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  IN THE DREAMING HOUR

  A Contemporary Romantic Work of Fiction

  By Kathryn Le Veque

  Copyright © 2016 by Kathryn Le Veque

  EPUB Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Printed by Kathryn Le Veque Novels in the United States of America

  Text copyright 2016 by Kathryn Le Veque

  Cover copyright 2016 by Kathryn Le Veque

  Kathryn Le Veque Novels

  Medieval Romance:

  The de Russe Legacy:

  The White Lord of Wellesbourne

  The Dark One: Dark Knight

  Beast

  Lord of War: Black Angel

  The Falls of Erith

  The Iron Knight

  The de Lohr Dynasty:

  While Angels Slept (Lords of East Anglia)

  Rise of the Defender

  Steelheart

  Spectre of the Sword

  Archangel

  Unending Love

  Shadowmoor

  Silversword

  Great Lords of le Bec:

  Great Protector

  To the Lady Born (House of de Royans)

  Lord of Winter (Lords of de Royans)

  Lords of Eire:

  The Darkland (Master Knights of Connaught)

  Black Sword

  Echoes of Ancient Dreams (time travel)

  De Wolfe Pack Series:

  The Wolfe

  Serpent

  Scorpion (Saxon Lords of Hage – Also related to The Questing)

  Walls of Babylon

  The Lion of the North

  Dark Destroyer

  Ancient Kings of Anglecynn:

  The Whispering Night

  Netherworld

  Battle Lords of de Velt:

  The Dark Lord

  Devil’s Dominion

  Reign of the House of de Winter:

  Lespada

  Swords and Shields (also related to The Questing, While Angels Slept)

  De Reyne Domination:

  Guardian of Darkness

  The Fallen One (part of Dragonblade Series)

  Unrelated characters or family groups:

  The Gorgon (Also related to Lords of Thunder)

  The Warrior Poet (St. John and de Gare)

  Tender is the Knight (House of d’Vant)

  Lord of Light

  The Questing (related to The Dark Lord, Scorpion)

  The Legend (House of Summerlin)

  The Dragonblade Series: (Great Marcher Lords of de Lara)

  Dragonblade

  Island of Glass (House of St. Hever)

  The Savage Curtain (Lords of Pembury)

  The Fallen One (De Reyne Domination)

  Fragments of Grace (House of St. Hever)

  Lord of the Shadows

  Queen of Lost Stars (House of St. Hever)

  Lords of Thunder: The de Shera Brotherhood Trilogy

  The Thunder Lord

  The Thunder Warrior

  The Thunder Knight

  Highland Warriors of Munro

  The Red Lion

  Time Travel Romance: (Saxon Lords of Hage)

  The Crusader

  Kingdom Come

  Contemporary Romance:

  Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Series:

  Valley of the Shadow

  The Eden Factor

  Canyon of the Sphinx

  The American Heroes Series:

  The Lucius Robe

  Fires of Autumn

  Evenshade

  Sea of Dreams

  Purgatory

  Other Contemporary Romance:

  Lady of Heaven

  Darkling, I Listen

  Multi-author Collections/Anthologies:

  With Dreams Only of You (USA Today bestseller)

  Sirens of the Northern Seas (Viking romance)

  Ever My Love (sequel to With Dreams Only Of You) July 2016

  Note: All Kathryn’s novels are designed to be read as stand-alones, although many have cross-over characters or cross-over family groups. Novels that are grouped together have related characters or family groups.

  Series are clearly marked. All series contain the same characters or family groups except the American Heroes Series, which is an anthology with unrelated characters.

  There is NO particular chronological order for any of the novels because they can all be read as stand-alones, even the series.

  For more information, find it in A Reader’s Guide to the Medieval World of Le Veque.

  Author’s Note

  This is a book I wrote for my mother….

  My mother is a quiet, dignified woman born in the great state of Mississippi. For years, she’s been asking me to “write a Mississippi book” and I wanted to oblige her, but none of the outlines I could come up with really satisfied me. I didn’t just want to throw something together for her. I wanted it to be something she could be proud of.

  So, before I start any of this, I will preface this story by saying this is not about my family. It’s not about anyone in our family or anyone I know. This is purely a concoction of my imagination. So for any family members who might read this novel, I don’t want them thinking I took a segment of our family’s history and changed the names to protect the innocent. This is a complete work of fiction.

  Back to the subject of the novel – it deals with the matter of race and racism, of love and loss, and of people caught up in the culture of the times. This novel is not meant to have a message other than love conquers all and it is not meant to glorify the negative in any race or culture. There is some brutality in it and there are some shocking moments, but the theme of the story is simple – that the Human Race has an uncanny ability to evolve and adapt, to love and to hate, and to justify that which, at times, is not justifiable. But if you have trigger issues with racism from the past, then know that this novel deals with such things. It deals with it honestly and tactfully, but consider yourself forewarned.

  The story centers around rural Mississippi in the 1930s as well as in present day. As with each state in the union, the state of Mississippi has a definable culture that is unique to that state. The language, the customs, the families, and the nuances that make it what it is. Good or bad, male or female, black or white, the history of the state, or of any state for that matter, can’t be denied. History can’t be erased.

  In the pages of this book, you’ll find the unforgivable as well as the forgivable, all of it stemming from a hope that all things come to pass and, in that, things that come full circle reach that state because the darkness of the past opens new doors to the future.

  In no way is this book attempting to glorify or explain that darkness… it’s simply the culture of the time, as sensitively explored as possible. But in that exploration, one thing is clear – love, in all of its forms, will find a way no matter what the distance or culture or obstacles. This book is a romance, but not in the traditional way. It’s a subtle undercurrent throughout the story but it’s also the roaring river that sweeps you away at the end.

  Above all, this book is about hope and I believe you’ll find it well worth the read. Most of all, I hope it makes my mama proud. Finally, she has her “Mississippi” book.

  Love,

  Kathryn

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Kathryn Le Veque Novels

  Author’s Note

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

&
nbsp; Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  About Kathryn Le Veque

  PROLOGUE

  Pea Ridge, Mississippi

  June, 1933

  ~ And Hell Followed with Him ~

  It was a warm, moist evening in the deepest rural heart of Mississippi, with the smell of dirt and damp leaves heavy in the air. On the outskirts of town, near a bend on the Yalobusha River where the insects buzzed and fireflies sprang from the grass, an old and run-down house was situated in a shanty town of coloreds known as Rose Cove.

  In the garden behind the house, two young men faced one another. With skin the color of chocolate, their white teeth could be seen flashing in the darkness. Something unexpected and horrific had been spilled into the air this night between them, something that would change their world forever.

  “How can yo’ tell me this, Lewis?” one man pleaded. “Lawd have mercy… do yo’ know what yo’ve done?”

  “It’s not like that,” Lewis insisted. “I love her. She loves me. What happened… it just happened, Aldridge. I will not be shamed by it. I can’t be.”

  It was brother against brother this night as Aldridge and Lewis Ragsdale faced off against each other. While Aldridge spoke in an uneducated twang, Lewis had an articulate speech pattern indicating that he was highly educated and wise beyond his years. But the truth was that much like his brother, he’d had no formal education, at least not in the higher sense, but that fine-speaking voice wouldn’t matter in the face of the crisis he’d gotten himself in to.

  No one was going to listen to him when his crime was discovered.

  “It happened?” Aldridge repeated, aghast. “Nothin’ like this happens, Lewis. Yo’ touched what yo’ shouldn’t ’a touched an’ when Mr. Laveau finds out, he’s gonna… oh, Lawdy, he’s gonna find out what yo’ did to his daughter and kill yo’!”

  Lewis was trying not to look too terrified, trying to hold his ground. “He won’t know,” he insisted quietly. “We are going to leave this town and go somewhere we can be together. We’re going to get married.”

  “Married?” Aldridge gasped at the new horror. “Yo’ can’t!”

  “We can and we will.”

  Aldridge’s expression was wrought with shock. “Lewis, listen to me. What yo’ want – what yo’ askin’ for – yo’ know it can never be. I don’t know how yo’ got mixed up in this, but yo’ haveta stay away from her. Yo’ know what will happen if the men – Mr. Laveau’s men – find out what yo’ did. Yo’ know what they’ll do to yo’.”

  Aldridge spoke with great pain. They both knew what happened when black men got mixed up with white women down here and Lewis’ jaw ticked as he tried to think of an argument that would help his older brother see his point.

  But Aldridge had always thought differently than Lewis; they were brothers but they were quite dissimilar. The problem was that Lewis didn’t want to fit into the world the way that it was. He wanted to fit into his own world which, in Aldridge’s opinion, was dangerous.

  It was deadly.

  “Love doesn’t see the color of someone’s skin,” Lewis said as Aldridge fretted. “It’s blind to my black hair and her white skin. Love sees the heart, Aldridge. It sees the joy and the sorrows of the soul. I can’t help that I’m in love with her and she doesn’t want to help that she’s in love with me. Do you know what we do sometimes? We sit and look up at the stars and we talk about the home we’ll have someday. We talk about the children we’ll have, children that don’t see that their mother is a white woman and their father is a colored man. They won’t see it because I will raise them not to see it. I want them to see a man for who he is and not what he isn’t.”

  Aldridge was listening with more sorrow now than terror. “What isn’t he?”

  Lewis lifted his eyebrows. “Colored,” he replied simply, picking up his brother’s arm to indicate the smooth, dark skin. “My children won’t see his color. The light in his soul, maybe. But not his color. Do you understand what I am saying?”

  He let go of Aldridge’s arm, letting it fall back down at his brother’s side. Now that the terror of Lewis’ secret had sunk in, all that remained was a miasma of uncertainty and Aldridge shook his head to Lewis’ question. He wouldn’t let his brother draw him into a world where prejudices didn’t exist.

  “I don’t want to understand,” he said, sighing heavily as he struggled with his composure. “Those dreams is what’s gotten yo’ into this mess. Yo’ don’t live on the moon, Lewis. Yo’ live in Mississippi where relations between a colored man and a white woman are against the law. Yo’ committin’ a crime, Lewis, and not with just any white woman, but Mr. Laveau’s daughter. Do yo’ understand that?”

  “I do.”

  “Then yo’ know yo’ haveta run before they come for yo’.”

  Lewis shook his head firmly. “I’m not running,” he said. “I’m going to take her away from here and we’re going to go someplace where we can live as man and wife.”

  “Where?” Aldridge demanded. “Yo’ can’t go anywhere!”

  Lewis wouldn’t be discouraged. “I can go somewhere,” Lewis said as he suddenly broke away from his brother and headed towards the house. “I can take her somewhere. I’ve heard we can go north to Illinois or Iowa. We can get married there.”

  Aldridge took off after his brother. “Have yo’ lost yo’ mind?” he asked. “Lewis, yo’ can’t do this!”

  “I have to,” Lewis said with determination. “I have to take her someplace safe.”

  Aldridge grabbed at his brother to slow his forward momentum. “There is no place safe,” he insisted. “If yo’ leave, it has to be alone! She can’t go with yo’!”

  Lewis kept smacking his brother’s hand away as he moved through the dusk, heading to the house that was weakly lit by coal oil lamps. They could smell the collards cooking, that pungent smell that was so familiar to them.

  But the comfort of familiarity this night was replaced by angst so strong that it was all that existed at the moment. Lewis stopped smacking at Aldridge’s hand and came to a halt.

  “I am taking her away tonight,” he hissed. “I must. If she stays, her life will be in danger.”

  Aldridge wasn’t entirely unsympathetic. “But yo’ can’t….”

  Lewis cut Aldridge off as he grabbed his brother, roughly. “I can and I will,” he stressed. “She’s pregnant with my child, Aldridge. Mine. I can’t wait around for her father to discover her child is half-colored. He’ll kill her. I have to take her away.”

  Aldridge shook his head miserably. “But he’ll kill yo’ if he catches yo’. Don’t yo’ even care?”

  A flash of pain crossed Lewis’ smooth features. “I care,” he muttered. “Of course I care. But I have to try. If I don’t try, then I can’t look myself in the face. I’d hate myself, Aldridge. And I’d hate you for trying to stop me.”

  Aldridge let go of his brother’s arm, rocking back from the force of the statement. “I’m not gonna say I’m sorry,” he said. “Yo’ an’ me, Lewis… it’s always been yo’ an’ me. We are brothers but there’s more to it. I’d do anythin’ for yo’, includin’ tryin’ to stop yo’ from
gettin’ yo’self killed. If yo’ haveta hate me for that, I can’t stop yo’. But I won’t say I’m sorry for doin’ it.”

  Strains of a song suddenly drifted from the house, piercing the tension between them. Their grandmother, Ma’ama, was starting to put food on the table and she always started singing when it came time to eat. It was a haunting melody with words that seemed particularly poignant at the moment.

  They’re writing songs of love, but not for me,

  A lucky star’s above, but not for me,

  With love to lead the way,

  I found more clouds of grey….

  Ma’ama should have been singing hymns given the fact that she went to church three nights a week, but the old gal liked the songs from the Nickelodeon movie houses that had popped up in a neighboring town of Scobey where the coloreds could watch talkies. Tonight, Ma’ama was singing the Gershwin brothers, or “those Jewish brothas”, as she called them.

  Lewis and Aldridge paused, listening to their tiny grandmother belt out a love song, before Aldridge finally turned to his brother.

  “What yo’ gonna do now?” he asked softly. “It’s time to eat.”

  Lewis looked at his feet, hands shoved deep into his pockets. “I’ll eat,” he said, “and then I’m taking the money I’ve put away in my sock and I’m leaving. Victory is waiting for me. I told her I’d come tonight and she’ll be waiting for me.”

  Aldridge was coming to see that his brother wouldn’t be discouraged from what he felt he had to do. He could argue with him until the sun rose but it wouldn’t change Lewis’ mind. Once his mind was set, it was set, and Aldridge had known him long enough to realize there was no turning back at this point.

  But Aldridge knew differently. Lewis was going to go off and get himself killed because the moment he put his foot on the property of Laveau Hembree, the dogs would find him if Mr. Laveau’s men didn’t. Miss Victory might be waiting for him, but already, Aldridge could see disaster. This would not be a clean operation, any of it.

  He couldn’t let his brother walk into his death.

  “Will she come with me?” Aldridge asked softly.

  Lewis looked at him strangely. “What do you mean?”