by Ginny Dye
Carrie laughed at Louisa’s confused look. “Ignore her,” she suggested. “She’s all bent out of shape because her oldest granddaughter is teaching Janie and Marietta how to cook from a book.”
“Pure nonsense,” Annie grumbled. “That’s enough squawking for now, anyway. Y’all best get in there and eat ‘fore it gets cold.” She slid next to Louisa and favored her with a warm smile. “Iffen you be wantin’ to learn how to make gumbo the right way, you come on out to my kitchen later. I’ll teach you the things ain’t no book ever gonna teach you.”
“Thank you!” Louisa said fervently.
Carrie shook her head as she followed everyone into the dining room. She wasn’t sure she would ever get used to the idea that Louisa was cooking. A life of pampered living on her family’s plantation hadn’t prepared the protected Louisa Blackwell for what she was doing now. Of course, her life as a pampered plantation daughter hadn’t exactly prepared her for the reality of her life, either. Watching Louisa laugh and talk with Simon and June was all the evidence she needed that people could change.
“How are things on Blackwell?” Susan asked after she had dished up a large bowl of gumbo and piled cornbread on her plate. She laughed when Louisa stared at the amount of food she was eating. “Working hard in a barn has its benefits,” she said. “I can eat anything I want!”
“Things are going really well,” Perry informed her. “We had a great harvest this year, and we put another hundred acres into production.” He smiled at Simon. “Simon is an excellent manager, and he teaches me more every day.”
“No trouble from the vigilantes?” Carrie asked keenly.
“No trouble,” Perry assured her.
Carrie stared at him. There was something about his voice that was lacking in confidence. “Are you sure?” she pressed. She knew that right this minute there was a contingent of Cromwell hands near the front gate, and that there were some stationed in the woods near the house. She was glad Moses insisted on no one letting their guard down ever again. There had been enough death. She pushed aside the vision of Robert’s laughing eyes as she focused on Perry.
Perry shrugged, his blue eyes shifting beneath his thatch of blond hair.
Carrie felt a twinge of alarm. It was obvious he was hiding something.
Louisa stiffened in the seat next to her husband. Still petite and beautiful, she pushed back a strand of blond hair and put a hand on her husband’s arm. “Perry, what is it?” Her voice was calm, but her eyes flashed with anxiety.
“It’s nothing,” Perry insisted as he exchanged a glance with Simon.
“It’s something,” Louisa insisted. “What is it?”
A long silence stretched out before Annie broke it. “Ain’t you men learned the women in this room ain’t helpless? Every one of us be in this here fight together. Ain’t nothin’ but an insult to not tell the truth if you know there be trouble comin’.” Her scowl deepened. “That be my daughter and grandbabies you got livin’ on that plantation. They deserve warnin’ if somethin’ be wrong.” She advanced on Perry, her black eyes flashing. “What aren’t you sayin’, Mr. Perry?”
Perry sighed and raised his hands in defeat. “I’m really not hiding anything,” he insisted. “At least not anything concrete.” He looked at Simon again. “We’ve got suspicions, but no real proof.”
“Suspicions of what?” Louisa demanded. “We need to know.”
Perry fidgeted. “Some of the men have been hearing things,” he said vaguely.
“What kinds of things?” Louisa asked with frustration when another long silence stretched out.
Carrie’s inner alarm was going off. “You have to tell us,” she said urgently. “If trouble is being planned, it could just as easily come to Cromwell.”
“That’s not likely,” Perry replied. “The vigilantes know how well guarded the plantation is, and they’ve already lost enough of their men to failed attempts here.” He sighed heavily, and then continued. “Some of the men have received reports from other plantations that the vigilantes are planning trouble. They don’t know where or when it is going to be, so we really don’t have anything to go by. As far as we know, they are only rumors.”
Carrie stiffened. “Will there be men at Blackwell to protect it tonight?” She had visions of the plantation left vulnerable while everyone celebrated the meteor shower.
“Yes,” Perry said. “Simon and I would never leave it without a guard.” He looked apologetically at Louisa. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to hide anything from you.”
Louisa tossed her head, looking every bit the aristocratic plantation owner’s daughter that she was. “Of course you were,” she retorted, but her face was soft. “I love you for wanting to protect me, but the best protection you can give Nathan and me is to make sure we are not caught by surprise. Now that I know there is a threat, I will be even more careful.” She looked out the window toward the woods.
“There is nothing to worry about here,” Carrie promised. “I can guarantee you there are men out there right now who are watching Nathan and Simon on the swing. Nothing will happen to them.”
Louisa relaxed and finished eating her Gumbo. Silence fell on the room while all of them ate the succulent meal.
“I was glad to hear Grant was elected president,” Perry said when the last piece of cornbread was demolished, leaving nothing but crumbs on the huge platter.
Carrie knew he was trying to change the subject. “It was closer than anyone thought it would be,” she replied.
Perry eyed her. “You received a letter from your father?”
“Jeremy rode into Richmond yesterday to take care of a few things,” Carrie replied. “He brought back a whole stack of papers so we would know what is going on.”
“What did you learn?” Simon asked eagerly.
Jeremy walked in the door just then. He called his greetings, accepted the steaming bowl of gumbo that Annie handed him, and settled down in an empty chair. “The field is ready for tonight,” he announced. “Franklin and I, along with some of the other men, built a big bonfire. We put up long tables in the drying barns so we can put the food in there. We even built a bunch of wooden benches and put them around the bonfire so we can keep most of the folks off the ground tonight while they wait for the meteor shower. I know they will all bring blankets, but it’s going to be cold tonight. People, at least the adults who will mostly feel the cold, will be more comfortable on the benches.”
“Thank you,” Marietta said warmly. “I’ll watch it from the bedroom window tonight to be near the twins, so I know I’ll be toasty,” she teased. “As cold as it seems like it will be tonight, I don’t think I’ll miss being down there.”
Jeremy shook his head. “Only twenty-four years old, and already motherhood has softened you,” he pronounced sadly.
“I prefer to think it has made me wiser,” Marietta said dismissively. “Something you couldn’t possibly understand!”
Laughter rang through the room. When silence fell again, Perry leaned forward. “What can you tell us about the election, Jeremy?”
Jeremy scowled. “I can tell you that the KKK and other vigilante groups almost achieved their agenda,” he said. “Grant won the Electoral College decisively, but the popular vote was much closer than anyone would have dreamed. Grant carried every state but eight of them, yet he received only fifty-three percent of the popular vote. It’s fairly certain that Seymour carried a majority of the nation’s white voters. Black voters carried Grant to victory, but Seymour won in Georgia and Louisiana.” His face tightened. “Of course, there were entire counties in many Southern states where there were no Black Republican votes registered.”
“None?” Simon asked in disbelief. “How is that possible?”
“None,” Jeremy confirmed. “They were simply too afraid to go to the polls and vote. They were afraid for themselves, and they were afraid for their families. They’ve seen what the KKK will do, so they knew the threats weren’t idle. It wasn’t only Georgi
a and Louisiana, though. The Republican vote also suffered in Tennessee, northern Alabama and upcountry South Carolina.”
“All KKK strongholds,” Simon said angrily.
“Grant will support Reconstruction, though,” Perry said. “At least he was elected.”
“Yes,” Jeremy agreed, “but the Republican Party is changing. Seymour might well have been elected if it hadn’t been for his running mate, Francis Blair. Blair decided to embark on a speaking campaign that proved to be disastrous. Let me read you something.” He stood, walked over to the table in the foyer, and chose one of the newspapers stacked there. He flipped quickly to the page he was looking for. “Whenever he got on the stage, he criticized the Republican Party for…” His voice trailed off as he searched the paper. Finding what he was looking for, he began to read. “‘… for placing the South under the rule of a semi-barbarous race of blacks who are worshippers of fetishes and unbridled lust.’”
“More of that nonsense!” Simon growled. “Will it ever end?”
“It gets worse,” Jeremy replied. “Blair ranted that racial intermixing would reverse evolution, produce a less advanced species capable of reproducing itself, and destroy the accumulated improvement of the centuries.”
“And this is the man who was the Democratic candidate for Vice President?” Susan’s voice dripped with disdain and horror.
“I suppose I am grateful for his stupidity and ignorance,” Jeremy said wryly. “Northern Capitalists knew what kind of chaos would follow a Democratic victory. Even though many of them supported President Johnson in the past, they now endorsed Grant. President Grant’s election guarantees Reconstruction will continue, but there is going to be a big change in the Republican leadership that directs it.” His voice was heavy. “I’m afraid that what we have suspected is going to be true. There are politicians taking power who believe the struggle over black rights must give way to economic concerns.”
“It’s not all bad news, though,” Carrie insisted. “Now that Reconstruction will continue, there are Republican governments in place in each state that will fight for change. We have to give them a chance to make things different. Make them better.” She wasn’t sure she believed her own words, but she was also not willing to give up hope. Against all odds, the slaves had been freed, and black men could now vote. That reality had assured Grant’s election. It didn’t matter that it had been uncomfortably close. He had won. His election gave the country more time to try to make things right.
Heads nodded around the table, but their faces reflected the same doubt Carrie felt. She glanced out the window, knowing that the biggest source of her discontent was caused not by the election, but by the earlier conversation. How long would people in the South have to wonder when the next round of violence would begin?
Chapter Five
“Carrie!” Amber yelled. “Look how many people are here!”
Carrie grinned and waved, welcoming people as they piled from wagons and dismounted from horseback. The sun had set, but the sky still glowed with the remnants of light. A cloudless horizon promised a clear night. Men guided wagons into place close to the largest drying barn. Laughter rang through the air as baskets of food were unpacked and carried into the barn. She knew that soon the tables would be groaning under copious quantities of food. Lanterns, hung from the rafters, cast a soft glow on smiling, happy faces.
Carrie entered the drying barn and stepped back into the shadows, content to watch for a few minutes. Hordes of children were accompanied by their parents. There were as many white faces as there were black. There had been so much progress made between the school children and their families before she had left for New Mexico, but the easy camaraderie that existed now between the parents was astonishing to her. She knew some white parents had refused to come, but she was also aware their refusal was prompted more by fear of what vigilantes might do, than by hatred.
“It’s a miracle, isn’t it?”
Carrie turned her head to smile at Lillian, the teacher who had replaced Rose at the school. Rose had already told Carrie what a wonderful job she was doing. “It is,” she agreed. “Rose has told me so much about what you are doing. You should be proud.”
Lillian shrugged modestly. “Rose carved the trail in the wilderness,” she insisted. “All I did was follow it. I write letters to my friends in the North about what life is like down here on the plantation, but I don’t think they believe me. I tried to explain it to some friends I recently visited, but I don’t believe they have a point of reference for comprehending what is possible.”
“It is rather unusual,” Carrie concurred. “While I’m grateful for that, it also makes me sad, because it’s the way it should be all over the South. The fact that it isn’t only means the misunderstandings and violence will continue.”
Lillian forced a smile. “Now is not the time to focus on that,” she said decisively. “Tonight, we are going to view the Leonid Meteor Shower. We’ll let the splendor of the heavens soften the reality of life.”
Carrie cocked her head. “You have quite a way with words,” she observed. “Do you write?”
Lillian shook her head. “I simply believe words are powerful. They should be used carefully.”
Carrie opened her mouth to respond, but a loud yell interrupted her.
“Let the feasting begin!”
The next hour wiped the tables clean of every morsel of food that had been brought. The sun had long set, but the lanterns had turned the barn into a cozy haven of laughter and talk. Carrie moved from group to group, chatting with old friends, and meeting new families that had arrived while she was in New Mexico.
“We’re lighting the fire!”
The crowd surged outside, grabbing blankets from their wagons before they moved over to cluster around the campfire. The adults settled down on wooden benches the men had built, while the children swarmed around, laughing and playing.
When everyone had congregated, Lillian stepped close to the bonfire crackling behind her and raised her hand for silence. It took only moments for the noise to fade away. All attention was turned toward the tall brunette clothed in breeches and a thick, warm coat.
Rose had told her that the Northern teacher disdained dresses, and pretty much anything else that would help her fit into Southern society. Carrie was impressed with her commanding confidence, but she also recognized the soft vulnerability flitting through her eyes. Lillian was a complicated woman who had learned to accept her power, but who was also cautious because she had been hurt. Carrie wondered if she would ever learn her story.
Lillian smiled as she began. “Felicia is not here to tell us about the spectacle you are about to witness tonight, so she asked me if I would do the honor. I am happy to tell you more about the Leonid Meteor Shower. Many of you were here to witness it for yourself two years ago. While November is the month of the year when you’ll always see the most meteors, it is unusual for there to be such a grand display so close to the last one. We’re lucky to know about it.” She looked around the crowd. “How many of you were here for the meteor shower two years ago?”
Carrie watched as more than half the hands in the crowd went up. She was impressed how many of the children raised their hands.
“Then you know exactly what you are going to experience,” Lillian said cheerfully. “And how many of you have seen a shooting star before?”
Slightly more hands went up, but it was obvious most of the new people there had never seen one. Carrie smiled. They were in for quite a treat.
“For those of you who were not here, you are about to see hundreds, perhaps thousands, of shooting stars tonight,” Lillian announced.
“Them stars up there are going to drop from the sky?” one woman called fearfully.
“No,” Lillian assured her. “They are called shooting stars, but they are not really stars. They are actually chunks of rocks that have broken off from a comet. A meteor shower happens when they get close enough to the Earth to be sucked into our atm
osphere. They are actually rather fragile so they burn really hot and fast when that happens. What you will see tonight streaking across the sky are those chunks of rocks burning up. The most important thing to understand, though,” she said confidently, “is that none of them will reach Earth. They will burn up long before that happens.”
Murmurs of relief came from the crowd as they peered toward the sky.
“Now that it’s dark,” Lillian continued, “we’ll begin to see meteors start appearing, but it is the last four hours before dawn when the most will fall.” She smiled. “Many of you won’t make it that long, but those who do will be sure to never forget it. I intend to watch it until dawn, which means…” She let her voice trail away to build the excitement. “Your children don’t have to come to school tomorrow! We’ll probably all be sleeping!”
Franklin stepped forward as the children cheered and clapped. “The fire will help keep you warm, and we’re also going to light some fires in the drying barn. If you need to go inside to warm up, go ahead.” He exchanged a long look with Perry and Jeremy before he continued. “If you decide you want to take your family home, we suggest you go in groups of three or four wagons.”
Carrie watched as all the women stiffened and searched the darkness for their children before they peered into the shadows fearfully. She could see their shoulders drawing together as they prepared to face whatever danger might be out there.
“I’m not trying to scare anyone,” Franklin said, “but we’ve already learned it is best to be careful. We have absolutely no reason to think anything will happen tonight, but the last years have taught us to take nothing for granted.”
His confident words lessened some of the tension, but Carrie could still feel it vibrating in the air. More importantly, she could feel it vibrating inside her. She knew better than to totally trust her instincts, because Robert’s murder had intensified her fears, but she also knew better than to discount what was churning in her gut. She would enjoy the night, but she would not let her guard down. She thought of Marietta alone in the house with the twins, but also knew there was a group of plantation men protecting the house right that minute.
