Just as I had finished breakfast, Dinah came to inform me that my trunks had arrived; she told me also that she had heard that Miss Dean and Martha were going to start that evening for Richmond on their way North.
Oh! how I wished I were going with them. Then the idea of escape flashed across my mind, and I determined to try and get away from Woodlands. If I could get to Miss Dean, she would be delighted to see me and to know that I had returned to her as pure as when I left.
Moreover, she would take me back with her to Philadelphia. Filled with new hope, I went up to my room.
I was glad to be able to change my clothes. Dressing in clean garments from head to foot, I put on my hat and went down into the hall. Finding Dinah standing near the open door, I told her that I was going out for a walk.
Oh Missy, she said, I know what you is thinkin’ of. You wants to get away to Miss Dean.
But, oh, honey, you can’t. De Massa has give strict orders to de men at de gate not to let you out, an’ all de place is watched. You can’t get away nohow.
My hopes of escape were dashed to the ground. I felt utterly miserable. Throwing myself on a seat, I wept bitterly while Dinah hovered about me, looking sympathetic but saying nothing.
I saw at once that, if I could not reach Miss Dean before she started, all chance for me was gone, for, even if I managed to get away from Woodlands, I had neither money nor a place to go. Moreover, I had been warned by the lynchers to leave Virginia in forty-eight hours. If they caught me wandering about-which they would be sure to do-they would ride me on a rail again or whip me, perhaps both.
The prospect was too awful to contemplate, so with a heavy heart I gave up all thought of leaving Wood- Sands. I would have to remain and submit to my fate when the time came.
After a few minutes I grew calmer. Then Dinah, with the intention of diverting my thoughts, asked if I would come and see the house. I answered in the affirmative, and she showed me all over the place, from the attic to the kitchen.
It was a very large mansion, beautifully furnished throughout; it had long corridors and two flights of stairs, one at the front and one at the back; there were twenty bedrooms, each decorated in a different style, plus several sitting rooms and boudoirs, a spacious dining room and an immense drawing room; there also was a billiard table and a large library well filled with books of all sorts. I never before had been in such a grand house, nor had I seen such splendid furniture. The pictures, though, in some of the rooms made me blush.
There were twenty female servants-slaves, of course-living in the house. All were dressed alike in well-fitting pink-print frocks with white aprons, caps, collars and cuffs. They all wore neat, well-polished shoes and white cotton stockings, and everyone of them looked trim and clean. In fact, they were obliged to be always tidy and properly dressed, any slovenliness being punished.
The cooks and kitchen servants were black or mulatto women, but all the parlormaids and housemaids were young quadroons or octoroons from eighteen to twenty-five years of age.
All of them were pretty, while two or three of the octoroons were really quite handsome and so light in colour that they might easily have passed as white girls anywhere except in the South. (People there can at once detect the least trace of black blood in a man or woman.) Some of them had full, voluptuous-looking figures, and, since none wore stays, the rounded contours of their bosoms were plainly outlined under their thin bodices. There were several children of both sexes about the place, but no male servants lived in the house.
When Dinah had shown me everything that was to be seen in the establishment, she left me and I went out into the grounds. They were extensive and beautifully kept. There were flower gardens, fruit and kitchen gardens, shrubberies and hot houses. The whole place was surrounded by high iron railings, the only means of exit being the gate at the entrance to the avenue.
I wandered about listlessly, but I noticed that the men who were at work about the grounds kept a watch on my movements. I walked down to the gate, and, just to see if I was really a prisoner, I tried to open it. Two men instantly came out of the lodge and one of them said civilly: You can’t go out, Missy. De gate is locked, by de Massa’s order.
I then returned to the house and went up to my grand bedroom, all pink and white and gold, with two large windows looking out onto the gardens at the back. It was partly furnished as a sitting room, with a comfortable sofa and easy chairs, a round table, and a large well-fitted writing cabinet. Drawing an easy chair to one of the windows, I sat down and had a long think. I thought what a cruel man Randolph was to have betrayed us to the lynchers and then to have taken advantage of my agony to extract that promise from me.
Oh! Why had I not sufficient fortitude to bear the pain! If I had refused to accept release on the shameful terms which he had offered, I should in a few hours have been on my way to Richmond with Miss Dean!
I thought of her, and contrasted her position with mine. She was all right, except for the whipping, and in a couple of days would be safe at home in Philadelphia, still in possession of her virgin treasure-while I would be at Woodlands, a prisoner in the hands of a man who had shown himself to be utterly unscrupulous.
And what was to become of me afterwards? Oh dear! Oh dear! I said to myself. How I wish I had never persuaded Miss Dean to let me come to Virginia with her!
The morning passed, and at one o’clock Dinah came to tell me that lunch was ready. I went downstairs and managed to have something to eat. Then I betook myself to the library, where I remained for the rest of the afternoon trying to divert my thoughts by reading a novel At seven o’clock I sat down to a dainty, well-cooked little dinner-a better dinner than I ever had seen, frankly, since Miss Dean always lived very plainly. The two quadroon parlormaids, whose names were Lucy and Kate, waited on me, while Dinah, as Butler, overlooked them.
Dinah had the key to everything and was entirely trusted by her master. She offered me champagne, claret and bottled ale, but I refused them all. However, I made a fair meal, for I was a healthy girl and my appetite asserted itself in spite of the depressing nature of the position I was in at the moment. When dinner was over, I went into one of the smaller sitting rooms where the lamps had been lighted, the curtains drawn and everything made snug for me. But the evening seemed very long, and I felt very lonely. I should have liked Dinah’s company, for her quaint talk would have amused me a little. But I did not think that it would be quite correct for me to send for her, and she, I suppose, did not think it right to intrude upon me. So I did not see her until I went up to my room, when she came to brush my hair and to help me undress.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Four days passed in the quiet way narrated in the preceding chapter. On the fifth morning of my captivity, when Dinah came in with my usual cup of tea, she informed me that she had received a letter from her master-she could read, but not write-telling her that he would be home at seven o’clock to dinner and that she was to take care that it was a good one.
I sat up in bed, looking blankly at Dinah and feeling a sinking sensation at my heart, for, though I had known that the fatal moment would come, I was startled at hearing that it was close at hand.
I got up, had my bath and dressed myself mechanically, then went downstairs. But I could not eat any breakfast, though I thirstily drank two cups of coffee. All day long, I was restless and uncomfortable. I roamed about the great house with a sort of feeling that I was in a dream and would soon wake. Sometimes I would sit down on a chair with my mind quite blank. Then, in another moment, the thought of what was going to be done to me would strike my brain with a sudden shock that sent the blood to my cheeks.
I dreaded the ordeal before me, morally as well as physically. Even a newly-wedded bride on the day of her marriage feels a little shame and fear at the thought of what her husband will do to her at night. But what could I do?-
The afternoon wore slowly away, and, at five o’clock, I was sitting listlessly in my room when Dinah came in
