Sarah's Roses, Book II: Roses of White

Chapter XIX

“I’ll keep Private Sands and search the house,” the sergeant was saying, “that will leave you with four men to search the plantation. Is that alright with you? Colonel, sir, can you hear me? Sir, sir? Brandon!”

“What?” I recognized Colonel White’s voice.

“Did you even hear what I just said?”

“Of course I did, I just didn’t quite grasp the meaning of it.”

“What’s wrong, Brandon?” the sergeant asked. It was strange to hear him suddenly switch to the colonel’s first name. “I’ve never seen you so discomposed or distracted before. You can’t focus on anything I’m telling you.”

“I’m sorry, Robert, I’m being haunted.”

“Brandon, you don’t believe in ghosts.”

“Not by ghosts, by memories.”

“What sort of memories could haunt you here?”

There was a pause, before the colonel spoke up again, “memories of a life I have long tried to forget. If I would have known that painting would greet me at the door, I would have never agreed to enter the house.”

“Are you speaking about the painting of Miss Evelyn Beverly?”

“You know Evelyn Beverly?” Colonel White asked incredulously.

“You know Evelyn Beverly?” The sergeant was just as shocked.

“I knew her once upon a time. It was in New York, we worked together in the theater? Where did you know her?”

“In Boston, I am the son of her former landlord.”

I gave a quiet gasp. Impossible! The sergeant was really Robert Hosehigh? Good God, the world was just getting smaller and smaller. What sort of fate brought all these people to my doorstep?

“So you are acquainted with Miss Rose?” The colonel asked.

“Who?”

“Evelyn’s daughter”

“Holy Saint’s of Ireland!” The truth dawned on Robert. It was a great pity I couldn’t see his face. “But of course, we‘re on the Greensten Plantation and Helen Greensten was the name of Sarah’s aunt.  Why didn’t I realize it before? That young lady is Sarah, little Sarah whom we sent away all on her own to the south. How often did my dear mother wonder what became of her.  Well, she’s Rose now, so that means…no, she said she was Miss Rose, meaning she’s not married. No wonder I didn’t realize who she was, I always knew her as…well…never mind.”

“You knew her as Sarah Beverly?”

There was an awkward silence. Then the colonel spoke up again.

“No doubt her name was changed to keep secret that fact that she,” his voice dropped to a whisper so low I could barely hear it, “that she was born out of wedlock.”

“How do you know that?” Robert asked in surprise. “You weren’t around when she was born.”

“Birth happens nine months after being in the mother’s womb, Robert.”

“But Brandon, you were in Europe in 1840.”

“Tell me, were you around when Sarah was born?” Colonel White asked on impulse.

“My mother was Miss Beverly’s midwife, I held Sarah only an hour after she came to this earth.”

“Right, let’s do some back tracking. Do you remember when Miss Beverly came to Boston?”