Rose Hill, 1779
"Your aunt has told me to you send you her regards," said Russell, cutting a piece of apple on his plate. "She had to go back to America this morning for an emergency and didn't have a chance to give you the proper goodbye."
It was just a reflex for Quinn to look over her shoulder and to see how Rachel would react. Rachel smiled quietly, and Quinn smiled back. The night before had reassured her, but she breathed easier knowing Lady Angeline was an ocean away. She was certain Rachel wasn't interested in her aunt, but she also knew for sure that wasn't enough to stop Lady Angeline from trying - and she had discovered herself to be quite a jealous person.
"I think I'll survive," Quinn answered with a chuckle, resting her silverware on the edge of her plate as they finished breakfast. "May I be excused? I have planned to go riding today, and I need to check if the horses have been saddled."
"Yes, dear," her father answered with a nod, covering his mouth with his napkin to silent a cough. "I'm sorry," he said, clearing his throat before continuing. "You won't be going alone, will you?" He quirked up one eyebrow. She knew quite well his reservations on letting her wander alone through the farm. She wondered when he would trust her enough to let her do so. She forced herself to think he was so protective only because he worried too much about her, and not because he had anything to hide.
"No, father," she answered with a small smile, trying to hide her annoyance. It wasn't easy to treat her father the same after everything she found out - although it wasn't as terrible as it would be if he had done more than only insinuate what he could do to Rachel. Still, she owned him respect and had to respond to him. "I'm bringing Rachel with me," she said.
"Be sure you both are back before the sunset, Quinn," said George, wiping the corner of his mouth. Her father smiled, but Quinn frowned. "You can't be late for dinner tonight."
"What's so important about dinner tonight, anyway?" Quinn asked, placing her cloth napkin by her plate as she moved her chair to get up. "You have been talking about this dinner for days now, but I still don't seem to understand the reason for it."
"You will find out tonight, if you manage to get here on time," he answered with a wink, and Quinn shook her head before leaving.
She wasn't too keen of surprises.
"Miss Quinn, I might fall!" Rachel whined as they walked down the hill with Quinn covering Rachel's eyes. Quinn could be taking her anywhere, and she wouldn't even know - but after hearing Quinn confessing her love, Rachel had gained so much trust in Quinn that she didn't even falter when agreeing to let Quinn lead her. However, that didn't make her regret it as they started walking and she felt her heart slamming against her chest in fear of what she would find once she opened her eyes.
"I won't let you fall, don't worry," Quinn giggled, grabbing Rachel's hand. Rachel assumed they were close from the house, because Quinn wouldn't have grabbed her hand in front of anyone, but still. It felt nice to walk hand in hand. Side by side, as if there wasn't such an abysm between them whenever there were more people around. "And I've told you, you don't have to call me Miss when there's no one around."
"Well, I wouldn't know if there was anyone around," Rachel replied teasingly.
"Okay, you're right," Quinn giggled and it sounded like a melody. "Alright, are you ready?" she asked, and Rachel nodded vigorously. Quinn took her hand off of Rachel's eyes and she fluttered open her eyelids - but pouted when she didn't see anything different. They were at the stable, but Rachel had been there several times before. She looked up at Quinn in confusion, and Quinn explained. "Go check stall number 5."
Rachel walked in carefully, the frown on her face disappearing with each step as she greeted every single one of the horses she walked by. When she reached the stall Quinn had mentioned, her eyes grew immediately. Upon her, stood a tall white horse with dark spots all over its fur and a black mane that shined brighter than the night. The horse turned his head hearing the footsteps, and walked closer to the door with the kindest eyes Rachel had ever seen on an animal.
"That's Ace," Quinn said, tilting her head towards the horse and leaning against the wood stall.
"Oh, God!" Rachel exclaimed with a gasp, leaning forward to caress the horse's forehead. "Ace, you are beautiful!" The horse seemed to respond to her, lowering its head further at the compliments. Rachel just about melted. She felt silly for liking horses so much - she thought she would have outgrown that for now. But how could she when the horse relished showing his teeth? It was too adorable. "And so friendly!"
"He is also yours," Quinn said, nonchalantly. Rachel's smile fell, and she turned to Quinn with a face of pure startle. She wasn't sure her heart was still beating.
"Are you serious?" She asked in a murmur. She didn't know if she was being too naive for even considering it, but if Quinn had been joking she would be devastated.
"Yes, I'm serious," Quinn grinned. Rachel didn't think for a second before wrapping her arms tightly against Rachel's neck, regardless of how careless it was to do so without checking for people around them. She just couldn't hold back on the happiness that she felt at that moment. "I mean, I can't put it on your name and you can't really tell people that it's yours, but I have warned Malcolm and Hank that no one is allowed to ride it unless I say so."
"Thank you so much, Quinn," Rachel squealed against her neck, squeezing her with all of her strength. It was hard to believe that not only Quinn didn't think it was silly that she liked horses so much, but gave her one to her own. "This is the best gift I have ever got," she whispered. She wouldn't tell Quinn she didn't have many gifts to compare that one to. More than anything, it was the action that drove Rachel crazy. To know that Quinn's words weren't just words. Rachel had no idea how much a horse costed, but she knew it wasn't cheap - and it was all hers.
"Would you like to go ahead and try it?" Quinn asked, opening the stall. "Let's see if this bad boy can win against Star on a race," she challenged.
Rachel was up on the horse before Quinn could even finish her sentence.
"Why did George make such a fuss about us being here on time if he was going to be late himself?" Quinn groaned, restlessly tapping her fingers against the dinner table. Riding had made her hungry and was always on a bad mood when she was hungry.
"Relax, my dear. He will be here in just a moment," said Russell.
"Why do I have a feeling you know what this is all about?" Quinn asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. Her father shrugged, but it didn't convince her for a second. She didn't have time to put enough thought in the matter, because George entered through the swinging doors with a girl hanging on his arm. Everyone got up, but George quickly waved his hand for them to sit down. He had never been the one for sustaining old customs.
"Good evening, family," he said, pulling back a chair for the girl before sitting down himself. "I would like to introduce you to Arabella of Argon, although I believe you have met already." Quinn tensed up and her whole face clenched instinctively. She wasn't sure what was happening, but she didn't like it already.
"Oh, I believe we have!" said Judy, with a voice that was unfamiliar to Quinn. Somewhat warm and soothing and exactly what Arabella should need to calm her blinkering nervous eyes. Quinn didn't remember ever meeting the girl before, but didn't care enough to introduce herself. "It's a pleasure to see you again, dear," Judy said.
Quinn remained silently and gave a small bow of her head as a greeting. She rarely enjoyed visits, and despised them even more when she wasn't warned beforehand about them. George didn't seem to notice - nor did anyone at the table. Every single pair of eyes in the room were focused on the effortless beauty of Arabella, with her dark locks pinned onto the back of her head and her piercing blue eyes surrounded by thick eyelashes. She hadn't even said one word yet and everyone was enchanted by her. Including Rachel.
Quinn yanked her head to the side - the signal that Rachel knew well and that told her she was supposed leave the room. Not that Quinn was only jealous. She had a bad feeling about that dinner, and would rather protect Rachel from the unsettledness.
"It's delightful to meet you all once again," said Arabella, and Quinn flashed her one of her most fake smiles. Even the girl's voice sounded too perfect.
"Alright, now shall we dine?" said George, seeming content about how the greetings had gone. Quinn could notice there was something different about him. He was thrilled. Ecstatic even. Too joyful to realize how uncomfortable she was with the situation. She hated being in the dark. She hated that she seemed to be the only one who had no idea what was happening - and not even the food would be able to get her back from such bad mood.
Russell nodded and the slaves started serving dinner.
Between forks and spoons of stuffed pheasant and stewed oysters, the family exchanged some small talk and Quinn watched both her brother and Arabella becoming at ease with the whole situation. She was the only one left with food swirling inside her stomach and with a bad feeling that she couldn't seem to shake.
"Alright, what is this all about?" she asked in an attempt to figure out what everyone seemed to know but no one would mention, as Dorea took away everyone's plates before bringing in dessert.
"Quinn!" Judy repressed.
"It's alright, mother," George intervened, placing a gentle hand on top of his mother's as she tensed up. As if Quinn hadn't been tense for the whole duration of that dinner. "I think it's time we share those fantastic news!"
"What news, my darling?" Judy asked, her voice changing back to the soft tone she reserved only for George. Quinn could read her mother like an open book and it only made her more angry to see how bluntly her mother could lie. Quinn didn't know what George was talking about, but her mother sure did.
"Arabella and I are engaged," he said proudly, glancing at her with so much love that Quinn thought she would drown. Instead, she choked on her own saliva.
"Are you alright, sweetheart?" Russell asked, and Quinn nodded suppressing her urge to cough. She didn't have time for that. Her urge to know what kind of joke she had just heard was bigger.
"What do you mean? Engaged?" she asked incredulous, ignoring how Judy used her cloth napkin to wipe a tear that simply didn't exist.
"Engaged to be married, Quinn," he explained with a small chuckle. It infuriated Quinn how he put it in a way that made it sound she was stupid and couldn't understand such a simple sentence. He knew she had understood it. He knew that wasn't what she was asking.
"Why don't you seem surprised?" She turned and asked her father with a glare she had never directed at him before. Her father started coughing again and it made her boil inside to think it was just his way of avoiding her questions. He had been coughing a lot lately. It made sense.
"Well, I have turned to father to ask for advice a few months ago," George explained again. It was George. He always defended whoever he thought was being attacked. As if her father needed that kind of protection.
"Months? This has been going on for months?" Quinn asked with a gasp. Arabella seemed frozen in her seat and somehow that only drove Quinn angrier. "How could I not know abou this?"
"It's alright, sister," he tried to calm her down, reaching for her hand over the table. She winced back and placed her hands on her lap, way out of his reach. "You were too caught up in your own problems. I don't blame you. I figured you wouldn't have realized as Arabella and I became closer. That's why I wanted to have this dinner, to let you know."
"Well, I blame you!" she sneered.
"Quinn, dear." Her father shot her a glance that wasn't usual coming from him, but it wasn't enough to stop her either.
"No," she said in a scoff, ignoring his quiet plea for her to stop making a scene. "I blame him! You should have told me! I can't believe you didn't tell me after I opened up to you so many times! After everything I told you, George!"
"Quinn, I'm telling you now," George said with a nervous laugh. He grabbed Arabella's hand. Quinn wasn't sure if he tried he reassure his wife-to-be - caught in the middle of a family fight - or if he just needed to hold onto something to keep himself grounded.
"And now what, brother?" she asked, with her eyes welling up even as she tried to fight back her tears. "You are gonna get married and leave me again. Just after we started getting closer like we once were. Just when I thought there was hope for us as a family."
"Quinn, I'm not leaving you! I will move to grandmother's house in Basseterre, that's just a carriage ride away. You can visit me whenever you want, and I'll make sure to have the best room in the house ready for whenever you come. Nothing has to change between us," he said, gently tilting his head.
"Nothing will change," Quinn repeated in a mocking voice. "I don't believe you." She giggled sadly. She was alone again, in a house that had always been so hostile to her presence and would become even more once they found out the sins she had been committing. "You're a traitor, George. I'm never forgiving you," she growled between breaths.
"Quinn, I think you are done," Judy roared, firing the angriest glare at her. "If you are not ready to share your brother's and our family happiness, you are to go to your room and eat there alone. Leave at once!"
And Quinn did, because in all honesty, she didn't even feel like a part of that family at all.
"Rachel!" Lou Lee half-yelled as soon as Rachel entered the kitchen house. Abbie and Dorea were in the dining room, helping with the food, and it was the first time in a long that they could talk privately. Lou Lee seemed desperate and Rachel swallowed hard. "I need your help," she whispered, with a teary eye.
"What happened, Lou?" Rachel asked in concern, pulling a chair for the woman to sit as Rachel tried to calm her down. Lou Lee stuttered for a moment, and her jaw quivered as she gathered the forces to tell.
"I'm pregnant," she said. Rachel's hands flung to cover her opened mouth in shock. The act seemed to trigger Lou Lee, who couldn't hold back her tears any longer.
"Oh my goodness," said Rachel, drawing a deep breath and trying to remain calm to think of reasonable solutions. "Is it Bernie's?" she asked. Lou Lee shrugged. She didn't have to say anything else. She didn't know. Rachel knew a lot of men went after Lou Lee, but she didn't know to what degree it ever got. Her heart broke.
"But I'm telling him it's his," she said, before Rachel could figure out what to say. "I guess we will know for sure when the baby it's born. But that's not the problem right now," she said shaking her head. "I need your help."
"I'll help you, don't worry!" Rachel nodded vigorously. She was worried. She had no idea how she would help Lou Lee, but she knew she would have to find a way. They were family after all - and that's what families are for. "Just tell me what you need," she said.
"I could get killed for telling you this, Rachel, but I'm really scared," Lou Lee said, and Rachel rose her eyebrows in surprise. The anticipation would have killed her, if Lou Lee hadn't finished after just a second. "The slaves down the quarters are planning an uprising," she said. Rachel's eyes grew once more.
"An uprising?" she asked. Lou Lee nodded nervously. "Why?" Rachel asked in a frown, and cursed herself for doing so the moment the word left her lips. Why not would be a more sensible question. She knew well what the slaves suffered in the plantation, and it was heartless of her to forget they had their reasons.
"Malcolm has been putting them to work double the amount they ever worked, because since it didn't rain as much early this season the plantation hasn't thrived as much as it should have. Besides, they have been getting less food than usual," Lou Lee explained and Rachel bit her lip. It was way too easy to forget their reality while she slept in a master bed every night and had food in her stomach every morning. "Things are getting dark down there, Rachel."
"Okay," Rachel nodded. She got it, and the details would only unsettled her further. She didn't want them. "What do you need me for?" she asked, feeling a shiver run up her spine. She didn't think she could help with the uprising. She couldn't betray Quinn like that. But she had to know what Lou Lee wanted.
"To help me stop it," Lou Lee said, and Rachel breathed out in relief. It was the exact opposite of what she expected. She had no idea why Lou Lee would ask her so, and Lou Lee noticed her confusion. "They are planning on setting the farm on fire - and that's just too dangerous, Rachel. I can't have that, not right now. I can't risk losing Bernie."
"No, no, you're right," Rachel nodded, biting the corner of her finger nail. It was way too much information all at once and she didn't even know how she should process them, let alone know what to do. "Can't you convince them to do something else?"
"Do you really think they would hear me, Rachel? You know how they feel towards us, that live up here in the big house." She was right and Rachel couldn't even argue. It wasn't fair that she was treated so differently and she wasn't the only one who thought so.
"What's your plan then?"
"I think you should tell someone. George, Quinn, I don't know. Make sure master Russell knows about this, so that he can stop it before it happens," said Lou Lee. "I know I'm putting you in a difficult position, but I swear I wouldn't ask if it wasn't really important, Rachel. I will own my life to you if you stop this." Lou Lee was right. It was dangerous for Rachel to be the carrier of such an important information, and she knew it. But she had to do it. She didn't have much in life, but she would fight hard to protect what she had.
"Don't worry," Rachel nodded, resting her head on Lou Lee's stomach and wondering how she hadn't noticed it before. "I'll help you."
"Quinn, thank God you're here, I need to tell you-" Rachel exclaimed as soon as Quinn walked into the door, but Quinn cut her short before she could go on.
"Not now, Rach," she groaned, throwing herself on her bed and yelling against her pillow. She felt the mattress lowering when Rachel sat by her side and placed a hand onto her back. Not even that was enough to calm her down.
"What's wrong?" she asked in a murmur, ever so careful. Quinn sighed deeply before sitting up. Perhaps talking to Rachel could help. Rachel wasn't the most talkative one, but when she did talk, she always seemed to know the right think to say.
"George is getting married," she said. Rachel didn't draft a reaction, and Quinn went on. "He's leavin," she explained, thinking Rachel hadn't understand the implications of what she had told her. "I can't believe he is leaving again," she murmured under her breath.
"I'm sorry," Rachel answered, but Quinn could see her mind was somewhere else. By instinct, she wanted - and would have - lashed out on Rachel. Rachel should be paying attention to what Quinn was saying. She should be consoling Quinn and a simple I'm sorry wasn't even close to what Quinn needed. Rachel was an easy target and it wouldn't bring her any consequences if she simply took off all her rage there. But she wouldn't. She couldn't. Rachel was and would always be everything she had, and she had to cherish that. If Rachel needed her attention too, she would give it all to her - even if it meant having to put all her problems aside and for once thinking of someone else before her.
"What did you wanna say?" Quinn asked in a murmur, shaking her head. She counted on Rachel's news to take her mind out of the anger she felt towards her brother at the moment - but when Rachel told her what Lou Lee had said, Quinn wished she hadn't asked. For someone who had had such a dream of an afternoon riding with Rachel, her day surely had changed in a blink to become something out of her worst nightmares.
"Stay here," Quinn said, looking out of the window to make sure nothing had started already. "I need to tell my father." Rachel nodded, and Quinn's stomach sank when she saw the fear in Rachel's eyes. It was selfish of her to think only of herself and not consider the afflictions Rachel went through - which were undoubtedly much more serious. "Thank you for telling me," she whispered, dropping a kiss onto Rachel's hand. "Don't worry, okay? You're safe in here," Quinn said. Rachel nodded and forced a small smile as Quinn left.
Quinn opened her father's office door without even knocking. Her first mistake. He would always go his office after dinner to check and see what the day had been like in the plantation, and hated to be interrupted when he needed to focus.
"Father!" Quinn opened the door breathless.
"Excuse you, young lady, have you not been taught to knock on a door before opening it?" he said, much louder than the tone he used while talking to her. He got up from his chair and slammed both his hands against the table, making Quinn take a step back in startle. "Have you ever been taught anything in your life, Quinn?" She was shocked to hear him talking to her like that, but she was too caught up on the hurricane that was happening in her mind to even care about what he implied.
"The slaves-" she tried again, but he cut her short.
"Quinn, I don't want to hear anything else from you tonight. I'm done. I'm done with you and your never ending problems with your slave. You were the most selfish spoiled brat at dinner tonight, and I will not tolerate this kind of behavior from my daughter. I love you, but I didn't raise you like this! This is not the way you will run this farm!"
Quinn felt her blood boiling up. That was the kind of preaching that always came from her mother, while her father had always been the one on her side. After what Rachel said, Quinn had been able to put her problems in perspective and realized there was a possibility that she might had overreacted during dinner - but she sure as hell didn't need that kind of scolding to notice it. For a moment, she thought of going back to her room. Staying quiet, and letting it all burn. She would move to Basseterre with George. Her father and mother could burn down with the plantation.
But George was to get married, and he wouldn't want to take her, regardless of what he had said. She would have nowhere to go. It would be only her and Rachel, against the world, and without a roof over their heads. So she swallowed her pride, and for once stood up for herself.
"Will you be quiet and listen to me, father?" She said, the loudest her voice had ever been when addressing him. The horror on his face made her stomach twist, and she went on before she could be interrupted again. "The slaves down the quarters are planning an uprising, and they will burn down the whole farm if you don't do anything!"
It was all she had to said to bring his attention back to her.
"Go to bed, Quinn," he said in whisper, looking down to his pocket watch. "Lock your door and don't come out until I go get you." That had always been his instructions when anything dangerous would happen. Quinn breathed out. He could have been furious, but at the first sign of danger his first instinct was to protect her. She nodded and was with her hand on her door knob when he called her again. She turned back and saw all the regret of the world painted in his face. "Thank you, dear" he whispered.
Her father wasn't the hero she had envisioned during her whole childhood. He was flawed, he was deceitful and he had committed several mistakes. But at the end of the day, he believed her. He was on her side. He cared about her. And perhaps he could fit in in the world she and Rachel would share.