1795 London, England
Tobias paces in the hall of his uncle's estate. He had received a letter that his mother was very ill and that he needed to return to Charleston. He had been in England since he was six years old. When the war with the colonies broke out, his father Eric had decided to side with England. As a loyalist, When the fighting broke out in Charlestown Eric sent Jeanine and Tobias to London to stay with his family for fear of their safety. Tobias and his mother stayed in England for almost 10 years during the war. Tobias was sent off to a boarding school but he bonded with his uncles, aunts, and grandparents while his mother detested being in England as it was clear she didn't really care for the Eatons. Eric wrote Tobias as much as possible. When Eric joined the fighting in the Loyalist army and his letters stopped coming, Tobias and his grandmother feared the worst. The money from the plantation was slowed during the war and Jeanine wanted to return to Charlestown as soon as possible. In 1783 the word of Eric's death in battle reached London. Jennine went back to Charleston to ensure that Dauntless Hall was not stolen from under them. There had been stories that reached England of the slaves being freed who would fight for the patriots. Jeanine married again, this time to another wealthy British landowner she met in London determined to secure her fortune and place in society.
When Tobias, was 18 he wrote to his mother to ask if he should return to the plantation. She adamantly refused. Tobias always knew his mother was never affectionate towards him. It was always his father and Mattie. Tobias had cried for days when Jeanine told Mattie she was to stay in Charlestown. Eric tried to fight her but she won the argument. His stepfather had no children who had survived to adulthood and he and Jeanine had not had any of their own. His grandmother urged him to go to Charlestown to secure what was his if his mother were to die.
"Maybe I should just stay here, make a life in London. Things are different there now. I could marry Emily Tate." Tobias says to his grandmother over dinner.
Tobias had met Lady Emily Tate, the youngest daughter of the Viscount of Richmond at a ball a year ago. She was sweet and good-natured. For the last year, they had smiled and talked at dinner parties and balls. She always blushed when he was near, they had secretly talked one day about what it would be like to live a different life in colonies should England win the war.
They had become quite close since his grandfather passed away two years prior and his uncle had become the new Earl of Roth. Tobias knew he had no title to inherit but the thought of going back to South Carolina without his father there just seemed unbearable.
"Darling, your father wanted to leave Dauntless Hall to you. He gave up his life in England for that. I know you don't get on with your mother but if this letter is true that she's ill you need to go and learn all you can about running the plantation and make your home there" Caroline urges him. Tobias smiles as the footman brings the next course of thier dinner. "But I do think Emily Tate is a good match for you"
The next week Tobias asks for permission to marry Emily from the Viscount. He accepts and they begin to plan for the journey back to Charleston.
1796 Charleston
Emily and Tobias are greeted by his stepfather at the docks when they arrive in South Carolina.
"This is just like you described it!" Emily replies as she laces her fingers with her husband's.
"Master Tobias, it does my old eyes good to see you," an older Black woman with worn hands and kind eyes says as she makes her way to Tobias.
"Mattie?" Tobias blinks his eyes and smiles as he registers who the woman is. He had no way of keeping in touch of her because she could not read or write. With the chaos going on with the plantations he hadn't known if she had sold off, or ran away.
"Emily, love, this is Mattie, she was my nanny when I was little" Tobias says proudly. Emily had grown up with servants seeing as her father was a British peer but she had conflicted feelings about slavery even though she wouldn't dare voice those feeling out loud to anyone but Tobias.
"It's lovely to meet you, Tobias told me all about your stories and adventures," Emily says. "I was hoping you would be here to help me since my mother is back in England" She places a delicate hand that is adorned with a lace glove on her belly.
"Oh, my boy! I'm gonna look at after that baby just like I did you" Mattie says excitedly as Tobias and Emily grin. She had only realized she was expecting during the journey and Tobias was elated.
"Mattie, Can you get Emily settled please? I'd like to check on my mother and get caught up some things"
"Yes Sir, Master Tobias, I need to talk to you bout Master Eric," she says quietly. Tobias nods, he wanted to know more about his father's last days.
When he steps into the study he sees his mother sitting in a chair looking out the window, at first look she seemed like her normal, icy control but quietly mumbling to herself but as soon as she laid eyes on Tobias she started ranting and screaming. A housemaid runs over and calms her.
"Stop all that now Ms. Jeanine, it's time to take your medicine" The woman brings over a glass and mixes in a few drops of a liquid from a dark bottle. As she calms down, His mother drinks down the solution and the maid helps her up and to the stairs. When she comes back down he stops her.
"What's your name?"
"Sarah, Sir"
"How long has she been like this?"
"Since the start of the year I reckon Sir, Master Johnathan bought me from another plantation right fore Easter"
Tobias nods in understanding. "What medicine did you give her?"
"The doctor say he can't do nothing for her, it really calm her down when she get upset"
"Thank you, Sarah, you may go now," Tobias says. He stands there for a moment remembering his grandfather suffering the same fits as his mother now was. Would he suffer the same fate?
The next day, his Stepfather gave him a quick rundown of how many slaves there were on the plantation and what crops were being grown. Tobias had learned the importance of keeping records and set out to make sure there was accurate accounts of everything. He smiles when Mattie brings him some lemonde and cookies to his desk in his private study.
"You still remember my favorite" Tobias smiles.
"Of course I do, You know Master Eric used this same desk. You look just like him sittin there"
"Yes I remember, that's why I wanted to use it. What happened Mattie?"
"They called for the men folk to fight in the red coat army. Master Eric said he needed to go. There were other plantations down the road that was burned but Master Eric wouldn't let no one touch Dauntless. Master Eric give me my papers to be free before he rode off to fight. There was a Battle, not too far from here, he got shot in the leg, it was infected by the time he dragged himself back here. Most of the others had run off but I stayed, I knew you and him would need me. Ms. Jeanine tear up my papers when she come back, said I was stupid for staying here saying Master Eric ain't have the right to do it."
Mattie wasn't going to go back on her promise to Eric or Nita to look after Tobias. She knew with Eric dying, Tobias would need her more than ever. She had hoped maybe with Eric dead, Nita's spirit would be less restless but as soon as Jeanine set foot back in Dauntless, Nita made her presence knowin. Mattie was no fool, Jeanine was going crazy just like her father because of Nita.
"You stayed for me, Mattie?" Tobias chokes out with a smile. Mattie had always been more of a mother to him than Jeanine. She gave up her freedom for him.
"Of course, Ms. Jeannie ain't want me looking after you but I promised I would always look after you. I think if her mind ain't go, Ms. Jeanine be done sold me before you got back here. Your father left you a journal, here in this house. He couldn't give it to me because Black folks not allowed to read. He was trying to tell me where he hid it when he died but he was weak and the fever took him. He needed you to read it."
"Do you know what it said?" Tobias asks curiously.
Mattie looks towards to door nervously, "Some of it, I can tell you, but… not"
"I understand, Mattie, I do some looking" Tobias promises, sensing the look of fear on her face at the thought of her telling him whatever this information was.
Present Day
Tris rubs her eyes as she wakes and she sighs before she sits up. This was the third night in a row she had dreamed a weird dream. She reaches for Tobias and he instinctively pulls her to him. After about another five minutes she untangles herself from his arms unable to go back to sleep.
"What's wrong baby" Tobias asks half asleep.
"I had another weird dream, I can't go back to sleep. I'm going to go make some tea, you go back to sleep" Tris says quietly as she looks at the clock. It was already six, Tobias would probably only sleep another hour anyway.
She goes into the living room, shutting the door to their bedroom so she doesn't disturb him. She finds some muffin mix she bought and whips up a batch. Two dozen jumbo muffins later, Tris starts to clean up the kitchen. Uriah and Zeke would devour them when they arrived later that morning and she could always take some to Gabe, Fernando, Harrison, and Bud too.
Tobias emerges from the bedroom in his sleep pants and kisses her on the forehead as he fixes himself a glass of orange juice.
"Did you have a nightmare?" Tobias asks grabbing a muffin and sitting down at the table where Tris is drinking a cup of hot tea.
"No, just a vivid dream, I've been having them the past few nights"
"About what?"
"It's weird, I'm here on the plantation but it's like I'm not me. The other night I was standing on the front porch looking at that big tree, then another time I was by the creek but the area didn't look familiar but I know the house was in the distance. This time I was in one of the slave cabins and I saw this man walking toward me, I thought it was you and I went to call your name but as you got closer it wasn't you but he still kind of remind me of you, it was weird. And then he placed his hand on my belly like I was pregnant"
"Do you think you're pregnant?" Tobias asks with more enthusiasm than he would have liked and Tris chuckles.
"I don't think so Babe, I'm still taking my birth control pills"
"Maybe it's thinking about all those stories Harrison told you before I went to bed" she shrugs off his notion that she's pregnant but she had the nagging feeling her dream was trying to tell her something.
That afternoon Tris and Tobias head to the Charleston Historical Society to find out more information about the Eaton family. Tori, the Director of Archives and Research had been excited to meet Tobias indicating that the Eaton family had been long-standing donors and there had been several exhibits about Dauntless Hall hosted by the Historical Society over the years.
Tori greets them as soon as they arrive and ushers them into a conference room with several books laid out on the table.
"I'm sorry I thought when you said you were the grandson of Thomas Eaton who owned Dauntless Hall when we spoke on the phone." She says and Tris feels her body heat up with anger. How dare she insult her husband this way.
"Yes, that same Thomas Eaton is my grandfather." Tobias clarifies with a cold tone in his voice at her assumption that he couldn't be who he said he was. Tris doesn't miss the look on her face when connects the dots that Tobias is indeed Thomas Eaton's grandson.
"Oh I'm very sorry, its just...Well, It is very nice to meet you Mr. Eaton," Tori stumbles over her words and leaves to go bring them each a glass of water.
"Thank you so much for meeting with us and showing us what you have. I'm afraid I'm at a disadvantage of not knowing much about my family's history" Tobias explains when she returns.
"I am happy to share what I know, Dauntless Hall is one of this community's treasures and the focus of many research projects. Your family has been here in Charleston since the 1760s when Eric Eaton married Jeanine Matthews and as one of the wealthiest families in Charleston, they were connected to the Revolutionary War and Civil War and the economic development of the region. Many of these are very fragile and we don't let people handle them but due to your families connection to them we made an exception for your visit today."
Tris and Tobias look at the family tree in one of the books on the table as Tori points.
"Babe look at this" Tris points to Eric and Jeanine's names.
"Tobias!" he says with a short breath as he sees his own name listed under that of Jeanine and Eric. Tori smiles in return
"Oh God," Tris says looking a another book that was a large leather-bound ledger. The pages were yellowed and the script was written in elegant cursive. Tris surveys the pages and sees that they are names, dates, and money amounts.
"What did you find babe," Tobias asks leaning over to see what she found.
Tori shifts awkwardly in her seat seeing the tears in Tris's eyes and Tobias's face frown in realization when he realizes that Tris is reading the slave records. That same feeling that Tris and Tobias had placing their hands on the slave cabins washes over them and sits in the pit of their stomach. Tris quickly wipes away a tear that escapes her eyes as she turns a few pages gently.
"When Thomas Eaton died there were many records that were donated to the society by a family friend that had used them for a research event. The Eaton's kept impeccable records of all their slave holdings and property." Tori rattles of nonchalantly. Tobias feels uneasy and disgusted but he curses quietly to himself when he looks up at his wife. She was dangerously close to unleashing on this woman.
"You mean the people they enslaved" Tris corrects with bttterness emphasizing the word people and Tori takes a deep breath.
"Is there a way we could get copies of some of this, seeing as how its kinds of belongs to me even though it was donated. I'm sure that my family has provided monetary donations that should come with some sort of grace." Tobias asks needing to put some space between his wife and this woman quickly, hoping she would take the hint wanting to diffuse the tension. Tobias had a hunch that his relatives had donated heavily to the society the way they had carried on when he called.
"Sure, We actually keep a digital copy of everything, I'll go start running them for you while you continue to look through this information" Tori purses her lips as she responds curtly and quickly heads back to an office area.
"I'm sorry, I just can't stand it when people talk so flippantly about owning other people and that fucking face she made when we arrived, trying to insinuate you weren't Thomas Eaton's grandson. I can't stand it. We need to speak with the executive director, I'm not okay with this." Tris apologies as she blows a breath out trying to calm herself. "You need to talk to Jack to see if there is anything we could do to get this stuff back, it's yours."
Tobias leans in and kisses her temple. "I know Baby, I'll call Jack tomorrow and see if there is anything we can do. I would rather us donate some of these records to the new African American museum that Christina told us was opening in the next two years. There have to be so many families looking for information about their relatives that were held at Dauntless".
Tris nods her head in agreement. They wait quietly, Tris tells Tobias that she would rather just review all of the information herself than spend any more time at this historical society.
They stop for some take out and head back to the house. Tobias heads up the stairs to check on Zeke and Uriah, they have been making progress with the remodel and have about half of the guest rooms complete.
Tris is drawn to the slave ledger she pours over the names, wishing she knew each one of their stories. There were several and she picked up The Planters Annual Record to go through and she randomly picks one and starts searching through the names of the year marked 1769. Tris is sick at how the registry was clearly mass printed so that it could be filled in by the plantation owners. There was a blank to add the plantation name, the overseer, and the year. The pages were separated into males and females and space to indicate the person's name, age, and value at the beginning of the year and end of the year. She grabs her notebook reading the experiences that she and Tobias had both encountered and starts to outline her experiences along with some of the names she was finding. She closed her eyes and thought back to dreams she had been having and then looks down at her account of the experience of finding the initials carved in the window in one of the cabins.
"E and N" she whispers to herself thinking back to the day felt like someone was watching her.
She looks through the names, looking for a name starting with N. There is only one.
Nita, age 17, value $750.00
"Nita, what your story" Tris whispers aloud.
That night Tris dreams again, of wandering the halls of the house. She sees the study, the bedrooms all furnished as if the house was fully functioning. She sees a notebook on a desk and the man that she thinks is Tobias again writing it in one of the bedrooms. When she sits up and grabs her notebook that she left on the nightstand and writes down all the details of the dream.
Tobias praises the work Zeke and Tobias had done on the third-floor rooms, they looked amazing. He hadn't said anything to Tris but was a bit nervous about what would happen when they reached the room on the second floor. Uriah asks him to hold on to a board in place while he runs down to the truck to grab some more nails for the nail gun. Suddenly several loud bangs and footsteps come from the floor above.
"Zeke cut it out… I'm not kidding." Tobias says, he is holding the board to the door frame of the ensuite bathroom and can't turn around.
'T I swear that's not me. What the hell, Uriah must be playing with us." Tobias can tell that Zeke is being truthful he can hear how shaky his voice is.
Tobias is actually nervous now as the bangs continue along with more footsteps. Tobias drops the board Uriah had him holding and he and Zeke look at each other with wild eyes.
"Hey, I told you to hold it T., Now we gotta mark it again" Uriah complains as he walks back in the room with the box of nails. "What's wrong with you two?"
A loud bang from upstairs causes the three of them to jump collectively and Uriah's eyes widen this time. Now it sounds like someone is moving furniture above them.
"What is up there?" Uriah asks.
"I think it's the attic and maybe so old servants' rooms, but I haven't really gone up there. Jack said there were some things in storage up there probably. Tris and I were going to see if we could use any of the pieces in the house but we wanted to wait until all the rooms were finished first." Tobias responds.
"Come on somebody has got to be up there messing with us," Zeke says sounding like he is confident in his theory. Uriah and Tobias look at each other.
"Don't tell me you two are scared" Zeke challenges.
"We are not scared, Come on T.," Uriah says poking his chest out. The three climb the narrow flight of stairs at the end of the hallway on the third floor. The stairs creak with each step they take with Zeke in the lead. There are lots of big bulky pieces of furniture covered by white sheets and dust on the floor is visible.
"See there's no one up here," Tobias says after they peer around a few corners of the very large attic. They head back downstairs trying to shake off the feeling that they weren't alone even though there was no one to be seen.
A/N: Let me know what you think! Hope everyone is staying safe!