Lessons on Love by Susanne Dietze

Author:Susanne Dietze [Dietze, Susanne; Gerlach, Rita; Maher, Kathleen L.; Pagels, Carrie Fancett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781643521862
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2019-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 1

Charleston, South Carolina January 1894

Jesse Huntington settled in at his home office’s massive mahogany desk, which had been cleared except for one tray piled high with letters from creditors. Father’s grave had barely been dug, months earlier, before Jesse had discovered the desperate financial straits they were in. He reached for the silver personal correspondence tray, and his heart lurched when he spied Mr. Reynolds’s name and address on it. He slit the envelope open and pulled out the single page and scanned it. He crumpled the cryptic rejection letter from Mr. Reynolds in his hand and tossed it into Father’s black leather–covered wastebasket. Still no job for him. One of my last hopes. His jaw muscle spasmed.

The eight-paneled office door creaked open. Mother, attired in her expensive and frivolous black mourning gown, peeked in, the wide puffed sleeves, satin fabric, and ornate lace speaking volumes about her opinion of his announcement that they must cut expenses. She clutched a newspaper in her hand as she eyed the stack of bills. “How long do you think we have?”

The sum of what was left in the accounts and in the cash he’d kept for emergencies would be gone in a trice if she kept up her spending. Not long at all if he couldn’t procure a job. “Enough time to get us up to the island and back to the…” He’d almost said summer home, but now the West Bluff cottage on Mackinac Island would be their only home.

“Back to our new home. We’ll still be among our own kind there—even if they’re mostly Yankees.”

Mother sniffed. “As was your dear father.”

She’d loved Father. No doubt about that. Who else would put up with his long absences and cantankerous moods? Some of Mother’s devotion no doubt stemmed from having been pulled up from being an impoverished southern belle and to being married to a wealthy man. Father had saved her family’s estate and plantation, but now both were about to be sold to pay off their creditors. “Your least favorite northerner just sent me a one-line rejection.”

“Mr. Reynolds also refused you?” Her lips compressed in anger. “Wait until I see him on the island. I’ll give him a piece of my mind.”

Jesse couldn’t help but laugh. “Mother, your genteel calling out would likely be perceived as a compliment by him.”

She likely had no idea that her soft reprimands, in her southern belle style, would be completely lost on the northern iron mine magnate who was possessed of an imaginative assortment of profanities. Mother blinked up at him, her right hand clutching the newspaper so tightly that it began to crumple. “The advertisement has been published.”

Jesse extended his hand and accepted the paper. He opened to the appropriate section. A Large House on the Battery. That had to be it. He scanned the notice, his chest muscles tightening as though battery was being committed upon him. He refolded the Charleston Gazette and passed it back to his mother. A house was not a home.

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