Finally, without the love and sacrifice of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I would be nothing. To Him be all the glory and honor.
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CHAPTER ONE
Williamson County, Texas
May 1859
Adella cringed at the sound of shattering glass.
What now?
Exasperation pushed her taut nerves to the edge. Two vases and a china teacup had already met their demise as house servants feverishly prepared for Natalie Langford’s arrival on the morrow. That her brother’s fiancée sparked such anxiety did not bode well, considering the wedding was still two weeks away. Would things only worsen after the blonde beauty became mistress of Rose Hill Manor—a role Adella herself had filled since Mama took ill three summers ago?
A small shadow appeared in the open doorway to her bedroom. Adella Rose Ellis waited from her perch on the window seat, her bare feet tucked beneath a wide bell skirt, for the guilty servant to emerge. A warm afternoon breeze teased her loose hair. A moment later, Carolina’s fuzzy braids poked around, followed by wide, fearful eyes.
“Missy Ellis?” The little girl’s timid voice squeaked. Perspiration glistened on her dark skin, and her bottom lip trembled when she stepped around the corner. “I sorry, Missy. I didn’t mean to break it. It just tumbled outta my hand.” A tear slid down an ebony cheek before she tucked her chin into the too-large homespun dress, which hung off of thin shoulders.
“Come in, Carolina.” Adella softened her voice the way Mama always had when dealing with the servants. “Tell me what happened.”
Carolina moved into the room, head down. A shuddering breath shook her small frame. “Aunt Lu sent me to fetch the lamp from Miss Natalie’s bedroom so’s she could fill it with kerosene.” Eyes shiny with tears peered up at Adella. “I real careful to hold it with both hands like she tol’ me, but”—her voice quivered—“my toe done caught the carpet in the hall.”
Adella closed her eyes. She knew which lamp Carolina meant. It had been a favorite of Mama’s made of white glass, with painted roses on its chimney. At Papa’s request, Adella had begrudgingly placed it in Natalie’s room, just down the hall from her own. Although everything in the house would ultimately belong to Natalie after she and George married, Adella harbored a strong desire to protect the things Mama once treasured.
But she couldn’t be angry with Carolina—not when the girl should have been playing with cornhusk dolls instead of working twelve-hour days in the big house, as the slaves called the manor.
“It was an accident.” Adella offered a sympathetic smile, hoping to ease the girl’s worry. Mr. Haley, their former overseer, had whipped slaves for lesser offenses, so Carolina’s fear was not unfounded. Mercifully, that horrid man was no longer an issue. He’d passed in his sleep a fortnight ago, and Papa wouldn’t hire a replacement until he returned from purchasing new field workers in Galveston. “Help Aunt Lu clean up the mess, and we will keep this to ourselves.”
Carolina’s brow shot up. “You ain’t gonna tell Massa Ellis?”
“There is no need to tell Papa. He is in charge of the plantation, but I am in charge of the house.” At least for two more weeks. “Go on, now. Tell Aunt Lu we need another lamp for Miss Natalie’s room—and be very careful if she asks you to carry it upstairs.”
“Yes’m, Missy.” Carolina disappeared down the hall, but not before she glanced back to Adella with a look of pure relief on her round face.
With a cat-like stretch, Adella unfolded her legs and wiggled her toes, which were blessedly free of the pinching slippers that matched her pale blue gown. Even at twenty years of age, she still preferred to go shoeless, much to Aunt Lu’s dismay. The head house servant scolded and grumbled whenever she caught Adella barefoot. “Young women soon ta be betrothed don’t gallivant ’round without shoes.”
Moving to her dressing table, Adella ran a brush sprinkled with fragrant rose water through her hair. The headache that drove her to her room had thankfully abated, but the thought of bundling her thick, dark tresses back into the velvet hairnet with a much-too-tight silk headband did not appeal. Perhaps she would have Hulda simply tie it with a ribbon since Papa was not due back from Galveston until noon tomorrow, and it would only be George and herself at supper.
Thinking of George naturally led back to thoughts of Natalie and her impending visit. As a wedding gift, Papa gave Natalie permission to redecorate the parlor as well as order new furnishings for the suite of rooms she and George would occupy. Adella was to help with the undertaking. Natalie had declared it their first sisterly endeavor, but Adella found it far more difficult than anyone knew. Watching Mama’s house being prepared for another woman served as a stark reminder that her beloved mother was gone forever. Taken from earth a little more than a year past, the loneliness still felt fresh and raw in Adella’s heart. Yet Papa and George carried on as though the void Mama left was easily filled with plantation busyness and wedding plans.
Not so for Adella. She studied her blue gown in the reflection of the mirror, noting the delicate lace on the collar and cloth-covered buttons running down the bodice, and was reminded of the plain black gowns wrapped in paper and folded neatly away in a trunk in the attic. Her year of mourning had come
