“But … he uses us to make you obey. I know he does.”
“He does. That’s his way.” She touched the smooth, red-brown skin of the girl’s face. “Nneka, none of this should concern you. Go and tell him what he wants to hear, then forget about him. I have endured him before. I will survive.”
“You’ll survive until the world ends,” said the girl solemnly. “You and him.” She shook her head.
They went into the house together and to the library where they found Doro sitting at Anyanwu’s desk looking through her records.
“For God’s sake!” Anyanwu said with disgust.
He looked up. “You’re a better businesswoman than I thought with your views against slavery,” he said.
To her amazement, the praise reached her. She was not pleased that he had gone snooping through her things, but she was abruptly less annoyed. She went to the desk and stood over him silently until he smiled, got up, and took his armchair again. Margaret took another chair and sat waiting.
“Did you tell her?” Doro asked Anyanwu.
Anyanwu shook her head.
He faced Margaret. “We think Joseph may have undergone transition while he was here. Did he show any signs of it?”
Margaret had been watching Doro’s new face, but as he said the word transition, she looked away, studied the pattern of the oriental rug.
“Tell me about it,” said Doro quietly.
“How could he have?” demanded Anyanwu. “There was no sign!”
“He knew what was happening,” Margaret whispered. “I knew too because I saw it happen to … to Stephen. It took much longer with Stephen though. For Joe it came almost all at once. He was feeling bad for a week, maybe a little more, but nobody noticed except me. He made me promise not to tell anyone. Then one night when he’d been here for about a month, he went through the worst of it. I thought he would die, but he begged me not to leave him alone or tell anyone.”
“Why?” Anyanwu demanded. “I could have helped you with him. You’re not strong. He must have hurt you.”
Margaret nodded. “He did. But … he was afraid of you. He thought you would tell Doro.”
“It wouldn’t have made much sense for her not to,” Doro said.
Margaret continued to stare at the rug.
“Finish,” Doro ordered.
She wet her lips. “He was afraid. He said you … you killed his brother when his brother’s transition ended.”
There was silence. Anyanwu looked from Margaret to Doro. “Did you do it?” she asked frowning.
“Yes. I thought that might be the trouble.”
“But his brother! Why, Doro!”
“His brother went mad during transition. He was … like a lesser version of Nweke. In his pain and confusion he killed the man who was helping him. I reached him before he could accidentally kill himself, and I took him. I got five children by his body before I had to give it up.”
“Couldn’t you have helped him?” Anyanwu asked. “Wouldn’t he have come back to his senses if you had given him time?”
“He attacked me, Anyanwu. Salvageable people don’t do that.”
“But …”
“He was mad. He would have attacked anyone who approached him. He would have wiped out his family if I hadn’t been there.” Doro leaned back and wet his lips, and Anyanwu remembered what he had done to his own family so long ago. He had told her that terrible story. “I’m not a healer,” he said softly. “I save life in the only way I can.”
“I had not thought you bothered to save it at all,” Anyanwu said bitterly.
He looked at her. “Your son is dead,” he said. “I’m sorry. He would have been a fine man. I would never have brought Joseph here if I had known they would be dangerous to each other.”
He seemed utterly sincere. She could not recall the last time she had heard him apologize for anything. She stared at him, confused.
“Joe didn’t say anything about his brother going crazy,” Margaret said.
“Joseph didn’t live with his family,” Doro said. “He couldn’t get along with them, so I found foster parents for him.”
“Oh …” Margaret looked away, seeming to understand, to accept. No more than half the children on the plantation lived with their parents.
“Margaret?”
She looked up at him, then quickly looked down again. He was being remarkably gentle with her, but she was still afraid.
“Are you pregnant?” he asked.
