A Promise for Tomorrow Read online

  JUDITH PELLA

  TRACIE PETERSON

  A Promise for Tomorrow

  Copyright © 1998

  Judith Pella and Tracie Peterson

  Cover by John Hamilton Design

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

  Published by Bethany House Publishers

  11400 Hampshire Avenue South

  Bloomington, Minnesota 55438

  Bethany House Publishers is a division of

  Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

  Printed in the United States of America

  * * *

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Pella, Judith.

  A promise for tomorrow / Judith Pella, Tracie Peterson

  p. cm. — (Ribbons of steel ; no. 3)

  ISBN 978-0-7642-0693-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company—Fiction. 2. Frontier and pioneer life—Fiction. 3. Railroad construction workers—Fiction. 4. Baltimore (Md.)—Fiction. 5. Allegheny Mountains Region— Fiction. I. Peterson, Tracie. II. Title.

  PS3566.E415P76 2010

  813'.54—dc22

  2009043081

  * * *

  To

  Everett Daves,

  Kansas Christian Newspaper

  With thanks

  for your friendship,

  professional support,

  and all the wonderful things

  you’ve done.

  —Tracie

  JUDITH PELLA has been writing for the inspirational market for more than twenty years and is the author of more than thirty novels, most in the historical fiction genre. Her recent novel Mark of the Cross and her extraordinary four-book DAUGHTERS OF FORTUNE series showcase her skills as a historian as well as a storyteller. Her degrees in teaching and nursing lend depth to her tales, which spin a variety of settings. Pella and her husband make their home in Oregon.

  Visit Judith’s Web site: www.judithpella.com

  TRACIE PETERSON is the author of over seventy novels, both historical and contemporary. Her avid research resonates in her stories, as seen in her bestselling HEIRS OF MONTANA and ALASKAN QUEST series. Tracie and her family make their home in Montana.

  Visit Tracie’s Web site at www.traciepeterson.com

  Contents

  What Has Gone Before

  PART ONE

  May—November 1843

  1 / Bad Tidings

  2 / Preparations

  3 / Confrontation

  4 / Judgments and Accusations

  5 / Turning Points

  6 / Strongholds

  7 / Choosing a Path

  8 / Letting Go

  9 / Adoption

  10 / New Birth

  PART TWO

  February 1849—February 1850

  11 / Nightmares

  12 / Landslide

  13 / Thomas Swann

  14 / Shared Interests

  15 / The Confession

  16 / The Road Ahead

  17 / The Long Night

  18 / Revelations

  19 / Shaping the Future

  20 / The Connaughtmen

  21 / A Bit o’ the Blarney

  22 / Kiernan

  PART THREE

  February—December 1850

  23 / Margaret’s Homecoming

  24 / Conflict and Strife

  25 / Secrets

  26 / The Strike

  27 / Compromise

  28 / The Hands of Time

  29 / Reunion

  30 / Sisters

  31 / The Phoenix

  32 / Pardon and Mercy

  33 / Troubled Times

  34 / Facing the Dragon

  35 / Victoria’s Declaration

  36 / Beyond the Wall

  37 / Return to Cumberland

  38 / Seeds of Prejudice

  PART FOUR

  September 1851—January 1853

  39 / Cholera

  40 / Victoria’s Heart

  41 / The Long Wait

  42 / Intentions

  43 / Kingwood Tunnel

  44 / A Clannish Breed

  45 / Troubled Days

  46 / The Issue of Slavery

  47 / Adams Women

  48 / Carolina

  49 / Hampton’s Plan

  50 / Bittersweet Partings

  51 / To Wheeling and Beyond

  What Has Gone Before

  Carolina Adams, a young woman of spirit and determination, enjoyed a pampered life in Oakbridge, her family’s plantation, outside of Falls Church, Virginia.

  Growing up as one of the middle siblings in a household of seven brothers and sisters, Carolina had always been eager to understand the world around her. Young ladies of the 1830s were not encouraged to educate themselves in the ways of masculine studies such as mathematics and science, but Carolina desired to cross those boundaries. She was especially enthralled with the railroad, which she fell in love with the first time she saw a train roar into Washington City. When her indulgent father, Joseph Adams, permitted her a tutor, James Baldwin, Carolina began to realize part of her dream. Carolina’s older sister, Virginia, also hoped her dreams to be fulfilled by James Baldwin—her more conventional dreams of becoming a proper southern wife.

  James had once worked for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, but while recovering from injuries following a rail accident, he was thrust into the job of tutoring Carolina Adams, and of courting her sister Virginia. What no one expected, least of all they, was that James and Carolina should fall in love with each other. James found healing in Carolina’s friendship, and as she helped him come to terms with the past, James began to visualize his future with the railroad once more. In turn, Carolina found in James a man who was not threatened by her intelligence and regard for learning. She also found a soul mate with whom she desired to spend the rest of her life. Unfortunately, he had all but committed himself to Virginia, and Carolina was too insecure in her love to dare come between them, much less reveal her feelings toward James. Likewise, James refused to confront his growing affection for Carolina.

  Torn by his conflicting feelings toward the two sisters, and pressured by family expectations, James allowed himself to be carried along by events, soon finding himself engaged to Virginia. But eventually realizing he could not marry a woman he didn’t love, James broke off the engagement. However, in order to save Virginia from social embarrassment, he allowed her to publicly break the engagement herself. Then, unable to face Carolina and the social ostracism his ungentlemanly behavior would cause, James left Oakbridge and Washington for another position with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, a job that would take him far away to unsettled lands.

  The loss of James, along with the death of her two younger sisters from yellow fever and her mother’s mental breakdown, caused much sorrow and discontent in Carolina. This was not helped by the unwelcome advances of her father’s commission merchant, Hampton Cabot, who had come to Oakbridge on business—and with his own personal agenda, which included snaring an Adams daughter. Further complicating Carolina’s life was Virginia’s resentment toward her because she believed Carolina was the cause of the broken engagement to James.

  Carolina watched her family become torn apart as her remaining siblings went their way in marriages, careers, and activities, while Virginia’s bitterness toward her grew. On the very morning that Carolina decided to accept Hampton’s marriage proposal, Carolina learned that Virginia had eloped with Hampton. The growing tensions of the household finally forced Carolina to leave home on her own. She took a position as a nanny to Victoria, the infant daughter of Blake St. John, a wealthy widower who lived in Baltimore.

  Blake was a cold, indifferent father and was constantly absent. After five years, Blake announced he was going to move west and requested Carolina to assume full responsibility for Victoria and the St. John house while he headed off to parts unknown. Carolina realized she had come to love Victoria as her own, but she felt that to accept such a proposition would have made her appear to be Blake’s “kept woman.” Not only that, but she feared that one day Blake would reappear with a new wife and take the child away from her.

  This prompted Blake to make an even more startling proposal—a marriage of convenience to Carolina. She decided the sacrifice of a loveless marriage would be better than to lose Victoria to the orphanage to which Blake threatened to send her. All the while, however, Carolina’s heart continued to long for James. She wondered how things might have been and of what she had lost as she took her meaningless marriage vows with Blake St. John.

  When James finally reappeared in her life, he was crushed to find her married. She also confronted him with her suspicions that James’ father, Leland Baldwin, was swindling her father and other railroad investors. They parted once again, not on the best of terms. Later, while doing business for his father, James became aware of Leland’s illegal activities and realized that Carolina’s concerns were well-founded.

  When Blake was killed in a carriage accident, leaving Carolina a wealthy widow, she returned to Oakbridge and her father. Carolina ran into James on the same train, and they talked sincerely to each other. James finally confessed that he couldn’t marry Virginia because he was in love with Carolina. Carolina, in turn, admitted her love for him.
James, determined to let nothing else come between them, proposed marriage, and Carolina accepted. After they were married, their hearts turned back toward the dream that had first brought them together—the railroad. Their yesterdays were colorfully woven into a tapestry that represented their past, but a promise for tomorrow was yet to be created.

  PART I

  May–November 1843

  For the structure that we raise,

  Time is with materials filled;

  Our todays and yesterdays

  Are the blocks with which we build.

  —HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

  1

  Bad Tidings

  James Baldwin ran a hand through his dark hair and sighed. It was almost impossible to concentrate on the words of his father. Leland Baldwin had made a most unexpected visit to the St. John house in Baltimore, where James and Carolina chose to reside after their marriage six months earlier. James was anxious lest his father would still be on the premises when Carolina returned. That could prove disastrous. It wasn’t that Carolina wouldn’t at least feign hospitality and civility; it was that she held Leland in absolute contempt for his swindling of her father, Joseph Adams.

  “It’s not that I wanted things to be this way,” Leland said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. The rotund man rubbed his chest, a seemingly nervous habit of late, and waited for James to respond.

  “I just wish you’d have come to me at the first,” James finally said. “You have no idea how difficult it will be to make matters right again. There’s not only this venture with Joseph and Carolina and the Potomac and Great Falls Railroad but also the land deals you’ve made in the West. What of those? The false deeds you’ve sold to unknowing people—people with dreams of settling in a new land and of owning their own property. Add to that the other paper railroads you’ve proposed to build. Railroads that only exist in the dreams and minds of hopeful men because you never planned to see them become reality. There are hundreds of investors, many of whom I’ll probably never be able to locate, much less reimburse.”

  “I still see no reason to go to that much trouble. It’s enough that I’ve ceased to participate in such affairs, is it not? Even though I’ve had nothing but disdain from your uncle Samuel. He thinks me an absolute addlepated ninny for worrying about such things. Then, too, I’ve nearly depleted all of my own resources.”

  “But, Father, you can’t allow this to continue, and well you know it,” James replied, then nervously rose from his seat and paced to the window that looked down on the front lawn.

  “Looking for Carolina, are you?” Leland questioned. “I suppose she’d have a spell to know I’m here in her house.”

  James cringed inwardly at the words “her house.” It had seemed a logical choice to stay on in the house of Carolina’s deceased husband, Blake St. John. After all, Blake’s daughter, Victoria, had grown up in this house, and her comfort was of great concern to James now that he was her stepfather. Carolina had suggested the temporary arrangement, reminding James that there was much to face and deal with as a new family, and that by staying on in the St. John house, they would at least avoid the complications of finding a new house, packing up the old, and making the actual move. James had agreed, seeing the sensibility in it from a standpoint of finances and time. But now, as had happened on many occasions, to hear his home referred to as “her house” left him with a strong desire to move and let the consequences be hanged.

  “Carolina has a difficult time accepting what has happened,” James admitted. He pulled back the edge of the damask drapery and studied the roadway some twenty yards away. “She feels perhaps an even deeper sense of betrayal than do I,” he added and dropped his hold on the curtain. “You have to understand, Carolina is very close to her father. For you to have swindled her is one thing. But that you would endanger her father’s good name—well, that is entirely different.”

  Leland’s face reddened slightly. “She’s too smart for her own good. You’re going to have a constant battle with that one.” He coughed and the gasping breath he drew sounded strained. “Your mother, God rest her soul, was the epitome of a proper, godly wife. My Edith could go into public and hold her head high knowing that she was a respectable, well-thought-of soul.”

  James felt weary under the strain of emotions. He sorely missed his mother, who had passed away nearly four weeks earlier. The memories of her love and kindness were all that James had to take with him through the days. He mourned her passing, but even more, he mourned the wasted time. And that was another reason he was desperate to put the past behind him and have his father’s affairs resolved. He blamed himself for the despair his father must have felt to have given in to the heartless activity of swindling friends. He blamed himself for not realizing the pressures under which his father had been placed. First there had been the sale of his mother’s family plantation. It had seemed reasonable at the time. After all, James’ father wasn’t a planter. Edith had inherited the place upon her father’s death, primarily because there was no son to inherit it. She was the eldest of three girls, and therefore the plantation passed to her, with minor inheritances for her sisters. Already married with a child on the way, Edith had been proud when Leland had taken on her ancestral home in the hopes of becoming a farmer. But it wasn’t to be. And without ever allowing her to realize the desperation that was slowly but surely befalling the place, Leland finally convinced Edith to let him sell the plantation and move to Washington, D.C. Now so many years later, Leland was once again having to sell off his possessions in order to account for his messes.

  James felt sorry for his father. Sorry for the loss of control and respect that had befallen him. Sorry that he had never once felt confident enough to come to James with the truth of the matter. Oh, there had been that talk which had forced James to agree to seriously seek a wife, but even that had fallen far short of truth and honesty. Leland had spoken of a strain on the family coffers, but James hadn’t realized the full degree of his father’s circumstance. He had assumed that the real reason for his parents’ pushing him into marriage was their concern for his own future and reputation. He knew his mother longed for grandchildren, and his father longed for a more elevated position in the social circles of Washington City. If James were to marry prominently, it would easily boost his family to even higher levels of acceptance.

  Instead, James had ignored his father’s demand to wed and had chosen his own path. A path he now found particular reason to regret. No, if James had only realized the desperation that had led his father down a path of poor choices, he might have helped. He might have been able to talk him out of his dirty dealings and actually find a way to alleviate the financial strain.

  “Still, she wouldn’t have been my choice for you, given her questionable reputation. After all, there was that awkward business with her sister’s husband.”

  James startled back into the reality of the moment as he realized his father was speaking of Carolina. “You will not speak of my wife in that manner. She has never been anything but honorable, and I’ll not allow anyone, even you, to speak ill of her.”

  “She started all of this, did she not? She’s the one who made you suspicious and—”

  “I’m glad she did,” James said rather sternly. “You act as though this were some childhood lark. Some innocent prank. You could go to prison if she so much as opens her mouth to accuse you publicly. If the investors were to find out that you’ve swindled them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, do you suppose they’d care very much that an overly educated young woman rang the alarm on such a fire? I think not.” James watched as his father’s face reddened even more. “What’s more, if it weren’t for the money left her by her dead husband, we’d never be so far along in quelling the concerns raised by other investors. So please don’t sit there and insult her intelligence or character. The shame is not hers.”

  “I’m not proud of what I’ve done,” Leland admitted softly. “I wish it could have been different. But I can’t go back and undo the past.”