“Your leg ain’t no problem. You think back in slavery times that the lame slaves got to sit down? No, they still found work in the fields and such. You, you doing the kind of work that you do, writing and such, it won’t make no difference to you. They paying you to investigate?”
“Some. And I’m filing stories from them, so that’s some more.”
“Some and some together. That’ll work.”
“I still don’t know if I could look out for a family.”
John gave Asa a hard stare. “Tell me something honest. Was you injured in your manpart?”
“No.” Asa could hear all of the nuances of quiet in the barn. “Everything works fine there.”
“Then the problem’s in your mind. You going to have to decide whether you can get over that or not.” John continued to brush down the mule. “It would be a shame to let your life pass based on something that is in your mind. I’ll tell you, though, Mags, I mean Margaret. She one of the most patient and kind people I know.”
“I can see that about her.”
“I don’t know if that would make any difference to you, but she’s someone you can count on.”
“That’s the point, sir. I would feel it would be very unfair to put that kind of load onto a wife, when a man is supposed to do all of the heavy lifting.”
John gathered up his brushes and put them away. “That girl went down to that mill and showed that white man how he had been doing it wrong for more than twenty years. And you think she can’t do any heavy lifting in life?”
“I didn’t say that. I just said it would be unfair. Mags could find someone else to be with, some man who was whole and who could do for her as she deserved.”
“I see. So she could be some little kept thing somewhere? That’s an illusion, Asa. Our women, since back in slavery times, have had to do some heavy lifting. The question is, what’ll she do when she gets up to Pittsburgh?”
“That’s my point, sir. When she gets there, she’ll meet all kinds of men up there who could take care of her.”
“So they got more of your kind up there?”
“Some.”
“Hmmm. Well, better let Mags decide. Take care, though. I see how she looks at you. Let her down gently then.”
“Yes, sir. I will.”
John went up to him and clapped him on the shoulder. “And you need to decide if that is worth letting any kind of happiness go because of what is in your mind. Let’s go back into the house. Some of the younger ones are going to put on a Bible play. You never know what these girls are going to do next.”
“Yes, sir.” Asa lingered a bit behind John. After what her father had told him about her, he was surer than ever not to hurt Mags.
If he could possibly help it.
Chapter Eight
Riding home from the mill for the weekend on Friday, the quiet lay between them. Asa disrupted it by asking, “What are you thinking of?”
“I want to make sure that we are ready for the investigation tomorrow.”
“And?”
“Well. There’s nothing here for me, is there? Winslow is my home, and I won’t be able to live here or raise my family here.”
Her blunt rhetoric was making him uncomfortable. “You’re quite a young woman, Mags. I think you’ll be able to do whatever you want.”
“Not in Winslow. Because of Paul Winslow.”
“I have to tell you, as someone who traveled a great deal before the war, that it’s pretty much like this all over the South. Every Southern hamlet has its own boss. Paul Winslow is the one around here. And we haven’t made any connection between him and what happened in Calhoun.”
“He’s done his own dirt here.” She fixed her jaw, thinking about poor Travis and how he had died in her arms, injured deep down inside of his body, and Adam not able to help him live. And of Ruby’s night terrors and pain.
“We don’t have evidence of that.”
She turned to him. “We can still confront him.”
“I don’t think so. We just should focus on what Ruby asked us to.”
She folded her arms. She loved the red clay of this Georgia, but she couldn’t envision what it would be like to raise a child here. A son, who wouldn’t be able to speak up for himself or be beaten down into the grave like Travis. Or a daughter who might have her talents taken from her or worse, like Ruby, her precious virtue stolen from her. She spoke up. “Is Ruby happy?”
Asa seemed jolted by the question. “She doesn’t confide in me, you know. She’s a friend, but married, and is a part of those married lady circles.”
Mags raised an eyebrow. “Really? Married lady circles? She was far more into spending time with the mill men while she was here.”
“As far as I can tell, that is not the case there.”
“I’ll have to see that for myself. I’ll go to Pittsburgh and stay there at least temporarily.”
“Fine.”
“Then I can decide what is best for me from there.”
“I think that’ll be wise.” A careful response from him. He did not seem any more likely to want a repeat of what had happened between them some days ago when he had pressed her fingers to his lips. He had been the model of propriety since. The usual story for her.
If she had been beautiful like Ruby, she might have had a better chance. No, that wasn’t true. A warmth ran through her veins thinking of how everyone had talked about Ruby in the wake of her attack—she was too beautiful and David Winslow couldn’t help himself. As if her sister deserved to be treated that way and to have Solomon as an unexpected result of the attack. Ruby’s spirit had almost completely broken.
No, she should just want to be herself, and not Ruby. Was she still attractive to him?
Or anyone?
Something glowed on the small front lawn of his mill house as he parked his car at the end of the circle.
A small burning cross. No taller than a young child.
All of the mill houses shared a common lawn area that was there for the residents to relax on and to potentially play games like baseball. However tonight, just in the small patch of grass in front of his mill house, was this little love letter. Was it from Paul Winslow or someone else? He ran over to it, but he could see that several men had retrieved buckets of water to pour on the flames.
A group of folk gathered around the front of his house with several of the children crying. Their crying touched a deep chord in him and made him think about what Mags had just said. She was right. She wouldn’t be able to raise her children here. He had to help her clear away from such a dangerous place.
“Did anyone see who did this?” he spoke in an upraised voice, although he didn’t expect a response.
Instead various people voiced opinions.
“They telling all of us to step on back.”
“Maybe we should go to work tomorrow.”
“Saturdays off wouldn’t last.”
He held up his hand. “As long as the mill is still profitable, that’s all that matters. It has been even more so. This has nothing to do with the mill.”
“What for then, sir?” Katie’s tone was not respectful in her use of the title.
He met each gaze in the small crowd before him. One of these people, or more, was a paid spy for Winslow. Had to be. It was why he had built this housing, and why he demanded complete loyalty of the workers. He decided to roll the dice, and said, “There’s been a great deal of lynching in this part of Georgia, lately.”
They all nodded their heads. Everyone knew this. “Part of why I was sent down here was to investigate it. The NAACP wants to be sure that there is justice in these cases.”
“Ain’t no justice,” Katie’s father said aloud from behind her and his wife. “They ain’t about playing fair.”
He shook his head. “No. But it’ll mean that maybe a lig
ht shone on these activities will stop it.”
“That there cross means, boss, you need to stop whatever you doing. Maybe even leave town.”
Asa rolled down his sleeves and retied his tie. “I’m not leaving town. I intend to get to the bottom of this.”
“It’s starting to get dark out. Best not drive on the roads tonight.”
“Thank you for the warning, Mr. Jones. I will be safe. Take your family inside and get your rest. I’ll be fine.”
“Mags won’t like it if you are out too late.” Katie gave him half a smile, bouncing on her toes in a strange way.
He returned her smile. “Thank you. I’ll be sure to be careful for her sake.” Getting back into the car, he understood Mags’s adamant insistence about how terrible Paul Winslow was, and now, it was just confirmed for him.
But first, he intended to ask about it.
Asa drove back down the country road to the Winslow house, and tried to think, in a balanced way, of what he would say to him. Still, every time he thought he was being logical, his thoughts strayed towards Mags’s words a few hours ago. The yearning in her voice struck him in his heart and he felt her pain at having to leave. Her having to leave made him angrier, rather than logical. How had this happened in just a few weeks’ time, his thoughts so comingled with hers that he couldn’t react in the normal, rational way? She made him care and now he couldn’t back out.
When he got to the Winslow house, he hesitated. Should he go in the back? No. He pulled right in front of the large white mansion. Using his cane to bolster him, he walked up the front steps and knocked as loud as he could on the front door. When the Winslow maid opened the door, she looked scared. “You best go on home from here,” she whispered, clearly trying to cover up that he was even there.
Asa didn’t care.
“I’m here to see Paul Winslow. I need to report to him that some damage has been done to the mill houses.”
Paul Winslow’s broad figure emerged behind the scared maid who slipped away as her boss took her place at the front door. “Mighty late at night, Asa. What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to report some damage that has been done to your property, sir, at the mill houses.”
“Well. I don’t usually respond to that kind of call this late at night. At the front door.” The look Paul fixed him with was icy and cold. He didn’t care. Asa gave him icy looks right back.
He continued. “A cross burned on the front lawn in front of my house. It frightened the residents and some children were crying.”
“Was anyone hurt?” Paul Winslow asked in a measured tone. Interesting. The even distant way he responded confirmed for him that Winslow had known all about it.
“No.”
“Good. It seems to me that someone was trying to send a message to someone in the mill houses. Since you are the boss, you best make sure that all of your employees are keeping in line and not taking part in activities that undermine the mill.”
“The mill is still profitable, sir.”
“People need to stay close to home.” A smile broke out on Paul Winslow’s face. “Unless, you’re courting with a young lady. Nothing like taking a ride in the car with your beloved. But, really, Asa, you shouldn’t go too far away. Winslow is Mags’s home. It’s better to keep her in the confines of this county.”
“What’s a car for then, sir, if you can’t visit folk over in the next county? Or two? Family, relations, what have you?” He didn’t like the uneasy feeling that he had when he dealt with Winslow. Reminded him too much of the officer who shot him, and he had to restrain himself from using his cane as a weapon on this man. “That’s what the war was fought over, so that people could travel where they wanted.”
A dark cloud came over Winslow’s face. “That’s not what the war was fought over. Just telling you what I think that cross was all about, that’s all. Mags Bledsoe is a fine girl and she deserves to have some male company. But she ought to be courting here.” He gestured toward the Bledsoe house. “That’s why her daddy built that fine big porch. He wanted to have a nice place for his girls to stay with their beaus.” He laughed a little. “Of course, his taxes had to be raised up about fifty percent but he pays it. He got a right to a nice courting porch for his girls. It should be made better use of.”
“Especially since his oldest daughter never had the chance to use it.” Asa stared him down. He wasn’t sure if Paul Winslow received his meaning or not, but he was not one to underestimate him.
Paul Winslow kept a blank look on his face and pulled the door closed a little more. “I would invite you in, but I don’t like to conduct business at this time. I’ll see you on Monday morning at the mill. Good night.”
Asa did not return his salutation and went back to his car. He knew that he should go back to the mill house and make sure everything was okay there, but he drove to the Bledsoes’, feeling the need for the embrace of the family at this time. Or maybe it was really to see Mags and make sure that she was alright.
A light shone forth from the Bledsoe house when he pulled up in front of it. His heart leaped up in his throat. He didn’t want to wake up the whole house, but the noise of the car was sure to wake people up. John opened the front door and Asa gestured to him to come out onto the front porch to talk.
“Paul Winslow left a little something at the mill houses tonight,” Asa explained quickly.
“You think it was for you?”
He told him about how Paul Winslow had encouraged him to court closer to home. The set of John’s chin looked grim. “I would just as soon ask that you wouldn’t go tomorrow. You certainly shouldn’t take Mags with you.”
“I agree, sir.”
As if they conjured her, she was there before him and his fingers instantly slipped against one another. She stood on the front porch dressed in a plaid robe with a white cotton nightgown peeking through. Her feet were bare, and her long thick hair was braided in a single braid. “I want to go with Asa, Daddy.”
John shook his head. “You not quite twenty-one yet and you under my roof. I don’t like these goings on. Once you’re warned, you’re warned and that’s it. I don’t like it at all.”
“Daddy, Asa is doing important work. I want to help him with that.”
“I want you to be safe.”
“Think of all the people that are going to come tomorrow to talk to us.”
“They might not even be there if these white folks already know what is going on. Too dangerous.”
He stepped apart from father and daughter. “I didn’t mean to cause conflict. I just wanted to let you know what had happened and to make sure that you all were safe. I’ll go on back.”
John put a hand on his arm. “We have the room in the back by the kitchen. You should stay there tonight. You don’t want to be out on the open road.”
He was about to insist that he would be fine, but the look on Mags’s face was transforming. She had been angry as a bull about going into Calhoun, but now, there were tears streaming down her face. “Please, do as Daddy says and stay here.” Mags wiped at her face with the back of her hand. He offered up a handkerchief, which she took.
“Okay, Mags. Calm down. It’ll be okay.” He wanted nothing more than to take her into his arms to stop her body from shaking.
She restrained him, her touch warm and cool at the same time on his forearm. “It was a hot summer night like this when they got Travis. Maybe you shouldn’t go back to that mill house. Paul Winslow might use it to control you.”
“We can talk this over in the morning, Mags. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She had calmed down and took her hand away. “I’m fine. Thank you for the handkerchief.” She assumed her take charge manner again. “Daddy, if you can get Asa another shirt to wear, I can wash out this one for him.”
John stood up and patted him on the shoulder. “I apprecia
te you letting us know about this situation.”
“You’re welcome, sir.”
When he departed, he loosened his collar and the night air rushed forward to cool his throat some. Inside, his throat felt parched, but he didn’t want to ask her for anything to drink just now. “Sure that you are alright?”
Mags shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“We don’t have to go tomorrow. I don’t want you to fight with your family.”
“Do you have your notebook?”
“I do, but—”
“There’s a flat board desk in that back room where we study. Once Daddy brings you a shirt, you can go on back there and write about tonight. That’s what you need to do. We’ll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.”
John handed out a farmer’s shirt made of dark red cotton gingham. Not his style at all, but clean. “Thank you,” Mags told her father as he waved goodnight and went back inside. “I’ll take those.” Mags put her hand out to collect his collar and shirt.
The embarrassment rushed to his face all of a sudden but he tried to make light of it, despite the situation. He clutched the front of his shirt and told her, “Turn around.”
She did as he said and he quickly took off his usual white boiled shirt and donned the farmer’s shirt, which was soft, surprisingly. Buttoning it up, he handed the shirt over to Mags.
They stepped inside together and she showed him where the back room was. She left him standing in the living room where all of the sisters had lined up on the front davenport, all wearing the same nightgown, giggling. Mags came to him with a lamp in her hand, which she handed to him. “For your writing.”
He touched her hand as she took the lamp, relishing the brief encounter. “Will you tell me about Travis?”
She shook her head. “Tomorrow.”
“I have to know, Mags.”
“You need to get to your writing work. Is your notebook in the car?”
“It is. On the front seat”
“I’ll send Delie out to get it.” Mags pressed her nosy youngest sister into service to fetch the notebook and went into the kitchen. He followed her as she heated water on the stove.
A Most Precious Pearl Page 9
