Unsettled Graves: A Crossroads of Kings Mill Novel (The Crossroads of Kings Mill Book 3) (8 page)

For the next two weeks, Tonya transported Jared and Joshua to Vickie’s while her and Camden worked on their
special projects
at the historical society. Telling Vickie about the additional guest had been another nail in Tonya’s coffin. She swore the woman was going to tie her down, so she could no longer be around anyone living or dead.

What was worse, she hadn’t told her father anything about what was going on. Virginia had explained the less her father knew, the better. It wasn’t really an issue since he wasn’t home a great deal lately. In charge of overseeing one of Sean and Kenneth’s developments near Washington D.C., her father figured staying closer to work at the extended stay hotel down there would be easier. Thank God! She wasn’t ready to try to explain any more paranormal events to him.

“So what have you guys been up to lately?” Tonya hadn’t been over to Camden’s in a few days other than to pick everyone up in the morning and drive them home. The last time she’d gone over was Friday afternoon. They’d all gone to the pool while it was relatively empty and grilled hot dogs and hamburgers at the community center patio afterwards.

“Playing checkers and cards, mostly…at least Jared and Joshua have. Oh, and eating pizza.”

“Really?” So Jared liked checkers. Maybe she’d be able to interest him in a game after work while Camden took Joshua to the pool. She was still trying to figure out their connection. Was Fate trying to put her together with her ghost? If so, nothing appeared to be happening. When she’d tried to talk to him with any form of interest, he only replied politely and moved on to see if the guys wanted to do something.

“What? Would you rather have me get an Xbox and teach them how to play video games? Maybe take them to a movie?” Camden sneered.

“No. I just…never mind.”

              Tonya buried herself into the research she’d invested herself in to find some answers on her two subjects. She’d come across Joshua’s name in some historical data from The National Soldiers Orphans’ Homestead but nothing about dates or birth records, his parents, or who might have dropped him off.

              “What are you working on? Your research paper for Dr. Moreland?”

              Camden looked up from his notes. “No. I’ve actually decided to look further into the hardships of the Confederates under General Lee’s Northern Virginia command. I thought it might be an interesting subject, especially since I have actual reference material to work with.”

              “Good call.” Tonya grinned.

              “So you think it’s a better choice then what I had?”

              “I just think it’s a more exciting choice than talking about the economic and political Reconstruction time frame.” She tried to see his notes. “Anything exciting so far?”

              “I’m just detailing some of the battles around the area for now, leading up to Gettysburg. I didn’t realize being this close to all the northward movement during the summer of 1863, there were so many little skirmishes.”

              “South Mountain was one of the biggest areas between Lee’s men and the Union forces of the Potomac. Since the range stretches from Northern Virginia all the way up to Southern Pennsylvania, it was one of the most important strategic points of territorial supremacy. Both sides had formed communication outposts along its various gaps and passes.”

              Where Camden would’ve rolled his eyes at her once, today he truly appeared to be interested in what she had to say. She knew she could be overwhelming at times in her Historical prattling’s, even Tony used to change the subject on her, sometimes before she even got to talk. Most of her dates ended when she exhibited more knowledge on the subject than the guy she was dating.

              They talked about going to some of the nearby areas over the next few days and maybe even taking Jared and Joshua with them. Jared might be able to give them first hand insight into what had gone on in certain places.

              April stopped by when they were deep in conversation and documentation over Confederate movement in the last days of June 1863.

              “Everything going okay?” April appeared troubled. The biting of her lip was usually a dead giveaway.

              “Better and better. What’s up?” Camden replied.

              “Just heard from Dr. Moreland. He’s upping your time frame on your papers because he’s scheduled to be working on a new excavation site in the North Dakota Badlands in August and wants you all to have your papers in to him by the week of July
twelfth so he can make his final decision before heading out west.”

              “July
twelfth? But that’s less than three weeks away.” Tonya moaned. She wasn’t even ready to begin her paper. Sure she had gathered a decent amount of data and research on the subject, but lately, she just didn’t have the time or dedication to focus.

              Camden didn’t seem to share her concern. He was good at hiding his poker face or maybe he actually had things under control. How much did she really know of his study habits? She gathered herself. After all, he was still her competition for the scholarship. She needed to give the impression of having it all together, even though she didn’t have a single word written.

#

              Trying to occupy himself with research, Camden knew there was no way he could make the deadline. Tonya had echoed his sentiments exactly, but he didn’t want to give her the upper hand in knowing he had no clue how to even write a paper. He knew he’d screwed himself over, but now was a matter of do or die and he had to do it himself. Taking notes was one thing, putting them into some semblance of order that made sense was completely out of his comfort zone. Where did you start? He was going to have to research writing a term paper, too?

              Camden had asked Tonya if she’d be willing to show him some of the area’s he’d been researching after work. She didn’t mind, even knowing an important paper was due. Maybe she was procrastinating, too.

              After picking up Jared and Joshua from Vickie’s, they drove on over to the George Washington Monument. Not the one everyone knew of in Washington D.C. but the stone, rounded tower shaped one atop South Mountain near the small, historic town of Boonsboro.

              Hiking up the hillside to the monument, Joshua challenged him to a race up to the top, leaving Tonya and Jared lagging behind at a leisurely pace.

              He noticed the subtle looks and flirtatious hints Tonya had been trying to stir up between her and Jared. As much as he witnessed the flirting himself when he worked the beach, he knew the signs. Her attitude around Jared kind of irked him that she was giving him all the attention and leaving work related things to him. Hadn’t he comforted her the other day? Didn’t that mean anything? Hell, she’d even curled up in his lap. Maybe she was no different than the other girls he’d known…just geekier.

              “So, does this bring back any memories?” Camden asked when Jared had a few moments to take his surroundings in.

              “I don’t think so. Should it?”

              “Didn’t Longstreet’s men come into Boonsboro area and scout out up here?”

              “Sure, but I wasn’t part of that unit…we came up from Martinsburg, West Virginia before meeting back up with the rest of our brigade south of Gettysburg the night of July first.”

              Camden sighed heavily. He was hoping for some connection with Jared, something to base all of their history on.

              “But the fact you brought me here, a part of where my brigade has been—well, that’s somethin’ real special, Cam.” Jared clapped him on the shoulder. “No, we were miserable until we reached Pennsylvania. Rain, low on supplies…moving on pure adrenaline. Morales were high, though. We’re gonna meet up with General Lee himself,” Jared said proudly.

              “Truth be told, we don’t know where we are half the time. We’re just a bunch of young men following orders, which isn’t something we’re used to, being simple farmers and all. In camp, all we did was muster, drill, and wait around for orders to move out. We thrive on the excitement of battle. Knowing you’re a part of somethin’ great, a chance to be free— there’s nuthin’ like it. Our victory at Chancellorsville…ain’t nuthin’ gonna stop us. We will be victorious.”

              General Lee probable couldn’t have said it better or with more conviction. Camden hoped that the old man was looking down on this rebel soldier with great pride.

              Joshua looked around at the scenery as Tonya showed him points of interest in the distance. A few hikers making their way along from the Appalachian Trail stopped by for pictures and views before heading on their way.

              After a while, Jared took in the views, pointing out areas of historical references to Joshua. Tonya sat alone on the ground, her knees up, typing away at her phone. Here she was surrounded by history and she was on her phone? But when she looked up and their eyes met…it wasn’t good.

              Camden walked over to her and sat down. “What’s up? Everything okay?”

              The sudden spring of water in her eyes and the vigorous shake of her head spoke volumes when her throat kept bobbing, on the brink of crying. Nearly throwing the phone at him, she stood up and bolted down the trail, back the way they’d come.

              The glare of the sunlight blinded the view on her phone. Camden moved to a shady part of the area. She’d been texting with April. The final message was from Dr. Miles…

                
…findings of a Corporeal Jared Evansworth from General Kershaw’s South Carolina unit…Deserter.

              Camden looked over where the two historical figures were deep in conversation, unaware of anything…no, there was no way. Jared Evansworth would never desert his unit. There had to be some mistake.

With new purpose behind him, Camden’s thesis for his paper went from economic restructuring to researching Jared Evansworth’s past so he could find out the truth. But days of historical research brought up only a name on an enlistment roster. It was as if the man existed as a number and nothing else.

He wished Tonya were here. She might be able to give him some insight, put him on a different track, anything. Hell, who was he kidding? He just wanted to be around her. But she’d been off for a couple of days, working with Vickie on understanding her gift and wondering how to get Jared back where he belonged…just so he could desert.

“Camden, I’m closing up the office.”

“I’ll only be a few more minutes, Dr. Miles.” Weary and frustrated, he didn’t look up from the latest site he continued to scan. A gentle hand landed on his shoulder, rubbing in a caressing motion.

“Anything new?” April asked, looking over his shoulder.

“No. Nothing.” He sighed, rubbing his gritty eyes. “This is so damn frustrating.”

“I know. I’ve been there hoping to find answers to something which may or may not have happened years ago. That’s why history is so precious.
We
are the ones who need to tell the stories as they happened, so years from now the next generations can learn and help others. It’s why you are here.”

Camden didn’t agree. He knew why he was here…he was a fraud. That’s how he managed to get involved. “No, I’m here because I cheated.”

Her hand stopped its movement and she sat down next to him. Camden didn’t have to look away from the monitor screen to know she was waiting for an explanation.

His throat was tight with nerves, but he knew he had to tell her the truth. “I’ve been at William & Mary for the past two years on a football scholarship, so I might have a chance to get on the history program.”

“That’s a new one. Usually it’s the other way around.” April snorted.

Raking a hand through his hair, he leaned back in his chair. “My parents are always pushing me to be in professional football. My dad is a big supporter of college football and even the Panthers. I think I burnt out on football in high school. I just wanted something different. I always loved history, especially Civil War history. Thought I could take some easy classes and make my way, but…”

“But?”

He turned to face her. April’s expression was unreadable. She didn’t look angry or even sympathetic. She just listened, ticking him off so he wanted to explain his reasons for his failures. Camden folded his arms across his chest defiantly. “I’m not stupid. I can read the text books and answer simple questions. I can even give an oral report… I just suck at writing papers.”

“And yet, Dr. Moreland found your paper to be one of the few he chose for the scholarship program.” The sudden arch in April’s brow and quirk to her lips confused him.

He picked up his yellow legal pad. “I had sketched a whole pad full of notes on my topic, but I couldn’t find a coherent thought or sentence structure to put them all together.” Throwing the pad back down with a sharp slap on the desk, he looked her straight in the eye. “So I hired one of the English majors to write up my paper. For a couple hundred bucks, you can get just about anything from a struggling student.”

“So were the ideas yours?”

Camden shrugged. “For the most part. When I read the finished paper, I didn’t feel too bad because if I could have written it, that was what I would’ve wanted it to say.”

“I see.” April sat back and exhaled sharply.

Camden jumped up, preparing for the lecture he knew was coming. “Look, I’ll understand if you want to send me packing. I’ve lied my way here, making you think I was the best of the best and all. I’ll try and pay back every dime you and Mr. Miles spent on me…” He turned away. “You must think me a total ass hat.”

“No, I don’t think you’re an ‘ass hat’,” April replied. “And I don’t think you’re stupid. Am I disappointed? Perhaps a bit, but not as disappointed as you seem to be with yourself. The truth comes and haunts us all at times. It’s the coming to terms with it that sets you free.”

Turning around, Camden squinted at her, trying to gauge her real reaction. “So you’re not sending me home? Why? I don’t serve any real purpose. I’ve been tagging along on Tonya’s coat tails thinking I’m her equal or better…when…” He blew out his breath sharply. “Shit…I’m such an ass.”

“You don’t think you have a purpose being here?” April asked with an astonished laugh. “I have a feeling a certain Confederate soldier would think otherwise if he knew what you were doing.”

“But I haven’t found anything—“

She stood up and picked up his notepad as if she were searching for clues. “No one ever has. You’re the first to try. You’re the first to give a damn.” She came over and tapped his legal pad against his chest. “I think Fate brought you here for that reason alone, despite all of your trials, which in the long run won’t amount to anything but a lost paper in someone’s slush pile.”

Camden glanced at yellow legal pad full of sites, notes, and potential links to one Jared Evansworth as she tapped it against his sternum. A man no one knew about, cared about, who died over a hundred years ago. Somewhere. He wondered about April’s theory.

“You think so?” He took the pad and glanced over his notes.

“Believe in Fate, Camden… Use it to trust in yourself. Let it guide you. You just might be surprised where you will end up.”

#

Somewhere between meditation and a migraine, Tonya decided to call it quits on her day with Vickie. They’d been over every chakra in her body to where she believed the energy inside her had created the horrible pain. All she wanted to do was go home and sleep. Her dark room and blasting air conditioning unit in her window had helped, but the residual still throbbed behind her eyeballs like tiny, evil miners with pick axes chiseling away at the sockets.

Using her meditation skills to help her relax, she tried to will herself to sleep, but her brain kept talking to her, telling her she needed to focus on her paper because time was running out. Somewhere along the way she’d managed to fall asleep only to suffer from odd nightmares of unknown people calling out to her, trying to get to her…and then to wake up screaming as an old, withered face suddenly appeared in front of her.

Her phone buzzed announcing she’d received a text from someone. She struggled with the effort to focus on her smartphone. Her heart still raced from the nightmare. It was Camden. He wanted her to pick him up from downtown before getting Jared and Joshua from Vickie’s. Groaning, she really had no intention of going anywhere.

No sooner had she finished texting him that she would be there shortly, her phone rang again. It was Vickie.

“Don’t worry about picking Jared and Joshua up. I have them with me. We’re heading over to the tavern. Are you picking up Camden?”

“Yes. He just texted me.” She hoped she didn’t sound as exasperated as she felt.

“Go pick up Camden. We are all going over to the tavern for a crab feast, Kenneth’s treat. Your dad and Sean will be there, too.”

Great. There was no getting out of this one. She would have to suck it up and move on or her dad would start asking questions. It was bad enough she would have to try to introduce Jared and Joshua’s existence to him.

Touching up her pale face with some make-up and changing from her comfy, sweat shorts and old tank top, she found a summer dress she’d bought for a friend’s wedding last year. It was just dressy enough to be sweet but not too overboard for a crab feast. Besides, if she showed a more demure side, maybe Jared would show an interest in her.

Camden waited for her outside the historical society. Looking as despondent as she felt, he got into the passenger seat.

“Nothing new, I take it?” she asked, knowing how he’d been struggling to find answers to Jared’s demise.

“No. I just want to go home and veg. My brain feels like mush.”

Tonya snorted. “Sorry. I feel for you. Trust me, I do, but we’ve been summoned to a crab feast over at the Old Town Tavern & Inn.”

“At least I won’t have to worry about what to fix for dinner.” He rubbed his hand over his face.

Tonya hadn’t noticed it before. Camden’s profile was quite interesting. He hadn’t shaved in days and a light scruff had begun to shadow his features. His recent solemn demeanor gave him an almost human quality about him. She was so used to his cocky arrogance that she never seen beyond that.

His concern for Jared’s past, future, even present state had softened his egotistical side. She wasn’t sure if she liked his attitude on a level of feminine interest or more of the fact he showed a bit of vulnerability that endeared him in general. Whatever it was, she definitely wasn’t ready for him.

“What about the boys? They still at Vickie’s?”

Now she was thinking in feminine terms. His question sounded more like a husband asking his wife if the kids were okay. Tonya shivered.

“She’s bringing them to the feast, so they’re all waiting on us.”

Parking in the downtown parking garage a couple of blocks away from the tavern was inevitable. There wasn’t much room to park and it was nice enough where walking a few feet wouldn’t hurt. Maybe the fresh air would help clear her mind.

“You don’t mind walking, do you?” Tonya asked, getting out of the car. The slamming of the doors echoed against the concrete walls around them.

“Nah, it’ll probably do me some good. I’ve kind of been in a rut all day.”

“You’re really taking Jared’s desertion to heart.”

Camden stopped walking. “I just can’t believe he would do something like that. Not him. He’s so gung-ho about the battle…his southern pride… No, there’s been a mistake and I want to find out why.”

Tonya did see him differently for the first time. He cared about someone other than himself. There was a bigger picture Camden finally saw in all of this. He was making it a personal goal to help a stranger.

She smiled and touched his hand. “We’ll figure it out. I’ve been focusing on my paper so much lately that I know there is a bigger picture right here that I need to work on. Starting tomorrow, you and I will work strictly on finding out about Jared’s past.”

Camden took her hands, actually holding on to not one but both, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles.

“That would be great, Tonya.” His voice was low. A tinge of need echoed in his baritone.  “I really miss you not being around in the office. I could use your ‘smarts’ to help me. I’m really at a loss, and I know with you there, we’ll have this figured out in no time.”

Her heart skipped around in her chest at his touch, the softly spoken words which were somewhere between a compliment and an endearment. Not even Tony, in the five years they’d dated, said anything half as meaningful to her.

This is not the time for romantic notions, Tonya.
She warned herself.
This might just be how he plays with girls to get his way.
Yes, true but not in the physical sense. No, he needed her brain, and as long as it was to help someone else, then why not?

“Come on. I’m pretty hungry. I skipped lunch.” Camden smiled and tugged her out from the concrete shadows into the light.

They talked about what he’d been using as site references and how she might be able to find some other sources as they made their way up to the tavern. It was located farther up the street, west of the main intersection of downtown Kings Mill.

The intersection saw everything from before the American Revolutionary War to the Union Soldiers trailing up through it to reach Gettysburg. It had seen parades of returning World War I, World War II and the Korean War the past century. The original cobble stones were still left in its center area surrounded by concrete border and layers of modern asphalt. No one was allowed to touch-up the cobble stones or remove them. It was the one piece of historical pride connected to the town, like the Clustered Spires were to Frederick.

But to her, the intersection had always held an odd feeling of dread. Every time she passed by, the old artifact seemed to call to her. Even when she’d lived here when she was younger, before her mother remarried and took her away…it bothered her.

The narrow two lane streets that intersected, were only one way streets. Addison ran east to west and Main, north to south. Traffic had a tendency to get backed up during evening rush hour. Delivery trucks had nowhere to go other than to pick the lane closest to their store, put on their flashers, and make everyone else merge to the other lane. People trying to Parallel Park caused other issues, and soon, those who got stuck half in and half out of the intersection when the lights turned from yellow to red…well, there wasn’t much they could do. As was the case at this point. No one was going anywhere and cars were blocking the crosswalks.

“Come on. We’re going to cut through.” Camden pulled her along.

Thankfully, she’d decided on her flat sandals to go with the summer dress so she didn’t have to worry about a heel getting caught in their flight.

“But this is jaywalking! We’ll get in trouble,” Tonya announced. They were heading for the cobblestones. She began to panic.

“I think they will overlook it this time.”

They crossed in front of a car stuck half on the old cobblestones. Tonya lost sensation and she feared she’d get sick all over the BMW they were crossing in front of. Was her dread getting the best of her?