past him into the house, calling out for Ann. He stood aside and let me pass without a word. I reckoned James Melton was the kind of man that nobody paid any mind to, so maybe he was used to it.
I saw then that there weren’t no use to be hollering, for Ann could not help but hear me. The inside of the house was one great room with a fireplace at one end, and a pine table and a bench seat set back a few feet from the hearth. At the other end of the room two narrow beds stood side by side on a rag rug. At the foot of one bed was a wooden trunk, its lid open, and clothes were spilling out of it and onto the floor, so that told me where Ann slept. The walls of the cabin were wide chestnut logs, chinked with clay to keep out the wind, and there was one little square window set in the far wall, but in the dusk of a gray winter day, it didn’t let in enough light to do much good. That was just as well. Brighter light would have showed the dirt and untidiness of the place, which was bad enough as it was.
Ann was sitting on a stool near the fire, and the flames made shadows on her face ’til I didn’t hardly recognize her, but once I got up close I could see that the kinfolk’s tales were true. She had grown up to be a rare beauty, right enough. She had big dark eyes, set in a heart-shaped face, and her black hair was drawn back in a bun so that you could see the sharp line of her jaw and the cheekbone ridges that made her a wonder to look at. Her mouth was thin, and gave her a peevish look of discontent. When she got old it would wrinkle like a draw-string purse, but for now she was just past twenty, and not even an uncertain temper could mar those looks. I wondered why she had settled for James Melton, who was tolerable to look at but still unprosperous, when her perfect face surely would have taken her higher than that. I made up my mind to ask her about her choice of a husband, but not just yet; not until I had settled in as one of the household.
She sat there on her stool, looking up at me with an expression of mild curiosity, like she didn’t know who I was and didn’t care overmuch, either. I didn’t think Ann ever had much use for other women, nor they for her. But speaking my mind would not get me bed and board, so I knelt down, all smiles, and threw my arms around her, as if she were my dearest friend in the world.
“Why, Ann, it’s Pauline. My daddy, rest his soul, was first cousin to your mama, and I have just come down from the mountain to see my kinfolks here.”
Ann shrugged. “Well, you’re a scrawny little thing, ain’t you, Pauline? And you don’t have much of the Foster looks about you. I’d not have knowed you. But you had better sit yourself down here by me. Your cheek feels like ice. -James! This fire needs another log!”
He got up without a word to do her bidding, and, as he was shoving fresh wood into the blaze, I saw him close up in the firelight, and I revised my estimate of his age. What I had taken for gray hair in the dim light turned out to be naturally fair hair that shone like bronze when he was kneeling by the fire. He stood tall and straight, his face and hands were free of veins and creases. Why, he couldn’t be much past our age from the look of him, for all that he acted twice that. I wondered if he was ill himself, or if the War had sapped his vitals, or-I stole a glance at Ann, staring drowsily into the fire-maybe living with her just drained the life out of him. I wasn’t sorry for him, though. Any man who insists on taking up with a beautiful wife ought to pay dearly for the purchase. I could see that he had.
Ann had taken the pins out of her hair, and she shook her head to let it fall about her shoulders. From the folds of her skirt, she drew out a wooden comb and began to brush the tangles out of her black curls.
I summoned a smile and held out my hand for the comb. “I’d be glad to do that for you, Ann. It’s hard to reach there in the back.”
She frowned a little, but then she gave a little shrug and handed over the comb. I was sure she was accustomed to accepting kindnesses from the male sex, but that it was a rarity for a woman to offer her anything. “What is it you came for, again?” she said.
I had it in my mind to lie about the purpose of my journey, but I could see that Ann Melton was not one to be swayed by fine words about sentiment and family feeling. She had no use for relatives, nor for the society of a woman friend. What
“I was hoping you could use a hired girl,” I said, making even strokes with the comb through the thicket of hair. It could have used a wash with soap and lavender water more than a brushing, but the weather was mortal cold, and most women would rather have greasy hair than risk the chills and fever that could come from washing it afore spring. Anybody else would have looked scraggly and foul with lank, dirty hair, but it hardly took the shine off Cousin Ann, lit up in the firelight like Jacob’s angel.
“I can cook and do the washing and mending. Scrub floors. Bake bread. See to the chamber pots. And I reckon I can do farm chores. I’ll work cheap enough.”
She pushed her hair out of her eyes, and turned to study me now, her interest captured at last. “You want to work here? As a hired girl? What for?”
“I came down here to see the doctor,” I said. Best go with the truth. Ann Melton understood selfishness. “I’m sick, and I need to stay close by for a couple of months while I get treatment for my ailment.”
She pulled away from me then, making the comb jerk against her hair, and she swore and snatched it back from me. “What’s the matter with you, then? Consumption?”
I could hear the alarm in her voice. Consumption took young healthy people in a matter of months, and your very breath might spread the contagion to a healthy household. I forced myself to laugh and to keep my voice steady. “Naw, it ain’t that. I’m fit enough to work like a mule. Mostly, I don’t even feel sick. I am just feeling poorly is all.” I pointed somewhere between my stomach and my knees and made a face.
After I said it, I glanced over at James Melton, but he was just gazing off into the fire like he hadn’t heard a word we said, or else he didn’t care. Ann gave me a moment’s shocked stare, and then a harsh laugh. “Reckon
Well, that was true enough, so I laughed with her, because getting mad about the taunt wouldn’t get me what I wanted, and anyhow it was better to laugh than to think of dying in a raddled, festering lump before I reached thirty. Either way, the joke was on me. I just wish whoever give me that dose of poison in our coupling had been worth dying for. But nary one of them was.
Ann’s giggles tailed off, and she began to twirl a hank of that greasy hair while she thought about what I said. Then she leaned in close, watching my face while she spoke, but I didn’t move a muscle. “It ain’t a baby, is it?”
“No,” I said, trotting out the lie that I had made ready for just that question. “I got shut of one and that’s why I’m ailing.”
Ann nodded, satisfied. It was the answer she expected to hear. “I wish I had thought of doing that. James and me have got two.” She pointed to a cradle set in a corner of the room. “My mama keeps them half the time, though.”
“It’s good to have her close like she is.”
Ann nodded. “And too drunk mostly to make the climb up the hill to see us. But I take the babies to her, so that’s all right. -So, Pauline, you’re aiming to stay here for a couple of months while you are seeing our Dr. Carter for physick, and you are wanting to board with us, and to pay for your keep by being the hired girl. Is that right?”
I nodded. It was simple enough to state the facts, but I thought that living through the bargain itself was likely to be the longest spell of my life. I looked at them, more masters than kinfolk, that was sure. All James Melton seemed to want was a quiet life, which was all right with me. I wouldn’t add to his troubles, but I doubted if I’d take much away from them, either. I wondered what Ann wanted. Not a woman chum-I could see that. Of course she’d want somebody to do a hand’s turn of work around the place, which was more than she ever did, but there was something else besides.
“So you’ll do all the cooking and cleaning here, and you’ll help James in the fields besides?”
I nodded. I would have promised her anything to get leave to stay. If it got too harsh around the place for me, then I could take my time and find somewhere else to light, but for now I needed to stay.
She gave no sign of yea or nay, and she was still watching me through narrowed eyes, maybe trying to satisfy herself that she was getting the best end of the deal. “Would you want paying?”
