Love and War

When you're my age that's no blessing. I fell trying to climb into our wagon last night.' Bright eyes deep-set in flesh of mottled yellow studied Orry as if he were a museum exhibit. 'See you got yourself a different husband.'

'Yes. Aunt Belle, this is Orry Main.'

'I know who he is. He's a sight better than the one you had before. This pretty thing is my niece, Jane. She used to belong to the Widow Milsom, up on the Combahee, but the old lady perished of pneumonia last winter. Her will gave Jane her freedom. She's been living with me since.'

'Pleased to meet you,' Jane said, with no curtsy or other demonstration of deference. Orry wondered if he could believe Aunt Belle. The girl might be a fugitive, gambling that no one would check her story in these disordered times.

In the ensuing silence, someone dropped a pot in the kitchen. One girl spoke sharply to another. A third intervened; soft laughter signaled restored harmony. Jane realized the white people were awaiting an explanation.

'Aunt Belle's health has not been good lately. But she wouldn't give up the marsh house till I convinced her there was a better place.'

'You don't mean here?' Orry asked, still not certain what they wanted.

'No, Mr. Main. Virginia. Then the North.'

'That's a long, dangerous journey, especially for women in war-time.' He nearly said black women.

'What's waiting is worth the risk. We were just ready to start when Aunt Belle broke her leg. She needs doctoring and a safe place to rest and heal.'

To the midwife, Orry said, 'Your house isn't safe any longer?'

Jane answered; her presumption rather annoyed him. 'A week ago Friday, two strangers tried to break in. Colored men. There are a lot of them wandering the back roads. I drove them off with Aunt Belle's old hunting musket, but it was scary. Yesterday, when she had the accident, I decided we should find another place.'

Aunt Belle said to Madeline, 'I told Jane you were a good Christian person. I told her I thought you'd take us in for a while. We have all our goods in the wagon, but they don't amount to much. Neither of my husbands left me with anything but good and bad memories.'

Orry and his wife questioned one another with their eyes; each knew the problems the appeal presented. Since Orry was leaving, Madeline decided she must be the one to resolve them. 'We'll surely help you all we can. Darling, would you find Andy, so he can take them to the cabins?' Orry seemed to understand that she had another purpose in asking; he nodded and walked off, leaving her free to speak.

'Aunt Belle, my husband is going to Richmond in the morning.

He's going into the army. I'll be in charge here until I join him. I'm only too glad to give you refuge, with one reservation. Right or wrong, the people at Mont Royal aren't free to go north, as you plan to do. They might resent you or cause trouble for me.'

'Ma'am?' Jane said, to get her attention. Madeline turned. 'There is no right in slavery, only wrong.'

Madeline's reply had sharpness. 'Even if I agree with you, the practical solution is another matter.'

Jane reflected on that with a visible defiance Madeline admired yet couldn't tolerate. At last Jane uttered a small sigh. 'I don't think we can stay, Aunt Belle.'

'Think once more. This lady is decent. You be the same. Don't butt in like a billy goat. Bend.'

Jane hesitated. Aunt Belle glared. The younger girl said, 'Would an arrangement like this be agreeable, Mrs. Main? I'll work for you to earn our keep. I won't tell any of your people where we're going or do anything to stir them up. As soon as Aunt Belle can travel, we'll pack and go.'

'That's fair,' Madeline said.

'Jane keeps her word,' Aunt Belle said.

'Yes, she impresses me that way.' Eyes on the girl, Madeline nodded as she spoke. Neither woman smiled, but in that moment, liking began. 'Our new overseer may not care for the arrangement, but I believe he'll accept —'

Voices in the dusk interrupted her. Orry and the head driver stepped into the orange halo of the lantern beside the kitchen door. 'I've explained matters to Andy,' Orry said. 'There's an empty cabin available. That is —' The pause asked a question.

'Yes, we've worked out the details,' Madeline told him. 'Andy, this is Aunt Belle Nin and her niece, Jane.' She described the bargain she had struck with them.

'All right,' Andy said. Taken with the girl, the young driver smiled in his friendliest way. Madeline felt sorry for him. The girl was in love with an idea.

'Mr. Orry says you have a wagon,' Andy continued. 'I'll drive you to the cabin.'

'Pick up some barbecue in the kitchen,' Orry said. 'You two are probably hungry.'

'Starved,' the tiny octoroon said. 'I don't know you, Mr. Main, but you're beginning to sound like a good Christian person, too.'

As the wagon proceeded slowly to the slave community, Andy peeked over his shoulder at Jane. When he had first approached the kitchen porch and saw her there, gathering and reflecting the orange light, he had caught his breath in wonder. He had never set eyes on anyone more beautiful.

He worked up courage to say, 'You speak mighty well, Miss Jane. Can you read?'

'And write,' she replied from the wagon bed, where she sat with Aunt Belle's legs resting on top of hers. 'I can cipher, too. A year before Mrs. Milsom died, she knew she was going and started to teach me.'

'That was against the law.'

'She said the devil with the law. She was a feisty old lady. She said I had to be ready to make my way alone.' The mule plodded; the axle creaked. 'Can you read and write?'

'No.' Then, desperate to make a good impression, he blurted, 'I'd like to know how, though. Yes, indeed. A man can't better himself unless he has learning.'

'And a man can't better himself when he's the property of —' Aunt Belle whacked her niece's wrist with her fingers. Jane looked chastened as she finished, 'I'd be happy to give you lessons, but I couldn't do it without asking Mrs. Main's permission.'

'Maybe we could do that sometime.'

'Let's eat first,' Aunt Belle said irritably. 'Let's remember who needs attention here, is that all right?'

'Just fine,' Andy said, jubilant.

The wagon rolled into the lane between the slave cottages. At the gnarled base of a mammoth live oak rising between two of them, Cuffey sat with his spine against the bark, a twig in his teeth, and his right hand down between his legs, scratching lazily. Spying the unfamiliar girl in the wagon, he sat up. He had heard nothing about purchase of any new slaves. Who was she? He surely wanted to find out.

Giving a nasty glance at Andy, who paid no attention, Cuffey watched the wagon pass. His eyes returned to the lush line of the girl's bosom, and his hand grew busier in his crotch.

In bed, naked beneath a comforter, Orry said, 'I liked that little nigra girl. Peppery; just like the old woman. But I have a feeling you can trust her to keep her word.'

'I wouldn't have let her stay otherwise,' Madeline touched him. 'Everything will be fine. Let's not spend your last night worrying that it won't.'

'Lord, I'm going to miss you these next two or three months.'

'Show me how much.'

In the morning, in a hat and frock coat and cravat suitable for a funeral, Orry kissed his vaguely smiling mother. 'Thank you for visiting, sir. Do come again, won't you?' she said.

As he kissed his wife she held him fiercely, whispering: 'God keep you safe, dearest. One day when I was small, a moment came when I suddenly understood the meaning of the word death. I started crying and ran to my father. He took me in his arms and said I shouldn't let it frighten me too much, because we all shared the predicament. He said it eased the mind and heart to remember we are all dying of life. It took me years to understand and believe him. I do, but — I don't want it to happen to you any sooner than necessary. Life's become too sweet.'

'Don't worry,' he reassured her. 'We'll be together before long. And I don't think anyone fires at officers who sit behind desks.'