Fallen Hearts (Casteel 3)

"My rich sista came to see me in Nashville and I begged her to buy my baby back, ta give the reverend twice as much money. It wouldn't a meant nothin' ta her ta offa him the money. Ya shoulda seen how much she carried in her pocketbook."

"Did she do it?"

"No, she didn't do it. She didn't want me bein' a motha and havin' a child. She wouldn't have nothin' ta do with me. She sent me money sometimes, but I couldn't come see her 'cause her rich relatives would get sick at the sight of someone as poor and as backward as me," Fanny said and took a handkerchief out of her sleeve to dab her eyes.

"Ah see. Then you married Mr. Mallory, who did want to look after ya, but ya could see no future in that marriage?"

"No, sir, he was too old, as I said."

"So ya got divorced and came ta live here where ya have set up home and gotten married?"

"Yes, I have."

"Thank you, Mrs. Wilcox. That's a lot different from the version we heard before. No further questions, Y'Honor."

"You may step down, Mrs. Wilcox," the judge said when Fanny didn't move.

She looked up, tears streaming down her face, looking like the victim. For a moment even I thought that maybe she was. Like all of us Casteel children, she had to undergo the indignity of being sold. Fanny acted as though she were happy about it at the time, but that was probably because she expected to be loved and cherished the way she always hoped she would be. Then the reverend raped her. I was never in doubt about that. She did have a hard life afterward. I could understand why she did the things she had done in Nashville and why she had married Mallory and later divorced him Perhaps I had been too selfish, I thought. Perhaps I should have gotten her child back from the reverend. Maybe having the responsibility of a child would have changed her.

But she had struck back at me in the most painful way she could. She seduced my husband and now was trying to take Drake away, not because she wanted him--but to punish me. I had to put aside my guilt feelings and once again harden myself against her. Drake's future depended upon it.

"I would like to call Logan Stonewall to the stand," Camden said. Logan stood up. There was a loud rustling in the audience, but Judge McKensie's eyes were enough to keep any chatter down. Logan's mother sobbed once behind us, but we both ignored her. I squeezed his hand for a moment and then he went to the stand.

Logan looked as nervous as a little boy. I saw his hand shake when he placed it on the Bible, and his voice cracked when he said, "I do so swear." He looked toward me again as he took the seat and I smiled to encourage and support him.

"Mr. Stonewall," Camden Lakewood began, "you've just heard the testimony of Mrs. Wilcox in which she has accused you of fathering the child she now carries. Are you indeed the father of this child?"

"I don't know. Maybe," Logan said.

"Then you admit to having had intimate relations with Mrs. Wilcox?"

"Yes," Logan said.

Once again the audience broke into an uproar, but the judge's quick gavel ended it.

"Can you describe the circumstances under which this occurred?"

"Yes, I can." Logan straightened up in the seat, assuming a take-charge position. His voice deepened and he spoke louder and with more authority. "My sister-in-law often hung around the factory site in Winnerow. She seemed to have nothing else to do and no one else to talk to. Whenever she was there, she brought me things to eat or talked to me about how hard her life was living alone, with no family nearby. I was staying in our cabin in the Willies, and I did start to feel sorry for her. One night she appeared with wine and food. She made me dinner. We drank a great deal of wine and she cried a great deal. Before I knew it, she was undressing herself and clinging to me. We . . . ended up in bed together. I was drunk and I regretted it immediately."

"Have you seen her intimately since?" "No, never again."

"Just that one time?"

"Yes."

"And then you and your wife were told she was pregnant with your child?"

"Yes. And I explained everything to my wife," Logan said, looking my way. "She understood and forgave me, and I love her more than ever because of it," he added. Tears sprang to my eyes, but I didn't raise my hand to wipe them away. I would give no one in the courtroom the satisfaction of seeing me brought to tears by Fanny's actions. I sat up even straighter.

Fanny was staring at me. The slight smile on her face faded and an expression of surprise and awe replaced it. How much she wanted to see me broken, I thought. This whole proceeding, everything she had done, was simply to see that happen. Jealousy lived inside her like a parasite all these years, feeding off her and growing bigger and uglier and stronger until it filled her completely. Would Fanny wake up one day and regret the things she had done? I wondered.

"So, Mr. Stonewall, you never questioned that you were the father of Fanny's child," Camden continued, "even though you knew she had other boyfriends?"

"Objection, Y'Honor. Mr. Lakewood is makin' an obvious insinuation here 'bout Mrs. Wilcox's character."

"I think I will sustain that objection, Mr. Lakewood. It hasn't been established that Mrs. Wilcox had other boyfriends with whom she was intimate at the time."

"Very well, Your Honor. I'll phrase my question in another way. Mr. Stonewall, did you know for a fact that Mrs. Wilcox was seeing other men at the time she visited you at the factory site?"