When Thunder Rolls Ch. 03

"I've got a few minutes available. We could walk down to the creek." I said, nodding my head in the direction of the creek.

"You are incorrigible young man." she said smiling fully as she took a step toward me.

"You are welcome dear lady." I said as I reached up and pulled her down on my lap and planting a kiss on her lips.

Her arms snaked around my neck and I felt her body begin to go limp as she returned the kiss. Moaning softly she pulled away and whispered "Not now, later; tonight. Shannon could show up at any moment."

Those words had no sooner passed her lips than Shannon appeared on the porch from inside the house.

"Mother, have you seen my?" she paused, staring wide-eyed at the sight of her mother sitting on my lap with her arms around my neck.

"Seen what Dear?" Beth answered seemingly nonplused by the intrusion. I also noticed that she did not attempt to stand. In fact, she shifted her hips slightly and leaned back a little further turning to face Shannon.

"My hairbrush." Shannon added as a smile crept across her face.

"You left it on my dressing table this morning while we were getting ready for church." she replied with a toss of her head.

"Oh!" Shannon replied as she wheeled to go back inside.

Beth gave me a soft kiss on the cheek as she stood up and smoothed out the front of her dress. Taking one sideways glance at what had to be a very sheepish look on my face, she burst out laughing then leaned down and whispered, "After I get her down for the night, we may just take that walk down to the creek Mister Thatcher. Cool water, a soft breeze and some moonlight might be exactly what I need to wash away the improper thoughts I have been having for the past several moments."

"I look forward to it Missus Sullivan." I whispered.

The sight of her standing hip deep in the creek with rivulets of water running off her breasts, as the pale Kentucky moonlight reflected off of her red hair, along with the sounds of her gasps and moans echoing off the creek bank as she moved against my body on the quilt she brought, are memories that I will take with me to my grave.

Just know my Beloved that I miss you desperately and I crave the soft caress of your touch as strongly as I feel the need to breathe air. I long to once again stare into your beautiful green eyes and taste the sweetness of your gentle and passionate kisses.

My Dearest Love, as always, I remain your humble and obedient Servant,

Thaddeus

I must confess that I am not an early riser by nature so when a rapping sound at my door disturbed my sleep at the ungodly hour of 5:00am I was more than a touch perturbed. When it opened, Samuel, my father's former house servant entered, announcing loudly that I needed to,

"Get up and get moving Mister Thaddeus. You is burnin' moonlight! The sun is gwine be up soon and you an' Missus Olivia need to be on yer way to Milledgeville."

I was somewhat less than cheerful.

"Well, shit!" I muttered as I rolled over and sat up.

"Mister Thaddeus! You best not be lettin' yer Momma hear you speakin' like that! She would whup us both!"

"Why would she whip you?" I mumbled.

"General Principals mos' likely!" he said with a laugh.

"Probably." I said, nodding my head. "I don't suppose there is any coffee downstairs?"

"A whole potful Sir. Would you like me to fetch you some up here? Your momma don't drink it and your daddy, he never liked it much neither. If I had known, I woulda done brought you some up."

"Then why is there a whole fresh pot of it downstairs?" I asked.

"Well, Sir, us house niggers, we sort of need it to get movin' in the mornin'."

"Samuel, please don't use that word around me. Find another way to describe yourself."

"Yes sir, Mister Thaddeus. How do you take your coffee sir?"

"Hot and black with just a little bit of sugar."

"Yes sir. That will be right easy to remember." then he added with a conspiratorial wink, "A cause that there is how I like my women folk."

I was laughing far too loudly as he softly closed the door on his way out of the room.

A deep frost covered the lawn as I helped my mother climb into her coach. Winter, if not here already, was giving us a sign that she was waiting in the wings with breathless anticipation of the misery she could bring. Nathan himself had elected to drive her into the city and before I mounted Thunder, more as an afterthought than anything, I walked back into the house and retrieved my gun belt and Colt. Returning to the yard I mounted and waited for my errant uncle to grace us with his presence.

Fortunately, we did not wait long before he walked across the porch into the yard and silently mounted his horse. Staring at me with blank eyes he nodded toward my sidearm and asked if I was expecting trouble on the trip to town.

"I am cautious by nature these days uncle; it keeps me from waking up dead. This is for Mother's protection more so than my own. There are far too many unscrupulous men traveling the roads these days."

The look he gave me could have added a layer of frost on the glass panes in the windows of the house.

As we turned onto the road heading north Randolph and I rode behind Mother and Nathan. A few minutes later, Randolph pulled alongside me and nodding at the pistol again asked me if I had ever used it.

"Frequently. I've killed more men with it than I care to think about." I answered honestly.

He paused for a moment, then softly said, "Perhaps I misjudged you yesterday Thaddeus. You left us as a wide-eyed boy off on some grand adventure. It is obvious to me now that the man who returned is a different person."

"Randolph, I have yet to pay my respects to my father's grave, I have had two cups of coffee and it is colder than a witch's tit out here. If you have something to say, say it. I don't tolerate rhetoric these days."

"I was going to charge Olivia one dollar a year to manage The Willows. I am an iron clad bastard when it comes to making money Thaddeus, but my brother loved her to the point of distraction and I grudgingly admit that letting her go was one of the gravest mistakes I have ever made. Your father was definitely smarter than I when it came to picking out a wife."

"Letting her go?" I asked as my head snapped up.

"Yes. Your mother and I kept each other's company for several months before I called off the relationship. Your father was the first of many suitors to get to her once the dust settled. I always admired that about him; he never half-stepped when it was time to move."

"Well I will be damned!" I muttered.

"Probably, but men like us have a litany of reasons for eternal damnation. Why let this revelation make the list? Just do me one favor Thaddeus and never tell Olivia that I took you into my confidence on this delicate subject. I do care for her deeply and I would never want her to be embarrassed in any way."

Pulling Thunder up short I looked across at Randolph with a new found sense of respect and held out my hand.

"Deal." I said as we shook hands in the middle of the road.

"Deal, now tell me, are the women in Richmond everything the newspapers make them out to be?" he asked slyly.

"I have no idea uncle, but the ones in Kentucky will take your eternally damned breath away."

"Do tell Lad. Please, do tell." he said with a laugh.

For the next hour I spoke about my time in Kentucky describing the farm, Beth, Shannon and my plans for turning the forest into a lumber operation. Randolph's eyes were aglow with the prospect of making money by simply cutting down trees. But he immediately saw the same problem that I did. Replenishing the supply. It would take years, even decades to regrow the forest once it had been cut down.

"I have contacts in the lumber business here in Georgia. Let me get their opinions and I will contact you."

"Fair enough, I may even hire you as a consultant if it pans out." I said sincerely.

"You already have Thaddeus, you just don't realize it yet." he said with a laugh.

The reading of my father's will went exactly as I had prophesized. I was the sole inheritor of my father's earthly possessions and his personal debts. The Willows was mine and my mother was given full rights to live there in perpetuity: a needless clause because I would have never turned her away.

The surprise came when I found out that Uncle Randolph and Uncle Douglas were the recipients of two-thousand dollars each. I struggled for a moment, wondering how I was going to accomplish that payment when Father's attorney informed me that the accounts at the bank could adequately cover that amount with several thousand dollars left over.

"Define several Sir." I stated.

"Your father's accounts in the financial institutions that he did business at are valued at just over one hundred and seventy thousand dollars Thaddeus. You are, in fact, one of the wealthiest men in Georgia because four of those are banks in the North, backed by Union gold."

"I will be damned." I muttered.

"If you are Nephew, please take me with you through the gate of Hell." Randolph said with a smile as my mother fainted.

To be continued...

As always, I hope you enjoyed it.

YDW