Read Online From This Day Forward by Margaret Daley - Free Book Online Page B

at Pinecrest, knowing that he had sent our mother away. She was the mistress here. Our father had been buried the day before.”
    “What kind of man does that?”
    A murderer. No, you shouldn’t think that. He is your grandfather, your kin . This discussion has to end. “Tell me about the plantation. Do you like running Pinecrest?”
    Patrick’s face transformed into a smile that glinted in his dark brown eyes, so like their father’s. “Yes. These past few weeks, with Grandfather not feeling well, I have been doing most of the managing. We are expanding our cotton fields. We will need more field hands. I’m going to Charleston to purchase ten more.”
    “Purchase?” Nathan sprang to his feet. “I thought you felt as I do about slavery.”
    “I do. I have convinced Grandfather to try a new way. I will pay the workers a wage, and they can buy their freedom. I wanted to give them their freedom, but Grandfather wouldn’t listen to me. He did agree to this. I will keep an account for each slave, and then if they want to stay on and work here, they will continue to be paid a fair wage for their labor.”
    Nathan’s tension melted away as he stared at his little brother, a man of thirty. This very issue had driven him and his grandfather apart, leading to Eliza and her child’s death, and now Patrick had accomplished what he had tried to five years ago. “I’m glad one of us could make Grandfather see that owning slaves is wrong.”
    “I wish he had listened to you. He has mellowed with age. With both Sarah and you gone, I think he’s lonely, but he will not admit it. He nags at me to find a wife and start a family before he dies.”
    “Not a bad idea. Have you met anyone?”
    “I have been too busy to look for a wife. Once I get the new fields planted and this new system working, I plan to. Seeing Sarah with Sean and now expecting another baby makes me want a family.”
    Not me . Then he would be responsible for them, and if he lost them, what would be left for him? He didn’t want to care for someone—not with all the people he had lost over the years, not with the fact his own mother would rather be in England than here with her family.

    “There you are,” Patrick Stuart said, approaching Rachel in the overgrown garden at the side of the house. “What are you doing out here?”
    Rachel pointed at a bright red flower poking its way out of the wild greenery covering the ground. “Look. This plant is trying to live even though it is being choked out by the weeds.” She bent and smelled its sweet fragrance. “Your mother had roses?”
    “Yes, brought over from England. This one is blooming early. Usually I will see the flowers from it in late April.”
    “I hope at my farm I shall have a place for flowers. When I look at them, it gives me such hope. What beauty in a sometimes ugly world. At Mansfield Manor I used to spend hours in our gardens. Mama always knew where to find me if I wasn’t in the house.” She straightened. “How is your grandfather this morning?”
    “Much better. I’m sorry you had to delay your plans for two days, but I believe Grandfather is recovering because of Nathan’s presence.”
    “So he can throw him off the plantation?” Rachel asked with a smile. “At least that is what Nathan thinks.”
    “Partially that, but also because Nathan is a good physician. He pours everything into his patients. He’s determined that Grandfather is not going to die, and he isn’t—at least not from this illness.” Mr. Stuart glanced around him. “We really need to do something about this garden.”
    “Nathan told me your grandfather did not want anyone to touch it.”
    “Perhaps I can change his mind. If I find a wife, she will not want such an eyesore of an untended garden staring at her whenever she comes outside. That ought to motivate my grandfather to do something.”
    “He wants you married?”
    “Yes, so he knows his name will continue.”
    “What about Nathan?”
    “I