Рита Браун - Furmidable Foes

“Yes, sir.” Ralston addressed older men as “sir.”

Sean offered Ralston a puff on his pipe, which the young man gratefully took.

“Eases the mind.” Sean took his old pipe back.

“Does.”

Slowly warmth crept into Ralston’s bones. “Cuts to the bone that wind.”

Sean nodded. “We’re close to the big river. Always raw near a river. Don’t guess you were raised near a big river.”

“No, sir. Lot of strong running creeks, though.”

“M-m-m.” The older man took a deep drag, offered his pipe once more to Ralston, then took it back. “Boy, you keep on. Good hand with a horse. Don’t pay that other boy no mind.”

He was referring to William, who had earned the dislike of most of the men thanks to his bragging. The women loathed him because he had knocked around Sulli. William could have cared less about her but she kept him warm at night. She slept with him whenever he demanded it. The two of them lived in a cabin at a distance from the last stable. Had its own pump, which saved steps.

Ralston loved Sulli. She said she loved him, too, but if William ever found them together he’d kill them both. She swore this after they slept together the first time after William had knocked her around and left her for a few hours.

Ralston looked at the medium-built man, heavy muscles, bright blue eyes, light brown hair, and a lilting Irish accent. “Thank you, sir.”

Sean stood up, put his hand on Ralston’s shoulder, then walked to his bunk near the fireplace, where he’d sleep well.

Sitting there, Ralston thought about the people at Cloverfields. They were all he knew. He did not miss his mother or his father. All they did was tell him what to do and how to do it. Sometimes he missed Barker O, the powerfully built stable manager. Sometimes he even missed Catherine. She knew horses. He’d observe. He felt he would never see any of those people again. Fine. Apart from William, whom he now hated, he also didn’t much care for Jeddie Rice, a far better rider than himself. The young women had spurned him, which infuriated him. Well, he was free. They weren’t.

He put two more heavy logs on the fire, walked to his bunk in the rear, disrobed, climbed up the ladder attached to the beds, and crawled under the blankets, old wool blankets, but they kept him warm. He fell asleep immediately.

—

Down in Richmond, staying in an Ordinary, the weather there being ugly, too, sat the two men looking for William and Sulli. They knew a third slave had escaped but he didn’t belong to Maureen Selisse Holloway. That didn’t mean they couldn’t trap him, too.

Once hired with the tantalizing carrot of a $500-apiece bonus if they found the escaped slaves, they rode on a mail carriage, cheaper and they knew the driver. Reaching Richmond in three days, lots of stops, they walked to the tobacco warehouses, the lower James River. Speaking to the captains of the various boats, they left papers with drawings of William and Sulli, as well as physical descriptions of each and a listing of their skills.

No one had seen them, and as the captains all knew information on the slaves would have earned a tip, both Martin and Shank believed them.

Sitting at a rough table, they listened to the wind outside. Although farther south, it proved as cold as up in Maryland. The whole mid-Atlantic was hosting the beginning of the first winter storm.

“I still say they made it to Philadelphia. Place is crawling with runaways.” Martin held a hot whiskey in a glass with his left hand; his right held a biscuit.

“Money. Costs money to get up there,” the thinner Shank responded.

“They stole some jewelry.”

“Not enough.”

“What if the girl had filched that pearl and diamond necklace Mrs. Holloway kept blabbering about? You know, took it and hid it.”

Martin half smiled. “Two young kids, slaves, people would know that they would never be able to get away with that much money. A necklace like that would tip the whole thing off. They’d be dead, I think.”

“She did froth at the mouth about that necklace. She smelled of money.”

“And French perfume.” Martin drank some whiskey. “They’re on foot. Probably tucked up somewhere or even working. Unless they found a ride or had enough to pay for one, they aren’t in Philadelphia. Might be on their way.”

“Goddamned Quakers.” Shank grimaced.

“Hey, they’re doing us a favor. Lots of runaway slaves up there.” Martin nodded.

“The trouble with Quakers is they won’t tell us the truth, even for some of the reward Mrs. Holloway is offering.”

“Now Shank, not everyone in Philadelphia is a Quaker and I expect even a Quaker can be bought if the price is right.”

“Ha.” The thought made the thinner man happy. “I say we head north and at every river crossing find the ferrymen. Never know but if those two are up north, they had to get across the Rappahannock; if they swung west, then they had to cross the Potomac. There are only so many ferries. If nothing turns up, then we head up to the Susquehanna. Sooner or later someone will remember.”

“Not that I’m complaining, but those two brats don’t seem worth the reward. A person with real skill, yes. But they are shy of twenty. Wet behind the ears. No real skills.”

“Mrs. Holloway’s a hard woman.”

Martin thought, listened to a shutter still fastened wobble against the wind, rapping short taps on the building. “Maybe that’s the answer. If and when we drag those two back, she’ll make an example out of them. Scare the hell out of all the others. She won’t kill them but I bet she’ll come damn close.”

“If she is paying all this money to find them, she isn’t going to kill them,” Shank sensibly said.

“Well, back to business. Everyone has his price.”

Neither man could know that Maureen Selisse’s right-hand woman, Sheba, had worn her necklace and earrings when Maureen would go on a long trip. In France, at a convent school sent by her Caribbean father, Maureen, very pretty, learned about fashion, saw spectacular jewelry on Countesses, Duchesses, and Princesses. Once married to Francisco Selisse, she expected great jewels and received them. Given his incessant infidelities, it seemed a fair trade to Francisco.

When Maureen returned from one trip, both Sheba and her most extraordinary necklace and earrings, among many, were missing.

Maureen told Martin and Shank, should they find the jewelry or the slave, they would be as rich as Midas.

Much as they desired this, both men thought if the jewels, intact or broken up to sell, had not turned up by now, they never would. They would concentrate on the runaways, real cash.

5

May 25, 2019

Saturday

A large work party swarmed at St. Luke’s starting at eight in the morning. Harry supervised the planting of azaleas and more azaleas. As the hyacinths bloomed out, she put in hundreds of iris, the huge-headed purple ones, in the right square between the church and the right buildings, interspersed with the lilies. The great thing was that all she had to do once they bloomed was tie them over. On the left square she’d bought hundreds of white iris. If the effect didn’t turn out as she wished, she’d reseed with bluegrass once fall arrived. The iris, not yet blooming, should open to full effect for the homecoming.

A few new English boxwoods provided a backdrop for the peonies, which were already wide open. She hoped they would not be past their prime come the festival. That depended on temperatures.

Mags and Janice volunteered to plant the white azaleas behind the unknown woman’s grave. Mags, often generous, also donated more plants and shrubs.

The men of the church mowed, trimmed, and re-bedded those gardens needing it. Younger members of the church worked alongside the adults, measuring out yardage on the second quad in preparation for games, capture the flag being a special favorite. Inside the Dorcas Guild building, Jeannie Cordle commanded a cleanup, while her husband took charge of St. Peter’s building.