The next morning, by the time dawn came on a cool and crisp morning, Tavington and his dragoons were well on their way toward the Tavington plantation. The temperature had been somewhat chilly as the horsemen had left the fort in the predawn darkness, but as the sun had crept up over the trees, the day had become pleasantly cool.
Though not in a particular hurry, the group made good time. It had been an uneventful and agreeable trip through the autumnal South Carolina countryside, with the trees in brilliant shades of red, yellow, and orange. They'd made fairly frequent rest stops to accommodate for Charlotte's pregnancy, stopping at a quiet meadow by a babbling brook for the noon meal.
By mid-afternoon, the dragoon column was cantering up the tree-lined lane to the plantation. Slaves were under apple trees in a nearby orchard, harvesting the fruit as the horses thundered past. As they drew up to a halt in front of the main house, Charlotte thought to herself that the grounds looked peaceful and serene, almost fooling one into believing that there was no war raging all around them.
As William helped her to dismount, Rufus and Magnolia hurried onto the porch, alerted to their approach by the rumbling of horse hooves,
"Miss Charlotte!" Magnolia cried. "We weren't expectin' you!"
"It was a last minute decision," she replied gaily, her feet now firmly planted on the ground "William has some business in the area and I thought I'd come along to check on things. Ruth and I will be here for a few days, while William is conducting his business and he and his men should be returning each night."
"Give me a little bit of time and I'll have a good meal cooked up for you and the Colonel," Magnolia promised. "I'll send Bessie upstairs to freshen your bedroom and I'll have Lucius set up a bath for you."
"Thank you, Magnolia," Charlotte said warmly, glad to be at home, even for only a little while. "I appreciate that."
Turning to her husband, she bent close and murmured, "I'll bet that you'd like to share my bath, what with all the road dust on you."
"Oh, yes, I would," he said, chuckling lowly "I really must look my best tomorrow when raiding rebel homesteads, wouldn't you think? I'll have all their wives swooning over me."
"Oh, William, you're incorrigible," Charlotte said, laughing.
"That's why you love me, my dear," he replied smoothly, as they started upstairs to wait for their bath.
"Too true," she agreed, smiling merrily.
After a brief dalliance in the tub, which ended up being carried over to the bed, the Tavingtons enjoyed a good dinner. They retired early, leaving Captains Wilkins and Bordon to a game of chess in the parlour.
"I'm so happy to be at home," Charlotte sighed a couple of hours later, as they reclined side by side in the afterglow of their bed sport. "I never sleep so well as in my own bed."
"I know what you mean," Tavington replied drowsily. "But I am happy sleeping anywhere, as long as it's with you."
"I agree," Charlotte said warmly. "I love you, William."
Tavington did not reply, as he'd already drifted off to sleep and had begun to snore softly
The blond woman rolled over and smiled at her sleeping husband, looking so carefree in sleep. Snuggling close, she soon joined him in slumber.
When she awakened the next morning, she was alone in bed. As she glanced over at the window, Charlotte saw that the sun was fairly high in the sky; she'd overslept and William had apparently not tried to wake her as he left.
Stretching her arms out as she yawned loudly, Charlotte slipped out of bed to start the day. As she donned a fresh shift, she noticed a piece of paper lying on her writing desk. Picking it up, she recognized her husband's angular handwriting.
"…you were sleeping so soundly when I got up this morning, that I could not bear to wake you. I knew you needed your rest after the long ride yesterday. Please take care and I hope to see you some time this evening…"
After reading the rest of the note, she slipped a dressing gown over her shift, then poked her head out into the hallway.
Calling out to a passing maid, she said, "Please send Ruth in to help me with my stays."
"Right away, Mistress Tavington," the girl replied briskly.
A few moments later, as Ruth was lacing her stays from behind, she said, "Miss Charlotte, it's getting harder to properly lace your stays. And I'm rather afraid to pull the laces too tightly, in fear of crowding the baby."
"Yes, I do believe it's about time for me to be wearing maternity jumps," Charlotte agreed. "I have a few from my first pregnancy years ago around here somewhere. I think they were packed in the attic, as I could not bear to look at them after losing my baby."
"Do you want me to go have a look?" Ruth asked.
"Yes, but I believe I'll go with you," Charlotte decided. "There's a bassinet up there as well, I'll want to bring back to the fort with me. I also have some baby linen that I saved, much of it unused, but I'm thinking I put that in a chest in one of the spare bedrooms, rather than in the attic, as I'd intended to use it for something else. I'd forgotten about it after John died."
Reaching through her wardrobe, she said, "I'll just throw on a bed gown over my petticoat for now while we look. I have some looser gowns in a wardrobe in one of the spare bedrooms that I'll have to take a look at when we're done in the attic."
A knock came at the door just as Charlotte had finished dressing. Ruth opened the door to admit one of the maids, carrying a breakfast tray for Charlotte.
"I took the liberty of having Magnolia sending up a tray for you," Ruth explained. "You'll need your strength if we're going to spend time looking through the attic."
"Thank you, Ruth," Charlotte said in gratitude. "I don't know what I'd do without you. You take such good care of me."
A short time later, the two women were rooting through the attic, looking through the various trunks and chests there.
"I think I've found them!" Charlotte called out to Ruth, after opening a trunk near the attic window.
Ruth stopped what she was doing, looking expectantly at the other woman, glad to be through with the search.
A moment later, the blond woman said quietly, "Oh, dear, I suppose I should not have stored them in the attic."
She held one set of jumps up for Ruth to see, which were badly stained and moth-eaten and also looked as if rodents had been nibbling on them.
"What are you going to do?" Ruth nearly wailed. "They're ruined!"
"We'll have to go into Pembroke," Charlotte decided. "There's a staysmaker there whose wife is a seamstress. I was planning to have a few maternity gowns made anyway, and the Pembroke seamstress is much better than what I've seen at the fort."
"Do you think it's a good idea to go there?" the other woman asked anxiously. "From what I hear, the people there don't like the Colonel at all!"
"It should be fine with Ben and his men occupied elsewhere," Charlotte reasoned. "Colonel Tavington told me that Ben and his militia had been spotted riding hard to the north. They should be away from the area for several days at least, I would imagine."
Putting a reassuring hand on Ruth's shoulder, she continued, "And though I'm acquainted with several of the townspeople, I don't think many of them know I've married the Colonel. Ben would be too prideful to tell people that I rejected his proposal in order to marry William. So, I'd still just be "Widow Selton" to the folks in town."
"I don't know," Ruth said dubiously. "Perhaps you should wait until the Colonel can go with you."
"Nonsense!" Charlotte insisted. "He's too busy carrying out the Lord General's orders to take time to escort me to see the seamstress. William left me a couple of men and they should be quite sufficient to accompany us." Straightening up, she dropped the ruined jumps onto the floor and said, "We'll go after lunch, then."
"Yes, Miss Charlotte," Ruth said, still apprehensive. She also had been feeling vaguely queasy all morning and the proposed trip to Pembroke only increased her nausea.
"Why don't we check the spare bedrooms for the baby linen and the gowns that I mentioned," Charlotte suggested. "I would imagine they fared better, not being stored in the attic."
"No doubt," Ruth agreed.
It was so. Charlotte found the baby linen wrapped in tissue paper in a chest of drawers, in a rarely used guest bedroom. The gowns in question, hung waiting in a nearby wardrobe..
"Well, that's a relief," Charlotte said. "With it being nearly impossible to get new linen of this quality from England now, I'm glad that what I have will still be serviceable." Giving a critical look at the gowns, she said, "But these gowns are a bit out of style. I believe I'll bring them along and see if the seamstress can't restyle them a bit and freshen them up. I'll want to have a few new gowns made as well, I'm thinking."
"Yes, Miss Charlotte," Ruth agreed.
"Perhaps we'll order a gown or two for you as well," Charlotte decided. "It's been awhile since you've had new clothes."
"I'd appreciate that," Ruth said. "Thank you."
"It's about time to eat," Charlotte noted. "Why don't you come and eat with me?"
A little while later, as the two women were eating, Ruth, who'd not spoken much during the meal, suddenly jumped up and ran from the room without explanation.
Though puzzled, Charlotte did not call out to her but calmly resumed eating. Whatever the problem was, Ruth would explain when she returned.
It was nearly twenty minutes later before Ruth returned. Charlotte looked up at her with a quizzical expression as the servant sheepishly took her seat.
"I'm sorry, Miss Charlotte," Ruth apologized. "It was my stomach. I needed to get to the outhouse before it was too late."
Charlotte wiped her mouth with her napkin, then put it on her plate, now finished with her meal.
"Is there something you're not telling me?" Charlotte asked, eyebrow raised. "I notice you've been spending a great deal of time with Sergeant Waters..."
"Oh, no, Mistress!" Ruth declared, blushing at the inference. "It's nothing like that at all. I think it was something I had for breakfast that didn't quite agree with me."
"Well, you should stay home and rest, then," Charlotte decided. "I don't mind going into Pembroke on my own."
"Oh, I'm feeling better now," Ruth told her.
"Nonsense," Charlotte insisted. "It's always best to rest right after one has had a stomach ailment. I'll have Magnolia to make her home remedy for you, then you should go lie down for the rest of the afternoon."
"Are you sure you don't want to wait for Colonel Tavington to go to town with you?" Ruth asked.
"Very sure," Charlotte said. "I appreciate your concern, but I'll be fine."
"If you say so, Miss Charlotte," Ruth said, still unconvinced.
The servant knew that, even without a war going on, that many of the residents of Pembroke mistrusted and envied her wealthy employer for her good fortune. And if her recent marriage to Colonel Tavington became generally known, it certainly wouldn't do anything to enhance her reputation among the clannish citizens of Pembroke. But it wasn't her place to second-guess her employer's actions, so she kept silent.
A short time later, Charlotte Tavington ushered the two dragoons that William had left behind to protect her into the front parlour.
"Gentlemen," she began. "Please have a seat." After the two young men complied hesitantly, she said, "I wanted to inform you that I'll be making a trip into Pembroke today to visit the seamstress and you'll be escorting me. I'll be riding in my carriage with one of my slaves, Lucius, driving."
"Begging your pardon, Mistress Tavington," one of the dragoons said carefully. "But if we accompany you dressed in our uniforms, we'll attract attention like bees to honey. And I can't imagine the Green Dragoons are very popular there now, considering what we did the last time we were there."
"I hadn't thought of that," Charlotte said thoughtfully. "But you must accompany me. You both look about the size of my overseer. I'll send a slave to get some of his clothes that you can wear to ride into town with me."
"That's a good idea," the first dragoon said. "But I think it would be best if we trailed from a distance and watched from a hidden spot. Just where is the dressmaker shop in Pembroke?"
"It's near the church, across from the cemetery," she informed them. "There's a spot in the woods where you'd have a pretty good view of the front of the shop, but where you'd not be easily seen unless someone was looking for you."
"That sounds about right," he said. "We'll watch you for as long as we can on the way into Pembroke, then we'll cut behind the town to take up our positions in the place you mentioned."
"Fine," she agreed. "We'll leave as soon as you've both changed your clothes."
Within twenty minutes the small procession was on its way, with the two dragoons keeping mainly to the trails just inside the woods that paralleled the main road. Lucius also had an old fowling piece under his seat as he drove the carriage, just for a bit of extra protection.
As the group rattled down the rutted road, Charlotte leaned back, her head filled with thoughts of the new clothes to come.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Zeke!" Mattie Draper bellowed from outside the barn where he'd been all night after passing out from his brother-in-law's moonshine. "Where are you?"
Only half-awake, he did not reply. Gradually coming to consciousness, he realized he had a devil of a hangover. As he rolled over to sit up, his hand brushed into a pool of vomit in the straw. Quickly drawing his hand back, he wiped it off on his shirt as he sat there getting ready to face the day.
The barn door opened to reveal Mattie, standing in the doorway, with the sun behind her creating a glare so that she appeared mainly as an indistinct figure to him.
"We're all ready to go to town for Naomi's funeral," she said, her voice now gentle with sympathy. "You need to gather your wits about you now before we leave." Wrinkling her nose in distaste at the smell of vomit that emanated from him, she said, "You can't go like that. I'll get Tabby to get you one of Nathan's shirts to wear.
She returned a short time later with the shirt, after Rollins had splashed water on his face from a bucket just outside the barn door, trying to look somewhat presentable. He took the shirt she offered without a word and went back inside the barn to exchange it for the foul one he now wore.
By the time the family left the homestead to go to town, Rollins' head was aching as badly as Billings' rotten tooth had likely been doing before he'd had it pulled. As the group rode to Pembroke, the jouncing of his horse only served to intensify the dull throb in his head and he hoped the burial service would be brief, so he could return to the barn and the blessed oblivion of drink.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Historical note: A "bed gown" was not something one wore to bed; it wasn't what we would now call a 'nightgown". Rather, a woman's shift served double duty as the garment she wore to bed once she'd removed her stays and outer garments at night. A "bed gown" was a loose, long jacket that fell to low thigh length, then overlapped and held closed with an apron. They were worn chiefly as casual and work garments. Charlotte would have changed into something more fitted before leaving for Pembroke, however, as befitted a woman of her class.