you and you give me Jewish aphorisms.”
“You disagree?”
He threw up his hands. “No, dearest, I don’t, but—”
“I was going to send Wilbur and Janey, but Emma hasn’t met Wilbur but maybe one time, and she’s never met Janey. I can’t imagine that old soul getting in a carriage with virtual strangers because they tell her I sent them. So I’m going with them.”
“Buck is going with you, of course.”
“That poor man’s been through enough. Besides, he’s meeting with Dr. Meyer this afternoon. I’m hoping Thaddeus will be able to talk him into settling down here.”
“Don’t count on it.”
“Anyway, Wilbur will drive and Janey can help Emma and me with the child.”
“Just the three of you to take care of an old woman and a baby? That’s unacceptable. I won’t allow it. If you won’t take Buck, I’ll go with you.”
“Tsk. Gus, you tend to your business and I’ll tend to mine.”
“Miriam, you need protection.”
She reached across the table and patted his cheek. “You’re a darling, Gus, but I’m taking your pistol with me. You know I can outshoot you. Go to your bank, dear, and let me take care of this.”
He threw his napkin on the plate before him. “For once in your life, Miriam, listen to me.”
The cup stopped halfway to her mouth and she stared at him. It was so unusual for him to put his foot down, especially once she’d made up her mind.
“You are not leaving this house with no more than two servants and traveling halfway across Richland Country,” he stated. “You need a body guard, and it so happens I have the man for the job.”
She blinked slowly, waiting for him to elaborate.
“So you make your preparations, my dear, and I’ll make mine. His name is Tracker.”